In your opinion macros or calories?

In general...I'd say that the answer is both. They aren't mutually exclusive.

In your specific circumstance, I'd still hedge my answer a bit and say "it depends". If I'm pretty close on my macro goals even if I'm a little short I'll stick to the calorie number first. However if I'm woefully short somewhere I've had days where i eat something toward the end of the day to get my numbers up. I still try not to go over maintenance calories tho.

Why low fat BTW? You do need a fair amount of dietary fat for nutrient absorption and other things.

Oh ok I guess I don't consider that particularly low..I'm usually in the 25-30% range

If it's a rare every once in a while I'll generally focus on calories, but still try to stay in the ballpark on protein.

For example, say I aim for about 125 g protein, 60 g fat, 200 g carbs. If I'm at 110 g protein, 55 g fat, 180 g carbs and really want something that will kick me over my carbs and fat and leave me low on protein, I'd probably figure it was fine for that one day--close enough. I would not then find some extra protein to eat too to get me to 125, despite that bringing me over my calories. However, if my protein number was 70, I'd think twice about the particular indulgence that day and put it off until I could fit it in better or else decide I could fit in an over day that week and eat a bit more protein too. (I have room in my protein goal--I think 100 is really what I'd like to have, so if I'm around there I don't worry even though my usual goal is higher.)

If the particular indulgence leaves me high on protein/fat but low on carbs or high on protein/carbs but low on fat, I don't worry about it at all if it's just a one day thing. In that situation I'd rather keep my calories. If I end up doing that a lot (meaning way off, not just a little), I look at what's going on, though, and adjust something.

calories first once you get them where they need to be then work on macros

MAcros > calories. Set how many calories you need to lose weight, the build your macros to suit that. The general recommendation is 0.8g and 0.5g per lb of body weight for protein and fat respectively. Fill out the rest of your calories with carbs.

For me, I'm now aiming for 2200 calories, 187g of protein and 117g of fat. 100g of carbs fill out the rest.

It makes a macro ratio of 18% carbs, 34% protein, 48% fat, but frankly, ratio percentages mean nothing in the grand scheme of thing.

Now that I've got this, I eat to meet my macros and, like magic, my calories will be perfect, as long as I avoid alcohol.

The only reason why my calories will be wrong is because the nutritional labeling is never accurate and is always a rounded number.




ETA: I re-evaluate my caloric need and my macros every long weekend (once every 1-2 months) based on my goal weightloss, my actual weightloss, and my current weight.

Calories