CALORIES & food

you may feel great now, but your body does need fuel. Its tough to give recommendations on diet because your diary is closed. The problem with cutting calories so drastically is that it usually isn't sustainable. You can do it for a while, but you may go back to your old ways. Unfortunately, almost all of us got to where we are by overeating and making the wrong choices, so being too extreme can lead us back to that.

go to My Home, then the settings tab in the upper right on the blue bar. Choose Diary Settings and set to public.

Do you have your weight loss set to more than 1 pound a week? Unless you are extremely overweight, I would stick with 1 pound a week.

Make sure you eat plenty of healthy fats doing low carb, my intake is usually up to 50% and my carb intake is usually less than 100g a day.

Well I am about 70lbs overweight. Should it be at 1lb/wk for that? What exactly are healthy fats? And yes, that was another question I had (sorry, I'm really new). When I customize my goals, what % should I have the carb, protein, & fat at?

Also keep in mind my dietitian suggested 30g carbs per meal and 15 per snack. Meaning no more than 120g carbs/day.

If you are paying a professional dietician, why don't you want to follow his/her recommended nutrition plan? They should have given you a whole plan.

what % should I have the carb, protein, & fat at?

There is a lot of debate on this subject. I prefer the high carb, low fat approach, at about 80 carb, 10 each protein and fat. Ultimately, whatever the MACRO-nutrient ratio you choose, try to get as many MICRO-nutrients in as possible. Micro nutrients come from plant based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, mushrooms, etc.

If you are feeling good on your current diet, and your energy is good, and you are optimistic, than you should listen to your body, and keep doing what you are doing. I think your own body's signals will be more accurate, and take into consideration current needs, more than the generic baseline number given by MFP.

Well I am about 70lbs overweight. Should it be at 1lb/wk for that? What exactly are healthy fats? And yes, that was another question I had (sorry, I'm really new). When I customize my goals, what % should I have the carb, protein, & fat at?

Also keep in mind my dietitian suggested 30g carbs per meal and 15 per snack. Meaning no more than 120g carbs/day.

120g sounds great, especially if a dietitian gave you this plan. Did they also give you a calorie goal?

I would say that 1 pound a week sounds great. I had about 40 pounds to lose and did it at that speed. It took me about a year with maintenance calorie intake for Christmas and vacations. You'll just need to be patient. I really feel that doing it at 1 pound a week is sustainable for most people because you aren't super hungry or feeling deprived.

Healthy fats are ones from natural sources. I eat a paleo/primal type diet, so my idea of healthy fats is a bit different from a lot of people, meaning I eat saturated fat from natural sources, such as coconut oil and grassfed meats and butter. I would also recommend olive oil, avocado, nuts, and fish oil (or omega three fatty acids from another source, such as flax). This is simply my opinion and has served me very well.

As for macros, fix them so your carbs are at 120g as your dietitian recommended (maybe around 25-30%?) and then adjust your protein and fat to what you want. Perhaps 40% fat and 30% protein or the other way around? Its up to your and your dietitian and what makes you feel the best.

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You calorie goal is 1500 just work out percentages:

120g carbs = 400 calories = 32%
120g protein = 400 calories = 32%
60g fat = 540 calories = 36%

So each meal get in your 30g carbs x 3 meals = 90g, snacks 15g carbs x 2 = 30g
Same for protein if doing 120g protein
and fat divide up in meals.

You can probably lose 2lbs per week safely.