Figuring out my Calorie Intake and Macros

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  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    edited December 2020
    lemurcat2 wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    So I will again reiterate Ann's post from the previous page - a good guideline to follow is 0.6-0.8g per lb of ideal/goal weight for protein, 0.35-0.45g of fats, both as minimums, then let carbs fall where they may according to preference. Seems far more reasonable, and flexible, than your arbitrary 50C/25P/25F.

    I'll echo this too. I think OP is likely buying into some bad information in assuming that 25% is necessary or (as it seems) on the high side, and to the extent she's trying to eat a way uncomfortable for her, she should change that (I think 45% protein is probably high, for example, unless she falls there naturally). Many people do well starting with the MFP macros or the MFP macros adjusted for the protein formula quoted above (since it tends to be lower protein if one is trying to do low cals, and I'd consider 1300 low cals), and then adjusting based on how they actually eat.

    I started on 1200 (MFP recommendation based on me not accurately assessing my activity level and pre exercise being added back), and ate about 40-30-30, which I really liked. But I've also tried various carb levels and find somewhat lower carb even that that easier, since I just don't care that much about grains and when cutting cals tend to cut added fats AND portions of starchy sides (or often replacing them with lower carb vegetable options).

    I've never found eating around 80-100 g carbs particularly limiting on vegetables (although it does limit either fruit or starchy sides or both), so I'm in agreement with Nony here. And how it affects vigorous exercise -- unless one is really trying to maximize speed or some such -- tends to vary among people and IME, even though I was running a lot of training for half marathons and oly length tris when I was doing some of my lower carb experiments, it was never an issue. Not at something like 25%, certainly.

    Absolutely NOT saying anyone should force themselves to cut carbs if they don't want to, but given how low cal vegetables are, and even some fruits, it's not hard to eat something like 25% and get plenty (likely many more than most not low carbing get given how many people eat shockingly few non starchy veg).

    Here's a rare day in which I ate breakfast, which also happens to be around 25% carbs:

    Breakfast: omelet with 2 eggs, a little feta, lots of broccoli, spinach, and mushrooms, with half an avocado on the side

    Lunch: big salad with leftover buffalo chicken (pretty low cal, made with chicken breast in the Instant pot) with various types of greens (mainly romaine and spinach), carrots, celery, cucumber, radish, and tomatoes. Optional mock ranch dressing made with sour cream and some spices (I had this without the dressing the following day and it wasn't necessary, so if I were cutting cals I'd cut that, and certainly not veg).

    Dinner: salmon with parsley/sesame seed pesto on zucchini pasta with mushrooms, cauliflower, tomatoes, and chick peas.

    Dessert: 3 clementines.

    Counting up servings (80 g = 1 serving but for greens where 2 cups = 1 serving), this day had 1.5 servings of fruit (my personal preference is 1-3, usually I have 1 or 2), and around 12 servings of non-starchy veg, plus one serving of chickpeas and one of nuts or seeds. Also 37 g of fiber.

    This is more meat than I usually like in a day, but is just an illustration.

    Yes, it's really not that hard to do. And like Lemur, definitely not saying anyone has to be low carb. The point of my post with the screen shots was merely to show that eating plentiful vege can be done on low carb, since @nooshi713 didn't seem to believe me. And to the bolded, I find this especially funny when those people are looking down on me for being low carb.

    Also, I clearly wasn't mathing well :lol: - even excluding avocado and olives from the count, and taking berry/blackcurrant servings at 125g per serve, that's still just over 9 servings for the day (there were some changes to the final amounts for my dinner salad, which increased the total a little). Today as currently pre-logged is just over 10 serves, so not an anomaly.
  • Dogmom1978
    Dogmom1978 Posts: 1,580 Member
    My dessert tonight will be 2 oreos with my tea, although I did have a clementine, dehydrated apples and some carrot sticks at work as snacks. That’s about it for me and fruit/veg though. I know I personally need to eat some more veggies, I just find them so unappealing and I can lose weight just fine without them 😜

    For the OP, macros are very individual. Some people feel full on more fat, higher carb, low carb, high protein, etc etc. So, you’ll need to experiment to find what works best for you.

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