Do marconutrients matter?
Honeyacid
Posts: 115 Member
I've heard time and time again that weight loss will occur just by decreasing your calorie intake. However, I don't hear much about marcos. I recently started thinking about this because majority of my diet in comprised of carbs and slim to no protein.
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Yes they absolutely do! If you need more info let me know because its a great question1
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Macros matter for health.
Calories matter for weight loss.
Ideally, of course, you should combine the two aspects and remain healthy whilst losing weight. But ultimately you could hit your macros spot on for 20 years and if the calories you’re ingesting are more than or equal to the energy you need you will gain or maintain weight, respectively.17 -
Macros don't matter for weight loss. They do matter somewhat for health.
You don't need to hit any exact numbers, but a certain amount of fats and proteins are essential for vitamin absorption and muscle repair, among other things. If you are genuinely getting 'slim to no protein', then that will cause you issues in the medium-to-long term, and you need to work on incorporating more protein-rich foods into your diet.11 -
Both matter, just in different ways.
Yes, calorie deficit = weight loss.
Adequate protein = less hunger, more energy, less carb crash cycle
Fiber = Reduced hunger, reduced bloating, happy insides (often really makes exercise like yoga and running better too).
And of course there's vitamins and minerals too. They make your body work optimally!
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For weight loss, no they don't really matter... but adequate protein while losing weight will help ensure a larger % of your loss comes from fat and less from muscle.
Fat also matters as it is essential for some vitamin and mineral absorption, helps the digestive system, skin, hair, nails, etc.8 -
Weight loss is calories in vs calories out. You can eat a very high carb diet and still lose weight, if your overall calorie intake is still at a deficit.
But that said, many people find that a good macro balance is beneficial to keeping them feeling full and satisfied. It depends on the person though. Statements like "proteins or fats keep you full" may apply to some people, but others may find that carbs keep them more full. So it is not universal. However I seem to remember in another post that you can get prone it binging, so perhaps a better macro breakdown could help prevent that.
In addition, a good macro balance is also important to overall health. Fat plays an important role in our digestive system. And protein plays an important role in building and maintaining our muscles. If you are in fact eating a very low protein diet consistently, you are likely to see a higher percentage of muscle loss during weight loss than you would otherwise.9 -
For me, yes! Every and any day. For a balanced meal plan and for not having any cravings. As long as my daily calories eaten fit within the calculation done by MFP. CICO.3
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I've heard time and time again that weight loss will occur just by decreasing your calorie intake. However, I don't hear much about marcos. I recently started thinking about this because majority of my diet in comprised of carbs and slim to no protein.
I used to think there was something wrong with me, because I could eat and eat and eat and never feel satisfied. Then I started paying attention to my protein macro and realized all those overeating times were when I hadn't had much protein in relationship to carbs.
After upping my protein, that kind of overeating doesn't happen anymore
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Macros matter more for composition. As such, yes, if you ate absolutely no protein, you would technically start losing weight faster as your body would start losing muscle which holds fewer calories per pound than fat stores.
Technically, the thermic effect of food also means your macros have the slightest effect on your calories out. If you're worried about that level of optimization, your time is better spent just doing 10 jumping jacks.5 -
while a calorie is what matters for weight loss, macros matter in that (one, overall health) and two - 1400 calories of potato chips or bread is not going to satiate me for an entire day.0
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How do you eat slim to no protein without trying to do that? Are you avoiding lots of foods? If so, why? Even if you are vegan it should not be difficult to get in a reasonable amount of fat and protein unless you are just living on fruit (and if so, stop, that's not a healthy diet even though fruit is good to include in a diet).
So unless you are exaggerating a lot, the macro breakdown you mention is unhealthy, so apart from weight loss I'd change that, and get a reasonable amount of protein and fat in your diet.
Weightloss is about calories, but health is important and usually makes it easier too.2 -
I will stick to the advice that I keep giving you in your various bad idea threads - see a doctor.
If this is all made up and just some weird way to get attention online please do something else.10 -
C'mon, one day you're doing IF and Olympic-level gym workouts, the next day a 500 cal/day diet, the next you're eating fruit for breakfast and an egg for lunch, now you're on the all carb plan. This is trolling.
If you eat "no" protein, as stated, your body will consume its own muscles, you will weaken, and eventually you will die. So ... you already know that's a dumb thing to do, although I doubt you're doing it.
Go make yourself a standard well balanced diet with a variety of foods and 1500-2000 calories and get some exercise.10 -
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Macros are an integral facet of weight loss and body composition. When focusing on macros calories fall into place and it’s more sustainable.
Fact....0 -
Macros are an integral facet of weight loss and body composition. When focusing on macros calories fall into place and it’s more sustainable.
Fact....
Nope. It’s entirely possible to overconsume calories and negate any deficit if a person isn’t satiated by certain foods/macro percentages. It’s not a slam dunk by any means to only focus on macros.
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Sooo...if we take you at face value it might be a plan to open your diary so we can have a look at what you are eating and give you some tips on how to up your protein.
You’ve said you’re eating foods you like and if we can see what sorts of things you prefer we can probably come up with ideas to help.2 -
OR give an example of a typical day's food? 15 grams of protein is really low - even for a vegan - eat some nuts/quinoa/beans and it will shoot up.1
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Here's a thread with a super chart listing Protein sources:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also/p1
Start adding one of those items to every meal.1 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »Sooo...if we take you at face value it might be a plan to open your diary so we can have a look at what you are eating and give you some tips on how to up your protein.
You’ve said you’re eating foods you like and if we can see what sorts of things you prefer we can probably come up with ideas to help.
@Honeyacid please do change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings so we can help.
You may be choosing bad entries* and eating more protein than you think, or we may be able to give you tips on how to easily incorporate more protein.
*some user-entered entries might incorrectly have calories only, and no macros, or might just be plain wrong.1 -
C'mon, one day you're doing IF and Olympic-level gym workouts, the next day a 500 cal/day diet, the next you're eating fruit for breakfast and an egg for lunch, now you're on the all carb plan. This is trolling.
If you eat "no" protein, as stated, your body will consume its own muscles, you will weaken, and eventually you will die. So ... you already know that's a dumb thing to do, although I doubt you're doing it.
Go make yourself a standard well balanced diet with a variety of foods and 1500-2000 calories and get some exercise.
I actually did take your advice from my last post. So thank you so much for that. I'm now eating food that I actually like and eating around 1400 calories. But the thing about the protein is that I'm not doing it on purpose. Currently I'm only getting about 14-35 grams of protein when I should be getting around 60 grams. And no, I'm not trolling, I fricking swear I'm not. The whole reason I got myfitnesspal was to seek guidance and advice on how to effectively and safely loose weight. And although I had a rocky start, I'm trying my best to get better.
Well OK, if you're responding with sincerity than I will give you a sincere answer. Understand, I am not a person who pays much attention to macros. In fact, the only interest I have in macros is to try to hit 100 grams of protein every day, but beyond that I eat whatever I want (although what I "want" is usually a well balanced meal with meat and vegetables). That said, I think 14 grams of protein is way, way too low and if you told a doctor you were eating that, he'd tell you to immediately reorganize your diet for your own health. Protein is very easy to consume - just eat a piece of meat! Seriously, go buy some cold cuts, take your pick - turkey, chicken, roast beef, etc - and make a sandwich. Get some meat into your dinners. There are also non-meat sources of protein if you're not into meat. Some great ones include chickpeas (and therefore hummus!), oats/oatmeal, and of course nuts. Being a person who loves hummus and can work it into almost any meal or especially snack, I would say to give that a shot if you're not familiar with it.
If you are now eating a true 1400 cals a day, then you're headed in the right direction, but why not increase that to 1600-1700. 1400 is low. You're unlikely to be long-term compliant with the diet at 1400, but you might be with a bit more food than that.
Aside from making sure you get enough protein, there isn't much reason to obsess over macros. Many people today do indeed follow macro-based diets, and since it works for them there's nothing to criticize at all about it, but all you really need to focus on, if you're trying to get to the irreducible minimum number of things to worry about so you can march forward with your new diet and life, is calorie control and getting adequate protein. The rest will take care of itself as you sort things out. You can explore macros further once you're on solid footing for a couple months with eating up to and not over your calorie target everyday and getting adequate protein.0 -
C'mon, one day you're doing IF and Olympic-level gym workouts, the next day a 500 cal/day diet, the next you're eating fruit for breakfast and an egg for lunch, now you're on the all carb plan. This is trolling.
If you eat "no" protein, as stated, your body will consume its own muscles, you will weaken, and eventually you will die. So ... you already know that's a dumb thing to do, although I doubt you're doing it.
Go make yourself a standard well balanced diet with a variety of foods and 1500-2000 calories and get some exercise.
I actually did take your advice from my last post. So thank you so much for that. I'm now eating food that I actually like and eating around 1400 calories. But the thing about the protein is that I'm not doing it on purpose. Currently I'm only getting about 14-35 grams of protein when I should be getting around 60 grams. And no, I'm not trolling, I fricking swear I'm not. The whole reason I got myfitnesspal was to seek guidance and advice on how to effectively and safely loose weight. And although I had a rocky start, I'm trying my best to get better.
I refreshed myself on your thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10761138/low-carb-diet and see that there you said you are mostly plant-based, but were willing to try keto. You can stay plant based and get adequate protein, but instead of eating mainly oatmeal and fruit, you're going to have to focus on plant-based foods that are good sources of protein, like legumes, tofu, seitan, etc.
While I would never dissuade an ethical vegan or vegetarian from being plant-based, I'm not sure that is the case with you, so if you are open to non-plant based sources of protein, dairy, eggs, and fish are options before you get to foods people tend to have more ethical concerns about, like poultry, pork and beef.
Hard boiled eggs are very convenient snacks - I make a bunch at a time. I also see them pre-cooked in the supermarkets above the raw eggs. I like to cook and am cheap, so would never buy them myself, but it is an option if one has the budget and is short on time or cooking skills.
Canned tuna is also very convenient. A poster here mentioned having it with cottage cheese, which is also a great source of protein for few calories.1
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