Macronutrients

I've got the tools (calorie counting, activity monitoring, glucose monitoring) and now I need to take action.  I started by putting into MyFitnessPal exactly what I was eating for every meal.  Everything.  At the end of a couple of days I took a look at the numbers that MyFitnessPal thought I should be targetting and where I actually ended up.

Wow, my food intake sucks.

I had too many carbs (keeping blood sugar too high), too much fat (look at my weight) and not nearly enough protein.  I mean, seriously not enough protein.  Time to become a part time nutritionist.  My exposure to nutrition over the past 50 years has been quite minimal.  I knew about carbs, fats and proteins, but not really what they were used for and how much of each I should have.  The information was out there, I just never paid attention to it.  Well, now was the time.

It appears that there actually is a Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein.  The Institute of Medicine reviewed a lot of studies and came up with a simple formula for the RDA:

0.37 grams per pound of body weight

Simple as that.  So, I took my weight, multiplied by 0.37 and then compared the result to what was in MyFitnessPal and here is where I encountered a difference of opinion.  MyFitnessPal said that 15% of my calories should come from protein.  The Institute of Medicine said that number was closer to 22% of my calories.  Which one to pick?  I chose the Institute of Medicine and moved my protein count up to 25%.

Now, if you go to body builder sites they will up that 0.37 grams to 1 gram or even higher.  That would mean that 60% or more of my calories came from protein.  Heck, I was having a difficult time hitting the lower limit of 15%, moving to 60%?  Not ready for that step yet.

Fats?  Well, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of consensus about fat.  I moved it to 30% to try to minimize the impact of fat since each gram of fat accounts for 9 calories compared to 4 for either carbs or proteins.

Carbs?  Well, carbs end up going into my blood stream pretty quick so I needed to try to smooth out the sugar spikes in my blood by keeping my carbs to no more than 45% of my calories. The Institute of Medicine said to consume at least 100 grams of carbs per day, so I was in no danger there.

So what did I end up with?

• Protein - 25% (or more)
• Fat - 30% (or less)
• Carbs - 45%

Time to see what I can do with these numbers.

Status for August 23rd

• Weight - 343.5 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 7.8 mmol/L