Tweaking Macro Percentages
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__Roxy__
Posts: 825 Member
For the past 4 months I have been following the macros 5% carbs, 70% fat, 25% protein. I find this incredibly easy and have been losing weight at an okay pace... but wondered if there was more I could be doing?
I was recently chatting with someone who has has really amazing success with keto, and they pointed me to the ketogains optimal keto plan and calculator. When I plug my stats in there, it recommends eating 5% carbs, 55% fat, and 40% protein for optimal weight loss.
The idea is that if you eat less fat, your body will use your fat stores, first. I know this to be true for my body. Also eating more protein will help preserve muscle while losing weight.
I have tried reaching this macro ratio for a couple of days, and I find it much harder to attain! I don't know how people get such a high protein-to-fat ratio... because unless you are eating a LOT of lean meat (which, according to Dr. Berg, can spike insulin), your fat goes up correlative to your protein.
Does anyone else do 5% carbs, 55% fat, and 40% protein? If so, what are you eating?
I'd also love to hear what other people's macro percentages are, why they chose them, and how they are working for you.
I was recently chatting with someone who has has really amazing success with keto, and they pointed me to the ketogains optimal keto plan and calculator. When I plug my stats in there, it recommends eating 5% carbs, 55% fat, and 40% protein for optimal weight loss.
The idea is that if you eat less fat, your body will use your fat stores, first. I know this to be true for my body. Also eating more protein will help preserve muscle while losing weight.
I have tried reaching this macro ratio for a couple of days, and I find it much harder to attain! I don't know how people get such a high protein-to-fat ratio... because unless you are eating a LOT of lean meat (which, according to Dr. Berg, can spike insulin), your fat goes up correlative to your protein.
Does anyone else do 5% carbs, 55% fat, and 40% protein? If so, what are you eating?
I'd also love to hear what other people's macro percentages are, why they chose them, and how they are working for you.
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Replies
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I tend to have a hard time getting protein over 25%. I don't enjoy lean protein sources very much so that limits me. To get over 25%, I need protein powders, seafood and poultry in my diet. I am not a chicken fan and I live on the prairies so seafood usually ends up being canned or expensive.
BUT I am at maintenance. The amount of calories I eat makes a difference to my macros.
If I eat 100g of protein while losing at 1500 kcal a day, that works out to 400 kcal of protein or around 27%.
If I eat 100g of protein while at maintenance, those 400 kcals are only 20% of my 2000 kcal.
See what I mean? It's the same amount of protein but my calorie totals are different so it changes my macros.
I think exceeding minimum protein needs is smart, but the minimum needs are pretty low (often around 45-60g) so that is not saying a lot. I have a tough time getting to 100g but I think if you like protein, it is a good idea to eat moderate to higher moderate amounts. I would raise my protein if it was more palatable to me.
My macros are 0-10% carbs, around 15- 20% protein and around 70% fat. While losing my protein was 20-25% and under 5% carbs.2 -
My Macros are 10/30/60, im still tweaking to find my Keto "sweetspot" . I had my protein at 40, and had to resort to protein powder to reach the %.0
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Right now I typically do 15% carbs/25% protein/60% fat. I am not sure if I'm in ketosis most days, but this is super sustainable for me
I basically got here by trying to eat as low carb as possible where I still felt comfortable and didn't feel like i was limiting most veggies (no potatoes). Some days I was lower, but found I was more comfortable when I was adding more veggies and getting up to this level. Sometimes my carbs come from sauces (I'm a honey mustard addict), which is less than ideal, but good for me mentally.1 -
I am 5% carbs/30% protein/65% fat. You have to be really mindful to get the protein over 20% in my experience. For a while I just concentrated on staying under on the carbs, and the fat was always low. The protein was also a little low usually. Initially I was at 70% fat and 25% protein. I started becoming more aware of the protein, and tried to meet or exceed protein every day. Then I upped the protein and have been very good about meeting or exceeding that new goal since then.
I was not paying much attention to the protein for a long time, but my fancy scales told me I had lost lean body mass, and my % body fat was not going down as the weight loss suggested it should. The increased protein (and actually meeting goals) seems to have halted the change in lean body mass.
FWIW, I check glucose levels about 5 times a day. I can't tell that increased protein has had any impact on my bg readings. If anything, they have been in a slow but steady decline (probably due to the weight loss). I had my doctor reduce my metformin to 1000mg once a day at the last appointment, and that was a month ago. The 14-day average on the meter is 102, and the 30-day average is 105. MySugr predicts an A1C of 5.2...1 -
40%c/30/30 for 1 year for weight loss. 2 years of the same for maintenance. 1 maintenance year of keto @ 5%c/20%p/75%. Last 6 months have been ~15% carbs, 25% protein, 60% fats. For my calories the latter equates to ~50 carbs, 100 protein, 100 fat grams.
What else is it you're wanting to accomplish or what is this person you were chatting with accomplishing that you are not? I read in another thread yesterday that you have lost 50.4 pounds in 4 months. In this post you say it has been easy. What's not to love or what is your interest/worry?2 -
Ketogains will never suggest any percentage based calculations. It very specific to grams only.
It based the protein grams off of what you need to maintain muscle or build muscle depending on what you put into the calculator. Then it limits carbs to 25g (I think) and fat is made of whatever calories you have left after those 2.
Just don’t eat the skin on chicken and trim off some of the fat on steaks and buy 80/20 or 85/15 ground beef.
Don’t add extra fat beyond what you need to cook.
How many protein GRAMS did the calculator give you? Grams are what matters. Not percentages.2 -
Reading this with interest, I’m changing my percentages after radically reducing my carbs and finding out it isn’t working for me. So I’ve just increased my carbs to 30% (total) and have been unsure what my other macros should be, interesting to see the differences.1
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I suppose there are days I might have 40% of my calories in protein but they are rare...I'm wrong...i went back and looked at all of August when I was still tracking in MFP. I eat about 1500 calories per day and 40% of my calories would be 150 grams of protein. The highest grams I ate in August was 112 and that was an unusual day of having an egg omelet with 1 egg and 3 egg whites plus salmon plus Greek yogurt.
I tend to eat fresh fish, eggs, lean meat and Greek yogurt on a regular basis and even with those choices, I don't get remotely close to 40%.0 -
I try to follow the ketogains macros.
I eat eggs, chicken, ground beef, but I try to minimize the amount of fat I use in things. No fat bombs, treats or bulletproof coffees. I eat 25g carbs, 72g fat & 122g protein.
I am far from perfect, but I feel better now that I don't have to eat lots of fatty stuff. I feel that is how/why people think this diet is unhealthy. I prefer lots of veggies & lean meats while getting enough fat to maintain hormone levels & satiety & enough protein to maintain muscle mass.1 -
My daily goals in grams (in MFP) are carbs - 23, fat - 120, and protein 158. I adjusted the macro %'s to better match the grams that ketogains gave me.
Today I was (net)carbs - 11, fat - 107, and protein - 162.0 -
I think I might have to go back to my macros, if only to keep an eye on intake.
I have reached an optimal weight, and my doctor (who is fully supportive and admiring of my efforts!) has told me that even if I were to lose some more weight, it wouldn't add anything further of benefit to my current state of health. In other words, I could lose a little more, but as I'm already in the ideal weight for my height/frame, it wouldn't matter, beneficially.
But I find I'm hovering on tipping back into unacceptable (for me) and I feel uncomfortable in my skin if I go over a particular barrier. Be it physical or psychological, I'd prefer to stay on its minus side, rather than creep steadily over.
Unfortunately, I love cheese. I love all manner of cheeses, softer rather than hard. But it makes me bloat.
And that's what doesn't sit well with me.
Because bloat - apart from adding water-weight - makes me feel physically uncomfortable.
But I can't tell, necessarily, whether it's water weight, or overweight.
So counting macros/percentages/grams, may be a sensible thing to do...
I'm also fighting the mental urge to get obsessive about it.1 -
Right now I'm about 15c/55f/30p.
I lost really well in the past at 10/50/40, but I have an autoimmune disease, and when it flared up my body couldn't compensate for the acidosis ketosis causes. (An issue of the specific autoimmune disease, not ketosis itself)
My doctor didn't want me on a low-carb diet. But I'm on very high dose prednisone and need something to prevent cravings and minimize weight gain. We compromised, and I started out again at about 100-150gm carbs/ day (I don't quite remember). Once the autoimmune disorder was relatively stable, I started decreasing the carbs by about 10gm/ day each week, as long as I felt well. When I hit 80-90gm/day I had good relief of cravings, and minimal symptoms of the acidosis/ketosis issues. So I've stayed there while maintaining my weight, and while I wait for some other treatments to kick in and improve the autoimmune disorder. When it flares, I'll let my carbs increase a bit, but I'll start having cravings again. When I'm feeling more stable, I'll sometimes let the carbs drift downward a bit to test it out, but 80/day still seems to be the sweet spot for now.
I've been trying to maintain my weight, since the autoimmune disease impacts my swallowing and chewing, and I don't want to lose muscle mass when I can't eat easily. I'd rather maintain than have starvation-type loss when things are bad.
But I'm reaching a point of stability where I'll transition to weight loss if my doc OKs it. Partly because my NEET increases as I'm on less bedrest, and partly because I can do about 5-10 minutes of exercise a day. I'll probably keep the carbs at 80/day and drop the fat a bit to decrease total calories. My protein goal remains 0.8-1gm per pound of ideal body weight (IBW determined by the BMI chart, not necessarily the same as goal weight) and will stay there.
So the new ratio will be based on 80gm carb, 145gm protein, and fat to fill out the calorie goal. And, I'll probably gradually drop the calorie goal-- right now I'm maintaining on around 1800 calories/ day while mainly bed-bound or home-bound, no exercise, around 2000 calories if I'm up and around the house easily. I'll drop the calorie goal by around 100 cal/ day until I start losing. If cravings hit, I'll decrease the carbs very gradually.1
