Ideal Macros for Maintenance

Diet and Nutrition
22

[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Ha! those arrogant ophthalmologists. You guys are usually the favorite doctor. No shots. Now, everybody hates the dentist, so it’s a good thing you aren’t one of those.

The guy who fixed up the Jujube’s crossed eyes was really great. You can see how happy she was about the eye patch. And the guy who did my Lasik surgery told me I looked like Claire Forlani. That will earn anybody some nice guy bonus points.
[/quote]

Actually, thanks to the efficacy of a new class of anti-macular degeneration drugs, we now do shots in the eye all the time. My resident did 5-10 today alone.

Is that your daughter? She’s adorable.

Speaking of adorable: Claire Forlani. Yes indeed. And now that you mention it, I see the resemblance. (But you have better calves.)

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[quote]EyeDentist wrote:

[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Ha! those arrogant ophthalmologists. You guys are usually the favorite doctor. No shots. Now, everybody hates the dentist, so it’s a good thing you aren’t one of those.

The guy who fixed up the Jujube’s crossed eyes was really great. You can see how happy she was about the eye patch. And the guy who did my Lasik surgery told me I looked like Claire Forlani. That will earn anybody some nice guy bonus points.
[/quote]

Actually, thanks to the efficacy of a new class of anti-macular degeneration drugs, we now do shots in the eye all the time. My resident did 5-10 today alone.

Is that your daughter? She’s adorable.

Speaking of adorable: Claire Forlani. Yes indeed. And now that you mention it, I see the resemblance. (But you have better calves.)
[/quote]

About shots in the eye, looks like you guys won’t be the favorite doctor for long. :frowning: Oh well, at least people don’t have to get undressed and be poked and proded in their nether regions. You still have that going for ya.

Yes, that’s our youngest, taken few years ago. Thank you. I put a more current one of my family up in my hub so you can see what the little Puffs look like, and one of her where you can see the problem before surgery. Even the mailman could tell us that something was up with that little cat’s eyes. :slight_smile: No, I don’t really look much like Claire Forlani, but thank you for the compliment.

Sorry for the tangent! This is my thread, so I guess I can thread jack it if I want to.

  • Resume diet and nutrition talk.
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Thank you for this.

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I believe mine is actually around 45/25/30 p/c/f.

I usually don’t really need more than 150g carb.

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200p, 200c, 65f – 27 m 5’5". Maintenance around 140-5 in the summer is good. I can throw in cheats here and there and remain fairly lean, around 8-10%.

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[quote]nez1nez wrote:
Thank you for this. [/quote]

You’re welcome, Nez. You’ll be switching into a maintenance mode very soon. :slight_smile:

Your macros may not need to change much as you begin to bring your calories up a bit. I’ve decided that for small women who are trying to hit protein targets for BBing, it’s going to be common to see protein as a bit higher percentage than for the average bear.

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[quote]jskrabac wrote:
I believe mine is actually around 45/25/30 p/c/f.

I usually don’t really need more than 150g carb. [/quote]

Thanks for chiming in. Jake, you have almost my identical macros.

I’m working on bringing my carbs up a bit more on training days, and then keeping them lower on non training days. I know this is basic, but it’s been hard for me to do.

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Puff, you know what you’re doing, I feel.

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I’ve read and read and it still confusing to me.

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chkeeley - Thanks for chiming in.

Consul - Thank you!

Nez - Let me know what’s most confusing and I’ll try to clarify if I can. My initial post was not phrased very well, since the “ideal macros” for an individual will vary based on quite a few factors.

Here are the main points about macros.

Protein
You really want to eat enough protein to maintain your muscle. At least 1 gram per pound BW is a guideline. BUT If you are going to “overdo” any one macro, let it be protein. It’s the least likely one to really have a negative impact on your physique. I don’t have the reference in front of me right now, but I’ve read John Berardi saying this too. Honestly, if you eat a fairly healthful diet, you can probably do pretty well just following that one guideline, then adjust total calories as needed to maintain.

Fat
You need some fats to maintain proper hormonal function, among other things. If you want a strict percentage guideline to start with, most people can probably try 30p/40c/30f. Those are the percentages from The Zone Diet and its the basic moderate carb/ moderate fat layout. Most people could probably start there, then tweak as needed. I think as a small woman, you are probably going to be eating a higher percentage of protein than that to hit your BBing goals.

Carbs
How many carbs you need will vary depending on how active you are, how you handle insulin, how much muscle you have, and other factors. Timing carbs around your workout helps you take advantage of the insulin response. For women, since we have a fraction of the T men have, we need all the help we can get. :slight_smile: I think it makes even more sense for women to try to time carbs so we get the most out of insulin. Conversely, more of our excess calories will go to fat stores, because of E. Another reason to be careful with timing carbs to minimize that.

This is the main thing I want to try to change over the next few months. I’m going to try to stay very low carb on non-training days, and otherwise up my carbs a bit, timing my non-veggie carbs for mornings around my training. It’s hard for me to do. For example, Sunday is a non-training day for me and it’s also a day I spend around my husband and kids all day so I tend to want to splurge. It would be better for my body comp, if I do my cheating on a day when I’m working hard in the gym. It would be even better if it’s going to be right after I’ve lifted so I hopefully put more of it into muscle, that sort of thing. Baby steps.

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Of interest. I recently read a couple of articles by Borge Fagerli aka Blade. I was surprised to see him say that he believes the protein requirement for building and maintaining muscle may be more like 1.5 - 2 g per kg BW. That’s kg, not lbs. So, for a woman of my size, the protein requirement would be 73 - 98 g per day.

It’s a bit confusing though, because in another article about Female Fitness Contest Prep, he was recommending pro at closer to the traditional BBing guidelines. Of course, this is a contest prep diet. He’s not talking about maintenance.

Just a short excerpt here…

"Now for the macronutrient ratio management. I know low carb diets are popular among women, but in my experience this isn’t a good long term strategy. I’ve successfully “reprogrammed” several girls from low to higher carbs, and the contest prep is a lot easier or at least more predictable. The downside can be more variable hunger levels and energy, but if they get leaner and stay fuller it’s worth it.

Even though insulin sensitivity is generally lower in women and you don’t handle carbs as well as guys do, the lower calories for a 100-120 lbs fitness or bikini girl automatically takes care of that. I don’t think protein should be set higher than maybe 1.3g per lbs of bodyweight and I start with 1g per lbs while carbs and calories are still high. This is purely observational but too much protein in the ranges commonly prescribed for fat loss diets (1.5g/lbs+) seem to lead to poorer digestion, more bloating and water retention, and also compromises carb intake."

For anyone who is interested in reading the whole thing, look for Borge Fagerli, Female Fitness Contest Prep. It’s one of the most comprehensive articles about training for females I’ve seen. Really, really nice. I wish he wrote more.

The article about rethinking protein is called The Final Word on Protein (?)