Current weight 308 pounds.
Down 37 pounds total.
My trainer placed me on an 1,800 calorie budget. Of those calories…
30% have to come from Protein
45% from carbs
25% from fat
This is how I do this:
I track the amount of grams I consume of protein, carbs and fat. Then I convert those grams into calories. Since carbs and protein contain 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. I simply take the number of grams and multiply by either 4 or 9.
Say I consume the following in one day:
90g of protein
145g of carbs
32g of fat
This would translate to:
90 * 4 = 360 calories of protein
145 * 4 = 580 calories of carbs
32 * 9 = 288 calories of fat
Total calories: 1,228
I order to figure out what percentages of protein, carbs and fat came from those calories I use the following formula:
Portion of calories divided by total of calories times 100.
Protein: 360 / 1228 * 100 = 29.32%
Carbs: 580 / 1228 * 100 = 47.23%
Fat: 288 / 1228 * 100 = 23.45%
Total percentages should add up to 100%
So in this example I consumed 1,228 calories of which 29% came from protein, 47% from carbs and 23% came from fat.
I’d consider that a decent day except for I should have consumed more calories as a whole.
It’s taken a little bit for me to adjust myself to making these calculations, but I write everything down in a food journal and I also keep track of points in Weight Watchers. It’s not enough to simply write things and then not know how to make sense of them, so I study my logs daily, compare to previous days and look for ways to make improvements.
Another thing, it kinda sucks to keep track of calories but after a while you start getting use to it. If I eat something that has a nutritional value label I simply snap a picture of the label with my camera phone and log it when I get a chance, but that way I’m not having to rip labels of packages and stuff them in my pockets like I use to have to! LOL I also bought a calorie counting book that I take everywhere with me so that I can look up nutritional information on fruits, veggies, nuts and all of those other things that dont have labels. 
This has to be a way of life for me. I have no option. Keeping track of nutritional values keep me aware of everything I put into my mouth. It makes me accountable to myself and in doing so it gives me a sense of control which I wouldn’t trade for anything. It may be a pain in the ass to count but I’d rather do that than continue to be fat.
“There is no easy way to anywhere worth getting to.”
A page from my food journal
