QuestionHello! I am carefully keeping track of my daily nutritional intake on a nutrition calculator, and I would like to know how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat I should be consuming daily. How do I figure that out? I am a 34 year old female, medium build, and weigh 135 pounds. I am moderately active but I do not exercise regularly (something I always plan to change!). The latest dietary recommendations, from the year 2000, are 15% protein, 55% carbs, and 30% fat. I believe that those recommendations are changing, but I cannot find any information on what the new recommendations will be. And to complicate matters for me, those numbers are in percentages and I would like to know how to convert that into grams. What is X, if I need to consume X grams of protein, X grams of fat, and X grams of protein to maintain my wieght? And, say I want to lose 10 pounds at a rate of 1 pound a week. What should my daily caloric intake be, including the number of grams of protein, carbs, and fat? Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I am looking forward to your response.
AnswerThe newest recommendations are 45 to 65% carb, 20 to 35% fat and 10 to 35% protein. The ranges allow for more flexibility in dietary planning.
http://www.iom.edu/report.asp?id=4340
To figure out what that means in grams you need to first know your calorie intake. Than you need to know that there is 4 cal/gram of carb, 4 cal/gram of protein, and 9 cal/gram of fat. For instance if you were using a 2,000 calorie diet and figuring 50% carbs you would do the following:
2000 x .50 = 1000 cal from carbs
1000 cal (divided by) 4 = 250 grams of carbs
If you were using 25% fat on a 2000 calorie diet you would do the following:
2000 x .25 = 500 calories from fat
500 cal (divided by) 9 = 55.5 grams of fat
If you were using 20% protein on a 2000 calorie diet you would do the following:
2000 x .20 = 400 calories from protein
400 cal (divided by) 4 = 100 grams of protein
I would need further information to actually figure out numbers for you and this is a service I would charge for. But I can give you a site that can help you out with your BASIC calorie needs and you can figure the rest out on your own with the info I gave you above.
YOu can try this site for calorie needs:
http://www.active.com/calculators/index.cfm
Hope that helps you out.
Kim Tessmer, RD LD
www.Nutrifocus.net
