How do I calculate macros??

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Bruja924
Bruja924 Posts: 51 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am 5'8 and 261 lbs. I work out 5 days a week for an hour.

I am trying to set my Macros so that I am allowed 1400 cals per day. MFP is asking me what % should be carbs, fat, and protein. What is recommend?

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  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets#latest
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
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    1400 seems low for your size? Don't forget to eat back a proportion of your exercise too
  • Bruja924
    Bruja924 Posts: 51 Member
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    Sued0nim wrote: »
    1400 seems low for your size? Don't forget to eat back a proportion of your exercise too

    Its def on the low end, but I eat back 50% of what I gain from working out.
  • Bruja924
    Bruja924 Posts: 51 Member
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    Carlos_421 wrote: »
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets#latest

    The problem is that when I do that calculation, it always puts me at much higher cals than I want to be at. I really want to stay around 1400, 1500max.
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    Bruja924 wrote: »
    Carlos_421 wrote: »
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets#latest

    The problem is that when I do that calculation, it always puts me at much higher cals than I want to be at. I really want to stay around 1400, 1500max.

    Reasoning? What made you decide on 1,400 calories?

    At 5'8" and 261 lbs, you've got an estimated BMR of more than 1,800 which means you burn that much even if you lay in bed all day. If you eat 1,800 calories and just get up, dress yourself and take the trash outside, you'll lose at least a little bit of weight.
    You have an estimated TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) of nearly 2,300 calories even if you're a sedentary person which means 1,800 would be a 500 calorie deficit or one pound per week of weight loss.
  • Bruja924
    Bruja924 Posts: 51 Member
    edited August 2016
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    @Carlos_421

    According to several online calculators, my BMR is 1,940 and my TDEE 3,000 (very close estimates). I would like to lose 2 lbs a week. You think 1400-1500 calories is too low? I am doing IF and only eat between 10a-6p.
  • SheOwens
    SheOwens Posts: 9 Member
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    New to the forums, what does IF stand for?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    Bruja924 wrote: »
    @Carlos_421

    According to several online calculators, my BMR is 1,940 and my TDEE 3,000 (very close estimates). I would like to lose 2 lbs a week. You think 1400-1500 calories is too low? I am doing IF and only eat between 10a-6p.

    If you do add the exercise calories it seems okay. It's a 2 lb loss if sedentary, and then you add on exercise. If you are losing more than 2 lb/week I'd increase the percentage of exercise calories -- I found that for shorter and medium length runs, for example, I could eat back pretty much all of the calories.

    A good estimate for protein is .8 g/lb of healthy weight. Taking 150 as a middle of the BMI kind of weight for 5'8, that's about 120 g, or 35% (ish) of 1400-1500. Given the exercise calories 30% is plenty and you could focus on grams anyway. Fat vs. carbs is really personal preference, although most do better not cutting fat too low (I liked 40 carbs, 30 fat and protein, but it really varies).
  • Bruja924
    Bruja924 Posts: 51 Member
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    SheOwens wrote: »
    New to the forums, what does IF stand for?

    Intermittent Fasting=IF

    I am pretty new to this lingo as well!
  • Bruja924
    Bruja924 Posts: 51 Member
    edited August 2016
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    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Bruja924 wrote: »
    @Carlos_421

    According to several online calculators, my BMR is 1,940 and my TDEE 3,000 (very close estimates). I would like to lose 2 lbs a week. You think 1400-1500 calories is too low? I am doing IF and only eat between 10a-6p.

    If you do add the exercise calories it seems okay. It's a 2 lb loss if sedentary, and then you add on exercise. If you are losing more than 2 lb/week I'd increase the percentage of exercise calories -- I found that for shorter and medium length runs, for example, I could eat back pretty much all of the calories.

    A good estimate for protein is .8 g/lb of healthy weight. Taking 150 as a middle of the BMI kind of weight for 5'8, that's about 120 g, or 35% (ish) of 1400-1500. Given the exercise calories 30% is plenty and you could focus on grams anyway. Fat vs. carbs is really personal preference, although most do better not cutting fat too low (I liked 40 carbs, 30 fat and protein, but it really varies).

    I only eat about 50% of my workout calories, if that, most of the time. I don't feel like I am starving, and if I choose my foods wisely (example tuna sandwich at Subway vs home made tuna sandwich), I can usually eat all my meals and have cals left over. I guess my two gripes are...

    1-I still crave fast food, and I do not think I have the will power to limit myself just yet.

    2-I need to learn how to manipulate the protein/fat/carb ratio so that I don't have 300 cals left but I am neg fat or carbs.

    I currently have them set at: Carbs 158g/45% Fat 31g/20% Protein 123g/35%
  • Carlos_421
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
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    Bruja924 wrote: »
    @Carlos_421

    According to several online calculators, my BMR is 1,940 and my TDEE 3,000 (very close estimates). I would like to lose 2 lbs a week. You think 1400-1500 calories is too low? I am doing IF and only eat between 10a-6p.

    If your TDEE is 3,000 calories, you would lose 2 pounds a week eating 2,000 calories a day (not eating back any exercise calories since those are included in your TDEE).
    Eating 1500 plus eating back your exercise calories would probably put you somewhat less than 2,000 calories (unless you are straight up KILLING it 7 days per week).

    If you're more concerned with macros, I actually recommend eating based off your TDEE and not eating back any exercise calories. That way, your intake is the same everyday and your macro intake won't fluctuate based on how many exercise calories you get.

    For your height, 31 grams is actually a pretty low fat goal. I'd double it (I'm your height and closer to goal weight and I aim for 60-70 grams).

    So say you aim for 60 grams of fat, that's 540 calories.
    Then your 123 grams of protein are 492 calories.
    That leaves 968 calories for carbs or 242 grams.

    540 calories from fat / 2000 calories = 27% fat
    492 calories from protein / 2000 calories = 25% protein
    968 calories from carbs / 2000 calories = 48% carbs

    Try this for a few weeks and track your progress. If you're not losing as quickly as you expect (2 pounds per week) it's most likely due to overestimating your exercise (inflating your TDEE) or inaccurate food logging. From there, you can adjust your calories down or up as needed by decreasing/increasing carbs (treating protein and fat as minimums for optimum health and workout support).

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