Question about Macro Nutrients and Micro Nutrients

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kmash32
kmash32 Posts: 275 Member
in Food and Nutrition
One quick question about each. So my macro's are sent to 40 Carb 40 Fat and 20 Protein. Is the goal to hit these targets? Does it matter if you go over? The reason I am asking is that invariably almost everyday I am a little over on my protein and a little under in my fat (which I am working on) and I am just wondering if being over on the protein is an issue?

Also on the micro nutrient side I am always under on my iron and potassium and am wonder if anyone has any ideas as to what I can eat. I know bananas are good for potassium but I have to be careful there because of the sugar as I have PCOS and insulin resistance.

Thanks

Replies

  • norcalskater
    norcalskater Posts: 194 Member
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    Going over on the protein is fine. It's actually good because MFP gives most of us too low of a number for protein. Coffee has potassium, potatos, white beans, salmon, yogurt and many other foods. Run a google search and you can get a list if those don't work for you.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    Going over on protein and fat is a good thing
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    It goes back to why you set your macros as they are (since they aren't the default). Mine are 30-35-35, and I set my protein because I want to reach a particular level, and don't mind if I go over, but that's also based on total grams, not percentage. Thus, if I hit my minimum calories, it's important to me to hit my protein to make my gram goal. But if I end up with 500 extra calories from exercise, I don't care so much about the ratio of the extra calories I eat, so long as I hit my minimum.

    Similarly, there's a minimum fat number I'd like to meet, but I pretty much always do without thinking about it (since a lot of the protein I eat has fat too), so I don't actually worry about it. In theory, my carbs is more of a max (at my minimum calories I tend to feel better and fuller if the carbs are around 100 or a little less), but again as long as I hit my protein I don't much worry about it, especially when it's a matter of extra calories and when I exercise a lot and feel like I need extra calories for that reason, I tend to add in more carbs than my macros would necessarily demand.

    So that's a long winded way to say that it depends on why you picked those numbers. At 20% protein I'd assume that it IS important to hit your protein number, that it's more of a minimum.

    For what it's worth after doing it for a while I started coming close to the macros more often than not without thinking about it too much.

    Edit to add: potassium gets undercounted because it's not always on the nutrition information. Sweet potatoes have a bunch, and actually so do a lot of foods besides bananas. There's a somewhat recent thread or two on potassium if you want to search--I just don't remember all the good foods.

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