Help with Macros please!

jamiesarracco923

Hey everyone. I’m having a hard time meeting at my caloric intake for the day. I had it set for 1200. My macros are 45% carbs, 35% fats, 20% protein. I was told too much protein can make you gain weight. I also haven’t been coming close to my carb goal (which I’m ok with)
I’m finding it difficult to meet the calorie goal without going over my fat or protein goal. I run out of protein and fat way before I run out of calories or carbs. I can’t seem to find any recipes to support this. Maybe I just need to adjust my macros, but to what? I am a 34 year old female, 5’6” and 170 pounds. My goal weight is 140. I have been on able to complete my diary for the past few days because the app is saying I have not taken in enough calories. But if I eat more, I’ll go over the fat and protein levels. I have no idea what my macro should be or what they should look like. Any advice would be helpful

endermako

protein doesn't make you gain weight, You gain weight if you are eating more than you burn. Anything you eat could make you gain weight if you eat over your maintenance calories. 1200 is too low most likely, Do you have it set to 1lb a week and are you eating your exercise calories back? if tracking macros seems too overwhelming, i wouldn't look at that for now and focus on the calories themselves, once you become more confident you can then start to incorporate meeting macros too, and that's only if you want to, it's not crucial for weight loss.

lemurcat2

jamiesarracco923 wrote: »

Hey everyone. I’m having a hard time meeting at my caloric intake for the day. I had it set for 1200. My macros are 45% carbs, 35% fats, 20% protein. I was told too much protein can make you gain weight. I also haven’t been coming close to my carb goal (which I’m ok with)
I’m finding it difficult to meet the calorie goal without going over my fat or protein goal. I run out of protein and fat way before I run out of calories or carbs. I can’t seem to find any recipes to support this. Maybe I just need to adjust my macros, but to what? I am a 34 year old female, 5’6” and 170 pounds. My goal weight is 140. I have been on able to complete my diary for the past few days because the app is saying I have not taken in enough calories. But if I eat more, I’ll go over the fat and protein levels. I have no idea what my macro should be or what they should look like. Any advice would be helpful

The bolded is not true. I would stop worrying about going over your fat or protein goals -- indeed, at 1200 cal, the default protein goal is only 60 g, which is not very high, and possibly not ideal for maintaining muscle when losing at such a low goal (general advice for muscle maintenance at a deficit is more like .65-.8 g per lb of a healthy goal weight).

Some find macros helpful for planning meals or satiety, but beyond getting enough protein to protect against muscle loss, it makes no difference for fat loss -- calories are what matter. So I'd start by getting your calories in check and then look at your macros/diet and how you feel and adjust if you want to.

Eating too little to complete the diary is unhealthy.

thanos5

i personally wouldn't pay much attention to macros until you have your calories down. i was running into the same issues as you...eating more food to get my macros to fit...and decided it was too stressful. once i'm ready for recomp, then i'll look at macros more closely.

cmriverside

Yeah, I agree with everyone else.

I lost most of my weight on 50C/30F/20P - but I wasn't religious about it. It's pretty tough to make every day fit, and I tend to go way over on fats if anything. I have to really concentrate on protein if I want to hit minimums, so you're way ahead of me on that!

Weight management is about calories.

erickirb

I would use the protein a minimum number to hit, fat as a goal, and carbs as a max. That said, for weight loss, all you need is to hit your calorie goal.

with only 30lbs to lose you should be aiming to lose 1lb/week, if you are set to lose faster you may want to change your goal, this should also give you a few more calories to work with.

jamiesarracco923

All SUPER helpful information. I have a protein with most every meal- I will just work on portion control. I will focus on meeting my calorie goal- without going overboard on carbs/fat (even though they taste the best :-) )
Thanks all!!