What should my Macros Be????

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journeeluv
journeeluv Posts: 4 Member
I am 299 pounds, want to start keto or low carb, what percentage should my carbs, fat and protein be set at???? How many calories are recommended each day???

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  • Salkeela
    Salkeela Posts: 367 Member
    edited April 2018
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    So I have also just started on the LCHF way of eating.

    At the moment you can sign up to https://www.dietdoctor.com/welcome for a free introductory month.

    They have a two week challenge with the first 2 weeks meals all up there, complete with shopping lists etc.

    I think they go for 20g net carbs a day (ie remove the value of fibre from your total carb figure on MFP to get this).

    I started it yesterday. So far so good. Might be worth looking at their site, it is quite inspiring.

  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
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    I'm a fan of both low carb and keto. I'm also a fan of MFP. My personal experience has been that a calorie deficit is what was most needed for my weight loss. The deficit set by MFP when I plugged in my stats worked for me. I did lower the carb macro to 40% versus 50% (mfp's default) simply because 50% left too much room for cakes, cookies and all the other things I tended to over eat. 10 %...silly, I think, in hind sight but it was effective. In the end, I averaged 35% or 128 grams of carbs per day which was fine for me and I lost my excess weight on the calories suggested by MFP.

    I later trialed medically therapeutic keto for reason other than weight management. With that I learned that even lower carb and higher fat was excellent for me for hunger suppression.

    I really struggled with being hungry on the macro allocation I first tried in maintenance (the 40% carb/30/30).

    I no longer strive for medically therapeutic keto (both low protein and low carb) but do keep my carbs low (about 50 per day) with some higher carb flex days in there. Protein and fats average about 100 each. All equates to about 1500 maintenance calories. That's me.

    Plug your stats into MFP. Follow the deficit calorie amount provided. Since you want to eat low carb, reduce the carb amount given by MFP (the 50% default) and spread it over protein and fat. Try it for a month and see what happens with your weight and hunger.

    Carb grams under 150 per day generally fit "low carb". Carb grams under 50 per day generally fit "keto". Decide where you want to be and select the % (since MFP uses %) that most closely meets the carb grams you want.

    You can always tweak them. Just get started. Good luck and welcome!
  • Running_and_Coffee
    Running_and_Coffee Posts: 811 Member
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    I take a similar approach to @kpk54 and use MFP for calorie guard rails but have adjusted my macros to fit into the percentages recommended by Ketogains. I go for 20 net carbs a day, avoid bread/starch/potatoes/rice/sugar and try to fill as much of my diet as I can with green and non starchy vegetables. I also eat a lot of lean protein, but many on keto eat fattier meats. I actually just prefer chicken and turkey and shellfish, (except I love salmon), so that's just how it's worked out for me.
  • heatherrk45
    heatherrk45 Posts: 27 Member
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    There is a keto calculator that I used. You plug in your stats and it'll tell you your macros... Me myself, I'm just trying to keep it below 30g of carbs a day for now. I may get more strict on macros once I get a little more sure of myself.

    https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/
  • catherineg3
    catherineg3 Posts: 127 Member
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    Easy Way to Calculate Your Macros on a Ketogenic Diet:
    https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/page/KetoDiet-Buddy