Need a hand with macros please...

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JessHealthKick
JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey,

So I've been trying to improve my diet over the past say 3 weeks, logging it for a couple of weeks here. I currently have 40-20-40, however find I am always going over my 20% fat (being 1200 calories a day). These fats 5/7 days a week come exclusively from fish, nuts, seeds, avocado. I am aiming to lose a small amount of weight, however am more interested in my long term health and energy, as well as improving my muscle mass as I'm really getting in to my snowboarding and want to get very fit for it. I have been trying to exercise properly 5 days a week, walk every day and also have energy for when I'm socialising and studying (which is a lot). I've just started strength training doing Jillian Michael's 6-week 6-pack, unfortunately no gym access at this stage.

I aim for gluten and dairy free most days, though do give in to pizza or pasta on the weekends (and my stomach has a horrible cry about it). I never have milk, much prefer soy, but do like a little cheese once in a while :) I used to eat gluten products daily, but I ave found giving them up has made me LESS hungry, LESS bloated, MORE energetic... all good things! But they are very tasty ;)

So yeah, any advice about what you think of my macros would be greatly appreciated. And I am NOT going to start eating more red meat for my protein. I don't believe there are many good health properties in red meat, so I only have it once a week (again weekends). I am more than happy to have seafood for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and living in Japan makes this not only achievable but actually pretty normal :P

Thanks a lot in advance :) I'll open up my diary now.

edit: please don't just look at my diary from today, I log a bit in advance to plan and haven't exercised yet so there will be about 100g protein in the end ;)

Replies

  • hastinbe
    hastinbe Posts: 130 Member
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    I don't see anything wrong with the amount of fat you're getting, even when over. The Institute of Medicine recommends 20-35% from fat. Don't sweat it
  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
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    I don't see anything wrong with the amount of fat you're getting, even when over. The Institute of Medicine recommends 20-35% from fat. Don't sweat it

    thanks :) I've just kind of made this up myself from doing a bunch of online research and reading, so wasn't too sure how it was.
  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
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    pleasee :) with a cherry on top
  • spamantha57
    spamantha57 Posts: 674 Member
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    I don't really eat red meat either (or drink cow milk, but I do love mozzarella cheese.) My current ratios are 45/30/25 & it's been working out pretty well for me. My fats are pretty much all good fats too, usually coming from things like nuts, avocados, olive oil, cheese... If I do go over on something in fats or carbs I don't really worry about it because I know they're all coming from good sources. I use the food diary mostly so I can aim for goals in protein, fiber, & iron, & I like to see & monitor how my body reacts to different high or low levels of each.

    If you get your fats from good fats too like you mentioned, I don't see an issue in upping your ratio a bit. Not all fats are bad you know, & you should be getting the good ones in.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    I go with the recommendation of 1 gram/pound of lean body mass on protein. So for me I'm 130 lbs, 25% body fat, so I aim for 98 grams of protein. (I can't remember what percentage that is for me, but when you change the percentage it'll show you how many grams out to the side). Then I go with .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. So for me again, 130 lbs, that means about 46 grams. The rest is carbs.

    Mostly I worry about protein because I just started lifting.

    Check out this thread for a longer explanation:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
  • eric_sg61
    eric_sg61 Posts: 2,925 Member
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    I go with the recommendation of 1 gram/pound of lean body mass on protein. So for me I'm 130 lbs, 25% body fat, so I aim for 98 grams of protein. (I can't remember what percentage that is for me, but when you change the percentage it'll show you how many grams out to the side). Then I go with .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. So for me again, 130 lbs, that means about 46 grams. The rest is carbs.

    Mostly I worry about protein because I just started lifting.

    Check out this thread for a longer explanation:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    Good post. To OP, don't try to follow ratio's, as your seeing, you will not hit them exactly and they just make dieting harder than it needs to be.
  • JessHealthKick
    JessHealthKick Posts: 800 Member
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    thanks guys for the advice. Yeah, I eat up to 200g of fish a day so really hard to only have 20% fats. I've heard many different measurements regarding body fat etc etc so I guess I am going roughly along the correct path :) Thanks guys for giving me more confidence, I'd hate to be missing something important with my diet.

    And at that, it's time to have some chicken!
  • prokomds
    prokomds Posts: 318 Member
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    Mine are set to 40/30/30 (carb/protein/fat), and I've had good success on that. It's just a suggestion, though - some days I go over on fat, some days on carbs. It just tends to even out over time. I have a hard time hitting the protein goal regularly, but I'm working on it :)

    I did think of one thing you should just be aware of, though. As someone who eats a lot of fish (yum), you just need to be generally aware of the issues related to mercury poisoning. See this:

    http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/fishshellfish/outreach/advice_index.cfm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_in_fish

    Eating lots of fish is probably fine, I would just be a little wary of consuming a lot of fish that is high in mercury. It can cause problems in the long term

    Good luck!
  • PriceK01
    PriceK01 Posts: 834 Member
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    I go with the recommendation of 1 gram/pound of lean body mass on protein. So for me I'm 130 lbs, 25% body fat, so I aim for 98 grams of protein. (I can't remember what percentage that is for me, but when you change the percentage it'll show you how many grams out to the side). Then I go with .35 grams of fat per pound of body weight. So for me again, 130 lbs, that means about 46 grams. The rest is carbs.

    Mostly I worry about protein because I just started lifting.

    Check out this thread for a longer explanation:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    ^This is exactly what I'm doing

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