How do i measure the 30/30/40?

Example:
Light Wraps
Serving size: 1 Flatbread
Calories: 90
Total Fat: 2.5
Total Carb: 16 (9 Fiber)
Protein: 9
Do i count this flatbread to the Fat, Protein or Carb category? Or do i take my daily calorie intake and add it too all three categories?

For inital weightloss for an obese person (310lb) should i go with 30/30/40 or maybe switch to 20/30/50 (Carb, Fat, Protein)?

Thank you!

The ratios you use are totally up to you, and success can vary by the person. As for the 30/30/40, it is of total calories, so if you eat 2500 calories, 750 calores should be carbs, 750 calories fats, and 1000 should be protein, or broken down by grams would be 83 grams of fat, 187 grams of carbs, and 250 grams of protein

I understand the ratio, my question is how do i know if i count a specific food item in the fat or carb or protein category.

Or do i have to count it in all three categories.

I thought certain items are in the
Protein category; Poultry, Meat, Eggs, ...
Fat category; Milk, Cheese, .....
Carb category; Fruit, Bread, Pasta, Rice (all the good stuff) ....

If this is right, is there a list, if i'm way off, i guess i need to get a book on 30/30/40 dieting to get a better understanding.

THe ratios are for total calories only. I don't, and I don't know how many people, actually place each individual food into a category, but if it we some kind of bread, and I needed to place it into a category, I think I would place it as a carb, since it is predominately carbs.

I understand the ratio, my question is how do i know if i count a specific food item in the fat or carb or protein category.

Or do i have to count it in all three categories.

I thought certain items are in the
Protein category; Poultry, Meat, Eggs, ...
Fat category; Milk, Cheese, .....
Carb category; Fruit, Bread, Pasta, Rice (all the good stuff) ....

If this is right, is there a list, if i'm way off, i guess i need to get a book on 30/30/40 dieting to get a better understanding.


When I make my meal plans, I just use total grams of everything. And then I base food choices on how many grams of carbs, fat or protein I need. I find it's much easier (for me at least) to look at food as grams rather then calories.

(edit) since I realized that I'm the only person who can probably understand what I was trying to say, I'll give an example.

When I make a meal plan, I take the total amount of calories I'm going to need (for this I'll use 2600) and the ratio (pro: 45 carb: 25 fat: 30)

So, I need
292 Grams of Protein
162 grams of Carbs
86 Grams of Fat

And per meal (assuming I'm going to be eating 5 meals per day) it works out to

per meal
58 grams of Protein
32 grams of carbs
17 grams of fat

So to include your light wrap into one of my hypothetical meals, you would still need to account for 16 grams of carbs, 49 grams of protein, and 15 grams of fat.

I hope that makes it clearer.

Forgive me if parts of my answer seem obvious; I'm not sure if I know exactly what you're question is so I'm starting from scratch.

Anyways...

You count every food a little bit towards all three.

So 30/30/40 of carbs/fat/protein means that 30% of total cals from carbs, 30% from fat, and 40% from protein.

So if you have, say, some Salmon, it might work out to something like, 100 cals with 2 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fat, and 19 grams of protein. (At least that's what one piece of the cheap boxes stuff I buy is on the label).

So you file each of those things towards your total calorie count.

Rememeber, 4 cals per gram of carbs, 4 cals per gram of protein, and 9 cals per gram of fat.

So, of 100 cals, we have 2 grams of carbs times 4 calories per gram which equals 8 cals of carbs. Right now, 8% of your total caloric intake is from carbs.

We have 2 grams of fat times 9 calories per gram which equals 18 cals of fat. 18% of your total caloric intake is from fat right now.

We have 19 grams of protein which times 4 calories per gram equals 76 cals of protein. So 76 divided by 100 obviously equals 76% of you cals coming from protein.

So after 100 calories of salmon, your ration is at 8/18/76 of c/f/p. Obviously, you now need more fats and more carbs to even things up.


Now, when people talk about things like a p/f or p/c meal, they are referring to the specific ratio of those single meals. A protein and fat might have a large percentage of protein, a large percentage of fat, but very little carbs, (say, a ratio of 2/38/60 or something) even though, when combined with OTHER meals spread throughout the day, your total ratio will come to around 30/30/40.

You know what foods to count in what category based on the specific ratio of that specific food. If a piece of chicken has a ratio of something like 5/5/90, then you'd count it as a protein. If you want to combine it with something else to create a protein/carb meal, you'd find something that has a ratio of something where the majority of the calories come from carbs, so something like 70/5/25 or something.

Hope this helps.

Yes, that helps.

Thanks Caruthias, canoscan and Buddha.