Nutrient Breakdown

RJ2DJ

I'm wondering how important it is to stick to the nutrient breakdown? Eating the required amount of calories is generally an easy task. Sometimes (vegetarian days!) I struggle to hit the protein target unless I make a conscious effort. Carbs and Fat are normally just under, so no worries there. The one I can struggle with sometimes is sugar: It seems that I'm often going over on this. Trying to pin down where it looks like a big problem might be the Nutri-grain Cereal bar I have for breakfast (12g), but there's also a fair amount in "healthy" food such as carrots - up to 15% of my daily consumption can come from that.

MFP targets me with 37g of sugar. Is this too low maybe?

toddis

Primary focus is caloric goal. Secondary focus in macros. Many people figure out the fat and protein intake they require and leave the rest for carbs.

It's generally recommended that ADDED sugars should remain below 30g a day. If you are going over 30 and it's from fruits and such it seems it is ok. If you are going over 30 from nutrigrain bars and cookies, than not so much.

ladyraven68

I'm wondering how important it is to stick to the nutrient breakdown? Eating the required amount of calories is generally an easy task and I'm losing weight every week in line with my expectations. I live with a vegetarian so I often struggle to hit the protein target unless I make a conscious effort. Carbs and Fat are normally just under, so no worries there. The one I can struggle with sometimes is sugar: It seems that I'm often going over on this. Trying to pin down where it looks like a big problem might be the Nutri-grain Cereal bar I have for breakfast (12g), but there's also a fair amount in "healthy" food such as carrots - up to 15% of my daily consumption can come from that.

MFP targets me with 37g of sugar. Is this too low maybe?

have a read of this - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets


As for protein, I've got a few vegetarians on my FL, and they eat a lot more protein than me! Proetein doesn't have to mean meat.

Derry5

yes, i believe the calorie goal is the most important thing, but however to retain as much muscle as possible you should know how much protein to intake (macros). Also counting macros helps alot if you feel your weight loss becoming slower, from here you can adjust your diet/macros to consume less carbs.
The problem with just counting calories is that its hard to count the amount of carbs, as alot of food contain high amount of carbs
and is very easy to go over your caloires goal. Either way as long as your hitting your calorie deficeit its all good :-)

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Since you're pretty new I'd say focus on meeting your calorie goal for now. Once you get that down you can work on hitting macros. I've heard it explained here like this:

Calories for weight loss/gain
Macros for body composition
Micros for health


I don't track sugar because it's a subset of carbs, which I already track. Also, MFP doesn't differentiate between natural and artificial sugars. For macros I try to get 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass to preserve muscle. That comes to 98 grams for me. Then I try to get around 49 grams of fat (.35 grams per pound of body weight). The rest can be carbs.

RJ2DJ

Toddis - seems reasonable.

Ladyraven68 - will do, thanks.