Please can anyone tell me what the target ration is of Carbohydrate/Fat/Protein? There seems to be such a range of advice from different sources and I would like to check that I am getting it or less correct.
I am on week 4 and lost very little for the last three weeks – I fear that although I am under 800 calories average over each week I may have the proportions wrong. (My Fitness Pal offers an upgrade that lets you specify your targets in terms of % or grams and I want to use that to keep check.) Many thanks to anyone out there who has an opinion!

Like you I’m in week 4 – 2 more days to go. And like you, weight loss has been a tad slow after the initial week. However, I started keeping an eye on carbs at the beginning of this week and so far, have dropped 2lb, which is an improvement on weeks 2 and 3. The general consensus seems to be to try and keep carbs below 50g per day. I have actually been hitting considerably lower than that, but as much because the foods I have been choosing have accidentally been low carb, rather than actively seeking out those with particularly low-carb content. I haven’t worried too much about the ratio carbs to fats to protein. Have just been ensuring I have full fat everything to help me feel full for longer and kick into fat burn mode and to eat plenty of high protein foods.

There does seem to be an anomaly reported on various threads, which seems to suggest that for many, between weeks 2 and 4 are a bit of a plateau, when weight loss is low to zero and that if you just keep to your 800cals a day, the weight will eventually start to drop again.

It certainly sounds like you are sticking to the 800 cals, so you could just continue as you are and the weight should begin to drop again soon. On the other hand, it can’t hurt just to check that there is nothing you are eating, that has a surprisingly high carb count.

Not sure any of this helps much, but this is how I have tackled a similar situation.

There is a general rule about protein grams equalling the target weight… so if for example your target weight is 80kg then your target protein is 80grams… I don’t really know about any others… Luckily for me my Endocrinologist has provided me with a breakdown of what she recommends for me… and they are… (90g of carbs, 40-80g Protein and less than 10g of fat)… I cannot stay with the <10g fat, as I a just hungry and not satisfied at all… most days I have about 20-10g of fat. I cannot tell you if I have been loosing weight as it is only day 5 for me… and I have not weighed yet… but I feel good.

Less than 10g of fat. That sounds like more of a low fat diet? The bsd is not a low fat diet, quite the opposite in fact. I know these numbers are what was recommended for you personally Fatty but I wouldn’t want M to think its what is expected of this diet. As you point out, including more fat is a great way of feeling full and mobilising the body into fat burning mode.

Janet1973 is absolutely right, the BSD not meant to be a low fat diet. It is the fat that keeps you feel sated and pushes the body to burn fat. Obviously you will want to follow the diet prescribed to you Fatty and if it is working for you, all to the good. It is important though, that other following the BSD understand that they should be eating full fat on this diet.

Thank you for your help and comments.
Having read the book cover to cover a couple of times, I understand the need for good quality fat in the diet (nuts, avocado, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil etc.) It is the amount relative to carbs and protein I want to know, while staying under 800 calories. Does the following sound (about) right to people?
45g carbohydrate (approx. 180 calories) (note this level seems to work for me and definitely in ketosis, even though not losing weight!)
50g protein (approx. 200 calories)
45g fat (approx. 405)
anyone any ideas?

Hi M,
I’d say yes, this sounds about right. Although it could be quite hard to match the calories with the carbs sometimes. For example, meat contains no carbs at all but it does have calories. You might find a website called Diet Doctor quite useful. It advocates less than 50g of carbs for ketosis and under 20g for maximum fat burning. Although I started off on the 800 regime, I have switched to only counting carbs and not calories and I aim for 50g of carbs a day. I am losing weight and I know I am still low calorie as I only have two meals a day and they are much smaller than I ever used to have due to my appetite being greatly reduced. Good luck with finding the answers you need.

Hi. The book suggests looking up the Low GI guidelines which i understand are 25% protein 25% fat and 50% non starchy carbs. I use My net diary and roughly work to those percentages. I’m finding it way more important to track my fibre ensuring a minimum of 23g and make sure im eating enough good fat. Im religiously only consuming full fat dairy, olive oil etc. I’m near end of week 4 and Have already lost 7kgs and 3cm off my waist. Great sources of fibre – Kumara (orange sweet potato) and prunes.

Hi all
Isn’t ketosis the part of The Atkins Diet that makes you smell awful??? I can’t be hungry, fat and smelly!!
I’m aiming for 50g CARBS- on MFP I just keep track on the list. Hope I’m doing it right-lots to loose

Hi TumTum 🙂

I am aiming for 50 but I try to do 25. I am currently reading a blog where a doctor shows he ate a steak and veg cooked in butter and a fancy sauce – and it was 17G of carbs!

That’s not much – by contrast coke Zero is 3.5 grams of Carbs per bottle!

Hello all
Second day has been great except I have just checked my carb count and think the Creamy Cauliflower & bean soup on this site comes in at 29 carbs a potion !!! Seems very high to me but it is lovely and would like to have it again does anybody have any ideas how to lower it? Or am I doing it wrong ? I do think it would be better for the carb count to be shown on all recipes as well as the calories as I want to stick to 50 but at the end of my second day I am a little upset that I have consumed 63 carbs, any advice please
Day 3 here I come
thanks

Don’t panic about 63g carbs on Day Two, there is plenty of time to adjust your intake and remember, we are in this for the longhaul and there are inevitably going to be days when we do better than others. Now that you know that recipe comes up higher on carbs than you might expect, you can plan around it if you want to use it again. I don’t know the recipe myself, so can’t advise how adjustments might be made, but I’d guess that the beans are probably the reason the carbs are high, so maybe tweak the proportions if you make it again.

Good luck for Day 3, hope it goes well.

Thank you yes it is the beans 400 grams !!!! Will split the last two potions into 3 then it will be better thanks again xx

Beans can be higher carbs but some of those carbs are from fibre, so they won’t push your insulin. I think the US counts all carbs but the UK counts net carbs, ie starch/sugar minus fibre. Here in Canada they list all the carbs so we need to subtract the fibre to get net carbs. In beans, about 25% of the carbs are fibre.
With cauliflower most of the carbs is in the form of fibre.
If the recipe comes up with lots of carbs don’t forget to subtract the fibre.
When I imported this recipe into myfitnesspal it gave me 117 calories and 7 grams of net carbs per serving.

Hi Jande9,

Thank you I took the carb count from an online counter, I am using MyFitnessPal but not premium user so not showing carb count. I actually live in rural Spain and checking the label it says 10g per 100 but on chic peas it also says fibre so not really sure what rules apply here.

It confusing but must be working I just checked the scales and am delighted to say I have lost 4lbs in 2 days, that’s so good for me as I have had my thyroid removed and struggle to lose, feel very motivated now.

Thanks again and hope everybody is doing well and getting healthy xx

Sounds about right M. I tend to have a rough setting in MFP of carbs – 40g, fat – 40g and protein – 70g but if I go over 800cals as long as its fat and protein I still find I lose.

You can set these limits in MFP without paying for premium and I just discovered that if you turn the phone sideways when in the diary it shows you a breakdown of the C/F/P in each food, meal and for the day.

That sounds very helpful, I will look at MyFitnessPal more closely, I am not great with this tech stuff.

I also found on MyFitnessPal that it adds calories to my daily total for exercise which I don’t want at the moment but can’t see to disable ! If anybody knows how please let me know.

Thanks againxx

Hi Daisymay,
I am using the free version of myfitnesspal too. You import the recipe through the url and then edit the ingredients until everything is right. Save the recipe making sure the number of servings is right, and then when you click on it it will show the complete nutrition breakdown.
Jan

Macronutrient Ratios of Popular Diets

Taken from Diet Database
Home of The Easy Diet

For most people a 40:40:20 or 40:30:30 ratio of Carbohydrate to Protein to Fat is perfect. Every diet has its own crazy distribution of macronutrients, especially diets that prohibit or limit intake of one macronutrient (such as the Atkins diet).

Hi, Daisymay, I have just found out how to do this (stop MFP adding exercise calories to my daily allowance). Here’s how: Select the ‘More’ tab (bottom right of any of the main screens), then choose ‘Goals’ from the list on the left. Scroll to the bottom, and under ‘ Fitness goals’, you’ll find ‘Exercise calories’. Set the button over on the right to ‘Off’. Hope that helps. 😉

Please can someone tell me exactly what percentage of carbs protein and fat we should have on the 800 BSD so that I can programme this in my fitness pal app. Many thks x

Hi, Its more appropriate to put in grams rather than percentages. –

The first target to consider is carbs. Some people are happy sticking to 50g of carbs a day, some find to get into ketosis (which is fat burning mode) they have to stick to under 20g of carbs.

Then protein. the normal range is between 0.6 and 0.8 grams of protein per kilo of target weight.

The rest of your calories comes from healthy fat, so no need to set a target number of grams of fat.