Protein

If I go low carb the calories go up.. I can do about 1/2 the day on lower carbs but at dinner no so much..

Beef Jerkey and Pork Rinds (may sound nasty but it is quick go too and does the job)
Eggs hard boiled (or however you like it)
I make wraps with cheese and turkey or cheese and turkey (I skip the bread)
Yogurt can have a lot of added sugar/carbs so make sure you look at the labels if you choose something other than plain ole yogurt or greek (I use Dannon Oikos Triple Zero)

Also, the Muscle Milk is 40 grams of protein (knockout chocolate). I do this on workout days.

For a quick breakfast I fry two eggs and two slices of Canadian bacon, and also do a breakfast with yogurt, small amount of fruit and about 10 almonds.

For lunch I do the sandwich wrap and then for dinner it is my family time so this is where I give most of my calories of the day...

If you eat fish, shrimp is practically pure protein. Love to have mine steamed or on a salad. Also look at lobster and crab.

kamakazeekim wrote: »

jantonik529 wrote: »

Yikes, my calorie limit is 1200 if I want to lose 1.5 pounds a week. I'm not spending my calories on almonds.

As for my protein increase, carb decrease, this seems to be the ratio for losing belly fat in addition to exercise. I must say I do see a difference after only a week of counting calories and carbs.

Nope, you can't spot reduce...it's just not possible. Your body will lose weight wherever it wants...your genetics determine how you lose weight. Exercise also cannot target any specific place to lose weight. So you can do all the ab exercises in the world and you will build up the muscles but you will still have the layer of fat over them.

exactly and if you are lifting start eating more...why 1.5lbs a week? You have 8lbs to lose...1/2lb a week would be better.

The only way to lose belly fat is to lose fat, all over.

jantonik529 wrote: »

I have been told by a personal trainer that the 40% protein, 30% fat and carb ratio is ideal for weight loss and muscle tone.

This is not necessarily true. While in a deficit it is important to increase protein, but not necessarily to be set blindly at 40%. Here is a more accurate formula. Take your weight in kilograms and multiply by 1.6. That should be a sufficient amount of protein.

slucki01 wrote: »

40% for protein is very high and 30% for carbs is very low

Not necessarily...

tzarba wrote: »

Why is 40% considered high? Isn't that what zone is? I do 40% protein and I'm a vegetarian.

I believe Zone is 40% carb, 30% protein and fat.

But 40% is high because there's no need to get more than (at most) your lean mass in grams (and the official recommendation is less).

If you eat really low calories (which there's also often no need to do), like 1200, 40% is 120, so might make sense for someone with a lean mass of 120 (which would mean at a 25% BF percentage someone who weighs about 160. However, for many others it makes no sense at all. I'm only 125 and am eating at about 1900 calories, so 40% protein would be 190 grams of protein, which is entirely unnecessary.

Protein also tends to be more expensive and to come coupled with either carbs or fat (especially if you can't eat lean meat (because vegetarian) and don't want to eat a ton of protein supplements or fake meats). Thus, there's no reason to aim for 40% in general. There are people it might make sense for, but for most not, and advice from a personal trainer that it's some ideal ratio seems silly.

The bigger issue, I think, is that right now people are suspicious of carbs (and reducing carbs does tend to reduce water weight), and yet many are still scared of fat, so protein seems like the good guy. But that's not a good approach to food and leads to people over-consuming protein (usually with no harm, however, but it's certainly not necessary).

Macros are important depending on what you're trying to achieve. If it's just weight loss, then it matters little. Fat has more calories than protein so a diet higher in fat will net you more calories per gram of food you intake meaning less food you can eat throughout the day. If you're trying to gain or retain muscle while losing fat then a diet that is higher in protein and carbs is more important to provide the energy for your workouts and to repair muscle fibers.