Where might I be going wrong?

I generally advocate reducing carb intake as its generally where people make the biggest mess of their diet, however some of the 'facts' of this thread are off.

riveratom wrote: »

-The carbs get converted to glucose which is used for energy. However, any excess effectively gets stored as flab. It doesn't take much at all for that to happen,

That doesn't actually happen in any realistic situation.

riveratom wrote: »

A high protein diet fills you up with fewer calories overall, and much better blood sugar stability. All of which greatly helps with fat loss.

You spent the last couple of posts talking about how calories don't matter, and yet here you listing reduce calories as a benefit of a high protein. It's contradictory.


If you were both being so dogmatic and wound it back a bit you'd be saying the same thing;

• Eat 500 below maintenance, made up of real food, enough protein
• Eat high protein and low carbs, that way you'll be full and eat less calories

OP, keep aiming for 1300 cals a day. That way if you overshoot a bit you'll still be around 1500.
Try to you get 140g of protein a day. Use the remaining calories on real food.
Meals should be built around a protein source with vegetables. Flavour food with herbs, spices, coconut cream/milk, soy or a light sauce and not a jars of sugary premade stuff. Veg based sauces like tomato pasta sauce are fine.
Avoid carb/energy dense sides like pasta/rice/bread.
Don't be afraid to take in healthy fats.
Limit sugars and processed foods

OP based on your details in the first post I have calculated your BMR to be 1396 calories and your TDEE to be 1920 calories per day. This is based on you being 5 foot 7, 24 years old, female, 135 pounds and I have put you down as working out 3 days per week.

Rather than taking away 500 calories from your TDEE, you need to take away a percentage of your TDEE. I have chosen -15% to start off with and this puts you at 1632 calories per day. The breakdown of the macros I have chosen 1.25g protein per pound of bodyweight. For fats I have chosen 0.4g per pound of bodyweight and the carbs are made up of the remaining calories.

This works out at:

Protein: 168.8g per day
Fat: 54g per day
Carbs: 117.8g per day

Now these values can be changed depending on what foods you generally prefer to eat. For example when calculating my own intakes I prefer to have more fat so I will chose a fat value of 0.45g per pound of bodyweight and adjust my protein/carbs accordingly.

Don't discriminate against breads of pasta or potatoes but do take into account that you should be eating 25 to 30g of fiber per day so in order to reach that target you will need to be eating fruits and veg. To reach the protein target you can add in protein shakes.

As far as cardio and fat loss goes. I think it's best to lose body fat through diet alone and limit cardio. Women should lift weights the same as men so that means you should bench, squat, deadlift, shoulder press, bicep curl etc.

You need to track your macro intake and if you are not losing any fat you should reduce the calories by a little bit every 2 weeks or so. This might mean reducing the carbs by 10g until you see fat loss start. Try not to get too hung up on the scale because if you are adding muscle then this will offset any fat loss that might occur. Also don't get hung up if you eat a biscuit or bar or bags of crisps. Just take note of the nutritional values and try hit your macro targets. As long as you are eating well 90% of the time then you will do fine.

Remember that consistency is imperative if you want to see results and realise that changing your body composition can take months.