carb count page 2

[ChocoTaco369]

If you are averaging 1250 calories a day @ 20% protein, that is 62.5g of protein a day. That is in my opinion an abysmal amount of protein amounting to slightly more than half a pound of meat a day. Yesterday post workout, I got about 175g of protein in a single meal and I'm a mere 143lb male. Now, I'm not expecting you to sit down and eat a pound and a half of steak and a quart of yogurt in a sitting like I do, but if your goal is to build some muscle while losing fat, you should be taking in at least 100g of protein a day (it's only a pound of meat a day, which really isn't much over the course of 3 meals). Protein is the only macronutrient with a metabolic advantage worth mentioning, so the more calories in protein you ingest, generally the more fat you'll lose in a caloric deficit (and the more muscle you'll put on in a caloric surplus).

[paleo-bunny]

I agree with Choco - you need more protein merely to preserve muscle on a calorific deficit.

To fool your body that you're not in calorific deficit and gain muscle you need to cycle calories in over calories out. Don't be in deficit more than 2 or 3 days a week, and vary the deficit. Eat a high carb, high protein meal followin strength-training workouts, with some dairy if you can tolerate it.

Check out the LeanGains protocol.

[ninababie2]

Mark says .7 per pound of lean mass is okay...and that is 65 for me. I will try to eat a little more though. It just seemed to me like fat was the goal. Does anyone hAve a ratio they strive for? That would be the most helpful

[ninababie2]

If I have a milk chocolate chip I am sick for a week! No dairy for me. But I'll try to change it up. I love consistency so it will be difficult

[paleo-bunny]

Mark says .7 per pound of lean mass is okay...and that is 65 for me. I will try to eat a little more though. It just seemed to me like fat was the goal. Does anyone hAve a ratio they strive for? That would be the most helpful

I believe that's for maintenance, not for gaining.

If you eat very low carb then protein will be squandered on gluconeogenesis.

ETA: not sure whether Mark assumes how much protein will be wasted on gluconeogenesis. However, since he doesn't make that explicit and he clearly indicates that glucose intake should be increased in line with activity, I can only conclude that he hasn't taken that into account in his protein intake guidelines.

[paleo-bunny]

If I have a milk chocolate chip I am sick for a week! No dairy for me. But I'll try to change it up. I love consistency so it will be difficult

Have you tried goats dairy? Goats' casein is much better tolerated than cow's dairy.

If you're lactose intolerant then you will probably be OK with hard cheese as that's very fermented and very low in lactose (again you will probably tolerate goats' better if you're intolerant to cows' casein).

[StackingPlates]

Back in the 1950s -- yes, that long ago -- Kekwick and Pawan at the Middlesex Hospital showed that patients would lose weight on a 1000 kcal diet that was 90% fat but would not on a 90% carbohydrate diet with the same calorific value.

Classic misrepresentation of the truth...what did Kekwick, himself, write about their own study?

The first and main hazard was that many of the patients had inadequate personalities. At worst they would cheat and lie, obtaining food from visitors, from trolleys touring the wards, and from neighboring patients. (Some required almost complete isolation.) The results we report are selected, a considerable number of known failures in discipline being discarded...

You are really going to cite this as credible research? Don't present bad research as a way to influence folks just learning about their nutritional needs as that is very poor form at best, and blatantly irresponsible at worst.

[sbhikes]

Nina, not sure how big you are, but it's worth it to go up on the protein. I'm 47 years old, pretty darn short and already fairly muscular. I assumed my lean body mass to be about 100lbs so that would be 100g of protein which works out to about a 14oz steak worth of meat each day. I tracked myself for a few weeks and realized I was eating about 60-80g per day on average, which although it blew away what myfitnesspal said was my goal, apparently was not enough. I started adding more and I started feeling much better, more full after meals and generally just healthier. With some fairly mild workouts (core fitness with body weight and 5lb dumbbells at the most) I'm building some pretty impressive muscles on myself. And strength, too. Not bulky, but the wap-wap is being replaced with stuff I can flex. It's pretty nice. I'm not losing any weight or size, but things are improving anyway. I think I stand taller and feel more confident.

[Paleobird]

Classic misrepresentation of the truth...what did Kekwick, himself, write about their own study?

You are really going to cite this as credible research? Don't present bad research as a way to influence folks just learning about their nutritional needs as that is very poor form at best, and blatantly irresponsible at worst.

Thank you. This factoid has been quoted and re-quoted ad nauseum around the net. Shoddy research at best.

And I agree with Choco about dialing back the fat and increasing the protein intake to lose fat while maintaining or even gaining muscle. It worked for me.

[ninababie2]

Organic meat is SO expensive :[ I'll do my best though