I WANT TO TRACK MACROS. NOW WHAT?
Maybe you’ve done some research or heard people talk about tracking macros, and you’d like to learn more or give it a try. I’m going to go over simple steps to set up your own macros, or just learn more about what tracking macros is.
Most people are familiar with tracking calories. Think of tracking macros as a more in-depth way of tracking calories. You can and will lose weight by tracking calories alone; however, you can ensure you are losing body fat and maintaining lean muscle by tracking macros instead.
Let’s break down what macros are. They are the carbohydrates, proteins and fats you consume.
- 1g protein = 4 calories
- 1g carbohydrate = 4 calories
- 1g fat = 9 calories
When looking at food labels, the total calorie of a food is determined by protein, carbohydrates and fats alone.
Now, how do you decide what you should be consuming for weight loss? Below is how to do that.
- Spend a few days using an app like MyFitnessPal to track your total calorie intake per day. Assuming you are maintaining or gaining weight, this is our starting point. (For the sake of the article, we will go with 2000 calories per day as my maintenance).
- Next, you will want to start with a 300-calorie deficit from what you are currently doing. (This brings us to 1700)
- For protein, you will set .7-1g per pound of weight you are. (I’m 130 lbs, so that’s 130g protein per day)
- Next, we want to set fats at 30% of daily intake (1700 x .3 = 510/9 calories = 56g fat intake)
- The rest we will give to carbohydrates. 130g protein (520 calories ), 56g fat (504 calories) leaves us 676 calories, and we will divide by 4 to get 169g carbohydrates.
- This makes my macros for weight loss 130g protein, 169g carbs and 56g fat.
You could do this in reverse if you want to be in a calorie surplus for gaining muscle.
