Calorie Counting

laaraa31560

Hello!! Maybe y’all can shed some light for me. I am currently trying to follow a 1,600 calorie diet as recommended by my doctor to help me lose weight. I am doing pretty good at meeting my goal. However, should I be tracking fats/carbs too? Just seems like a lot of tracking to have to balance macronutrients AND calories. She did not mention tracking them, I am just curious. Can anyone help point me in the right direction to help with weight loss.

AnnPT77

Calories directly determine fat gain/loss. If all you care about is body fat levels, all you need to look at is calories.

Macronutrients (and nutrition more broadly) can have an indirect effect on weight. If we get poor nutrition, maybe we get fatigued more easily, rest more, burn fewer calories than expected. If we get poor nutrition, maybe we have more cravings or a higher appetite, so can't stick to our calorie goal. In those indirect ways, nutrition affects weight. The direct mechanism is still calories.

Nutrition (again, macros and more) matters for health, energy level, body composition, exercise performance, and that sort of thing. If you care about those, it's useful to pay some attention to nutrition. It doesn't have to be slavishly detailed attention, and the nutrients don't ever have to be exactly exact. Pretty good, on average over a few days, is fine. If you eat some complete and bioavailable proteins, some healthy fats, and plenty of veggies/fruits for micronutrients and fiber, odds are good that you'll do fine. (Other variations can work, too - but you get my point.)

If you don't have a diagnosed deficiency or nutrition-relevant disease right now, you can just focus on calories at the start. Later, when you've got the calories (and satiation) more dialed in, you can start thinking about whether your nutrition is all you want it to be. If it's not ideal for you, there'll be plenty of time to adjust then. Malnutrition doesn't happen instantly, if a generally healthy person isn't eating extremely stupidly.

tomcustombuilder

As long as you have a fairly normal diet fats and carb’s generally work themselves out. Protein is one to make sure you’re getting enough of. Overall weekly calories is what will determine Fatloss provided you’re actually in a caloric deficit