I don't pay much attention to calories, but I do pay attention to carbs when it comes to weight loss. Low carb works for me, especially doing Paleo.

I still track on MFP, mostly for the carb/protein/fat ratio, but I also can tend to be on the 80/20 side of primal, so I have to make sure I'm not damaging myself calorie wise or getting to many off-primal foods.

I do track when I go more strict (which I will be doing here soon) - mainly to see where my protien and carb ratios fall...i.e. to make sure I am getting enough protien and not overdoing it on carbs...

For me personally to loose weight I do have to watch my calorie intake...which when i am doing strict is fairly easy to maintain because I really load up on veggies that are fairly lower in the calorie range - but more importantly I have to watch the carb intake...I can eat 1500/calories a day for 4 weeks and not loose a drop of weight...but if I eat 1500/day with a majority of the days being under 70-80 gr/carbs i will see some sort of downward trend in my weight.

I track all my macros. I set my calories for the high end of my desired weight BMI, and set my fat to 57%, protein go 35% and carbs to 8%. The only one I am really concerned about are carbs, mainly to control my diabetes and a few other health issues.

How did you decide what percentages to set your goals at? I arbitrarily picked some round numbers and have been pretty much meeting/staying within the goals, but it seems so random. I left the calorie setting where the website set it to because I have no idea how many calories I should be aiming for. I'm basically ignoring them and trying to make sure I eat enough fat, though I don't know exactly how much is enough. Is there some type of formula to start out with?

Ignore percentages. They're silly.

Get at least 1g of protein and .5g fat per lb of bodyweight. At least. Then fill your remaining calories (with whatever that may be) with whatever you like. If you're against carbs, then just fill the rest with fat. Pretty easy. Aiming for some magical percentage is kinda detrimental and, in some cases, can be stressful (say, if you're OCD, like me).

How did you decide what percentages to set your goals at? I arbitrarily picked some round numbers and have been pretty much meeting/staying within the goals, but it seems so random. I left the calorie setting where the website set it to because I have no idea how many calories I should be aiming for. I'm basically ignoring them and trying to make sure I eat enough fat, though I don't know exactly how much is enough. Is there some type of formula to start out with?

I did mine manually

what I did was set my calories to 1350 - I do not track things like coconut, olive oil or butter if I am using them in sauting so I put my calories in a bit lower knowing I was probably getting more during the day.

I then set my % for carbs so it showed right about 85 or so. Then I set my % of protien so it shows about 115 and everything else goes to Fat. I had to keep plugging % numbers in to get to the actual # I wanted.

The overall calorie and fats are negligable to me...I really use it when I track to look at where my protien and carbs fall - I HAVE to stay lower carb in order to move any weight on my body.

Thank you for the info. How do you determine lean body mass?

So I’m silly because I use percentages? Using your formula, I should be eating 240 grams of protein per day. Seems excessive to be healthy. I don’t want to damage my kidneys.

No, I didn't say you were silly. I said that percentages themselves were silly and it's fruitless trying to find some magical percentage formula, ie, the Zone's 40/30/30 or Raw Vegan 80/10/10.

But yes, I do think that's a fairly reasonable amount of protein for your weight. And I'm sure your kidneys would be fine. One gram per pound of bodyweight (give or take a few grams - the range wavers from .7 to 1.5) is the general recommendation - I personally find anything below .7g (.36 or whatever) to be too low.

I based my percentages, roughly, on the following, and my own particular health needs (Type 2 Diabetes, recovering from cancer surgery). You might also notice that I stated that this is what I do. I didn’t make a blanket statement that everyone should follow what I say.

Yeah, I'm no scientist. Obviously if you have some kind of condition or specific health need, different rules apply. But as a general rule of thumb... I think what I said still stands.

Archevore recommends
10-30% protein
5-35% Carbs
50-80% fat

The Palio diet recommends
Protein 19-35% of total calories
Carb 22-40%
Fat 28-47%

The Primal Blueprint
Protein: Average .7 – 1 gram per pound of lean body mass/day – depending on activity levels (more at times is fine).
Carbs: 50-100 grams/day (or less) = accelerated fat loss. 100-150 grams/day = effortless weight maintenance. Heavy exercisers can increase carb intake as needed to replace glycogen stores.
Fat: Enjoy freely but sensibly for balance of caloric needs and high dietary satisfaction levels.

Uh huh.

I eat 2200 a day, sometimes 2400 (or on bad days, maybe 2100). So I need to eat 117g of protein, which comes out as 468 calories.
Out of 2200, that's roughly 21% of my calories, which fits into the above recommendations of all the percentages you mentioned above. I have no idea how many calories you eat in a day, or how many everyone else does, either, but I'm pretty sure if they're eating a sustainable amount that 1g per lb of body weight (or lean bodyweight if you've worked out your BF%) will fit within those percentages anyway.

TL;DR - Long story short - the protein intake I recommended was to ensure adequate protein was met. To be honest, on Paleo/Primal I assumed most people would be meeting their requirements anyway. Regarding percentages, what I really meant is to not really worry about what fills the rest of your calories as long as you get enough of the essentials - protein for LBM and fat for sex drive and other bodily functions. Then if you want more fat, eat more fat, if you want more carbs, eat more carbs. Whatever works for you, so long as it's whole foods, you should be fine.

/endnovella