Something that just Clicked

Well I am not sure if this is something that everyone knows but somehow it just sort of clicked with me. It's about diets. I have been going over and over everything in my mind about how calories work, protein works, carbs work and so forth and this morning on my way to work it clicked. I think I have been sleeping on it too long and it just popped into my head. OK I decided that if I wanted to be 150 lbs or so I needed to go on a good diet and I say diet because I am cutting back on the food and limiting myself on what I can eat. I know that many people call it a lifestyle change and it is because it is something that I will have to be with the rest of my life but in my mind it is still a diet and how i need to eat. Well this is my clicked moment. If i want to be 150 lbs I need to eat like 150 lbs. Most recommend that you eat like a 265 lbs cut back on calories by 500 and you lose a lbs a week. But I thought if i want to be 150lbs I eat like that. So most good diets statistics say 150 lb woman should eat between 1000 to 1200 calories. OK easy enough i say well not that easy when you are used to eating like a hayhauler on his last meal before hauling hay. OK so knowing that I need 1200 carbs how do i go about figuring out the protein, carbs and fats. well as you know i am an accountant by degree and numbers really do come easy for me so I sat down and researched. Being single allows me to do that because in the evening I have plenty of time not that i am complaining just i have plenty of time. So in my research, which i have to say is boring as all get out so many have different ideas about how much of this and how much of that and how you count it but I narrowed it down for myself. because of my diabetes, which by the way never goes away just into remission if you eat right, I need a low carb diet. But I want to keep my muscles, my hair, my memory, and my engine going so I need to fill in those other calories with Protein and Fats. And not wanting to get fat and have heart problems I need to mainly fill it with protein and not so much fat. So this is my formula that I have figured out.

To figure my Protein grams per day I should have half of my calories in Protein.

My Calories (1200) divided in half (600) equals my Protein calories which means this is how much of my Calories should be in Protein per day. And by all accounts 4 calories equal 1 gram of Protein. So I should have 150 grams of Protein a day.

To figure my Carb grams per day my carb calories should be no more than 25% of my diet. I don't need the added sugar in my life. I am now pill free and insulin free so I don't want to go back.

My calories (1200) times 25% equals 300 carb calories a day. And by those doctors and researchers in the world 4 calories equal 1 carb gram so on a 1200 calorie diet 75 grams is all I need a day. And if you cut it even closer you won't lose weight.

Now to figure my fat grams per diet and that was an easy one... if I have 50 % protein, 25% carbs the other should be 25 % FAT, that means the Mono and the polyunsaturated stuff not so much the saturated and the trans. 9 calories = 1 gram of fat. so i need 33 grams of fat a day.. not over.

OK to review this is what I figured out for a 1200 calorie diet... I need 150 grams of Protein, 75 grams of Carbs and 33 grams of Fat.

well that is what i will be doing when I actually get up to 1200 calories a day right now I am stuck around 900 to a 1000...and I figure all this by writing every thing that goes through my lips down on a piece of paper or you could do like I do and go to www.fitday.com and use their Food Diary and you don't even have to remember any formulas...

OK that is my hmmm moment for the day...

Of course I still have to figure out the exercises component and how it affects the above items and how to adjust but that is for later research.