Help! - Struggling with carb cycling..

frendoandrea9805

I'm trying out carb cycling, and am struggling to hit all of my macros. I've been doing it now for 3 weeks and have never been able to hit my protein goal, and only hit the carb/fat goals a handful of times. I'm getting discouraged, but really need to lose weight and get healthier. Any suggestions or recipes you want to share? I don't eat seafood or spicy food, otherwise I'm game to try anything. TIA!

kshama2001

Fortunately, there's no need to hit all of your macros perfectly every day.

As sometimes we see people with unnecessarily high protein goals, before I offer you ways to increase your protein I'd like to know your goal and how far off you are from hitting it.

Here's a reputable protein calculator:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein grams recommendation from Examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

***************

I try to stay right around the default of 30% fat because it's easy for me to overeat fat, I don't find it especially filling, and want plenty of calories for protein and fiber-heavy carbs. So I try to keep it down, but others may like their fat higher.

Many of us just let the carbs fall where they may.

If you are carb cycling for an endurance sport, please say more, and some other endurance sport peeps may chime in.

yirara

Why do you think you need to do carb cycling to lose weight?

Why do you think you need to hit specific macro goals in order to lose weight?

You need neither of this. All you need is a calorie deficit, really. Macros are for satiety mostly, but what keeps you full and happy is very individual. Why not for now eat however you want to eat, and then start making small changes? If you feel you should be eating a bit more protein look through your diary again and consider where you could change something. If it doesn't work then try something else.

AnnPT77

If you're having difficulty identifying foods you enjoy that will help you increase protein intake, this thread may be helpful:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

It links to a spreadsheet that lists many, many foods in order by most protein for fewest calories. That ranking means that things near the top of the list are inherently relatively lower in fats or carbs (though they may have some).

What do you hope to get from carb cycling, especially? I'm not asking this to doubt or diss you or your goals, but to understand your goals/preferences better so I might be able to give more nuanced suggestions.

In a generic sense, neither carb cycling nor one single macro split are universally necessary for weight loss or health. Some variations on some of those things will be helpful for some people, but it depends on individual goals, eating preferences, and even some quirks of individual physiology. (There's a lot of popular-press stuff lately that implies those things are universally essential or even almost magical . . . unfortunately, that's not so. Great for some, not great for others, more realistically.)

Even if carb cycling or specific macro goals are in your best mix, there's no need to be exact every day or meal. Close, on average, is plenty good enough. A little over one day on something, a little under the next on the same, averaging around the target level - no big deal.

It's the calories that directly affect fat gain/loss. Macros are for health, satiety, energy level, body composition, and that sort of thing - individual and goal dependent. Nutrition (macros and more) can affect fat loss indirectly through satiety (harder/easier to stick to calorie goal) or energy level (moving more/less), but the direct mechanism is still the calories.

Best wishes!

Theoldguy1

kshama2001 wrote: »

Fortunately, there's no need to hit all of your macros perfectly every day.

As sometimes we see people with unnecessarily high protein goals, before I offer you ways to increase your protein I'd like to know your goal and how far off you are from hitting it.

Here's a reputable protein calculator:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein grams recommendation from Examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

***************

I try to stay right around the default of 30% fat because it's easy for me to overeat fat, I don't find it especially filling, and want plenty of calories for protein and fiber-heavy carbs. So I try to keep it down, but others may like their fat higher.

Many of us just let the carbs fall where they may.

If you are carb cycling for an endurance sport, please say more, and some other endurance sport peeps may chime in.

I think you have this reversed, If one is active their protein needs are higher. Here are screenshots of the calculator you linked with my information with just activity level changed. It shows that if one is active and at a healthy weight, you should be shooting for around .8g-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight.

tomcustombuilder

Theoldguy1 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Fortunately, there's no need to hit all of your macros perfectly every day.

As sometimes we see people with unnecessarily high protein goals, before I offer you ways to increase your protein I'd like to know your goal and how far off you are from hitting it.

Here's a reputable protein calculator:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein grams recommendation from Examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

***************

I try to stay right around the default of 30% fat because it's easy for me to overeat fat, I don't find it especially filling, and want plenty of calories for protein and fiber-heavy carbs. So I try to keep it down, but others may like their fat higher.

Many of us just let the carbs fall where they may.

If you are carb cycling for an endurance sport, please say more, and some other endurance sport peeps may chime in.

I think you have this reversed, If one is active their protein needs are higher. Here are screenshots of the calculator you linked with my information with just activity level changed. It shows that if one is active and at a healthy weight, you should be shooting for around .8g-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight.

More active = more carbs

AnnPT77

Theoldguy1 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Fortunately, there's no need to hit all of your macros perfectly every day.

As sometimes we see people with unnecessarily high protein goals, before I offer you ways to increase your protein I'd like to know your goal and how far off you are from hitting it.

Here's a reputable protein calculator:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein grams recommendation from Examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

***************

I try to stay right around the default of 30% fat because it's easy for me to overeat fat, I don't find it especially filling, and want plenty of calories for protein and fiber-heavy carbs. So I try to keep it down, but others may like their fat higher.

Many of us just let the carbs fall where they may.

If you are carb cycling for an endurance sport, please say more, and some other endurance sport peeps may chime in.

I think you have this reversed, If one is active their protein needs are higher. Here are screenshots of the calculator you linked with my information with just activity level changed. It shows that if one is active and at a healthy weight, you should be shooting for around .8g-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight.

I think that's a misinterpretation of @kshama2001's post.

Using myself as an example, I'm an active person. I don't "protein cycle", i.e. I keep the same protein gram goal (minimum) every day. I get 1g protein per pound of estimated lean mass, which is consistent with Examine's recommendations although they arrive at the number differently.

Because I use the MFP method of adding/ eating exercise calories separately, that gram goal is a higher percent of my calories on a rest day than the same gram goal is on an active day.

The percents are different for me than kshama, but the point holds: She's saying her same protein gram goal is around 20% of exercise-day calories, 30% of rest-day calories, because of the 500 exercise calories on a active days.

Perhaps you're active every day, or eat more protein on active days, less on inactive ones? I don't vary my protein gram goal and I don't think kshama does either. Most of us have inactive or rest days now and then. I think kshama's pointing out that the percent method doesn't perfectly align with gram goals, even though the MFP very-mainstream default percent will be fine for some people and situations.

kshama2001

I was trying to explain how to get the examine protein grams to line up with MFP's %, but you're right @Theoldguy1 - if one is always sedentary there would be a lower protein gram number. (But the calories in MFP would also be lower, so you'd still need a slightly higher protein percentage to hit those grams. Now I'm going to have to reword my canned text

ETA: I just did the math, and using the sedentary grams goal I'd have to change the MFP percent goal to 27.5%, but with the free version you can only change in increments of 5%. (With Premium you can set grams goals.)

I'm going to change my sedentary canned text to "bump it up" and leave off a %.