Grams or Percentages?

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GBNO
GBNO Posts: 15 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Just how many grams is equal to 5% carbs, 25% protein or 70% fat?. I've been hitting my % but exceeding my grams? Am I eating tje wrong foods? Any help much appreciated.

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  • JessAndreia
    JessAndreia Posts: 540 Member
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    Depends on the amount of calories you eat.

    Formula is daily calories x percentage = number of calories for macronutrient. Divide by 4 for carbs and protein, and by 9 for fat.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    As you add exercise the number of calories you can consume increases. While the percentages stay the same, the grams of each macro will increase. There is no such thing as eating the wrong foods as long as you are not eating food that makes you sick.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,049 Member
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    Also, whether you track in grams or percentages, it's not important to be super exact. Weight loss is all about the calories. The macronutrients are about nutrition (energy level, body composition, health, etc.), so still important, of course.

    But humans are very adaptive omnivores. It's good to get enough protein, fats, and micronutrients. But if you're a little bit under on one some days, a little over on that one on other days, and are somewhere in the ballpart most days for all the macros, you'll do fine.

    Best wishes!
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,052 Member
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    I think of fat & protein macros (and fiber) as minimums. Going over in grams is good!
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
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    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    I think of fat & protein macros (and fiber) as minimums. Going over in grams is good!

    But not if it makes you go over on calories. If you've calculated it right and you hit all of your macros in grams, then you've also hit your calories.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,049 Member
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    Sharon_C wrote: »
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    I think of fat & protein macros (and fiber) as minimums. Going over in grams is good!

    But not if it makes you go over on calories. If you've calculated it right and you hit all of your macros in grams, then you've also hit your calories.

    If you set them by percent, yes. If you set them in grams, not necessarily. And @ahoy_m8 didn't mention a carb goal, so wasn't talking "all macros".

    Yes, each macro has characteristic calorie levels. But if I target, based on goal weight or LBM, 100g protein, 50g fat, and let carbs/alcohol fall wherever they land (which I do), I can go over protein & fat, and still hit my pre-exercise 1850 calories: 400 cals protein + 450 cals fat = 850 cals, leaving 1000 calories I can spend however I like. (Mostly, it'll be a boatload of veggies, but often a bit more protein and/or fat, and occasionally IPA).
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    I think of fat & protein macros (and fiber) as minimums. Going over in grams is good!

    This is what I do too. And even so, I don't sweat it. I try to get over all three goals, but it's no big deal if I don't. The way I prefer to eat is naturally on the "moderate to high" carb end, so sometimes carbs are way over and something else suffers! As long as that doesn't happen every day, I'm good :smile:
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,595 Member
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    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    I think of fat & protein macros (and fiber) as minimums. Going over in grams is good!

    Me three!

    Actually I want to be AT or OVER for protein and fiber.

    Generally fats are close enough on their own without any extra effort on my part, and TBH I don't care if they're over or under as long as they're not too low and saturated fats are not too high.

    And the rest can be random :smiley:
  • thanos5
    thanos5 Posts: 513 Member
    edited June 2019
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    this certainly isn't original, but i do:

    1.1g protein x my body weight (multiply by 4 to get calories)

    25% of daily calories from fat (divide by 9 to get grams)

    the rest carbs (daily calories - protein calories - fat calories = carbs calories), divide by 4 to get grams

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