I am trying to figure out the right balance of protein fat and carbs in my diet - b/c i'm afraid that I'm overloading my diet with carbs (hey - they are cheap!)

I am 5'4" - 145 lbs - female
I typically try to eat around 1500 cals/day and do 30 min cardio 3x week w/ 20 min weights 3x wek

A typical day of eating:
bowl of cereal w/ skim and berrie
apple for snack
sandwich for lunch - or lean cuisine type meal
fat free fig newton snack
dinner is usually rice/pasta and chicken with vegetables

What would a healthy balance of protein/carbs/fat be? 40/30/30? keep the ratio 1:1:1?

I would like to tone muscle and lose fat - and am fairly close to my goal weight

It really does work different with each person and their exercise program. That is why we don't give a specific. I will say that a general rule of thumb in losing fat/protecting muscle is a 40% pro 40% carbs 20% fat.

That being said a calorie is not a calorie and WHERE those sources are coming from is important. I feel the need to make a Berardi sticky thread ( Tony) but you would really benefit from reading his articles on nutrition. http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/index.htm.

And "toning" is a magazine word. When you lose fat you start to show the definition of whatever amount of muscle you have below. That is really all "toning" is.

Good Luck.

Percentages are useless IMO. You should base your intakes off of grams. Here is something I wrote in my journal, but applies here as well:

Before I get into specifics with someone, I like to make sure they have their calories figured out first. That is the driving factor behind all of your goals. For general purposes, maintenance caloric intake is 15 calories per pound of body weight. From this, I like to start with a deficit of roughly 15%.

My diet is majority carbs. I think any diet for the average person, leaving out goal dependencies, should worry about calories first and foremost, then protein requirements, then EFAs. Once they are accounted for, it is fair game to toy around with the remaining macronutrients required to fulfill your energy requirements.

For instance, if I need 3500 calories to maintain, that is the number I will shoot for.

I like to have 1 - 1.5 gm of protein for each pound that I weigh. Right now that would be 195. There are 4 calories in each gram of protein, which equals out to be 975 calories (using 1.25 grams/lb). If you are not weight training, these requirements would be lower. If you are dieting with a caloric deficit, protein requirements actually increase.

Then I worry about my fats. I like to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-100 grams as a minimum. Of this, I keep it to the healthy side of things with monounsaturateds (olive oil), certain polyunsaturateds (omega-6/9s, stuff like flax oil, borage oil, etc), and a source of omega-3s (fish oil caps, or a serving of omega-3 rich fish like salmon). Let's say from this, I take in 100 grams of fat. There are 9 calories per gram of fat, leaving us with 900 calories here.

That gives us a total of 1875 calories, while I am shooting for 3500! I need 1625 more. This is where I add my carbs and I toy around with the other macronutrients too. As an average, I would say 200 grams of carbs is a good number for an active individual. I have gone much higher myself. At any rate, once you calculate your proteins and fats, you fill the deficit needed to reach your caloric goal with a mixture of the 3. I tend to keep protein pretty stable at 1 - 1.5g per lb.

It tends to be very personal and goal dependent from this point forward. If you were going to be doing a lot of frequent cycling, I would load up on carbs, especially close to your workouts/cycles. Active people can benefit from carbs, although there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate, there are only essential amino acids and essential fats.