A macronutrient is fat or carbohydrate or protein. Macronutrient ratios are the proportion of % of each in the diet. There are several options here and each person has their own favourite. I would urge you to look at the evidence for each kind of % makeup, test the different ones on your own biomarkers (blood tests) such as glycaemic control and lipids (more later on this) and then decide which one suits you best. The two main options are high fat and low fat. High fat is also called LCHF or low carb high fat.
Here are two threads discussing the benefits of each
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=178
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=179
I wish to stress that I personally am not in any way advocating a high saturated fat diet (animal fat eg fatty meat, butter, lard) . I personally believe, based on my assessment of the evidence, that high saturated fat
may be detrimental to e4s. (My reason is that e4s start with a higher baseline LDL, and high dietary saturated fat drives LDL synthesis at hepatocyte level, amongst other reasons. I believe, based on my interpretation of the evidence, that high numbers of LDL particles in the blood matters very much for many reasons). When I speak about high fat I am speaking about fat percentages of diet around 50%, and the fat primarily coming from fatty fish, nuts, avocados and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). I personally am not sure about coconut oil yet, it may be neutral.
Addendun 2016: and a year later this is still unclear. Some experts advise e4s to avoid saturated fats, others say the opposite. I am sorry but IMO definitive evidence is just not here yet.
And...2017...still no clarity. I am as of August 2017 about to embark on a trial of 4 different diets - my usual, one very high fat, one very low fat, Gundry lectin avoidance - and let's see what happens to my biomarkers and well-being viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3299
We have already discussed proteins and carbohydrates, and I will get to fats shortly, in the next post. I will explain exactly what is the difference between saturated fats and cholesterol for instance.
How does one start designing a macronutrient framework?
I suggest you start with your protein. We need protein for essential body functions. We cannot synthesise it, we have to eat it. We cannot store protein at all. If we do not eat enough protein each day we will cannibalise our muscles to provide the amino acids we need each day just to keep our bodies functioning. This is obviously not good! And low muscle mass is a risk factor for AD. We discuss it in this thread, where Julie and Martha report on a conference in NYC recently
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1244&p=13719&hilit= ... nia#p13719
The word we use is sarcopaenia or sarcopenia in the US. Sarco means muscle. Paenia/penia means a scarcity of, or not enough.
In addition, we should avoid eating far too much protein - because remember I said we cannot store excess dietary protein? The excess gets turned into glucose by a process called gluconeogenesis (making=genesis new=neo ). If we do not burn that excess glucose soon, it will get stored as fat. Which is not a good thing.
In addition, too much protein activates mTOR in the body, which is good for short periods of muscle bulking, but bad in excess and if sustained as it promotes aging of the cells and many chronic diseases including cancer: https://selfhacked.com/blog/mtor-natura ... nhibitors/
Please don't worry that you are on a knife edge here, there is leeway. A bit of extra glucose from excess protein won't harm. But a huge excess is unlikely to be healthy. I suggest you start with the mainstream 0.8gm -1gm/kg body weight. I know this is a very rough guide, it's just a start. I consider 2 grams protein daily/kg body weight to be excessive in a person not doing heavy body building, as I consider that the excess from gluconeogenesis will start to impact
and sustained mTOR ativation is a risk.
Now you need to know for instance that a gram of salmon is not a gram of protein. 100grams of salmon has around 25 grams of protein. You will need to use a calculator such as Cron-o-Meter to work it out. Here is a link with some examples.
http://www.healthaliciousness.com/artic ... rotein.php
Everyone is a different body weight and requires different calories to maintain a healthy body weight : for instance look and me and Julie - I can only eat 1200 calories a day to keep trim. I weigh 62 kg (
2017: 66kg), so at 1gm/kg my protein requirements are 62 grams,
(2017: now I try and keep it at 40-50grams a day). I am naturally muscular and short. There are 4 calories per gram of protein, so this is 248 calories from protein. 248/1200 = 20% of my daily calories come from protein in my diet.
Julie needs 1700 calories not to get too thin. I think she weighs around 55kgs (she is gorgeously tall and lean like a gazelle). Her protein requirements are around 55 grams. This is 220 calories. It is only 12%. She actually eats more protein than this as she is aiming at building more muscle, but you get the idea - that it is inaccurate to use a one size fits all percentage.
If this is too complicated to track, I suggest you start with 20% protein .
Then I suggest you next look at your carbohydrates. In the interest of maintaining great glycaemic control, I recommend being prudent with how much carbohydrates we eat. Some people are extremely active and burn off their carbs really fast, and they will be able to tolerate a much higher carbohydrate load daily. For instance there are a few remaining hunter gatherer populations who eat up to 70% carbohydrates. However one needs to be careful in extrapolating this situation to our current modern day life where we are not as lean, not as active, and eat a much narrower variety of plants. In addition there are very low fat, high carbohydrate vegan diets that appear to be beneficial for longevity and chronic disease. I do not have any experience about these, if anyone on the forum knows about them, PLEASE start a thread and discuss how they work.
You will need to work out for yourself where your optimal carbohydrate intake lies. I suggest a good way to track is to count the grams per day, again via Cron-O meter. I suggest you ease them down slowly and see how your body and biomarkers (markers of IR and also lipids) respond. I try to keep my carbs under 100 grams a day, and am currently trialling a lower amount, down to 70 grams
In 2017 I am now under 50 grams and doing well. At 100 grams carbs a day, this is 400 calories, or 30% of my total calories. So If 20% of my diet is protein, 30% carbs - then the remaining 50% of my calories must be from fat. Which brings us to our next digression.
Glossary for Primer