What are Net Calories?

We set your nutritional target in Net Calories which we define as:

Calories Consumed (Food) - Calories Burned (Exercise) = Net Calories

This means that if you exercise, you will be able to eat more for that day.  For example, if your Net Calorie goal is 2000 calories, one way to meet that goal is to eat 2,500 calories of food, but then burn 500 calories through exercise.

Think of your Net Calories like a daily budget of calories to spend. You spend them by eating, and you earn more calories to eat by exercising. We do not recommend that women consume fewer than 1200 calories, or men fewer than 1500 calories, on a given day.

If you are an advanced user or have specific dietary instructions from a physician or nutritionist, you may wish to customize the relationship between logging exercise and returning calories to your daily goal. You can learn more about the exercise calorie options available to users of MyFitnessPal Premium by reviewing this article.