I may be a little biased given my own experience, but I don’t think you need to be managing your nutrition to that extent- it sounds like you’re already at a healthy weight, and given your history of tracking you likely have a pretty good idea of what is an appropriate intake. I do know that people can take different approaches to nutrition and still have it be productive, but given you’re already going through a period of pretty high stress I’d question whether or not it’s actually helpful if your goal is performance. (if you have access to a professional, that might give you some peace of mind regarding your health issues)
And honestly, I wouldn’t be so hard on yourself when it comes to training either- you’ve just completed a pretty solid block of training in a significant deficit, which will have impacts over a prolonged period even if it doesn’t affect your workouts directly. Maintaining or losing a bit of fitness, or struggling with a workout doesn’t mean you’re ‘failing’- frankly, s**t happens, and sometimes the best thing you can do is chill out for a bit, let your body do it’s thing, and adjust workout intensity/FTP if you feel it’s warranted versus adding more pressure to the mix if it’s not constructive.
For a bit of perspective.
I’m a fair bit lighter than you, 136lbs and train more hours etc…
But, I consume MOUNTAINS more carbs than you.
I actually consume more carbs than your entire daily intake just on the bike in a single ride. I’m holding steady weight with this consumption.
Basically, from my math, you are vastly under fueling your workouts.
Eat carbs, before, during and after any key workouts. Use the fuel, push big watts and get strong. Then watch your macros the rest of your life. It’s a lot longer, as a ratio. It sounds like you’re trying to accomplish diet goals that are not entirely compatible with significant training stress. The significant training stress actually required to gain fitness.
Don’t diet on the bike.
I like the thought of periodization and its something I didn’t think of. I could find my avg HR of those types of workouts and work out what the carb burn would be and add that to my allotment for the day. Not perfect but a good starting point.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have a good starting point on how to solve this and change the diet a bit.
Anita Bean is a great reference on diet. Previously body building champion in the UK.
Strikes me that the macro nutrient breakdown you mention is skewed towards protein and light on carbs. She would recommend a calorie split of {protein:20, fat:20, carbs:60} in order to get your fat percentage that low, you need to concentrate on the food types. Protein requirement is around 1.5g per kg of lean body mass per day. I’m not sure of what happens with excess protein, but excess amino acids just come out in your urine. Excess fat ends up on your skin. Excess carbs, within limits, leads to an increase in your metabolic rate and the “thermogenesis” effect burning it off. Your muscles need carbs and fat in order to generate power.
Another great set of authors are Lim and Murchison.