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Most weight loss diets will usually give some sort of recommendation of the preferred or optimal protein carb and fat ratio based on the effect is supposedly has on your hormone balance and the way your body digests the food, how it will make you feel yadda yadda.
But what gets left out of the recommendation is the principle of less total calories is what is causing weight loss.
We can debate the merits of a 30/40/30 calorie ratio on appetite and the way it makes you feel all day long, but it’s a rather pointless argument.
If you’ve ever tried to actually eat at a specific ratio you’ll find out that it’s almost impossible. You’d have to measure the protein fat and carb content of each meal and of each individual food. For example you may assume that pasta is a ‘carb’ in this case, but pasta also has a fair bit of protein (and different pasta’s have different protein contents).
Same goes for things like bread, and most dairy products (they all have a mix of protein and carbs, and some of them have all three nutrients)
Balancing the nutrient ratio of a meal makes sense in theory but it’s highly impractical in practice, and as a final note it was never meant to be done on a meal by meal basis but rather on a more long term (weekly basis)
If you happen to eat a bit more carbs and bit less protein today it’s not a big deal, you’ll most likely have another day when you’ll eat more protein later in the week.
The point is that most of these dietary recommendations are meant to be done on a much longer scale than a day or a single meal. Worrying about the macronutrient content of each meal will cause you far more stress than any potential health benefit.
John
