Macronutrients, or macros, are nutrients that your body needs in large quantities to perform daily functions. The three macronutrients that provide energy, store energy and build and repair cells are carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
Tracking your macros can be an effective way to ensure you get enough nutrients each day. It can also help you gain or lose weight. Tracking macros will be different for everyone.
This article discusses general guidelines for determining macros for a healthy diet.
Counting macros for weight loss
Successful weight loss can be achieved if you maintain an overall calorie deficit. This means that you consume more calories during the day than you consume through food. Weight loss can be achieved by consuming fewer calories, exercising more to burn more calories, or a combination of both to create a calorie deficit.
It's important to pay attention to your macros when trying to lose weight this way to ensure you're still getting the right amount of nutrients. For most people who want to lose weight, the goal is fat loss while maintaining muscle mass. This requires maintaining an adequate amount of protein while reducing calories from carbohydrate and fat sources.
As a general rule of thumb, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein for a healthy adult engaging in minimal physical activity is 0.8 grams (g) of protein for each kilogram (kg) of body weight (g/kg), or approximately 0. 36 g per pound of body weight. This amounts to at least 54 g of protein per day for a 150-pound person.
When you increase your activity level, your protein intake should also increase to support your muscle function and prevent the breakdown of muscle fibers, according to the following guidelines:
- Minimum physical activity: 1.0 g/kg, or approximately 0.45 g of protein per kilo of body weight
- Moderate physical activity: 1.3 g/kg, or about 0.59 g of protein per kilogram of body weight
- Intensive physical activity: 1.6 g/kg, or about 0.73 g of protein per pound of body weight
This amounts to 67.5 g, 88.5 g, or 109.5 gof protein per day for a 150-pound person, depending on physical activity level.
Once you've reached your adequate protein level per day, you'll want to make sure you're getting enough fat in your diet. Dietary Guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) recommended fat intake between 20% and 35% of total calories.
The minimum of 20% calories from fat is necessary to ensure that you get enough essential fatty acids and that your body can absorb fat-soluble vitamins, vitamins that can only be absorbed in the presence of fat. Although 20% to 35% is the recommended range, there is no upper limit (UL) as there are no negative side effects associated with higher fat intake, as long as the fat comes from healthy fat sources.
To determine your fat intake, you must first determine your ideal calorie intake per day. This will differ from person to person. For weight loss, your daily calorie goal should be less than your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), a calorie calculation derived from an estimate of your physical activity and basal metabolic rate (BMR), the amount of calories you burn at rest.
Once you have this number, multiply it by 20% to calculate your minimum daily fat calorie intake. For a 2,000 calorie diet, this equates to at least 400 calories from fat. Then divide this number of fat calories by the number nine, since there are 9 calories in each gram of fat.
For a 2000 calorie diet of which 20% (400 calories) comes from fat, this amounts to at least 44 grams of fat per day.
Carbohydrates
More math is required to calculate your carbohydrate intake. To do this, take your daily calorie goal and subtract the calories from fat and protein. Because each gram of protein contains 4 calories, multiply your grams of protein per day to calculate your protein calories.
Then you subtract this number, along with your fat calories, from your total calorie goal to calculate your carbohydrate calories. Because each gram of carbohydrate also contains 4 calories, divide your carbohydrate calories by 4 to determine your number of carbohydrate grams.
How to Count Macros to Make Profits
To gain weight, you may also want to track your macros to ensure you are consuming enough calories per day to support weight gain. Whether you want to gain overall weight or muscle mass specifically, your macro analysis may look slightly different.
Gaining weight typically requires going into a calorie surplus, or consuming more calories than your body needs to complete daily functions. Weight gain calculations typically start with an additional 100-200 calories per day added to your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), but this number can be highly variable depending on how much weight you want to gain.
Weight gain can be achieved through a variety of different macro combinations, as long as your total calories per day are higher than what your body needs. Usually this is achieved by increasing your fat or carbohydrate intake.
Each gram of fat contains more than double the amount of calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate, so eating more grams of fat per day can easily increase your calories per day as well. However, because fatty foods can be filling, some people may feel full on a high-fat diet and be unable to consume enough calories.
Increasing your grams of carbohydrates per day will also help you gain weight. Simple carbohydrates, such as sugar, bleached flour products such as breads, pastas, cereals and crackers, white potatoes and white rice are quickly digested carbohydrates that don't contain fiber to fill you up.
These foods are easier to eat in larger quantities without feeling full, which can help you increase your carbohydrate intake per day, and total calories to help you gain weight.
Your fat and calorie grams can be calculated based on your daily calorie goal, after subtracting your protein needs from your daily total. The protein guidelines remain the same whether you gain, lose or maintain weight.
Muscle mass
If you want to build muscle mass, you not only need a higher calorie intake every day, but you also need to focus on your protein intake and working out in the gym. Higher calorie intake without stimulating your muscles through exercises such as weight lifting does not send signals to your body to build more muscle. Simply consuming more calories more often results in gaining body fat.
Consuming more calories from protein can help you gain muscle mass instead of body fat.
The protein needs for weight loss are the same for muscle mass gain, depending on your physical activity level:
- Minimum physical activity: 1 g/kg, or about 0.45 g of protein for each pound of body weight
- Moderate physical activity: 1.3 g/kg, or about 0.59 g of protein per kilogram of body weight
- Intensive physical activity: 1.6 g/kg, or about 0.73 g of protein per pound of body weight
Because too much protein can have negative side effects, including kidney damage, excess protein above these amounts is generally not recommended above 2 g/kg, or about 0.91 g of protein per pound of body weight.
Macronutrients Explained: Benefits of Big Picture Thinking
Whether you want to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain a healthy body, it's important to think about your macros in a big way when it comes to supporting your bodily functions. Merely counting calories is not necessarily ideal for maintaining proper nutrition for your body, fueling your functions and achieving the body composition you desire.
People on specialized diets should pay extra attention to their macronutrient ratios to ensure they are not deficient in any category. People who are vegetarian (don't eat animal meat), vegan (don't eat foods that come from animals, including eggs and dairy products), or pescatarian (eat primarily fish and vegetarian foods) often don't consume the same levels of protein as other people do this because of the reduced consumption of animal products.
If you're on one of these diets, tracking your protein intake is especially important to ensure you're getting enough to support your body's functions.
Special Precautions and Reminders
Before adjusting your macronutrients to suit your needs, always check with a healthcare provider to ensure you are not making any drastic changes that could negatively impact your health.
For example, although reducing carbohydrate and sugar intake in people with diabetes is beneficial for lowering blood sugar levels, reducing carbohydrate intake too much can be potentially dangerous and cause hypoglycemia. Other conditions, such as digestive problems, can be worsened by too much fat intake, while too little fat intake can cause hormonal problems.
By working with a registered dietitian to create a macronutrient ratio that suits your individual needs and goals, you can best ensure that you safely tailor your nutritional needs to your own personal health. Everyone is different, so not everyone should follow the same macronutrient ratios.
Macro food to eat regularly
Every food you eat has a macronutrient breakdown, but some foods are better than others for supporting optimal health. The best sources of macronutrients come from whole, minimally processed foods, such as unprocessed meat, poultry, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, tubers, nuts and seeds.
These food sources also contain high levels of micronutrients, or vitamins and minerals that are important for supporting healthy body functions. Whole foods can also help you feel full longer, especially if they contain healthy amounts of dietary fiber. They can also help reduce inflammation levels throughout your body.
Macro food to eat in moderation
Although not particularly nutritious, even unhealthy foods consist of macronutrients, usually unhealthy fats, and large amounts of carbohydrates via sugar. Heavily processed foods and snacks, fried foods and desserts are best eaten in moderation. These foods can increase inflammation throughout the body and are typically low in beneficial micronutrients and dietary fiber.
Macros, short for macronutrients, are the body's three most important nutrients that are needed in large quantities to fuel daily functions. Macros include carbohydrates, fats and proteins. In general, you need to meet a minimum amount of protein and fat, while your carbohydrate intake can fluctuate.
Regularly tracking your macros and adjusting the amount you consume from each category can be helpful for overall health, weight gain, or weight loss. Because making drastic changes to your diet can have negative effects on your health, it is important that you consult your doctor before making any changes to your diet. Consider speaking with a registered dietitian to determine the macronutrient ratio that works for you and helps you reach your goals.