Calorie Counters - New to Counting -Have a few questions

Hi everyone! I am new to calorie counting (as in, yesterday was my first day), and I have started entering all my food into the Livestrong.com myplate site.

This site not only counts calories, but it gives you a breakdown of fat, carbs, fiber, salt, sugar, etc.

Here's my question... is being over or under the "recommended daily allowance" necessarily a bad thing? Well, for some of the categories, I think I can answer that myself. But the ones I'm curious about are carbs, fiber, and protein.

Carbs - I know I shouldn't go over the recommended daily allowance, but is there any problem with going way under? Does my body need a certain amount of carbs to function properly?

Fiber - A diet high on fruits and vegetables is going to yield a hefty amount of fiber. Is that a bad thing? Should I limit my fruit and veggie intake because I'm getting over the recommended daily allowance?

Protein - I know the body needs a certain amount of protein to function properly and repair muscle and all that. But what does too much protein do to a person? Most of my protein comes from eggs, yogurt, and quinoa. Should I eat less of those because I'm going over the recommended daily allowance?

If anyone has answers to these, either post a reply here, or hop on over to my blog and leave a comment on my latest post: Do High or Low = Bad? (http://my-body-in-motion.blogspot.com/2010/06/do-low-or-high-bad.html)

Thanks!

I think those RDAs are off. They are based on simply having a certain % of your calories from carbs, a certain % from protein, a certain % from fat, etc... but not making sure you are getting enough for your actual body as it is today.

For example, I'm pretty sure the recommendation for protein is .8 grams per kilogram of body weight. For your CW, that would be 173/2.2x.8=63 grams of protein. However, I think that's really a minimum. If you're exercising, you should really consume more, especially if you are eating so few calories, because you are at risk of burning muscle.

There's a very helpful article about this on my gym's website but it's members-only access. If you want, PM me and I will send you the text (long to post here and maybe a copyright issue). But if you google (and look for reputable websites) there's quite a bit out there about nutritional requirements.

Also, I'm pretty new to calorie counting, but it seems to me that a lot of people choose 1200 because it's the lowest recommended amount. If you are exercising, I think you could get good results on more calories (taking your height and weight into account).

People live on all sorts of diets: the Inuit of the far North live almost entirely on animal fat and protein, and most primitive agricultural societies live on almost all carbs. There is a wide range of acceptable consumption: it's not rocket science.

I wouldn't go too low on anything (like, below 15-20% of your calories) and then it's all about seeing how you feel. I feel the most sated/least hungry when I eat a lot of protein (50% of calories/approaching 200 grams) and a lot of fiber (40+ grams a day). Fat does NOT fill me up, so I eat little (19% of calories/30 grams a day). I've held about those ratios for a year, and I feel great, I'm adding muscle at a tremendous rate, and the weight loss has been steady. I also eat quite a bit.

But your millage will vary. It's all about experimenting and paying attention to your body. Look to your energy level, your "fullness" and your attention span to see if you are eating your best fit diet. If you have very many, if any, days where you go off plan, where you break down, you need to change what you eat.

ETA: Also look to your frustration level. If everything and everyone is frustrating you all the time, you might want to tweak your eating.

As far as I know, going over on your Fiber is never a bad thing :-) I remember reading an article a few months ago that outlined how our fiber consumption has dramatically declined over the last 100 or so years. This is blamed on the fact that we consume fewer and fewer foods like beans and whole fruits/veggies. Apparently it was common for the average 19th century adult to consume over 50grams of fiber a day!

As for carbs, I would worry about those if you have blood sugar issues because they can spike your blood sugar. Lean Proteins are good for your body, so I wouldn't worry too much about those either.

I use thedailyplate.com also and the only stats that I watch closely are Calories, Fats, Fiber and Sodium. As long as I'm not consuming too many overly processed foods, then I don't worry about the other stats quite as much.

Thanks for all the suggestions Shmead, thesame7lbs, and digitalrequiem!

I definitely think it's just something I'll need to tinker with and figure out what makes me feel the most full, feel good, and lose weight.