Macros doing my head in

(Wendy) #1

Hello I’m a newbie from Cape Town, South Africa.

We have been LCHF since October 2017. My husband was “obese” and has type 2. In April we switched and went to no carb, high protein, moderate fat. He has since lost almost 20kg. I have lost 8kg and could stay where I am.

His weight is standing still and needs to loose another 15 - 20kg to be at a good weight to height. I think its because his protein is too high and he needs more fat, less protein.

I am struggling to understand macros from the point of: if I serve up a fatty piece of meat which has been cooked in butter with some spinach fried in bacon fat…(for example) how do i know i am getting the right proportions?

I have done the veto calculator and understand the principle of macros, but just don’t know how to judge the plate when I look at it and being homeschooling mum to 4, running two businesses and a menagerie of animals I really can’t stand and weigh everything…do I really have to?

Thank you for your replies.

(Adam Kirby) #3

Macros are like the worst thing to happen to low carb. They take a simple concept - minimize carbs and eat “real” food - and make it needlessly complicated and give people neurotic tendencies. My advice: ignore them entirely.

You didn’t mention how long your husband has stalled.

(Wendy) #4

Ok, so let’s take the spinach analogy…If I put a heap of spinach on his plate how do I know what portion of that is carbs if I need to focus on 20g?

(bulkbiker) #5

How much is in the package? how much of that goes on his plate… all the info should be on the pack.

(Wendy) #6

He was loosing about a kg a week up until about 6 weeks ago when he got a kidney stone. After the 2 weeks of meds and stents and surgery he stopped and in fact over dinner he said he’s picked up a kg.

He’s very grumpy when I suggest we may need to change and drop his protein and increase the fat…I just don’t know how to do it…we always choose the fattiest meat, cook with butter, use whole cream etc…

(bulkbiker) #9

Then you have to weigh it… hardly difficult?

#11

Weigh things initially. After a very short while, you’ll get to know how much food you can give/eat to get you the carbs you want, without weighing.

Be careful though, it’s very easy to get it wrong if you have never weighed stuff.

(Laurie) #12

@mememe beat me to it!

Start with whatever you’re most concerned about, and weigh out appropriate portions. Before long, you will be able to eyeball them.

For example, weigh a typical portion of your “fatty meat” and look up how much protein and fat is really in that. You might be surprised. OR do the reverse: Decide how much you should be eating (e.g., fat & protein per meal), and then find out how to get that from your food (e.g., one hamburger patty plus 1 Tablespoon butter).

You can do the same with vegetables, added fats, etc.: Either weigh it and find out the carb or fat content of that amount, OR decide on a carb or fat goal and find out how much to eat to reach your goal. That “heap” of cooked spinach might contain a lot of carbs.

After a while you will get used to the amounts. For example, you might decide that one pork chop is plenty and two is two much. And you will know that a heaping teaspoon of bacon fat contains about 10 grams of fat. Or that a cup of cooked spinach contains several times more carbs than a cup of raw spinach. It will become second nature, and you won’t have to weigh every day.

(Candy Lind) #13

I tend to agree with this. Your hubby may just be at a point where his body is working on some kind of healing, or “rearranging the furniture” (have you been taking any measurements? They might tell the story). I say, KCKO.

If that’s the only carbs he’s eating for the day, it would take an awful lot to go over 20 grams of carb. It’s right there on the package- x grams of spinach contain y grams of carb (and subtract the fiber if you’re counting net carbs), and there are z servings per bag, which likely comes to under 20 carbs for the whole bag. Don’t let it get to you, but when you can, weigh it so you become more confident about how many carbs you’re putting on his plate. Better yet, have him help! :smiling_imp: Your example of what you’re cooking and how sounds spot on.

(Adam Kirby) #14

Ok, so clearly there are some pretty obvious confounding variables here. I don’t think dropping protein will help at all. If you’re eating the fattiest foods you can, then the only way to further increase it is to formulate some bizarre diet with more liquid fat and less meat.

He should give his body some more time to heal from the surgery before worrying about a weight stall.

(Wendy) #15

I do actually grow our own veggies :joy:

(Wendy) #16

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Thats his from the online calculator.

(Running from stupidity) #17

That calculator looks utterly insane.

(Lindsey Caudle) #18

I’m trying to figure out exactly how to know what the right amount of fat is for myself or what the right amount of protein is. Most of the online calculators that I’ve used to say I need somewhere between 2200 and 2400 calories a day with only 20 grams of carbohydrates and about a hundred to 120 grams of protein which leaves me with almost 200 grams of fat. Granted, I am five foot six and weigh 355 lb

(Wendy) #19

Why?

(Running from stupidity) #20

The calories are crazy low, the fat is likewise, and the protein is insanely high (even for a far more normal amount of calories). In other words, the ratios look very very strange to have been pumped out by a calculator unless the data being input is WAY outside the normal ranges.

#21

Just throwing my hat in the that’s-a-weird-calculator ring with @juice - where did you find it & what info did you enter?