I say let your results dictate your method. The portion size can be useful and easy, but if you want to get more technical and more accurate there are other ways to do it...

For example, you probably want around 1lb of protein per pound of lean mass -- I don't know your fat percentage but suppose that is 110g, split over 6 meals you'd want about 20g per meal in order to meet your daily needs. You can either use packaging info to get there or a food scale if you want to get really accurate... so I say continue your protein intake the way you have been. And when it comes to protein, a little more is always a little better than a little less than your requirements.

As for carbs, 110g in a day is probably quite a bit lower than what you want, again using 110lbs lean mass as an example you probably want to be somewhere around 300g. I want to say that it's better to have a little less carbs than a little more, but the key with carbs is you have to be really smart about the type you eat and when you eat them.

Hopefully this gives you some food for thought, lol.

300 g of carbs?  Wow, I am getting way less than that.  Probably around 120 or less many days.  I thought I was supposed to restrict carbs a bit if I am after fat loss?  Maybe I've overdone it though.  I have noticed some pretty intense bread cravings in the evenings.    

My BFP is between 27 and 35 depending on which website I use to guess (uses waist, arm, wrist, weight). I really should head up to the university and use their bodpod for an accurate reading.

Thanks for the info!

300 may be a bit high... but carbs should be about 50-55% of your daily calories, at least to start with.

If you go too far below that you'll be cranky and have cravings like mad, and eating fewer as the day goes on would probably be a lot better for you than to eat equal portion sizes each meal.

The other problem with eating too few carbs is that you're almost bound to have rebound weight gain... since this is body-for-LIFE I'd say you want to avoid that.

As far as measuring BF a $20 caliper would do the trick and be a lot cheaper & easier plus you can measure it as often as you want to make sure it's fat you're burning and not muscle.

No disrespect to buffer, but I feel 300grams of carbs would be far too high for you.  I had difficulty with the palm/fist method as well, so tried to do the 20g each per meal.  That worked so much better for me.  20 grams x 6 meals should be about 120 grams of carbs & 120 grams protein per day.  I use myfitnesspal.com and enter my foods there to keep track of my macros.  I do not follow the BFL rules as strictly as before, since I am now in maintenance stage, but I think it is a great way to keep track.  If you want to join and friend me, my name is schmertnat; I can walk you through anything you need help with.  I set my macros to 40%carbs, 40%protein & 20% fat.  That seems to work well for most.  Your body needs those carbs, especially when working out, just make sure they are in the form of brown rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, etc.....As you continue working and losing more weight, you may need to increase your carb intake, but I say for now, less is better.   Best of luck to you on your BFL jouney.  Keep pushing!

CookieFleck

Perhaps it would help if the 20/20 method were explained.  That is for a woman who is about 120 pounds.  It goes by your scale weight.  You are 160 so that's 160 grams of protein and 160 grams of carbs per day.  That would also be a 40/40/20 plan.  I don't think you should bring your carbs above 40% and arguably could keep somewhat below.  300g of carbs would be too much for a large men, let alone woman. 

160/6 = 26.6666. 

Let's keep this simple and go for between 25-30g of protein at each meal and 20-25g of carbs at each meal.

Oh and yes, a bod pod is very accurate, but there's no reason to do it often.  I do one in the beginning and end of the 12 weeks.  In between a simple measuring tape with just my waist measurement will do.  Plain and simple, if that number goes down, you are losing fat.  

Is getting carbs from an orange or an apple bad? E.g lunch and dinner and brekkie are egg. Whites or chicken/fish with salad and green nearly no carb vege. But then i would have an apple with it to up carbs to 20g. But is that too much fruit sugar do you think?? Thanks.

Fruit is a great carb source.  You don't want 100% fruit, but yes, totally approved.  I have 1-2 of my carbs a day as fruit. 

Lovely.  Thanks for the info, I think I'm understanding it now.  I have been having some mad carb cravings, and I guess that the 15-20 g per meal I was getting was just too low.  Also I apparently wasn't getting quite enough protein either.  That part is going to be difficult!  Oh, I should have mentioned that I am also nursing, but she is nearly weaned so I doubt she is getting more than 200 cals from me per day.  I have not been restricting fat quite as drastically as I would otherwise, I was told that can interfere with milk quality.  My diet was likely looking more like 40-30-30 not 40-40-20.

Jessica:

Thanks for always simplifying things.  I tend to get to the guts and not do a very good job explaining things.  You rock!!

ya, well put Jessica, and as I said, 300g carbs would probably be over-doing it, and I count veggies as carb calories too. If you do veggies over and above your starchy carbs definitely lower it, but not drastically, :)

thebuffer - even with counting the carbs in veggies, 300g would be drastically over-doing it.  Veggies really don't have enough to add up to much.  Even then it shouldn't go above 185g of carbs, so 300 would be a massive difference.  If one is eating that much veggies (good for them) then lower starchy carbs, but don't go above and beyond to that degree.  

BDMom - I say you rock!

Jessica - I know you mean well and I don't want to bicker, so I'll tell you how I came to that approximate number... based on Tom Venuto's diet (which I used a couple of years ago to lose 50lbs of pure fat in 12 weeks) the macro nutrient ratio was 50/30/20, this is what he recommends as a starting point for both men and women, and one that will help you maintain lean mass as well as burning fat.

So calculating her LBM at around 112lbs her TDEE (Kcal used in a day) would be in the area of 2270 (Katch-McArdle formula since I don't know her height), so assuming she wants to burn only fat a good caloric deficit would be 85% of that, which is just under 2000kcal per day.

So if 50% of the kcal are carbs for the reasons mentioned above, that is 1000kcal, which is = to 250g carbs. So like I said about three times, 300 was a rough guess, but it's not too far off... unless she wants to carb cycle, which is an EXTREMELY effective method for losing weight TEMPORARILY and if you don't mind burning lean mass along with the fat. Go too low and you're getting into Keto zone, which is really unhealthy.

IMO 185 is too low. Trust me, up your carbs moderately and you'll be amazed how effective the results are. I was stuck in a rut for weeks and decided to actually listen to Venuto despite my own thinking that carbs were evil, and it worked wonders. Once you start seeing the results from a good baseline diet you can quite easily begin to drop them as you close in on the deadline.