Carbs or Fat for Lifting?
breefoshee
Posts: 398 Member
Last week, I started Stronglifts and I felt like I was starving and kind of weak/tired the whole week. I ended up eating not so great this weekend and not logging AND I pretty much over ate the whole week. I'm attempting to lose 2lbs per week, as I am 100lbs overweight. I eat about 1500 calories a day, (I save some calories for the weekends) I use a Fitbit and based on my losses it seems to be accurate.
I've set up my Macros from the "How to Set up Your Macros Thread" and my suggested Macros=
145g protein
82g fat (that's .35 x 235)
38g carbs (that's just what I have left over after protein and fat)
After lifting last week, I could tell that I really needed more carbs, I even ended up eating about 200 calories over with more carbs. All I wanted to do is sleep... but I'm unsure what my carb intake should look like-- or if it's just like this because its my first week lifting and I should just suck it up.
When you're at such a high body fat, do you still have to eat so much fat? Or can you eat high carbs/protein and low fat and still get good results??
I've set up my Macros from the "How to Set up Your Macros Thread" and my suggested Macros=
145g protein
82g fat (that's .35 x 235)
38g carbs (that's just what I have left over after protein and fat)
After lifting last week, I could tell that I really needed more carbs, I even ended up eating about 200 calories over with more carbs. All I wanted to do is sleep... but I'm unsure what my carb intake should look like-- or if it's just like this because its my first week lifting and I should just suck it up.
When you're at such a high body fat, do you still have to eat so much fat? Or can you eat high carbs/protein and low fat and still get good results??
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Replies
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Last week, I started Stronglifts and I felt like I was starving and kind of weak/tired the whole week. I ended up eating not so great this weekend and not logging AND I pretty much over ate the whole week. I'm attempting to lose 2lbs per week, as I am 100lbs overweight. I eat about 1500 calories a day, (I save some calories for the weekends) I use a Fitbit and based on my losses it seems to be accurate.
I've set up my Macros from the "How to Set up Your Macros Thread" and my suggested Macros=
145g protein
82g fat (that's .35 x 235)
38g carbs (that's just what I have left over after protein and fat)
After lifting last week, I could tell that I really needed more carbs, I even ended up eating about 200 calories over with more carbs. All I wanted to do is sleep... but I'm unsure what my carb intake should look like-- or if it's just like this because its my first week lifting and I should just suck it up.
When you're at such a high body fat, do you still have to eat so much fat? Or can you eat high carbs/protein and low fat and still get good results??
Well at your weight, you can likely eat a lot more than 1500 cals and lose comfortably, which would allow you to bump up your carb intake. Also you could lower your fats a bit in favor of carbs so your workouts don't suffer0 -
I'd check out the sexypants thread as well (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants&page=9#posts-20472751_
... at your weight, you likely should be eating more than 1500 (dead serious). I'm 150 and have 15 more to lose and I eat ~1600 plus most of my exercise cals. Your carbs seem quite low, although you did mention that it was the leftover. Everyone's macros are different, did you calculate your protein based on LBM?0 -
38g is pushing ketogenic levels of low carb. Unless that's your goal, I'd lower your fat intake and add carbs. 145g protein is likely a bit more than you need but likely wont hurt.0
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Looking at one of your last comments - I just wanted to add...body fat and dietary fat are not the same thing. You don't have to go super low fat in eating to lose body fat.0
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I'd check out the sexypants thread as well (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants&page=9#posts-20472751_
... at your weight, you likely should be eating more than 1500 (dead serious). I'm 150 and have 15 more to lose and I eat ~1600 plus most of my exercise cals. Your carbs seem quite low, although you did mention that it was the leftover. Everyone's macros are different, did you calculate your protein based on LBM?
I've read the thread, thanks. I use my fitbit to calculate my TDEE-- like I said based on my weight loss every week-- it seems to be accurate. I burn about 2500 calories a day ( I have an office job, and I don't do that much afterwards)... and then subtract 1000 from that to lose 2lbs a week (which the sexypants said was okay with the amount I need to lose)... Anything extra that I burn I just add to my weekend calories because I normally eat a little more on the weekends.
I calculated my protein based on LBM.0 -
Looking at one of your last comments - I just wanted to add...body fat and dietary fat are not the same thing. You don't have to go super low fat in eating to lose body fat.
Yea, my last comment was kinda weird. I said that because the fat suggestion is .35g per body weight. For a person who is 145lbs that would only be 50 grams of fat per day.... which would give them a lot more carbs to eat... but because I weigh 235, its 82 grams of fat a day. I'm not worried about if eating fat will make me fat... I want to know if I can lower my fat so I can eat more carbs without messing up bodily functions or composition.0 -
I'd check out the sexypants thread as well (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants&page=9#posts-20472751_
... at your weight, you likely should be eating more than 1500 (dead serious). I'm 150 and have 15 more to lose and I eat ~1600 plus most of my exercise cals. Your carbs seem quite low, although you did mention that it was the leftover. Everyone's macros are different, did you calculate your protein based on LBM?
I've read the thread, thanks. I use my fitbit to calculate my TDEE-- like I said based on my weight loss every week-- it seems to be accurate. I burn about 2500 calories a day ( I have an office job, and I don't do that much afterwards)... and then subtract 1000 from that to lose 2lbs a week (which the sexypants said was okay with the amount I need to lose)... Anything extra that I burn I just add to my weekend calories because I normally eat a little more on the weekends.
I calculated my protein based on LBM.
I believe that thread advises taking a percent reduction from tdee and not taking a flat reduction such as tdee-1000.0 -
This content has been removed.
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I'd check out the sexypants thread as well (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants&page=9#posts-20472751_
... at your weight, you likely should be eating more than 1500 (dead serious). I'm 150 and have 15 more to lose and I eat ~1600 plus most of my exercise cals. Your carbs seem quite low, although you did mention that it was the leftover. Everyone's macros are different, did you calculate your protein based on LBM?
I've read the thread, thanks. I use my fitbit to calculate my TDEE-- like I said based on my weight loss every week-- it seems to be accurate. I burn about 2500 calories a day ( I have an office job, and I don't do that much afterwards)... and then subtract 1000 from that to lose 2lbs a week (which the sexypants said was okay with the amount I need to lose)... Anything extra that I burn I just add to my weekend calories because I normally eat a little more on the weekends.
I calculated my protein based on LBM.
I believe that thread advises taking a percent reduction from tdee and not taking a flat reduction such as tdee-1000.
"If you choose to use MFP's default setting rather than a TDEE method, it's important to set realistic weight loss targets based on your current bodyweight. I think .5 to 1% bodyweight per week is a good general recommendation for most people. "
1% of my current body weight is 2.35lb a week. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I thought that if I aimed for 1% of weight loss a week (which I'm actually going for 2lbs instead of the 2.35lbs) and did the math by subtracting 2lbs (7000 calories) from my TDEE then that would be my loss. If my TDEE is 2500 and I subtract 20% from it, then I would eat 2000 calories a day and lose only 1lb a week.
Correct me if I'm wrong, for sure, you wrote the thread and know way more... but this is how I got my numbers.0 -
What is your height and age?0
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What is your height and age?
5'6 and 270 -
Well I was close....I had you at 26What is your height and age?
5'6 and 27
I would go for 1900 calories....
do your protein like you have now, which works out to about 0.6 gr / pound of body weight
You can keep fat at .35 gr, but I might would lower him if you want more carbs.....I do about 70gr / day
carbs will be the rest at 149 gr.
So
Protein == 141g / day
fats == 82 g / day @ 0.35
carbs == 149 g / day
puts you around 1900 cals for the day
If you did fat at 0.30
Protein == 141 g / day
fats == 71 g / day
carbs == 175 g / day0 -
Unless 2 lbs / week is unsustainable, I'd set that as your goal. You can slow it down as you get closer to your goal weight but I'd be aggressive at first with 100 lbs to lose. There's not really a compelling reason to be super conservative with your deficit unless you lack adherence to the more aggressive deficit.0
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Looking at one of your last comments - I just wanted to add...body fat and dietary fat are not the same thing. You don't have to go super low fat in eating to lose body fat.
Yea, my last comment was kinda weird. I said that because the fat suggestion is .35g per body weight. For a person who is 145lbs that would only be 50 grams of fat per day.... which would give them a lot more carbs to eat... but because I weigh 235, its 82 grams of fat a day. I'm not worried about if eating fat will make me fat... I want to know if I can lower my fat so I can eat more carbs without messing up bodily functions or composition.
The answer is yes you can eat more carbs. I feel better eating more carbs. I've tried everything. Carbs give me energy and make me feel good. But, too many, and I feel like crap. It's a delicate balance. Macros are super important, and not everyone feels the same at the same amounts. Use the recommended amounts, and if that's not working, make small changes, one at a time, slowly. Make small adjustments and see how that makes you feel.
I find that I perform better if I eat carbs before a workout. then, I follow-up with lots of protein throughout the day.
Thanks, I think I'll try this. I'm the same way, not enough carbs and I feel dead... too many carbs and I feel kinda sick. I tend to go to either extreme, so balance is definitely needed.0 -
Only a handful of people on this site actually know what they are talking about SideSteel and MityMax86 just happen to be two of them! Go with the advice they give and stick to it and you will be on the right track!0
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Mitymax's numbers are good. I'd use that and adjust as weight comes off.0
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Well I was close....I had you at 26What is your height and age?
5'6 and 27
I would go for 1900 calories....
do your protein like you have now, which works out to about 0.6 gr / pound of body weight
You can keep fat at .35 gr, but I might would lower him if you want more carbs.....I do about 70gr / day
carbs will be the rest at 149 gr.
So
Protein == 141g / day
fats == 82 g / day @ 0.35
carbs == 149 g / day
puts you around 1900 cals for the day
If you did fat at 0.30
Protein == 141 g / day
fats == 71 g / day
carbs == 175 g / day
Hmmm.. since the general consensus here is that I up my calories, (and I love the foodz) I'll give it a try for a few weeks and see what the scale says. Should I not aim for the 2lbs a week? All of the advice that I have gotten here has said that at my weight, I should aim for that..0 -
I'd check out the sexypants thread as well (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants&page=9#posts-20472751_
... at your weight, you likely should be eating more than 1500 (dead serious). I'm 150 and have 15 more to lose and I eat ~1600 plus most of my exercise cals. Your carbs seem quite low, although you did mention that it was the leftover. Everyone's macros are different, did you calculate your protein based on LBM?
I've read the thread, thanks. I use my fitbit to calculate my TDEE-- like I said based on my weight loss every week-- it seems to be accurate. I burn about 2500 calories a day ( I have an office job, and I don't do that much afterwards)... and then subtract 1000 from that to lose 2lbs a week (which the sexypants said was okay with the amount I need to lose)... Anything extra that I burn I just add to my weekend calories because I normally eat a little more on the weekends.
I calculated my protein based on LBM.
I believe that thread advises taking a percent reduction from tdee and not taking a flat reduction such as tdee-1000.
"If you choose to use MFP's default setting rather than a TDEE method, it's important to set realistic weight loss targets based on your current bodyweight. I think .5 to 1% bodyweight per week is a good general recommendation for most people. "
1% of my current body weight is 2.35lb a week. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but I thought that if I aimed for 1% of weight loss a week (which I'm actually going for 2lbs instead of the 2.35lbs) and did the math by subtracting 2lbs (7000 calories) from my TDEE then that would be my loss. If my TDEE is 2500 and I subtract 20% from it, then I would eat 2000 calories a day and lose only 1lb a week.
Correct me if I'm wrong, for sure, you wrote the thread and know way more... but this is how I got my numbers.
First of all I see your logic with what you're doing and we intend to revisit and rewrite a few things in the calorie and macronutrient recommendation thread to attempt to provide more detail and context.
In my opinion I would rather see someone take their TDEE and eat a percentage reduction from it, observe where their weight loss ends up, observe how they feel, and then make adjustments to their intake based on all of those results, as needed.
So for example rather than saying "I want to lose 2lbs/week so I will deduct 1000 calories from my TDEE" I think a more realistic approach would be to set your intake to a percentage of TDEE and see what the results are and how you feel and adhere and perform while achieving those results.
While the figure of 500 cals/lb is often used as a figure to illustrate the math, in real world applications I don't think it works out neat and clean like a math problem. For example I've seen cases where minor reductions are made to a macronutrient (bringing calories down only slightly) and weight loss starts at a pace far beyond what would be predicted by the 500cal/lb rule. There's all kinds of complications with fluid intake, estimation errors with intake and expenditure, and basically when your weight changes it is not changing because of changes in only fat mass. When you step on the scale it simply tells you differences in weight that are not tissue specific.
We also specifically make mention in the thread that people of higher bf% can go lower in protein/fat. The addition we will likely make to the thread itself will be to cover in more detail how to handle scenarios like this because "lower" doesn't really tell you how low you can go.
Suffice it to say that it's likely that you can bring fats down and carbs up.
It's also likely that you can lose at a reasonable pace at an intake higher than 1500 HOWEVER that massively depends on your tracking accuracy and food scale usage because we often eat more than we think, and above all else you must use your results to determine whether or not adjustments need to be made.0 -
Well I was close....I had you at 26What is your height and age?
5'6 and 27
I would go for 1900 calories....
do your protein like you have now, which works out to about 0.6 gr / pound of body weight
You can keep fat at .35 gr, but I might would lower him if you want more carbs.....I do about 70gr / day
carbs will be the rest at 149 gr.
So
Protein == 141g / day
fats == 82 g / day @ 0.35
carbs == 149 g / day
puts you around 1900 cals for the day
If you did fat at 0.30
Protein == 141 g / day
fats == 71 g / day
carbs == 175 g / day
Hmmm.. since the general consensus here is that I up my calories, (and I love the foodz) I'll give it a try for a few weeks and see what the scale says. Should I not aim for the 2lbs a week? All of the advice that I have gotten here has said that at my weight, I should aim for that..
You probably haven't seen my reply yet so I'm repeating myself but basically I would set your intake, evaluate your progress, performance, and how you feel, and make minor adjustments based on that.
2lbs/week COULD be perfectly sustainable and reasonable for you. It could also make you miserable.
Monitor as you go and make adjustments as needed.
EDIT: Right NOW I have no idea what your rate of weight loss is. We DO know that you are not feeling great on this intake, and based on the available information I would first suggest that it's carbohydrate related and it could ALSO be calorie intake related. And you can change this by doing some combination of either adding some calories into carbohydrate, reducing fat in exchange for carbohydrate, or a combination of both.0 -
Well I was close....I had you at 26What is your height and age?
5'6 and 27
I would go for 1900 calories....
do your protein like you have now, which works out to about 0.6 gr / pound of body weight
You can keep fat at .35 gr, but I might would lower him if you want more carbs.....I do about 70gr / day
carbs will be the rest at 149 gr.
So
Protein == 141g / day
fats == 82 g / day @ 0.35
carbs == 149 g / day
puts you around 1900 cals for the day
If you did fat at 0.30
Protein == 141 g / day
fats == 71 g / day
carbs == 175 g / day
Hmmm.. since the general consensus here is that I up my calories, (and I love the foodz) I'll give it a try for a few weeks and see what the scale says. Should I not aim for the 2lbs a week? All of the advice that I have gotten here has said that at my weight, I should aim for that..
You want to be able to do something that you can do over the long run
I mean you are trying to lose 100 lbs
So staying at 1500 cals you said is driving you crazy as is now....cause of low carbs.
That is a red light to me, that about 2 months down the road, you are gonna crash, burn and binge.
So do 1900 calories.
Track things for 4 weeks
Re-evaluate your numbers after 4 weeks
Track/weigh/log anything you put in your mouth
Data, data, data0 -
Thanks@ Sidesteel and MityMax... that makes a lot of sense. I'll make these adjustments and see how it goes. I probably would be more active and less tired if I bumped up the calories and adjusted my fats/carb intake. I've been going to bed really early (sometimes at like 7) but I just thought it was because of my new workout routine/carb intake. Thanks for pointing this out to me-- I really hadn't even thought about that.0
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I'd check out the sexypants thread as well (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=sexypants&page=9#posts-20472751_
... at your weight, you likely should be eating more than 1500 (dead serious). I'm 150 and have 15 more to lose and I eat ~1600 plus most of my exercise cals. Your carbs seem quite low, although you did mention that it was the leftover. Everyone's macros are different, did you calculate your protein based on LBM?
I've read the thread, thanks. I use my fitbit to calculate my TDEE-- like I said based on my weight loss every week-- it seems to be accurate. I burn about 2500 calories a day ( I have an office job, and I don't do that much afterwards)... and then subtract 1000 from that to lose 2lbs a week (which the sexypants said was okay with the amount I need to lose)... Anything extra that I burn I just add to my weekend calories because I normally eat a little more on the weekends.
I calculated my protein based on LBM.
Calculate your fat based on LBM as well. And if you burn 2500 calories, then you subtract 20%, not 1000 calories. You are currently eating at a 40% deficit from your maintenance needs and this is considered quite dangerous and will likely result in poorer maintenance once you reach goal weight.
ETA: my maintenance is ~2500-2600 and I eat 2000-2100 for fat loss (much closer to 2100). I would not recommend 1900 simply based on my experience eating below 2000, and 1900 is greater than a 20% deficit. At a minimum, 2000 is a good starting point.0
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