Which is worse to go over in?

Calories.

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Calories.

yup

rachelecosse wrote: »

Is that you Regina George

lol

None of the items you listed are inherently bad for you. Moderation for everything.

Kimegatron wrote: »

Who is Regina George?

.

I think she's talking about the "carb" girl in the movie 'Mean Girls'

fat,bc you burn off carbs doing cardio

Kimegatron wrote: »

mwebster11 wrote: »

fat,bc you burn off carbs doing cardio

Thank you! That is all that I wanted, holy Hell.

Except that it doesn't make sense. Your body can't store calories if you burn more than you're taking in, so it doesn't matter all all if we're talking fat or carbs here. Your body is going to burn it anyway.

If I had to choose one not to go over, it would be carbs, As the more I eat, the more I crave. That's just me though, Carbs don't affect everyone equally.

Yes calories is the answer. But personally, I avoid sugar as much as possible because of my teeth, and it makes me tired and crash a bit when I consume something high in sugar, whether I'm in calories range or not. That's just my own thing though, idk if anyone else would feel the same... But calories in/calories out is the one true king here!

cwilso37 wrote: »

mwebster11 wrote: »

fat,bc you burn off carbs doing cardio

I think you mean cardio burns calories.... (meaning the person was wrong in the advice they just gave you)

The reason everyone said calories is because there is not one of the three which innately wrong to go over. Put differently there is not one catch all percentage a person should have for carbs, protein, and fats. So to ask which one shouldn't go over makes little sense. As long as you are under your calorie goal (and get enough protein and healthy fats required daily) it doesn't matter.

Edit: If pressed I would say fat *ONLY* because there are more calories in a gram of fat than carbs (9 vs 4), so it might be more likely to push you above your calorie limit. Again if you aren't near the limit it is not important.

Generally speaking it doesn't matter. Realistically speaking, if you're MEETING your calorie goal (which is just as important as not exceeding it) you will be over in one and under in another because it's virtually impossible to micromanage everything to the point where you meet everything exactly. Unless you're some hardcore bodybuilder OR a diabetic, worry about calories and calories alone. Everything else, let it fall where it may and don't worry too much about it. Obsessing to that level will do you more harm than good in the long run.

Protein, carbs, and fat are largely personal preferences. There is simply no general rule that MFP's default percentages are the ideal ones (in fact, I think they are often too low in protein), and therefore no reason why anyone should consider it bad at all (let alone "worst") to go over in fat or carbs. I prefer eating slightly fewer carbs (40%) and slightly more fat (30%) than MFP's defaults -- so I changed my settings to reflect that -- but that doesn't mean I could tell anyone else that going over carbs is "worst" and in fact I don't care at all if I go over my carb limit on a particular day (and there might be good reason too, like extra exercise).

Sugar is a problematic measurement here, because it kind of depends on what you eat and how high your calories are. If you go over sugar because you are at a lower calorie level and eat lots of fruit, veggies, and dairy, I think that's likely reflective of a healthier overall diet than many that would be lower in sugar. If you are going over the limit because of mostly sweet treats, that's quite possibly reflective of a less healthy diet, but just going over on one day while within calories would be no big thing.

Similarly, I think there is a huge range of fat percentages that can be healthy (I wouldn't enjoy a really high fat diet, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it), and the current dietary advice (finally!) reflects this by eliminating the limit on fat percentage that was long recommended. That doesn't mean that all kinds of fat are the same, though, and if you were getting a high percentage of fat that was saturated fat from animal sources, that likely would be something to consider lowering (although again I think the actual evidence is more murky than sometimes claimed).

Same with carbs--there are more and less nutrient dense sources of carbs, some that contribute fiber (which I pay more attention to than fat percentage vs. carb percentage), some that do not, etc., and I think considering this (without focusing on specific numbers) is more important than worrying about going over some arbitrary limit.

I wouldn't really think of the fat, carbs, protein numbers as minimums, but general guidelines (and with protein and fat I think the more important numbers are the minimums in grams that you should be getting, which aren't shown on the MFP defaults).

So this is my longwinded explanation why I don't think you can say that it's "worst" to go over any of those three.