Counting Macros

benandstephlegg2

So I am taking a new approach to my diet. April of last year I started counting calories and protein. I was eating 1700 calories per day and 130-150 grams of protein per day. My main goal was to go from 230lbs to 195 lbs. I met me goal in 8 months and have been maintaining since Jan 1st. I am now wanting to get down to 185lbs. I am 68 inches tall believe I am around 20% body fat. I am wanting to start counting macros for my diet.
I have done a couple of calculators and they are saying that I need 190-230 carbs, 160-190 protein, and around 60 grams of fat per day. Is this accurate? I am not used to eating that many carbs per day and I am worried that will be way too many.
I usually workout 5 days per week with 3 days being 30 mins cardio followed by 45 mins of weights then 2-3 days of crossfit followed by 30 mins of weights. Like I stated earlier, I would like to lose another 15-20 lbs and could like to maintain most of my muscle I have. Any help is appreciated, THANKS!

pierinifitness

My two cents reply is rather on focusing on what “they” say your macros should be, what is your body telling you it wants to thrive and be properly fueled. I personally think macros are overrated. Experts here may disagree and likely will chime in.

PAV8888

There is no they and there's no carb requirement or impediment to lose weight.

How much weight you lose or gain in the long term is only dependent on your energy balance.

In the short term, of course, moving from low carb to high carb and vice versa will affect your water weight to some extent and in particular the amount of glycogen in your body.

The macros you quoted seem to all be above minimums. You haven't mentioned fiber which might be much more important than your concern about carbs.

Also if that amount of protein satiates you and is something you enjoy eating, and you have no kidney problems or similar health concerns, all is good. Otherwise I do note that 190g exceeds 2 x RDA, and that the additional benefits you may be getting from exceeding the ~2x RDA level of 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound of lean mass (often simplified to 0.8 grams to 1 gram per pound of goal weight within the normal range) may be marginal.

I would note that while the fat grams you indicate do exceed the various recommended minimums, ensuring you're minimizing saturated fats and maximizing polyunsaturated and saturated and, in particular, fish fats probably will not hurt!!!

You may also want to keep an occasional eye on your sodium and potassium; but again none of this is *necessary* in order to lose weight and, I would suggest, being off on your macros from time to time is probably not something to lose sleep over!

AggieHoss

Love tracking macros.

Would suggest 1g protein per pound of goal weight so 185g. This will help keep you full and maintain most muscle mass during your caloric deficit (only way to lose fat).

Would suggest 30% intake coming from fat and the men the rest of your calories from carbs.

Key is to find your TDEE and reduce by 25-35% for your deficit. Less if you want it to go slower. After 2 weeks of you are not losing you over estimated your TDEE and need to lower.

Luciicul

If what you have been eating so far has been working for you, why not stick with it? What is it about your current diet that worries you?

There are many different diet philosophies, that preach different things, and it's a matter of sorting out what works for you.

Traditionally the health sector thought a diet high in carbs and low in fat was best for us, and it sounds like this is what the calculators you are using are giving you advice on. However, some people don't do well on this kind of diet, and increasingly people with blood-sugar issues (insulin resistance, diabetes, etc) are recommended to eat a keto diet - which is low carb and often high fat.

It used to be the case that "fat" was considered bad for our health, however, since then, there have been further insights into there being a difference between 'good' fats that are beneficial for us and potentially 'bad' fats that are less so, which means it is not so important to eat low-fat so long as you are making 'good' fat choices. Equally, there is more understanding about carbohydrates, and what types of carbs people eat can have a good or bad effect on their body. This is why some people might say "macros" don't matter so much as good nutritional choices. However, some people find their body responds better on either a high-carb low-fat OR low-carb high-fat diet (or maybe something in between), so these people would pay attention to macros as well as making good nutritional choices.