How to Count Macros for Beginners
How To Count Macros For Beginners
When it comes to nutrition and your fitness goals the two most important things you need to know is how many calories are you eating everyday and what are your macronutrients for the day. Without this information, especially at the beginning of your journey, it can be hard to tell what is and isn’t working. Counting your calories and macronutrients will give you the best bang for your buck when it comes to your nutrition. By hitting these numbers consistently over time it would be hard not to get results. Let’s go over the basic of counting macros for beginners.
Counting Calories
Let’s get a little sciencey (total nerd alert!!) here to explain what exactly are calories and why you should care about them. A calorie is a unit of measure for energy. One calorie is how much energy is needed to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius. Every time you eat food your body is breaking down that food into components to use it for energy and other processes. If you are eating more calories than your body needs then it will store those extra calories in its fat cells. If you eat less than your body needs it will go to its fat stores and break them down for energy. This is a very basic breakdown of the process but hopefully it gives you an idea of why the number of calories you eat is so important.
To begin counting calories you are going to need a tool to record your daily calories. You can either use a notebook or a phone app like Mike’s Macros or MyFitnessPal. Record everything you eat and I mean everything. Try your best to keep track of even the smallest things like condiments, snacks, nibbles, and grazings. You won’t be perfect in the beginning or truly ever but the goal is to as close as you can get. Calorie counting is not an exact science so it is OK if you are not perfect.
How many calories you should be eating depends on what your fitness goal is. The simplest way is to use one of these three equations:
Fat Loss Goal: Bodyweight x 10
Maintenance Goal: Bodyweight x 12
Muscle Gain Goal: Bodyweight x 15
These equations keep calorie counting very simple. Before changing how many calories you are eating, see how many you are currently eating. You might come to find that you are eating more or less than your goal already. If you are already eating at your goal and not getting results try fixing you macronutrient levels before dropping or increasing your calorie levels.
Some great tools to use to help you measure out exactly how much you are eating are food scales, measuring cups, and food labels. Food scales are great for measuring out your portions so you know how much you are exactly eating. The same thing goes for measuring cups. Food labels are going to be your best friend. They will help make counting a lot easier. Eventually after using these tools for awhile you will be able to intuitively know about how many calories are in your meals.
The biggest benefit of count calories, other than helping you get results, is that you become self aware of how much or little you are actually eating. We tend to underestimate how much we are actually eating and by counting calories we can see how we are really doing.
Counting Macronutrients
Once you have mastered counting calories and are hitting your calorie goals pretty consistently it is time to level up and start counting your macronutrients. There are three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
Protein: the building blocks of lean tissue, like muscle, in your body.
1 gram=4 calories.
Carbohydrates: mainly used in the body as an energy source.
1 gram= 4 calories.
Fat: used for a whole host of functions in the body and is also used as an energy source.
1 gram = 9 calories
Finding your exact amount of macronutrients can be a little tricky because it has to do a lot with preference. You might like or thrive better with more carbohydrates or you might tolerate a lower calorie diet with more fat than carbohydrates. You won’t know until you start tracking consistently. Luckily if you have been tracking your calories with the apps I stated before they have already been doing this for you. Check out what is your usual amount of each macro to give yourself a good baseline on where your current macro levels are. Here are some ways to calculate how much of each macro you should get every day that my clients have found success with.
Protein: 1 gram per pound of lean body mass
This is a very attainable goal that will help your muscles recover from your workouts and help you stay fuller longer.
Carbohydrate: 20%-50% of the calories remaining
Staying at low carbs can make some people very tired, lethargic, and irritable so feel free to play around with this number. My clients have found it easier to stick to a lower carb diet because they are fuller longer and have less cravings
Fats: 50%-80% of the the calories that are remaining
“But John, Momma told me that fats were the devil!” Well Momma is usually right but not in this case. Fats are just as essential as the other new macros. Fats are going to keep you satisfied longer. Be careful because they are very calorie dense and can add up fast (don’t believe me measure out a serving of nuts and try not to be disappointed)
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to macronutrient counting because your diet can vary so much. These numbers are here to get you in the ballpark and the closer you get to them everyday the more likely you are to hit a home run. Putting all this information together, here is an example of a client’s calories and macros for their weight loss goal.
Client J: 200lbs body fat percentage 25%
Calorie Goal: 2000 calories/day
Protein: 150 grams (600 calories)
Carbohydrate: 125 gram (500 calories)
Fats: 100 grams (900 calories)
This client told me when they started using these numbers was, “Dam I feel like I am eating more food now then I was before I was trying to lose weight.” If you are setting your goals correctly that can be how you feel. You need to find the right balance for you and your life. Adjusting your calories and macros will take sometime to figure out but once you do it will help you thrive and get tremendous results.
The biggest tip when starting out counting macros for beginners…
My biggest tip for counting macros for beginners is to not focus on being perfect. Perfection is one of the biggest obstacles to progress. Counting macros is all about being in the ballpark. Being +/- 10 grams from your goal is not going to stop progress. Focus on trying to get as close as you can but do not fret if you are off by a smig here or there.
Now you are ready to go out and start counting those calories and macros! May each of your meals be filled with lots of protein!
Looking for more nutritional information check out these references:
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