What are macros?
Macronutrients, or ‘macros’, are the fundamental building blocks of nutrition. They’re more commonly referred to as carbohydrate, protein, and fat. The reason they’re so important if you’re looking to lose weight or build lean muscle, is that not all calories were created equal. Here’s the breakdown:
Each macronutrient yields a certain number of calories:
1 gram of protein yields 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrate yields 4 calories
1 gram of fat yields 9 calories
1 gram of alcohol yields 7 calories
Protein
Protein is essential for the growth of new tissue as well as fixing broken tissue – like what happens when you work out. Protein should be your new best friend if you want to gain or maintain muscle. When lifting heavy and body building, the general consensus is to aim to consume 1.5g of protein per kg of bodyweight.
Protein intake is important because it will help build muscle and/or prevent muscle loss if you are in a calorie deficit. It controls appetite and staves off hunger better than fats or carbs as it causes you to feel full longer. It also requires more energy than other macros for your body to digest, thus effectively burning more calories gram for gram through the digestion process. All of these reasons make high-protein diets great for fat loss.
Fat
Fats have been demonized as the reason for being overweight. Although an easy assumption to make, it simply is not true. Fats can be incredibly beneficial for hitting your body composition goals, but they also affect our hormones – too little fat in our diet can be very harmful. Fat is an essential nutrient that our bodies require to live; it assists in vitamin absorption, hormone regulation and brain function.
Carbohydrates
Your body uses carbohydrates to make glucose which is the preferred fuel or energy that our bodies run off of. They’re what keep us going. Fibre, which is important to track if you want to be healthy, is also a carbohydrate but doesn’t deliver calories. Carbs are stored in the liver, brain, blood and muscles as glycogen. Our bodies use carbohydrates for energy. Technically, you can live on zero carbs. But, bodybuilders or endurance athletes have consumed 700+ grams per day. So, the range is pretty wide.
The numbers aren’t set in stone, but you do need to consume a certain amount of each macro within a range. The USDA recommends the following healthy ranges.
Carbohydrate: 45 to 65 percent
Protein: 10 to 35 percent
Fat: 20 to 35 percent
To figure out your macro ratio, you need first need to work out your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – the rate at which your body uses energy to stay alive. Then take into consideration your activity level. The calculation will then give you a daily calorie target, which you can split into the three macronutrients (protein, carbs, fat).
Calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) by using one of the following:
Males
BMR = 66 + (13.75 x weight in kg) + (5 x height in cm) – (6.8 x age in yrs)
Females
BMR = 655 + (9.6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x height in cm) – (4.7 x age in yrs)
To determine your total daily calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity factor, as follows:
If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.1
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.275
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.35
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.525
Once you have calculated your BMR you then know the total number of calories you will burn each day. Then you can start to work out how many calories you need to consume to reach your goals. For instance, a weight loss goal will have a calorie deficit, meaning you will burn more calories than you consume.
Once you have done this, then you can take into consideration which percentage of each macro you want to include to make your goal more specific, i.e. lose weight whilst maintaining lean muscle mass.
To track macros use food scales, or food diary such as MyFitnessPal. When you are learning to track your nutrition, the three best tools you can have on hand are; food scales, a calorie/gram counting book, and a food diary. I also recommend you keep around a calculator and a resource of nutritional information.