Saturday, July 13, 2013

Ratios of Carbs, Proteins and Fats

Recently, I decided to take a closer look at my diet and tracked it for couple of weeks. I found that I was eating too many carbohydrates and not enough protein. The fact is on some evenings a large piece of cheese with whole grain bread worked like a charm, but the satiated feeling did not last and  I felt hungry just before bedtime, and eating close to bedtime has never really worked for me. The rolling effect of all this was that I would eat larger portions, which did not work either, ergo a more detailed review of my habits and a plan.
So following is some of the information that I found useful to plan my weekly shopping and  a somewhat flexible meal plan.
This is the first post in a series of blogs about this plan. Let me know what you think and add any info you might wish to share.
After some research and a chat with a nutritionist I decided upon the following.
Having adopted a vegetarian diet several years back, I decided to stick with that,  with two exceptions one, to lower my dairy intake and second, for first few months to include Salmon in my meals once or twice a week. I  decided to try out the following Ratio of Carbs, Proteins and Fats

  • Carbs at 50% (or more) of calories 
  • Protein at 15-25% of calories in your diet
  • Fat intake at 20-30% of calories
  • Saturated fat at less than 7% of calories – and low or no trans fats.

I worked out the following chart for my 1500 calories plan., adding a range on either side depending on my activity level:

The Ratio
1800 Calories
1500 Calories
1200 Calories
Carbs 50%
225 grams
188 grams
150 grams
Protein 30 %
135 grams
112 grams
90 grams
Fats 20%
40 grams
34 grams
33 grams
Fiber requirements
21 to 26 grams
21 to 26 grams
21 to 26 grams