I started calorie counting last week. I've gotten the hang of it, but now I'm having a dilemna. How do I determine the proper ratios? I see people talking about 30% this 40% that, etc. Are the percents the same for everyone? How do I start doing this? I want to get my eating down to a science. I want to eat right, but be smart about it. Also I find I have trouble getting to my target calorie intake on some days. Do I just make up for it on a day or two throughout the week? One site said to "zig-zag", and switch up calorie intake, but I'm not sure. I'm at 1800 cals/day, but sometimes find I can be off as much as a few hundred. I'm starting a whey protein powder for breakfast or a snack after a workout that has calories that will make up some of what I'm lacking. I don't want to confuse my body as much as my mind is currently confused!

I have found a few things. First, the zone diet is the one that recommends 30% calories from protein, 30% fat, 40% carbs. I found that if I eat like 50% cal from carbs, I lose much slower but it could just be a coincidence because I have been on it for only a month or a little over.

I joined the free www.fitday.com thing to figure it out for me so it's less work (the proportions of protein, carb, fat etc). It estimated though that I burn over 2200 calories/day if i put that i actually move around so I set myself for "bed-bound" which I am not...actually I'm quite active. This way, I NEVER go over my calories because it says I can only have 1800 in a day and I try to stay around 1100-1200. If I am off by 200, I still lose. I have been losing about 1.5 lbs/week. I like fitday.com as a tool.

foodfocus.co.uk works well for that also

There are lots of online calorie counting sites that will help you work out your ratios. I use Dietpower which is not free but there are many free ones to choose from. What do you use at the moment?

Here's a useful calculator for nutrients:

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/nut...calculator.htm

As you can see there are a few different approaches. I like the Zone approach myself, but I've realized lately that I haven't been careful enough in following it.

Jay

A lot of the variation in percentages of macronutrients come from our goals or our plans. Those who weight lift might focus on getting in more protein, people on low carb plans think more about how many and what kind of carbs they're eating, etc.

So, there's no one right answer to how much of each you should eat.

There are some guidelines about fats, though. If you aren't on a specific plan that deals with that, the recommendations are to get no more than 30% of your calories from fat. It's further recommended that you limit saturated fats and practically eliminate trans fats. But don't eliminate fat! Fats help you absorb nutrients, keep your hair and skin healthy, etc. I think the recommendation is that you get at least 15% of calories from fat.

How great is it that you have to work to eat enough calories every day. Well done!

http://www.sparkpeople.com/

Sparkpeople can give you a range of all of those things too.

You have received good advice above. It really is an individual thing. What works best for me is 30/30/40 (fat, protein, carbs), but I determined that after tracking everything in Fitday and tweaking as I went along. Left to my own devices it would probably have looked like: 20/20/60 (fat, protein,carbs) - I truly was a carb-aholic. And the old myths about limiting fats were lingering in the back of my mind.

Before I started Atkins yesterday, I was just trying to eat low calorie and low carb. My doctor told me exactly how much protein I needed to eat each day as well as complex carbs. So if you're in doubt of how much to eat, I would recommend visiting your doctor. It's important to make sure you get plenty of protein because you can lose muscle instead of fat.

I have just been counting calories by myself, and writing everything down I go along, and using the link from here to determine fruits & veggies. I signed up for FitDay and starting using it today. I tweaked my food plans after my after lunch snack to try and figure the right percents.

I've just been counting calories, using daily plate, calorie counter or nutritiondata.com to get the nutritional info. I've been working at keeping the fat to 30%, though I haven't been as conscious of making sure it was 30% from each food, more as a total for the entire day. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. I'm pretty sure I need more protein, and might need to increase my calories with exercising every day. I target 1200 - some days I'm at 1125-1150, some days I hit 1250-1300. I do eat higher on a weekend day, so my average is closer to 1250-1300 with that included. I haven't been making calories up so much if I miss them since I tend to fluctuate a little. I do make sure not to go below 1050 - I tend to get headaches lower than that.