WHAT THE HELL IS A MACRO?
Okay, so all you need to do is make sure you hit your macros to get the body you want. I’m going to prescribe you to a simple plan, 50-30-20 and your going to be at a surplus at about 200 calories on days you train and maintenance calories at about 2500 on regular days. Make sure tracking everything so you can evaluate that everything is going right, if not adjust accordingly. Alright, good work champ.
What the hell…
I remembered hearing all of this, coupled with “abs are made in the kitchen”, starting my fitness journey. There is almost this guise of understanding that as humans we inherently understand everything our bodies need (plot twist, we actually do, but society skews instincts with marketing to tell us what we “need”). My relationship with food has truly been abusive (on my end). For years I never thought about what I ate, but would rely on opinion of others whose bodies I thought I needed to have to feel good. Being a pretty frail guy, that meant hearing eat, eat everything. But eating 3500 calories for me just felt horrible. Even more so, I did not even truly understand why?
So, I am going to use this as an opportunity to give transparency toward food. Lets start with the basics. Low fat, low carb, high protein, we have seen it all over the aisles and any intuitive mind can probably can infer “fats bad, carbs bad, protein good.” But, this is terribly irresponsible information being fed to us. Lets break it down a bit further:
Carbohydrates are your body's main source of energy: They help fuel your brain, kidneys, heart muscles, and central nervous system. For instance, fiber is a carbohydrate that aids in digestion, helps you feel full, and keeps blood cholesterol levels in check.
Dietary fats are essential to give your body energy and to support cell growth. They also help protect your organs and help keep your body warm. Fats help your body absorb some nutrients and produce important hormones, too. Your body definitely needs fat.
After water, protein is the main component of cells and is essential to life. Protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood.
Collectively these three nutrients are referred to as macronutrients and comprise the foundation of calories. Specifically: 1 gram of Carbohydrate is 4 calories, 1 gram of protein is 4 calories, 1 gram of fat is 9 calories.
So in finding a balanced diet, for me, I have found a ratio of around 10 to 35 percent of calories from protein, 20 to 35 percent from fat, and 45 to 65 percent from carbohydrates.
To further break this down, if someone consumes 2500 calories daily— 30% of calories from protein, 20% of calories from fats, 50% of calories from carbs— there macros would be:
.3x2500= 750cal in protein 750cal/4cal= 188g protein
.2x2500= 500cal in fat 500cal/9cal= 56g fat
.5x2500=1250cal in carbs 1250cal/4cal= 313g carbs
Follow me?
I share this in hopes of offering transparency of what you are actually reading on nutrition labels, but I fear that people often become too self consumed with numbers rather than relying on feeling, not impulse, but feeling. We all function at a baseline calorie amount that is enough to maintain muscle, but not store extra weight. But, we have become so misaligned in our diets and misinformed in food trends it becomes hard to know what we actually need.
My advice: Gain some clarity in your diet. I know it is annoying but, track your foods for a couple of days, and see your patterns. See how much you’re actually eating, or not eating. From here, you can build a relationship with your food and allow it to serve your greatest good. Some days you may need to eat more, some days you may need less. Chaos eating will only further drive a wedge between the regulation your body seeks. It’s simple input/out. Find alignment and I guarantee your body will intuitively serve you. You just need to reset a bit. Have faith and start the journey toward transparency.