Too much protein?

Options
I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around what foods I should be eating. If I eat fruit it puts me over my carbs but if I eat proteins it always tells me I'm over them as well. MFP tells me I'm not eating enough calories but I'm not sure what I should be eating to stay within my goals. Please help!
«1

Replies

  • LuckyMe2017
    LuckyMe2017 Posts: 454 Member
    Options
    What's your target calories and p/c/f ratio
  • chanell84
    chanell84 Posts: 41 Member
    Options
    pdbkoxgyodk4.jpg
  • chanell84
    chanell84 Posts: 41 Member
    Options
    I usually end up eating 1100 calories and around 30% of that is proteins like chicken, ground turkey, almond milk or greek yogurt.
  • HeySwoleSister
    HeySwoleSister Posts: 1,938 Member
    Options
    54g of protein is pretty low. Looking at your % figures, I'd recommend upping protein and lowering fat, although you will find many here that say to reduce carbs for protein, or a mix of carbs and fat.

    It really depends on your personal tastes and what makes you feel best. Barring medical reasons, where blood sugar issues would say to reduce carbs, gout or kidney disease would say reduce protein, and cardiac, cancer, or gallbladder issues would say reduce fat.
  • karldomrose
    karldomrose Posts: 10 Member
    Options
    I would change my macro settings to 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fat. Calories are probably OK. To really shred off fat you might want to consider going 50/30/20 on P/C/F.
    It can be hard to hit that protein however.
    I don't know what your food choices are but as a general guideline try to eat Chicken, Fish, Turkey, etc for protein. Limit your fruit to 1 or 2 pieces a day. Try to avoid really high carb foods. I like to eat almonds for snacks. Just not too many as they can raise your fat.

    Getting in your calories is MORE important than hitting your macro goals. Your body NEEDS those calories for energy. Work on getting in your daily calorie goal and then tweak it to hit your macros. If you don't eat enough calories your body will slow down your metabolism to compensate. That will make it even harder to get to your weight goals.

    If you have any other questions feel free to hit me up.

    Karl
  • krhn
    krhn Posts: 781 Member
    Options
    Going over protein and fat count is typically fine - carbs are the bane of fat in truth...
    From what I see 55% of your daily intake being carb dominant is only beneficial if your goal is gaining weight - im 6'0 and 185lb and aim for 220g carbs during my workout days so that should indicate that your carbs are not the best ratio at present.

    Try a 40% Carb, 30% fat, 30% protein - you will most likely have to drop the breads or cakes if that is in your diet - if you want fruits you can replace one of your meals with lean meats or a protein shake.

    Hope that helps - pm if you have problems!

  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    Options
    Personally, I don't set protein over 30%...What is working for me is 50/30/20 Carbs/protein/fat. I wouldn't worry so much about going over on carbs coming from fruits. Fruits have a lot of naturally occurring sugars. I only worry a bit about added sugars from processed foods, and then only if I'm over indulging.

  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    Options
    krhn wrote: »
    Going over protein and fat count is typically fine - carbs are the bane of fat in truth...
    From what I see 55% of your daily intake being carb dominant is only beneficial if your goal is gaining weight - im 6'0 and 185lb and aim for 220g carbs during my workout days so that should indicate that your carbs are not the best ratio at present.

    Try a 40% Carb, 30% fat, 30% protein - you will most likely have to drop the breads or cakes if that is in your diet - if you want fruits you can replace one of your meals with lean meats or a protein shake.

    Hope that helps - pm if you have problems!
    Sorry but this simply isn't accurate. Carbs are in no way, shape, or form, "the bane of fat". Calories are what will determine fat gain/losses. Now I agree with others that more protein will help benefit in maintaining lean mass and helping achieve satiation, but it's complete nonsense to say that carbs prevent fat loss. While I don't use ratios as that is somewhat of a inferior way to calculate macro nutrients (I base mine on my weight), There is no reason 40% carbs couldn't induce fat loss if you were in a caloric deficit. If you burn more calories per day then you eat, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat no, low, moderate, or high carbs, a deficit is a deficit.

  • karldomrose
    karldomrose Posts: 10 Member
    Options


    [/quote]Sorry but this simply isn't accurate. Carbs are in no way, shape, or form, "the bane of fat". Calories are what will determine fat gain/losses. Now I agree with others that more protein will help benefit in maintaining lean mass and helping achieve satiation, but it's complete nonsense to say that carbs prevent fat loss. While I don't use ratios as that is somewhat of a inferior way to calculate macro nutrients (I base mine on my weight), There is no reason 40% carbs couldn't induce fat loss if you were in a caloric deficit. If you burn more calories per day then you eat, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat no, low, moderate, or high carbs, a deficit is a deficit.

    [/quote]

    Perfectly said.
  • krhn
    krhn Posts: 781 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    vismal wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    Going over protein and fat count is typically fine - carbs are the bane of fat in truth...
    From what I see 55% of your daily intake being carb dominant is only beneficial if your goal is gaining weight - im 6'0 and 185lb and aim for 220g carbs during my workout days so that should indicate that your carbs are not the best ratio at present.

    Try a 40% Carb, 30% fat, 30% protein - you will most likely have to drop the breads or cakes if that is in your diet - if you want fruits you can replace one of your meals with lean meats or a protein shake.

    Hope that helps - pm if you have problems!
    Sorry but this simply isn't accurate. Carbs are in no way, shape, or form, "the bane of fat". Calories are what will determine fat gain/losses. Now I agree with others that more protein will help benefit in maintaining lean mass and helping achieve satiation, but it's complete nonsense to say that carbs prevent fat loss. While I don't use ratios as that is somewhat of a inferior way to calculate macro nutrients (I base mine on my weight), There is no reason 40% carbs couldn't induce fat loss if you were in a caloric deficit. If you burn more calories per day then you eat, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat no, low, moderate, or high carbs, a deficit is a deficit.

    You do know that I am trying to make a point stand out, if you look at my suggestion - I still advise 40% carb ratio for the lady asking - when you are losing weight, when it comes down to it, protein tends to stay on the upper end and fats moderate with a lower carb count. What you say on calorie in versus out is true but this only works till a point where the weight will not budge which is why you have to utilise lowering the carbs - just placing my 5 cents so the lady does not get frustrated later on in wondering why the weight loss is not happening even though she is not in a deficit.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
    Options
    Change your macros to more like 35/35/30.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    Options
    krhn wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    Going over protein and fat count is typically fine - carbs are the bane of fat in truth...
    From what I see 55% of your daily intake being carb dominant is only beneficial if your goal is gaining weight - im 6'0 and 185lb and aim for 220g carbs during my workout days so that should indicate that your carbs are not the best ratio at present.

    Try a 40% Carb, 30% fat, 30% protein - you will most likely have to drop the breads or cakes if that is in your diet - if you want fruits you can replace one of your meals with lean meats or a protein shake.

    Hope that helps - pm if you have problems!
    Sorry but this simply isn't accurate. Carbs are in no way, shape, or form, "the bane of fat". Calories are what will determine fat gain/losses. Now I agree with others that more protein will help benefit in maintaining lean mass and helping achieve satiation, but it's complete nonsense to say that carbs prevent fat loss. While I don't use ratios as that is somewhat of a inferior way to calculate macro nutrients (I base mine on my weight), There is no reason 40% carbs couldn't induce fat loss if you were in a caloric deficit. If you burn more calories per day then you eat, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat no, low, moderate, or high carbs, a deficit is a deficit.

    You do know that I am trying to make a point stand out, if you look at my suggestion - I still advise 40% carb ratio for the lady asking - when you are losing weight, when it comes down to it, protein tends to stay on the upper end and fats moderate with a lower carb count. What you say on calorie in versus out is true but this only works till a point where the weight will not budge which is why you have to utilise lowering the carbs - just placing my 5 cents so the lady does not get frustrated later on in wondering why the weight loss is not happening even though she is not in a deficit.
    That isn't true. Calorie in vs out always works. There isn't some magic point of weight loss or leanness where physics and the law of thermodynamics that governs the entire universe just decides to stop. If someone is truly in a deficit and isn't losing weight, it's because of water retention which will eventually resolve itself. If you are eating less then you burn in a day, your body has no choice but to use stored fuel for energy. Eating carbs does not change that fact at any level of leanness or after any amount of weight loss.
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
    Options
    Everyone debating about macros here is missing the point. Your calorie goal is set to lose 2lbs/week, which is an 1000-calorie daily deficit. That's likely too aggressive, and is resulting in a calorie goal that's quite low compared to what your body needs to feel full and satisfied. That's why you keep going over on your macros.

    Lower it to 1.5lbs/week max -- with 66lbs to go, that's fine for now, but reduce it again to 1lb/week once you lose the first 15-20lbs. That will give you a higher calorie goal and will increase the number of grams of each macro that you have in your goal, too.

    Once you've done that, you can play with the ratios of macros, but that's secondary.
  • krhn
    krhn Posts: 781 Member
    Options

    vismal wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    Going over protein and fat count is typically fine - carbs are the bane of fat in truth...
    From what I see 55% of your daily intake being carb dominant is only beneficial if your goal is gaining weight - im 6'0 and 185lb and aim for 220g carbs during my workout days so that should indicate that your carbs are not the best ratio at present.

    Try a 40% Carb, 30% fat, 30% protein - you will most likely have to drop the breads or cakes if that is in your diet - if you want fruits you can replace one of your meals with lean meats or a protein shake.

    Hope that helps - pm if you have problems!
    Sorry but this simply isn't accurate. Carbs are in no way, shape, or form, "the bane of fat". Calories are what will determine fat gain/losses. Now I agree with others that more protein will help benefit in maintaining lean mass and helping achieve satiation, but it's complete nonsense to say that carbs prevent fat loss. While I don't use ratios as that is somewhat of a inferior way to calculate macro nutrients (I base mine on my weight), There is no reason 40% carbs couldn't induce fat loss if you were in a caloric deficit. If you burn more calories per day then you eat, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat no, low, moderate, or high carbs, a deficit is a deficit.

    You do know that I am trying to make a point stand out, if you look at my suggestion - I still advise 40% carb ratio for the lady asking - when you are losing weight, when it comes down to it, protein tends to stay on the upper end and fats moderate with a lower carb count. What you say on calorie in versus out is true but this only works till a point where the weight will not budge which is why you have to utilise lowering the carbs - just placing my 5 cents so the lady does not get frustrated later on in wondering why the weight loss is not happening even though she is not in a deficit.
    That isn't true. Calorie in vs out always works. There isn't some magic point of weight loss or leanness where physics and the law of thermodynamics that governs the entire universe just decides to stop. If someone is truly in a deficit and isn't losing weight, it's because of water retention which will eventually resolve itself. If you are eating less then you burn in a day, your body has no choice but to use stored fuel for energy. Eating carbs does not change that fact at any level of leanness or after any amount of weight loss.

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fat-loss-blunders-8-reasons-youre-not-losing-body-fat.html

    Although bodybuilding.com forum is sometimes somewhat controversial - even the athletes there support the notion of lowering carbs for higher protein and fat for fat loss.

    Seems pointless battling this Qs out cause it isn't going to lead to definite answer - best answer at the end of the day = do what works for you - I clearly have seen improvements from my form of diet.
  • krhn
    krhn Posts: 781 Member
    Options
    segacs wrote: »
    Everyone debating about macros here is missing the point. Your calorie goal is set to lose 2lbs/week, which is an 1000-calorie daily deficit. That's likely too aggressive, and is resulting in a calorie goal that's quite low compared to what your body needs to feel full and satisfied. That's why you keep going over on your macros.

    Lower it to 1.5lbs/week max -- with 66lbs to go, that's fine for now, but reduce it again to 1lb/week once you lose the first 15-20lbs. That will give you a higher calorie goal and will increase the number of grams of each macro that you have in your goal, too.

    Once you've done that, you can play with the ratios of macros, but that's secondary.

    Yes this is key first - I assumed she had the TDEE in check?!
  • krhn
    krhn Posts: 781 Member
    edited February 2015
    Options
    MrM27 wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    vismal wrote: »
    krhn wrote: »
    Going over protein and fat count is typically fine - carbs are the bane of fat in truth...
    From what I see 55% of your daily intake being carb dominant is only beneficial if your goal is gaining weight - im 6'0 and 185lb and aim for 220g carbs during my workout days so that should indicate that your carbs are not the best ratio at present.

    Try a 40% Carb, 30% fat, 30% protein - you will most likely have to drop the breads or cakes if that is in your diet - if you want fruits you can replace one of your meals with lean meats or a protein shake.

    Hope that helps - pm if you have problems!
    Sorry but this simply isn't accurate. Carbs are in no way, shape, or form, "the bane of fat". Calories are what will determine fat gain/losses. Now I agree with others that more protein will help benefit in maintaining lean mass and helping achieve satiation, but it's complete nonsense to say that carbs prevent fat loss. While I don't use ratios as that is somewhat of a inferior way to calculate macro nutrients (I base mine on my weight), There is no reason 40% carbs couldn't induce fat loss if you were in a caloric deficit. If you burn more calories per day then you eat, you'll lose weight. It doesn't matter if you eat no, low, moderate, or high carbs, a deficit is a deficit.

    You do know that I am trying to make a point stand out, if you look at my suggestion - I still advise 40% carb ratio for the lady asking - when you are losing weight, when it comes down to it, protein tends to stay on the upper end and fats moderate with a lower carb count. What you say on calorie in versus out is true but this only works till a point where the weight will not budge which is why you have to utilise lowering the carbs - just placing my 5 cents so the lady does not get frustrated later on in wondering why the weight loss is not happening even though she is not in a deficit.
    That isn't true. Calorie in vs out always works. There isn't some magic point of weight loss or leanness where physics and the law of thermodynamics that governs the entire universe just decides to stop. If someone is truly in a deficit and isn't losing weight, it's because of water retention which will eventually resolve itself. If you are eating less then you burn in a day, your body has no choice but to use stored fuel for energy. Eating carbs does not change that fact at any level of leanness or after any amount of weight loss.

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/fat-loss-blunders-8-reasons-youre-not-losing-body-fat.html

    Although bodybuilding.com forum is sometimes somewhat controversial - even the athletes there support the notion of lowering carbs for higher protein and fat for fat loss.

    Seems pointless battling this Qs out cause it isn't going to lead to definite answer - best answer at the end of the day = do what works for you - I clearly have seen improvements from my form of diet.

    Not sure the point of posting that. The point is, not losing weight = not in a deficit. Many people support many things but that doesn't mean the rules you claim are a must. A no, bread and cake do nit "have to" be removed.

    When people are aiming to lose weight - most, technically want to lose fat around their body - the point i'm getting at is not rejecting the fact that people lose weight via caloric deficit. It's when you get to the point where "stubborn fat" remains, that the utilisation of macros in specific ways will help curb this issue. That is why you have individuals who will drop a good amount of weight and are still skinny fat - a lot will do with both the macro input and workout regime...

    Also I advised a no bread/cake because the OP described going over carb macro by simply eating fruits; hence the reason i suggested this.
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
    Options
    All you need to worry about is your calories. All you need to lose is a deficit. Hit the goal that MFP gives you, as those are the calories recommended without exercise factored in. If you can't hit it, you need to add higher calorie items to your intake.

    The macros are generally lowballed, and it's fine to go over them. Especially with protein, unless you have a kidney disorder. Or sugar, unless you have a medical reason to track it. Or carbs, if once again, you have a medical need to track carbs.

    When I first started, I ate 200g+ carbs per day, and lost just fine. Don't sweat your fruit carbs. Eat them.