The Institute of Medicine recommends you consume between 45 and 65 percent of your total daily calories from carbohydrates, 10 to 35 percent from protein and 20 to 35 percent of your daily calorie intake from fats. To determine the percentage of your daily intake from protein, carbs and fat, you’ll need to keep track of which type of foods you consume, how much of each food you consume, the number of grams of each macronutrient and your total daily caloric intake.
Step 1
Keep a food journal to help determine how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fat grams you consume each day, and record your total calorie intake. Write down the specifics of each food you eat, including the specific type of food or brand name, and the specific amount of food you ate.
Step 2
After each food item you enter in your journal, record the amount of calories and grams of protein, carbs and fat in the serving size you ate. Use food labels when possible. If you don’t have access to a food’s nutrition label, use an online nutrition database such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Nutrient Data Laboratory to look up nutrition information for each food you ate. When you’re finished recording the nutrition information for each food you ate, use a calculator to add up the total amount of calories you consumed and the total number of protein, carbohydrate and fat grams you consumed that day.
Step 3
Determine your calories from protein, carbohydrates and fat. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, protein and carbohydrates each provide 4 calories per gram while fat provides 9 calories per gram. For example, if you’ve consumed 60 g of protein in a day, you’ve consume 240 calories from protein.
Step 4
Divide calories from protein, carbohydrates and fat into your total daily calorie intake to determine your daily percentage of calories from protein, carbs and fat. For example, if you’ve consumed 240 protein calories and 2,000 total calories in a day, your percentage of calories from protein is 12 percent, which is within the Institute of Medicine’s recommended range of 10 to 35 percent.
Source: LIVE LONG