what percentage of carbs/protein/fat is right?

Hi!

I am having a bit of trouble working out what percentage of carbs, fat and protein I should be eating each day. I tend to over eat on carbs and not eat much protein. Can someone give me an estimate of percentage or grams of each to aim for? I am on a 1200 calorie diet.

Thanks so much!

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Generally, people say 20-30% protein, 20-30 % fat, and the rest carbs. 

Try to make sure a lot of your fats are healthy ones from fish, and plants (avacados, nuts, etc).  

Thanks Karozel! I can definately aim for that! Just to get the protein up, and fat down.. good luck to me :)

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Hi.  Yes, the previous poster is pretty correct.

Keep the protein up aboiut 30-35%, the carbs about 45-50% and the fat calories down to 20% or slightly less.  Make sure you minimize the fat calories  from saturated or trans fat.  The carbs should come more from foods such as brown rice and sweet potatoes, whole grain breads, etc. ... not from sugars so much.  Protein from chicken, fish, some lean red meat, dairy, etc.

Try calculating your BMR (Basal Metobolic Rate) which tells you how many calories to take in based on age, weight, height, gender and then adjust it depending on your level of activity... add calories if you are active since most BMR calculators do not seem to account for activity levels.  This overall number will indicate how many calories needed to maintain weight.  To loose weight, subtract about 500-600 calories per day from this, while keeping your activity level the same or slightly higher.

Are you on some type of excercise program?  What are your goals?

I hope this helps and feel free to post a response!  Thanks!

Original Post by goodform:

and the fat calories down to 20% or slightly less. 

Actually, when dieting (and in general) it's better to keep your fat levels from going too low (below 20%). There are even some studies that show that people will lose more when eating higher fat diets... floggingsully has them in his journal.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

Original Post by goodform:

and the fat calories down to 20% or slightly less. 

Actually, when dieting (and in general) it's better to keep your fat levels from going too low (below 20%). There are even some studies that show that people will lose more when eating higher fat diets... floggingsully has them in his journal.

 ... agreed... which is why I suggested the 20% mark (+/-).

Also, it depends on objectives and overall fitness program (nutrition (I dislike the use of the word "diet"), activity levels, rest/recuperation, lifestyle).

I think it is important to consider body fat percentage.

One can loose weight and be 'fatter' if the weight lost is lean muscle mass and not body fat.  This is an important point to me and I hope I am not stepping on any toes by making it:  I'd rather be a 180 pound person with 20% (or less) BF instead of a 170 pound person w/30% (or more) BF.  Just my opinion.  But it all depends on the individual and what they are trying to achieve.  Cheers!

Sorry, what did body fat % have to do with this? And dieting in my book is short-hand for "purposefully eating less than you burn (which can be done by increasing your burn or lowering intake, or some combination) in order to lose body fat." But that takes a lot longer to write.

Here's sully's journal post, so you can see what levels I'm talking about:

I read a book not to long ago co-authored by Jeff Volek, who's a professor in the human performance lab at UConn which argued for the health benefits of higher fat diets.  A quick search for Dr. Volek's work on pubmed turned up a bunch of studies backing this up including this one which found greater improvements to cardiovascular health for a group that ate a diet with Carb/fat/protein ratio of ~12/59/28 than a group who ate a diet of 56/24/20 (closer to the AHA's recommendations).  There was also this one which found that a diet consisting of 65% fat lead to a decrease in LDL (bad cholesterol) of 9% (and a decrease in triglycerides of 38%) while HDL (good cholesterol) rose 12%.  And last but not lease, this one, which found people on a high fat diet (63%) lost more weight, and more fat than those on a lower fat diet (22%) even when the high-fat diet group ate significantly (~300) more calories than the low fat group.

You said limit fat to 20% or slightly less - my point was that it isn't necessary to limit fat to that much.

Thanks guys!
I will try to work out my BMR tomorrow to get a better idea of this. I do exercise regularly, but I am thinking not enough.

Normally I do 3 20-30 minute workouts per week with skipping and light weights. Some aerobics classes  on the off days and some bike riding, but not vigorous.

I really need to come up with a better eating regime I think. Way too much carbs, and a lot of it would be sugar!

thanks again for your help and support!

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