Help with Macro

(Christine Flack) #1

Having issues meeting my macros
Today so far not including dinner
always under 20 carbs. Yet the percentage is higher than five and protein always seems low.
I have it set to ratio percentage…75 fat 15 protein 5 carb

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#2

Why is your protein so low? What are you eating?

#3

The percentages don’t = 100. :thinking: . Do you mean you’re having issues meeting your macros because you’re not hungry enough?

(Christine Flack) #4

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(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

You don’t really need to calculate macros. Keep carbohydrate under 20 g/day, that’s the important part, regardless of what percentage of calories it is. Then you can eat protein and fat to satiety, again, without regard to macros.

We recommend that protein should be 1.0-1.5 g/day per kilogram of lean body mass. Then fill in the remainder of the needed calories with fat.

Unless you really weigh only 88 pounds, 28 g of protein is far too little. You probably want something like 50-75 grams of protein, which would work out to 200-300 grams (7-10.5 ounces) of meat, roughly speaking. That is assuming you weigh something like 157 pounds, so adjust accordingly.

So 80 calories of carbohydrate, plus 200-300 calories of protein, means you’ll need around another 1120 calories to give your body the minimum it needs, which means adding 124 g or so of fat. All this calculating is why we advise eating to satiety instead. Make your body do the work of figuring out how much you should be eating!

ETA: Eating to satiety does not mean stuffing yourself with either protein or fat. It means eating when hungry, stopping eating when no longer hungry, and not eating again until hungry again. Don’t eat just because it’s mealtime.

(Christy) #6

One change you could make to even out your fat protein ratio is to have one avocado rather than 2, & opt for something like a turkey & cheese roll up (with or without mayo), or 2 eggs instead. As I have stated before, I am only 7 days into the Keto WOE so, if anyone sees an error in my advice, please feel free to correct me.

I have also recently visited the Cronometer message boards & there are several people complaining about the “High fat/Kenogetic” pre setting. Most people are are concerned with the low protein percentage. Apparently there’s an abundance of miscalculation, & most users sugget using the custom option. You may want to look further into that.

(Christine Flack) #7

i had just 1 avocado for breakfast but then had another with lunch but i guess its too much and i need some meat. i do think some metrics in Crono are funky and
had to set my own, all in all the macro’s are really confusing to me! That plus then calories to worry about. Pretty much mostly keeping my carbs to 20 or under as priority one but i do want to make sure I’m eating correctly.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #8

I’m not saying apps are bad, they are very useful but I tried two and didn’t like it. I choose to write everything down in a notebook and used a book I bought at the bookstore which had the macros of whole foods in it. I also only counted carbs and enjoy protein so ate plenty of it.

(Bill Kieger) #9

Woohoo Paul! You just made my day! For 1 1/2 years I’ve believed that the are 30gm of protein in 1oz of meat. And I love nothing better that a fatty ribeye or elk steaks/roasts. Googling it, trying to figure out how you got 10oz of meat for a 157# person, I now realize there are only 7gm of protein in meat!
Thawing more elk tonight for dinner tomorrow!

Bill

(Christy) #10

I get it. Tweaking your macros can be a pain. I’m barely getting the hang of it myself. Everyone is different but, for me personally, I am not the biggest fan of meat so I usually have a hard time topping out as well. I buy turkey from the deli & have found that’s the easiest way for me to get a quick & easy protein fix if I am low. The less sugar the better.

I also like Justin’s almond butter for a quick pick me up.

I am an avid avocado eater myself so, no judgement there lol. But I usually try to eat half in the morning because they’re so high in fat, only in hopes of keeping me full until lunch or later, then incorporating the other half at lunch or dinner.

Just curious, are you having coffee (BP?) plus an avocado for breakfast?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #11

That’s a trick Dr. Phinney mentions in one of his video’d lectures: most proteinaceous foods contain 7 g of protein per ounce of food. The other proportion I use is 1/4 of the total weight in grams. It’s not precise, but close enough for keto, lol!

(mole person) #12

It’s fine; you’re just not reading it correctly.

It’s telling you that you’ve eaten 9.5 out of your total 18.5 gram carbohydrate macro, which is 51% of that total. The 18.5 grams of carbs IS cronometer’s calculation of 5% of your total calories. It’s telling you that you have eaten half of them so far (51%).

It’s the same with the protein. Your total macro is 55.4 grams and you’ve eaten 28 grams of them which is 51% of you total for the day.

Does that make sense? I can rewrite it a different way if it’s still confusing.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #13

Maybe this is a dumb question, but what really is the point of Macros other than knowing you’re keeping your Carbs 20g or under, or thereabouts?

What’s the point of percentages of protein and fats then? Why is everyone scrambling to keep this % under this, and that % under that, if your carbs are under 20g? Honestly, what would it matter if you kept protein/fat at an equal amount? If you could swing that and not be hungry between meals, why not? Is there something wrong with it?

As long as you’re in Ketosis, and can easily make it from meal to meal, and obviously not be eating WAYYYY more calories than your body could possibly handle in a day, isn’t that all that matters? I’m having trouble why so many people are struggling with Macro ratios. I’m honestly asking because I really dont get it and maybe I’m missing something.

(Christine Flack) #14

well because if you don’t get enough protein i have read that it is not healthy and your body can start to use muscles for energy? But at the same time too much protein turns to energy which we don’t want either. Also i have read eating enough fat is also important. if you just eat low carb it may as well be Atkins. Keto works the best based on these macro ratios. That is what i have read! :wink:

(Christine Flack) #15

oh i mean the percentages for the day when i click on the little circle, usually carbs are way under 20g but then like 10-12 percent in my Macro.

(Little Miss Scare-All) #16

I’m trying to understand why it works best with those macros? I’ve read and been told that protein mostly spikes insulin when we’re still on a diet with a greater amount of carbohydrates. If you’re in Ketosis, unless you’re eating a massive amount of protein, the spike isnt as crazy as one would believe. At least that’s what I’ve been told and read.

And if we break things down, Keto diet, short for Ketosis diet, doesn’t it really at the end of the day mean that if we’re in Ketosis then that’s the point? The extra fat eating on Keto as compared to Atkins, doesn’t keep us in Ketosis, the limitation of carb intake does, no?

Fat doesn’t put is in Ketosis per se. Couldnt you, technically and not that anyone would do this, eat nothing but rice, as long as it was below 20g of carbs, and still be in Ketosis? That’d obviously be idiotic and lacking nutrients, but you’d technically be in Ketosis, no? So technically you can eat an all-carb diet and still be in Ketosis, albeit you’d feel like crap and constantly hungry and very unhealthy. But for technicality’s sake, you’d still be in Ketosis.

So why does Keto work better than Atkins? If in fact it does work better? Why does a 60-70% fat diet work better when the entire point is being in Ketosis to begin with?

(mole person) #17

It’s because it’s calculating it as a percentage of what you’ve already eaten for the day and not as a percentage of total allowed calories.

Don’t worry about percentages. It will only mess you up. What you want to do is just have less then 20 net carbs, have protein in range of 55 grams but don’t worry if you are a bit over or under as this doesn’t have to be exact. Then ONLY eat fat to satiety. Trying to fill out your fat macro will only slow your weight loss.

(squirrel-kissing paper tamer) #18

Many folks try different combinations of macros to get and stay in ketosis. I personally am probably Atkins because I eat the crap out of protein. I like how it tastes, that it keeps me fuller longer and how it makes me feel. I still have losses this way and while I do very much like fat, I just can’t stomach some of the suggestions for fat intake I got. If I ate too much protein, I could, but if I just ate how much fat they recommended, I’d also be over on protein. So I choose to stay in the “induction” phase of Atkins because I have history and experience with it and it works for me.

To answer your question: yes, eating way too little or even fasting can put a person in ketosis. Whenever the glucose/glycogen stores run out, then we burn fat for fuel.

(traci simpson) #19

I can say that I kept my carbs under 20g and I ate a lot of protein and my A1C went up! So now, I have to get a sense of what is too much protein so that I can level out my blood sugar.