Eating habits

[zebano]

To all you "diet/lifestyle" experts:

I'm in the process of losing weight. I exercise 5-6 days a week, mostly swimming and biking lately because I hurt my knees running (I can't effectively do squats/lunges so lifting is on hold). My eating habits have changed to
6AM Breakfast - oatmeal + banana
8AM Snack 1 - Orange
10 AM Snack 2 - Apple
12PM Lunch - varies, the last three days it's 2 meatballs made with tomatoes, beef and brown rice
2PM - Carrots or celery w/ a tablesoon of natural peanut butter
4PM - Apple or orange
6PM Dinner - Small portion of whatever my wife cooks, usually meat + a veggie (Turkey and corn yesterday).

I am tracking this on fit-day and losing weight, so I have a caloric deficit. What I am wondering is this: Is there a certain balance of Carbs/Protein/Fat I should be shooting for? For instance this is what fitday reports after breakfast this morning (no bananas so I went with 2 scrambled eggs + a tablespoon of salsa with the oatmeal).

(this probably won't format well)
grams cals %total
Total: 396
Fat: 18 165 43%
Sat: 7 59 15%
Poly: 3 30 8%
Mono: 6 57 15%
Carbs: 38 134 35%
Fiber: 5 0 0%
Protein: 22 88 23%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Summary
Protein 23%
Carbs 35%
Fat 43%

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

you could try 40% carb 30%fat 30%protein.

 

[zebano]

Why those percentages.... that's what I'm really after.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

It's a proven diet. Look up 40 30 30 diet online. And personally I think it's a little easier than some other diets that require higher percentages of protein.

For example: Someone needs ~2600 calories a day
30% of protein is 780 calories or 195 grams of protein a day. Even with supplementation that's already a lot of protein. I mean if you're taking an mre they usually have around 40 grams of protein or so per serving. So that's at least 4 shakes right there or 6 cans of tuna. But if you went with something like a 40 40 20, you're going to need ~260 grams of protein.

There's a I diet I've used in the past that I like. It's called massive eating. I forgot what ratios are recommended in that diet but you can follow the diet to gain/lose weight.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=massive+eating

 

[KoolDrew]

Make sure to get at least 1-1.25g of protein per pound of LBM and fill the rest with what you're comfortable with. Some people feel fine on low carbohydrate diets, some don't. Basing your diet around percentages is a terrible idea for so many reasons.

 

[spamsk8r]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Make sure to get at least 1-1.25g of protein per pound of LBM and fill the rest with what you're comfortable with. Some people feel fine on low carbohydrate diets, some don't. Basing your diet around percentages is a terrible idea for so many reasons.

Not really. At least, I believe that the ratio of carbohydrates to protein is important, as with too much protein you get an impaired insulin response (which can lead to muscle wasting), and with too much carbs you get an exaggerated insulin spike (which can lead to fat storage). Since fats haven't been shown to have much impact either way with regards to hormones, that's the variable figure. A 4:3 ratio of Carbs/Protein seems to be the sweet spot for maintaining hormonal balance. You can then tweak the fats to your liking. That's how I've been doing it for a while, and I'm down 20+ pounds with zero loss in lean body mass, and with more energy than ever.

 

[Trey22]

Originally posted by: spamsk8r

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
Make sure to get at least 1-1.25g of protein per pound of LBM and fill the rest with what you're comfortable with. Some people feel fine on low carbohydrate diets, some don't. Basing your diet around percentages is a terrible idea for so many reasons.

Not really. At least, I believe that the ratio of carbohydrates to protein is important, as with too much protein you get an impaired insulin response (which can lead to muscle wasting), and with too much carbs you get an exaggerated insulin spike (which can lead to fat storage). Since fats haven't been shown to have much impact either way with regards to hormones, that's the variable figure. A 4:3 ratio of Carbs/Protein seems to be the sweet spot for maintaining hormonal balance. You can then tweak the fats to your liking. That's how I've been doing it for a while, and I'm down 20+ pounds with zero loss in lean body mass, and with more energy than ever.

Can you post a sample of your daily diet?