hard time eating all my calories...

BigdaddyJ

I have a hard time eating all my daily calories, when I train I need to eat more nuts and pastas to fill my quota wich causes my proteins to go true the roof....

Help please!

stormieweather

Adjust your proteins up (carbs or fats down). MFP has a low threshold for protein, in my opinion.

DrBorkBork

Protein is good for you. It helps you feel full. MFP sets it REALLY low. I'm over on protein almost every day.

ltlhmom

Your body gets rid of the protein if you take in to much so I would worry to much about going over.

youngs

I have learn to try my best to get all or almost all of my calorie in I am not to worried about the protein I worry more about the calories, sugar, fat, sodium..You are doing great..just keep up the good work..belive me somedays i struggle to get my calories in..but i try my best cause I dont want my body to go into starvation...GOOD LUCK!!

kellygirl5538

Make sure you are not over estimating your exercise calories. Many people do this. An hour walk should not burn 1,000 calories!!

nolan_84

As males, we need more protein anyways due to having naturally higher muscle mass. Protein not only help maintain and build muscle, but it also speeds up your metabolism! You body has to work harder to break down the protein, causing this higher rate. I'm doing P90X, so you can imagine how much more protein and carbohydrates that I use and need. I adjusted my percentages to 40/30/30, Carbs/Protein/Fat & I still strive to get over my protein mark because I know what it does for me.

If you're not a vegetarian, fish, lean steak & skinless/boneless chicken breasts are packed with the protein we need. Also, whey protein from GNC or even from Wal-Mart is a good thing to add for more protein.

I'd focus on getting close to the calorie goal, going over the protein and under carbs by around 15 or 20 a day. This will cause your body to get to the body fat faster than it normally would... Hope this helps.

Mommy08

Don't worry much about your protein, that really isn't going to effect you negatively if you are over. Especially if you are working out hard, that is going to go and replenish the lean muscle tissue so it's goodl. MFP is really low on their daily proteins, I'm almost always around 30 grams over every day! What has helped me really get my weight moving down is to eat a BIG breakfast. I pack at least 1/3 to 3/8 of my daily calories in there. That way my body has the full day to work through that fuel. My trainer told me that and it has really worked. I've lost 3 pounds since last wednesday!

BigdaddyJ

Thanks for all the good advice!!, I will try to eat bigger breakfast!

BigdaddyJ

Bumping

SHBoss1673

fatboy, are your protein goals set at the MFP default? If so, it IS probably a little low, that being said, I'm not sure what the reason is that people like to just spout things they've heard on the internet, but let me clear up some myths about protein.

1) The body does NOT eliminate extra protein, it converts it to fat, just like it does with excess dietary fat, and carbohydrates, the process the body uses to convert protein takes longer, and it releases chemicals that need to be removed through the kidneys, which isn't really great for you, but this is usually only a problem for people with kidney problems or if you are ingesting extremely high volumes of protein (somewhere above 40% for extended periods).

2) Protein does NOT speed up the metabolism. Protein is broken down into core components (amino acids). These amino acids are then recombined to create the correct proteins needed for muscle repair, muscle building, and bone marrow building and repair.

3) Eating tons of protein won't make you build extra muscle. The body will build muscle when it recognizes a deficiency in an existing muscle, it will build only the minimum amount of muscle it requires to do any job. When you weight train (or do any anaerobic activity) you trigger the release of hormones that help the body build muscle (mainly the hormones testosterone and HGH, but many others as well), when the body has sufficient quantities of the right amino acids, the body will build muscle, extra amino acids that aren't used directly for this ARE NOT STORED, they are converted in the liver to fat, glucose, and ammonia (which is toxic but the body converts that to urea and you eliminate it).

4) All proteins are not the same, many plant proteins don't contain all the essential amino acids and need to be paired with other foods to complete the amino acids. While this isn't a very big deal for people who eat meat (meat has all the essential amino acids needed for muscle growth), vegetarians need to be aware of what types of protein they need, generally nuts need to be paired with legumes for amino acid completion (I.E. rice and beans). There are some exceptions to this though, like quinoa, and soy nuts.

BigdaddyJ

fatboy, are your protein goals set at the MFP default? If so, it IS probably a little low, that being said, I'm not sure what the reason is that people like to just spout things they've heard on the internet, but let me clear up some myths about protein.

1) The body does NOT eliminate extra protein, it converts it to fat, just like it does with excess dietary fat, and carbohydrates, the process the body uses to convert protein takes longer, and it releases chemicals that need to be removed through the kidneys, which isn't really great for you, but this is usually only a problem for people with kidney problems or if you are ingesting extremely high volumes of protein (somewhere above 40% for extended periods).

2) Protein does NOT speed up the metabolism. Protein is broken down into core components (amino acids). These amino acids are then recombined to create the correct proteins needed for muscle repair, muscle building, and bone marrow building and repair.

3) Eating tons of protein won't make you build extra muscle. The body will build muscle when it recognizes a deficiency in an existing muscle, it will build only the minimum amount of muscle it requires to do any job. When you weight train (or do any anaerobic activity) you trigger the release of hormones that help the body build muscle (mainly the hormones testosterone and HGH, but many others as well), when the body has sufficient quantities of the right amino acids, the body will build muscle, extra amino acids that aren't used directly for this ARE NOT STORED, they are converted in the liver to fat, glucose, and ammonia (which is toxic but the body converts that to urea and you eliminate it).

4) All proteins are not the same, many plant proteins don't contain all the essential amino acids and need to be paired with other foods to complete the amino acids. While this isn't a very big deal for people who eat meat (meat has all the essential amino acids needed for muscle growth), vegetarians need to be aware of what types of protein they need, generally nuts need to be paired with legumes for amino acid completion (I.E. rice and beans). There are some exceptions to this though, like quinoa, and soy nuts.

Banks!

if you have a minute, would you please take a look at my food diary and tell me how far I am off track.....this is all new to me! I used to eat more calories for breakfast than I do now in a whole day!! lol

SHBoss1673

Banks!

if you have a minute, would you please take a look at my food diary and tell me how far I am off track.....this is all new to me! I used to eat more calories for breakfast than I do now in a whole day!! lol

Sure, np, so it looks like you're at 66/18/16 for carbs/protein/fat

If you're doing any kind of exercise, IMHO that's not all that great. Personally, if you're doing 30 minutes a day or more at least 3 days a week, you should be at anywhere from 55/25/20 to 50/27/23 (that's carbs/protein/fat by the way).

mind you, it will take a little while for you to get used to 10 to 15% less carbs, so I would slowly change it over a few weeks. But that's what I would do. FYI you can change your goals by clicking on the goals section and choosing the custom option, it takes a few minutes to figure out how to tweak the macro nutrients, but once you get that, it should be easy. You probably don't need to change any of the other settings unless you want to specifically limit some other factor.

BigdaddyJ

thanks a bunch! I do train minimum 30 min a day (I'm on POWER90 and I do taekwondo) so i'll be looking into that!

JF

BigdaddyJ

Banks!

if you have a minute, would you please take a look at my food diary and tell me how far I am off track.....this is all new to me! I used to eat more calories for breakfast than I do now in a whole day!! lol

Sure, np, so it looks like you're at 66/18/16 for carbs/protein/fat

If you're doing any kind of exercise, IMHO that's not all that great. Personally, if you're doing 30 minutes a day or more at least 3 days a week, you should be at anywhere from 55/25/20 to 50/27/23 (that's carbs/protein/fat by the way).

mind you, it will take a little while for you to get used to 10 to 15% less carbs, so I would slowly change it over a few weeks. But that's what I would do. FYI you can change your goals by clicking on the goals section and choosing the custom option, it takes a few minutes to figure out how to tweak the macro nutrients, but once you get that, it should be easy. You probably don't need to change any of the other settings unless you want to specifically limit some other factor.

ok I looked into it, just to confirm, it's 55%/25%/20% right?

SHBoss1673

ok I looked into it, just to confirm, it's 55%/25%/20% right?

that's what I would do, there's some wiggle room, but IMHO 65/18/16 is not right for the average, healthy adult male that is working out at least a little.

BigdaddyJ

THX a lot, once again you make sense of it all for me