Nutrition for performance and weight loss? Can I do it?

The reason I started my entire fitness program, with the long range goal of running a marathon back in January of 2014, was to lose weight. I weighed 256 back then, and today I am right around 220 depending on the time of day. My weight loss has been steady and reasonably consistent in the last 18 months, and I am quite pleased with it.

To recap here are some of the thing I did to get to this point.

• Spent the first 4 months on the Atkins diet which basically got the first 15-20 pounds off me. I also walked during this phase quite a bit as well as refereeing soccer.
• I then started a consistent 3-4 days a week weight training program, focusing on overall body tone and developing actual muscles. I continue this program, although with changes, to this day.
• I started training for the Madison Half Marathon with a 16 week program in the late summer, and then a 20 week program for the Wisconsin Marathon in December. Right now I am in week 3 of a 20 week program for the Chicago Marathon.
• I use MyFitnesssPal to record everything I eat, in fact I have only missed recording one day in the last 18 months. (My birthday, when I was on a cruise on a sea day, and out of wireless range). This has helped me make better decisions about calories and keeping my weight loss moving in the right direction.
• I have set goals for weight loss, which I have generally hit. I wanted to be under 220 for Wisconsin and I was, barely, and I want to be close to 200 for Chicago.

Which brings me to where I am now. I am hovering around 220-221 as I start to ramp up my program for Chicago. All my reading tells me that I can do better in terms of nutrition.

Studying my 18 month eating history via MyFitnesssPal.com  has been quite educational. I appear to be averaging about 2,300 to 2,400 calories consumed a day and I have been averaging right around 3,000 total calories burned a day which is roughly correct in terms of how much weight I have lost. Basically my goal is a 500 calorie deficit every day, (more like 400 in my case) with a pound of fat being 4,500 calories its taking me about 10 days to drop a  pound, and that's right around where I am in terms of weight loss.

During most of that time my ratio of carbs, protein and fat (macros) has been 36% carbs, 23% protein, 40% fat. As I have read a variety of books about performance eating and eating for weight loss. I have pretty much deduced a few things about my diet:

• I need to eat better.
• My recording of portion sizes might be a little bit flawed, as in under counting calories.
• My macro ratio of 36%, 23%, 40% is not optimal.

So starting in July I am going to do the following:

• Eat better
• Dial in on measuring what I eat to keep my goal calorie intake around 2,100 per day.
• Change my macro ratio to 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat.

While running is seemingly my focus, in reality it is a means to an end, the end being fitter and trimmer. My ultimate goal would be 190, if I can get there, I am thinking my focus will then move to running faster times. At the moment weight loss plus increased fitness is leading to faster times but once I hit my ultimate weight goal, I am going to see what I can do in terms of training for faster race times.