Nutrition Intake %'s / Custom Calories

I am not an expert but from what I read, it is very difficult to lose fat AND gain muscle at the same time. While you may gain a small amount of muscle while losing fat, you can't add pounds and pounds of muscle. In books such as Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, he encourages to first lose fat and then gain muscle. Both are primarily results of your diet. By eating fewer QUALITY calories than your body needs per day (a.k.a. your caloric goal you've established on MFP), you will lose fat (I stress QUALITY). By eating more QUALITY calories, you will gain quality muscle. Hope this helps. Best of luck on reaching your goals.

^^^ 100% agree with fat loss and muscle gain statement. You can make your muscle stronger but you can't gain muscle while on a calorie deficit.

Yeh it's very difficult to gain muscle and lose weight at the same time. It's more a case of reducing the amount of muscle that you lose.

I'm on 55% carbs, 25% protein and 20% fats at the moment with a somewhat similar goal to yourself. Works great for me and it's quite easy to keep to as its not that far off the average diet. I wouldn't worry too much about sugars either, it's much better to consider the glycaemic index of the carbs you're eating.

Thanks everyone! I am well aware that you have to burn fat first then gain muscle, however I don't want to deprive myself of the right amount of calories and lose muscle that I am gaining with too much cardio.

I am on my feet majority of the day, I weight train 4-5 days a week and do cardio 2-3 (intense cardio, spin class or stair stepping or interval training on the elipttical.)

I adjusted my percentages, I will see how it works out this week. Thanks again!!

The best thing to do when cutting is to keep protein intake high while continuing to do cardio and/or strength training. You won't gain muscle but you will help maintain lean body mass as you are dropping fat.

Sounds like you are on good track with your exercise. You should be getting about 1 g of protein per pound of lean body mass and about 1/4 g fat per pound of total mass. Some good macros are 50p/30c/20f, 40p/40c/20f, 35p/35c/30f.

Make sure you are eating an adequate amount of calories. If you eat significantly below your recommended caloric intake with the exercise you are doing you will burn away at your muscles.

If you go on this website and input your age, height, weight, and activity level it will tell you how many calories you should roughly be eating daily. Just subtract 250-500 calories from that for 1/2 lb to 1lb loss per week (try not to go below 1200 net calories daily).
http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/tdee-calculator.html