December 13, 2020: Macronutrients 101
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Macronutrients and macros are popular buzzwords these days for good reason! The three fundamental, and most consumed, macronutrients in our diet are proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. This week, we’re going to talk about the basics of macronutrients and how you can use them to create a healthy eating plan.
If you’ve ever counted calories, you know how, even if you’ve consumed your allotted amount, you may still feel hungry, lack energy, or have reached a plateau in your weight loss journey. Tracking your daily macronutrients is a simpler way of nutrition tracking that might appeal to you. I’ll show you how to do it right here!
Step 1: Find Your Calorie Needs
I’ll spare you the details and technical terms and you can just use the calculator here.
Now that we have the calories per day, we need to find your goal ratio.
Step 2: Find Your Ratios
Depending on your goals, you need to decide what your macro ratio guidelines will be. Having this information will affect how you plan your meals and how much of each macro you need to include at each meal.
Goal: Weight loss
The general range per day is:
10-30% of your total calories from carbs
40-50% of your total calories from protein
30-40% of your total calories from fat
Let’s do a macro calculation for weight loss goals as an example. Let’s say the calories from step 1 are 2000/day. I will select my percentages from within the ranges. In this example, I decide I want to eat 20% carbs, 40% protein, and 40% fat (make sure they add up to 100%).
That breaks down to:
400 calories from carbs
800 calories from protein
800 calories from fat
Step 3: Tracking
How do you know how to know how many calories you’re eating from those ranges? You get to multiply one more time.
Here’s how to calculate macronutrients using our step 2 example.
Carbs = 4 calories per gram
20% of 2,000 calories = 400 calories of carbs per day
Total grams of carbs allowed per day = 400/4 = 100 grams
Proteins = 4 calories per gram
40% of 2,000 calories = 800 calories of protein per day
Total grams of protein allowed per day = 800/4 = 200 grams
Fats = 9 calories per gram
40% of 2,000 calories = 800 calories of protein per day
Total grams of fat allowed per day = 800/9 = 90 grams
So, in this example, your ideal daily intake would be 100 grams of carbs, 200 grams of protein and 90 grams of fat.
That’s the end of the hard work - promise! You don’t need to do all that again. You only need to track the macro grams each day.
Here are ratios for other goal options.
Goal: Maintenance and general health
30-50% of your total calories from carbs
25-35% of your total calories from protein
25-35% of your total calories from fat
Goal: Muscle gain
40-60% of your total calories from carbs
25-35% of your total calories from protein
15-25% of your total calories from fat
Next Sunday, we’ll talk about how to recharge your energy battery with sleep.
Want some expert help with reaching your health goals painlessly? Check out my programs! We’ll get everything taken care of in a way that fits into your current lifestyle so you never have to think about your health again.
Do you have a friend who could stand to G(her)ST? Feel free to forward this!
I hope you have a wonderful week,
Kelly
Kelly Morgan, Ph.D.
Tsirona - www.tsirona.com
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