Where does the protein goal come from

SarahAnne3958 wrote: »

katiegm6 wrote: »

Thank you all for your information. I reset my goals and protein is now a much more reasonable number. But it seems that the carbohydrate is really high which worries me since I have always had the best results with a low carb diet (not long term of course which is why I am back here!). The macro info on premium has been really helpful. I really have a lot to learn.!

MFP has default macros that it uses, if you want to adjust them based on your eating preferences you can manually change them and then your adjusted macros goals will be reflected in your food diary area.

Yeah, this. Go to Goals again.

katiegm6 wrote: »

Thank you all for your information. I reset my goals and protein is now a much more reasonable number. But it seems that the carbohydrate is really high which worries me since I have always had the best results with a low carb diet (not long term of course which is why I am back here!). The macro info on premium has been really helpful. I really have a lot to learn.!

As others have said, you can modify your goals to reduce carbs and increase protein or fats (or alcohol, for that matter, which is sort of another macro, just not a super-healthful one ).

Protein and fats are "essential nutrients": You body doesn't have the capability to manufacture all of those that you need from other forms of intake. Carbs are not "essential nutrients", in the sense that your body can make what it needs from other macros. (That carbs are "not essential" doesn't make carbs bad to eat - it's just a technical distinction.)

I'd encourage you to think about the following idea, though: If you do not plan or expect to restrict carbs permanently - i.e., if it's just a weight loss strategy - when will you be learning an eating pattern and habits you can use long term to remain at a healthy weight for the rest of your life? If you want to eat some "normal" level of carbs in the long run (whatever "normal" is for you), perhaps the weight loss process is a good time to figure out how you can incorporate them in your eating, but stay at a reasonable calorie goal. Obviously, you don't have to do this, I'm just encouraging you to think ahead and consider the tradeoffs.

For some people, it matters which carb-containing foods they mostly eat, to control carbs. For most people (not everyone) the satiating carbs that don't as much provoke excess appetite are things like beans/legumes, starchy veggies, whole fruits, whole grains, potatoes, and that sort of thing. Often people find those carb-containing foods quite filling. There's nothing wrong with the occasional cookie or crackers or white bread or candy whatever, and many people can moderate those just fine, but some find them easy to overeat.

Some people (again, not everyone) think of "carbs" as a problem when they have trouble moderating foods like potato chips, cake, cookies, candy bars, donuts . . . but in many of those foods, there are as many calories from fat (if not more) than from carbs. They're calorie-dense, so they push some buttons that natural selection installed, but they're often not very nutrient-dense, and they're not especially filling, so we can just eat and eat them.

Many people will have a quicker intial scale drop on a reduced-carb diet, because each gram of carbs we eat ties up 3-4 grams (I always forget exactly which ) of water, while the carbs are being digested/metabolized. So, if we dramatically reduce carbs, we see a bigger water weight drop at the start of weight loss. It isn't fat loss, so it doesn't much matter in the big picture, but it's psychologically rewarding for sure. There's quite a lot of research showing equal weight loss success with either low-carb or other eating modes, as long as protein intake is constant between the modes being compared (protein takes a little more energy to digest/metabolize than the other macros).

In the long run, a low carb or moderate/higher carb diet will result in about the same average rate of actual fat loss, which is what most of us are aiming at. Some people (again, not everyone) find that reducing carbs helps them manage their appetite/cravings, so that can be useful for them. If it's a strategy someone can stick with permanently, there's no reason to foresee bumps in the road ahead, either. (Obviously, some people have a medical condition that requires reducing carbs: I'm not trying to speak to that at all in this post.)

Best wishes!