If you have followed me for any length of time then you have probably heard me talk about, “tracking my macros”. If you haven’t heard me personally talk about it, I’m betting you have heard SOMEONE throw around the terms in some form!
I decided to put together an introduction post for those of you who are brand new to tracking macros!
Before we get started, I want to define 2 terms:
Micronutrient: Google defines MICROnutrient as, “a chemical element or substance required in trace amounts for the normal growth and development of living organisms.” (Examples: Vitamins and minerals.)
Macronutrient: Google defines MACROnutrient as, “a type of food (e.g. fat, protein, carbohydrate) required in large amounts in the diet.”
Both are important for our overall health, but today we are going to focus on macronutrients since they are the key players in, “tracking your macros”!
MACRONUTRIENTS EXPLAINED
The three macronutrients are protein grams, carbohydrate grams, and fat grams. These three things directly translate to calories, and together, make up the caloric content of ALL the foods that we eat!
1g of protein = 4 calories
1g of carbohydrates = 4 calories
1g of fat = 9 calories
TRACKING YOUR MACRONUTRIENTS
Tracking your macronutrients means just that – tracking your protein grams, carbohydrate grams and fat grams that you consume on any given day! If you look on a nutrition label, there will always be a value for these three things – even if it’s zero.
WHY NOT JUST COUNT YOUR CALORIES?
As you can see from the example above, when you track your macros, you are also tracking your calories. So why would you go through the trouble of tracking the actual macronutrients? I like to describe it as an “optimized” way of calorie counting. It helps ensure a few things…
That you take in adequate protein. Protein is KEY in maintaining lean body mass (everything that isn’t body fat) while trying to lose body fat. There is no way to ensure that 100% of weight loss is body fat, BUT, eating enough protein is one of the best things you can do to tell your body to hang onto your lean body mass.
That you eat a balanced diet! If someone is just tracking calories, they can easily (sometimes accidentally) neglect an entire macronutrient group! Unless you are on a ketogenic diet (which I consider more of a lifestyle choice than a diet), you want to eat a balanced diet containing all of three of the macronutrients.
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM TRACKING MACROS?
Absolutely anyone! No matter what your goals are, what kind of workouts you do, or even if you aren’t a fan of exercise at all – ANYONE can benefit from what tracking your macros teaches you. My favorite thing about it is that it actually EDUCATES you about ALL foods. You aren’t just blindly eating some meal plan that was given to you! It is an eating management system that allows you make educated decisions about food based on your specific goals.
HOW CAN I GET STARTED?
The first thing I recommend you do is download a food logging app like MyFitnessPal! (My personal favorite.) There are a lot of different ones out there though – Lose it!, FatSecret, MyMacros+, etc. – so just play around with a few and find one that you like using!
WHAT SHOULD MY MACROS BE?
If you are looking into this on your own, (without the help of a coach), I recommend the following steps:
Before worrying about specific targets, take 2 weeks and start recording what you are ALREADY eating. Do your best not to change anything and make sure that you are honest with yourself! Sometimes this will reveal days you aren’t eating much at all (less than 1,000 calories for example), and sometimes this will reveal days when you are eating a lot more than you thought (over 3,000 calories for example). THESE ARE THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW. So be honest with yourself.
Once you have a few weeks logged, check and see what your weekly calorie average was for those 2 weeks as well as your average intake of each of the three macronutrients!
Once you have that information, you can adjust things based on your specific goals! This is where having a macro coach comes in handy.
A note on online macronutrient calculators…
There are a lot of different calculators online that will spit out a macronutrient breakdown based on information you input. My biggest concern with these is that they can only take objective information into account! (Height, weight, age, gender, etc.) And while these are important factors – things like dieting history, detailed daily activity, etc. – are arguably just as (if not more) important. I also find that it’s hard for people to “trust” these calculators. So even if the macronutrient breakdown they receive would be great – they don’t stick to it.
I hope this gives you a good introduction to tracking macros and what it means! I plan to dive a little deeper in coming posts.
Thanks for reading,
Mary Jo
HAVE QUESTIONS!? Leave them in the comments below or contact me here. I am a NASM certified personal trainer and online macronutrient coach and would love to talk with you about your goals!
