CICO/Macro question

enyagoboom

Hi All,

So I'm a month into tracking and have noticed a couple things:

1. I am pretty good at getting near my calories for the day, or going just over but it hasn't been terrible.
2. My macros though - I am *always* under on protein which I'm taking steps to work on and I am always over on sugar (very little is added sugar, I know my body doesn't care if it's fruit or not, but I care)
3. If CICO is the important thing, should I stress about the protein being under? and by under I mean by more than half.

One of the things I am doing is meal planning for the week and including hardboiled eggs (which I hate, but I've gotten over things that I hate before like you know, kale in my smoothies). I think the meal planning in general is a good thing, but I guess I'm just confused about whether I should be overly worried about hitting a protein goal.

Thanks for the help!

cmriverside

Yes, you should get those protein numbers up. Start meal planning with protein. Work on that first and foremost. It's important. The protein macro percentage on MFP is on the lower side already.

Have protein rich snacks, like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, add some whole wheat crackers, nuts, or some vegetables to the snacks.

I started off losing weight and having trouble getting protein too. I think that's one of the problems overweight people have developed. Too many carbs, not enough of what the body needs. It's a common problem.

livingleanlivingclean

I would personally see the protein goal as a minimum, so working on getting at least the recommended amount would be a good idea.

Sugar is not a macro. It's a subset of carbohydrate - I get a lot of sugar too, and like you, it's generally naturally occurring in fruits, vegetables, dairy etc. Incorporating more protein will likely mean reducing carbs, which will lower sugar too. Pick protein you enjoy though - there's no reason to force down food you don't like!

Goober1142

Gotta put some protein powder in those kale smoothies. Optimum Nutrition makes some good ones. Chocolate and kale doesn't go together very well though.

enyagoboom

After I was done posting it occured to me that if I get protein up, the others will probably fall. The reason I started with hardboiled eggs today is I was noticing I was getting hungry a lot and hardboiled eggs are an easy fix for that - just one today worked and kept me sated for a couple hours. The other one that I track is fiber and I usually get too much there which is weird but I add a lot of ground flax to everything.

I totally tried whey protein in my smoothies and it made them very erm fluffy and gross lol! I ended up tossing three days worth of smoothies because I just couldn't finish it with the texture. (meaning I tried it three days in a row and wasted the smoothies each day)

Ok. Building meals around the protein. Will do that. I love chicken and turkey, I'll deal with the eggs, and I'm eating tuna (previous to this year I didn't eat a lot of seafood, but now I'm willing to deal with tuna and some salmon). We eat steaks rarely anymore. I love love love Chobani - I get the full fat plain and then add granola to it and fruit so I can control the sugar.

Thanks!!

livingleanlivingclean

enyagoboom wrote: »

After I was done posting it occured to me that if I get protein up, the others will probably fall. The reason I started with hardboiled eggs today is I was noticing I was getting hungry a lot and hardboiled eggs are an easy fix for that - just one today worked and kept me sated for a couple hours. The other one that I track is fiber and I usually get too much there which is weird but I add a lot of ground flax to everything.

I totally tried whey protein in my smoothies and it made them very erm fluffy and gross lol! I ended up tossing three days worth of smoothies because I just couldn't finish it with the texture. (meaning I tried it three days in a row and wasted the smoothies each day)

Ok. Building meals around the protein. Will do that. I love chicken and turkey, I'll deal with the eggs, and I'm eating tuna (previous to this year I didn't eat a lot of seafood, but now I'm willing to deal with tuna and some salmon). We eat steaks rarely anymore. I love love love Chobani - I get the full fat plain and then add granola to it and fruit so I can control the sugar.

Thanks!!

If you don't like whey in smoothies, add it to your Chobani. Flavour without sugar!

Maybe try egg muffins (like mini frittata) with vegies - you might enjoy them more than hb eggs

enyagoboom

I had completely forgotten about frittatas! I love those!

I made the mistake once of getting the carton of egg whites to make little mini egg muffin things. I think I'll take the HB eggs over that lol. The problem with the HBE is the white part - the yolk doesn't fuss me.

Apparently I'm super texture orientated.

Lillymoo01

The biggest question for me is how much protein you are aiming for to begin with?

For weight loss around 1 gram of protein for every pound of your GOAL weight is about what you should be aiming for. Either that or 1 gram for every pound of lean body mass (your body weight subtract body fat) but that is quite difficult to work out.

enyagoboom

According to MFP right now I should be shooting for 80 grams of protein. according to my tracking, I'm barely hitting 40 a day. Hitting carbs, not always fats, hitting or exceeding fiber, and exceeding sugar (which I'm tracking out of curiousity more than anything). My goal weight is 150lbs ... so I should be eating 150 grams? I ... am totally not there yet.

Fascinating, further look backs and I'm showing that the days i hit or exceeding protein I was under in carbs/sugar. I wish I had taken better notes about my moods those days.

I think the next two weeks especially I'm going to really drill down on the protein and see how it shakes out.

cmriverside

You don't need 150 grams. Just try to get up to 80, though.

enyagoboom

yeah, definitely. lol i started this with small steps. it took me a month to start questioning this, so one thing at a time.

MegaMooseEsq

I rarely pay attention to macros, but a lot of foods with protein are more filling, which I think is why lots of people focus on it. It doesn't actually matter for weight loss, except that you'll be less tempted to eat more calories if you feel full. I get more filled up by fatty foods personally, so I guess I tend to average out a little high on that and a little low on protein and carbs.

Lillymoo01

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

I rarely pay attention to macros, but a lot of foods with protein are more filling, which I think is why lots of people focus on it. It doesn't actually matter for weight loss, except that you'll be less tempted to eat more calories if you feel full. I get more by fatty foods personally, so I guess I tend to average out a little high on that and a little low on protein and carbs.

Protein is the most important macro to worry about with weight loss. It helps you retain lean mass while lowering your body weight.

MegaMooseEsq

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

I rarely pay attention to macros, but a lot of foods with protein are more filling, which I think is why lots of people focus on it. It doesn't actually matter for weight loss, except that you'll be less tempted to eat more calories if you feel full. I get more by fatty foods personally, so I guess I tend to average out a little high on that and a little low on protein and carbs.

Protein is the most important macro to worry about with weight loss. It helps you retain lean mass while lowering your body weight.

Eating tuna lowers my body weight? Snark aside, I'm sure protein is great and does great stuff. But eating x % isn't doing to do bubkis for weight loss if you aren't in a calorie deficit. I genuinely don't see why worrying about any macro is helpful assuming you're happy with your deficit and don't feel miserable or have a legit deficiency.

Lillymoo01

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

I rarely pay attention to macros, but a lot of foods with protein are more filling, which I think is why lots of people focus on it. It doesn't actually matter for weight loss, except that you'll be less tempted to eat more calories if you feel full. I get more by fatty foods personally, so I guess I tend to average out a little high on that and a little low on protein and carbs.

Protein is the most important macro to worry about with weight loss. It helps you retain lean mass while lowering your body weight.

Eating tuna lowers my body weight?

Eating at a deficit will lower your body weight. Eating enough protein will help you retain lean muscle mass while lowering your weight. You really do not want to lose too much muscle in your weight loss journey because building it back up again is hard work.

MegaMooseEsq

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

I rarely pay attention to macros, but a lot of foods with protein are more filling, which I think is why lots of people focus on it. It doesn't actually matter for weight loss, except that you'll be less tempted to eat more calories if you feel full. I get more by fatty foods personally, so I guess I tend to average out a little high on that and a little low on protein and carbs.

Protein is the most important macro to worry about with weight loss. It helps you retain lean mass while lowering your body weight.

Eating tuna lowers my body weight?

Eating at a deficit will lower your body weight. Eating enough protein will help you retain lean muscle mass while lowering your weight. You really do not want to lose too much muscle in your weight loss journey because building it back up again is hard work.

Yeah, I thought you were saying that eating protein will help you retain lean mass while ALSO lowering your body weight. Brain fart! I still don't think the OP needs to stress or be overly worried. I mean, yeah, definitely think about doing some lifting and aim for a balanced diet, but don't stress about it. Perfect is the enemy of good and all that.

Lillymoo01

cmriverside wrote: »

You don't need 150 grams. Just try to get up to 80, though.

The current recommendations are .8 grams for every kilo you weigh but when you read on line you will get so many different answers. Some say to double this for weight loss while others give the recommendations I posted earlier. Maybe find somewhere in the middle and see how you go.

veggie16mfp

Once I upped my protein my cravings for fatty,
Carb loaded meals disappeared. I just added Greek yogurt, protein powder and the odd protein bar to get macros correct.

livingleanlivingclean

Lillymoo01 wrote: »

cmriverside wrote: »

You don't need 150 grams. Just try to get up to 80, though.

The current recommendations are .8 grams for every kilo you weigh but when you read on line you will get so many different answers. Some say to double this for weight loss while others give the recommendations I posted earlier. Maybe find somewhere in the middle and see how you go.

That would be the minimum to maintain body functions, for people getting adequate nutrition. For good health, more would be beneficial, and for someone in a deficit, or training, more is recommended too.

enyagoboom

I made it to the store this morning before the insane crush of people got there and picked up food for the week, including some of my favorite proteins (chicken, turkey, tuna, greek yogurt) and some new ones (icelandic yogurt, almond butter packets). This will be my first meal prep in ... nearly a year, but I have some good stuff in mind for the first few days.

My goal will be just to get me up to what MFP has as a goal - 80g - and do that consistently before I start any adjustments. I also want to start noting my overall mood for the days too because I have a sneaking suspicion that the days I had more protein I was much more flexible in my reactions to stress at work (which means I was probably not hungry). Going to go at this as consistently as possible.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, this has been super helpful to me

enyagoboom

Just wanted to give an update - so I actually lowered my calories for the day a bit, prepped my lunches for the week (turkey and thai rice) as well as my snacks, and I am really happy to say that the protein levels have increased to the recommended limit and sometimes above, and i am still managing to eat HB eggs for snacks. I am still working on getting my protein to 80g a day, but for now I'm really happy at 65-70g.

In fact, today i realized that if I was hungry enough to want a snack, then I could definitely eat the HBE I packed. They're still not my favorite, but I can tell that I'm getting used to the taste and texture. Bonus, one egg sates my appetite for a solid two hours.

This week has been a lot of lessons realized and it's only Wednesday!