Nutrition is a complex and personal journey.
Not everyone has the same body, body chemistry, or GI tract ecosystems. Managing diets on the macro-nutrient level is effective to a point, but it sure sounds like you're looking to tune your body composition/performance well beyond what these guidelines and "common knowledge" can provide.
The Canadian Food Guide without a doubt will fail you on this journey.
Two super common mistakes that people make when trying to move beyond their normal results is ignoring the effects that HORMONES and DISEASE have on the body.
You are already on this path, but continue educating yourself. I can't tell you what will work for you - you need to find a guide that has achieved success under similar conditions as you and start there.
Essentially, you need to write your own manual, and it's going to be through trial and error. Be systematic, use data where you can, be as in tune with your body and moods as possible as these are massive clues when you can't rely on blood tests and other data based measurements.
Where can you start?
As much of an ass he is sometimes, I really like reading anything published by Charles Poliquin and his group of companies. He's been at strength and conditioning coaching for years, and has developed a lot of successful systems and brands, but really leaves a lot of threads to start pulling on where ever he goes. Here are some semi-relevant links that might get you started... really, follow up on his references because that's where the good stuff is.
10 Fat Loss Mistakes
Body Composition - Carnivores vs Vegetarians
Best Tools and Eating Programs for Fat Loss
Here is an interesting
vegan bodybuilder reference I found while searching this topic.
I also like reading Robb Wolf's blog/books - a definitive source on Paleo for combating chrons/colitis, IBS, etc SO much interesting reading here. This blog entry in particular does a really entertaining job of grouping
seven types of paleo eaters, LOL
Mark's daily apple is also a must read, for a lot of reasons.
Primal Living in a Modern World - another credible information leader who references source material.
Last but not least, I recently stumbled upon John Durant of
huntergatherer, after hearing his podcast on AoM on his book "Paleo Manifesto". He wanted to go way beyond diet and talk about how other factors influenced our lifestyle and health as we moved from paleo-like living, agrarian living to the modern world. Some things that blew me away were how important factors like the rules of hygiene defined and promoted by pre-new testament religions; the role of violence during paleo era life (and how to effectively incorporate it today); the importance of intermittent fasting, especially once we entered into agrarian living... SUPER interesting stuff.
The thing for me that is important about the paleo movement is not so much about eating clean, or eating like a caveman, or whatever the hell that is... but it's about using our modern minds to elevate our relationship with the CORE DESIGN of our bodies, honouring what is in our DNA, to live the best life possible - best energy levels, best moods, best mobility, best strength, best creativity, all of it. We are awesome machines, and we used to have to rely on evolution to guide the way to these best lives, but increased self awareness and design of environmental factors has really screwed that "trust factor" up beyond the point of repair.
Food, rest and exercise are indeed the best medicines we have for daily living.