Carbs to balance hormones, how much? page 5

[ChocoTaco369]

You are only eating 23g of protein?? Up that! Especially if you are breastfeeding.

Protein should be at about .8-1g/lb LBM for those who are sedentary to active. There isn't really a huge need in eating more than that. 100g is probably about right.

You should aim for a minimum of 100g of carbs a day (not counting those from fibrous veggies). That's your base. Fill in the rest of your calories with fat and carbs depending on how they make you feel. If you feel better higher fat, do it. If you feel better higher carb, do that. Just try not to go below that 100g of carbs a day.

I totally misread that. I thought I read that she was eating less protein and cut out about 23g per day and were now sitting at 80-100g/day. I didn't see that she was at 80-100g of fat. That is wayyyyy too much fat. I'd drop that substantially to get to about 100g per day. That's only around 1 lb of meat in a whole day, which is very little. I'd back that off to about 60g of fat/day and up protein at its expense.

You'd probably see a nice shift in body composition from simply doing that by cutting that much fat out while maintaining the same calories (and weight).

[Mireia]

Huh?

She is making a mistake focusing on carbohydrate. You should be focusing on the balance - dictating your protein consumption based on carbohydrate consumption is silly. She should be doing the opposite and basing carbs on protein. If you are eating a low protein diet, then you don't need to ingest as much carbohydrate to balance out the glucagon. Consuming so much carbohydrate over protein may be a contributor to the bloating.

And again, 100g of protein is not "a lot" of protein. That's about a pound of meat a day. Who can't eat 5-6oz of meat per meal? That isn't much.

Another focus is the type of protein. Not everything should be muscle meat. Focus on adding some eggs and high protein dairy to your diet. Probably 1/3 of my protein comes from eggs, dairy and cheese. I try not to eat ridiculous sums of phosphate-rich muscle meat because it depletes calcium (dairy will balance that).

If you want to consume less dairy, another option is to shift your meat to gelatinous cuts like shanks and oxtail because they are richer in calcium.

I don't eat dairy aside from raw butter but was thinking of adding small amounts of raw cheese or raw butter. We just haven't been to the farm where we used to get it, but I am sure it will up the protein intake.
I think 23 was a mistake, some days I don't add up all the foods I was eating that day. So I may habe looked at that. Yesterday my protein intake was 80g. Some days it will be more depending on how much meat it eat.

I never knew certain meats deplete calcium. I think my calcium intake might be low to begin with.

[Mireia]

Yes. Sweet potatoes and white potatoes are in two entirely different families. White potatoes are a nightshade, while sweet potatoes are part of the morning glory family. White potatoes are closer to a tomato than a sweet potato. If by "yellow potato" you mean a "white sweet potato," they are entirely different.

You want a cheap bag of russet potatoes. They're usually about $2/5 lbs


That sounds okay. I assume you are not counting carbohydrate from fibrous vegetables? I wouldn't count carbs from any greens or vegetation. The lowest-carb carbs I'd count are squashes, if that makes sense.


Try experimenting with different carb sources first. I have my preferential starch list and I go as follows:

Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, plantains, white rice, nixtamilized non-GMO corn tortillas (they MUST be non-GMO and nixtamalized, meaning they're "treated with lime (calcluim carbonate, not lime juice)" which makes them a clean starch). Sweet potatoes are my favorite based on taste, but bloat me the worst. White potatoes and white rice bloat me the least. Try them I'd say.

I was counting all carbs. I don't know which veggies are fibrous tbh. Yesterday I counted zucchini.

[Mireia]

I totally misread that. I thought I read that she was eating less protein and cut out about 23g per day and were now sitting at 80-100g/day. I didn't see that she was at 80-100g of fat. That is wayyyyy too much fat. I'd drop that substantially to get to about 100g per day. That's only around 1 lb of meat in a whole day, which is very little. I'd back that off to about 60g of fat/day and up protein at its expense.

You'd probably see a nice shift in body composition from simply doing that by cutting that much fat out while maintaining the same calories (and weight).

Body composition? What is that? Sorry I am totally oblivious to all things work out and getting the body to look "worked out" :/
I also don't eat a lot of meat, because the good meat can be so expensive and we are on a budget. About how much meat a day is balanced?

[Mireia]

You are only eating 23g of protein?? Up that! Especially if you are breastfeeding.

Protein should be at about .8-1g/lb LBM for those who are sedentary to active. There isn't really a huge need in eating more than that. 100g is probably about right.

You should aim for a minimum of 100g of carbs a day (not counting those from fibrous veggies). That's your base. Fill in the rest of your calories with fat and carbs depending on how they make you feel. If you feel better higher fat, do it. If you feel better higher carb, do that. Just try not to go below that 100g of carbs a day.

Right now I am eating high carb and high fat I think. The 23 g was a mistake, I actually eat about 80g. I am sure I can raise it to about 100 somehow. Just still figuring things out.
I also need to watch my calorie intake since I drop weight quickly. Lately I have been gaining, so I think eating more carbs can help with that too.

[Mireia]

Magicmerl
I eat about 80-100g of fat a day from mostly raw butter.
My supply was lower when I was eating low carb/ high fat and my son even lost some weight. He gained his weight back now though. He has always been a bit heavier for his height. That seems to be his normal with as much milk as he wants.




Btw: I had two days now where I barely lost any hair. It is hard to say if it is completely normal. But it is probably only around 15 hairs in the morning. I think my normal was even a bit lower than that, but it is progress. I used to lose 60-40 in the morning, which added up to much more throughout the day.
The past two days I ate 120 and 140 g of carbs. 99 g of fat and 50-80g of protein. I might try to see how things change with protein intake. One day when I ate bad carbs (cake- birthday) and almost no protein I lost the lowest amount of hair (5). That doesn't have to mean anything. I just found it odd that the lower my protein intake and higher my carbs intake, the lower my hair loss is.

I used to eat dairy, so I want to see how I do with dairy too. It seems aside from how I feel my hair can also be a good indicator of me possibly lacking something.

[Zach]

You are absolutely on the right track. Keep saturated fat high, carbs even higher and protein low. That is also the perfect recipe for producing breastmilk as well as gaining weight. Remember to add salt liberally and dont be afraid of sugar containing foods.

[ChocoTaco369]

Body composition? What is that? Sorry I am totally oblivious to all things work out and getting the body to look "worked out" :/
I also don't eat a lot of meat, because the good meat can be so expensive and we are on a budget. About how much meat a day is balanced?

Body composition is what your fat:muscle ratio is at your given weight.

Gina Carano is a great example of this. She is 143 lbs. If you think of a woman that is 143 lbs, you probably wouldn't think of her as overweight, but probably with a couple pounds to lose. Except...



She has an exceedingly rare body composition with a very low fat:muscle ratio. A person her size with a typical body composition (~26% body fat or so) would probably want to lose 10-15 lbs. But this is what happens when you lift heavy, train hard, eat a high protein diet and make sure not to overdo your fat intake. Gina looks to me like she's around 17% body fat, which is far below the norm. Your typical Victoria's Secret model is in the 17-18% range, except Gina actually has muscle and doesn't look like she needs a good meal like those girls. Deadlifts for breakfast, squats for lunch, chin-ups for snacks? Clearly. I'm pretty sure she's a martial artist so she'd put me through a wall pretty easily. I only have 7 lbs on her...lol.

[Mireia]

Body composition is what your fat:muscle ratio is at your given weight.

Gina Carano is a great example of this. She is 143 lbs. If you think of a woman that is 143 lbs, you probably wouldn't think of her as overweight, but probably with a couple pounds to lose. Except...



She has an exceedingly rare body composition with a very low fat:muscle ratio. A person her size with a typical body composition (~26% body fat or so) would probably want to lose 10-15 lbs. But this is what happens when you lift heavy, train hard, eat a high protein diet and make sure not to overdo your fat intake. Gina looks to me like she's around 17% body fat, which is far below the norm. Your typical Victoria's Secret model is in the 17-18% range, except Gina actually has muscle and doesn't look like she needs a good meal like those girls. Deadlifts for breakfast, squats for lunch, chin-ups for snacks? Clearly. I'm pretty sure she's a martial artist so she'd put me through a wall pretty easily. I only have 7 lbs on her...lol.

Oh, I think I had that checked once and it was 20? That was 13 years ago though.

Hm...I don't want to say she looks bad. But my personal taste is a softer, more womanly shape. Not necessarily more weight, but not as musculuar, soft larger hips, small waist and enough fat in the face for a youthful glow.
So I do want to keep some healthy fat.
I am pretty happy with my body how it is without doing anything...other than being somewhat active (or volleyball before baby) and a little bit of Yoga for my back.
The only thing I would like is maybe gain a bit more. I feel pretty happy with what I gained already but a few lbs more might be better even. (I'm 5'5" and 108 now)

So again, not saying anything bad about her..just not my exact ideal ^^ (I sure hope she won't come and crush me now that I said that lol)

[Mireia]

You are absolutely on the right track. Keep saturated fat high, carbs even higher and protein low. That is also the perfect recipe for producing breastmilk as well as gaining weight. Remember to add salt liberally and dont be afraid of sugar containing foods.

I do season with sea salt!
I think as a woman a diet that increased breastmilk production and promotes good skin, hair and balanced hormones, fertility signals to be a good diet for women. That is what I am aiming for.