Hi! I'm a female, in my mid forties and I've been doing Atkins since last fall. I lost 18 pounds over 5 months and then came to a screeching halt. I'm still 20 pounds above my original goal weight and am hoping to lose this through exercise.

I'm in my 4th week of BFL and starting to see some results but have continued to eat fairly LC. My weight has actually fluctuated up and down over the last four weeks but I'm not too concerned. I've added oats and fruit to my normal diet and am eating something like 35%P, 15%C and 50%F. So far, so good.

Well, I've read so many conflicting reports about caloric needs/deficit that I finally just picked one method (Hussman) and I've been basing my calories on his formulas. I have a LBM of 100 lbs. and a BMR of 1265. According to him, I should take in no more than 1400 cal/day in order to loose 1 lb/week. I had been consuming something like 1700-1900/day so it makes sense that I wasn't losing.

Problem is, even if 40% of my 1400 calories are protein, my daily total will still fall short of the BFL recommended 1g per pound of CURRENT body weight (161) unless I increase my calories again!

So, bottom line, my question is: How did you decide how many calories/protein/carbs to eat?

Radar

161 grams of protein comes to 644 calories and that leaves you 756 calories to split with carbs and fat. I guess ratio depends on if you are going to the Atkins way or the BFL way.

Thanks FLRN. I'm not having a problem with the math but with HOW an individual decides to proportion the food/calories since there is so much conflicting information out there. Do I really need 161g protein? Should I be eating enough protein to support LBM or current body weight? Or goal weight?

Should I eat 10-12 calories/pound of current body weight? Goal weight? According to Hussman.org, it should be more like .9-1.1 X BMR if I want to lose weight (under 1400 calories/day) but BFL would have me eating 10-12 X current weight which would be 1610-1932 calories!

This tidbit "shoot for at least a gram of protein per pound of lean weight daily, regardless of your specific goal." comes from the BFL support page of the Hussman.org site (100gP for me). Yet if I do the calculations to 'Lose Fat and Gain Muscle' on the official BFL site, I'd be eating 193gP. That's a HUGE difference! I've already found that eating that many calories doesn't work for me. And I've found that eating high carb doesn't work for me. Just curious how others have found the balance that works for them?

Radar

Not sure what to tell you. Read the hussman website, and have been eating around 2000 cal a day. I think his little calculator had me eating between 1561 and 2107 or something like that.

Even at 2000 cal/day, I am a ravenous beast. I stuck with it all week until saturday night, and have just now finished my feeing frenzy. Barely managed to maintain a 3500 cal deficit for the week.

I read somewhere else that RMR x 1.55 is about the norm for active folks. Thing is, seems like BFL is beyond what I would call active, but I'm still looking for other sources as to define what active is.

I'm just gonna reeval my caloric intake every 4 weeks and tweak it from there. If I have to eat more and maintain a lesser calorie deficit to keep from being so hungry all the time, I will do so.

Not sure if i helped you or not, I ramble at night=) Good luck!

I just had to play with the numbers to get the proportions of carbs: protein: fat. I started out with protein, figuring I needed 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass - this seemed to be the general consensus from body building websites. Then I looked at my calories burned (according to fitday - do y'all find that pretty accurate?). I knew the balance of my calories had to come from carbs and fat. Although I was VERY hesitant to up my carbs to what I did, I didn't think it was a good idea to raise my fat above 30% while eating what would have to be at least a moderate amount of carbs to maintain my energy. So I ended up with about 45:25:30 or 40:30:30 depending on my total calories for the day. That was my thought process anyway, HTH.

Jen

yellowman and caverjen,
Thanks for your input. I have been using lean body mass to calculate protein requirements but that's not how BFL says to do it. My current ratio is something like 35/15/50 which means I'm getting approx 123 grams protein, 80g (52 net) Carbs and the rest is fat. I guess I'll keep plugging along and see how this works out.

Radar

Hi Radar!
I have been doing BFL nutrition by the book for 13 weeks now..been playing with the 40/40/20 thing for awhlie now. I do much better with lower fat and higher carbs..it's been hard to get the carbs up..but finally added Lf yogurt instead of lc yogurt and I have finally got it. I have lost 20 pounds doing the low fat thing. Wo are better with higher carbs. Let us know how you are doing. I am 44 yo 5'5" 165 amd 38% BF. Stated at 212. Have a great day!

Hi Radarlove! Great question! Ratios and calories are something I've been struggling with for a while. I keep my ratios all around 30 something for fat, carbs, and protein.

Texy! Fancy meeting you here!

Surfer376, Thanks for the reply.
I'm a bit of a geek when it comes to these things. Give me a formula or a scientific explanation and I'm all over it but tell me to just do it by "feel" and I practically hyperventilate! We're similar in age/weight/goals and it sounds like you're having much success.

My conclusion is that very few people are doing BFL low carb. I can buy that but I refuse to go back to eating lowfat mayo and salad dressings that use sugar for fillers (or adulterated food in general). I was cruising along happily in the low carb world until I threw BFL into the mix. That really screwed me up!

So here's my plan - I'll try to even out my carbs/fat and increase my protein slightly so that it is still the predominant fuel: 40%p 30%c 30%f. Does that make me low fat or low carb? I'm feeling a little schizophrenic........

Radar
P.S. I start week 5 tomorrow and I feel great! I haven't lost weight but I'm losing inches and seeing and feeling changes!

I think this thread is a great example of why Bill P. didn't put any ratios in his book. I like using the simpler methods he used in the book of measuring by the size of your palm or the size of your fist. I use that most of the time. Although if I think I'm getting way off track I'll start entering the food I eat into fitday for a couple days just to verify what I'm doing.

In my first two challenges I ate stricly Atkin's. Although I threw in the BFL eating 6 times a day thing. I found that 20ish grams of carbs/day was too low for me to do BFL, so upped it to 60-80ish grams/day (basically Atkin's maintenance) and that worked fine for me. I still never bothered keeping track of ratios. I have no idea of how many grams of protein or fat I was eating.

My only suggestion to anyone would be to make up your mind what style (low-carb or BFL) you are going to use for the challenge and then stick to it and see what results you get.

Arnie

i am on day 16 of my very first BFL challenge. i am doing a modified atkins/BFL as i have been doing atkins 6 months now and have lost 82 pounds! i dont want to mess with the woe as its working so great for me, but i am concerned that im not getting enough carbs....i have approx 20-35 carbs a day. so far i havent felt weak or anything so i miust be doing fine...and i lost another 3 pounds last week too!!


good luck on your challenge!!

Pammie,

I wouldn't change a thing. If it's working don't fix it.

Arnie

Hi Radar

I found that the easiest way to make the protein requirments and still keep the calories in line was by using a protein powder - they pack a powerful protein punch for quite low calorie/carb counts - it all varies by brand and variety of course but just read the label - the one I am currently using is 129 calories 4 carbs for 25 grams of protein - the one I had before that was 160 calories and 2 carbs for 39 grams of protein. Don't forget, you don't even have to use a whole serving - there is nothing wrong with only using a half serving stirred into something else just to help up your protein.

Yep, protein powder and cottage cheese are my new friends! If I use the LBM method of protein determination, I am getting plenty. But if I use the BFL approach, I'm not getting nearly enough. I'm sure I'll figure this out one of these days.

Radar