Macros: What are they and how to count them

So you’ve seen the word all around fitness articles, nutrition advice and even as a hashtag. But what are they really?

I assure you you know what they are, but when we learnt about them in school, they had another name! Macros are the big nutrients your body needs to function, and they are divided in carbohydrates, fats and proteins. They are so important because they give you all the energy, calories and components  that your body takes from food to rebuild itself. But since they give you energy, it also means they give you calories:

• 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
• 1 gram of fat = 9 calories
• 1 gram of protein = 4 calories

The amount of each of these macronutrients is what makes up the total amount of calories that your food has. So now it’s not only about how many calories your food has, but from where the calories came from! This is actually very important, because even though they tell us that what matters to lose weight  is the calories that you eat minus the calories that you burn, this is not as easy. Your body uses the calories differently depending on where they come from. So how much of each should be eating?

• Carbohydrate: 45 to 65 percent
• Protein: 10 to 35 percent
• Fat: 20 to 35 percent

Among these ranges is where you should aim to be. And you should vary it depending on your goals. For example, if you are trying to lose weight, you might want to increase your protein intake while reducing fat and carbohydrates. Or if you are trying to build up more muscle, it would be best to increase protein and carbohydrates while reducing fats. When counting macros, or at least taking them into account along with calories, you can make sure that not only you are not getting more calories than your body needs, but also that your body does the right thing with those calories. But take into account that reducing doesn’t mean eliminating! You still need to eat from all the groups so that your body gets the nutrients it needs!

But how do you count macros? It depends on how commited you want to be. Some fitness branches like keto or bodybuilders are very into counting macros which is determining for the success of the program. If you are among these branches, I would recommend to get a macro counter, that would tell you how much of each group to eat, and where you enter the data of what you’ve eaten to calculate if you are in your range. Others prefer to combine macro and calorie counting, using apps like myfitnesspal which counts your total calories, and at the same time tells you how your macros are going. Personally I prefer that choice because I like my eating to be a bit more flexible, and to simply arrange that I’m not above my target calories and that my macros are not very shifted. But if you are the kind of person who likes to be more structured and you need more clear limits not to get off track, then pure macro counting can be a better choice for you. So now, which counting method are you gonna follow?