Cals vs macros

_whatsherface

Hey guys,

I've been on this site for a little over a year and a half now. I've successfully lost 79 lbs on my own by using this site and exercising. For the last 6 months, I've hit a stall and have been maintaining. I've played around with calories, macros, exercise routines, amounts of exercise, etc. My body wasn't responding to anything. I've recently gotten a trainer (about 6 weeks ago) who gives me a meal plan. I was losing a small percentage of body fat but never lost weight. The macros seemed right but my calories seemed a bit high. I'm just curious what I should be more focused on? Calories or macros? (And don't tell me it's as easy as calories in vs calories out because I'm living example that it's not) There was a time I was eating very low calories and my body was responding. Anyways, opinions? I wil talk to my trainer again about this tonight.

Thanks ahead of time.

malibu927

It is calories in vs calories out. You lost 79 pounds, so it does work for you. If you weren't losing, then either your logging was inaccurate or you have a medical condition that can mess with the calories out, meaning you would need fewer calories in.

EvgeniZyntx

Meet you cals. Get your fats, get your protein.

Basically in that order.

jemhh

You can focus on either as long as you are eating in a caloric deficit. As long as your total macro totals work out to fewer calories than you are burning, you'll lose weight. It won't necessarily be a fast or linear loss but it will happen. FWIW:

1 g fat = 9 calories
1 g carb = 4 calories
1 g protein = 4 calories
1 g alcohol = 7 calories

_whatsherface

malibu927 wrote: »

It is calories in vs calories out. You lost 79 pounds, so it does work for you. If you weren't losing, then either your logging was inaccurate or you have a medical condition that can mess with the calories out, meaning you would need fewer calories in.

Logging was accurate. No medical condition. I got to the point where I was weighing every little things for weeks/months. I'm starting to think I've hit a set point for my body. I'm constantly losing and gaining the same 6 pounds.

_whatsherface

jemhh wrote: »

You can focus on either as long as you are eating in a caloric deficit. As long as your total macro totals work out to fewer calories than you are burning, you'll lose weight. It won't necessarily be a fast or linear loss but it will happen. FWIW:

1 g fat = 9 calories
1 g carb = 4 calories
1 g protein = 4 calories
1 g alcohol = 7 calories

Thanks for this.

strong_curves

Are you 100% sure you're logging is accurate? Are you using a food scale? The smaller you get the smaller your deficit gets so you have to really weigh/measure your intake.

oolou

It sounds like you are eating at your maintenance calories. It's hard for anyone to give further advice unless you are prepared to share more information, such as your weight, height, current daily calorie goal, eventual goal weight and so on, and open up your food diary. Without that, everyone will be making generalised suggestions.

Does your trainer agree that you should lose more weight? If you are at a weight that you're happy with, then macros would seem to be the sensible thing to focus on.

ultrahoon

You're eating at maintenance, there's no two ways about it. Either your logging of your calories in is wrong, or your logging of your calories out is wrong. If you open your diary, we can offer more advice.

_whatsherface

My diary is open, but I don't think my profile is so I will change that.
I am 5'7, between 240-245. Trainer has me eating at 1900 calories because I am weight training 3x a week. Low carb around 100g a day, fat is around 100g a day and protein is around 170g I think. I lost 3% body fat in 6 weeks, but no weight.

I have been maintaining weight regardless of calorie intake. When I was set to lose 1.5 lbs a week I was eating 1550 calories and I was still maintaining. For the last 6 weeks, I have eaten 1900 calories and have maintained. So really, I have no idea what's going on.

janejellyroll

_whatsherface wrote: »

My diary is open, but I don't think my profile is so I will change that.
I am 5'7, between 240-245. Trainer has me eating at 1900 calories because I am weight training 3x a week. Low carb around 100g a day, fat is around 100g a day and protein is around 170g I think. I lost 3% body fat in 6 weeks, but no weight.

I have been maintaining weight regardless of calorie intake. When I was set to lose 1.5 lbs a week I was eating 1550 calories and I was still maintaining. For the last 6 weeks, I have eaten 1900 calories and have maintained. So really, I have no idea what's going on.

If you weren't losing on 1,550, why would your trainer ask you to increase your calories?

yarwell

Diary still not set to public. If over 200 lbs eat under 1500 cals you can afford a higher deficit.

Drop protein to 80 - 130 g/day. Increase fats to compensate.

mellowadam

First off, congrats on a 79lb loss. Thats a huge achievement.

If you're paying a professional trainer Id probably listen to them and follow their instructions. Give it another few weeks and look for other metrics to measure your progress. The scale can be decieving and if they do this for a living they will probably tailor their strategy based on your progress.

Do you feel better? How are you sleeping? How's your energy? Are you happy and becoming more confident? Can you lift more than you could six weeks ago? Do your clothes fit better? Are you losing inches? Do you enjoy exercising?

As you get closer to a healthy weight you will have to rely on these victories to keep you motivated because your weight loss will slow down for sure.

And as others have said. Digital scale, weigh everything in grams...yada yada....

Good luck!

kshama2001

_whatsherface wrote: »

My diary is open, but I don't think my profile is so I will change that.

It's not open yet. Go here http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings and change Diary Sharing to Public.

leahcollett1

I'm in the same boat I'm 31 I'm 215lbs and lost 64lbs I've also been bouncing up down the sane 6lbs I got off here earlier to tighten my logging I was finding I was taking bites here and there and was oblivious to it. never logged it. What's a bite?? well alot if you add them up whoops!!

pzarnosky

Try new things until they work for you. When I first started on here I tried going low calorie high protein low carb lowish fat. Couldn't figure out why I wasn't losing. Then I realized it was because I was miserable starving myself and trying to get 150+ grams of protein. At the time I was lifting heavy 4-5x a week.

Here's what works for me... I eat 1500 calories a day, 40% carbs, 30 protein/fat. I don't eat before 8am or after 5 or 6pm. But I'm also not 100% strict with that rule, sometimes if I have the leftover cals, i eat them at night, but it's never more than 100-150 cals. This is just what works for me. It took a lot of playing around with my diet for me to get here though. Once I found what made me happy and was a manageable lifestyle, the weight started coming off.

A word about the protein craze (i expect flack for this). Our bodies were designed to burn glucose for energy. It can take many other kinds of sugar (fructose, galactose, mannose) and convert them to glucose. Through cellular respiration, the body takes the sugar and converts it to ATP, what the body uses to do work. Now, glucose is the go-to molecule for energy, but the body can burn protein and fat through other metabolic pathways if no sugars are available. If you choose to go low carb high protein/fat, please make sure you are drinking a lot of water. The byproducts of protein and fat catabolism can be harmful.. the sweet smell to your breath in ketosis? It's acetone. High protein/fat diets are hard on your liver and kidneys as they have to filter the byproducts out of the blood. When I learned all of this in a biochem course, I changed my diet. I've maintained my muscle mass and had better results dropping my protein intake down and increasing my carbs. I also feel better. Yes, you need protein to provide the building blocks for muscle, but you also need the energy to do so. Carbs are a much more readily available source of energy for your body. I know it's a little off topic from what you originally asked, but 170g of protein is a lot, so I wanted to share a different viewpoint (from someone who used to follow the same kind of diet).