22, trying to lose 30 lbs, and I have questions!

Your macros should be around 40-50% protein, 30-40% fat, and 10-20% carbs.
This is just a guideline as everyone's body type and the way they metabolize food is different.
Never go lower than 15-20% fat as fat is utilized in processing certain important vitamins. These guidelines are for cutting weight, once you've reached your goal you must change your macros so that you can maintain your weight.

It is important to come close to your caloric goal as possible. Remember weit loss occurs only when you are in a caloric deficiency. If you consistently go over and have a caloric reserve, you will gain weight.
Just keep in mind that IT IS OK TO SLIP EVERY NOW AND THEN, forgive yourself you are human, but get right back on track.

I hope this helps with you some.

Good luck on your endeavor.

-Shane

To answer the question about the vitamins. Vitamin A is fat soluble so it gets stored in your body. Extensive amounts can have harmful effects. Vitamin C is water soluble so if you get too much, you just pee it out.

I didn't know that about the vitamins thanks !!!

If you're trying to lose weight try not to sway too far away from the limit of 1200. If you do just exercise it off. Don't let yourself starve have three meals a day, I like to have alight breakfast a cooked meal at lunch and a salad/light dinner. Fill up snack times with fruits and healthy dips etc. It's not difficult once you get started and you know what to avoid and stay away from

Tinks x

All right, so... Hi, my name is Stephanie and I'm trying to lose thirty pounds. I have a perfect boyfriend and a perfect home with four cats that I love, I'm crossing my fingers for getting the perfect job in an interview tomorrow morning... and there's just one thing that's not perfect, and that'll be my weight.

So, straight to the questions:

1. How important is it for me to reach, or at least come close to my calorie limit for the day? The last two days I didn't quite make it, being 400 and 250 away. Today I'm a whopping 900 calories away (because I also went to the gym) and yet I really find the idea of another large meal today very unappealing. If I go too many days without reaching the goal, is it going to be a big problem as far as muscle/water loss/metabolism slowing, or is it acceptable as long as I'm within say, 400 calories of the goal? I want my weight loss to be a good balance of healthy and time efficient, and I'd like some opinions on how important reaching that goal is, as well as how accurate it is.

2. Currently I weigh 139. My goal is 110. I am 5'2, and 22 years old, so I believe this is a healthy weight for my height. What would you say is the quickest, while still maintaining a moderately healthy diet, way to lose that, and how fast would you say it could fall off if I follow the most rigorous steps? (not saying I will-- just trying to get some things straight here) I have a gym membership and my new job should allow me to go every day without any trouble or extra stress. I was slightly athletic in high school, did a lot of hiking, and played sports in middle school. So I'm moderately used to physical activity and find it refreshing. However, I can't remember a time when I weighed less than 130 lbs. The earliest weigh-in I can remember was in second grade, and I was 134 (I was the tallest in my class at 4'8, but still overweight, of course.)

3. Which is more important to keep low, carbs or fat? I haven't gone over on either yet, but I'm curious to know as I've heard multiple answers to this question. I avoid trans fat completely and most of the other fats I intake are actually the monounsaturated and the polyunsaturated. What are those, what do they mean? My goal for them is zero, and I always go over it.

4. How important is sodium? At my age I don't feel as if I have to worry a lot about heart health (and heart disease doesn't run in either side of my family) so I feel comfortable sacrificing my sodium level to keep my carbs and fat down. I've also heard that drinking a lot of water, which I have been, can counter high sodium levels, is that true?

My diary is public so if looking at it helps anyone answer my questions please feel free to do so! I would really appreciate any help/answers that anyone can offer me!

5. I almost always go way, way over on Vitamin A, and C. I've heard that's not a problem at all, is this true?

Edit: I just realized this is probably the wrong forum for this... I really wanted to do more of an introduction and got carried away with the questions xD. Sorry! Is there a way to move this to the "General Diet and Weight Loss Help" forum?

If you're trying to lose weight try not to sway too far away from the limit of 1200. If you do just exercise it off. Don't let yourself starve have three meals a day, I like to have alight breakfast a cooked meal at lunch and a salad/light dinner. Fill up snack times with fruits and healthy dips etc. It's not difficult once you get started and you know what to avoid and stay away from

Tinks x

Erm, no!

1200 calories is way too low. Her BMR is is 1441 (scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator). Based on OP saying she can exercise everyday, her TDEE -20% is 1787 - she can eat this many calories and still lose weight.

OP - please don't listen to this sort of advice - too many people limit themselves to 1200 calories a day without even knowing their BMR or TDEE.

ETA: TDEE based on moderate activity (3-5hrs per week). TDEE would change if you did more or less than that per week.

The daily intake for a woman is 2000 calories a day this is on the assumption that it would maintain your weight. MFP sets the calorie intake at a deficit to lose weight. Therefore 1700 calories would in theory make her lose weight but the weight loss would be a lot slower than if the deficit was at 1200 and as I said to her its okay to consume above 1200 calories in food as long as she works it off through exercise.

I know perfectly well what my BMI is and I have known my facts from before I started this and have lost weight so I do need to be told that what I am doing is incorrect.

If you're trying to lose weight try not to sway too far away from the limit of 1200. If you do just exercise it off. Don't let yourself starve have three meals a day, I like to have alight breakfast a cooked meal at lunch and a salad/light dinner. Fill up snack times with fruits and healthy dips etc. It's not difficult once you get started and you know what to avoid and stay away from

Tinks x

Erm, no!

1200 calories is way too low. Her BMR is is 1441 (scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator). Based on OP saying she can exercise everyday, her TDEE -20% is 1787 - she can eat this many calories and still lose weight.

OP - please don't listen to this sort of advice - too many people limit themselves to 1200 calories a day without even knowing their BMR or TDEE.

ETA: TDEE based on moderate activity (3-5hrs per week). TDEE would change if you did more or less than that per week.

Calm down!! I'm not saying YOUR techniques are wrong. I have no idea your stats or the calories you're eating. What I was saying is that you shouldn't advise someone to eat 1200calories a day without working out their requirements based on their stats. I worked out OPs TDEE and gave the numbers, showing 1200calories net a day was unnecessarily low. Yes, of course you can lose weight on 1200calories a day, but there's no point limiting yourself so much when there is no need. In OPs case, she can eat 1700calories a day (based on her stats and her saying she exercises everyday) and still lose weight.

It's all about sustainability.

All right, so... Hi, my name is Stephanie and I'm trying to lose thirty pounds. I have a perfect boyfriend and a perfect home with four cats that I love, I'm crossing my fingers for getting the perfect job in an interview tomorrow morning... and there's just one thing that's not perfect, and that'll be my weight.

So, straight to the questions:

1. How important is it for me to reach, or at least come close to my calorie limit for the day? The last two days I didn't quite make it, being 400 and 250 away. Today I'm a whopping 900 calories away (because I also went to the gym) and yet I really find the idea of another large meal today very unappealing. If I go too many days without reaching the goal, is it going to be a big problem as far as muscle/water loss/metabolism slowing, or is it acceptable as long as I'm within say, 400 calories of the goal? I want my weight loss to be a good balance of healthy and time efficient, and I'd like some opinions on how important reaching that goal is, as well as how accurate it is.

2. Currently I weigh 139. My goal is 110. I am 5'2, and 22 years old, so I believe this is a healthy weight for my height. What would you say is the quickest, while still maintaining a moderately healthy diet, way to lose that, and how fast would you say it could fall off if I follow the most rigorous steps? (not saying I will-- just trying to get some things straight here) I have a gym membership and my new job should allow me to go every day without any trouble or extra stress. I was slightly athletic in high school, did a lot of hiking, and played sports in middle school. So I'm moderately used to physical activity and find it refreshing. However, I can't remember a time when I weighed less than 130 lbs. The earliest weigh-in I can remember was in second grade, and I was 134 (I was the tallest in my class at 4'8, but still overweight, of course.)

3. Which is more important to keep low, carbs or fat? I haven't gone over on either yet, but I'm curious to know as I've heard multiple answers to this question. I avoid trans fat completely and most of the other fats I intake are actually the monounsaturated and the polyunsaturated. What are those, what do they mean? My goal for them is zero, and I always go over it.

4. How important is sodium? At my age I don't feel as if I have to worry a lot about heart health (and heart disease doesn't run in either side of my family) so I feel comfortable sacrificing my sodium level to keep my carbs and fat down. I've also heard that drinking a lot of water, which I have been, can counter high sodium levels, is that true?

My diary is public so if looking at it helps anyone answer my questions please feel free to do so! I would really appreciate any help/answers that anyone can offer me!

5. I almost always go way, way over on Vitamin A, and C. I've heard that's not a problem at all, is this true?

Edit: I just realized this is probably the wrong forum for this... I really wanted to do more of an introduction and got carried away with the questions xD. Sorry! Is there a way to move this to the "General Diet and Weight Loss Help" forum?

1. Eat enough to where you are getting enough nutrition to sustain you and your activity. Don't get caught up in the mindset that if you eat below your BMR for a bit that you will die a most painful death (that's what seems to get inferred a lot on these forums... Its just not the most healthy way to go about it and doing it long term can cause issues). Eat at a simple caloric deficit (many online calculators can spit you out a number based on your current stats, average them if you want if looking at several) and eat at that for a few weeks. If you are losing between .5%-%1 of body-weight a week on average over those few weeks, then you are golden. If you are losing above the 1%, then add 50-100 daily calories if you want and go another few weeks to get an average. If you are not losing weight, then subtract 50-100 daily calories and go another few weeks to get an average. Rinse, repeat, adjust as necessary.

2. See answer 1 for keeping it around .5%-1% of body-weight loss a week

3. Macro-nutrients are important in order of Protein, Fat, then Carbs. Don't go off of % though as this is not optimal. Go off of grams per lbs for weight loss. So your situation will result in calculating protein needs based on your approximate lean body mass (your total weight minus your total body-fat...again, online calculators can approximate this for you if need be). The general suggestion you will see on these forums is 1 gram of protein per lbs of lean body mass and some will report 1 gram of protein per lbs of total body weight. Both of these are inherently wrong, but won't hurt you either. The more technical answer is .8 grams of protein per lbs of lean body mass is the maximum (and there is even a lot of extra built into that number) that the body can utilize to maintain/build muscle. Getting more than that does not hurt and even provides satiety thus making dieting a little easier due to feeling full. Fat is needed for many things including hormones and biochemicals, making tissue and cells, skin, also provides satiety, etc... The typical suggestion is somewhere around .3-.45 grams per lbs of lean body mass is typically sufficient. Carbs are the preferred body's energy substrate and are used to fuel your workouts, so while they aren't "necessary", I would not negate them; however, this is the macro-nutrient that is typically lowered (as the others are minimums) in overall context of daily calories as you can exist without them.

So as an example, if your daily goal is to eat 1500 calories (just using this and the numbers following as example info only) and your lean body mass is 100lbs, then you would eat 80 grams of protein a day (80g x 4 calories per gram of protein = 320 calories). You could eat around 40 grams of fat a day (35 x 9 calories per gram of fat = 360 calories). Adding these two up would give you 680 calories and leaves you a balance of 820 calories which you could use to eat carbs, protein, or fat as you see fit.

4. Sodium is one of those that typically does not warrant issue unless you suffer from HBP and your Dr. suggests a low sodium diet. Sodium will make the body retain fluid and fluid retention drives up blood pressure, so if you are hydrating enough and don't have HBP issues, then I would not worry too much about it.

5. Certain vitamins are fat soluble and others are water soluble. So vitamins like A, D, E, and K are stored in fat and only metabolized with fat, so those general pose a greater risk for toxicity when consumed in excess. I personally do not take a multi-vitamin for this reason as eating a normal balanced diet is more than enough. Water soluble like vitamin C and the B complexes are excreted via "the dish water" if there is excess.