Carbs protein and fat... Help

Try about 1 gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight (the weight you want to be) per day. I would say that's the most important thing. The other two you can play around with more and see what works best for your own body, everyone will respond differently. If you're worried about getting too much carbs then the first thing you should do would just be to limit the amount of refined carbs your're getting from breads, pasta, sugar etc. Those will spike your insulin the most.

It sounds like you want to try 35% carbs, so add in whatever percent gives you the right amount of protein, and put the rest as fat.

For what it's worth, my macros are 35% protein, 35% carb, and 30% fat. Works for me. I have plenty of energy, am rarely hungry, and am losing at a steady, reasonable rate.

Why do you want to go reduced carb? It doesn't matter for weight loss (calories in being less than calories out is the only way to lose) but can make a difference in satiety and overall health, depending on the person. I am doing reduced carb because of T2 diabetes.

earlnabby wrote: »

For what it's worth, my macros are 35% protein, 35% carb, and 30% fat. Works for me. I have plenty of energy, am rarely hungry, and am losing at a steady, reasonable rate.

Why do you want to go reduced carb? It doesn't matter for weight loss (calories in being less than calories out is the only way to lose) but can make a difference in satiety and overall health, depending on the person. I am doing reduced carb because of T2 diabetes.

gerrielips wrote: »

I'm still playing with the macros and switched mine to the % that are working for you. Will see how that works for me. I'm on a "low" carb, low sugar, no processed food plan to lose weight and get off meds for insulin resistance . Am 66, 5'3" and shooting for about 1200 calories (plus exercising about 3x a week). Hoping to lose about a pound a week. Your thoughts about my plan. Do you think it realistic?

All I can say for sure is that I was able to get off the diabetes meds less than a year after diagnosis and my A1C has stayed just under 5.5 since I have been off them. I came up with the 35% carbs because my doctor gave me a maximum of 180 grams of total carbs per day and, at the time, 175 was 35% of my calories. I am currently eating 1760 calories so my carbs are 158 g. When I eat back exercise calories, I still stay below the 180 no matter how many I eat back.

I do not track sugar since total carbs are the important thing to track. I also make sure I eat at least 35 g of fiber. Both sugar and fiber are just subsets of carbs, but higher fiber has a bigger impact on health than lower sugar does. 1200 calories seems really low to me, but how much do you currently weigh (which is what determines how much you should eat)?

galgenstrick wrote: »

nataliejenkins123 wrote: »

Ah thank you both!! Yes I very rarely eat bread, and only a small portion of pasta once a week and yes quite a bit of sugar within my calories for a choccy treat, and my snack a jacks treat... I didn't realise how much carbs were in things!!! Real eye opener!
Thanks for help I feel more settled now with what I'm aiming for :-)

Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss. So eating a bit of sugar or pasta once a week is a great idea. To maximize the benefit, eat those things after a resistance training workout or in the morning when you're more insulin sensitive. That way the carbs will fill the depleted glycogen in your muscles, rather than get stored as fat.

This is interesting! And helps validate my fierce cupcake craving, which I have given into a few times lately!

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MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

nataliejenkins123 wrote: »

Ah thank you both!! Yes I very rarely eat bread, and only a small portion of pasta once a week and yes quite a bit of sugar within my calories for a choccy treat, and my snack a jacks treat... I didn't realise how much carbs were in things!!! Real eye opener!
Thanks for help I feel more settled now with what I'm aiming for :-)

Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss. So eating a bit of sugar or pasta once a week is a great idea. To maximize the benefit, eat those things after a resistance training workout or in the morning when you're more insulin sensitive. That way the carbs will fill the depleted glycogen in your muscles, rather than get stored as fat.

Sorry but that's false.

I don't know where you got that idea. But there are several studies that have shown that. It's also why body builders do carb cycling.

This content has been removed.

Do more fat than protein, and if youre gonna shoot for 50 carbs at least make sure more than half is at least dietry fiber from vegetables or nuts i say more fat than protein because carbs turn into sugar unless you burn that sugar off by doing exercise itll just store as fat, so now if you ate more protein too much protein can eventually break down into sugar anyways by keeping your fats high your body will reach a ketosis state and use your body fat as energy which is how youll loose weight as your left over carbs gets burned off easily by walking or whatever it is you do daily use this calculator as a reference its very useful! And has helped me very much to reaching my weight goal! http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

nataliejenkins123 wrote: »

Ah thank you both!! Yes I very rarely eat bread, and only a small portion of pasta once a week and yes quite a bit of sugar within my calories for a choccy treat, and my snack a jacks treat... I didn't realise how much carbs were in things!!! Real eye opener!
Thanks for help I feel more settled now with what I'm aiming for :-)

Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss. So eating a bit of sugar or pasta once a week is a great idea. To maximize the benefit, eat those things after a resistance training workout or in the morning when you're more insulin sensitive. That way the carbs will fill the depleted glycogen in your muscles, rather than get stored as fat.

Sorry but that's false.

I don't know where you got that idea. But there are several studies that have shown that. It's also why body builders do carb cycling.

I'm not sure where you got it from. Please provide your sources.
You say bodybuilders carb cycle as if all of the do it. That is also not true.

I didn't mean all bodybuilders, I was speaking generally. Perhaps I should have said "Many bodybuilders", my mistake!

Here's a few sources on the effects of carbohydrates on the metabolism:

Mathieson, Walberg, Gwazdauskas, Hinkle, Gregg, R. (1986). The effect of varying carbohydrate content of a very-low-caloric diet on resting metabolic rate and thyroid hormones. Metabolism, 35(5), 394-398.

Weigle, Duell, Connor, Steiner, Soules, Kuijper, D. (1996). Effect of Fasting, Refeeding, and Dietary Fat Restriction on Plasma Leptin Levels. JCEM, 82(2).

Johnston, Tjonn, Swan, White, Hutchins, Sears, (2006). Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr, 83(5), 1055-61.

Jenkins, Markovic, Fleury, Campbell, A. (1997). Carbohydrate intake and short-term regulation of leptin in humans. Diabetologia, 40(3), 348-351.

Ebbeling, Swain, Feldman, Wong, Hachey, Garcia-Lago, Ludwig, C. (2012). Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance. JAMA, 307(24), 2627-2634.

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

nataliejenkins123 wrote: »

Ah thank you both!! Yes I very rarely eat bread, and only a small portion of pasta once a week and yes quite a bit of sugar within my calories for a choccy treat, and my snack a jacks treat... I didn't realise how much carbs were in things!!! Real eye opener!
Thanks for help I feel more settled now with what I'm aiming for :-)

Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss. So eating a bit of sugar or pasta once a week is a great idea. To maximize the benefit, eat those things after a resistance training workout or in the morning when you're more insulin sensitive. That way the carbs will fill the depleted glycogen in your muscles, rather than get stored as fat.

Sorry but that's false.

I don't know where you got that idea. But there are several studies that have shown that. It's also why body builders do carb cycling.

I'm not sure where you got it from. Please provide your sources.
You say bodybuilders carb cycle as if all of the do it. That is also not true.

I didn't mean all bodybuilders, I was speaking generally. Perhaps I should have said "Many bodybuilders", my mistake!

Here's a few sources on the effects of carbohydrates on the metabolism:

Mathieson, Walberg, Gwazdauskas, Hinkle, Gregg, R. (1986). The effect of varying carbohydrate content of a very-low-caloric diet on resting metabolic rate and thyroid hormones. Metabolism, 35(5), 394-398.
This is a VLCD study. Not a general low carb diet so to use it for you claim is misleading. Also it clearly states "Thus, although dietary carbohydrate content had an influence on the magnitude of fall in serum T3, RMR declined similarly for both dietary treatments"

Weigle, Duell, Connor, Steiner, Soules, Kuijper, D. (1996). Effect of Fasting, Refeeding, and Dietary Fat Restriction on Plasma Leptin Levels. JCEM, 82(2).
A study on Plasma Leptin levels, what does that have to do with your low carb claim?

Johnston, Tjonn, Swan, White, Hutchins, Sears, (2006). Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr, 83(5), 1055-61.
A study comparing 2 low carb diets, keto vs non-keto, which doesn't talk about what you are claiming at all and I comparing keto diets for weight loss. Does not support your claim again"


Jenkins, Markovic, Fleury, Campbell, A. (1997). Carbohydrate intake and short-term regulation of leptin in humans. Diabetologia, 40(3), 348-351.
A study about Leptin in relation to carbohydrate intake. Nothing to do with your claim


Ebbeling, Swain, Feldman, Wong, Hachey, Garcia-Lago, Ludwig, C. (2012). Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance. JAMA, 307(24), 2627-2634.
The only study you actually posted that was talking about the topic at hand and the conclusion of the study you posted was........"Conclusion Among overweight and obese young adults compared with pre–weight-loss energy expenditure, isocaloric feeding following 10% to 15% weight loss resulted in decreases in REE and TEE that were greatest with the low-fat diet, intermediate with the low–glycemic index diet, and least with the very low-carbohydrate diet.". So it actually says the opposite of what you are claiming.

I added my comments to your post above. If you've got anything else feel free to post it. But please make sure it at least is something that we support this claim you made "Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss". Or at least talks about the topic at hand.

Leptin and thyroid hormones play huge roles in the metabolism. Why are you so quick to dismiss the evidence? You spent only 20 minutes to refute the papers, which are quite lengthy, so It's clear you didn't even read them.

The 2012 study you said is opposed to what I'm claiming showed that cortisol levels were elivated in the low carbohydrate group. elevated cortisol causes thyroid hormones to be less active, thus decreasing the metabolism.

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

nataliejenkins123 wrote: »

Ah thank you both!! Yes I very rarely eat bread, and only a small portion of pasta once a week and yes quite a bit of sugar within my calories for a choccy treat, and my snack a jacks treat... I didn't realise how much carbs were in things!!! Real eye opener!
Thanks for help I feel more settled now with what I'm aiming for :-)

Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss. So eating a bit of sugar or pasta once a week is a great idea. To maximize the benefit, eat those things after a resistance training workout or in the morning when you're more insulin sensitive. That way the carbs will fill the depleted glycogen in your muscles, rather than get stored as fat.

Sorry but that's false.

I don't know where you got that idea. But there are several studies that have shown that. It's also why body builders do carb cycling.

I'm not sure where you got it from. Please provide your sources.
You say bodybuilders carb cycle as if all of the do it. That is also not true.

I didn't mean all bodybuilders, I was speaking generally. Perhaps I should have said "Many bodybuilders", my mistake!

Here's a few sources on the effects of carbohydrates on the metabolism:

Mathieson, Walberg, Gwazdauskas, Hinkle, Gregg, R. (1986). The effect of varying carbohydrate content of a very-low-caloric diet on resting metabolic rate and thyroid hormones. Metabolism, 35(5), 394-398.
This is a VLCD study. Not a general low carb diet so to use it for you claim is misleading. Also it clearly states "Thus, although dietary carbohydrate content had an influence on the magnitude of fall in serum T3, RMR declined similarly for both dietary treatments"

Weigle, Duell, Connor, Steiner, Soules, Kuijper, D. (1996). Effect of Fasting, Refeeding, and Dietary Fat Restriction on Plasma Leptin Levels. JCEM, 82(2).
A study on Plasma Leptin levels, what does that have to do with your low carb claim?

Johnston, Tjonn, Swan, White, Hutchins, Sears, (2006). Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr, 83(5), 1055-61.
A study comparing 2 low carb diets, keto vs non-keto, which doesn't talk about what you are claiming at all and I comparing keto diets for weight loss. Does not support your claim again"


Jenkins, Markovic, Fleury, Campbell, A. (1997). Carbohydrate intake and short-term regulation of leptin in humans. Diabetologia, 40(3), 348-351.
A study about Leptin in relation to carbohydrate intake. Nothing to do with your claim


Ebbeling, Swain, Feldman, Wong, Hachey, Garcia-Lago, Ludwig, C. (2012). Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance. JAMA, 307(24), 2627-2634.
The only study you actually posted that was talking about the topic at hand and the conclusion of the study you posted was........"Conclusion Among overweight and obese young adults compared with pre–weight-loss energy expenditure, isocaloric feeding following 10% to 15% weight loss resulted in decreases in REE and TEE that were greatest with the low-fat diet, intermediate with the low–glycemic index diet, and least with the very low-carbohydrate diet.". So it actually says the opposite of what you are claiming.

I added my comments to your post above. If you've got anything else feel free to post it. But please make sure it at least is something that we support this claim you made "Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss". Or at least talks about the topic at hand.

Leptin and thyroid hormones play huge roles in the metabolism. Why are you so quick to dismiss the evidence? You spent only 20 minutes to refute the papers, which are quite lengthy, so It's clear you didn't even read them.

You are reaching here. Yes, I understand how Leptin works and it's effects on hunger. You are trying to tie that into your claim that low carb diets will reduce RMR, it's a reach. Now you bring up thyroid? Who's talking about that? You made a claim about low carb diets, not thyroid hormone imbalance.

I'm not quick to dismiss evidence. As you can clearly see from my previous response to your post, I did read the studies which led me to point out that they had nothing to do with your claim. So I actually can't be dismissing evidence because you haven't provided any.

20 minutes is not a long time to read a couple of studies and it's even easier when it's apparent that they have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

I'll let you do your own research on how thyroid hormones effect the metabolism. Nothing in the body is simply as black and white as you think it is. This argument seems to be a waste of both of our time.

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

galgenstrick wrote: »

nataliejenkins123 wrote: »

Ah thank you both!! Yes I very rarely eat bread, and only a small portion of pasta once a week and yes quite a bit of sugar within my calories for a choccy treat, and my snack a jacks treat... I didn't realise how much carbs were in things!!! Real eye opener!
Thanks for help I feel more settled now with what I'm aiming for :-)

Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss. So eating a bit of sugar or pasta once a week is a great idea. To maximize the benefit, eat those things after a resistance training workout or in the morning when you're more insulin sensitive. That way the carbs will fill the depleted glycogen in your muscles, rather than get stored as fat.

Sorry but that's false.

I don't know where you got that idea. But there are several studies that have shown that. It's also why body builders do carb cycling.

I'm not sure where you got it from. Please provide your sources.
You say bodybuilders carb cycle as if all of the do it. That is also not true.

I didn't mean all bodybuilders, I was speaking generally. Perhaps I should have said "Many bodybuilders", my mistake!

Here's a few sources on the effects of carbohydrates on the metabolism:

Mathieson, Walberg, Gwazdauskas, Hinkle, Gregg, R. (1986). The effect of varying carbohydrate content of a very-low-caloric diet on resting metabolic rate and thyroid hormones. Metabolism, 35(5), 394-398.
This is a VLCD study. Not a general low carb diet so to use it for you claim is misleading. Also it clearly states "Thus, although dietary carbohydrate content had an influence on the magnitude of fall in serum T3, RMR declined similarly for both dietary treatments"

Weigle, Duell, Connor, Steiner, Soules, Kuijper, D. (1996). Effect of Fasting, Refeeding, and Dietary Fat Restriction on Plasma Leptin Levels. JCEM, 82(2).
A study on Plasma Leptin levels, what does that have to do with your low carb claim?

Johnston, Tjonn, Swan, White, Hutchins, Sears, (2006). Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr, 83(5), 1055-61.
A study comparing 2 low carb diets, keto vs non-keto, which doesn't talk about what you are claiming at all and I comparing keto diets for weight loss. Does not support your claim again"


Jenkins, Markovic, Fleury, Campbell, A. (1997). Carbohydrate intake and short-term regulation of leptin in humans. Diabetologia, 40(3), 348-351.
A study about Leptin in relation to carbohydrate intake. Nothing to do with your claim


Ebbeling, Swain, Feldman, Wong, Hachey, Garcia-Lago, Ludwig, C. (2012). Effects of Dietary Composition on Energy Expenditure During Weight-Loss Maintenance. JAMA, 307(24), 2627-2634.
The only study you actually posted that was talking about the topic at hand and the conclusion of the study you posted was........"Conclusion Among overweight and obese young adults compared with pre–weight-loss energy expenditure, isocaloric feeding following 10% to 15% weight loss resulted in decreases in REE and TEE that were greatest with the low-fat diet, intermediate with the low–glycemic index diet, and least with the very low-carbohydrate diet.". So it actually says the opposite of what you are claiming.

I added my comments to your post above. If you've got anything else feel free to post it. But please make sure it at least is something that we support this claim you made "Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss". Or at least talks about the topic at hand.

Leptin and thyroid hormones play huge roles in the metabolism. Why are you so quick to dismiss the evidence? You spent only 20 minutes to refute the papers, which are quite lengthy, so It's clear you didn't even read them.

You are reaching here. Yes, I understand how Leptin works and it's effects on hunger. You are trying to tie that into your claim that low carb diets will reduce RMR, it's a reach. Now you bring up thyroid? Who's talking about that? You made a claim about low carb diets, not thyroid hormone imbalance.

I'm not quick to dismiss evidence. As you can clearly see from my previous response to your post, I did read the studies which led me to point out that they had nothing to do with your claim. So I actually can't be dismissing evidence because you haven't provided any.

20 minutes is not a long time to read a couple of studies and it's even easier when it's apparent that they have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

I'll let you do your own research on how thyroid hormones effect the metabolism. Nothing in the body is simply as black and white as you think it is. This argument seems to be a waste of both of our time.

What does the thyroid conversation have to do with this claim you made "Your metabolism will start to decrease if you eat low carbs for a long time, which will slow down your fat loss"? It's a waste of time because you are unsuccessfully trying to move goal posts.

Google what the thyroid does and this is the first thing that pops up:
"The thyroid’s main role in the endocrine system is to regulate your metabolism"

and the dictionary definition:

"Thyroid - a large ductless gland in the neck that secretes hormones regulating growth and development through the rate of metabolism."


It's a waste of time because you don't understand basic endocrinology. Perhaps starting a new thread on this topic would be more productive since we're getting off subject from OPs question.

MrM27 wrote: »

ed_word wrote: »

Do more fat than protein, and if youre gonna shoot for 50 carbs at least make sure more than half is at least dietry fiber from vegetables or nuts i say more fat than protein because carbs turn into sugar unless you burn that sugar off by doing exercise itll just store as fat, so now if you ate more protein too much protein can eventually break down into sugar anyways by keeping your fats high your body will reach a ketosis state and use your body fat as energy which is how youll loose weight as your left over carbs gets burned off easily by walking or whatever it is you do daily use this calculator as a reference its very useful! And has helped me very much to reaching my weight goal! http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com

Your post is all over the place. You don't understand how things work.

Yeah im using my phone sorry about that, but I speak for myself and my own weight loss experience from a high fat low carb diet. Saying i dont understand how things work is ignorant perhaps my explanation of it wasn't as detailed as I inteded it to be and kept it concise i was very skeptical myself before doing it after discovering the diet on reddit and doing my fair share of research on it. Keto has has made me loose weight, increase my metabolism and healthier than ive ever been