recomp stat advice

angermouse

protein as a minimum? do you mean in the split like 40 30 30 thing or as in 0.8g minimum.

PAV8888

In the % Split.

.8 by weight is fine. You won't keel over if you do .6 and you won't keel over if you do 1.

In fact .6 per lb is two x the RDA, so the government promises you won't keel over even with 0.3... however you might not be giving yourself the best chance to build muscle if you only do 0.3


Macros are NICE to aim for but not CRUCIAL as long as you get your minimums in.

A caloric imbalance will eventually show up in as a weight change, but even that won't happen in a day!!!

As long as you're in the game and actively monitoring yourself you will always be able to adjust!!!!

angermouse

so the protein has to be the least? sorry if that's a silly question, i see 40 carb 30 fat and protein a lot.
when you say minimums can you explain. i thought this part would be easy.

im ok with pro 1.1 im used to eating at that high.

sijomial

Some people go by macro percentages - such as 40% 30% 30%.
Some will fine tune those percentages based on target in grams - that works well with the TDEE every day the same calorie goal.
Some (like me) just set minimum goals for protein and fat in grams and when they are met or exceeded the rest of your calorie allowance can be used however you like.

Minimum meaning it's perfectly fine to exceed that goal.
An analogy would be I need 4 gallons of fuel in my car's tank to get home, more than 4 gallons is still perfectly fine.

Personally when I was logging food I liked:
1g of protein per pound of estimated lean mass.
0.4g of fat per pound of bodyweight.
The rest of that day's calorie allowance can come from protein, fat or carbs - mostly for me carbs.

That gives you a lot of flexibility and takes away the stress of trying to meet percentages or ratios.

PAV8888

Here is a resource where you can see the minimums the US government recommends that you eat on average per day based on age and gender: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-7/

ANYTHING ABOVE THESE MINIMUMS IN WHATEVER COMBINATION IS FINE AS LONG AS YOU'RE ENJOYING IT!!!

If you're muscle building eating a bit more protein than the minimum is good. You're already doing that in sufficiency with the 1.1g per lb you've selected. I wouldn't fret too much about missing that target up or down from time to time.

As long as you're ON AVERAGE hitting the minimums your basic health in terms of nutrition is covered!

All the appendixes are fairly interesting.... https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/ (The web page title is Dietary Guidelines 2015 - 2020)

angermouse

oh well i think im doing ok there then. ive just changed to maintain so still adjusting to right macros, why im here before id aim for 38g fat 160g carb and 130g protein always hit or go above those.
so would 0.4 fat be good for recomping? my % on deficit was roughly 20-25%

i was doing it in gram as i was eating same calorie goal each day. i like to pre plan my meals for the week, helps with shopping what to buy etc. i use an app that lets me log the whole week ahead. app also works it out in both % and gram.

sijomial

angermouse wrote: »

so would 0.4 fat be good for recomping?

Irrelevant - there isn't any specific macro ratio or volume of fat that is "good for recomping".
It's just a way to ensure you get a reasonable amount of an essential nutrient for general health.

What is good for recomp is training hard and effectively. It's your training that starts the whole process off and your diet merely supports the process - it doesn't drive the process.

PAV8888

The default MFP macro goals with calories set to maintain are FINE to "aim" for.

All you need to keep in mind in the background is that you might have some internal minimums that you would like to reach.

For example to reach 125g of protein a day or to eat at least 50g of fat in a day or to eat at least 26g of fiber in a day.

Once you've gone over the minimums... it's free for all time!

Once you progress with your training and are well established in maintenance you may then seek to embark in further optimizations...

angermouse

ok ill have to retrain my brain with this learning, so when dieting or in deficit its the other way round? as the saying goes 80% diet 20% exercise, abs made in the kitchen and so on.

i ask about the fat as i don't want to it to creep back on and didn't know if there was a target, but i guess what works for one doesn't for another.

i normally work out protein and fat in gram for the day, add together and subtract this from tdee, dividing that by 4 to make up total for gram carbs. think im doing what your explaining? im going long way round explaining it haha!

sijomial

"ok ill have to retrain my brain with this learning, so when dieting or in deficit its the other way round? as the saying goes 80% diet 20% exercise, abs made in the kitchen and so on. "
A bunch of frankly silly sayings isn't relevant or in the slightest bit helpful!
For muscle strengthening and building training is the important thing - whatever your weight goal.
For controlling your weight your calorie balance is the important thing - whether losing, gaining or maintaining weight.


"i ask about the fat as i don't want to it to creep back on and didn't know if there was a target, but i guess what works for one doesn't for another. "
Eating fat doesn't make you fat - eating in a calorie surplus for a prolonged period of time makes you fat. You can eat a really high fat percentage diet and lose, maintain or gain weight depending on your calorie balance.
There is a nutritional minimum for fat for general health - that's it. If you want to eat more but within your calorie allowance that's ok, because you are within your calorie goal you are burning it off, there is no excess to store away. Remember it isn't going to lead to storage of body fat without being in a surplus.

"i normally work out protein and fat in gram for the day, add together and subtract this from tdee, dividing that by 4 to make up total for gram carbs. think im doing what your explaining? im going long way round explaining it haha! "
Again massively over-complicating. Do try to stop yourself adding more and more hoops to jump through.
You don't have to do any maths at all, that is the job of the food diary so you don't have to.

Simply have general mimimum goals for fat and protein to meet or exceed and a calorie goal to get reasonably close to. You don't have to stop at the fat and protein minimums if you don't want to, carbs don't have to fill all of the remainder unless you particularly want to some days. It's flexible not restrictive.

You don't need to add these counter-productive rules, restrictions and calculations. The only prize for obsessive precision is anxiety and making life harder for yourself. You don't have to eat the same every day, you don't need precision or perfection every day. Near enough is good enough.

PAV8888

I can't like, insightful, and inspiring the above post by @sijomial enough, so I had to settle for just a single inspiring!
Seriously.
Awesome post!

Just

Make sure you eat enough protein grams every day on average (one day low won't kill you).
Make sure you eat enough fat grams as a minimum every day on average (one day low again won't kill you).
Make sure you eat enough fiber every day (one day low won't kill you; but may affect your poopsies!)

Eating MORE of any of these won't kill you. It won't help you much. It might make you go over your calories if you don't watch what else you eat. But it won't hurt you unless you have some sort of underlying health issue that might be affected by your food choices.

If the CALORIES you are eating are consistently, over the long term, more or less than what you're burning... then your weight trend will reflect that.

That's it.
There do not HAVE to exist any other rules.

If you NEED rules in order to hit your caloric targets... that's another story and you're best to make these for yourself as they tend to work differently for each person. But the more rules the harder life and the easier to get to a point where you start breaking them.

If you also want to follow various "healthy eating recommendations" and make sure that you eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day (with fairly well documented improvements in health outcomes when increasing this to 8 or so or more)... well why not!

But again, your macro mix or your individual food item choices are not what will determine your weight, or whether you will have the energy to exercise, or whether you will build muscle.

As @sijomial said in an earlier post your strength training is going to determine what happens with your muscles and taking in sufficient (and not too much or too little) energy will help support this while keeping you weight stable!

angermouse

thanks, both helped a lot and is appreciated.