Managing Current Weight: Carb to Protein to Fat Ratios

Question
Hi I am a 17 almost 18 year old male. I am 5'11 140-143 lbs. I used to be a bit over weight and I have come a long way since then. I think I am at a pretty desired weight. If I lose anymore I think I'm considered underweight but I don't want to gain anymore ethier. Lately I have been a litle nuts about the way I eat. The way I lost so much weight was mainly staying away from carbs or atleast bad carbs. Still to today I can't stop worrying about carbs and what I'm eating. I think I'm at a weight where I can be a little bit more free on what I eat and be able to enjoy some foods that arn't that good for you here and there but I have developed a huge consciousness for this kind of stuff. In a way its a good thing but on the other hand its making me insane worrying about every single thing that I eat. So I am curious on how I should go about eating everyday. If you could run me through what I should eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks on an average day if I want to stay at the weight I'm at that would be great. I'm a fairly active person. I lift about 150-200 reps of 75lbs every otherday and the days I don't benchpress I run a good amount. I also do 400-500 crunches with pushups and other little house exercises mixed in every day. Right now on a normal day I would have Weight Control oatmeal for breakfast (I get the weight control ones because they have more fiber and protein). For lunch I would have a sandwich on whole wheat and whole grain bread. Usually the sandwich would be ham and salami, turkey, or tuna fish. For dinner its usually some type of meat like grilled chicken or steak with sides like carrots and maybe a potato. Thats however considered a big dinner for me if my mom has cooked something I don't like I'll probably just have a sandwich or heat up some grilled chicken and eat only that. For snacks its usually very light like a little bit of cottage cheese, a few almonds or some cheese. I think on a normal day where I don't feel like I need to lose weight I probably get under 2,000 calor!
ies in.
Some days if I feel like I have eaten something bad (maybe had too much pizza over the weekend or something) I will probably only end up eating 1,000 calories a day. So if you could tell me how many calories, carbs, and maybe proteins I should be eating a day if I want to stay at the desired weight that would also be great. Thanks a lot.

Answer
Hello Steve,

First, you might want to make it sure for yourself that you have a desired body composition. You can calculate your body fat % (instead of just weighing yourself) by using only a measuring tape and our calculator (it's free to download) - see recommended URLs on the bottom of my answer.

Then you actually have choices, each of them can be right for you.

Either you need to estimate your calorie intake and watch your portions or you can figure out what carbs+protein to fat ratio is right for you. If you choose the ratio, you'll be able to ignore the calorie thing and only watch your macronutrient proportion. You can do this also using our calculator (see the "Fat Burning Index"  URL)

Your "eating something bad" idea is very natural and there can be different solutions how to do this while staying on generally "right" way of eating. These solutions are, for example the following:

1. Rotate your diet plans.

2. Go on intermittent fasts, especially after your "indulgence" days. research showed that this kind of fast is good for you. For one thing, it slows down the aging  processes.

3. Eat  your carbs, and burn them, too (see the "Carb Rotation URL for details)

Links:

Body fat % calculators
http://dietandbody.com/plan/measuring.html (with download)

http://bestofweightloss.com/body_fat_calculator.html (online)

Calorie intake calculation for men
http://dietandbody.com/article1091.htmlSkipping breakfasts (intermittent fasting)
http://bestofweightloss.com/plan/7.html

Carb rotation
http://bestofweightloss.com/plan/5.htmlFat Burning Index
http://dietandbody.com/banta/inside/fat_burning_index.htm

Food choices (note that unor neutral Fat Burning Index aroung 1 to 1.5)
http://bestofweightloss.com/plan/keto_index.html

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