Calories, protein, carbs, macronutrients- HELP!

gabzg23 wrote: »

Hi, I am in the process of doing my advanced diploma in Nutrition & Weightloss.
It would be interesting to see your food diary. It does sound like you are eating too little. Is this consistent every day? Are there things you aren't logging?
Yes, counting macros can help lean you out because calories are not equal. So it depends what's making up your 1000 calls a day?
Also are you exercising?

All calories are equal, they are just a measurement. Think like a cm is a cm, an inch is an inch, a calorie is a calorie.

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

gabzg23 wrote: »

Hi, I am in the process of doing my advanced diploma in Nutrition & Weightloss.
It would be interesting to see your food diary. It does sound like you are eating too little. Is this consistent every day? Are there things you aren't logging?
Yes, counting macros can help lean you out because calories are not equal. So it depends what's making up your 1000 calls a day?
Also are you exercising?

All calories are equal, they are just a measurement. Think like a cm is a cm, an inch is an inch, a calorie is a calorie.

In terms of nutritional content calories are not equal and the effect they have on your body is not equal.... the composition of calories 100% has an effect on your body and performance.

dbayona2 wrote: »

im pretty aware of what I eat. I always look at sugar first, then carbs, then protein and last sodium. I try to maintain a 1000 calorie diet (I'm 5 foot and have a very small frame) but can't seem to lose anymore weight. I want to be lean! But I have fat on my midrift and thighs. What should I cut back on? What should my goals be? I know nothing about macros and I feel like this would make the difference but I could be wrong. Please help!

an open diary would help, and your current weight ?

Make sure your protein is at least 60 grams and fat 30 grams.

Perhaps I could have worded it slightly better but that wasn't what I meant.

To reduce body fat you have to be in a caloric deficit relative to your total energy expenditure (If you burn 1400kcal in a day, you need to eat less than this amount). To know how many calories you are consuming you need to be tracking your intake of calories from food correctly and know roughly your total daily calorie expenditure. This shows you don’t have to count macros to lose weight, but it won’t all be the right weight.

The concern was getting leaner not just losing weight....
A calorie is not just a calorie. The different macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) have different effects on the body when consumed and digested. The main effects we are concerned with are:

Anabolic effect of consuming protein- eating protein causes your body to increase muscle protein synthesis– the building/maintaining of new muscle tissue (within reason).
Insulinogenic effect of consuming carbohydrates- eating carbohydrates causes your body to secrete insulin, transporting blood sugar to muscle and fat tissue- this hinders fat oxidization but also spares muscle tissue from being broken down.
Fat has markedly less effect with respect to muscle anabolism and fat oxidation- it is a very dense source of energy that in the absence of carbohydrates becomes the body’s primary energy source, without significantly elevating plasma insulin levels.
So if you want to achieve steady and sustainable fat loss whilst maintaining muscle mass, knowing how much and when to eat is paramount.

Reducing calories is a stress to your body, 1000 calories per day is too little for any growth human being. It’s important that before you do so you have all the other pieces of the puzzle in place, or you could drive yourself into a metabolic hole.
The body has a tendency when in a calorie deficit to burn the fuels in the ratio they are available: free fatty acids from your stored fat, or amino acids from your muscles. By keeping protein high and doing resistance training we try to avoid muscle mass being broken down, however there is a theoretical limit to how much fat can be released from the fat stores in a single day, and this is inversely proportionate to how lean you are.

The leaner you get, the less body fat you can burn a day.
If your energy deficit for the day is beyond your body’s capability to fuel itself from fat stores alone, you will lose muscle mass.

What I am trying to say is:
Whether you gain weight, lose weight or maintain weight is entirely down to the calories you consume versus the calories you burn.

For this reason, calories are the most important factor in body recomposition. It’s impossible to gain weight in a calorie deficit (eating less that you burn), and it’s impossible to lose weight in a calorie surplus (vice versa).

Calories determine how heavy you are, macros determine how heavy you look.

The best analogy I have heard to help think of and understand the interplay of calories and macros, is that of a house. The calories represent the total number of bricks, the macros represent the architecture of the house. With the same amount of bricks, it’s possible to create two very different looking houses.

It would be interesting to see your food diary, exercise diary and your age, weight, height.

OP, as others have said, it would be helpful to know current weight, goal, how long you've been stalled, and to open your diary. Also, workouts. For improving leanness if you are at a reasonably low weight already, the best bet might be to eat close to maintenance and focus on building some muscle (and keeping the protein at around .65-.85 g/lb).