Need help with my macros

jennetsullivan
jennetsullivan Posts: 37 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've been working out for a little over a month and went from this:
Weight 251.9
Lean 122.7
Fat 129.2
Percent body fat: 51.3

To this:
Weight 237.5
Lean 116.8
Fat 120.7
Percent body fat: 50.8

(measured by Hydrostatic Underwater weighing, so I'm assuming fairly accurate.)

I've been eating 1800 calories based on the fact that my RMR was 1724 when I started this (it's down to 1666). I do a pretty intense boot camp 2-3 times a week and have 2 kids and a desk job. So I'm all over the map on my activity from intense to sedentary. I'm eating 2500 calories 1 day a week with one meal (lunch) being a "cheat" meal at the advice of the Body analysis guy that weighed me the first time.

So the new numbers are in and I lost quite a bit of lean muscle mass, even though I've been doing some heavy lifting at the gym. I was told a small amount of lean loss was OK with the amount of weight I need to lose, but 5.9 pounds is too much. The recommendation given to me was to eat 45% protein... I looked on MFP... I have only been eating 20% Protein (30% fat and 50% carb).

I went here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets
and did the math for determining how much to set my macros at and came up with 25% protein / 40% fat / 35% carb.

I need help figuring out what to set my macros - doing 20p/30f/50c is causing me to lose too much muscle, but that link says less protein is OK with very high body fat percentage (which I definitely have). So what about 45% protein? That seems like a lot since my calculations came up at 25%??

My goal is to stop losing so much muscle mass - even be OK with gaining some - even at the cost of the scale moving less. I'm more interested in dropping body fat than the actual weight on the scale.

Help?

Replies

  • charlieibeling
    charlieibeling Posts: 93 Member
    Nothing wrong with 45%. This will definately help retain muscle mass. If you have been losing on 1800 with 20 something percent protein there is a good chance you can eat even more calories with the higher protein intake as it causes a more thermogenic effect in the body than carbs or fat.

    so that would be about 200g of protein or so which can be challenging at first but is pretty easy once you get used to it. add in a protein shake and eat 6-8oz servings of lean meat.
    I HIGHLY recommend a BCAA supplement. They have an amazing ability to spare muscle tissue and they are fairly cheap.
  • jennetsullivan
    jennetsullivan Posts: 37 Member
    Nothing wrong with 45%. This will definately help retain muscle mass. If you have been losing on 1800 with 20 something percent protein there is a good chance you can eat even more calories with the higher protein intake as it causes a more thermogenic effect in the body than carbs or fat.

    so that would be about 200g of protein or so which can be challenging at first but is pretty easy once you get used to it. add in a protein shake and eat 6-8oz servings of lean meat.
    I HIGHLY recommend a BCAA supplement. They have an amazing ability to spare muscle tissue and they are fairly cheap.

    OOH, more calories, that sounds awesome!! :happy:

    I'm definitely going to buy a BCAA supplement, I had no idea they made supplements to help keep muscle..that's pretty awesome.

    6-8oz servings of lean meat sounds incredibly daunting though. My protein shakes I drink have 30g. I might have to work up to 45%!!
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Anything over 35% protein is generally regarded as "excessive", you will in the main just get expensive pee from 45% compared to 35%.
  • dammitjanet0161
    dammitjanet0161 Posts: 319 Member
    In to check out any advice before possibly starting my own thread as I've been getting a bit confused about fat and protein ratios too.
  • charlieibeling
    charlieibeling Posts: 93 Member
    there is no magic number of macro ratios that can be applied to everyone. Going high protein/fat generally works for most but has its drawbacks so I usually try to get in as many carbs as someone can handle and cut them down as progress stalls. for example i trained a two people for a competition last year, one was able to eat 300 plus carbs a day most of his diet and lose weight and the other was down to about 30 to get lean. the first was about 33% and the other about 45-50% protein. the advice about peeing out the extra protein is wrong. The body would never waste valuable protein. what it actually does is convert it to a carbohydrate if needed.

    if i was training you i would start you off on 200g pro, 135 carbs and 50 fat and assess progress
  • acampbe2umd
    acampbe2umd Posts: 145 Member
    I agree, it will be trial and error for you. I typically try for my macros to be 40/30/30 for carb/protein/fat, but this hasn't been getting the job done after having my third child. I just bumped up my protein and reduced carbs to 35/35/30 to see how my body responds. Also, calories will depend on your height/weight etc, but I'm 5"7" and 150lbs and I tend to eat between 1800-2300 calories each day depending on activity. And just remember, if you're hungry, eat! Some lifting days, I can eat all day long it seems.

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