Setting Your Calorie and Macro Targets
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Hello! I'm excited to have found this group. Here's my fitness profile - I would love your feedback on whether or not my macro calculations seem a bit wacky. I got them using the IIFYM calculator here: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/. I've used the calculator because I am pretty bad at numbers.
Weight: 229
Height: 5'6"
Sex: Female
Age: 30
Goals: Weight loss and muscle gain
Exercise: I was a dancer for about 2 decades. I still go out dancing from time to time, but not nearly as much as I used to. I lift weights. Right now I am going for strength training every day of the week, even if it's just a few bodyweight sets.
Gym access: Yes - for about 30-45 mins a day
Those are the basics. I want to check in with some other folks who might have experience with IIFYM, and if you've been 200+ lbs and tried IIFYM and gotten results from this split. It seems a bit extreme to me, but again, I'm new to IIFYM.
I input the following into the IIFYM calculator:
Step 1: Female 30 years 5 foot 6 inches 229 lbs
Formula: Mifflin-St Jeor Exercise Level: 5 times/week I am unsure of my body fat %
Step 2: Fat Loss: Agressive (20%)
Step 3: IIFYM plan, leaving protein at 1 gram per lb. of body weight, fat at .4 per lb. of body weight and carbs being the left over
Calculations:
Grams per day: Carbs: 53.6 Protein: 229 Fat: 91.6
That is about a Carb 10% / Protein 45% / Fat 45% split
Is this crazy? Or is this calculator off? Or is this accurate? I can achieve this split - I have been doing so for a few days now.
Thank you for your help. I have tried to calculate this a few times but am still coming up confused.0 -
Hello! I'm excited to have found this group. Here's my fitness profile - I would love your feedback on whether or not my macro calculations seem a bit wacky. I got them using the IIFYM calculator here: http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/. I've used the calculator because I am pretty bad at numbers.
Weight: 229
Height: 5'6"
Sex: Female
Age: 30
Goals: Weight loss and muscle gain
Exercise: I was a dancer for about 2 decades. I still go out dancing from time to time, but not nearly as much as I used to. I lift weights. Right now I am going for strength training every day of the week, even if it's just a few bodyweight sets.
Gym access: Yes - for about 30-45 mins a day
Those are the basics. I want to check in with some other folks who might have experience with IIFYM, and if you've been 200+ lbs and tried IIFYM and gotten results from this split. It seems a bit extreme to me, but again, I'm new to IIFYM.
I input the following into the IIFYM calculator:
Step 1: Female 30 years 5 foot 6 inches 229 lbs
Formula: Mifflin-St Jeor Exercise Level: 5 times/week I am unsure of my body fat %
Step 2: Fat Loss: Agressive (20%)
Step 3: IIFYM plan, leaving protein at 1 gram per lb. of body weight, fat at .4 per lb. of body weight and carbs being the left over
Calculations:
Grams per day: Carbs: 53.6 Protein: 229 Fat: 91.6
That is about a Carb 10% / Protein 45% / Fat 45% split
Is this crazy? Or is this calculator off? Or is this accurate? I can achieve this split - I have been doing so for a few days now.
Thank you for your help. I have tried to calculate this a few times but am still coming up confused.
As you have quite a bit of weigh to lose, the fat grams will not work out to make sense as a whole. Your stats are in the category that I note that will need to be lower than 0.35g per lb bw.
The protein target is too high - you should be using LBM and not total body weight. As you do not know it, and you are my height, I am going to suggest that you set it a little above my LBM.
From your numbers, the total calories you give are about 1,960, which seems reasonable.
I would set your macros at:
Protein: 130g
Fats: 80g
Carbs: 180g
Weigh everything where possible, log everying, and see where you are in 4 weeks. If you are not seeing the trend that you would expect, then you can tweak. Carbs would be the variable.0 -
I am so confused right now, please help!
I'm female, age 49, current weight is 144kg (317lbs) and height 164cm (5'5.5")
Used www.exrx.net to calculate BMR (2092) and TDEE (2615). No exercise, as such, was included in this calculation, as I'm not currently doing any. But I want to start training - both strength & cardio.
1) I have a lot of fat/weight to lose, so would a 30% deficit be OK? If so then I should essentially be eating 70% of my TDEE? Have I got that right? And then if I do additional exercise on any given day, I can/should eat back 70% of the calories burned too? Or 100%? Or 0%?
2.) My second question is about macros. I read you suggest protein at 1g/lb of LBM. How do I calculate that? Have tried various methods and calculators using a measuring tape (all I have available to me) and got BF% ranging from 46% to 74%... do I just split the difference and say 60%? This would give me a minimum of 58g protein.
And fat? 0.35g/lb of total body weight would give me 111g of fat, which I should maybe reduce a bit.
Most carbs (excluding veggies) are trigger foods for me, so I like the idea of keeping carbs to a minimum.
Playing with the numbers, trying to work things out, I got even more confused!
If I keep my fat grams to the minimum 111g, keep my carbs to a maximum of 100g, and increase my protein grams to whatever they need to be (to eat the right number of calories), then would that work?
Please tell me if I have completely lost the plot! I feel like I'm making some sense (to me, anyway), but I could quite conceivably have got it all wrong!
Any advice would be much appreciated,
Regards, Mandy
What activity setting did you chose?
I will respond to the macro questions when we have your TDEE figured out as its a bit of a play with numbers (or macros) to get to your intake level.0 -
Thank you very, very kindly. I thought it seemed off!
Best,
-Netta0 -
Thank you very, very kindly. I thought it seemed off!
Best,
-Netta
You are very welcome. If you need additional input, feel free to start a thread and myself and SideSteel can try to help.0 -
I set my activity level as sedentary, which is what it currently is.0
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I should also mention that I had weight loss surgery about 13 years ago which never worked (in regards to weight loss), but did leave me with a few issues. Vomiting frequently being the biggest one. I have managed to work around this by consuming a relatively large amount of good fats in my diet and keeping the carbs low (this is how I have managed to lose weight recently). It seems the high fat content allows the food to go down and stay down, for some reason. Can this be taken into account when calculating my macros?0
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wow good info0
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I should also mention that I had weight loss surgery about 13 years ago which never worked (in regards to weight loss), but did leave me with a few issues. Vomiting frequently being the biggest one. I have managed to work around this by consuming a relatively large amount of good fats in my diet and keeping the carbs low (this is how I have managed to lose weight recently). It seems the high fat content allows the food to go down and stay down, for some reason. Can this be taken into account when calculating my macros?
Absolutely.
I will give you some suggested macros tomorrow.0 -
Sara or Sidesteel...
Do you have a preferred method of calculating calories? I read your initial post and was very confused. I am beginning my workouts this week (INSANITY workouts), and am not sure exaclt how to calculate what is needed.
I would love assistance. Previouls, Sidesteel helped me a LOT (early 2013) unfortunatly some life events made it not possible to follow (health issues)..
I would love a woman's input as well, however, he is AMAZING support and a wealth of knowledge. Thank you for creating this group. I know to come here for the straight truths..no sugar coating.0 -
Another great post. Hope that the 1200 cal noobs read this.0
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Bump0
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I'm wondering if I should put these posts of mine in a separate thread? I read (after I had already posted) that this is the way to go to get your questions answered.
I'm afraid in a large thread like this that my query may get lost or forgotten and I don't want to keep bumping. Seems like nagging :-(0 -
I'm wondering if I should put these posts of mine in a separate thread? I read (after I had already posted) that this is the way to go to get your questions answered.
I'm afraid in a large thread like this that my query may get lost or forgotten and I don't want to keep bumping. Seems like nagging :-(
Hi!
A separate thread would be easier to track, especially if there are follow up questions. As you say, this is a large thread and things can easily be missed.
Thanks0 -
Have created my own thread, so anything written herecan be disregarded. Thanks0
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Sooooo lost.... but I'll figure it out after awhile. Tagging to read again when I have learned the lingo. :huh: 0
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Sara and/or SS, I joined this group a while ago and have been lurking in the posts... But I wanted to make sure I got my calculations correct.
I just weighed myself at 178 pounds and estimated my bodyfat, since I have had it measured previously, at around 40%... I am using the calorie deficit target 1600.
Anyway when I calculated out my protein and my fat it came out as 27% and 35% respectively. Does the fat percentage seem too high?
Protein: 1x178x0.6=106gx4cal=427.2/1600=27%
Fat: 0.35x178=62.3x9=560/1600=35%0 -
Sara and/or SS, I joined this group a while ago and have been lurking in the posts... But I wanted to make sure I got my calculations correct.
I just weighed myself at 178 pounds and estimated my bodyfat, since I have had it measured previously, at around 40%... I am using the calorie deficit target 1600.
Anyway when I calculated out my protein and my fat it came out as 27% and 35% respectively. Does the fat percentage seem too high?
Protein: 1x178x0.6=106gx4cal=427.2/1600=27%
Fat: 0.35x178=62.3x9=560/1600=35%
Even easier than that.
Figure out the grams for protein and fat as the OP says.
Go in to your settings to manually setup your macros - your grams is displayed right there, the % shown is based on the net eating goal you've entered.
Enter 1600 if that is the eating level.
Change the protein and fat goals to hit the grams, or above, you need, and carbs will fill in the rest.
Now you know your %'s. Since they only do it to 5% increments, that's all you were going to get anyway.0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...
To lose weight of course you must merely eat less than you burn all day.
The TDEE calc is merely an attempt to estimate, with exercise included, what you could burn on average daily, looking at your weekly schedule.
You must merely eat less than that to lose weight.
Small amount less, fat, too much less, risk muscle mass being the weight that is lost.
The MFP 1200 is different in that there is NO exercise included in that estimate, what they call maintenance was estimated, like non-exercise TDEE.
Then you eat less than that, in this case 1200 because of your selected goals.
But they aren't accounting for any exercise being done, that's why you log it, and your eating goal goes up.
If you did the MFP program right, you'd likely be eating the same amount, except on rest days, you'd be eating less.
So you were eating 1200, not logging your exercise, or ignoring the fact your daily goal increased and said to eat more? In that case you also ignored the warnings, while using a bad choice of words, is trying to share the fact that eating the lowest recommended for a sedentary woman isn't great if you acutally aren't a sedentary woman, unless very short.0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...
I am a vegetarian and get over 160g a day of protein.
How are you coming up with the 88g protein - that seems low.
How quickly did you lose the 10lb? Were you losing before that? Were you tracking before that?0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...
To lose weight of course you must merely eat less than you burn all day.
The TDEE calc is merely an attempt to estimate, with exercise included, what you could burn on average daily, looking at your weekly schedule.
You must merely eat less than that to lose weight.
Small amount less, fat, too much less, risk muscle mass being the weight that is lost.
The MFP 1200 is different in that there is NO exercise included in that estimate, what they call maintenance was estimated, like non-exercise TDEE.
Then you eat less than that, in this case 1200 because of your selected goals.
But they aren't accounting for any exercise being done, that's why you log it, and your eating goal goes up.
If you did the MFP program right, you'd likely be eating the same amount, except on rest days, you'd be eating less.
So you were eating 1200, not logging your exercise, or ignoring the fact your daily goal increased and said to eat more? In that case you also ignored the warnings, while using a bad choice of words, is trying to share the fact that eating the lowest recommended for a sedentary woman isn't great if you actually aren't a sedentary woman, unless very short.
I was logging my exercise and NETTING around 1200, definitely eating back some (most?) of my exercise calories. Most days there was a 'we need to run this morning, because I want a good dinner tonight!' approach.0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...
I am a vegetarian and get over 160g a day of protein.
How are you coming up with the 88g protein - that seems low.
How quickly did you lose the 10lb? Were you losing before that? Were you tracking before that?
What are you eating to get that much protein? MFP sets my goal to 56 on a daily basis...according to the last two week averages, I've been short by 65-110 (for the week).
88 g protein was per the calculations put here. My scale quotes me at 25-27% BF, which would put my current LBM at 88.33..and it's one gram per pound LBM I thought? Did I misunderstand something in the formula?
Ten pounds was over 3 months..closer to 4 before it actually really stabilized at 10 pounds rather than 9. I wasn't tracking prior to that. Last time I tracked before that was probably 2003 when I was 20 pounds heavier, and when I took baseline intake before adding in any weight loss efforts, it was around 1500. I'm a much more active person now. I wouldn't say I restricted my calories much when on MFP, but we about doubled the exercise in order to see the weight drop.0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...
I am a vegetarian and get over 160g a day of protein.
How are you coming up with the 88g protein - that seems low.
How quickly did you lose the 10lb? Were you losing before that? Were you tracking before that?
What are you eating to get that much protein? MFP sets my goal to 56 on a daily basis...according to the last two week averages, I've been short by 65-110 (for the week).
88 g protein was per the calculations put here. My scale quotes me at 25-27% BF, which would put my current LBM at 88.33..and it's one gram per pound LBM I thought? Did I misunderstand something in the formula?
Ten pounds was over 3 months..closer to 4 before it actually really stabilized at 10 pounds rather than 9. I wasn't tracking prior to that. Last time I tracked before that was probably 2003 when I was 20 pounds heavier, and when I took baseline intake before adding in any weight loss efforts, it was around 1500. I'm a much more active person now. I wouldn't say I restricted my calories much when on MFP, but we about doubled the exercise in order to see the weight drop.
Hi!
If you don't mind saying, how tall are you and how much do you weigh. I do not usually see females calculating out to much less than 100g, which is why I was surprised by the number.
What has your weight done in say the last 4 weeks and what were your average calories. Do you weigh all your food when possible and log everything. Is the 1,200 before 'eating back' exercise calories, or is it net? [Just trying to get a better understanding to help with intake suggestions]0 -
Seeing TDEE referenced on the forums here a lot, I finally read this post to learn about it. And now I have some questions.
Per the calculator referenced, my TDEE is around 2100 and my -20% is 1737.
But I question this. On MFP's 1200 calorie recommendation I was finally able to lose 10 pounds..given yes I was exercising twice a day (this has since dropped to less frequent). But based on the TDEE am I to understand my intake should be around 1700 calories a day? I feel like I'd be stuffed every day and likely to gain weight rather than lose.
Given the calculations, it also puts me at recommended 88 grams of protein. I'm vegetarian, so that high protein percentage sounds darn near impossible...
I am a vegetarian and get over 160g a day of protein.
How are you coming up with the 88g protein - that seems low.
How quickly did you lose the 10lb? Were you losing before that? Were you tracking before that?
What are you eating to get that much protein? MFP sets my goal to 56 on a daily basis...according to the last two week averages, I've been short by 65-110 (for the week).
88 g protein was per the calculations put here. My scale quotes me at 25-27% BF, which would put my current LBM at 88.33..and it's one gram per pound LBM I thought? Did I misunderstand something in the formula?
Ten pounds was over 3 months..closer to 4 before it actually really stabilized at 10 pounds rather than 9. I wasn't tracking prior to that. Last time I tracked before that was probably 2003 when I was 20 pounds heavier, and when I took baseline intake before adding in any weight loss efforts, it was around 1500. I'm a much more active person now. I wouldn't say I restricted my calories much when on MFP, but we about doubled the exercise in order to see the weight drop.
Hi!
If you don't mind saying, how tall are you and how much do you weigh. I do not usually see females calculating out to much less than 100g, which is why I was surprised by the number.
What has your weight done in say the last 4 weeks and what were your average calories. Do you weigh all your food when possible and log everything. Is the 1,200 before 'eating back' exercise calories, or is it net? [Just trying to get a better understanding to help with intake suggestions]
I'm 5'2, currently 121 lbs.
Unfortunately I'm not sure the last 4 weeks is a great representation.. I jumped back on MFP looks like 21 days ago. Generally I net in the 1200 range, although went way over on NYE. And then NYD woke up sick, so there were a few days I was eating under.
My weight had been creeping up in the holidays, and one inexact weigh (partially clothed afternoon where I usually weigh naked, in mornings) I was at 127. I seem to have dropped all the holiday weight gain in being sick which brought be back to 120.5-122. (122 seemed to be holding pretty consistently for a few months after the loss).
Unfortunately I don't have a scale to weigh my food, and some of those days were eating out, which makes it incredibly hard to know how accurate some of the logged meals are. I've been eating at home more recently, so that helps. When I first started on MFP I was at least trying to measure volume where I could, but I know I can get extremely anal about accuracy and take too much time away from growing my business etc with it.0 -
Hi,
I know this has probably been done to death but I'm also new and confused lol
I'm 29, Male, around 205lbs (14stone 9lbs here) and 5ft 10inches
I calculated my BMR to be 2042 calories per day and,with my daily activity level, my calorific need to then be 2807 calories per day (using Harris Benedict). I would like to lose between 1.5 and 2lbs per week.
MFP is saying I need to take in 1300 calories per day net, surely this is too high a deficit is it not? 1500 or so less than I need to just function?
Many Thanks
James0 -
Since looking it up, now I'm even more confused. MFP seems to change my protein target from day to day? Today it has my target at 49, yesterday at 77, the day before at 64. What's going on there?
I'm also still super curious to hear how you get so much protein on a vegetarian diet. My partner and are I are both vegetarian and he's definitely interested in getting more when he weight-lifts.0 -
Since looking it up, now I'm even more confused. MFP seems to change my protein target from day to day? Today it has my target at 49, yesterday at 77, the day before at 64. What's going on there?
I'm also still super curious to hear how you get so much protein on a vegetarian diet. My partner and are I are both vegetarian and he's definitely interested in getting more when he weight-lifts.
Did you notice the eating calorie target changed too?
Since they go by % of eating goal for macros, if your eating goal goes up, your % stays the same, your grams goes up.
You've been correctly logging your exercise calories, eating goal goes up, so you can hopefully maintain the same reasonable deficit.0 -
Sara or Sidesteel...
Do you have a preferred method of calculating calories? I read your initial post and was very confused. I am beginning my workouts this week (INSANITY workouts), and am not sure exaclt how to calculate what is needed.
I would love assistance. Previouls, Sidesteel helped me a LOT (early 2013) unfortunatly some life events made it not possible to follow (health issues)..
I would love a woman's input as well, however, he is AMAZING support and a wealth of knowledge. Thank you for creating this group. I know to come here for the straight truths..no sugar coating.
Hi! So sorry, it looks like your post was overlooked. My preferred method (as well as SSs) is actually to come up with an estimate of your TDEE based on actual results and eat to a static number, then tweak up or down based on actual results.
If you do want to eat your calories back, just pick one of the estimates from the MFP database and then eat about 50% of them back to account for over-estimations and for the double count of your BMR while doing them. Again, tweak based on actual results when looking at a trend over a few weeks.0
