Under daily calorie, but consistently over on protein, sugar, or both

don't worry too much about those limits. Just focus on measuring your calories accurately (using a food scale and logging everything) and you'll do great.

I can't really say much because I don't have any numbers to work with. However eating more protein can be beneficial to weight loss not only because it has a higher thermic effect than the other macronutrients, but also prevents muscle wasting to an extent. Since muscle is what burns the majority of your daily calories, keeping muscle mass is essential. Strength training is the better way of preserving muscle, but eating a lot of protein certainly can aid it as well. I'd say anywhere between 100-180g of protein per day (depending on duration and intensity of exercise) is adequate.

About the low total calories, this can be detrimental depending on how low you're talking about. If you're eating 300-700 cal under your TDE (total daily expenditure) then this is ok and probably the best deficit range depending on your body comp. If your deficit is anything less than that for an extended period of time, your body's levels of thyroid hormone will decrease, slowing your metabolism and making weight loss slower. In addition, the bigger the calorie deficit, the more muscle mass you risk losing, which also slows down your metabolism.

On the high sugar topic, it also depends how much sugar you are consuming. if you are replacing fat with sugar, you are slowing down fat loss. Different enzymes are required for breaking down the different types of macronutrients. The levels of enzymes present in your GI tract are directly related to your diet. A higher carb diet will have more enzymes that break down carbs and less enzymes that breakdown proteins. With less fat enzymes you will only be able to break down a limited amount of fat per given amount of time. Also there are essential fatty acids that a necessary to have in the diet.

Another thing about added sugar is that it is a combination of half glucose and half fructose. The glucose is absorbed in the blood stream and causes the pancreas to release insulin and the glucose is stored in the muscles and the liver. Fructose however, can only be used by the liver unless it is converted (by the liver) to glucose. It is absorbed in the blood stream and doesn't cause an major insulin release by itself so it is metabolized by the liver and stored as liver glycogen. However when the liver is full of glycogen and there is still fructose in the blood stream, the liver will convert the fructose into free fatty acids which are stored in the fat cells.

Sorry this is so long. I hope this helps.

Reduce sugar and carbs. Doing so will improve your life.
Drastically limit bread, pasta, pizza, rice, corn, potatoes, and fruit.

Eat more fats and oils to get to your calorie goal and to replace the sugar: butter, olive oil, hummus, nuts, avocados, sunflower seeds, chia seeds. Also whole fat milk and yogurt and cheese.

Eat lots more low carb/low sugar frozen/fresh/ canned veggies like broccoli, swiss chard, kale, spinach, romaine, cabbage, mushrooms, asparagus, avocados, okra, cauliflower, bell peppers, snow peas, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash, brussels sprouts.

Going over on protein is not a problem; As regards sugar - it depends what kind of sugar. I drink a lot of milk, which has lactose in it, which is a kind of sugar and that often pushes me over my goals. However, I'd only consider it a problem if I was eating too much processed or added sugar - chocolate, fizzy drinks, etc.

If your sugar is coming from fruits, milk and unprocessed carbs then I wouldn't worry at all but if it's coming from less than healthy food then I'd take note of what has a high amount of sugar and cut back on those. For me, I didn't realise that my coffee creamer had extra sugar in it, and once I cut back on that I did my teeth and my diet a whole lot of good :-)

Weight loss is calories in vs calories out. Period.

This thread is an excellent starting point for your weight loss journey and this one is a great one on setting calorie and macro targets.

RodaRose wrote: »

Reduce sugar and carbs. Doing so will improve your life.
Drastically limit bread, pasta, pizza, rice, corn, potatoes, and fruit.

Eat more fats and oils to get to your calorie goal and to replace the sugar: butter, olive oil, hummus, nuts, avocados, sunflower seeds, chia seeds. Also whole fat milk and yogurt and cheese.

Eat lots more low carb/low sugar frozen/fresh/ canned veggies like broccoli, swiss chard, kale, spinach, romaine, cabbage, mushrooms, asparagus, avocados, okra, cauliflower, bell peppers, snow peas, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash, brussels sprouts.

How does drastically limiting bread, pasta etc improve life?

And why eat more fats and oils? I personally can't stomache full fat milk...the thought of it makes me sick to my stomache to be quite frank...

why go low carb?

Our bodies are designed to eat those things, want them, use them why not eat them.

To the OP MFP is minimums...don't worry about it unless you have a medical reason to...and no it won't hinder weight loss. CICO

You are exactly doing the opposite of what you should do, which is going low in fat and high in sugar, switch that balance and you will see the results, of course when I say eat more fat I mean healthy fats, not canola oil and margarine.

I don't know what is that "why" for but I really encourage you to research about the truth of fat intake.

The common misconception of "fat makes you fat" is what makes nations like the US have the obesity epidemic that they have. You can't have more low-fat *kitten*, diets, products in that country but ironically people is fatter and fatter every day, sometimes things are so easy to see.

If you ask about fats in particular, there are hundreds of places in which you can read about it.

I recommend you these series of articles.

http://chriskresser.com/essentialfattyacids

It is going to be hard to find better information about fats than that.

Echoing a lot of the sentiments - the overall number is the biggest indicator of loss. Make sure you are drinking enough water to help your liver sort all that protein though! My dietician friend gave me this advice when I she looked at my numbers. I don't have studies to back this up though...

Since you have just begun, I would worry only about staying within your deficit. After you have the hang of it, worry about your macros.

Scarecrowsama wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

The point is people don't have to eat high fat and low in sugar. There is no rule to that. I eat moderate fat 60-70g per day and I could care less about the sugar. Why haven't I failed?

They don't have to, each individual is different and there are so many factors.

The negative effects of sugar in the body are endless, just research it, they don't happen from one day to another.

Given that the body breaks down most foods into sugars to convert to energy, I'm really, really curious about these 'endless' negative effects that, apparently, the body is voluntarily subjecting itself to in order to stay alive.

I will note that during the discussion in the recent keto thread a few people (including me) brought up that their only issue with keto was how some low carb people felt compelled to tell everyone that they needed to do low carb or cut sugar. Others responded claiming to not see these posts. IMO, this thread is a typical example where the OP asked a question and got unsolicited advice that she needs to cut carbs and sugar when so far as we can tell she's doing just fine and having no problems maintaining her calorie limit and eating healthy as she understands it.

I see that on just about every similar thread, and it's what I was referring to.