carb/fat/protein ratio

To lose body fat, yet maintain what muscle I have --- I eat 50% protein/30% carbs/20% fat.

Once I am settled where I would like to be, I plan to go with a more balanced approach. Maybe 40/40/20 or 40/30/30.

To lose body fat, yet maintain what muscle I have --- I eat 50% protein/30% carbs/20% fat.

Once I am settled where I would like to be, I plan to go with a more balanced approach. Maybe 40/40/20 or 40/30/30.

Yes, to maintain muscle, you should aim for 1g protein per lb bodyweight. For myself, it ends around 50%, and I was at 20% carbs, 30% fat since 100g carbs per day is kind of a magic number to keep your glycogen supplies up for daily activities, yet deplete them from exercise, forcing your body to convert fat for glycogen. If that isn't there, it WILL convert protein for it but it generally does that as a last resort. With my split, I ended up feeling a little too run down though after a hard day at work, so I moved it to a 45% protein 25% carb 30% fat split. I have more energy now through the day.

How does 50% carbs, 20% protein, 30% fat sound?
Is that too little protein?

This is the macro split I try to follow, 20% protein is more than in enough

I think you'll find fat doesn't convert to glycogen, it's protein that does that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it's glucose (carbohydrate) that gets converted into glycogen and fat can be converted through a process called gluconeogenesis (major component in keto diets)? I'm not as familiar as I can be in the matter so feel free to reeducate me on the matter.

Fat converted to actual glucose is minicule.......... amino acids are the main substrate for gluconeogenesis.

Fat converted to actual glucose is minicule.......... amino acids are the main substrate for gluconeogenesis.

Aren't amino acids found in protein?

Correct.

Depends on the person... if I don't keep my carbs at around 20-30%, I won't lose weight... Just mess around and find out what works for you!

I guess it depends on the person and body type. But, my wonderful and very fit dietician put me at 50/30/20 (c/p/f). Try to get 3 times as much protein as fat. But one day of indulgence won't hurt, if you are consistent most of the time. Thanks @slomba.

Hey, whatever you're doing works for you and you've got the results to show for it - I won't argue with success. Nice job!

Thank you and exactly! Everyone needs to play with their numbers a little bit and see what works for them!

Best ratio is eating more calories than you burn.

less?

Best ratio is eating more calories than you burn.

less?

It really doesn't matter how many calories a person eats, macro's are a different topic altogether. Of course success to many, is weight loss regardless of what they actually ate, which is shortsighted imo.

This is the macro split I try to follow, 20% protein is more than in enough

The most common protein recommendations for people engaged in a strength training program and attempting to maintain positive nitrogen balance are 1g/lb. LBM or 1g/lb. BW (according to who you're listening to). 20% protein doesn't even come near accomplishing that for most people. 40/30/30 c/p/f puts me almost right at it, but I try to keep it even a bit higher than that.

On the contrary, 50/30/20 puts me right at 1g per pound of bodyweight (or something close, like .95). My caloric intake currently is above 3000 calories a day, so that could be why I can get away with a lower %. But even then I've had times where my protein intake was as low as (perhaps on some days even lower) 0.75 per lb of bodyweight and I had no significant changes in my strength/muscle gains.

Glad you said this,do you know what this means? Protein is over rated. We don't need as much as we think. So if protein isn't that important. If it's the most important macro, and it doesn't matter too much, that means macros don't matter that much. It's not like if you eat through the day you're going to eat 100% carbs, or 100% protein or 100% fat.

I stopped focusing on macros with out any issues, no loss in LBM. I was even eating about 100g of protein for a while with a LBM of 196lbs.

What was your BF% when you were doing that out of interest?

Also, the general recommendation is 1g per lb of LBM - 0.75g per lb of total body weight is not that far off it.

To lose body fat, yet maintain what muscle I have --- I eat 50% protein/30% carbs/20% fat.

Once I am settled where I would like to be, I plan to go with a more balanced approach. Maybe 40/40/20 or 40/30/30.

Yes, to maintain muscle, you should aim for 1g protein per lb bodyweight. For myself, it ends around 50%, and I was at 20% carbs, 30% fat since 100g carbs per day is kind of a magic number to keep your glycogen supplies up for daily activities, yet deplete them from exercise, forcing your body to convert fat for glycogen. If that isn't there, it WILL convert protein for it but it generally does that as a last resort. With my split, I ended up feeling a little too run down though after a hard day at work, so I moved it to a 45% protein 25% carb 30% fat split. I have more energy now through the day.

I think you'll find fat doesn't convert to glycogen, it's protein that does that.

You are right, I should have said energy not glycogen. What I wanted to add came from this article:

"The first thing the body burns is protein, mainly because protein cannot be stored in the body. Proteins from alcohol are burned first followed by other proteins. These nutrients are dispersed in the bloodstream and any excess is channeled towards the excretory system to be removed from the body. Thus, you can rarely complain that your body has too much protein. Next, the body burns carbohydrates, both simple and complex, with glycogen being its main form. Glycogen is sugar stored mostly in the liver and controls blood sugar levels as well as providing most of the energy the body needs. Once glycogen has been used up, the body then burns up fat, breaking it down into smaller units to be absorbed in the blood stream. Muscle comes last. Thus, the answer to the question ‘does the body burn fat or muscle first’ is fat.

The idea that the body burns muscle first before fat may come from the fact that glycogen is also stored in muscle tissues. However, it is the glycogen in them and not the tissues themselves that get burned."