How much do the macros matter?

stonel94

So today I've logged all my stuff and I'm over on fat, but i had smoked salmon, unsalted almonds, peanut butter, so like if I had had low fat varieties of these I wouldn't be over, is it okay to be over? I'm still good on calories and everything else

WinnerVictorious

1) don't stress too much about the day to day numbers. step back and look at everything on a weekly or monthly basis. then you will be able to see if you're consistently over or under and need to make changes. i sometimes look at 7-day moving averages and adjust as necessary.

2) don't worry too much about being EXACTLY on your numbers each day. being close is about the best you can expect most days. see 1) above for the reason.

3) some fats are good for you. you need those. did you try breaking down the fats on your log into the various categories to see if you were getting mostly good fats or mostly bad fats?

Daniloveshockey94

1) don't stress too much about the day to day numbers. step back and look at everything on a weekly or monthly basis. then you will be able to see if you're consistently over or under and need to make changes. i sometimes look at 7-day moving averages and adjust as necessary.

2) don't worry too much about being EXACTLY on your numbers each day. being close is about the best you can expect most days. see 1) above for the reason.

3) some fats are good for you. you need those. did you try breaking down the fats on your log into the various categories to see if you were getting mostly good fats or mostly bad fats?

This!

minsch

I was wondering the same thing...I am always over on protein.

stonel94

I was wondering the same thing...I am always over on protein.

I know that protein is fine, because it sets it really low, I reset my protein levels so it's higher and my fat and carbs are lower, but I go over on fat whenever I have red meat (which is not that often) or when I eat nuts and things, and sugar when I have fruit, so I was wondering how much it mattered to go over on fat since it seems to me that that would be the worst one to go over on

cjsacto

I don't really worry about the fat unless I am over on saturated fat. I mean, I try to keep the percentage about right, but it's good to get poly and mono-unsaturated fats in your diet. If you have the phone app you can always see the breakdown, and there's a cool pie chart that shows you your percentage of each macro for the day. You can change the columns on your food diary under Settings - I've changed mine to view saturated fat instead of total fat.

As far as sugar goes... if I have two fruits and a veggie (like onion) that's high in sugar and maybe a piece of bread, I go over. I don't know if I've had a day when I didn't go over in sugar so I don't worry about that either. I simply try to have no more than a teaspoon of added sugar/honey in a day, and many days I have no added sugar (not counting yesterday when I went crazy). The sugar setting seems unrealistically low to me.

For me, it's a struggle to get enough protein so I'm always watching that macro carefully.

The nutrient I actually worry about the most is potassium. Not one of the macros, but you're supposed to get 3500 mg per day and that's a lot - I almost never hit it. (A banana isn't enough.)

WinnerVictorious

I was wondering the same thing...I am always over on protein.

I know that protein is fine, because it sets it really low, I reset my protein levels so it's higher and my fat and carbs are lower, but I go over on fat whenever I have red meat (which is not that often) or when I eat nuts and things, and sugar when I have fruit, so I was wondering how much it mattered to go over on fat since it seems to me that that would be the worst one to go over on

- add up your fat intake from yesterday, Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Monday, and last Sunday.
- divide by 7.
- is the resulting number higher than your daily goal? by how much? or lower? by how much?

that's really a better way to judge whether your diet is meeting your nutritional goals than just looking at a single day by itself.

next, read a little about the different types of fats so you know which ones are good for you and which ones may not be good for you.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat/NU00262