Breakup of the 1200! Help!

If your total weight you need to lose is 20 lbs, go back on your goals page, forget the 2 lbs per week you have chosen, and aim for 0.5 to 1 lb max per week. This will give you a more reasonable number of calories, and will be easier to follow and maintain. As for what you eat, this has nothing to do with weight loss, it has to do with health and specific goals or restrictions you might have. You can eat 100% of your calories in fast food, or 100% on tomato salads and fish and the result will be the same, regarding weight loss.

I'm about the same as you, roughly 20lbs to lose. I've wondered about the macros and will probably redefine them as I become more educated but I altered mine to be 40% carbs, 35% fat, 25% protein. I've managed to stay near enough to these guidelines but I'm not too strict on it. I'm new to MFP so I'm trying to learn how to just manage the calories!

aggelikik wrote: »

If your total weight you need to lose is 20 lbs, go back on your goals page, forget the 2 lbs per week you have chosen, and aim for 0.5 to 1 lb max per week. This will give you a more reasonable number of calories, and will be easier to follow and maintain. As for what you eat, this has nothing to do with weight loss, it has to do with health and specific goals or restrictions you might have. You can eat 100% of your calories in fast food, or 100% on tomato salads and fish and the result will be the same, regarding weight loss.

kshama2001 wrote: »

With only 20 pounds to lose, setting a goal of 0.5 pounds per week will be more sustainable.

Find the macro ratio that works for you. Many people feel more satisfied with more protein than the default gives you. I feel less satisfied with carbs so gave some of them to protein and shoot for Carbs 40%, Fat 30% and Protein 30%.

Right here. Good luck.

If you do searches online you will find a lot of variety in what macros should be. Some authors, I believe Kesser is one, suggest that as long as you are getting 80-90g protein, half cal from fat, then the rest is carb - uhm lets see math wise... Now other Paleo and low-moderate carb people will roughly agree with this though they may make protein higher or sometimes fat which seems odd till you read through the literature.
1200 calories
Say 320 from Protein - roughly 80g - this is 26-27%
If you want to do half calories from fat that would be say 600 fat - roughly 67g fat - or the 50%
the rest carbs - 280cal = 70g carb or 23-24%

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Others will tell you that you should aim for about 40% fat, 30% carb, 30% protein...
If you want to do the math consider 4cal per gram of protein and carb.... fat is ~9cal per gram.

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From there you have people who are not aiming for low/moderate carb and instead suggest higher carb values. Even there usually you will see no more than 40 (maybe 45) % carbs for weight loss. Idea being you have to let go of the sugars (carbs) to lose weight. From there the other 55 to 60% is 30% fat and 30-35% protein.

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To be perfectly honest you will have to play with it over time and learn what your body works best at.

For me I alternate because I also do a modified 5:2 fast (still averaging 1200 cal a day but some days it is 500 cal and some days my limit is 1800). In addition to alternating what my total calorie goal for each day is I also change the percents. I have learned and through self-testing (plus reading that backed it up) that on the lower cal days (my 500 cal days) to really increase the fat percent to about 50-60% goal of calories and most of the rest is protein with my carbs on those days being high in fiber such as carrots, celery, etc. Reason being that fat is more satiating.

Anyhow... play with your numbers and find what works best.

vanilakitten wrote: »

I'm going to ... stick to 1200 cals a day.

Why?

You didn't gain the weight overnight. Why expect to lose it quickly?

Don't crash diet then inevitably gain it all back and then some. Use MFP to learn sustainable habits that will stick with you for life.

Unless you have specific goals (e.g., body building),I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about macros. Eat a reasonably varied diet and you'll be fine.

I do 40% carbs and protein 20% fat. I don't meet these all the time but always around these percentages and it's what works for me. X

Stick to 1200, be disciplined and try to eat more protein than carbs. You will continue to drop weight without having to be too scientific.

kshama2001 wrote: »

With only 20 pounds to lose, setting a goal of 0.5 pounds per week will be more sustainable.

Find the macro ratio that works for you. Many people feel more satisfied with more protein than the default gives you. I feel less satisfied with carbs so gave some of them to protein and shoot for Carbs 40%, Fat 30% and Protein 30%.

^^ +1

My TDEE is also 1750 calories. I work-out 4 times a week and eat 1500 calories and lose 0.5lbs-1lb a week. If you struggle at 1200, I'd suggest upping your calories to the same sort of number as mine. It's much kinder (I'm not as hungry as I was on 1200) and I'm still losing weight - Just ever so slightly slower. It's totally up to you though!

If you're happy on 1200 however, you can still eat what you like and I wouldn't get too caught up in the macro's. Protein can help fill you up so aim to veer towards high protein if you can!