Macros for chronic illness?

RoxyK

I’m loving the app and website, the info is amazing and I’m starting to make changes to get closer to my current macro and nutrient targets but am struggling with protein and calcium in particular. I’ve been ill with M.E. for 11 years now so have a very sedentary life style and spend up to 50% of my my time in bed sleeping. I’m vegetarian but due to allergies (lactose/egg intolerant) am nearer to vegan for diet. Should I change my macros to reflect my health, or lack of or is it ok to leave the auto setting on? I’m currently looking at nutrients rather than macros but if there are any settings I can make that might help to improve my health I’d be very interested.

ETA I’m not overweight or trying to follow any diet, I wouldn’t do keto as fruit seems to help me.

Susan_RD_101

@RoxyK

Personally, I don't think you need to alter the default macro settings and I like that you are focusing on nutrients. I would aim for a slightly higher intake of protein to help keep muscle mass strong and try, as much as possible, to engage in short walks (around your house) in order to prevent muscle wasting.

Kind regards,

RoxyK

Thanks so much Susan thas good to hear. I do try and walk around the house and garden and had 120 kcal active energy yesterday. Today’s isn’t so good so far....

Did you mean slightly higher protein than what I’m currently managing or than I should be managing? So far I’m managing about 30g of a 60g target.

Susan_RD_101

@RoxyK

Hitting 60 g per day would be much more desirable and help your muscles to feel stronger. Foods that you can include to meet this target are:

• Greek yogurt
• Cottage cheese
• Protein powder
• Protein bars (Simply, Quest, Pure, One, Kirkland)
• Tuna
• Eggs
• Plant-protein (edamame, tofu, tempeh)
• Lean animal protein

Kind regards,

RoxyK

Thank you Susan, I’m trying edamame beans tonight, will be trying tofu soonish and will look at the protein bars/powder. I eat an almost vegan diet so the meat, dairy and egg options are out. I’ll amend my target to 60 I hadn’t thought of protein powder as was trying to stick to whole foods but think it’s better to use powder if I get nearer to my target.

Susan_RD_101

@RoxyK

I've been vegan myself since 2007 and while I'm a big supporter of whole foods, I do think some "processed" foods are worth including, specifically protein powder and bars (my personal favourite is the Simply Protein bar).

Best of luck!

RoxyK

Thank you! My protein powder was a fail, I added not even 6g to my breakfast Alpro milk and it was horrid. Tried blending, adding blackberries and cocoa powder but made me bloated and and felt sick so didn’t eat for hours.

The Simply Protein bars aren’t easily available here so now looking for U.K. equivalents. My usual bar is too high in fat unfortunately as many are but looks like I have a few options to try