Macros...

nath69uk
nath69uk Posts: 7 Member
I'm tracking all my meals and it's working, I've lost 2kg in the first week which is great.

However, I'm struggling to meet my macros and calories.

Currently it's setup as below

Carbs 197.5g 50%
Fat 52.67g 30%
Protein 79g 20%

Im running over on protein and have surplus carbs and fat, this is making it difficult to try and reach my daily calories. Often leaving 200-300 calories unusable.

Any ideas?

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,203 Member
    edited April 27
    It's not necessary to be exactly exact on macros. Pretty close, on average over a few days - that should be fine.

    Many of us treat protein goal as a minimum. I do. Many people say that they get enough fats without paying attention. I don't, so I treat that goal as a minimum, too. When I started losing, I gradually tweaked my routine eating habits in a positive direction over a period of time. Now, I usually at least come close to those minimums without a lot of anxious micro-managing.

    From a nutritional standpoint, carbs are more flexible. Protein and fats contain what are "essential nutrients" (essential amino acids (EAAs), essential fatty acids (EFAs)): We need them, and our bodies can't manufacture those out of any other food intake, so we need to eat some. Carbs are not "essential" in that sense. Our bodies can use extra fats or protein to manufacture carb-equivalents (to oversimplify).

    If you're above protein goal, that's fine, as long as you don't have a contraindicating pre-existing health condition, such as kidney disease or Alpha-gal Syndrome (you'd know). In fact, many people who come here struggle to get enough protein, and tend to be over on carbs, so you're a leg up already.

    I'd suggest looking at your eating patterns with a view to brining fats up close to goal (or over) if you tend to be persistently low on fats, and let carbs be below goal (as long as you don't find that that hinders your energy level, but that's not a common problem with moderate carb, and some folks do fine at near zero carb (though I'm not saying low/no carb is a thing to aim for if you don't have a reason to do so).

    In general, if you don't have a diagnosed deficiency or relevant health condition, you can take some time working toward whatever you think is a more optimal level of protein and fats. For myself, I did prefer thinking in terms of routine habits rather than daily white-knuckled micromanaging forever. Just as an example: When I saw that I was persistently low on fats, I started putting some walnuts in my routine morning cooked old-fashioned oatmeal, and reduced the amount of oats slightly to make a little calorie room.

    If you have plenty of carbs left in your calorie budget, you wouldn't even have to reduce anything to up the fats. Just add some nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocados, full-fat rather than no/low fat dairy foods, avocados, butter or olive oil on veggies, oil on salad, or something like that to bring the fats us and get closer to calorie goal If carbs are below goal, and you feel fine, that's A-OK.

    Since you've already lost 2kg, it's probably already registered that your macros needn't be "right" in order to lose weight. Fat loss is directly about calories. Sub-par macros can have an indirect effect, by affecting appetite (so it's hard to stick with calorie goal) or triggering fatigue (so a person drags through the day, moving less so burning fewer calories), but it's still calories that are the direct issue. Macros are about health, energy level, body composition (such as maintaining muscles), and that sort of thing, not directly about weight management.

    Best wishes!

    P.S. Please note, I'm not a registered dietitian. When it comes to nutrition, I'm just an interested amateur who's read up on this, and gotten a bit of educational help in context of education for coaching my sport (rowing). In other words, I'm just some random idiot on the internet with maybe too much self-confidence, not any kind of official expert. As they say, trust, but verify. ;)

    P.P.S. Long run, it's a good idea to understand how much protein and fats (minimum) you need in grams, rather than as a percent of calories. That's another thing you can back burner for a bit while learning more, though, unless there's reason to believe it's contributing to your struggles. Example of contributing to struggle: Sometimes people try to lose weight stupid-fast, cut calories too far, can't get enough of certain macros to feel or perform decently. At that point, their smartest move would be not to try to lose stupid-fast ;) , but knowing minimum gram goals can sometimes help mitigate the fact that objectively there's no way to get adequate nutrition on too few calories.
  • nath69uk
    nath69uk Posts: 7 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    It's not necessary to be exactly exact on macros. Pretty close, on average over a few days - that should be fine.

    Many of us treat protein goal as a minimum. I do. Many people say that they get enough fats without paying attention. I don't, so I treat that goal as a minimum, too. When I started losing, I gradually tweaked my routine eating habits in a positive direction over a period of time. Now, I usually at least come close to those minimums without a lot of anxious micro-managing.

    From a nutritional standpoint, carbs are more flexible. Protein and fats contain what are "essential nutrients" (essential amino acids (EAAs), essential fatty acids (EFAs)): We need them, and our bodies can't manufacture those out of any other food intake, so we need to eat some. Carbs are not "essential" in that sense. Our bodies can use extra fats or protein to manufacture carb-equivalents (to oversimplify).

    If you're above protein goal, that's fine, as long as you don't have a contraindicating pre-existing health condition, such as kidney disease or Alpha-gal Syndrome (you'd know). In fact, many people who come here struggle to get enough protein, and tend to be over on carbs, so you're a leg up already.

    I'd suggest looking at your eating patterns with a view to brining fats up close to goal (or over) if you tend to be persistently low on fats, and let carbs be below goal (as long as you don't find that that hinders your energy level, but that's not a common problem with moderate carb, and some folks do fine at near zero carb (though I'm not saying low/no carb is a thing to aim for if you don't have a reason to do so).

    In general, if you don't have a diagnosed deficiency or relevant health condition, you can take some time working toward whatever you think is a more optimal level of protein and fats. For myself, I did prefer thinking in terms of routine habits rather than daily white-knuckled micromanaging forever. Just as an example: When I saw that I was persistently low on fats, I started putting some walnuts in my routine morning cooked old-fashioned oatmeal, and reduced the amount of oats slightly to make a little calorie room.

    If you have plenty of carbs left in your calorie budget, you wouldn't even have to reduce anything to up the fats. Just add some nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocados, full-fat rather than no/low fat dairy foods, avocados, butter or olive oil on veggies, oil on salad, or something like that to bring the fats us and get closer to calorie goal If carbs are below goal, and you feel fine, that's A-OK.

    Since you've already lost 2kg, it's probably already registered that your macros needn't be "right" in order to lose weight. Fat loss is directly about calories. Sub-par macros can have an indirect effect, by affecting appetite (so it's hard to stick with calorie goal) or triggering fatigue (so a person drags through the day, moving less so burning fewer calories), but it's still calories that are the direct issue. Macros are about health, energy level, body composition (such as maintaining muscles), and that sort of thing, not directly about weight management.

    Best wishes!

    P.S. Please note, I'm not a registered dietitian. When it comes to nutrition, I'm just an interested amateur who's read up on this, and gotten a bit of educational help in context of education for coaching my sport (rowing). In other words, I'm just some random idiot on the internet with maybe too much self-confidence, not any kind of official expert. As they say, trust, but verify. ;)

    P.P.S. Long run, it's a good idea to understand how much protein and fats (minimum) you need in grams, rather than as a percent of calories. That's another thing you can back burner for a bit while learning more, though, unless there's reason to believe it's contributing to your struggles. Example of contributing to struggle: Sometimes people try to lose weight stupid-fast, cut calories too far, can't get enough of certain macros to feel or perform decently. At that point, their smartest move would be not to try to lose stupid-fast ;) , but knowing minimum gram goals can sometimes help mitigate the fact that objectively there's no way to get adequate nutrition on too few calories.

    Excellent reply, thanks for taking the time to share your experience ot really is appreciated.