This is just WEIRD to me.

My FitDay today - (after I have lunch & afternoon snack) has a total of:

Calories = 1100
Fat = 41g
Carb = 113g
Protein = 69g

But on the "percentage wheel" it looks like this:
Fat 36%
Carb 38%
Protein 27%

I just DON'T get the math here!!!! I thought I was doing well to have 69g of protein & only 41g of fat. But percentage wise, Fat 36 & Protein 27... how can it be so much less???

And because I'm so utterly confused with the math proportions, I'm thinking I shouldn't be doing a "mathmetically directed" diet.

Some days are just MORE DUH than others, I guess.

I think it's because you're forgetting that while protein and carbs have 4 calories per gram, Fat has 9 calories per gram.

So of your 1100 calories:

-(41g x 9 cal) 369 calories are from Fat (34%)
-(113g x 4 cal) 452 calories are from Carbs (41%)
-(69g x 4 cal) 276 are from Protein (25%)

At least, that's what my math comes up with. It's a little different from your FitDay %, but not by too much The difference in percentage on Fit Day (compared to my percentages) could be explained by fiber. Of your carbs, the fiber wouldn't have 4 cal/gram because it's indigestible. Fit Day will list the "total" carbs, but it likely takes fiber into account and doesn't count the fiber toward your calories or percentage, which would account for the slight shift from the percentages I came up with (meaning that where I found 41% carbs, FitDay lists it as less--38% because of your fiber. When that % goes down, the other two values for Fat/Protein go up) I hope that made sense...

Yes, what Azure said! Fat is just a really energy-rich food, which is why it's so easy to go over on calories when eating something like butter or full-fat salad dressing. Those things have to be carefully measured.

Jay

But.... isn't it.... regardless of what you eat (fat, protein, carbs, etc.)... It's the TOTAL CALORIES that depict weight loss....? All my life I've understood that your intake & output of TOTAL CALORIES is what weight loss (or gain) is all about.

Therefore, if I'm eating 1800 (give or take) calories per day, & I want to lose 1-2 pounds per week, I should drop 300-500 PER DAY. Regardless of WHERE those calories come from.

Right? (and why am I suddenly getting so many brain farts in this area????)

Well gosh, yes, if we want to go by the laws of physics, it's total calories. But it's pretty obvious that if you ate 1800 calories of butter, it would not be the same as eating 1800 calories of whole wheat bread. Nutrition is more complicated than the laws of physics.

Different types of programs use different percentages for protein/fat/carb. I've been using what I think are the Zone percentages--or I try, anyway--which is 30/30/40.

Does that make it any clearer?

Jay

It is definitely the total number of calories that matter in the end, but in my opinion, it's what makes you feel/function the best as far as macronutrients.

1500 calories of doughnuts probably isn't going to make you feel satisfied for the whole day, and after a few days of 1500 calories of doughnuts you're probably going to feel run-down and starved. Could you lose weight eating 1500 calories of doughnuts a day? Yes. But you probably will feel like crap if you do it that way That's where the macronutrients come in: where do you put them so that you feel satisfied all day long and have energy?

For me, I'm on a very low carb diet (a ketogenic diet) and my macros are more like 6% carbs / 44% protein/ 50% fat on a daily basis. Those ratios keep me feeling full all day on 1500 calories/day. Other people have a lot of success with other ratios...it really depends on how your body handles different foods.

But in the end, whether I'm eating 6% carb/44% protein/50% fat ratio on 1500 calories a day or 60% carb/ 25% protein/15% fat ratio on 1500 calories a day, I'm still in the same caloric deficit and I'll drop the same amount of weight per week (technically). But for me, if I ate 60% carbs a day I'd be miserable and STARVING on 1500 a day, whereas I'm completely satisfied on 6% (all coming from vegetables) with the rest being protein and fat for that many calories.

I don't mean to be confusing...I hope it helps? The macronutrient breakdown is really individual, it's the calorie deficit that ultimately matters.