Hi,

Need a little bit of guidance here as the macros are confusing me a little.

What percentage of daily intake should be protein if trying to stick to 1500 calories - and how much protein is too much?

Apologies if this question has been asked before....

A. Don't worry about the calories. Don't count them and try not to think about them at all.
B. No set amount of protein, especially when just getting started. Eat real food, any meats/fish/poultry you are hungry for along with some low-carb veg, and then eat again when you get hungry again.

It is an adjustment for most of us to learn to pay attention to hunger as our signal to eat, rather than the clock or social norms. But it is so healthy to do so! Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're no longer hungry. As long as the food is real and LC, your hunger is your best guide to timing/quantities to eat.

To dovetail on the other answer. Especially in the beginning don't worry about the calories. Eat until satiated . Only eat when hungry. Personally I recorded calories so I knew how much I was taking in. Also I was able to notice trends. But the reality is that if you stay below 20 grams carbs and only eat when hungry you will be in a calorie deficit and loose weight

Also don't forget, you are looking for fatty protein.
Chicken with the skin on, usually dark meat is fattier.
Steaks like ribeye.
Ground beef, the fattier one.
Sausage with no added carbs, 100% meat.
Bacon plain, no maple/sugar
Butter, coconut oil, olive oil, bacon drippings to cook with and put on your veggies.

Thank you all for your very informative responses - I am trying to track my calories purely as I currently don't trust myself and I have allowed myself to get so out of touch with what I am consuming that I need to get some sort of idea of how much.....tracking carbs however is of course my priority and keeping below 20g. I'm on day 5 now though with no change in weight however I have been exercising every day and have started to walk to and from work instead of catching the bus. Ketostix this morning were purple so hopefully I am starting strong.

Excellent. In this forum you will discover a lot of opinions about the sticks. I was lc years ago and had epic success. This time around is going awesome as well. I USE THE STICKS. But ignore the color. As the color can vary based on too many variables. Ifor it turns even the slightest bit u r doing good. One side note po pneumonia that. If on the dark side then u likly need more h2o

I have a similar question.
I read a thread last year about ratios of fat/carb/protein and at that time I did a little research on the amount of protein older women need (which is quite a lot more than the current old-school recommendations.)

And when i hit a stall, I started looking at my ratios, saw that my ratio of fat was lower than many people's ... raised fat levels adn started losing.

Now I have to confess to starting all over again (both in Nov, a false start, and this week)...sigh.

But i can;t find the thread on ratios and would really like to re-read it.

Anyway, Sun, if it is any help to you I was sent to Keto site that explains calculating ratios and lets you plug in your own numbers, explains their suggestions and allows you to tweak them.

http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

I found it helpful to look at because the app I use is not all that high fat friendly so i have to force it to accept my way of eating.

Good Luck!
(and if anyone knows that thread about fat/carb/protein ratios I'd appreciate a link!)

Take this not only as a very loose, general guide but also with a big grain of salt as I am going strictly by recollection.

With that caveat, I seem to recall that when I looked into the ratios some years back it the best consensus I could divine is that LC should consist of something in the range of 5% to 10% of calories from carbs, about 60% to 70% from fat, and the rest from protein. The more active you are, particularly if you engage in more strenuous activities, the more carbs you will need (and Atkins points this out in his books).

So for someone at the 1500 kcal level, that would be about 20 to 40 grams of carbs, 100 to 120 grams of fat, and 75 to 130 grams of protein.

Another rule of thumb I seem to recall is that you should shoot for between 0.75 g and 1.0 g of protein per pound of body weight.

Invariably these will result in numbers that don't agree. But both are just a guide. If you are significantly overweight than you can probably reduce the amount of protein you need per pound accordingly. In fact, it is probably pretty reasonably to use your ideal weight using the second method.

Thanks!! This was helpful. The first rough guidelines tally with what I have seen.

Here is your answer: http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

Thank you so much for your comments, really helpful.

I am finding that on occasion my protein count goes a little over what I would like it to be however as I have a lot to lose I'm hoping this will not be too much of a problem just yet.....I have found that pate is my friend (and yummy) as high fat, moderate protein and virtually no carbs.....