Which numbers should I pay more attention to?
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ShannonKirton
Posts: 304 Member
So you have all helped me out greatly with the amount of carbs I should and should not be eating, and I am grateful. Thank you!! Now here is another question. Here on the website, and on my iPhone, I can only see my food in grams etc in the bottom line where everyone's daily allowances are outlined. On my iPad it is a bit different where you can see your food as per normal, but on the home page there is a little pie chart.
The other day I changed my macros to 30% carbs, 30% fat and 40% protein. The pie chart shows me after an entire day, the percentages of everything I ate in these 3 categories. Even though I'm under all the goals like calories, sugars, fats, proteins, etc my fat percentage on the pie chart might be something crazy like 41% out of 30% or my carbs and usually love protein. Should I be paying more attention to the pie chart, or should I just worry about the bottom line in my daily calorie (and everything else) count?
Please help, because some days it's really hard to get everything around the % budget outlined in the pie charts!
The other day I changed my macros to 30% carbs, 30% fat and 40% protein. The pie chart shows me after an entire day, the percentages of everything I ate in these 3 categories. Even though I'm under all the goals like calories, sugars, fats, proteins, etc my fat percentage on the pie chart might be something crazy like 41% out of 30% or my carbs and usually love protein. Should I be paying more attention to the pie chart, or should I just worry about the bottom line in my daily calorie (and everything else) count?
Please help, because some days it's really hard to get everything around the % budget outlined in the pie charts!
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Replies
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The pie chart is just a guideline. Try your best to be at or over protein and fat and at or under carbs and you'll be fine.0
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So you have all helped me out greatly with the amount of carbs I should and should not be eating, and I am grateful. Thank you!! Now here is another question. Here on the website, and on my iPhone, I can only see my food in grams etc in the bottom line where everyone's daily allowances are outlined. On my iPad it is a bit different where you can see your food as per normal, but on the home page there is a little pie chart.
The other day I changed my macros to 30% carbs, 30% fat and 40% protein. The pie chart shows me after an entire day, the percentages of everything I ate in these 3 categories. Even though I'm under all the goals like calories, sugars, fats, proteins, etc my fat percentage on the pie chart might be something crazy like 41% out of 30% or my carbs and usually love protein. Should I be paying more attention to the pie chart, or should I just worry about the bottom line in my daily calorie (and everything else) count?
Please help, because some days it's really hard to get everything around the % budget outlined in the pie charts!
The "crazy percentages" are your actual ratios vs your goal ratios. So if you wanted 30/30/40, but you ate more fatty meat than you did potatoes, you might end up with an actual ratio of 20/40/40.
As PrimalRunner said, though - consider the carb number your upper limit, and the protein and fat numbers your lower limits, and you'll be fine.0 -
I focus on two things: protein and how I feel.0
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I'm finding it difficult to keep the carbs and fat in check, but my protein is always low. Any food suggestions?0
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I'm finding it difficult to keep the carbs and fat in check, but my protein is always low. Any food suggestions?
Pre log.0 -
I'm finding it difficult to keep the carbs and fat in check, but my protein is always low. Any food suggestions?
Here are a few of my go to favs for extra protein:
- Boil eggs (they keep in the fridge for about a week)
- Egg whites (for when I want to keep my fat intake in check), they scramble up in a few minutes.
- Grilled chicken (keeps in the fridge for about four days)
- StarKist white tuna in water (they come in very convenient pouches now)
- Steve's Original Paleo Stix
- Dr. Mercola unflavored Miracle Whey (While not technically paleo, it is the best I've found), with coconut water and organic cocao0 -
Thanks all. I do actually pre-log my days now but sometimes I just can't seem to get it right. I will try pre-cooking some of the food amisnercpa suggested as it seems quite helpful. Obviously the weekends are a bit more difficult to predict as you tend to go out to more places and maybe planned something for lunch but you end up staying out of the house way longer than you expected!
The only plus side I can see is that whatever fat etc I go over my percentages by, they are all healthy and better-for-you-than-fast-food fats. I'll keep going at it but I'm sure with practice I can get better at it.0 -
I don't know anybody who needs 40% protein. I prefer the standard 60/20/20 f/p/c Paleo standard ratio. I think my macros are currently set to 20/25/55 because I'm doing heavy strength training now.0
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I've seen so many people with varying ratios that I wasn't even aware there was a "norm". Having said that, I'm going to stick to my routine as I only recently changed it and haven't had time to get into it as yet to see if it really works for me or not. I'll keep those numbers in mind though.0
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I've seen so many people with varying ratios that I wasn't even aware there was a "norm". Having said that, I'm going to stick to my routine as I only recently changed it and haven't had time to get into it as yet to see if it really works for me or not. I'll keep those numbers in mind though.
If you follow Mark Sisson's carb curve, there's a "norm" inasmuch as you're going to see pretty close to the same numbers (in grams) across the board - 150g or less of carbs (depending on a person's insulin sensitivity and activity levels), around 80-180g of protein (depending on the person's size and LBM retention/building needs), and the remainder as fat. How these work out as percentages depends on a person's caloric needs. Someone with a 3000 calorie allotment will end up with a much lower percentage as carbs than someone with a 1300 calorie allotment, even if the raw number is the same (because 100g of carbs is the same number of calories for either person).0 -
Protein is primary, fats and carbs are secondary for me.0
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I guess it varies for everyone depending on what you're aiming for, correct? Lenora, I'm guessing from your profile picture that you do some lifting hence the protein importance for you. Hope I'm correct in that assumption, cause you look fantastic and I can't imagine that sit-up and crunches alone would have made you look as great as that!
I want me some abs like that!! Secrets?
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IMO, I would focus primarily on calories. Choose a wide variety whole real food (not food products) and your macros and micros should fall into place. If I was forced to pick macros... I would say protein and fat first and carbs last. Carbs really depend on your activity levels. The more active you are the more your body needs.0
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Carbs are definitely my least amount of intake during the day, but having said that I still have it at 60 grams because I do workout quite a bit during the week anywhere between 4 or 5 days. On my heaviest workout days, I up everything so that I know my body is getting enough of what it needs.
If I had any less grams than that, I'm not sure my body would be able to take everything I throw at it.0
