Can someone help me understand my macro goals better?

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chasetheman26
chasetheman26 Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition

I've been back to the gym for a month and a half after about a decade away. I started at 328 pounds and I'm down to 321 right now, my goals are to lose fat and build muscle. I downloaded this app to help me figure out how much protein I should be getting (a lot more than I thought). Now that I have the app though it's been really helpful helping me figure out what I should be eating. My only trouble is sometimes my macro goals seem unachievable. Like I'm pounding a second protein shake before bed to hit my protein goal and I'm still only halfway to my carb goal. The real trouble seems to come on gym days (every other day). After I logged my workout today my protein goal shot all the way up to 282g and my carb goal shot up to 704g. Is it ok to be that far under my carb goal on a gym day? Is that my calorie deficit to lose weight? How an I suppose to achieve that much protein without ripping through multiple protein shakes? Again I'm really new to macros and any information and help y'all could give me would be really appreciated.

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  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 2,027 Member

    Studies show you probably want around 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (Not including fat). Meaning your probably eating a lot more protein than you actually need to. Carbs and fat... just eat enough to meet your calorie needs.. you don't need to hit a minimum carb amount.

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,216 Member

    MFP calculates calorie goals based on a percentage of total calories, which okay for a lot of people, but present issues for people at the extremes of the spectrum. A very low calorie goal will give a protein goal that's too low and a high calorie goal will give a protein goal that's is unnecessarily high.

    I prefer this calculator for protein: https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

    Not eating all of your carb calories is fine, as long as you don't feel you lack energy throughout the day/ during your workouts.

    I do wonder about your calorie goal though, since you mention logging your workout and having a goal of nearly 300gr of protein and 700gr of carbs. Not counting fat, that's already a calorie goal of 4000, which sounds very high.

    Just to make sure:

    • what is your base calorie goal (before workout)?
    • what is the rate of loss you selected in the settings?
    • how many extra calories for your workout and what does that workout consist of?
    • age and height? I'm presuming you're male?

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