Basic Nutritional Question

kellybean14
kellybean14 Posts: 237 Member
edited February 10 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm trying to eat 40% carbs, 30% fat and 30% protein.

Question: is it more important to keep this ratio, or more important to hit daily calorie goal? I know, ideally, I would do both... but if i had to choose, which is more important?

A little context - today my ratios are pretty in-line, but I'm short about 120 calories (not much!).

Thanks!

Replies

  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    I'd aim for the calories. If you're eating at a deficit, you don't want to overdo it; your body will need fuel. That said, 120 calories under goal is pretty small. If you're not hungry (or no hungrier than usual), you could simply stop for today and eat those 120 calories tomorrow or over the next few days. I routinely eat 200-400 calories under goal one day, and the same amount over goal the next day, depending on how much I've exercised or whether I'm planning a night out with friends.
  • kellybean14
    kellybean14 Posts: 237 Member
    Moving over the deficit to tomorrow's calorie goal sounds like a solid idea. Thanks for your input!
  • amosmoses88
    amosmoses88 Posts: 163 Member
    I go by calories, but try my best to stay within my macros as well. It's okay to go over a little, but I wouldn't over do it. Calories are important for weight loss.
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,661 Member
    calories far more important.

    if you ask me, the only macro that really matters is to get adaquet protein, the rest of the cals can come from where ever.

    looking at your calorie defecit over the course of a week rather then a day is also a legit approach
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    the ratio approach is done for simplicity, but it's not really strictly correct.

    your protein goal should be determined by your lean body mass (LBM), not the amount of calories you eat.

    your fat goal should be determined by your bodyweight, not the amount of calories you eat.

    your carbs are the rest of your leftover calories.

    in this way, you first meet your macros, then meet your calorie goal.

    here are the current recommendations from the ETP group (based on current research).

    daily fats (minimum) = 0.35g/lb of bodyweight
    daily protein (minimum) = 1.0g/lb of LBM

    these are set to make sure you meet your actual body needs.

    you can figure these out based on your bodyweight and BF% and then determine the ratios with some simple math.

    for example, if you weigh 165lbs and have a BF% of 35%, then your LBM = 107.25 (i.e., your LBM is everything that is not fat, so 100% - 35% = 65% and 65% of 165 = 107.25)

    let's say your calorie goal is 1550 calories.

    your protein goal would be 107.25g = 107g

    your fat goal would be 57.75g = 58g

    since protein and carbs are 4 calories per gram, and fats are 9 calories per gram, you can figure out how many calories those are...

    107 x 4 = 428 calories from protein
    58 x 9 = 522 calories from fat
    1550 - 522 - 428 = 600 calories from carbs

    428/1550 = 27.6% protein
    522/1550 = 33.7% fats
    600/1550 = 38.7% carbs

    you can round those to the nearest 5% to give you a 25%p/35%f/40%c ratio in this hypothetical example.
  • kellybean14
    kellybean14 Posts: 237 Member
    I love your detailed response BB - I'm going to re-calculate to make sure I'm getting this as accurate as possible.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    The way I do it, I use 40/30/30 as a guideline, and try to hit at least 110g of protein (my goal is 120). I don't really care about carbs and fat.
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    The way I do it, I use 40/30/30 as a guideline, and try to hit at least 110g of protein (my goal is 120). I don't really care about carbs and fat.

    you should care about fats. those are important for all sorts of bodily health. not only related to cell health, but a number of vitamins are fat soluble, so you need to be getting enough fats in your diet. this can be a problem for raw food vegetarians (as an example) if they are not paying attention to this macro. fortunately, nuts are a good source for fats. i use peanut butter to get my fats intake up.
  • MadTownD
    MadTownD Posts: 149 Member
    I second the idea of adding "deficit calories" to the next day. I used to see a nutritionist (long story) and she would add my daily calories for the week and divide by seven... she said that's more in line with how your body uses calories. Just my two cents.
  • sweetpea03b
    sweetpea03b Posts: 1,123 Member
    I look at calories first, then at the macros... but, I pay closer attention to the protein than the others. I make sure to hit 100grams/day always. Also... Look at the weekly value. Sometimes I'm up or down on one or another but it evens out by the end of the week.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,297 Member
    the ratio approach is done for simplicity, but it's not really strictly correct.

    your protein goal should be determined by your lean body mass (LBM), not the amount of calories you eat.

    your fat goal should be determined by your bodyweight, not the amount of calories you eat.

    your carbs are the rest of your leftover calories.

    in this way, you first meet your macros, then meet your calorie goal.

    here are the current recommendations from the ETP group (based on current research).

    daily fats (minimum) = 0.35g/lb of LBM
    daily protein (minimum) = 1.0g/lb of bodyweight

    actually the protein is per lb of LBM the fat is per lb of body weight, if you apply the concept correctly, otherwise that would be pretty low fat intake. Your calculations were done correct but you posted it here wrong.
  • BrainyBurro
    BrainyBurro Posts: 6,129 Member
    the ratio approach is done for simplicity, but it's not really strictly correct.

    your protein goal should be determined by your lean body mass (LBM), not the amount of calories you eat.

    your fat goal should be determined by your bodyweight, not the amount of calories you eat.

    your carbs are the rest of your leftover calories.

    in this way, you first meet your macros, then meet your calorie goal.

    here are the current recommendations from the ETP group (based on current research).

    daily fats (minimum) = 0.35g/lb of bodyweight
    daily protein (minimum) = 1.0g/lb of LBM

    actually the protein is per lb of LBM the fat is per lb of body weight, if you apply the concept correctly, otherwise that would be pretty low fat intake. Your calculations were done correct but you posted it here wrong.

    yeah, i was typing too fast and wrote it backwards. the calculations were correct. i fixed it.
  • kellybean14
    kellybean14 Posts: 237 Member
    you guys are awesome!
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    from a priority standpoint hit your goals in this order:
    1) calories
    2) protein
    3) fat

    after that if you have calories left over, eat whatever you want until you are out of calories.

    Here is a very detailed writeup that gives a little more info than was posted above in case you are interested:
    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121703981
  • cornfritter22
    cornfritter22 Posts: 234 Member
    I'm loving the feedback you got on this post and want to save it in my topics. Thanks OP and to those who responded!
This discussion has been closed.

Categories