I'm becoming more conscious of what I eat and how many calories I am taking in. My goal is to have an approximate 500-600 calorie deficit daily in order to lose weight. However my goal is not only to lose weight, but to become healthier. So in my mind, this not only means eating less calories, but also eating the right kind of calories.

My question is... Are there any recommended percentages for the different type of calorie sources for an efficient weight loss? From what I have been able to understand, it seems like I want a high protein, medium carb, and low fat diet. Should I aim for something like 50% protein calories, 35% carbs, and 15% fat?

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

Akira, I'm a registered dietitian so maybe I can help a bit. The general population recommendations are something like 55% carbs, 15% protein and 30% fat.

Plain and simple, your body wants to use carbs for energy. They are your bodies preferred fuel source. It will pretty much use up all your carbs first then switch to using fat and/or protein for energy.

That being said, for the exercising/weight lifting population, your protein requirements increase. I would suggest a nutrient ratio of 50% carbs, 25% protein and 25% fat. Focus on hitting your fat and protein goals. Both fat and protein (as well as fiber) are broken down slower than carbs and give you a feeling of satiety (feeling full) for a longer period of time. Try this and see how it works out for you. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Take care, Greg

How carb tolerant are you?

What BF are you?

Are you overweight?


40% fat / 30% protein / 30% carb.

Your going to get a lot of different numbers, but its going to be up to you. Your going to have to experiment around and see what works for you. But I don't believe anyone should be having any more than 40% carb unless your a serious olympic athlete. 50% carbs is just ridiculous, thats why so many people are fat.

I am 5'9" and weigh 172lbs. This would put me slightly overweight with a BMI of 25.4

As for my BF, I am not sure yet. I just bought a new scale with BF measurement but forgot to buy a battery, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. I am going to guess that I am somewhere at 23-26%. I'll get a more accurate number tomorrow.

I am not sure what "carb tolerant" means. I don't mind eating carbs and I think I can do without and still feel fine, but I'm not certain.

Today I finished off at 56% carbs / 24% fat / 20% protein

Is there any good reading material on how the body uses energy? If I eat 50 carbs/25/25 and am eating at a 500 calorie defecit, do all the calories I ate get used up?

Phate why so high on the Fat intake?

Thank you guys for the suggestions.

Come on Phate. It all comes down to calories. I don't care if you eat 100% fat. If you only eat 800 calories/day then you are going to lose weight.

So many people are fat because they eat too many calories and don't burn enough. It's simple math.

Your right, in a sense, however one should ALWAYS be conscious of their macro breakdown for optimal lean muscle preservation in correlation with their training routine.

I agree LV. Just using that as an example.

Calorie counting and percentages are very tedious and annoying, but deffinitely effective. 50% carbs is a little rediculous, but i'm no dietition.

Protien and fiber speeds your metabolism and burns more "fuel" faster. Bad for cars, good for us. Everyones body is different, so no promises. It's good that you watch what you eat, but there are really only two ways to lose weight.

Get your heart at its target rate so it only burns fat. You can use a treadmill, stairmaster, whatever machine that has a heart rate reader (or whatever it's called) Or, choice number two is you can burn more calories than you take in. Low caloric intake, and intense cardio workouts.

I prefer the first one, but its up to you obviously. If you use this way it takes about 10 minutes to get to your target heart rate, and keep it there for about a half hour. This way you can lose only 10 pounds and look like you lost 25. Good luck

Higher intensity cardio may burn a lower percentage of calories from fat, but it will burn more calories overall, and more calories from fat per unit time, than lower intensity cardio.

Workout Tips: Fat Burning Zone Vs. Cardio Training Zone - Associated Content

Also, going to higher intensity cardio has a better training effect -- either for endurance (if you do cardio at the high end of the aerobic zone) or sprints (if you do anaerobic sprint intervals / HIIT).

Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm not only looking to manage my diet. I am also currently working on my body being able to handle cardio for extended periods of time. As of now I can only jog about 10 minutes before feeling like falling.

My goal is to work on cardio enough to where I can go for 30min-1hour and then purchase a Heart rate monitor to make my cardio more efficient. I will also start a full body workout 3x a week in order to strengthen the muscles that I have so when I finish losing weight I will be better off for gaining muscle.

You may want to get the heart rate monitor now. If you can only go 10 minutes, you may be running at too high an intensity for your current level of fitness. It is possible that you are running at the transition between aerobic and anaerobic intensity, which is too high to do endurance training, but not high enough to get optimal anaerobic sprint training.

Regarding the carbohydrates, fat, and protein ratios, there is probably too much emphasis on the ratios and not enough on the quality of each.

Carbohydrates: choose high fiber carbohydrate foods, like vegetables, whole fruit, legumes, and whole grains. Avoid concentrated sugars and refined carbohydrates like sodas, juices, refined grains, and foods with a lot of added sugar (many cereals and flavored yogurts fall into this category). Avoid fried carbohydrates and carbohydrates used as carriers or absorbers for fat toppings and sauces (for example, eat baked potatoes with salsa instead of cheese and sour cream). An exception to avoiding simple sugars is during and immediately after a long hard workout, when reloading muscle glycogen is desirable.

Fats: avoid hydrogenated vegetable oils. Avoid fried carbohydrates and heavy fat toppings on carbohydrate foods. If you have high LDL cholesterol or other risk factors for atherosclerosis or heart disease, avoid saturated fat. Include some fats that contain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (e.g. fish fat, although limit the types of fish that are high in pollutants like mercury).

Protein: Most protein sources also contain fat and/or carbohydrates. Choose carefully in the context of your fat and carbohydrate intake. Also, make sure that the food contains sufficient protein for your dietary needs, especially if you intend to eat more than 15-20% of calories from protein (as may be the case if you are restricting calories and/or doing heavy weight training). Some foods that are commonly thought of as "protein" may not have very much protein (e.g. hot dogs, pepperoni, most ground beef, most sausages, most cheese, etc.). A high intake of red meat from domesticated animals and processed meat has been found to have a strong link with colon cancer.

Well the heart rate monitor will have to wait until at least August 1st when i get paid. I am a graduate student currently and we get paid enough to live on and if really frugal, enough to save a little each month. Next time I go on a jog I will try to slow down or maybe even just powerwalk. I already feel like I'm jogging too slow and that any slower might as well be walking.

The tips on foods is great. I feel like I need to take in more fiber. I guess my next step is to plan a healthy shopping list, luckily there is a good post on that in nutrition I can look at.