Question to all you nutrition people.
Heamous
Posts: 50 Member
I have been hearing that if you do cardio and you want to lose weight that you should eat more carbs and lower your protein, and other people say that you should go way down on carbs and go up on protein. Any thoughts out there.
I want to lose weight and gain some muscle but definitely lose weight first.
I want to lose weight and gain some muscle but definitely lose weight first.
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Replies
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I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.0
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Reduce your calories until goal weight then worry about your macro/micros.0
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enterdanger wrote: »I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.
Yep. Although I can't really see a scenario where lowering your protein way down is ever a good thing.
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I have been hearing that if you do cardio and you want to lose weight that you should eat more carbs and lower your protein, and other people say that you should go way down on carbs and go up on protein. Any thoughts out there.
I want to lose weight and gain some muscle but definitely lose weight first.
Don't cut protein. You need it to maintain the muscle you have. But for weight loss, you only need a calorie deficit. How you get there is up to you. Me, I just watch my portions, and weigh everything.0 -
enterdanger wrote: »I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.
So at the end of the day burn more than 1,800 calories if that is what I eat a day?0 -
For many people, higher amounts of carbs help with keeping endurance going for longer cardio sessions. Protein aids in maintaining/building muscle.
You don't really build muscle and lose fat at the same time - at least, not at a dramatic rate.
Experiment with macros to find what helps keep you satisfied. Many folks here recommend hitting your protein and fat goals and letting the carbs fill in the rest. Maybe you do better with a higher carb diet.
It's all a really individual thing
~Lyssa0 -
I_Will_End_You wrote: »enterdanger wrote: »I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.
Yep. Although I can't really see a scenario where lowering your protein way down is ever a good thing.
Exactly, your body can burn excess protein for fuel (calories) but can't really use carbs or sugar to rebuild damaged muscle tissue. You don't need to eat ridiculous amounts of protein but there isn't really a reason to artificially lower it.0 -
I would say that if you do a lot of cardio and find yourself fainting or getting light headed, then maybe you've cut your calories too low or too large of a percentage is coming from protein. This happens to people at practice. People go keto or atkins without telling the trainers, then their performance PLUMMETS one day at a long practice because they're simply not getting enough calories. Some people need more carbs to do long endurance, some don't.
If you don't have competitions or anything you're training for or some other medical condition to consider, I'd say just start by cutting overall calories to a sensible level before worrying about macronutrient balance. That being said, there's some minimum protein levels many people would recommend to people who are trying to lose weight. I'd say try to get at least 30% of your calories from protein. But no more than 50%. I'd also recommend at least 20% from fat, but no more than about 60%. But I'm not your doctor or anything.
Edit to add part about these being levels for people trying to lose weight.0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »For many people, higher amounts of carbs help with keeping endurance going for longer cardio sessions. Protein aids in maintaining/building muscle.
You don't really build muscle and lose fat at the same time - at least, not at a dramatic rate.
Experiment with macros to find what helps keep you satisfied. Many folks here recommend hitting your protein and fat goals and letting the carbs fill in the rest. Maybe you do better with a higher carb diet.
It's all a really individual thing
~Lyssa
Thanks a lot for the tip. Question though. What are this whole macro and micro?0 -
I burn 1000 calories a day, I need those carbs,,, they are my fuel.0
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enterdanger wrote: »I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.
So at the end of the day burn more than 1,800 calories if that is what I eat a day?
Yes. BUT that doesn't mean that you have to go out and attempt to do 1800+ calories worth of exercise. Your body burns the majority of its exercise just staying alive and through your lifestyle (walking around at work, washing dishes, folding laundry, etc.)0 -
enterdanger wrote: »I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.
So at the end of the day burn more than 1,800 calories if that is what I eat a day?
Yes. BUT that doesn't mean that you have to go out and attempt to do 1800+ calories worth of exercise. Your body burns the majority of its exercise just staying alive and through your lifestyle (walking around at work, washing dishes, folding laundry, etc.)
Yeah, as a guy, it's likely you just sitting on the couch all day would burn 1800 calories, depending on your height and other factors. If I only sat on the couch all day, I'd burn about 1650 and I'm a 5'6" female.0 -
I believe it is like this....Your total carbs, protein and fat I think..my goal is set at trying to consume 1200 calories which = for me 150 carbs, 40 fat, and 60 protein...after eating today, I see I've managed to get exactly my protein, but am lacking sorely in carbs and need one more gram of fat to meet my goal for the day (which is great, as I'm stuffed, waiting to workout!)0
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I try and keep my protein high to help avoid muscle loss and keep my carbs and sodium low which helps to keep me from retaining water. But eating low carb affects people differently. Some people feel worn out and have low energy eating a low carb diet. So that would be something you have to play with. What you eat and how it makes you feel is what you need to pay attention to. I've done many different types of diets over the years so I know how things affect me now. You need to find out what works for you. Any diet you choose needs to be "easy". Something that you don't have a problem sticking to and gives you the energy you need to do what you have to do throughout the day. I don't recommend doing things that are outside of your norm too much. Try and eat as normally as possible and still lose weight. Extreme changes to one's diet in order to lose weight don't usually stick. People stop and then gain the weight back. Eat what you use to eat...just eat less of it and make some healthier choices along the way.0
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macgurlnet wrote: »For many people, higher amounts of carbs help with keeping endurance going for longer cardio sessions. Protein aids in maintaining/building muscle.
You don't really build muscle and lose fat at the same time - at least, not at a dramatic rate.
Experiment with macros to find what helps keep you satisfied. Many folks here recommend hitting your protein and fat goals and letting the carbs fill in the rest. Maybe you do better with a higher carb diet.
It's all a really individual thing
~Lyssa
Thanks a lot for the tip. Question though. What are this whole macro and micro?
Macros are proteins, fats & carbs (mainly). Micros are vitamins and such.
I think. Hopefully someone else can give a proper answer to that.
~Lyssa0 -
macgurlnet wrote: »For many people, higher amounts of carbs help with keeping endurance going for longer cardio sessions. Protein aids in maintaining/building muscle.
You don't really build muscle and lose fat at the same time - at least, not at a dramatic rate.
Experiment with macros to find what helps keep you satisfied. Many folks here recommend hitting your protein and fat goals and letting the carbs fill in the rest. Maybe you do better with a higher carb diet.
It's all a really individual thing
~Lyssa
Thanks a lot for the tip. Question though. What are this whole macro and micro?
Macronutrients are carbs, fat, protein. Micronutrients are the other things like iron.
You can learn more in Vismal's video series: http://goo.gl/zqIv6H0 -
All I know is that when I exercise, I really crave protein.0
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OP disregard this.RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »Reduce your calories until goal weight then worry about your macro/micros.0 -
enterdanger wrote: »I'm gonna beat everyone to it. For weight loss, you just need to burn more calories than you consume.
So at the end of the day burn more than 1,800 calories if that is what I eat a day?
Yes. BUT that doesn't mean that you have to go out and attempt to do 1800+ calories worth of exercise. Your body burns the majority of its exercise just staying alive and through your lifestyle (walking around at work, washing dishes, folding laundry, etc.)
Yeah, as a guy, it's likely you just sitting on the couch all day would burn 1800 calories, depending on your height and other factors. If I only sat on the couch all day, I'd burn about 1650 and I'm a 5'6" female.
Man I wish I was one of those guys that just sit around do nothing eat whatever they want and they are super thin.
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I try and keep my protein high to help avoid muscle loss and keep my carbs and sodium low which helps to keep me from retaining water. But eating low carb affects people differently. Some people feel worn out and have low energy eating a low carb diet. So that would be something you have to play with. What you eat and how it makes you feel is what you need to pay attention to. I've done many different types of diets over the years so I know how things affect me now. You need to find out what works for you. Any diet you choose needs to be "easy". Something that you don't have a problem sticking to and gives you the energy you need to do what you have to do throughout the day. I don't recommend doing things that are outside of your norm too much. Try and eat as normally as possible and still lose weight. Extreme changes to one's diet in order to lose weight don't usually stick. People stop and then gain the weight back. Eat what you use to eat...just eat less of it and make some healthier choices along the way.
Thanks for the tip.0 -
rosebarnalice wrote: »All I know is that when I exercise, I really crave protein.
When ai do a lot of cardio I crave a cold beer pretty bad. The weird thing is that I am not a big beer drinker at all. As a matter of fact I have not drank a beer in months.0 -
People with insulin resistance of some sort (diabetes, PCOS, dementia) tend to lose better on a low carb high fat diet. For the other half of the population, it doesn't make any real difference beyond a couple of pounds.
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Protein has some slight advantages - high protein promotes muscle growth, while high carbohydrate promotes fat growth. Protein costs a bit of energy to digest, so the effective calories are slightly lower. That said, as long as you're eating at a deficit AND you get at least the minimum amount of fat and protein your body needs to survive, you'll be OK.
I would never go very low protein - protein is essential for your body to survive, and if your body can't get it from the diet, it scavenges your muscles as a source for amino acids. If you went extremely low protein but otherwise normal caloric intake, you would actually eventually starve to death after your muscles wasted away - a lot of children who die of malnutrition in the third world actually do so because of insufficient protein, not insufficient total calories. That's not generally a problem here, but both protein and fat are absolutely essential in some amounts, because both contain things your body can't build from carbohydrates.
Unless you have problems with insulin or some other health reason, I advocate a balanced approach. I eat protein to build muscle (strength training) and I eat carbohydrates to fuel my workouts and replenish muscle energy stores. Starchy carbohydrates are a bit better than sugary carbs, as they are slow-acting, the main benefit being it keeps you less hungry.0 -
I should add to my above comment - don't go crazy on protein, either. You can eat a lot of it (up to ~300 grams per day) but don't go above that, and in fact there's no reason to go that high, even if you're building muscle. Your liver needs to break down protein into amino acids and your kidneys need to excrete waste products from protein catabolism, and you could overwhelm one or the other on an extremely high protein diet.
Basically, too much, or not enough, of any one macronutrient tends to be harmful (low carb being the one possible exception). There's a very wide range of adequate, so you don't need to be paranoid about getting them "right", but eat a mix of carbs, proteins, and fats.0
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