Whether you’re looking to lose weight, gain muscle, or improve performance, you need to understand energy balance and calories. But for best results, you need to structure your meals to ensure a good calorie balance.
What are macros?
Macronutrients or “macros” are nutrients that your body needs in large quantities. They are also where all your calories come from.
There are three main types of macros in foods: protein, carbohydrates, and fat.
Each macro offers different health and nutritional benefits.
Protein contains 4 calories per gram
Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram
Fat contains 9 calories per gram
Alcohol is also considered a macro ratio because it provides calories to your diet, but is generally not considered in macro ratios because it provides no nutritional value. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram.
There is no universal solution
Macros are not always a one-size-fits-all approach. There are a number of flexible diet options you can use to control calories and balance your diet by counting your carbohydrate, fat and/or protein intake.
Each macro is used a little differently by the body, and it’s essential to understand how each one supports your daily health and fitness needs:
Carbohydrates are your favorite source of quick energy, and excess carbohydrates can be stored in your muscles as fuel or as body fat.
Fat is your long-term energy source, used as immediate fuel or stored as body fat.
Protein is the building block macro, used to build and maintain the majority of cells in your body, including your DNA, bones, and muscle mass. Any excess protein can be used as energy or stored as body fat.
To track your macros, you first need to know your daily calorie goal depending on whether you want to lose fat or gain muscle. You can then determine how many grams of protein, fat and carbohydrates you need.
Importance of Protein
Your daily protein needs are directly related to your weight and physical condition. Protein is the basic nutrient that works to actively maintain, repair and create almost every cell in your body. This is exactly why a high protein intake is recommended to help build muscle. Higher protein intake may also promote fat loss.
Although everyone is different and responds differently, for weight loss purposes, a moderate fat diet (20-30% of calories), moderate carbohydrate diet (30-40% of calories), and a high protein diet (25 at 40% of calories). of calories) tend to work for most people.
Calculate your macros
Once you’ve determined your macronutrient distribution, the next step is to convert those nutritional goals into actual meals. There are three ways to do this, all of which are useful at different times.
Use an app and a scale
One of the easiest and most accurate ways to track your calories and macros is to use an app alongside a scale.
Examples of good tracking apps include My Fitness Pal and Trifecta.
Food scales are also incredibly easy to use and many have built-in automatic macro calculations. Simply enter the desired food code provided with the scale and weigh your serving.
Exchange
Another technique when you don’t have a scale on hand is to use cups. Using measuring cups and spoons, along with associated macro food lists, you can plug and use ingredients in your meal prep to make hitting your macros easier.
All you need is a list of foods and the associated serving sizes for each. Essentially, a serving (or swap) of a carb, fat, or protein equals a certain amount of grams for that specific macro.
Crabs: 1 serving = 1/4 cup, 1/3 cup, 1/2 cup varied by individual carbohydrate. 15g of CARBOHYDRATES
Protein: 1 serving = 3oz yields 21g OF PROTEIN
Fat: 1.5 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon depending on fat 5g of fat
Hand-fist method
Your hand size is unique and also closely matches your portioning requirements: the larger your hand, the more food you need.
Raise your hand and look at your palm.
A whole hand is equivalent to a single serving of protein (approximately 20-30g of protein). That’s the equivalent of about 3 to 4 ounces of meat or fish, 2 eggs, or 1 cup of Greek yogurt.
Now make a fist or cupped hand, one fist or cupped hand is equivalent to a single serving of starchy carbs (carbohydrates) – this is about 1/2 cup of cooked cereal.
2 fists is a standard serving of vegetables.
1 fist is a serving of fruit and 1 medium apple
And finally, your inch equals a serving of fat which is about 1 tablespoon.
Importance of Nutrient-Rich Foods
Of course, it’s not just about calories or macros. What you want to do is focus on nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods for most of your meals.
Not only will this give you all the nutrients, key vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants your body needs to thrive, but these foods are typically lower in calories and higher in fiber, making them more nourishing and filling.
So, for example, when it comes to carbohydrates, the majority of them come from fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, whole grains rather than refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks, alcohol and of syrup.
Likewise, for fats, aim to focus on healthier fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated like nuts, seeds, avocado, olive, olive oil, oily fish, etc.
Eating large quantities of nutrient-dense foods will help you feel naturally full longer, making it easier to stick to your eating plan.
Portion Size Matters
This may seem laborious at first, but it’s the most accurate way to track your intake and will give you an idea of how much is in a certain amount of food.
It’s easy to go over portion sizes and therefore calories without realizing it. Attempting to change your body composition without a solid plan is just an absolute recipe for disaster.
Lean & Nourish members can download their copy of Macro Meal Planning below. If you are interested in our Lean & Nourish club follow this link