Fat:protein:carb ratio

[dizzydawnie]

Whilst flicking through some threads last night at work I came across (I think) a diary in which some of you had laid out the ratios of fat / protein / carbs that we should be aiming for on Atkins

Can you repeat it here please? I cant for the life of me find it this morning? :sigh:

Also, somebody said that MFP worked this out but all I can see is that it shows the total of each used........how can you then convert this into the appropriate percentages?

Many thanks
Sorry for being such a dimwit!!

x

 

[dizzydawnie]

Oh sorry I have another question.

Again, reading thru some diaries and general threads last night I was reading that people were not eating enough fat, but then on the other hand being told to limit cream or cheese (for example) as it was possibly stalling weight loss.

Again, this confuddled me..... Can anyone explain please?

 

[Lily]

Not sure about the ratios thing but I know from filling in 'Perfect Diet Tracker' (not a free tool but one I'd highly recommend) that this time around on low carb I'm eating a lot more fat than I used to (eating around 1600 calories a day on average) - and currently the weight's falling off at a rate of a pound every other day. (This is my second week back on low carb and I got off to a slow start until I consciously started increasing my fat intake).

The cheese and cream thing (nuts are another prime culprit of slower weight loss) - it's because it's so easy to overeat those things. You can pack away an awful lot of calories without feeling as though you've eaten very much. Now, some folks will tell you that calories don't matter - and they don't if all you want to do is maintain your weight. But if you eat more than your body requires, it won't start using its own fat stores for fuel - there'd be no need - and you won't lose weight. Amazingly though, you'll probably maintain, so long as you keep the carbs low.

So eating more fat just means putting butter on your veg, eating the fat with meat, etc.

 

[slaj]

Hi the ratios are 65% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs, I managed to set my fitness pal to this last night, couldn't do it on phone ap but managed it using laptop. I think it will really help as I definitely haven't eaten enough fat. It is still hard to get to grips with after 30+ years of thinking I must eat low fat food!

 

[dizzydawnie]

thank you both!!

Lily, that makes perfect sense, it is easy to over eat them......:break_diet:

Slaj - I am going to try to do that too.......may be back to you if I struggle!

x

 

[RaeSlim]

Hi, I'm pretty new to Atkins and found it difficult to put into practice the ratio as my fat intake was quite low in the first two weeks but got the picture now that the more fat you eat the more you burn and Slaj's explained the ratio.

 

[slaj]

Good luck Raeslim, together we will do this !!

 

[emmaedes]

Slaj - I don't suppose you could PM as to how you change the ratios to the above on my fitness pal could you?, just when you have spare time. . . I'm prob being really sappy lol

Thanks
Em xxx

 

[hondapeeps]

Me too please, logged on and can't figure out where it is


--------------

Did it, edited in Goals.....

 

[slaj]

Yep hp, go into goals, change goals, then pick Custom option, you can then set the fat, carbs and protein percentages! Good luck, took me a while to do it

 

[emmaedes]

Oooo thank you! Gonna try that today! Xxx

 

[slaj]

No problem Emma, let me know how you get on x

 

[Tamzy1989]

this is lovely!! i changed my goals today and now i feel confident with managing my carbs x

 

[dizzydawnie]

Hello!

I'm struggling with this, my food today is
bacon, egg and 100g mushrooms cooked in tsp butter
1 x roast chicken breast salad leaves, cucumber, boiled egg and 1tbsp mayo
2 lamb steaks cooked in 2tsp butter with broccoli
snacks - 2 x black coffee, 1 x jelly pot with 1 dsp cream

and it is telling me that from my daily goals I have consumed with the above food:

Calories 1415/1600
Carbs 15/20
Fat 84/62
Protein 113/240


So my questions:
1. how do I gauge what daily cals I should be on when I thought we didn't count cals on Atkins because that needs to be set to determine the rest

2. How on earth do I increase my protein to my daily goal when I have no more fat to consume, very few cals to consume?

Confused.com!!! :cry:

 

[msrsimpkin]

Calories 1415/1600
Carbs 15/20
Fat 84/62
Protein 113/240

I suspect that you've keyed your percentages in wrong. When I do 65% fat, 30% protein and 5% carbs I end up with:

Carbohydrates 20g
Protein 140g
Fat 107g

I think you've accidentally done 60% protein and 35% fat, as that brings me to:

Carbohydrates 20g
Protein 240g
Fat 62g

Just swap it round and you should be fine!

 

[dizzydawnie]

Oh, thank you so much!!

Can't believe how stupid I am some times!!

Yes that's much better now I have amended it.

But again, can anyone answer what I should be putting in as Calories per day??

TIA x

 

[-Pudding-]

But again, can anyone answer what I should be putting in as Calories per day??

TIA x

Hey there

To know how many calories you need a day you need to know your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). If you have a pair of all-singing, all-dancing scales they'll tell you what your BMR is. Otherwise there's a few BMR calculators online:
BMR Calculator

The next thing you need to do is work out your Physical Activity Level (PAL) from the following chart:

• Mostly inactive or sedentary (mainly sitting): 1.2
• Fairly active (including walking and exercise once to twice a week): 1.3
• Moderately active (exercise two to three times a week): 1.4
• Active (exercise hard more than three times a week): 1.5
• Very Active (exercise hard every day): 1.7

Finally you need to multiply your BMR by your PAL.



E.g: I'm 5ft4, 252lbs, female and aged 42. I walk an hour a day.


1854 (BMR) x 1.3 (PAL) = 2410 calories to MAINTAIN weight.


1lb of fat = approximately 3,500 calories. So to lose approx 1lb of fat a week I'd reduce my calorie intake by 500 a day, giving me: 1910 calories


In reality, on low-carb they tell you not to worry too much about calories BUT even low-carb isn't a magic wand whereby you can eat until you burst and still lose weight...so if you're not losing it's worth looking at total intake of calories as well as the carbs. If you work out your calories from the maths I've given above and plug it into Fitday or Myfitnesspal (I prefer the latter as it has more UK stuff in it) at least you can keep a bit of a track of things.


Hope that helps

 

[dizzydawnie]

Thats amazing!!

Thank you very much.

I've worked mine out and removed 500 per day so it brings me to 1601, which is pretty good as I had set it at 1600!! But as you say, Atkins doesn't rely heavily on calorie counting but at least I know that my fat / carb / protein projections are more or less accurate.

Thank you again!!

 

[triage999]

God, I've just tried mine, I need to drop to 1200 cals per day!! Not good :0(

Sent from my iPhone using MiniMins

 

[Soraya]

Just read on another thread that the Harcombe book reckons there is no good evidence for 3600cals= 1 lbs of weight loss!

Also, does mfp takes into consideration the metabolic advantage of low carb diets that Atkins talks about? The one where you can eat more calories than low fat diets and yet lose more weight. I do agree that there is a point at which calories matter and Atkins does talk about if you eat a lot of protein it will convert to glucose. Not sure I can eat that much protein though.

fitday.com might be worth a look, automatically shows you a chart of the fat, protein & carb - even alcohol %, regardless of the calories. I just put in my days planned menu at 20g carb and check the fat is right. I don't look much at the cals but they vary between 1200 and 1500 daily.

HTH