Fats and Carbs

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Eilief29
Eilief29 Posts: 7 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
There's a lot of emphasis about on low fat/fat free diets and foods and despite my calories coming in below or just slightly above what MFP has recommended, I am sometimes above what it recommends for fats and carbs, I was wondering how bad being over in the macros would be for toning and maintenance. I'm usually over by about 15-20 grams with my recommended being 50 grams for fats. I exercise 3-4 times a week and work as a waitress 4 nights a week, 5'7" and currently 136lbs. The recommended is set at a slight deficit just because I'm still not quite ready for full maintenance just yet so I'm upping intake gradually, I also don't religiously track with exact weights etc so it's to take that into consideration too. So if I'm hitting the calorie goal but am sometimes above in fats or carbs would this be really detrimental to maintaining?

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  • RaspberryTickleChicken
    RaspberryTickleChicken Posts: 629 Member
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    It depends on your individual body / genetics.

    I'm very sensitive to carbs so if I'm consistently over I do put on a few pounds.

    Fats doesn't seem to impact me at all but honestly I don't really eat a lot of fatty foods so that has never been an issue for me.

    Maintaining you'll find is a lot of 'experimenting' to figure what works for the way your body burns food and what doesn't.

    Set a weight in your mind or a NS marker to alert you whether you're genuinely putting the weight back on vs. normal flux.

    If your extra carbs & fat is coming from fruits or good fats in salmon, peanut butter, etc then I'd venture it won't impact your overall maintaining.

    However if your extra carbs & fat is coming from donuts, chips, & ice cream then I think eventually it will catch up to you because unless you're 20 something it's just not possible to out exercise poor eating.

    Good luck!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    In general the MFP guideline for Fat and protein should be seen as minimum and carbs as a maximum. The only real problem is eating too many carbs is that it would impact you reaching your fat or protein goal, both of which are much more important than carbs.

    Aim to eat more protein and less carbs.
  • Eilief29
    Eilief29 Posts: 7 Member
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    The fat's I'm getting are the natural fats rather than processed and I'm currently hitting over the protein. I didn't realise that the guideline for fats and protein was a minimum, so I'll keep my eye on the carbs and just keep experimenting with what works best. Thanks for the information guys!
  • dawnmcneil10
    dawnmcneil10 Posts: 638 Member
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    What helped me was to change the MFP settings to custom and set carbs to 40% fat and protein to 30% each.

    Honestly it doesn't take long to fill up the fats column if you eat avacado, nuts or nut butters.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    I agree with Dawn. I'm also sensitive to carbs, but have a real hard time getting over 25% for protein. I have maintained fine for several years, though.
  • OdiEtAmoTe
    OdiEtAmoTe Posts: 5 Member
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    Carbs just make me retain water weight (hence the "hydrate" part of "carbohydrate"). At the end of the day, calories matter for weight maintenance. I'm 5'10, male, and 140 pounds; 60%+ of my diet is complex carbs, and I'm pretty lean. I guess it depends on activity level and what works for each person.
  • Eilief29
    Eilief29 Posts: 7 Member
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    Thanks for the info, I've reset my goals for protein and fats a bit higher which I guess would be good for repairing post work out anyway and carbs lower. @Odi - I've found that too, especially refined carbs like bread just make me bloat, but cutting them out completely makes me hungry. It's got to the experimentation time now with what my body needs

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