Carbs/Fat/Protien ratios - HELP?!

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Snugglebutt2014
Snugglebutt2014 Posts: 78 Member
edited April 2015 in Food and Nutrition
I need some help and advice.

I seem to lose weight (highest 218 -lowest 200) but all I do is hover and yo-yo around the 200-210 mark.

I read somewhere that if my carbs are too high then my body will burn off my carbs to get through each day and not actually fat burn. Is this true?

If so then I presume I cut back on carbs (white bread, pasta, rice etc). But how much do I cut back or do I cut them out totally?

On MFP you can set the fat to carb to protein ratios, so what should I set them to to achieve a low carb diet (if that is indeed what I should be doing?)

Do I increase the fat? Increase the protein?

I'm pretty ok with the maths of too many Cals in and not enough burnt off equals weight gain. So the usual burn off through exercise more than you stuff in your face is a winner, but it is now getting to the nitty gritty of just 'what' exercise is best and just 'what' is best to shove in my gob!

Help and tips and advice anyone please? My diet is open if anyone wants to take a look.

Dawn x


Replies

  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Snugglebutt2014 wrote: »
    I need some help and advice.

    I seem to lose weight (highest 218 -lowest 200) but all I do is hover and yo-yo around the 200-210 mark.

    I read somewhere that if my carbs are too high then my body will burn off my carbs to get through each day and not actually fat burn. Is this true?

    If so then I presume I cut back on carbs (white bread, pasta, rice etc). But how much do I cut back or do I cut them out totally?

    On MFP you can set the fat to carb to protein ratios, so what should I set them to to achieve a low carb diet (if that is indeed what I should be doing?)

    Do I increase the fat? Increase the protein?

    I'm pretty ok with the maths of too many Cals in and not enough burnt off equals weight gain. So the usual burn off through exercise more than you stuff in your face is a winner, but it is now getting to the nitty gritty of just 'what' exercise is best and just 'what' is best to shove in my gob!

    Help and tips and advice anyone please? My diet is open if anyone wants to take a look.

    Dawn x

    It is not true. This really is about counting calories in carbs/fat/protein.

    Some people have an easier time sticking to their calorie goal if their carbs are lowish. Others like carbs. And so on.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,020 Member
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    You don't need to cut back on carbs to lose weight. You need to be at an energy (calorie) deficit -- consume fewer calories than you use.

    And your food diary is not open (it's open only to your friends).

    The most common reason for not losing weight is not logging food intake accurately. Do you weigh all solid foods on a food scale? Do you choose accurate food entries from the MFP database? (At a minimum that means selecting entries that have lots of confirmations. Better still is to stick as much as possible to the entries without asterisks, and to check entries against the package label for packaged foods, restaurant websites for food from restaurant chains, and against the USDA database for "commodity" foods -- fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, eggs, plain dairy products - anything that doesn't vary much from one manufacturer to another.)
  • Snugglebutt2014
    Snugglebutt2014 Posts: 78 Member
    edited April 2015
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    Apologies regarding food diary. I must have changed my settings and forgot.

    Thank you both so much for your advice and yes, I weigh my foods religiously and I also scan the bar code on my foods so I know I am logging the correct foods.

    I get the whole calorie deficit. That is pure common sense. I am querying just how those calories are made up... whether it is better to have a high carb / low carb diet, is it better to have more or less protein etc.

    If I am allowed to have 1200 calories per day, for example, it wouldn't be wise to have them as all sugar or all fat, I would most likely still lose weight as I am eating less than I burn off, but I would not lose weight in the correct manner (I would probably also lose all of my teeth!)

    My question was what are the best carb / fat / protein ratios so that firstly I do lose weight, but secondly (and more importantly) I lose weight in the correct manner.

    My second question was what type of exercise would be more beneficial to losing weight. More cardio? Walking? Running? Or do more strength (weights etc).

    I hear a lot about a 'low carb' healthy eating plan, and I have heard about how when your body takes in carbs it burns these off (of course), but it takes a while for your body to burn off these carbs (hence you always feel full after eating them).
    So a low carb diet would allow your body to burn off the small amount of carbs you have eaten, and then swiftly move on to fat burning.

    It was this mainly I was querying.

    A lot of athlete / fitness type people say about reducing your carbs (white bread, white rice etc), so I know there is some truth in the fact that a low carb diet works. But I am confused as to what ratios of carbs - fat - protien is best to have.

    I hope all this makes sense, as I don't think I got my point across in my first post.
  • Snugglebutt2014
    Snugglebutt2014 Posts: 78 Member
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    Found the answer now in the thread 'Do excess carbs cause weight gain?'. So once again, thank you for you help x

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