a few dumb questions from a diet newb

[LoneJeeper]

The things I am looking for bring up a plethora of results, and they all seem to either contradict or confuse me further.

to quote Michael Scott: Talk to me like i'm an 8 year old girl.

I'm in the 295# ballpark, which I feel is a bit much... I've previously only concerned myself with eating more protein than the average guy. I take B,C,D, an "all day energy" Multi, fish oil, and ETS (<- which i friggin love).

I've used fitday.com for awhile to try to get a handle on things, but i've found I like DailyPlate a little better, although it's led to the questions:

1) I entered my goal to be a loss of 2 pounds a week, DailyPlate set my goal at 2925, somewhat arbitrarily i think. I've decided to not try to worry where i end up, just to see what i was currently doing. So far, I've not even come close. Today, I had 4 slices of pizza for lunch, which I rarely do, and I'm 500 calories short of the "goal".

Is this "goal" based on any kind of reason? Should I actually be eating more to lose weight? like a "starvation-mode" situation?

2) I though my Carb/Fat/Protein ratio was pretty good, as far as amount of protein goes, but it turns out i'm getting almost .5g/lb. Ratio was 25% protein, 44% carbs, 39% fat (for today). What should the ratio be closer to? I've seen ratios all over the map. I'm pretty sure i should try to up the protein part of that ratio... but do I engineer it toward my desired bodyweight?

I'd appreciate any info you could share.

[Joe Black]

Ok, first of all don't worry too much. The two main things you are figuring out from actually carefully tracking calories are probably the two things that everyone gets shocked about when they first start.

1. You eat too much

2. You eat more carbs and fat than you thought and less protein than you thought.

And if you are honest with yourself, let's face it, you wouldn't be 295lbs if the above weren't true anyway ;)

The recommended calorie intake from dailyplate (2925) will just be a number it has calculated based on the information you put in which could be a good or a bad number. The problem with these calculations is they can't take into account individual circumstances.

I would encourage you to read To Bulk or to Cut, That is the Question - or is it? (http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/to-bulk-or-to-cut-that-is-the-question-or-is-it/). It has a very easy to understand more simplistic way of going about reaching your weight goal.

Essentially it encourages you to eat what it would take to maintain your weight goal. So, if your goal is to be 260lbs, eat like you weigh it now and you'll eventually get there. Using the articles calculations, if you were a medium activity individual (4-7 hrs a week) you would need to eat 4160 calories a day to maintain 260lbs.

So yes, I think the 2925 number is quite low considering your current weight.

What it boils down to though is you eat too much and your food choices are not going to be very good if you weigh 295lbs (I am going to assume you;re not lean at 295lbs!)

I wouldn't worry about stuff too much at this point.

Just pick a number (say 3500 calories) and aim to hit that number every day.

Stick tobetter food choices as this alone will normally get you losing weight quickly. (i.e not 4 slices of pizza)

For protein stick to lean cuts of meat/protein shakes
For carbs - cereals, potatoes, pasta, rice etc
For fats - nuts, oils, peanut butter etc.

You don;t need to go completely overboard on the food choices, but if you improve them from 4 slices of pizzas and hit 3500 daily you;ll see your percentages sit more like 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat I think and this will be a HUGE step in the right direction.

[Joe Black]

I kinda rambled a bit in that post and it could just be summed up by saying - eat less (say 3,500 calories), improve your food choices and move about a bit more ;)

[LoneJeeper]

I kinda rambled a bit in that post and it could just be summed up by saying - eat less (say 3,500 calories), improve your food choices and move about a bit more ;)

No, I understood that as what you were saying. Actually, it was pretty much what i had in mind, but then the numbers presented made my head spin a little. Especially with how little protein i was actually getting.

Seems thedailyplate site uses a wildly varying "base calorie count" depending on what you select as an activity level. I had chosen "Moderately Active" (which must be paramount to a ADHD Squirrel) and "Lightly Active" and it changed my numbers down to what i was expecting.


Thanks for the help!