Balancing "nutrients"

chelsmaee7

under the section "nutrients" where all of the fats,carbs,sugar,protein,ect are.. What would you say is more and less important to watch closely. I find that it's hard to balance everything so you have the right amount of calories and keeping everything else close to the suggested amounts. I know it's okay to go over on protein but what about the different types of fats? I have yet to have a day where I stay under all of the things I should be under on and reach the minimum on all of the others. I've mainly been focusing on overall calories, protein, and sodium because I noticed keeping it under has helped me for some reason.

ndj1979

make sure you hit your protein and fat minimums and fill the rest in with carbs ….

Nothing wrong with going over on fat. Fat does not make you fat.

A pretty standard percent setting is 35% protein/35% carbs/30% fats. You can make the change under custom settings.

what is your primary goal right now? Fat loss, body recomp, etc?

chelsmaee7

ndj1979 wrote: »

make sure you hit your protein and fat minimums and fill the rest in with carbs ….

Nothing wrong with going over on fat. Fat does not make you fat.

A pretty standard percent setting is 35% protein/35% carbs/30% fats. You can make the change under custom settings.

what is your primary goal right now? Fat loss, body recomp, etc?

What are the two first fats under the just "fats" one? I noticed that the goal for those is always to have none but there doesn't seem to be away around eating them other than to not eat at all lol

I just have all standard settings right now with a calorie goal of 1210 which I believe may actually be a bit too low for days when I wake up earlier.

I would say my main goal right now would be fat loss. I only walk with a small amount of running most days of the week and a little body weight exercises every few days. With how I've been eating and the light exercise I've lost 5 lbs in 24 days so it is working. I just don't want to be obsessing over getting every goal perfect all day.

Also would you happen to know why watching my sodium more carefully has helped with weight loss?

lalepepper

chelsmaee7 wrote: »

Also would you happen to know why watching my sodium more carefully has helped with weight loss?

People tend to retain water when consuming more sodium than needed. It's a normal biological process for water to be retained in order to maintain homeostasis when taking in more sodium. It's easy to see your weight fluctuate or be artificially high if you're not watching your sodium intake regularly, especially since it can be easy to go over what you need.

ndj1979

chelsmaee7 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

make sure you hit your protein and fat minimums and fill the rest in with carbs ….

Nothing wrong with going over on fat. Fat does not make you fat.

A pretty standard percent setting is 35% protein/35% carbs/30% fats. You can make the change under custom settings.

what is your primary goal right now? Fat loss, body recomp, etc?

What are the two first fats under the just "fats" one? I noticed that the goal for those is always to have none but there doesn't seem to be away around eating them other than to not eat at all lol

I just have all standard settings right now with a calorie goal of 1210 which I believe may actually be a bit too low for days when I wake up earlier.

I would say my main goal right now would be fat loss. I only walk with a small amount of running most days of the week and a little body weight exercises every few days. With how I've been eating and the light exercise I've lost 5 lbs in 24 days so it is working. I just don't want to be obsessing over getting every goal perfect all day.

Also would you happen to know why watching my sodium more carefully has helped with weight loss?

not sure about the other two fats under fats one…but again, fat does not make you fat, so don't worry about it so much ...

if you are eating less sodium, it means you are retaining less water, so you have less water weight, which is showing up on the scale as a loss.

If your primary goal is fat loss right now, then I would not worry so much about macros. i would say try to hit your protein number as that will minimize muscle loss.

chelsmaee7

Good to know that the sodium thing was probably an issue! I cut out soda completely and was only drinking water but didn't see the scale move for over a month until I started watching the sodium. And @ndj1979 thanks for the advice! I will take a look at what my things are all set at and make sure to focus on my protein goals. Most days I don't have too much trouble getting to it except for days like today when I didn't eat anything until 3 pm lol

lynn_glenmont

chelsmaee7 wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

make sure you hit your protein and fat minimums and fill the rest in with carbs ….

Nothing wrong with going over on fat. Fat does not make you fat.

A pretty standard percent setting is 35% protein/35% carbs/30% fats. You can make the change under custom settings.

what is your primary goal right now? Fat loss, body recomp, etc?

What are the two first fats under the just "fats" one? I noticed that the goal for those is always to have none but there doesn't seem to be away around eating them other than to not eat at all lol

You must be talking about polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, and most of what most people call "good fats" are unsaturated fats (I'm not into demonizing the saturated fats, myself, but I'm not interested in getting into an argument about it -- I tend to get roughly a third of my fat from saturated fats). There is no goal set for mono- and polyunsaturated fat because there is no dietary reference intake standard set by the Institute of Medicine or the FDA, which seems to be where MFP draws the goals for things other than the percentage-based macros (carbs, protein, and total fats). It doesn't mean that it is recommended to eat none. That wouldn't make any sense, since there is a recommended upper limit for saturated fats, which is lower than the goal for total fats, so you have to be getting the balance from unsaturated fats (fats are either saturated or unsaturated, which includes monounsaturated and polyunsaturated).