Women & macros

Hi ladies,

To those of you successfully losing weight, what % is your fat, carbs, protein set at? I worry that MPF sets the carbs and fat too high and the protein too low...

Thanks!

You're right about MFP setting the protein too low. I'm set to 1500 calories: 40% Carbs, 35% Protein, 25% Fat. But rather than percentages, it's probably a better bet to look at total grams. So I came to my settings not by percentages, but by working out this way:

1) Set your calorie goals from your TDEE. Since I am 10 lbs from my goal weight, I'm aiming for 1/2 of fat loss per week, so subtracting 250 calories from my TDEE gives me 1500 calories per day. (You can let MFP do this for you and then just play with the percentages after you figure out the rest.)

2) Set your protein to 1-1.5 grams per pound of LBM (lean body mass = total weight minus fat pounds). My LBM is about 108 lbs, and I used 1.2 g protein/ lb of LBM to get about 130 g protein.

3) Set your fat grams. 0.3-0.7 g fat per each pound of goal weight is a good range. If you do much cardio, you can pick near the lower end of the range to allow for more carbs. Since I do a lot of cardio, I picked 0.3X135 lbs to give me ~41 grams of fat.

4) Set your carb grams. A reasonable minimum is 50 g of carbs, but you need at least 100 to avoid ketosis. To fit my goal of 1500 calories, I subtract out the protein and fat calories. 1g protein = 4 calories; 1 g fat = 9 calories, 1 g carb = 4 calories. So"
1500 - 4X130 - 9X41 = 611 carb calories
Divide by 4 to get grams of carbs: 153

5) Now pick the percentages that get you closest to the gram carbs. For me it was the 40/35/25 for C/P/F.

Although I always try to make sure I get those 130 g of protein in, I am a bit more flexible about the carbs and fat ratios. Protein will help you maintain the muscle that you have as you lose, and it'll help with satiety.

Many people just set their macros at 40/30/30. But it is good to do the math just to make sure you are getting enough of each macronutrient.

I've never seen those calculations before. Thanks for sharing!

Bump

Honestly, you don't need a lot of protein, even if you are doing heavy weight lifting. Some people find that higher protein levels though help them feel satiated though. The US RDA for protein is set at 52g/day but many people go over that.

I did re-adjust the MFP percentages myself to 60/20/20 which I find is good for me. My protein falls somewhere in the 60-100g range per day.

It's definitely true that people think they need A LOT more protein than they really do as protein doesn't physically MAKE your muscles bigger, despite popular belief.

But I am in the crowd that says protein makes me feel fuller, longer. Carbs make me crave more carbs so they don't make me feel full for a long period of time. Whether it's oatmeal, cream of wheat, or just toast all of it makes me just crave more carbs - or sweets. That's why I tend to stick to protein for breakfast.

This didn't answer the OPs question at all but maybe it's useful info haha.

Carbs: 55% - no processed foods, no white flour, no sugar, fresh veggies, fruit, whole grains, sprouted grains, beans
Fat: 30% - healthy fats from foods only like nuts and avocado
Protein: 15% - due to medical necessity

Hi ladies,

To those of you successfully losing weight, what % is your fat, carbs, protein set at? I worry that MPF sets the carbs and fat too high and the protein too low...

Thanks!

I'm at 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat. Those are not something I can hit every single day but I don't consider changing them.

Oh and Sophie, looking at your diary, based on the days you are fully tracking, it seems you are getting 70-80g protein which is a pretty good range. Unless you feel you need to mix things up for some reason.

Carbohydrates: 45%
Fat: 30%
Protein: 25%

I don't obsess over the numbers too much, though. My main focus is calories. I find that if I make an effort to incorporate more protein in my meals, then everything just seems to go where it's supposed to.

Hi ladies,

To those of you successfully losing weight, what % is your fat, carbs, protein set at? I worry that MPF sets the carbs and fat too high and the protein too low...

Thanks!

You're right about MFP setting the protein too low. I'm set to 1500 calories: 40% Carbs, 35% Protein, 25% Fat. But rather than percentages, it's probably a better bet to look at total grams. So I came to my settings not by percentages, but by working out this way:

1) Set your calorie goals from your TDEE. Since I am 10 lbs from my goal weight, I'm aiming for 1/2 of fat loss per week, so subtracting 250 calories from my TDEE gives me 1500 calories per day. (You can let MFP do this for you and then just play with the percentages after you figure out the rest.)

2) Set your protein to 1-1.5 grams per pound of LBM (lean body mass = total weight minus fat pounds). My LBM is about 108 lbs, and I used 1.2 g protein/ lb of LBM to get about 130 g protein.

3) Set your fat grams. 0.3-0.7 g fat per each pound of goal weight is a good range. If you do much cardio, you can pick near the lower end of the range to allow for more carbs. Since I do a lot of cardio, I picked 0.3X135 lbs to give me ~41 grams of fat.

4) Set your carb grams. A reasonable minimum is 50 g of carbs, but you need at least 100 to avoid ketosis. To fit my goal of 1500 calories, I subtract out the protein and fat calories. 1g protein = 4 calories; 1 g fat = 9 calories, 1 g carb = 4 calories. So"
1500 - 4X130 - 9X41 = 611 carb calories
Divide by 4 to get grams of carbs: 153

5) Now pick the percentages that get you closest to the gram carbs. For me it was the 40/35/25 for C/P/F.

Although I always try to make sure I get those 130 g of protein in, I am a bit more flexible about the carbs and fat ratios. Protein will help you maintain the muscle that you have as you lose, and it'll help with satiety.

Many people just set their macros at 40/30/30. But it is good to do the math just to make sure you are getting enough of each macronutrient.

Thank you for this great information!

Honestly, you don't need a lot of protein, even if you are doing heavy weight lifting. Some people find that higher protein levels help them feel satiated though. The US RDA for protein is set at 52g/day but many people go over that.

I did re-adjust the MFP percentages myself to 60/20/20 which I find is good for me. My protein falls somewhere in the 60-100g range per day.

Those RDI recommendations are based on outdated research and are not optimal for those on diets. More recent research suggests that we should have a higher intake of protein, especially when dieting, since 1) it spares loss of muscle and 2) it has a strong satiating effect (moreso than carbs or fat, although consuming sufficient fat helps with this as well). And, unless one is vegetarian, these levels of protein should not be hard to reach. If you decide you only want to consume 60 g of protein, just recognize your weight loss might not be of optimal quality. Read the links below for some additional elaboration:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/protein-intake-while-dieting-qa.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/exercise-and-weightfat-loss-part-2.html

Honestly, you don't need a lot of protein, even if you are doing heavy weight lifting. Some people find that higher protein levels help them feel satiated though. The US RDA for protein is set at 52g/day but many people go over that.

I did re-adjust the MFP percentages myself to 60/20/20 which I find is good for me. My protein falls somewhere in the 60-100g range per day.

Those RDI recommendations are based on outdated research and are not optimal for those on diets. More recent research suggests that we should have a higher intake of protein, especially when dieting, since 1) it spares loss of muscle and 2) it has a strong satiating effect (moreso than carbs or fat, although consuming sufficient fat helps with this as well). And, unless one is vegetarian, these levels of protein should not be hard to reach. If you decide you only want to consume 60 g of protein, just recognize your weight loss might not be of optimal quality. Read the links below for some additional elaboration:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/protein-intake-while-dieting-qa.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/exercise-and-weightfat-loss-part-2.html

Although the first posts talks about research in sparing LBM, that research isn't referenced. Research can be interpreted different ways and I've read some of the research on protein and dieting. I've been able to build muscle while dieting in my protein range. Weightlifting is great for that so I'm happy. Also, my fiber intake is fairly high and like protein, fiber is satiating.

And overall I wouldn't call the protein requirements research outdated because the WHO recently did a study that included protein requirements and their numbers mesh up with the RDA.

I didn't find that particularly study ( I read it a while ago) but here is one study from 2008, there are others with similar results listed. The PubMed database is a good resource as well for studies.

http://www.ajcn.org/content/88/5/1322.abstract