brian2440

I eat about 250g carbs and protein a day. At what time of the day should I quit eating carbs if any. I read somewhere that I should not eat carbs after six or seven at night. Is this true? If it is I eat four meals from the time I get up till seven. So would I divide 250 by 4 to get carbs in each meal. That is 62 g of carbs each of the four meals. Just curious what everyone does.

Emma-Leigh

There is no reason why you need to suddenly restrict your carbs after a certain hour. Your body does not 'switch off' it's need for energy by time! Sure, there is a slight decrease in insulin sensitivity as the day progresses - but the degree of this is not so significant that you eating carbs later in the day will cause a huge problem and massive fat gains. Also - carbs later in the day/at night can
1. Increase anabolism during bulking
2. decrease lean muscle loss while on a cut

and therefore they may actually be beneficial!

At the end of the day - when you eat carbs comes down to two main things:
1. When you NEED the carbs - So if you are active later in the day - eat your carbs later in the day. If you are active earlier in the day, then eat your carbs earlier in the day. If you are active throughout the day then eat your carbs spread evenly throughout your day.
2. What you are comfortable with - do what you need to do to stick to your diet - eg: Some people want to have carbs at night - because it helps keep them fuller during the evening and can decreae the risk for night-time binging... Others have to avoid evening carbs to PREVENT binging!! Just find what works for you.

Twigz

Hey E.L. what would your recomendations be for carb/pro/fat %'s.

like 60/30/10 or.....

Thanks

ILLEGITIMIS CON CARBORUNDUM!!
(don't let the bastards grind you down)

I love vegetarians, they're a great source of lean protien!

brian2440

I do my workouts of a morning so I take in most of my carbs by 4pm. I do get some carbs from whey and veggies at night but it is not enough to worry about. I was hopping that getting 250g of carbs in four meals was not going to hurt my fat loss. I do not binge at night it is just hard to eat that many carbs in four meals. I thought about going really low on my carbs just to see how my this helps the fat loss. Most of my carbs come from oats and rice and rice feels me up pretty quick.

brian2440

That depends on your calorie requirments and if you are cutting, bulking, or maintaining. Figure your daily calorie requirments for the day and take 60% of that number to get protein, 30% for carbs, and 10% for fats. Then divide those numers by 4 for protein and carbs and 9 for fats.
Ex. I take in 2500 cals a day.
1500 cals for protein/4=375g protein
750 for carbs/4=188g carbs
250 for fats/9=28g fats

I know you asked Emma-Leigh but I hope this helps.

KentDog

Brian, that number sounds a bit high for grams of protein per day. I was under the impression that you should shoot for 1.2-1.5 x (bodyweight). Someone correct me if I am wrong? And when you say fats, what kind of fats are you talking about? Just "total fats?"

Twigz

tnx

ILLEGITIMIS CON CARBORUNDUM!!
(don't let the bastards grind you down)

I love vegetarians, they're a great source of lean protien!

Emma-Leigh

I don't! Ratio's are a BAD way to calculate what you need. I base it on activity level, your lean mass, your goals and other things like that.

Twigz

ahh, ok tnx

ILLEGITIMIS CON CARBORUNDUM!!
(don't let the bastards grind you down)

I love vegetarians, they're a great source of lean protien!

Emma-Leigh

Somewhere around 1g to 1.5g per pound is usually fine - but it also depends on your lean mass and, to a certain extent, your goals...

eg: Someone who is 250 pounds but has a BF% of 35% will have a hugely different protein requirement to someone who is 250 pounds and has a BF% of 10%...

Fats are total fat intake. So - saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and the much forgotten cholesterol and phospholipids....

Emma-Leigh

Welcome - don't fall into the 'one size fits all' trap!! It doesn't work and you will only get yourself confused and heading down the wrong track...

brian2440

I take in 250g of protein a day. I was just using the example 60/30/10 for the question that I quoted.

brian2440

Do you just figure your protein to be 1 to 1.5g per pound of body weight then take in around 0.4g of fat per body weight and the rest are carbs. If I do not use ratios I do not know how to figure how many proteins, carbs, and fat I need for the day.

Emma-Leigh

It depends on the person, their lean mass, their goals and their activity level.

Someone who has a BF% of 30% and was trying to cut and pretty inactive would not require the same grams of fat and protein per pound muscle (and carbs for that matter) as someone who was 10%, trying to add muscle and preparing for a marathon...

brian2440

What if you are 20%bf and lift weights four days a week and do cardio two to three times a week. I have about 160 pounds of lbmand weigh 195. Would 250g of protein and carbs and 45g of fats be right for me.

Emma-Leigh

Ok.... Not too bad.... But my suggestions -

Your lean mass is about ~155 pounds (70-71kg). So your overall cal intake would be fine around 2400-2500 cals.

Protein is pretty good. You could go anywhere between 230g (1.5g per lean muscle mass) to 270g (1.5 x (LBM + {0.5 x fat mass})) . So, for 6 or 7 meals, this would be ~35-40g per meal. Technically speaking, you could go as low as ~200g, but I prefere slightly higher protein intakes.

Fats I would have a higher - ~60g (0.3g per total body mass). Your ABSOLUTE HARD CORE CUTTING a few weeks before a comp type intake may be as low as 45-50g (0.3g x LEAN muscle mass), but this is too low for any other time and is very unhealthy to maintain. You will suffer negative concequences (eg: decreased hormone levels, decreased joint health, decreased immunity, decreased skin and hair health etc) if you keep your level that low. If you wanted to go higher (and drop your carbs instead) then you could go 70-80g.

Carbs would be ~ 230g per day (some where between ~1.5 x lean mass and 1g x total body mass). Or if you decided to go lower carbs and high fat, then something around 200g would be ok.

So that gives you: ~2460 cals...
230-270g protein (I would use ~250g)
200-230g carbs (I would use ~230g)
60-80g fat (I would go with 60-65g fat)

So you are pretty spot on!

brian2440

Thanks Emma-Leigh. As always your help is appreciated.