So if I want to stay at 25% or less fat and isn't that one of our goals here - if I have 23% fat already today, noon then I cut back for the rest of the day/evening right? I think it's fat that I was the most off on and maybe that's why I haven't been losing as much weight. I guess I need to cut most of the cheese even lowfat for now. I didn't realize I ate so much. My carbs are 43% and my protein is 34% right now at about 850 cals for the day. I think the strategy isn't just to count calories but to make sure the ratio is correct too right? So I have 350 cal's to go for the day... but I'll make sure it's lean meat and veggies, no fat correct? I believe my new plan is to add in carbs like brown rice, oatmeal, and some Ezekiel bread, I'm feeling better on limited good carbs rather then limiting them so much, and I had energy to really exercise last night. Perhaps 1200 might be too few calories too if I'm going to do 45 min a day of hard exercise? That's my plan for Feb, trying to push it for a March Bday...
Nutrient percentages are percent of total calories eaten, so you can't say "Oh, I've eaten 25% of X, now I won't eat any more for the day" and expect that your percentages for the day will come out with X at 25%
There is no rule that says fats "have" to be 25% or less. See this calculator to view how different weight loss programs deal with proteins, fats, and carbs:
You can change the calories eaten per day at the top and then the bottom part will tell you grams, depending on the program you select.
Fitday (downloaded, at least) will also tell you percentages of nutrients, except that Fitday doesn't count fiber as part of total carbs (because fiber isn't digestible).
I personally aim for 30%:40%:30% protein:carb:fat.
When I am trying to lose weight, I come in pretty close on my calorie limit. Once it a while I'll come in 50 to 150 calories low, but I rarely go over. I also like to give myself a 20-50 calorie cushion, in case I'm off on my calorie estimate for a meal (or a food manufacturer is off--I noticed that Lean Cuisine has increased the calories in my favorite paninis by 50 per serving! It doesn't look like they've changed the recipe so that makes me think the calories were just wrong before). Right now my limit is 1200 calories, so I try to come in at 1150 to 1180 calories for the day. Also, since 1200 is the lowest they say you should to in terms of calories, I try not to come in at less than 1150 for more than a couple days in a row. I'm usually hungry so coming in low generally isn't a problem.
When I'm in maintainance, I'm a lot less strict and even eat some stuff without bothering to count it.
I hate to do math in my head, so I log everything in an online program.
My calories usually work out to 15% fat, 50% carbs, 35% protein. I would really like the fat to be higher and the carbs to be lower, but fat has more than twice the calories per gram as carbs and, on 1200 calories a day, I just can't give up the volume of food I've have to give up to increase my fat.
Last edited by BlueToBlue; 02-11-2008 at 05:55 PM.
I have only begun counting calories as of today and I was really obsessing over staying exactly where I should be. But you all had some really great ideas and I now realize that I need a range to stay in. Thanks for all your input. Jackie
I think I'll aim for the zone 40-30-30, I feel good today on about that ration of protein carbs and fat. And I'm reading some fitness magazines that say the zone had it about right for working out hard, etc. I'm a former athlete and I like to weight train, I'm going to get back into it.
Yes I am on a mac but I'm not into bootcamp or other programs to run pc programs. I sit on this computer half the day for my business and I just have to find the easiest quickest way of doing things, even if that means paying a few bucks for a program. I bought the Calorie King 2008 book today too, it's great, I'm going to keep it in my car just like Carrie Underwood says she does on her trips, as I travel too much for days sometimes, and if I can't get to my computer that book has a ton of info in it and I can keep track by hand of what I'm eating. I had no clue until I started tracking on fitday and now calorie king how much I was eating. I can't even imagine if I plugged in half a pizza and some beer like I was doing last winter what the results would be! It's a wonder I didn't gain more then 25 lbs in 1-1/2 years... that's what I put on being stupid.
Today I hit 1202 cal's. I had to eat a salad with crab and throw in olives and cheese to even get it to 1200, where one isn't supposed to go below. Last week I had a number of days in the 900 range trying to low carb it and I got sick, I think a lack of nutrients didn't help. It seems like when one eats a CLEAN 1200 cals one doesn't feel hungry. I don't. I actually felt full most of the day. It does seem that the more junk you eat the more you crave it, it's the scam of the junk food and fast food industry isn't it? Food addictions, carb addictions, the works...
I aim for 1500/day at the MOST, but sometimes I go over by 100-200....the night this happens I go over what "went wrong", and the next day I'm usually right back to around 1400/day.
