Eating

[Pedalfaster]

What diet or food plan do you use to make your eating choices? I know there are different combos of % of carbs, protein, and fat people use for guidlines. Do you feel 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat to be a good combination for weigt loss? Do you also find calorie counting to help?

Fyi: my fitness pal works with the fitbit ap to keep up with calories, fat; carbs, and protein;)

[Dominique]

For weight loss, calories matter more than macronutrients, so if you are already tracking your macros, you should definitely pay attention to your total calories as well, since this is what will determine whether you’re losing, maintaining or gaining weight. No magical combination of macronutrients will let you lose weight if it results in a caloric surplus.

The starting point with macronutrients should be protein: you should get enough of it (opinions on what’s "enough" differ depending on whom you ask). Once you’ve established your goal for protein, you can pretty much split the rest between carbs and fat according to your personal preferences (and possibly dietary or health restrictions), as long as total calories result in the deficit needed for the weight loss.

[A_Lurker]

I don't worry that much about the macros.  I seem to settle naturally into a 20% protein and split the rest between fat and carbs.  I general I count calories to make sure I eat enough and don't overeat.  I go through periods of time when I don't count calories although I can pretty much do it in my head so I'm not sure that I'm not counting calories - just not logging them.  I'm just not that organized to split them properly between meals (ie. sometimes I'll eat high protein meals and then end up with higher carb snacks).

[emili]

Calorie counting is your friend if you are trying to lose weight. People assume eating healthy or clean means low calorie and it doesn't. choosing food that is naturally low calorie will satisfy most of your macro and micro nutrient needs. For example choosing fish or chicken over beef will result in less calories - good protein. having veggies and fruit instead of pasta, bread, rice, etc - low calorie high vitamin. Start by figuring out how many calories you should be eating per day, and then work in food that will satisfy you physically and emotionally (if you feel like you are missing out- you will over eat).

[almost_where]

1) Food logging to me has been the most important part. I log everything that enters my mouth.

2) Don't really aim for specific macros but i usually end up at 50% carbs then like a 20-30 or 25-25 or 30-20 split between fats and protein.

3) I aim for the following every day,

-handful of greens

-piece of fruit(banana, orange, apple or pear)

-100 cals in either unsalted almonds or pistachios

-5 to 6 oz piece of chicken breast or can of pink salmon or can of mackarel fillets

-1 to 2 cups of black coffee

-1 yogurt with low sugar

-breaskfast sandwich (eng muffin, 1 egg, no cheese, just a spray of olive oil for cooking w/srirachi)

[Mouse99]

Hi,

I have cut down on carbs (apart from fruit).  I'm eating a lot more veg, fruit and salad and making the protein the main focus of my meal than carbs like potato, pasta or rice.   I also try to have no pasta, rice or potatos for my evening meal.  I don't eat bread after lunchtime (but that is easy for me as I am gluten free and it's not that tempting to eat gluten free bread).   I have cut out snack foods (like crisps) and alcohol during the week, but I allow myself to indulge a bit at weekends or I know I would fall off the wagon.   Upping my exercise (just walking more really, as I am quite active already) and cutting down portion sizes also.   I am losing weight slowly, but steadily.  I have lost 7 pounds since Boxing day.  I would like it to come off quicker but I am trying to find a weight / exercise lifestyle that works for me.

Don't know if this helps, but I would be interested to see what other people do too.

Mouse

[Anniesusie]

I also am pretty carbless. I lost 40lbs. with a Dr. through high protein/ low carb. It was pretty fast. The problem came when I started adding foods and I'm just talking cheese, nuts and fruit. I stopped losing. I didn't gain, which is awesome, but I'm still 25 lbs. away from goal. So my Dr. is now having me stop eating at 7. I log everything and try to keep within the 500-750 deficit. I started losing weight again. Much slower, but at least the scale's moving. 

[Jeff_M]

I use The Fitbit app and MyFitnessPal to track everything. It's the best weight loss and diet tracking I've ever used. I count all calories, so it's easy to see the calorie deficit at the end of the day. 

I'm dropping those last few pounds while trying to build muscle, so my plan has quite a lot of protein and winds up being low carb.  

So, macros for yesterday was 23% carbs, 39% protein, and 37% fats. That's intaking about 160g of protein using protein powder 2x per day. I try to shoot for 100-200g of carbs each day. I had some issues when I first started by falling in and out of a ketogenic state. That was not fun, since I would become depleted of energy and get faint. As long as I keep the carbs above 100g it seems to be good though.

[Anniesusie]

My nutritionist said that when you are feeling faint, to try 1/2 c. of broth to bring up your sodium levels. If you are staying low sodium that is. My blood pressure is low though.