Net calories under weekly goal-what goes it mean exactly?

[FaultybutFabulous]

I'm currently 6000 net calories under my weekly goal on MFP but what does it mean? Is there a recommended amount to be under? I don't understand it at all

Anyone?

My fitness pal sets odd calorie targets. Personally I'd suggest getting them worked out and setting the calorie target manually.

If you don't mind posting age / height / weight then I can run it through a calculator.

But as a rule (I'm an online PT and nutritionist) I get clients to aim for 250 to 500 calories below maintainance as an average per day.

So a weekly target of 3500 in deficit as a max.

If you set your calorie target to 2000 and you had actually consumed 1140 per day, then over the course of the week you'd be miserable 6000 calories under target. 3500 calories is about 1lb.

builtbyliam.com/2019/10/10/two-approaches-to-calorie-deficit/

this might help

Thank you. So if I'm 6000 under then that's getting towards 2 lbs a week down?

It's not an exact science so yes something like that. However with a defecit that big it will be muscle mass as well which you don't want, harder to maintain and nearly impossible to enjoy the process. You want to lose weight as slow as possible. Most people should aim for 1 pound a week at the higher end.

@Tallerthanmost I'm 46, 5'3" and 66.5kg. I walk around 40 to 50 miles per week and it's mainly hills I'm up and down. I walk quickly. Rarely sit down.

I would put you at maintaining your weight around 1500 kcal.
The biggest drop I'd be happy with would be to 1100 kcal per day.

Of that I'd aim for 90g of protein per day which will make up 360 of tbe calories.

How you split the rest up us up to you, but I'd try and keep my carb sources away from sugar.
Ideally pull carbs at breakfast and just have 2 eggs and 1/2 an avocado or similar.

Lots of water and lots of black coffee is your friend. Aim for 1lb a week drop. Anything else would need to come from exercise. Preferably something strength based.

Is 1500 including all the exercise I do?

And where do you get that number from?

There's a number of formulas, all of which are an educated guess.

The best method to get your "maintainance" calories is to track your intake carefully and see what average intake allows you to keep your weight level + - a lb or 2.

However.
I use the following

BMR = 447.593 + (9.247 x weight in kg) + (3.098 x height in cm) - (4.330 x age in years)

BMR = 447.593 + (615) + (495) - (200)
Approx 1400kcal

Then I'm adding 100kcal per day for exercise.
A deficit of 200 to 400kcal then comes off that.

Honestly, walking isn't that great for weight loss. It's healthy and will burn calories but some form of resistance training to help muscle and bone density will see faster results.

I maintain my weight on 2200 calories a day. I think you are underestimating the amount I burn walking so much. They are big hills and I walk quickly and always break a sweat. I don't have time for any other exercise.

I never add back my exercise calories in my fitness pal, if I did I would not lose weight. You can do a calculator online which will take your activity level into consideration already. www.calculator.net/macro-calculator.html

I don't add mine in either but for the purpose of calculating tdee activity levels are good to include.

Could you switch out some of the time walking for a gym session?

Although if your calorie deficit and walking is getting you a steady drop in weight then why change what works.

Walking is better than weight lifting for losing fat, any steady state cardio is.

If you are trying to loose weight, then I would ignore and remove the exercises from MFP. You can never truly know what calories you have burned or what muscle you have gained. When I was loosing weight I exercise daily, minimum 10k steps and calorie deficit of 3500 each week and would loose 1lb a week.

Lifting weight burns more calories, subsequently uses calories to repair tissue and develops more lean metabolic tissue that will subsequently increase the BMR.

Distance for distance - running 5km will burn more calories than walking.

No it doesn't. Lifting burns very few calories in comparison to a sustained period of steady state cardio. An extra pound of muscle burns only 6 more calories at rest so unless you're packing on a huge amount it makes no difference.

Lifting weights is more fun and easier to set small goals that are achievable which in turn keeps people in the gym but if your goal is fat loss then cardio is king.

Happy to agree to differ. Both are healthy and useful changes to lifestyle, but the added benefits of resistance training are hard to ignore.
I've always had more success with clients from adding in some gym work.
Diet to lose / gain weight
Cardio for fitness
Resistance training to change body shape and work against age related muscle / bone density loss.