Carbohydrates: Gaining Weight
DoublePisces019
Posts: 7 Member
I’m using MFP few days now and regularly tracking my calories.
I’m always staying on or a bit under the proposed amount of fat and protein. But I always have a lot more carbohydrates than I should according to MFP. Today I have 96 gramm over. Is this okay? Can carbohydrates affect my weight gaining in a bad way?
Maybe a stupid question to most of you, but I’m just starting with all of this and I’m confused a lot...
Thanks, DoublePisces019
I’m always staying on or a bit under the proposed amount of fat and protein. But I always have a lot more carbohydrates than I should according to MFP. Today I have 96 gramm over. Is this okay? Can carbohydrates affect my weight gaining in a bad way?
Maybe a stupid question to most of you, but I’m just starting with all of this and I’m confused a lot...
Thanks, DoublePisces019
1
Replies
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The thing about Carbs is that they're what's called a Protein sparing macro. Lots of studies have shown that Carbs can have a positive affect on muscle protein synthesis ie help with the absorption of Protein. Have you set your Protein level at you goal weight? ie if you currently weigh 140 lbs and your goal is to get to 150 then you would set your Protein at 150g. Fats should then be around 25-30% of total calorie intake and the rest is Carbs. Or you could take a more flexible approach and simply track total calories and Protein, leaving you to vary the amount of Fats and Carbs you get on a daily basis. Just make sure you give your body a chance to respond to any changes and see how it goes. Remember, do what works for you.7
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Just to make sure:
Are you trying to lose, or to gain weight?0 -
Age: 26 (F)
W: 45 kg (around 100 lbs)
H: 166 cm (I think 5’5)
MFP:
Carbs: 50% (279g)
Protein: 20% (112g)
Fat: 30% (74g)
I’m focused on hitting those Protein and Fat procentage, but in Carbs I’m always way over.0 -
vollkornbloedchen wrote: »Just to make sure:
Are you trying to lose, or to gain weight?
To gain weight.
0 -
DoublePisces019 wrote: »vollkornbloedchen wrote: »Just to make sure:
Are you trying to lose, or to gain weight?
To gain weight.
Next question(s):
Is it a "general" gain you are trying to achieve, or is there a "body-shaping" program behind it?
How did you determine the macro percentage?
To see what, if anything at all, goes wrong, could you set your food- and workout- diary to public (temporarily only!)?0 -
I don't think that MFP is prescribing the macros percentages to members. We need to find our own percentages, macros we are happy with and can live with long term. I am now with MFP for over a year and started with carbs/fat/protein 20% / 40% / 40% and over time changed to just about equal parts: 33% / 33% / 33%. I have also noticed macros changes according to season: Spring / summer higher carbs, mainly from fruit and vegetables, winter more fat / protein.0
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vollkornbloedchen wrote: »DoublePisces019 wrote: »vollkornbloedchen wrote: »Just to make sure:
Are you trying to lose, or to gain weight?
To gain weight.
Next question(s):
Is it a "general" gain you are trying to achieve, or is there a "body-shaping" program behind it?
How did you determine the macro percentage?
To see what, if anything at all, goes wrong, could you set your food- and workout- diary to public (temporarily only!)?
I still didn’t started with working out. I’m very skinny, with fast metabolism, currently 45 kg. I can’t make a muscle from the bones, you know what I mean, so I wanna reach 50 kg and than start working out. I need some more weight to be able to work with it.
As I said, I’m using MFP just few days now and I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the calories, carbs, fat, protein, etc. So for now I’ll just stick with it, and later maybe switch or something.
Now to go back to my question: would Carbs do anything bad if I eat more than “I should” while trying to gain weight?
Is it bad that I have -+ 100 gramm Carbs more?
2 -
DoublePisces019 wrote: »vollkornbloedchen wrote: »DoublePisces019 wrote: »vollkornbloedchen wrote: »Just to make sure:
Are you trying to lose, or to gain weight?
To gain weight.
Next question(s):
Is it a "general" gain you are trying to achieve, or is there a "body-shaping" program behind it?
How did you determine the macro percentage?
To see what, if anything at all, goes wrong, could you set your food- and workout- diary to public (temporarily only!)?
I still didn’t started with working out. I’m very skinny, with fast metabolism, currently 45 kg. I can’t make a muscle from the bones, you know what I mean, so I wanna reach 50 kg and than start working out. I need some more weight to be able to work with it.
As I said, I’m using MFP just few days now and I don’t have a lot of knowledge about the calories, carbs, fat, protein, etc. So for now I’ll just stick with it, and later maybe switch or something.
Now to go back to my question: would Carbs do anything bad if I eat more than “I should” while trying to gain weight?
Is it bad that I have -+ 100 gramm Carbs more?
Having read a few more of your posts, my advice now would be to stop tracking and just eat more if you want to gain weight. There is no such thing as a fast metabolism. The metabolism is an adaptive and reactive system. If you feed your body more than it needs for TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) your metabolism will generally respond by encouraging you to move more involuntarily, such as twitching and fidgeting. Once that doesn't work it'll start to store excess energy as fat. If you feed you body less than it needs for TDEE your metabolism will respond by encouraging you to move less to conserve energy. Once that stops working it will draw energy from fat stores. All of this takes time to happen, several days usually, but once it does happen it can be beneficial to change your energy balance again to keep the metabolism flexible.
Your macros look fine and calorie wise amount to 2230 (Protein and Carbs = 4 calories per gram, Fats = 9 calories per gram). For someone of your weight, height and activity level that seems a lot so you should be gaining weight. If you're not, then guess what, you need to eat more!
Also remember that weight gain, just like weight loss, is a marathon not a sprint. You want to be gaining around 1% of your bodyweight every week. Some will gain more, some less, but if you're also doing some resistance training then you will also build muscle, albeit slowly as mentioned above.
Finally, remember to do what works for you, and that might take you a while to figure out, but you'll learn such a lot about your body on the way.7 -
Gaining weight should be easy. At age 26 and only 100 lbs. you needn't worry about carbs. Forget MFP. Eat well. Just try not to eat carbs that are considered unhealthy like refined sugar or white flour. Stay away from soda pop and salty snacks like chips, cheezies etc.
Reach for protein rich foods like full fat yogurt (with or without added sugar and fruit) and healthy fats found in nuts and seeds. Eating a handful of almonds or cashews (or any type of nut) everyday will always help you gain weight as they have a lot of healthy fats.
Add snacks like air popped popcorn with butter (not margarine) and trail mix. I make my own trail mix using sweetened dried cranberries, pumpkin seed kernels (roasted & salted) and dark chocolate chipits. It contains a healthy serving of protein, carbs, fibre, vitamins and antioxidants.
Reach for chocolate milk when you have a sugar craving because it contains a decent serving of protein as well.6 -
The thing about Carbs is that they're what's called a Protein sparing macro. Lots of studies have shown that Carbs can have a positive affect on muscle protein synthesis ie help with the absorption of Protein. Have you set your Protein level at you goal weight? ie if you currently weigh 140 lbs and your goal is to get to 150 then you would set your Protein at 150g. Fats should then be around 25-30% of total calorie intake and the rest is Carbs. Or you could take a more flexible approach and simply track total calories and Protein, leaving you to vary the amount of Fats and Carbs you get on a daily basis. Just make sure you give your body a chance to respond to any changes and see how it goes. Remember, do what works for you.
That much protein is excessive as a target, esp in a surplus.
All you need is 0.8 grams per lb of lean body mass or of goal weight, to build and maintain muscle. so if she at 100 lbs has looking to get to 110, then she should aim for 88 as a minimum, but more is not going to have a negative impact.4 -
DoublePisces019 wrote: »I’m using MFP few days now and regularly tracking my calories.
I’m always staying on or a bit under the proposed amount of fat and protein. But I always have a lot more carbohydrates than I should according to MFP. Today I have 96 gramm over. Is this okay? Can carbohydrates affect my weight gaining in a bad way?
Maybe a stupid question to most of you, but I’m just starting with all of this and I’m confused a lot...
Thanks, DoublePisces019
Macros don't affect if you gain weight or what sort of weight you gain. Unless you are a professional athlete of some kind already in amazing shape and looking to get very specific laser-focused results, micro-managing your macros is unnecessary IMHO.
Calories determine weight loss/maintenance/gain.
Your training (and to some extent the size of your surplus) will determine muscle/fat gain.
Macros are for satiety and adherence. Plus, you need enough protein for muscle synthesis and enough carbs for energy. I will let folks more experienced in gaining go into detail on that if necessary.
:drinker:4 -
At this point your goal should be to gain weight. You don't have to hit your macros exactly, and nothing wrong with carbs at all especially if they are helping you reach your calorie goal. Also while nutrition is important, nothing wrong with some treats to get you to your goal at the end of the day. Demonizing foods at this point as an above poster mentioned is not going to be helpful to someone in your position.6
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At this point you don't have to choose the food you eat. Eat everything called food. Eat more and drink fruit juices, milk and eggs and avocados. Don't focus on carbohydrates, fat or protein. Just eat3
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Just eat! I was having that same problem! I intake an avg of 2700 calories daily. Pasta, bread, protein, eat everything lol0
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