Is it possible to optimize for nutrition in weight loss?

BodyTemple23 · April 23

I'm suffering from the curse of knowledge. My understanding of macros and nutrition has significantly improved since using MFP and through this community. A big thank you! I'm now more conscious of which macro I'm going for when I have a fruit or, say, cheese. I can also now see I'm eating at maintenance and why I don't lose weight as planned. I'm loving it.

I'm on a weight loss journey, and I eat about 1500 calories a day, but I constantly find myself overeating carbs. I eat healthy carbs, but eating a cup of berries or two slices of bread is enough to overshoot my daily carbs limit of 150 grams. I end up eating about 200 grams of carbs and sometimes overshoot fat by 10-15 grams, although I stay under the calorie goal. This means I'm eating less protein. I eat about 80-90 grams of protein. I'm primarily vegetarian; my protein sources are beans, lentils, tofu, eggs, Greek yogurt, and protein powder.

Is it possible to optimize for macros on a weight loss journey?

I have lost weight in the past by significantly cutting back on calories, but back then, I wasn't thinking of macros at all. It was a lot easier.

AnnPT77 · April 24

I think it is.

It may not be possible to maximize all macros to abstractly ideal levels, but it should be possible to optimize within the calorie constraint. (That's technically and abstractly speaking . . . but taste-preferences may make it not psychologically easy?)

One thing I would say is that it's difficult to optimize if trying to lose weight quite fast. Losing slower, with more calories, makes it easier. Adding some exercise calories also helps, although I think exercising only to buy calories is a trap, can lead to bad places psychologically.

From my perspective, I'd prioritize macros in this order: Protein, fats, carbs. (That's because protein and fats contain essential nutrients that our bodies can't manufacture out of anything else. Carbs aren't essential in that same sense.)

How tall/heavy are you now, and what's your goal weight?

For an average-ish sized women, 80-90g protein may be adequate, depending on some other personal details.

I'm vegetarian, too (ovo-lacto in my case), 5'5", and use a goal weight of 125 pounds. (I'm in maintenance but sitting at about 130 right now; I tend to creep up in Winter, back down in Summer, with some variability.) My maintenance protein minimum is 100g, and I usually exceed it, but it admittedly hit a little lower (in that 80-90+ kind of range) often while first losing. As far as I can see, nothing terrible happened because of that.

Process-wise, early in loss, I did very active diary review, looking for tweaks I could make in routine habits to bump up protein and fats to desired levels, and drop carbs to free up a few calories. That worked well for me. Many people - and it sounds like you're one? - get enough fats without paying it much attention, but I don't. I needed to work on that, too . . . and still do, to some extent, though protein usually falls into place now pretty well because of established eating patterns.

I see that you and I are MFP friends (cringing a little because I'm a terrible MFP friend

, more of a Community forum gal). However, I can't see your diary (locked with a key) to see if I could make suggestions.

You're welcome to look at mine, which is open to friends, to see if it sparks any ideas. I do have a higher calorie goal, though (1850 + exercise), and now (nearly year 8 of maintenance) I log most days, but not every single one. Plus I've been eating like a goofball lately, not nutritionally awful, but odd patterns because of schedule weirdness.

If you want to look, feel free to do so and if you have questions DM me or post on my wall. I don't know whether that could help.

I don't really see how a couple of slices of bread and a cup of strawberries gets to 200g of carbs, seems like it might max out around 85 even with pretty carb-y bread, so I assume you're getting carbs from other sources as well. (That's not a criticism, just an example of why I'm struggling to think of suggestions).

I think active diary review and chipping away gradually at improving eating patterns could work, but that's pretty abstract advice. I hope you're able to find a solution: I think it's out there.

Best wishes!

BodyTemple23 · April 24

You are right, @AnnPT77

I eat carbs like 1-2 fenugreek leaves, multigrain rotis, or one cup of brown rice (which also has lots of veggies like peas, carrots, beans, edamame, and lima beans) for lunch and dinner. Plus, all my protein sources also have some carbs, so everything adds up.

I eat home-cooked meals and find it hard to map them to the exact recipe in the MFP database, but I try to guesstimate them as best as possible. My meals contain cooking oil, and my rotis contain 1 teaspoon of ghee, so the fat content should work out. Plus, I eat at least one whole egg. I have a question, though. If you are overweight, like in my case, your body has fat to burn, no?

As I mentioned, I'm eating fat, but I never really thought much about it. Fat intake is easily fixable. One avocado is all it takes. Even half an avocado works.

I'll contact you in a few weeks to share my diary. I'm just now getting better at updating my food diary. I did lose my way, and I'm making it back. Thanks for the offer. You are an inspiration!

BodyTemple23 · April 24

PS. I'm 44 years old, 5'4 tall, and weigh 138 pounds. Trying to lose about 6-8% body fat. I'm not too worried about weight; it's just visible fat as measured. I'm taking it very slow. But you lose momentum and motivation if you go too slow.

PAV8888 · April 24

If you're logging home cooked meals the only reason to map to MFP meals is because someone else is doing the cooking

If you're the one cooking you can log by ingredient and weight what goes in the meal.

Then weight finished product.

Then weight what YOU eat out of the finished product.

If 1000g of ingredients worth 2000Cal make a 500g finished product, a 100g portion of finished product is 1/5 of the initial ingredients and 400Cal 👌

My personal observation watching friends cooking Indian food (and eating out) is that Indian food can be wonderful for weight loss if slightly modified, albeit possibly protein might be a bit challenging if vegetarian, or, esp. Jain. But, other than when we consider sweets, the biggest "costa" are ghee and oil used in cooking.... and roti/naan/pastry to an extent, I guess🤷‍♂️

You too might be surprised as to how many calories are hidden in there and even though oil is not exactly 1g per ml it is close and conversion tables for gram to ml of oil do exist.

Eye balling larger quantities of oil vs scale measuring may prove an eye opening experience.

Brown rice and ingredients too can be measured before cooking.

You mentioned egg, in the context as a source of complete protein. You may be surprised at the power of egg white as a source of protein and how easy/seem less you may find the option of migrating to a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio of egg to egg white. Using, for example, instead of just a large egg, the same egg with additional egg white. eg 50g whole egg mixed with 50 to 100g of liquid egg whites.

BodyTemple23 · April 24

Thank you so much for your input, @PAV8888

I have come a long way from typical Indian cooking/food. It's been over a decade, actually. Although I do cook Indian food, my food is nothing similar to how traditional Indian recipes are made. My rotis are made with multigrain, with fenugreek leaves, warming spices like caraway seeds, ginger, garlic, moringa powder, and flax seed powder. They are wholesome and rich. With this amount of customization, it's kinda hard to map that in MFP by choosing a single ingredient the way you describe it. I will be spending the whole day. I would rather select the closest option. The cooking oil is just 2 teaspoons per day. I rarely eat out. I avoid Indian places when I do, lol. I choose healthy joints.

Re: whole eggs versus egg whites. I was doing 2 egg whites + 1 whole egg with a ton of veggies. But I have reading that the yolk also contains 40% of protein and a lot of nutrients. Of course, it makes sense to continue eating egg whites as much as possible during weight loss.

My problem is not what's going into my body. Even when I binge (which happens), I go for healthy snacks. My problem is how to balance macros. I guess I have to cut back on brown rice and rotis and stop bread (which I did, but it's so convenient to eat a slice before a workout or when you get super hungry).

PAV8888 · April 24

Actually your rotis sound awesome and I would LOVE to try some!

I understood that you identified protein as a potential problem for yourself. The egg yolk does contain many of the egg's micro-nutrients. But egg whites are not only a complete protein (all amino-acids) but they are also a "cheap" source of protein in terms of calories. 88% of their total calories come from protein.

I don't know that you **HAVE** to stop anything. There are many ways to do things in life. Maybe continue to experiment?

An example of a carbohydrate that is more filling for me than bread is... boiled baby potatoes. And this is coming from someone who has eaten 45g of white sandwich bread already today because it was convenient. But I COULD afford it with my caloric budget.

If I couldn't, I would have pre-boiled my baby potatoes and grabbed about 100g of baby potatoes with a bit of lemon pepper on the way out instead of grabbing a slice of bread. Both are about 80Cal... but the potatoes "last" longer for me.

When I was trying to lose weight with a large deficit back when I first started up on MFP, I would do something similar with apples. i.e. use an apple as a "quick thing to eat" item.

I would also remind you that macros don't HAVE to be 100% correct. They do not have to always be achieved at 100% of the targeted daily value, nor do they have to be achieved 100% of the time. There is quite a bit of slack in the +/- 10% or 20% even range in terms of achieving "good enough".

Last... I would have to disagree with your estimation of how long it would take to log a recipe YOU have pre-set on MFP (and other logging platforms).

You could create a meal if you don't want to create a recipe that you have to adjust. Then MFP would populate your 5 or 10 or 20 ingredients that you use in your roti. All it would take would be for you to jot down the weight of items as you're cooking, note the finished weight and how much you're eating out of it and then modify the weight of the items in the meal.

Try a meal with whole egg and liquid egg white to see how it would work and how you can adjust your logging....

Anyway. take care... and wish me luck when I head out for dinner at the indian place up the street later today!!!

BodyTemple23 · April 24

Thanks for the tips! @PAV8888

Haha, I'm happy to provide the exact recipe for my rotis if you'd like to make some.

The thing is, my food is based on the science of Ayurveda. The ingredients that go into my rotis are bitter and warm, which suits my particular constitution (known as dosha- Kapha Pitta type). If I were to describe it, it is a mix between Kung Fu Panda (Kapha traits) and the tigresses (pitta traits). The Kapha causes weight gain and drowns the fire, which is why bitter and warm help loosen the Kapha and protect the digestive fire.

Enjoy the dinner!!

Is it possible to optimize for nutrition in weight loss?

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