Macro recheck

(Danielle Lamey) #1

I am new to keto about 3 weeks in. Trying to read up on everything I can. Have been stalking the forum lol. I was wondering if someone could take a look at my macros for me. I did have it set for weight loss but recently read I should have it for maintain. I m 5’7" 188 lbs. 39 yr old female. 1962 calories. 169 fat grams and 91 grams of protein. 20 carbs.Was eating only about 1400 to 1600 calories. Thanks in advance.

#2

Hi Danielle, and welcome. Are you truly eating zero carbs? If not, you’ll just want to make sure your carb intake is under 20g. It also sounds as if your protein intake is too high. I believe the guideline is roughly:

(lean body weight in kg) x 0.8 = max protein grams

I’ve heard different definitions of lean body weight, but let’s use your ideal body weight here. I’m not sure what that would be, but I’ll use 145 as an example.

145 divided by 2.2 to get kg = 65.9 kg
65.9 kg times 0.8 = roughly 53 grams of protein

So keep carbs under 20 g, and protein around 50 g or under, and eat fat to satiety. That’s my understanding of the general macros rules. Hope that helps! :smile:

(Danielle Lamey) #3

Oh my. I guess I forgot my carbs lol. I do stay under 20 grams a day. Thank you for your response.

(Chris W) #4

Lean body mass is exactly that, multiply body fat% by total weight and subtract it, the remainder is LBM. Its not a real accurate number, and testing only really gives you close numbers outside of ball park. My omron fat gamepad gives constant results but its still only accurate to 3% either direction.

As for protein no one should be in the range of 50g most people are near 90g and danielle yours look correct without knowing much more of your profile. The couple real big things that effect protein intake are height and weight. Fat macro is effected by output (activity level) and to some extent your body fat %.

#5

There are multiple sources (including the 2KD podcast) that state this equation. I know lean body mass isn’t the same as ideal weight, but it’s an easy number to use and for women (who have higher normal fat percentages anyway) it works out to a do-able level. It was only after looking up the articles I wanted to link here that I saw that apparently Phinney and Volek recommend a much higher level of protein intake, while still others recommend far less. So 0.8 g/kg is sort of in the middle of this debate. I’m actually doing keto and fasting under IDM counseling, and the 50 g limit was recommended to me as the maximum. I weigh about 160 lbs, with an ideal weight around 135.

IDM - How Much Protein is Excessive

Diet Doctor - Why Low Carb is High in Fat, Not Protein

#6

Sorry, both of those are from Jason Fung, so it’s the same source. But as I mentioned, it’s the equation repeatedly discussed on the podcast as well. Richard also uses ideal body weight as a stand-in for lean body weight. Actually now I remember, he uses 1.0 instead of 0.8, I believe to make up the difference between lean body weight and ideal body weight. Think I’m remembering that right. :thinking:

(Chris W) #7

You answered your own statement. LBM is not ideal that is made up in the mind or what you think it should be. You have the equation correct but the numbers being used are far left field because well they are made up.

Without someone being counseled as you are we are only using best information available even on deficit she would still be well north of 50g. We also don’t know if there are any dysfunctions or problems so its best to error on the safe side. The calculator I use only goes to .6 and that was still in the high eighties on deficit niether of which I would recommend for anyone starting at a few weeks. Now none of us are Doctors, so this is only advice, but in my case if I only ate 50g of protein I would be miserable.

#8

Agreed. I tried to make it clear I was using a made-up number as her ideal weight, just in order to illustrate the equation, not to dictate any precise number to her.

(Chris W) #9

And I understand but, that could be misunderstood as you should be at 50g of protien which is far from the case currently. If I may ask are you T2D?

#10

I am not (was pre-diabetic though), though I’m not aware of that making a difference in the protein calculation, I’ve never heard it be used as a factor in whether people should increase protein intake when doing keto.

And with all due respect, I think the best I can do is state that it’s an example, and hope that people will read it and not scan over it quickly and misunderstand.

(Chris W) #11

It does not I was curious more about why they choose your macro limit, if there was a specific reason.

#12

Got it. Yeah, I didn’t question it because it was the same number I’d sort of come to on my own based on hearing the podcast, etc.

#13

Incidentally, I know you said you’d feel miserable eating only 50 g of protein, but it has not seemed restrictive to me. It seems like moderate intake on a typical day. And I’m not afraid of meat. :smile:

(Chris W) #14

Protein can be a real challenge for T2D and IR it was more out of curiosity as to there approach.
Protein my case more than anything else regulates my weight it seems, so from a weight loss stand point I can see that. But I also have done a lot of healing and I have to give credit were its due to the protein levels I started at. Nowadays I need much less but I was really using it at first and it did not effect my weight loss at all, now it does.
I appreciate what Dr.Fung does but it does not always work for everyone who shows up here because everyone’s motivations and healths are different.

#15

I believe I do/did have some IR (hence my slightly elevated fasting BG) so it’s entirely possible that was a factor in that recommendation.

(Chris W) #16

Yeah I know here I am saying we should not compare apples and oranges, I am north of 3000 calories a day right now sometimes 4000. My protein is 120 ish, so yeah I am in a different ball game when I only have 50.

(Ron) #17

I find your numbers to match the guidelines that I follow. I am 169lbs of LBM which converts to 76.8kg. My suggested protein macro is 46g to 115g. While I stuck to the low suggested amounts when I started, I now favor the higher end since being adapted without any repercussions.

The lower end will ensure the fat adaption process as quickly as possible.

I am T2d.

#18

This makes sense, thanks for the input!

(Ron) #19

I do agree with @In2steam that there would really be no reason to go under the 50g mark though.

(Chris W) #20

Also one quick question, when they use the that in conjunction with fasting or is that re figured for fasting. So if you are not fasting is that the limit you would follow, or is that the limit including fasting over 24 hours. Does that make sense?