Food macros and fat

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IcyOtter1
IcyOtter1 Posts: 10 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello. I’m trying to drop some weight. I’m not overweight, but I really hate those extra 15-20 hanging around. I swapped 5% of my carbs for 5% protein. I have my carb/fat/protein macros set at 45/30/25. My calories are at 1290. I just can’t keep it balanced. I’m winding up under on carbs and protein and over on fat every single day. I am losing weight though, which is good. Thoughts or advise? Thanks.

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  • Cbean08
    Cbean08 Posts: 1,092 Member
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    Calories are more important than macros. I check macros occasionally to make sure I am eating relatively balanced. Even then, I eat high protein, moderate fat, low carb by preference.

    If you like what you eating and are losing weight doing so, then continue. However, make sure you are hitting your minimum protein requirement which is about .8 of your body weight. For example if you weight 150 lbs, shoot for 120g of protein everyday.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,008 Member
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    Don't worry about being under on carbs. With a calorie budget of 1290, protein at 25% comes to 81 g. Unless you're fairly petite, that's not a terribly high protein goal, and I don't think falling significantly below that on a regular basis is a great strategy, especially if you want to preserve muscle mass while you're losing fat.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    edited October 2018
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    The way I have solved the issue you describe is to make each eating event (a.k.a.meal) is balanced to your goals. Otherwise I don’t know how to avoid an “off balance deficit” when planning for last meal at the end of the day. It took me some extra time to get used to preparing balanced portions to eat. I add small measured amounts of fat to lean proteins or carbs; I eliminated breads, crackers and chips because they are too easily become fillers due to their addictive qualities (to me anyhow!!); I eat larger portions of green and orange foods (no limits really); I never add sugar to anything. I make 99% of my own food to control the salt , sugar and fats.

    It took a month or so of commitment to logging my food BEFORE I actually prepared it. It’s the easy way for me to check the macros and calories using MFP charts.

    Good luck to you and
    Good fitness to us all!
    Amyfb
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited October 2018
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    Don't worry about being under on carbs. With a calorie budget of 1290, protein at 25% comes to 81 g. Unless you're fairly petite, that's not a terribly high protein goal, and I don't think falling significantly below that on a regular basis is a great strategy, especially if you want to preserve muscle mass while you're losing fat.

    I agree with this. Don't worry about carbs, but try to get a little more protein in whenever you can.

    A lot of us look at our protein, fat, and fiber goals as minimums to be reached or exceeded and let carbs fall where they may. I found I had been eating an unfortunately low amount of protein, so I started pre-planning and logging my protein sources for the day, and then building my meals and snacks around that. As a bonus, I found getting my protein up helped with satiety.

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