It is extremely valuable to understand what you are eating and this is where tracking your food comes in handy. Having the knowledge of your own macro intake is arming you with the why or why not of weight fluctuations. This is why I advise clients, friends, and family to choose macro tracking over yo-yo dieting. Because let’s be honest, adaptations to your body composition are won or lost in the kitchen.
There are three macronutrients and there are many, many micronutrients; but what we’re going to focus on is the infamous fat, protein, and carbohydrates.
Proteins! This is how you keep and build muscle mass. Muscle is metabolic, therefore it helps your body burn calories. We like burning calories -> yay for proteins!
Carbohydrates! The core ingredient to your body’s energy supply. Carbohydrates help your brain function and fill your muscles with glycogen so you’re able to use and abuse your muscles!
Fats! This macronutrient is great for the recovery of your muscles! Fats also play a huge role in your body’s hormonal system.
Ok guys here’s my simplified macro tracking advice.
First, talk to a nutritionist or dietitian, it is their job to point you in the right direction.
Second, providing diets is not within my scope of practice, the rules of thumb that I use are what I’ve learned through self-education and staying tuned to every nutrition podcast and blog you could imagine!
Rules of thumb are as follows:
You shouldn’t be missing any of those three macronutrients. Carbohydrates should be the biggest number, largely dictated by your energy expenditure. Protein is your middle number, largely dictated by your goals, however, a good approximation would be your body weight (lb) in grams. If your goal is weight loss, try keeping your protein near your goal weight, and if your goal is weight gain make sure you eat more protein than your current body weight (lb) in grams. Lastly, fats should be the lowest number; make sure your fats are less than your proteins! Remember that all of these macros will be different from one person to the next, there is no perfect macro ratio for everyone!
Vague, I know! But this is why vague can still be useful:
Log your food for a few days (I use My Fitness Pal), look at your numbers in the macro summary and you will quickly realize if you are extremely off or bang on with your eating patterns.
At that point, I’d advise chatting with a nutritionist/dietitian to get proper numbers/goals!
