I’m 38 years old female 5’6.5" and weigh 165 lbs. I’ve hired a personal trainer, and am starting to eat healthy and climb out of a deep period of depression and little self care (hence the approximately 45 lb weight gain).
I am eating approximately 45- 60 carbs, but around 36-40 net carbs. What I cannot figure is how many calories I should aim for to start and how much protein I need.
I have a desk job and am currently working out (weight training) 2x a week and 1-2 days of cardio.
Please help all this math is driving me bonkers!
Also, I know it’s a process determining how many calories I need–just looking for an average starting point for my fitness pal goals. And I have no clue about protein needs on this low carb diet!!
@Jimi63 thank you for your reply. I actually am using an app–MyFitnessPal–but, I have to set my daily goals up (calories, carbs, protein and fat targets). I can’t determine what to have as my starting calorie and protein target goals.
@anon31988728 - You need to cut your total calories back to no more than 1,000 / day. I fully realize “1,500 calories” is recommended everywhere, however those paradigms are from the 20th century. Current thinking is people simply eat too much (often carbs).
I’m 5’7" and a year ago weighed nearly 180 lbs, close to 30 pounds more than I should have. I cut my calorie intake to less than 1,000/day (now around 750 cal / day) and I lost 40+ pounds. I’ve stabilized recently and eat 500-1000 calories a day, and weigh 150lbs.
My macros are roughly 65-70% Fat, 25-30% Protein, and < 5% carbs.
If your net carbs are +/- 40 / day (4 x 40 = 160 calories, or 16% of total), I’d suggest the remaining 840 calories be 60% Fat (56 grams) and 24% Protein (84 grams)
Macro = Fat 60%, Protein 24%, Carbs 16%. If after 2 or 3 weeks you’re not seeing the desired weight loss, cut the protein back and increase fat %.
What you and I often don’t take into account is that some people like us are numbers people and these ratios are child’s play, while to a non-number person what you just posted is totally daunting.
Doing this on your own, I believe, only works if you are numbers oriented. Otherwise it is imperative to work with an individual or company such as Virta Health to do the numbers for you and advise you throughout the process to keep the numbers from driving you bonkers and giving up.
This is especially true where Jenni_Bean is working on multiple variables at the same time (exercise and food). If she just concentrated on the food side of the equation, for example, she could meet her weight goals in just a few months with diet alone and could then incorporate exercise once she really understands her particular body requirements.
This is really helpful, thank you. Do you know if there is a way for MyFitnessPal to recognize “net” carbs? When I put my carb goal in, it says I’m over my target, but I want my target to be based on net carbs, not total carbs. I hope that makes sense.
I’ll try the macro suggestion you provided out as my starting range and go from there. Thanks!!
What’s easiest for me is to 1) scan barcode and enter food, and then 2) create your personal version of that food with Net rather than gross carbs, and finally 3) delete original that has improper nutrients
