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Elise888
New Member
| Joined: | 6 January 2007 |
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| Posts: | 4 |
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Posted: 6 January 2007 08:59 am |
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hi,
i was refreshing my memory on the right way to diet and lose weight because im back on my diet after taking a 9 month break because i lost all motivation and all the knowladge i gained during my last diet has all left me. its pretty sad but anyway im confused because different books and articals say different things about the macronutrient ratio, so i wanted to know if any of u calculate the percents of ur carbs, fats and proteins day to day and if u believe that it really does make that big a difference. or do u think you can lose weight just as well without keeping it totally balanced, because i find it really hard now a days to not go over on carbs and i find it hard to get enough protein a day even if i eat a ton of lean meat during the day.
i used to be obsessed with balancing all that stuff but now im much more busy and i cant find the time to sit down and figure out a meal plan for the day with exactly 30% protein, 25% fat, and 30% carb. i always go over on the carb and i dont even feel like i eat a bunch of food with carbs. i eat alot of meat and veggies. i do eat fruit and like oats but still. SO do u think it makes a huge difference if i happen to go over on carbs as long as i exercise 30min-hr a day?
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 6 January 2007 11:05 am |
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30+25+30 don't make 100, so what targets were you going for?
BFFM (Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle) recommends a baseline diet of protein-30%, fat-20%, carbs-50% to start with, and adjust it from there.
Another recommendation that I follow is to keep protein at 1.8g per kilo of body weight. For my current calorie intake this actually works out at a lower percentage (protein 23%) so that's what I follow. I don't pay much attention to my fat//carb ratio, but that is just because I know that I am eating a very low fat diet and I'm not interested in finding out exactly how low (i.e. whether it is 10% or 15% fat makes no difference to me). As you can tell, I'm not particulalry scared of carbs - I figure that if I eat healthy foods [veg, fruit, legumes, wholegrain] and ensure enough protein, everything else will take care of itself. That's just my personal approach though.
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Elise888
New Member
| Joined: | 6 January 2007 |
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| Posts: | 4 |
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Posted: 6 January 2007 10:51 pm |
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oh sorry i meant to say 40% carbs and 30% fats. i dont eat any unhealthy foods now that im on my diet, ive been on it for 2 weeks and i dunno....i guess im confused because in Jillian michaels book ( i dunno if youve read it but..) it has that oxidizer test and depending on which one u are, ur percents would be different. im either a balanced oxidizer or a slow oxidizer, and balanced one need 40% carbs and 30% protein and fats. and Slow oxidizers need more carbs and less fat and protein. And i cant tell which one i am because when i follow the percents for a balanced one, after a few days i feel ok but i dont feel like anythings working, and when i take a day and eat more carbs than protein or fat, then i feel alot better the next day like slimmer.
do u think if i just stay away from simple carbs and fried foods and sugary stuff, and only eat fruits, veggies, and lean meats and the obviously healthy foods and not worry about calculating everything up that ill be fine? i should be right?
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trimB
Moderator
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Posted: 6 January 2007 11:13 pm |
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Here's my little two cents... 
Some people have a personality that leads them to find calculating all these things helpful, and in fact maybe even enjoyable.
Some people have a personality that leads them to find calculating all these things A HUGE TURNOFF in their quest to be healthy.
It sounds like you are in the second group, so in that case I'd guess you'd just be bored and frustrated with all that counting. What can you do instead? How about figuring out some feedback method to PROVE or DISPROVE that your approach is working. Lots of people here would recommend buying a skinfold caliper so that you can use your bodyfat % to "measure" your progress. At the very least, you could use a measuring tape (to get measurements on a few key body parts) and maybe a scale.
SO if you after a week or two, you find your plan is working, GREAT! If not, then you will know that you haven't got it quite right yet.
Hope this helps. By the way, I think fruits/veggies/lean meats/whole grains PLUS cardio exercise and some strength training sounds like a plan that would work.
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 7 January 2007 09:23 pm |
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Elise888 wrote: do u think if i just stay away from simple carbs and fried foods and sugary stuff, and only eat fruits, veggies, and lean meats and the obviously healthy foods and not worry about calculating everything up that ill be fine? i should be right?
eating healthy is a great approach - results will then depend on the quantities you eat. If you can eat without any measurements or calculations and still get the results you want, that's great. If not, back to counting (at the very least, the calorie-dense stuff)
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trimB
Moderator
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Posted: 8 January 2007 12:14 am |
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| Nir is right... and I was thinking that too as I wrote. Quantities are important too, assuming that the quality of the food you're eating is all very high. But many people believe (ie Eat to Live) that if you are eating only high quality, nutritious foods - then the quantities will "fall into place" by themselves. A nice theory that probably works for many but probably not all people.
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nankagirl
New Member
| Joined: | 12 April 2007 |
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| Posts: | 1 |
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Posted: 12 April 2007 12:54 pm |
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Hi!
Why don't you try this: ht tp://balansator.com/balansator.php?
Good luck  Last edited on 12 April 2007 04:40 pm by
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 12 April 2007 04:58 pm |
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Fantastic concept! With just 294 food selections currently available and no way of seeing what data has been entered for these foods or adding your own custom food, it remains a proof-of-concept rather than a relevant tool, but it is certainly a good showcase of what is possible. I look forward to the full-feature version in due course.
I currently use an excel spreadsheet which solves the simultaneous equations, but my version is limited to balancing 2 foods and it performs a simpler balance of the (protein%) vs (fat%+carb%) values.
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clarinetgurl
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 13 April 2007 12:58 am |
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This looks like a good place to add my question w/o starting a new thread. Forgive me if it is not.
How do I know if something is a "good source" of protein or not?
I have these breakfast bowls from Jimmy Dean that have 30 g of protein, which is great. they have potaotes, cheese, scrambled egg, and bacon...it's frozen, and you just cook it in the microwave.
But, they are 520 calories and quite a bit of fat. Are they still a "good source" of protein, or am I digging myself a grave?
clar
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 13 April 2007 01:25 am |
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clarinetgurl wrote: How do I know if something is a "good source" of protein or not?
breakfast bowls .. 30 g of protein .. 520 calories
Ok, I am going to compare your breakfast with 100g of cooked broccoli, which is only 3.1g of protein, which doesn't look as impressive as 30g. The broccoli is 24 calories.
The easiest thing to do is to compare like with like. We could compare portions of similiar weight, or similiar volume, but this isn't going to help us here. What will help is to compare portions that have the same number of calories. Let's look at servings that contain exactly 100 calories and see how much protein they proide.
100 calories of your "breakfast bowl" contains (100/520) x 30 = 5.8g protein.
100 calories of my cooked broccoli contains (100/24) x 3.1 = 12.9g protein.
Now let's look at some hard-boiled egg whites: 100g of that is 36 calories and 9g protein. So:
100 calories of hard-boiled egg whites contains (100/36) x 9 = 25g protein.
by the way, that is the most protein that any 100-calorie serving could ever contain.
You can multiply the number of grams of protein in a serving by 4 to get the number of calories from protein.
100 calories of breakfast bowl: 5.8 x 4 = 23.2 calories
100 calories of cooked broccoli: 12.9 x 4 = 51.6 calories
100 calories of egg whites: 25 x 4 = 100 calories
Trivially, as these numbers are "protein calories out of total calories", they are also percentages. So you can say "51.6% of the calories in cooked broccoli are protein", "100% of calories in egg whites are protein", "only 23.2% of the calories in the breakfast bowl come from protein".
What else can we talk about, as far as "good source" is concerned? Well, we can talk about complete proteins and we can talk about the other junk that can be contained in food that also contains protein.
A) animal proteins (protein in meat, fish, eggs and dairy products) has all the essential amino acids. Vegetable protein is generally deficient in some - so you have to eat a variety of foods in order for proteins to complete themselves. For example beans and toast, rice and vegetables etc.
B) bacon may contain carcinogens (nitrites), animal products such as bacon, cheese and egg yolkes contain saturated fat and cholesterol that may raise your LDL 'bad' cholesterol.
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clarinetgurl
Distinguished Member
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Posted: 14 April 2007 12:36 am |
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So, okay, it is not as good as broccoli or egg whites...does it still provide a reasonable amount of protein, or should I junk it?
I am not too keen on eating broccoli for breakfast, much as I like it.
And, sorry, but egg whites don't sound all that appetizing, besides the fact that I don't know what he would say if I said, "Hey, Dad, can you whip[ me up a couple of egg whites for breakfast?"
clar
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 14 April 2007 01:56 am |
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does it still provide a reasonable amount of protein, or should I junk it?
Let me put it another way: your protein target is 93g..112g per day.
If you had 3 of these breakfast bowls: one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner, you'll be getting 30g x 3 = 90g of protein.
But you would be commiting 3 x 520 = 1560 calories to this protein project so you are eating practically nothing else. Hopefully that puts it in perspective.
On the other hand, if you find some other food that is a "good source" of protein, i.e. gives you 30g of protein but "costs" fewer calories, then you will have plenty of calories left over for fruit, vegetables, chocolate or whatever else you would like to eat.
Perhaps egg whites are tricky for you. Maybe egg beaters are a more convenient alternative. Sliced deli-style meats (e.g. slices of chicken, turkey, ham etc.) may be the solution. There are types of low-fat cheese (both soft cheese like cottage cheese or cream cheese, and hard cheese) that might also fit the bill. There are sources of protein that require no cooking and are not objectionable for you to eat first thing in the morning: you just have to decide which ones to have.
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