What Are “Macros?”
“Macros” is short for macronutrient. What are macronutrients? They’re the three categories of nutrients you eat. All calories come in the form of protein, carbohydrates and/or fats. So when someone says they are “counting macros,” it means they are counting the grams of proteins, carbs and fats that they are consuming.
Why Do Macros Matter?
Understanding macros is the first step to understanding how to write and plan any sort of diet. Depending on your dietary needs and fitness goals, you will need to manipulate what percentage of protein, carbs, and fats you take in daily. For an active human, it is commonly accepted that 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight is necessary to build and maintain lean muscle mass. This would mean that your diet could be up to 50-70% protein at each meal. A common macro ratio for building muscle and losing fat might look something like this:
Macro Ratio for Building Muscle & Losing Fat
60% protein/30% carbs/ 10% fat.
Now this is fairly aggressive, but you get the picture. Understanding how much of each macronutrient you should take in is the foundation to understanding how to diet. After you get comfortable with this concept, you can progress to “intuitive eating,” but that is a topic for another blog. Hope this helps!
