Macros help!: Carbs and Protein

I currently seem to get around 100-120g carbs a day literally all from fruit and veg and occasionally oatmeal. is this low or high carb? whats the average amount most people on a lowish calorie diet (e.g. 1200-1400 calorie range).

i also am wondering what most people would consider high protein in grams. is it +100g, +150g. More?

Im interested in grams not average percentages if thats possible? tried searching the forums but didn't find the answers to help me as i eat relatively low cals as im only 5'2 female!

thanks in advance.

1g of carbohydrate = roughly 4 calories.  So if you're on a 1200-1400 cal diet and you're getting the recommended 50 - 60% of them from carbohydrates (600 - 840) that would convert back to 150 - 210g carbohydrates.

Similarly 1g protein also = roughly 4 calories.  If you're on a 1200 - 1400 cal diet and you're getting the recommended 15 - 25% of them from protein (180 - 350) that would convert back to 45 - 88g

So at the moment you could afford to eat more carbohydrates, preferably the complex/wholegrain sort, and it would probably make your total day's food a little more satisfying.  If you're trying to tone up it also makes sense not to cut your calories too drastically... a deficit of 500 is going to be enough.

but would 100g carbs be considered low carb. and what would be high protein on a 1200 diet?

I believe that the issues are beyond our current knowledge and probably we will discover that high, medium and low will vary from person to person.  However, my past research provides a couple of rules of thumb.  You should be getting about 10 calories per pound of body weight with about 50% of that coming from carbohydrates.  Muscle maintenance requires about 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.  So you could say that anything above 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight would be a high protein diet.

As I said, these are rules of thumb based on somebody's experience/observations.  I certainly don't live by them although I spent quite a bit of time thinking about them when I was first starting out.

Why do you feel you need a high protein diet? What would you use as a source of protein?

At one time, I was grabbing 2 egg mcmuffins on my way to work.  Now I consider that a bad idea.  Currently my fat calories end up being about equal to my protein calories on a day to day basis.  But I eat a lot of nuts, which are high in unsaturated fats, and fish, which is also pretty high in fat.  So I end up eating more grams of protein but getting more energy from fat.

The diet works pretty well for me.  I have problems when I binge on cookies, cake, pizza and things like that. My body can't process those foods very well.

Original Post by harriet1988:

but would 100g carbs be considered low carb. and what would be high protein on a 1200 diet?

 If you took the Atkins Diet as an example of low-carb, their 'induction week' incuded only 20g carbohydrates per day.... rising to about 70g ultimately.  And 'high protein' would probably be anything over 30%.... it has to be a percentage rather than absolute grammes to reflect that some people need less than others.  You're much better off - for general health as well as weight-control reasons - aiming for a balanced diet than an imbalanced diet.  You're not going to gain any muscle on a 1200 cal diet.

I don't know - I am still trying to keep most of my carbohydrates from coming from whiskey.  So you are WAY ahead of some of us!

Try brandy.