Macros while doing low carb plan

ekmanning50 · February 2022

I always have over 110 carbs left at end of day but usually go over in fiber and calories. Do I need to hit all macros or focus on carbs? Thanks!

AnnPT77 · February 2022

Do you need to hit all the macros for what reason?

For weight management, strictly speaking, you don't have to hit any of them: It's calories that matter directly. (Nutrition can matter indirectly, through fatigue or cravings, but has its affect on weight via the calorie implications.)

For nutrition, health, body composition: Protein and fats are "essential nutrients" in the sense that our body can't manufacture them out of anything else, so we need to eat a certain minimum of those. Reaching or exceeding that minimum on average over a day or few is close enough; close but not exact is close enough. If persistently well under on one or the other, it'd be good to work at improving that.

Carbs aren't an essential nutrient in that sense. They can be eaten to preference within remaining calories, unless a person has a health condition (such as diabetes) that requires managing carbs more closely.

Beyond that, some people find that if they get too few carbs, their energy tanks. Those people should eat enough carbs to prevent that. Some people find that if they eat too many carbs, their appetite/cravings spike. Those people should limit carbs to avoid that. How much is too much or too few? That's individual, can be determined by experimentation.

I think the above is pretty motherhood and apple pie mainstream nutrition. Personally, I try to meet or exceed my protein minimum, meet or exceed my fats minimum, eat at least 5+ and more preferably 10+ 80g servings of varied, colorful veggies & fruit daily for micros and fiber. I literally don't care where carbs land, so I just let them land wherever they land when my calories balance at the right point.

Looking backward, I usually eat just under 50% carbs, and lost weight fine (50+ pounds in less than a year, at age 59-60, while hypothyroid), have maintained weight fine for 6+ years since the same way, now age 66. During weight loss, I ate around 150g carbs most days, now, in maintenance, it's usually 225g+. Energy level, exercise performance, health markers all seem fine. YMMV.

lemurcat2 · February 2022

You can adjust your macros in your diary to fit with your preferred way of eating and thus not have a bunch of carbs left over.

Usually for low carb (although it depends on whatever plan you have decided to do), one focuses on being at or below the carb goal (often a net carb goal -- total carbs minus fiber, if you are in the US or Canada), at or ABOVE the protein goal, and eating fat to satiety (but I would make sure you are around your cal goal, as you don't want to accidentally go too low while getting used to a diet shift).

If you want to lose weight, going over cals may matter, although it depends on by how much and what your goal is -- cals determine weight loss no matter what plan you are following but if your cals are set low you could certainly go over and still be in a deficit. So it depends. I'd try to set them to the level you want to meet and then meet them rather than going over. It's NOT true that cals don't matter if you are below carbs.

Fiber being over is typically a good thing.

ajgordo150 · February 2022

Did fruits help

Macros while doing low carb plan

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