ExRx.net

I changed my diet a bit and would like to know the percentages of fat, carb, protein. What are the formulas to figure these out?

I have searched here for almost 30 mins....

There is no magic ratio and depending on the goals of the dieter, different ratios might be more appropriate. However, my preference is a low carb diet, so a ratio of 35% protein, 55% fat and 10% carbs are what I would recommend. The popular Zone diet is 30/30/40 and is a good half way measure. It's a lot better than a more conventional 15/30/55 ratio.

Thanks....what I was really looking for was how do you come up with a certain percentage based on a carb intake of 235 on a 2300 cal diet. Same for protein......whats the formula?




I think there are 9 cals per gram of fat, correct? So fat intake X 9/calorie = percentage of fat in diet....

nevermind...found it. thanks stu

magic numbers are 4/9/4

Mine sits at 40/20/40 based on a 2300 cal diet. I think my cals are too low, and my carbs are too high. Does it matter what the carbs are? I get 90+ from fruit alone (some of that is OJ, which will be removed)....and I rarely eat and flour products. Also going to add some nuts a couple times a day....bump up cals and fat a bit.

Minimize sugar and refined carbs. OJ is ok in very small amounts, say 4 oz/day. Unsweetened juice is about 90% water, 10% sugar.

JPS, I think you're getting a little too fixated on numbers/ratios. It will vary from person to person. If you just use a general guideline and adjust it as necessary to fit your needs/goals, and not worry about ratios I think you will be better off. A good example is
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nut ... habits.htm
As to carbs/ there is a good sticky on the subject that Stu posted up. The preference being veg first, then fruit, then the legumes and finally the grains and starchy veg.
Tim

Fixated? Yeah...probably so....couldn't sleep---up too early and my diet popped in my head. So now I'm dissecting it.....lol. I was really just looking for the percentages, and was amazing at how high the carb intake was.....though mostly from fruit. I do not eat much, if any, white flour or sugar of any form....have cut out completely any fast food.....eat 7 times a day...etc.


Anyways.....I will chill. Thanks for the responses.

I was't coming down on you. Just trying to simplify things. I rarley ever try to figure out ratios, but it boild down probably closer to 40/40/20 ; P/F/C, but that's just a rough figure that's easy for me to brown bag and that works for me following a rough common sense guide, like Berardi's.
Tim

It wasn't taken that way Tim...no worries. I tend to look at things to much sometimes....

#6 seems a bit harshly worded? I stopped drinking pre-bottled fruit juice with every meal, after realizing how lame that stuff was. But surely blending up whole fruit wouldn't be included in that...

It's a guideline. Smoothies would be OK in moderation. If you're consuming so much fruit that you start cutting back on vegetables, it's counter productive. You benefit from the act of chewing your food as well and whole food generally has a lower GI.

The recommendation is a good one though as that is probably one of the main reasons for obiesity today. Your body doesn't recognise calories that you drink the same as calories you eat.

An occasional smoothie isn't going to hurt, but I'll expand a bit on what Stu wrote. It's a BIG problem here in the US. Parents buy these large containers of 100% fruit juice, thinking it's a great thing to have the kids consume rather than water, so the kids are loading up on it, and the juice is full of natural sugars, with none of the fiber that's in the actual fruit itself, and it's basically the same thing as guzzling down soda pop.
Tim

I think the point is that you should get your calories from elsewhere (not drinks). Shakes/super shakes don't really count, as those are convenient meal replacements. There's a few reasons for it.

For one, you can easily lose track of your intake if you having calories between meals, or extra calories ontop of your meals, which is what a calorie containing drink does. 2-3 drinks per day can mount up. Not so crucial if you're not trying to get or stay lean but otherwise it's an area that many get caught out.

Also, whatever way you try and spin it, a drink of freshly squeezed fruit juice is a high carb liquid meal, which is rarely something people 'in the know' will recommend, regardless of where the carbs are coming from. So, 'it is what is' (high in carbs)

Finally, when you squeeze the juice out of fruit, you basically squeeze the sugar out of the fruit and leave a lot of the nutrients (like fibre) that you get when you just eat the fruit whole. Remember, fructose is still sugar, sugar is carbs. Fruits great and all but sugar is sugar, carbs is carbs. And fructose is also a simple sugar (fast absorbing) which can screw you over a little if you have a poor carb tolerance.

Those reasons might not apply to you, though, but if you're trying to look good, they probably should.

Also, the questions got to be asked - why not just eat the fruit? The biggest reason for people on a diet to turn to fruit juice is to satisfy a sweet tooth. Just eat the fruit. Oh, and maybe increase your fat and make sure you get enough protein, as this has been known to have a nice effect on sugar cravings...

Maybe long winded answer there but it comes up a lot on the PN forums.

KPj

Yeah I do agree with all that, which is I guess where the guideline started.

To be clear though, I'm blending whole fruit, there's no "juicing" involved in this process, just a hand mixer and about 3 servings of fruit (see the http://exrx.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5794 thread) per day.

I agree that fruit juice (store bought or otherwise) is mostly lame. I only recently became aware that they remove all the fiber from the juice.

It makes me wonder what Tropicana does with millions of pounds of fruit fiber.