What should my macros be?

Robbnva

I'm still losing but running more, 3 to 4 times a week plus a long walk once or twice a week. I'm not sure with this activity what my protein/carb/fat ratios should be. Any suggestions?

dalhectar

This guide from the American College of Sports Medicine can help.

• Carbs 50% - 60%
• Fat <30%
• Protein 15% - 20%

They also cite 1.2 – 1.4 g/kg/bw/day as the recommended amount for endurance athletes. Depending on body weight & caloric needs that could be less than 15% daily calorie consumption.

lishie_rebooted

I believe you've asked this in the main forums as well.
If answered, are you going to listen to the advice since you dont particularly seem to.

Macros are definitely a personal thing.
Most find that 1g/lbm for protein works well and then 0.33g/lb for fat.
However that falls.

But since MFP only uses percents and in 5% increments, you more than likely won't ever get it exact.
I'm set to eat 115g protein (25% daily calories), fat ended up being 30% and carbs the remaining 45%.

Even though I am currently focusing on running, I still love my muscles so I eat enough protein and lift per my program. Lifting helps my running and aids in injury prevention for me. I'm mentioning this due to your complaints about lifting in the main forums and desire to return to P90whatever (which is NOT lifting btw).

5512bf

I have my macros set 55/25/20 however I try to get to 1g of protein per pound of body weight regardless of the percentages. I know with exercise the percentages change each day. On days I don't run I'm way over on that macro, and on my long run days I'm under. My trainer has hinted that more protein may even be beneficial on weeks where i run 5/6 days and strength train 3/4 days. I personally can't drink more than 3 protein shakes a day which is the easiest and least caloric method while I'm still trying to maintain a 500 calorie deficit.

Robbnva

lishie_rebooted wrote: »

I believe you've asked this in the main forums as well.
If answered, are you going to listen to the advice since you dont particularly seem to.

Wow that was rude and uncalled for especially since its not true. I've never started a thread in main about macros. I did talk about macros, specifically my protein intake when I was doing stronglift, which I followed Stronglift was also a suggestion made by people from mfp...

Since I'm not really lifting anymore and running again I want to see if my macros should be adjusted.

Robbnva

Thanks for the advice, I need to adjust my carb intake, past 2 days ate more and felt better.

lporter229

Are you asking what is best for performance? energy? weight loss? You might get some very varied answers here because carb intake has a lot of impact on your training and different folks like to go about things differently.

I have my macros set similar to Lishie. I feel a whole lot better when I eat more protein and less carbs, but then again, I have Crohn's disease and gluten issues, so it might just be a personal thing. However, I do like to eat less carbs on a regular basis then ramp up my intake closer to race time. I have noticed that this has helped my performance in longer races. It does take a while for my body to get used to eating all the carbs again though.

Robbnva

Weight loss but also energy

Robbnva

BTW, I've increased my carb intake and have noticed improvements in energy and on the scale. Thanks for the advice. See @lishie_rebooted‌, I listen to advice.

ATT949

As a runner at 175 pounds/80 kg, I was using 100 gm protein (I couldn't find a credible source that would recommend anything higher than that for an endurance runner), about 55 - 50% carbs, and the rest fat. I have no way of proving that diet worked well for me but it's pretty much in line with what most running sites recommend (Runner's World, of course, being a site that's heavily involved in marketing to specific groups with less emphasis on the medical or scientific side of running).