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40/30/30 ratio vs. full calorie intake

scottstephens79
scottstephens79 Posts: 77 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello MFP,
After three weeks I had my first duplicate weigh-in and figured now would be a good time to tweak my diet. My problem is that I can't seem to find a meal plan that suits both bits of advice "eat your workout calories" and "follow the 40/30/30 ratio". If I try to eat ~2400 calories that would ask me to eat: 150 carb 120 fats(!) and 120 proteins. But even if I do have an awesome workout my daily allowance for fats climbs up to only 80ish.
So I'm stuck. Eating all my calories would put me way over my daily recommendations while eating my recommendations will massively short-cut my calorie intake. Any suggestions?
p.s. My workouts are mainly cardio, trying to lift some weights but I just never liked the motions involved.

Replies

  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    I think your numbers are off. Fat has about 9 cal/gm, and carbs and protein has about 4 cal/gm. So, using 2400(0.4)=9*x, your fat grams should be ~107gm/day. Simialrly, (2400(.3)=4*x) your carb and protein intake should be ~180gm/day.

    Otherwise, I misunderstood your question!
  • scottstephens79
    scottstephens79 Posts: 77 Member
    @Barreira,
    I haven't seen the 9 and 4 calories/gram before, I'll look those up elsewhere. To try to rephrase my question though:
    Whenever I update my workout on MFP, my calorie adjustment seems out of proportion to the increased carb/fat/pro daily allowance. Should I eat my 40/30/30 ratio according to my new daily calorie goal? Or should I eat my 40/30/30 ratio according to the new carb/fat/protein goal (which will undercut my total calories for the day)?
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Your ratio should stay the same. As for calories per gram for macros:

    Protein - 4kcal/gm
    Carbohydrates - 4kcal/gm
    Fat - 9kcal/gm
    Alcohol - 7kcal/gm
  • GauchoMark
    GauchoMark Posts: 1,804 Member
    now I'm even more confused! Are you maybe confusing calories and grams?

    If you are supposed to net 2400 calories on a 40/30/30 ratio, your log will start out with a target of 240 gm carbs, 80 gm fat, and 180 gm protein. (By the way, my numbers previously were wrong because I used 40% for fat on accident. That's what happens when you are in a hurry about to go to a meeting!)

    If you eat 3000 cal then exercise for 600 to meet your net, you should have eaten (to be perfectly balanced) a total of 300gm carbs, 100 gm fat, and 225 gm protein to stay within your ratio parameters at the end of the day. However, MFP will balance your needs for you so that you are balanced at the end. In other words, if you were outside of your ratio before the exercise, then MFP will tell you how many grams of each you need to eat to get to your ratio.

    So, looking at my diary on a day when I was out of balance, MFP told me to eat the following as my eat-back calories: 1 gm carbs, 5 gm fat, and 140 gm protein, which would have been a 1/7/92 ratio. Obviously I had eaten too much carbs and fat that day and ended the day low in protein. but if I had eaten what it told me to, then I would have met my ratio that day.

    Clear as mud?!
  • Libby81
    Libby81 Posts: 734 Member
    If you set your ratios to 40/30/30 when you add in your cals burned from workout they will be added in accordance with the ratios set. You can check you hit your ratios easier now with the phone app as it has a new pie chart feature, so you can easily see which macros need tweaking
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    Hello MFP,
    After three weeks I had my first duplicate weigh-in and figured now would be a good time to tweak my diet. My problem is that I can't seem to find a meal plan that suits both bits of advice "eat your workout calories" and "follow the 40/30/30 ratio". If I try to eat ~2400 calories that would ask me to eat: 150 carb 120 fats(!) and 120 proteins. But even if I do have an awesome workout my daily allowance for fats climbs up to only 80ish.
    So I'm stuck. Eating all my calories would put me way over my daily recommendations while eating my recommendations will massively short-cut my calorie intake. Any suggestions?
    p.s. My workouts are mainly cardio, trying to lift some weights but I just never liked the motions involved.

    1) Don't use ratios
    2) Fats don't make you fat or slow down weight loss

    Shoot for a minimum of 1g of pro per lb of lbm and .35g of fat per lb of bodyweight and fill in the rest of your cals from there
  • scottstephens79
    scottstephens79 Posts: 77 Member
    MFP,
    I talked to a co-worker and as soon as I verbally heard "...A PERCENTAGE OF YOUR CALORIES should fall in..." did the lightbulb turn on. When I read about the ratios before my brain kept substituting calories for grams of food. I was then taking it upon myself to add up all the recommended grams of food and redistributing them according to the 40/30/30 ratio (which explains why my fat was so high, I was treating one gram of fat as being the caloric equivalent of one gram of carb/protein). I then went back and multiplied the fats by 9, the carbs and proteins by 4 each and added those up and sure enough, they equaled my recommended calorie intake. Thanks for the multiplier numbers or I'm sure I would have driven myself half mad trying to figure that part out on my own. It also helps that the MFP calculators are already set to the 40/30/30 ratio- that much easier for me.
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