A Nutritionally Perfect Day
 

Hi all,

Since I've increased my calories and am maintaining, I'm trying to focus more on nutrition. I'm having a hard time dividing up my calories properly to reach nutritional perfection.

Do you have days where you get the exact ratio carbs/fats/protein that you desire, as well as meet all your vitamin and mineral needs? If so, wanna post your meal plan so that the rest of us can learn from your example?

I personally don't strive for any particular percentages. Not exact ones anyway. I try to make each and every meal and snack a healthy one. I do try to get in a fair amount of protein. I eat only lean fats and not too much of it. I also eat some of the healthy fats, like avocado and a bit of olive oil I eat tons of vegetables. The only carbs I eat are from veggies and the occassional fruits. So, I really don't worry about EXACT numbers.

What do you mean by "lean fats" :?:


To the OP: if you are concerned, use "Fitday" or a similar service to help you see the exact percentages of your nutritional profile ;)

Everyone eats differently. Some choose a 30/40/30 plan, some eat mostly protein and fat, some focus on eating 30% and under of fat daily, still others eat mainly carbohydrates.

Can you see a doctor and get a referral to a nutritionist?

Baffled, I'll never have a nutritionally perfect day, that's for sure. :lol:

My focus is on calories, protein, and carbs. So long as I keep my carbs around 100 grams and eat more grams of protein than carbs, I'm happy. If I'm maintaining, I keep my calories under 1600 and if I'm in weight loss mode, under 1200.

Fat always seems to take care of itself and stays under 40 grams without me thinking about it.

That's about all I can wrap my head around at once!

My focus has always been on calories and fat. I don't worry about carbs or protein. I know I get plenty of protein because I eat a good amount of fish and other lean meats and sometimes for a quick snack I'll scramble up a couple of egg whites. Plus I eat deli meats and boneless/skinless chicken breast in my pitas (which I eat almost every night).

I like using fitday to see how many nutrients I'm getting from the food I eat, plus I take a multivitamin every day because since I only eat about 1200 calories a day, I know I don't get everything I need from food alone.

I use Nutridiary to log my foods. This is how I know that I'm never having a 'perfect' day. :) I imagine that it would be virtually impossible to cover all the nutritional bases without extensive planning though. (Which is why I asked the question). I almost always hit my Vitamin A, C and fiber requirements, but I tend to have too much fat and not enough protein (my goal is 150g--30%--, and I've never come close!). I also never seem to get enough iron or calcium.

The problem for me is that I'm maintaining on 2000-2200 calories a day, and I can't possibly imagine any legitimate reason for not being able to fulfill all my nutritional needs with so many calories to play around with. In the end, I think too many of my calories go to fat and alcohol...(two of my favorite food groups).

But then, you can't have everything :) Thanks for your responses.

I'm not sure this helps any but I was curious so this is what I found. I used the reports part of fitday.com over the last month.
1510 calories
31% protein
35% carbs
30% fats
4% alcohol (hmmm)

Without adding in the vitamins I take, I'm short e, k and zinc.
You can look back and see what I ate. It's not fancy but apparently it covers the bases pretty well.

Where in reports did you find that? I've looked and I'm not seeing any averages.

Oops! Never mind, I just found it ;)

I'm averaging 25% fat, 46% carbs and 29% protein.

:joker: Well Linda ... you have to be a detail hunting geek like me and examine weight loss sites half to death. :joker:

LOL, yes, and that's a good habit to be into, as far as I'm concerned ;)

nutritionally perfect? nope

I do keep tabs on my nutrients and I tend to run a bit low on Vitamin D, Iron and Pantothenic Acid as far as meeting DV through food.

The iron surprises me because I eat a lot of protein and leafy greens, but not a lot of red meat and really, when I think about it, the best food source of iron is probably fortified cereals and I eat oatmeal.

And I keep looking up where to get pantothenic acid and forgetting.

Although many of the nutrients I am probably getting more than I know because they are not on food lables.

I used FitDay for about a week. It was too time-consuming for me. I track points thru Weight Watchers, have kept my weight off 2 1/2 years (well, I'm 4 lbs. over ideal right now, but am working on getting it off).

I think if you're eating a lot of produce, whole grains, lean protein and some fats (especially nuts, flax, avacado, olive oil) you are probably just fine. Note: I am not a nutritionist!

What do you mean by nutritionally perfect? Are you going by RDA/USDA standards? I'm not so sure it's possible to have everyday be perfect. I do understand striving for it though. :D

Here is what fitday says my averages are for the last month:

1506 calories
32% fat (I'd like that under 30%)
49% carbs (I'd like that higher)
17% protein (I'd like that between 10-15%)
2% alcohol (all from wine)

My main deficiency is in calcium, but I don't worry about it. I tend to side with the studies that show bone loss is due more to excess protein not lack of calcium. I won't get into it too much because I know just saying this much will anger people. So please, don't get mad at me! This is just my personal choice in regards to my personal nutrition. I don't expect anyone else to believe as I do. There are a lot of studies out there and we have to follow what is right for us as individuals. That being said, I do take a multi-vitamin which is probably why my other numbers are in range or above.

:carrot: I think we may have read the same studies, articles and sources and I am not mad to hear you say this at all ;) :carrot:

Soulbliss~ We do seem to think the same in regards to food (on most topics.) At least that's what I've noticed. :D

I don't track vitamins at all. I don't even enter them into my food journal. I should probably take a multi-vitamin. :o

For the most part I just focus on calories. Just doing that, fat is rarely more than 20% of my calories. I don't even think about it, it just works out that way. For a while there I was even trying to eat more good fats (salmon, avocado, nuts) because the fat in my diet is so low (yesterday, for example, it was only 11% of my calories).

Having read Meg's recommendations on how much protein to eat (in another thread), however, lately I have been trying to eat more protein. Breakfast always includes a full serving of plain NF yogurt, which has 20g of protein. Lunch and dinner almost always include 2 to 6 oz of lean meat. But even with this, my protein still comes in at only around 30% of my calories. So I've been trying to eat more protein (eggs, tuna, salmon, more yogurt) instead of carbs for my second afternoon snack. But I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I am eating more grams of protein than carbs. I don't know how Meg does that!

I don't know how she does it either. The plurality of my calories are from carbs (veggies track as carbs, after all) and I haven't been able to get my protein where it needs to be without also increasing my fats. It's a pickle.

I do wish that Nutridiary could distinguish between good and bad fats though. I had flax seed meal and avocado and salmon today, and the fats in those are weighted the same in nutridiary as if I had gotten them from ice cream.

I guess my problem comes down to getting the optimum split between carbs/fats/protein/alcohol. (Yes, about 10% of my daily calories come from alcohol...I like my wine.) I just CANNOT get the protein high enough, even with fish/lean protein 2x a day and usually egg whites as well. Actually, Meg eats relatively few calories a day--it might just be a question of it being easier for her to meet her protein goals because her overall intake is so much lower than mine (I'm 2000-2500 a day).

Hey, today I got just about as close as I ever have to a "nutritionally perfect" day - hit every vitamin/mineral target (except vit D which I get from sunlight, and just barely under on zinc and selenium...). 1418 cals, 104 g protein, 44 grams of fiber, and 26 g of fat.

It's interesting what people consider a nutritionally perfect day. I think it's up to the individual and it's very much a personal thing. Today was about as "perfect" as I've been for awhile.

1459 calories
44g of fat (29% and most of it monounsaturated)
229g of carbs (56%)
43g of fiber
51g of protein (15%)

I aim for under 30% on fat and approx 15% for protein. I don't worry about the carbs since they almost all coming from veggies and whole grains.

I have to say that I do not understand why most people feel the need to up their protein (unless they are weight training.) Most Americans consume too much of it already. But like I said it's a personal thing and I'm not criticizing. I just don't understand.

I agree. I read so many conflicting things, but the general consensus from the "experts" (World Health Organization, Dietitians, other medical professionals) is summarized pretty well here:


One way to determine your individual protein needs is to base it on your weight. The current dietary protein recommendation for most individuals is 0.4 grams per pound of bodyweight (0.8 grams/kilogram). Athletes and most active individuals require slightly higher amounts to meet the demands of strength and endurance training, however, there is no scientific evidence to support an intake above 0.9 grams per pound (2.0 grams per kilogram).

http://www.ynhh.org/online/nutrition...r/protein.html

According to that I should be eating a little more protein than I am. I thought a good rule of thumb was 10-15% of your calories? Maybe that doesn't take in to account lower cals for weight loss.

Zenor--you're right, different people have different nutritional ideals.

I care about my protein because I am weight training and I want my muscles to have lots of good stuff to help them grow strong. My ideal breakdown is 30% fat, 40% carbs, 30% protein, but usually I have 10% from alcohol. 30% of my calories is 150 grams, but I usually get around 60-100 grams. I don't know that I've ever gotten my full 150 grams! (I have a bad habit of not logging all my evening meals and snacks, so I rarely have an accurate daily analysis.)

What I referenced is what is widely acceptable in the mainstream...however what you and I have both read from other doctors, nutritionists and the like states that 10-15 is safe, adequate and best ;)

I used to worry a lot more about my protein, being a vegetarian and hearing that silly "but where do you get protein?” question a million times must have done a number on me. Now after doing a lot of reading and research I realize this question has more to do with ignorance than any real threat of protein deficiency in a well balanced vegetarian diet.

I don’t carefully track anymore, but looking back at my old fitday I was getting about 20% protein, 25 – 30 % fat, and the rest from carbs. But it varies, some days are as low as 10% protein. I feel like I’m eating well, I try to stick to mostly whole grains, fruits, vegetables and beans for my staples. I probably average somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 g of protein a day.

"Nutritionally perfect" is a subjective term. So much of our nutritional needs vary widely from person to person.

I eat more protein now than I used to simply because on 2000 calories a day when I ate 10-15% protein and 20-30% fat and the rest good whole carbs I was RAVENOUS , starving, mean, nasty and horrid to be around.

I now eat 30-35% fat (mostly from nuts and olive oil....and icecream), 40-45% good carbs and the rest protein and I am satisfied.

It's very subjective- based on how you feel, what you like and consider "food" (soulbliss would starve in my house and I in hers) and what your nutritional goals are. I eat to maintain what is probably an outlandish musclemass on a woman my size and age.

I eat about 45% protein, 25-35% carbs from mostly vegetables and fruit, and the remainer fat from mostly olive oil, flax seed, and whatever sneaks in there in a little bit of oatmeal and lean protein. Some days the carbs are a bit higher and the protein a little lower, but I've been pretty consistent over the last 5 years. Egg whites, low or no-fat cottage cheese, tuna, chicken, protein powder, tilapia, salmon, and more chicken are staples for me. Every meal I eat contains at least 20 grams of protein.

Generally, I eat about 1400 calories a day. If I were eating over 2000, I doubt I could maintain those ratios without at least 1 meal a day being a double scoop protein shake. Eating higher carbs just plain makes me feel lousy. I can't eat any wheat products due to gluten intolerance, so I guess I'd be eating alot more fruit and brown rice. But that's pretty much how I got fat in the first place.

Mel

Mel