Help with macros

carlom18

Hi!

So I've been in this health/ fitness "game" for quiet a while now. My initial goal was to drop weight as i was 90kg + while only being 5' 10". I'm now 73 - 75kg now (been a while since i checked it at 75kg) and now I want to change my goal around a little bit. I am now 15% body fat (may be a bit lower since last time I checked) and I want to drop this to about 10% and gain some lean muscle. Now before I was just losing weight from keeping my calories in check, but now I want to take it to the next level and start eating the correct proportion of macro-nutrients. I have gone for a low carb split at 25% carbs, 40% protein and 35% fat. At a 2100 calorie deficit this is 130g of carbs, 208g of protein and 81g of fat. Now my main issue with this after experimenting with it for 3 weeks is that I am finding it hard to NOT go over my carbs, while also finding it difficult on some days to reach my protein and sometimes, my fats.

My question is: Do I stick with this macro split and calorie deficit, or do I change it up a little bit?
:frown:

bathsheba_c

Why so few carbs?

carlom18

I've been told its better for fat loss so I could get to 10% BF, but its a struggle to stay under. Should I change my ratios?

jacksonpt

You've gotta find what you can sustain. What you do over a week or a month doesn't matter if you can't sustain it. So look at things and be honest with yourself... if you are legitimately having a hard time hitting those goals, then change them.

At the end of the day, fat and protein are going to be the most important macros for body comp goals. Make sure you are hitting those, and let everything else fall where it may. .3-.5g of fat per lb of body weight... 1g protein per lb of body weigh should be a good starting point.

You're not far off from where I am (100g fat, 100g carbs, 200g protein), but that's probably a bit more "severe" than is necessary. 100g of carbs is pretty low, and 200g of protein is pretty high... probably wouldn't hurt my overall progress to change them, but that's where I'm at right now.

carlom18

Thanks!

I recalculated it and have come up with 182g of carbs, 182g of protein and 65g of fat (35%/ 35%/ 30%) which looks a lot more manageable. Shall give this a try. Btw, does it matter if you go over one of your macros by a small amount?

monty619

lower the fat, keep carbs higher.

Firefox7275

If you want to go low carb, you need to eat way more non starchy vegetables and low sugar fruits and quit things like pasta, chick peas, bananas, apples, cookies, oats all of which are healthy but carb dense. Instead eat any berries, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, celery, mushrooms, tomato, red or green cabbage, bell peppers, carrots, beansprouts, aubergines (eggplant), avocado.

Whilst leafy salads are healthy and low carb, they are quite bulky so you may feel like you are eating your nine portions without coming close. Also don't eat the same fruit/ vegetable twice in one day, it only counts once towards the recommended intake so you are eating well under five servings of fruit and veg most days.

One banana = 27g carbs. For the same you could have 80-100g servings of: raspberries (5g), blueberries (6g), spinach (0g), broccoli (1g), mushrooms (0g), yellow bell pepper (4g), carrot (5g), aubergine (2g), canned tomatoes (3g). And you have two servings each of the colour groups red, orange/ yellow, dark green, blue/ purple so a good selection of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Great low carb sources of protein and fats, and foods you should be eating regularly for health, are oily fish (salmon, trout, herring, pilchards/ sardines, mackerel) and all nuts or seeds. If you eat nuts, seeds or the bones in canned oily fish you get minerals to replace those in the wholegrains and pulses you are cutting back on.

carlom18

I'll take note of this for the future, atm, I'll try out my new macros and see the results from those. Thanks!

Firefox7275

By all means do so, but still eat nine servings of fruits and vegetables, plus oily fish several times a week for the essential nutrients they supply. Your needs for every nutrient can easily be doubled with a regular exercise regime at moderate to high intensity. Fat loss goals should never trump basic healthy eating.