“I want to build more muscle!”
“I want to get ripped!”
“I want to be able to lift more weight!”
If you’ve ever uttered or even thought any of those phrases I’m sure you’re very next move was looking into what you’d have to do to achieve your goal in the gym.
Should I lift heavier?
Should I do higher reps?
Should I max out more often?
While those are all valid questions that you should answer and align with your goals, there is one major component that is often overlooked–nutrition. More specifically, you should be counting your macros. Now, before you freak out and stop reading because “there’s no way I’m doing that,” I’d ask you to at least hear me out.
Most people look to do more in the gym to achieve their goals but often glaze right over the nutrition aspect. I often talk to clients and other lifters about this and they’ll say something like:
“Yeah yeah I know, it’s 80% nutrition and 20% working out.”
But I’d have to disagree…
It’s actually 100% nutrition and 100% training. If you’re not doing both, you might as well not be doing either (Assuming you’re trying to do more than just maintain your current level of fitness).
The main objection I hear from people who are new to the concept of tracking macros is that:
- “It’s too overwhelming”
- “It takes too much time”
- “It’s too hard”
- “I don’t have a regular routine each day so it wouldn’t work”
It goes on and on.
While those are really only excuses, they come up in most cases so it’s worth addressing. When done correctly, counting your macros can become just as routine as brushing your teeth each day. In fact, eventually you won’t even have to do it everyday!
Before getting into the how, let’s first make sure we understand why counting macros is so critical. It’s actually very simple.
If you are trying to gain muscle, simply “eating more” is a useless term that gets thrown around far too often. It’s simply too broad and not actionable. You need to know exactly how much more to eat each day in order to gain the optimal amount of muscle consistently while minimizing fat gain. Otherwise, you could spend an entire lifetime playing the guessing game of how much is enough and not too much.
Plus, in order to know exactly how much you need to eat, you first need to know how much you’re currently eating. If you don’t figure that out, how will you know how much to add? You won’t.
On the flip side, if you’re trying to lose weight and lean out, we all know that you’re going to have to eat less calories than you burn. While some people attempt to figure out how many calories they burn during workouts, the most consistent way I’ve found on myself and others is to count your macros.
For instance, if you’ve been maintaining your weight for the last 3 weeks and you know exactly what you’ve been eating, you’ll then know how much to add or subtract, depending on your goals, to get to where you want to be.
If you don’t know what you’re currently eating, you’ll just be arbitrarily consuming random amounts of food hoping you eventually get the body of your dreams.
My point is once you start counting macros, it becomes much more of a science and gives you tangible data to help you reach your goals. Without the data and knowledge, your chances of getting the physique of your dreams are slim to none.
So, now that we’re on the same page on why counting your macros is so important, let’s figure out how to start right now!
Here are the steps to get you on your way to counting your macros and getting that muscular, chiseled body you’ve always wanted!
Step 1: Weigh Yourself
- Wake up tomorrow morning, go to the bathroom, and weigh yourself immediately. Weighing yourself in the mornings right after waking will ensure more accurate and consistent weigh-ins which is critical to your success. Weigh yourself once per week on the same day at the same time.
Step 2: Eat Regularly and Count
- The next thing you want to do is start tracking everything you eat each day. It’s important to note that you don’t need to change how you eat at this point. For the first two weeks just track what you normally eat. That data combined with your weekly weigh-ins will help you figure out if what you’re eating is causing you to gain weight, lose weight, or stay the same.
- Once you reach a point where you are maintaining your weight for at least a week, it’s safe to assume that you are eating at a maintenance level.
Step 3: Set Your New Macro’s
- Once you figure out what your maintenance level is, take your goal and adjust your macros accordingly. This is also a great time to hire a qualified personal trainer to help you make adjustments. If that’s not feasible, just do some research on your own so you understand how to adjust yourself.
- If you’re trying to gain muscle, the general rule is to add 200-300 calories until you start gaining up to 1lb of lean mass per month. This will most likely equate to anywhere from 0.5-1lb of total mass gain per week on average. When you are trying to add muscle mass you will naturally add some fat as well, and that’s okay, but gaining more than 1lb of mass per week will likely lead to excessive amounts fat gain, so if you start to gain more than a 1lb per week of total mass you should decrease your calories slightly.
- If you’re trying to lose weight, you should start by decreasing calories by 200-300 until you are losing up to 1 lb of total mass per week. In general, losing more than about 1lb per week will likely lead to muscle loss, so I don’t suggest being any more aggressive than that.
Step 4: Plan Ahead
- Once you have your goal macros set (the macros you need to hit each day), planning ahead is crucial. The best way to ensure you hit your numbers each day is to figure out what you’re going to eat to hit your numbers ahead of time. Each night, try prepping your food for the following day. Doing that will make sure you are consistently hitting your numbers, it will stop you from cheating as much, and it’ll make sure you don’t miss meals because they’ll be all ready to go whenever it’s time to eat!
After you reach this point it is just a matter of continuously adjusting your numbers until you reach your goal, which could be in 6 weeks, 6 months, or several years, depending on your specific goals and starting point. Do not let time discourage you! The important thing to remember is that just like anything else in life, fitness is a journey and as long as you are moving forward, you are doing the right things.
Keep In Mind
It’s important to keep in mind that while eating and training consistently are crucial, you may not see consistent results. Gaining/losing a 1lb per week is an average and everyone’s body is different. Getting the body of your dreams is going to take time so make sure you set proper expectations and break long-term goals into smaller more achievable milestones. Doing so will ultimately lead you to success.
Helpful Tips
You should also pick up a food scale. In order for you to know how much you’re actually eating you’ll need to weigh your food before eating. While at first this may seem like a massive hassle, if you do it right it’s really not. I suggest going to the grocery store, buying all of your food for the week, and cooking it on the same day. Then just weigh your food the night before to hit the following day’s macros and you’re all set. By cooking all of your food on one day, you don’t have to cook throughout the week which actually ends up saving you time!
The Last Piece of the Puzzle
Bodyfat is key! Knowing your weight and macros are all parts of the puzzle, but bodyfat levels are the key. Knowing your body fat percentage in addition to your macros and body weight will help you figure out if the weight you are gaining/losing is muscle or fat, and will allow you to more accurately adjust your macros which will get you to your goal even faster.
Putting It All Together
There you have it! Follow the steps mentioned earlier and you’ll be ahead of most of the general population when it comes to fitness and health. More importantly, you’ll make your dream physique possible. In the end, it’s all about your health, how you look, and how you feel. When people don’t get results it’s often not because of their lack of trying, but more so due to a lack of knowledge. In this case, that knowledge is knowing what you’re putting in your body. Once you know that information and can properly adjust it, you’re guaranteed to see results, experience less frustration, and ultimately get the body you’ve always wanted.
Author Bio:
Sam Boghigian is a freak when it comes to fitness, especially bodybuilding. His passion is surpassed only by his work ethic and dedication to getting his clients real results–both physically and mentally. Growing up Sam experienced what life was like as someone who was pretty unhealthy and overweight. He made the decision to turn things around over 5 years ago and has never looked back. It’s his mission in life to help others achieve the same level of success, happiness, and health that he has experienced.
Social Links:
Website:
http://samboghigian.com/max-muscle-blueprint
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