Why prioritize protein > fat> carbs?

based on my understanding (feel free to correct me if I am wrong)

Fats help keep you satiated and you need fat in your diet to help absorb certian nutrients found in other foods.

You fill up on protien and it keeps you feeling fuller longer...carbs are good too for energy and shouldn't be dismissed.

Now keep in mind depending on the type of carb you can get the quick energy or slow release energy.

I eat carbs but not a fan of starchy carbs...they leave me feeling icky...mind you if I just eat just complex carbs with no protien or fats I feel "empty"...

Also, fats are essential for metabolizing some nutrients and they do not impact blood glucose. As a Type 2 diabetic I'd rather have fat than carbs to keep my blood glucose levels steady.

Carbs are not essential to your body. They provide energy, but protein can also be metabolized for energy.

It's because protein and fat are actually essential for your body to function properly while carbs simply provide fuel, and are not strictly necessary (though obviously your body will probably function better with at least some carbs rather than 0). Protein and fat are good for you as well as more filling, so make sure you hit those numbers. There's no real minimum amount of necessary carbs so getting them in doesn't matter.

Protein and Fat are essential.

Carbs are non-essential....so if you are looking to gain or lose or maintain....Carbs can be your variable marco/calories

Also, fats are essential for metabolizing some nutrients and they do not impact blood glucose. As a Type 2 diabetic I'd rather have fat than carbs to keep my blood glucose levels steady.

Carbs are not essential to your body. They provide energy, but protein can also be metabolized for energy.

actually they are essential or they wouldn't be a Macro...

carbs help with brain function (based on what I have read)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20329590

Essential fatty acids and human brain

"The human brain is nearly 60 percent fat. We've learned in recent years that fatty acids are among the most crucial molecules that determine your brain's integrity and ability to perform. Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are required for maintenance of optimal health but they can not synthesized by the body and must be obtained from dietary sources."

protein is the building blocks your body uses to make new cells. That's why it's the most important.

fat is also used to build new cells, in particular cell membranes, so it's important, but not as much as protein.

carbohydrate just gives you energy. The above two can give you energy too - a small amount of fat gives you a lot of energy - but all carbohydrate does is give you energy... as your body needs the protein and fat for growth and repair (i.e. growing new cells to replace the ones that wear out) you need to be sure you're getting enough of those first, then the amount of carbohydrate you need depends on your activity levels.... it's the most readily available form of energy for your body, so the best one for fuelling physical activity. But as it's *only* giving you energy, that's why it's less important than the other two.

ETA: this doesn't mean you can just cut all carbs out of your diet and not have any bad effects from it.... there's a difference between bare survival and optimal health. Carbs are necessary to fuel your daily activities, your body can't burn fat fast enough for high levels of activity. When you work out or do any fairly vigorous physical activity, you burn both fat and carbs to fuel it, and your body balances the two. Fat alone can't sustain that level of workout, so if you have no carbs in your system, the quality of your workout will suffer and the total amount of calories you'll burn will be quite a lot less... with carbs in your system you burn more energy (calories) overall and get a much better workout. Also your brain functions better with carbs in your system.

Dietary fat also plays a role in hormone production and regulation.

Also, fats are essential for metabolizing some nutrients and they do not impact blood glucose. As a Type 2 diabetic I'd rather have fat than carbs to keep my blood glucose levels steady.

Carbs are not essential to your body. They provide energy, but protein can also be metabolized for energy.

IN for depriving your brain of glucose

On a LCHF or even no carb diet (although I am not advocating one) the brain only requires about 30g of glucose as opposed to the 120g on a medium to high carb diet, as it fuels mostly from ketones.

You just said LC. Low. Meaning NOT zero.

Dont take 1g of carbs for a week and run a 5k a day, then check back in here and let us know how that works out for ya.



Saying you dont need carbs is like saying you dont need vitamin C. Have fun getting scurvy.

Also, fats are essential for metabolizing some nutrients and they do not impact blood glucose. As a Type 2 diabetic I'd rather have fat than carbs to keep my blood glucose levels steady.

Carbs are not essential to your body. They provide energy, but protein can also be metabolized for energy.

IN for depriving your brain of glucose

On a LCHF or even no carb diet (although I am not advocating one) the brain only requires about 30g of glucose as opposed to the 120g on a medium to high carb diet, as it fuels mostly from ketones.

just because the brain *can* do this, it doesn't mean it's what's best for optimal brain function. People are not always very good at judging whether their brain is functioning well or not. It's kind of like when someone's drunk and think they're sober and fine to drive home... if their friends are complete arseholes and actually let them drive home, their chances of causing an accident are much greater than usual (as should be totally obvious) - yet they may feel that they're fine to drive, because they haven't notice that their reaction times are slower and they're a bit less co-ordinated than usual.

While the effect of lack of glucose on the brain due to a low carb diet isn't as pronounced as this (but in insulin dependent diabetes, the person can appear completely drunk and actually go into a coma due to the brain being completely deprived of glucose) it's still likely to have a greater effect on cognitive functioning than the owner of the brain will realise. Additionally, if you add in observer bias (because they believe that a very low carb diet is good for them) then the result is someone who insists that they function *just fine* on a very low carb diet, and they truly believe that they do...... but are likely to be not noticing that actually they're not functioning as well as they do when eating more carbohydrates.