Understanding what I eat

Unknown
Unknown
in Food and Nutrition
I have been paying close attention to what I eat lately opting for a much healthier diet than before. That said I am trying to understand how different things affect my body in particular can someone explain to me the effects of carbs/protein? Muscle builders say eat protein, MFP says I should eat more Carbs. What do they do and how do I determine how much roughly I should eat of each?

Replies

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    edited May 2015
    What they do: protein basically builds and repairs, especially muscle, carbs provide energy (generally your body's preferred energy source, although it can switch to others), fat also provides and stores energy and does other important things including helping you absorb vitamins and regulating hormones.

    How much? For protein and carbs in particular, it largely depends on your goals and how you feel.

    To maintain health while sedentary the recommended minimum is .8 g protein per kg of body weight (or lb of body weight divided by 2.2). The MFP rec is based on percentage, but will generally cover this.

    The problem is that's too low for many, and perhaps anyone on a deficit. One reason is that when you lose weight you will lose some muscle too and eating more protein will help diminish that effect. This becomes more significant if you start without that much to lose or as you lose fat and have a higher percentage of lean mass.

    This is even more of an issue if your goal is to maintain as much lean mass as possible and you are trying to achieve that through strength training or even intense exercise of other forms. When you do this kind of exercise you need the protein to help rebuild what's broken down.

    As a result, for someone working out on a deficit it's probably best to err on the higher side of the recommendations (at least that's what I've concluded) so you'd want 80-100% of lean mass. Or, if that's hard to figure, maybe assume (as a woman) that your goal will be around 20% lean mass (that's low, but that makes it a "more than enough" kind of recommendation for most) and use 80% of goal weight as your LBM estimate.

    Based on that, my goal weight is 120, so my lean mass would be estimated at 96, so I'd try to get at least 80-100% of that. Since it's imprecise I round up and aim for at least 100 as my minimum.

    As you can see, whether the protein to maintain muscle number is out of line with MFP really depends on your total weight or lean mass and how low your goal is.

    MFP's 50% carbs is fine, but many people feel better on fewer carbs and some feel better on more. I'd get your protein set and experiment with different ratios of fat and carbs (but not cut fat too low).
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Thank you that was a great explanation without alot of the unnecessary jargon to keep me from understanding it.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    No problem! I just noticed that I actually could have been clearer, since I forgot an important bit.

    The standard minimum is .8 grams per body weight in KG (or LB/2.2).

    The higher range is .8-1 gram per lean mass in LB (or KG*2.2).

    So when I said:

    As a result, for someone working out on a deficit it's probably best to err on the higher side of the recommendations (at least that's what I've concluded) so you'd want 80-100% of lean mass in pounds. Or, if that's hard to figure, maybe assume (as a woman) that your goal will be around 20% lean mass (that's low, but that makes it a "more than enough" kind of recommendation for most) and use 80% of goal weight in pounds as your LBM estimate.

    I left out the bolded bits. Hope that helps.

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