Looking for 50/30/20 buddies

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That's 50% protein 30% carbs 20% fat. I'm starting this on Wednesday and would love to see open logs for ppl who follow this!

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  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
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    is there reasoning behind your breakdown?

    i'd personally aim for more fat, I think it's important for good health....and it'll help to keep you full just like protein. I have about 30 C, but my P and F end up about equal...
  • PudgyFellow123
    PudgyFellow123 Posts: 40 Member
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    hey buddy. I'm pretty close to those percentages at:

    55% protein
    25% fat
    20% carbs

    what's the idea behind your 50/30/20?
  • Chadomaniac
    Chadomaniac Posts: 1,785 Member
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    Not bashing you OP (in the negative way)

    Our bodies need minimum amounts of proteins and fats for optimal functions .

    Percentages will result in (over -doing one nutrient whilst under-doing another nutrient)

    Example : Say I eat 4000 calories a day . 50% protein will result in 500g protein daily (very ridiculous and not necessary) Even for a lady who is eating 2000calories a day , 50% would be 250g protein . That's even too much for me

    Stick to minimums for each nutrient and work from there .
    Just advice
  • BigSnicka
    BigSnicka Posts: 151 Member
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    Not bashing you OP (in the negative way)

    Our bodies need minimum amounts of proteins and fats for optimal functions .

    Percentages will result in (over -doing one nutrient whilst under-doing another nutrient)

    Example : Say I eat 4000 calories a day . 50% protein will result in 500g protein daily (very ridiculous and not necessary) Even for a lady who is eating 2000 calories a day , 50% would be 250g protein . That's even too much for me

    Stick to minimums for each nutrient and work from there .
    Just advice

    Awesome advice, considering I have been trying to figure out how to personally increase those numbers proportionally. Thanks man!
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
    Options
    Not bashing you OP (in the negative way)

    Our bodies need minimum amounts of proteins and fats for optimal functions .

    Percentages will result in (over -doing one nutrient whilst under-doing another nutrient)

    Example : Say I eat 4000 calories a day . 50% protein will result in 500g protein daily (very ridiculous and not necessary) Even for a lady who is eating 2000 calories a day , 50% would be 250g protein . That's even too much for me

    Stick to minimums for each nutrient and work from there .
    Just advice

    Awesome advice, considering I have been trying to figure out how to personally increase those numbers proportionally. Thanks man!

    if you check out iifym.com, you can get your macros worked out for you for different goals
  • Topsking2010
    Topsking2010 Posts: 2,245 Member
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    Bump
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    That's 50% protein 30% carbs 20% fat. I'm starting this on Wednesday and would love to see open logs for ppl who follow this!

    Just out of curiosity, why 50% protein?
  • BigSnicka
    BigSnicka Posts: 151 Member
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    Not bashing you OP (in the negative way)

    Our bodies need minimum amounts of proteins and fats for optimal functions .

    Percentages will result in (over -doing one nutrient whilst under-doing another nutrient)

    Example : Say I eat 4000 calories a day . 50% protein will result in 500g protein daily (very ridiculous and not necessary) Even for a lady who is eating 2000 calories a day , 50% would be 250g protein . That's even too much for me

    Stick to minimums for each nutrient and work from there .
    Just advice

    Awesome advice, considering I have been trying to figure out how to personally increase those numbers proportionally. Thanks man!

    if you check out iifym.com, you can get your macros worked out for you for different goals

    Thanks, I will check that out
  • chellebublz
    chellebublz Posts: 568 Member
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    It's not long term, just short term while I'm doing P90X. I know alot here won't agree with it and that's okay. Alot of you have said to use IIFYM.com, but if I use the default calculator there it asks me to eat more protein than 50/30/20 does, just to let you know. It wants me to eat 1g of protein per pound of body weight. Which is 235g of protein a day, there is NO WAY I can hit that! lol. At least this fat shredder macro only asks me to eat 188g which is hard enough. I'm not gonna beat myself up if I'm off from my macros a lil. It's gonna fluctuate, I know this. I'm in my 2nd year. I lost 40 lbs my first year. I gained about 20lb back the last few months from taking it off and letting myself be lazy. I trust the person who suggested 50/30/20 to me instead of IIFYM insanely high amounts. I will try it out, if it doesn't work for me I can adjust it back to 40/30/30. I will be eating very clean, I will be eating enough to sustain my body, I"m not eating 1000-1200 like most women who think the less they eat the better. I deal alot with friends who say "You are a woman and you have ALOT to weight to lose, you can't eat over 1200 calories or you won't lose weight" I know better than that and accepted the fact that someone is always gonna disagree with me LOL
  • twixlepennie
    twixlepennie Posts: 1,074 Member
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    Isn't it 1g protein for each lb of LBM or .8g protein per 1lb weight? I'll have to see what the IIFYM site gives me-I'm also playing around with macros right now :)

    Eta: the IIFYM site does go by 1g protein per pound, not LBM, which seems kind of odd. Ok, wait a minute-if you go by the first formula then it gives protein recommendations based on pounds. But, if you go by the second formula and enter in your bf% then it calculates protein based on LBM. For me there's around a 20g difference in protein recommendation, between the two calculations. Interesting!
  • chellebublz
    chellebublz Posts: 568 Member
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    Either way is still a lot higher than the 188g that 50/30/20 gives me. I'm not too worried about such low fat. I eat mostly chicken, salad, veggies and eggs to begin with when I am actually eating right and not completely off plan like I have been =/ Add in a protein shake, a Quest bar, some cottage cheese maybe (lil unsure about this, have to look into it more) and it is very do-able?
  • twixlepennie
    twixlepennie Posts: 1,074 Member
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    Either way is still a lot higher than the 188g that 50/30/20 gives me. I'm not too worried about such low fat. I eat mostly chicken, salad, veggies and eggs to begin with when I am actually eating right and not completely off plan like I have been =/ Add in a protein shake, a Quest bar, some cottage cheese maybe (lil unsure about this, have to look into it more) and it is very do-able?

    I struggle to hit even100g of protein, so I'm with you and I'd go with the lower number :laugh:
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    It's not long term, just short term while I'm doing P90X.

    If you are doing p90x you are going to need way more carbs then that... more like 50% carbs and 30% protein...
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    Isn't it 1g protein for each lb of LBM

    Yes that is the basic guideline... not an exact number but a place to start.
  • ell_v131
    ell_v131 Posts: 349 Member
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    It is not the protein or carbs that I'd be concerned about. As a woman I'd be more concerned about fat. We need it to regulate hormone production, you might want to research the minimum requirements there before committing to this. But then I am not sure how applicable it is for someone of your weight. Just look into it if you'd like
  • chellebublz
    chellebublz Posts: 568 Member
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    I did look into and this is what I found:

    The Institute of Medicine recommends all adults consume between 20 and 35 percent of daily calories from fats. The American Heart Association recommends a slightly narrower range of 25 to 35 percent of calories daily to come from fat.

    http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/fat/index.html

    From what I've seen on various websites, the recommendations for men and women are the same.

    The p90x3 nutrition guide is based on 40/30/30 so I'm eating the same amount of carbs, just a little more protein than fat. I did the first p90x last year which is how I lost my 40lbs. I didn't follow the nutrition guide then, I just ate 1500 calories. I may go back through my logs and see what my percentages were just out of curiosity though.
  • parkscs
    parkscs Posts: 1,639 Member
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    Either way is still a lot higher than the 188g that 50/30/20 gives me. I'm not too worried about such low fat. I eat mostly chicken, salad, veggies and eggs to begin with when I am actually eating right and not completely off plan like I have been =/ Add in a protein shake, a Quest bar, some cottage cheese maybe (lil unsure about this, have to look into it more) and it is very do-able?

    Your protein macro should not be calculated as a percentage of your total calories but as a percentage of your lean body mass.
    Starting with a percentage of your caloric intake is incorrect, simply because your protein macro is relatively fixed based on your lean body mass, and the percentage of your total calories will vary based on how many calories you're eating.

    Figure your lean body mass (current weight * (1 - BF%)) and multiply by .85 (generally the maximum amount you'll see any benefit from when doing resistance training) - that's your protein macro. For you, let's pretend you have 120lb of LEAN body mass, which puts your protein macro at roughly 100g. Even if you use the old rule of thumb of 1g/lb of LBM which comes out to 120g of protein, that's a farcry from the 188g+ you're estimating. To give you an idea, I'm 6'3", male, large frame, lift several times a week and I don't even shoot for 188g of protein daily. You can go a bit higher than this and it likely won't hurt you (unless you suffer from reduced kidney function), but please stop thinking you need to take in 190+g of protein. You don't.
  • ell_v131
    ell_v131 Posts: 349 Member
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    Either way is still a lot higher than the 188g that 50/30/20 gives me. I'm not too worried about such low fat. I eat mostly chicken, salad, veggies and eggs to begin with when I am actually eating right and not completely off plan like I have been =/ Add in a protein shake, a Quest bar, some cottage cheese maybe (lil unsure about this, have to look into it more) and it is very do-able?

    Your protein macro should not be calculated as a percentage of your total calories but as a percentage of your lean body mass.
    Starting with a percentage of your caloric intake is incorrect, simply because your protein macro is relatively fixed based on your lean body mass, and the percentage of your total calories will vary based on how many calories you're eating.

    Figure your lean body mass (current weight * (1 - BF%)) and multiply by .85 (generally the maximum amount you'll see any benefit from when doing resistance training) - that's your protein macro. For you, let's pretend you have 120lb of LEAN body mass, which puts your protein macro at roughly 100g. Even if you use the old rule of thumb of 1g/lb of LBM which comes out to 120g of protein, that's a farcry from the 188g+ you're estimating. To give you an idea, I'm 6'3", male, large frame, lift several times a week and I don't even shoot for 188g of protein daily. You can go a bit higher than this and it likely won't hurt you (unless you suffer from reduced kidney function), but please stop thinking you need to take in 190+g of protein. You don't.

    I would agree that the minimum macros should be tied more to your (lean) body mass rather than percentage of calories. What if you decide to eat 3000 calories in a day? that's 375grams of protein on 50% macro split, that's 4lbs of chicken breast.

    I just looked it up and found as humans we should consume at least 32 grams of fat per day. With your 1500 cal diet if 20% (300 cals) come from fat, that's 33.3g, so you're safe. The reason I highlighted as a woman I would be mindful of fat is that we may not have different minimum requirements than men, however our hormonal functions are a bit more complex.

    I am big on protein and myself consume about 140g/day. I would agree 190+ is an overkill unless you simply enjoy meat and high protein food and have no health concerns.