Recommended Daily Fat, Carbs, and Protein

[TwilightJoy]

Hi ladies!

I've signed up for SparkPeople and have started tracking my daily intake of food.

I'd like to set up the Nutritional Guidelines, but I'm not sure what my goals should be.

What's the TF or Paleo/Primal perspective on these things?

• What range of grams of fat should I consume in a day?
• What range of grams of carbs should I consume in a day?
• What range of grams of protein should I consume in a day?
• What range of calories should I consume in a day?

I'm not trying to lose a lot of weight, just trying to eat a healthy, balanced diet. xposted in Traditional Foods, but I thought that this forum might have a better idea of what the ranges should be

Thanks, ladies!

[Purple Sage]

This post from Mark's Daily Apple is helpful. I just read it yesterday.

I can't track on SparkPeople or FitDay because I find it too frustrating. What I'd do if I was going to track, though, is to figure out how much protein to eat based on the "0.7 – 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight formula" and how many grams of carbs to eat (which can vary depending on how active you are and how insulin resistant you are) and then just try to meet those goals. Then after a few weeks of tracking foods and observing the results, it would be easier to identify the amount of fat and calories you should eat to lose the desired amount of weight per week.

I'd definitely not start off by counting calories, though.

[TwilightJoy]

Originally Posted by Purple Sage

This post from Mark's Daily Apple is helpful. I just read it yesterday.

I can't track on SparkPeople or FitDay because I find it too frustrating. What I'd do if I was going to track, though, is to figure out how much protein to eat based on the "0.7 – 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight formula" and how many grams of carbs to eat (which can vary depending on how active you are and how insulin resistant you are) and then just try to meet those goals. Then after a few weeks of tracking foods and observing the results, it would be easier to identify the amount of fat and calories you should eat to lose the desired amount of weight per week.

I'd definitely not start off by counting calories, though.

Thank you! That article is great.

I don't know if I'm just dense, but I can't figure this out: "0.7 – 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight formula".

How do I know what my lean bodyweight is?

I'm 5'4.5" 130 pounds. Small chested, not muscular. My scale says: 130 lbs, 22% fat, 56% water.

[Purple Sage]

I couldn't tell you how to figure out your lean body mass other than to get it tested professionally. I think it's your weight minus the weight of your body fat - so that would include water, muscles, bones, etc. However, regular scales that measure body fat percentage are notorious for being inaccurate. Sorry not much help there!

[sapphire_chan]

When you get a good body fat percentage reading, you'll calculated your lean mass like this (I'm using your numbers above, you'll put your real body fat % in place of the 22)

130*(1-0.22)=101.4

Your lean mass in this example is 78% of your total weight, with the remaining 22% as fat.