Confusing Macros

jumper2946

Hi all, I'm a 58 year old female and need to lose 50 pounds. I saw a dietitian last week and he said I need 73-80 grams of protein and 90-135 grams of carbs. Those were his only instructions. I tried putting those numbers into the macro section of the app but it's for net carbs. Any suggestions on what my carbs, protein, and fat numbers or percentages should be? Thank for any help!

cmriverside

I think the dietician was most likely giving you a ballpark number.

Just use the Goals setup here, set it for "Lose 1 pound per week" and see how close you are to your recommendation. It doesn't have to be exactly what the dietician said. For instance, I lost 80 pounds at age 55 and I used the default macros in the setup which just use a percentage of calories. Sometimes I was close on macros, but not always. Don't stress out about the "net" carbs. Just aim for whole fruits and vegetables (not juices) and if you eat grains, shoot for whole grains.

I'm sure someone else will come along with a page-long explanation... but here are some good sensible guides to read:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1

https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-the-dietitian-whats-the-best-carb-protein-and-fat-breakdown-for-weight-loss/

AnnPT77

Are you saying the app is net carbs, or the number he gave you is net carbs?

I'm surprised he didn't give you guidance on fats (since fats are an essential nutrient!)

Here's a way to look at it, given only what you have:

Protein and carbs have about 4 calories per gram. Fats have about 9 calories per gram. (For completeness, alcohol has about 7 calories per gram, and it isn't protein, fats, or carbs.)

So, I'm multiplying your protein and carb gram numbers by 4 calories.

73g of protein would be about 292 calories
80g of protein would be about 320 calories

90g of carbs would be about 360 calories
135g of carbs would be about 540 calories

Let's say you want to be at the higher level of both protein and carbs. That would represent 540 calories of carbs, and 320 calories of protein, for a total of 860 calories to hit those levels.

The rest of your calories could be spent on fats (you need some!), or more protein, or more fats, or a combination.

I don't know your calorie goal, but that's important here. To go on with the example, I'll use my base calorie goal, 1850, just to show the thought process (even though those aren't my macro goals ).

So, with 1850 calories in play, and about 860 calories used up to get the protein and carbs, I'd have 1850 minus 860, or 990 calories left. If I used that all to eat fats, that would be 110g of fats.

Obviously, if your calorie goal is different, the fats estimate there would be different. Personally, I think it's good for us women to get a minimum of 0.35-0.45g of fat daily per pound of body weight (goal bodyweight, or some intermediate weight, can be used if currently substantially overweight).

If you have premium MFP, you can set your macro goals in grams. (I do that, and send all my exercise calories to the carbs category, because I don't really pay much attention to carbs, just my protein & fats minimums; I use carbs to balance calories.)

I'm still confused about whether you do/don't want your carb numbers to be net carbs, but there's also a setting in premium MFP to estimate net carbs (for those of us in the US).

If you have free MFP, you can only set macro goals in percents, and the percents can only be even 5% increments. Here is an example of that, still using my base calories since I don't know yours:

80g of protein so 320 calories would be 1850 divided by 320 calories so 0.1729 or about 17% protein. If it were me, I'd round up to 20%.

135g of carbs so 540 calories would be 1850 divided by 540 calories so 0.2918 or about 29% carbs. If it were me, I'd round up to 30%.

So, that's used up 50% of my calories. I could set fats to 50%, or set fats to some level I thought was right (you could ask your trainer), and put any extra percents into whatever bucket seemed to make sense. For me, 50% fats would be more than needed, but you may have a lower calorie goal and that percent would be something more reasonable for you. I'm just trying to show the arithmetic.

Just for personal transparency: I'm 5'5", female, mid-130s pounds, age 68, lost around 50 pounds at age 59-60, maintaining a healthy weight since. Because of personal details, I target 100g minimum protein (usually exceed it), 50g minimum fats (often have to pay attention to get there, which isn't most people's experience), and - like I said - don't care about carbs, but it's usually over 200g. I eat back exercise calories on top of my base calories, so usually eating 2100 or so. I have premium, so set my goals in grams rather than percents.

If this isn't clear, or you need more info, please ask more questions and I'll try to help.

Best wishes!