Should You Count and Track Macros?
Listen to this info on Episode 89 of the Strong and Simple Podcast:
Watch The episode on Your Tube
Over the past few years, there’s been quite a bit of buzz around counting macros and how this is a non-diet, non-restrictive solution for weight loss. So you might be asking yourself, is this method of tracking something I should do and try?
To help you answer this for yourself, I am going to break down, in an objective way, what counting macros is, what it involves and how to get started if that’s what you choose for yourself.
I do want to preface that weight loss will occur when more energy is used then consumed over time. Macro Counting is another way to restrict calories without necessarily “paying attention” to calories. Instead, you are tracking and manipulating grams of macronutrients, but if you are losing weight, you are in a calorie deficit. So macro counting is not a magic wand that some marketing will portray it as.
If this is the route you decide to take for yourself, it can be very useful to have a coach to support you with the calculations, food recommendations, and to guide you when adjustments should be made as you progress towards your goals. A coach can also monitor for signs of unhealthy and disordered patterns of eating that tracking this intensely can lead to that we may not notice in ourselves.
First off, what are macros?
When we talk about nutrients, we categorize them as micronutrients, nutrients your body needs in small amounts (like vitamins or minerals) or macronutrients, nutrients your body needs in large amounts.
Macronutrients are different from micronutrients in that they are larger, perform different functions, and micronutrients do not provide energy to the body.
The three macronutrients are: carbohydrates, fats, and protein. All are important for your body to function and food items can be classified as one of those categories, oftentimes having a combo of 2 or 3 of them. For example, a slice of swiss cheese has 5 grams of fat and 5 grams of protein. A container of coconut Icelandic yogurt has 4 g of fat, 15 g carbohydrates and 15 grams of protein. A half a cup of black beans has 0.5 grams of fat, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of protein. If a food item has 2-3 macronutrients in it, the most dominant one determines how that food would be classified.
So what do these macronutrients do for us?
Carbohydrates are found in: grains, legumes, fruits, veggies, and sweets. They are our body’s primary fuel source as our body and brain use them the most efficiently. When we eat carbohydrates, they are broken down into glucose which is then either used immediately by body cells to produce energy, stored for later use as glycogen, or converted and stored as fat if no immediate use and stores are full. Fiber is a carbohydrate which helps our digestion, decrease serum cholesterol and supports waste removal from the body.
Carbohydrates are important for our brains! Our brain has a really hard time using fat for energy and it cannot store its own glycogen so it’s important to have a consistent supply of carbs to fuel your brain. You might have heard of “Keto fog” This is what can often happen when folks go very low carb and their brain is not able to work properly as it does not have enough glycogen to use as fuel.
Fat: Found in: dairy, eggs, animal protein, fatty fish, coconut, avocado, seeds, nuts, Fat provides energy for our body, though not as efficiently as carbs. Other important functions of fat: forms structures of body cells, assists in absorption of certain vitamins and the formation of hormones.
Protein: Protein’s primary role: rebuild, repair, recover. It provides the building blocks of bodily tissues helps with injury recovery, immune system function, and increased strength from exercise. Protein can also supply energy as a last resort. If in a calorie deficit, eating sufficient protein is important to avoid or minimize lean tissue breakdown and because we digest protein slowly, it helps feel full for longer.
It is important to ensure we are getting a variety of each macronutrient throughout our regular diet. This is important to ensure we are ingesting:
Different sources of food that provide different micronutrients
Consume all 9 essential amino acids
Consume different kinds of fat
So now that we’ve discussed WHAT the macronutrients are and some of the ways they are important, we can discuss what counting them means.
How to Count Macros
It can be helpful, especially for folks who are strength training or training for a sport to track or make note of protein and carbohydrate intake to ensure adequate intake for muscle recovery and energy recovery. This is technically macro tracking because you are noting and maybe jotting down or tracking these numbers. However, this is a bit different then what we are seeing on social media being marketed as “macro tracking” or “ counting macros.”
“Counting macros” is just a method of tracking how much of each macronutrient you are eating each day and over time. For some people, setting specific proportions or percentages of macros each day allows them to eat in a calorie deficit while maintaining or even building muscle but losing fat.
So how do you figure this out? The proportion of macros you eat each day to optimize how you are feeling and progressing towards your goals will be highly individualized, which is why working with a coach can be useful; but there are some guidelines on where to get started, which I will attempt to break down below as simply as possible. This next section is going to be highly math and number based so try to stick with me here!
We’re going to run this with an example fictional case study for a moderately active woman who weighs 180 pounds seeking fat loss/body recomposition. But know there are so many other examples we could run with, including non-fat loss reasons for tracking macros, which is why this is so individualized.
Know that each macronutrient provides a certain amount of calories per gram.
1 gram protein = 4 calories
1 gram carbohydrates = 4 calories
1 gram fat = 9 calories
2. Determine your weight in kilograms: body weight in pounds/2.2 = body weight in kilograms
For example: a 180 pound person weighs 82 kilograms
3. Now, knowing this information, you’ll have to calculate your energy needs (calories). Yup, macro counting is based on the principle of calories in, calories out (CICO).
You can use an online calculator, or use a chart if you like to do your math calculations out with pencil and paper, you can utilize a table / equation to help you figure this out. You’ll utilize your weight, your goals, and energy expenditure to figure out this number.
An estimated calorie range for a moderately active 180 pound woman who is seeking body recomp/ fat loss is 2160 to 2520.
4. Once you have this number, you’ll determine your desired macronutrient split.
The RDA recommends:
-Carbohydrates 45-65%
-Protein 10-35%
-Fat 20-35%.
Precision Nutrition recommends the following as a good start range for most people:
-Carbohydrates 40- 60%
-Protein 15 -35%
-Fat 20-40%.
5. You will determine your split based on your goals, preferences, activity levels and so on to make this customized to you and your needs.
I recommend starting with your protein range first when calculating your needs of each macro in grams per kilogram of body weight. This is especially recommended if you are strength training and/or aiming for weight/fat loss and body recomposition as protein helps to build muscle, prevent muscle loss when in a deficit and many other body functions as listed in the section above.
The range for protein is 1.3 - 2.9 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight depending on your goal (general wellness, body recomposition, muscle gain) and activity level.
So, if you are a 180 pound woman (82kg) who is aiming for fat loss/body recomposition and are moderately active, the recommended range of protein is 1.8 to 2.4 grams protein per kg body weight. For simplicity's sake for this example, let’s fall in the middle of the range with 2 grams protein per kg body weight which gives us a target of 164 grams of protein each day.
6. Next, we’ll figure out our fat and carbohydrate target. This can depend on your dietary preferences. Figure out how many calories and percentage of macros you have left after figuring out your protein target.
Total calories - (total grams of protein x 4 calories) = fat and carb calories
So if we use our example from before, her estimated calorie range was 2160 to 2520. Let’s pick a number in the middle for our example, so 2,300 as our total calories.
2,300 - (164 grams of protein x 4 calories) =
2,300 - 656 = 1644 calories left for carbs and fat
7. To get your protein percentage, divide calories from protein by total calories:
Calories from protein / Total calories = Percent of total calories from protein
656 calories from protein/ 2,300 total calories = 28.5% calories from protein
8. Now, subtract your percent of protein from 100 to get your percent of fat and carbohydrates.
100 – Percent of calories from protein = Percent of fat and carbs
100 -28.5 = 71.5%
Now, you can decide how you want to split that for fat and carbs.
9. Refer back to those recommended percentage ranges from the RDA and Precision Nutrition and also consider that the more active you are, the higher range of carbohydrates you will want to aim for to ensure energy!
So, for the sake of this example, since she is moderately active, let’s say 50% carbs.
Total calories x 0.5 = Carbohydrate calories
2,300 x 0.5 = 1150 carbohydrate calories
Carbohydrate calories / 4 = Grams of carbohydrates
920 / 4 = 287.5 grams of carbohydrates
10. This split of 28% protein, 50% carbs leaves us with 22% fat so:
Total calories x 0.22 = fat calories
2,300 x0.22 = 506 fat calories
Fat calories / 9 (remember fat has 9 calories per gram!) = grams of fat
509 / 9 = 56 grams of fat
11. So for this example, a moderately active woman, 180 pounds (82 Kg) who wants to lose weight/body recomposition might start with:
Total calories: 2,300
Protein = 28% 164 grams of protein each day (656 calories from protein)
Carbohydrates = 50% 287.5 grams of carbs per day (1152 calories from carbs)
Fat = 22% 56 grams of fat per day (504 calories from fat)
What’s Next?
Phew. Yup. That’s a lot of calculations! So what do you do with this info?
Now you need to track it all. There are many apps out there that you can use to track your food - you’ll want to measure and weigh your food for accurate amounts of food to ensure you are truly falling into those percentages.
So, you are essentially tracking calories, but you are just categorizing where those calories are coming from. Because we are paying attention to the macronutrients instead of just calories, we can gain more information about how foods make us feel over time, especially in relation to our training:
Are you able to continue to progress with your training or are you hitting a wall?
Are you sleeping well?
Are you feeling energized during the day?
Are you constantly hungry?
All of these questions and others can help you determine what is working for you and your life in terms of nutrition and then be able to make adjustments as needed.
Macro counting works especially well for folks who have more extreme physique change goals such as body building or physique competitors and even for performance based goals likes powerlifting and other athletics to ensure you are able to be well fueled for performance and recovery!
For most folks with general wellness or body recomposition goals, the amount of tracking and attention to meal planning and prepping with macro counting can feel overly restrictive, overwhelming and frustrating. For these folks, focusing in on habits to incorporate in their lives in a slow, practiced way can lead to the sustainable results most are looking for, without the minutiae of macro manipulation and tracking.
So is this for you?
This is a question for you to answer. If you are someone with a history of disordered eating or eating disorders, I strongly recommend you speak with your counselor and/or registered dietician. For other folks, working with a knowledgable and compassionate coach can not only support you with utilizing this method and reaching your goals, but can observe red flags of signs of obsessive and/or disordered patterns of eating with this method before the person implementing the practice might be aware of.
In my opinion, this method can be overly complicated and burdensome for folks with general wellness goals, including weight loss.
My mission is to help women and other folks who always felt like they had to shrink down, shift to discovering how getting and feeling strong(er) can feel instead.
So when someone comes to me with a weight loss goal, I meet them where they are at. Your goal and desire is valid. But I will not use or encourage the use of a scale, tape measure, or before and after pictures as the measures of progress. If you would like to use those metrics for yourself, then that is a-ok and your choice for yourself.
Instead, we’ll start to match nutritional habits to incorporate into your life to your activity level - being fed and fueled - so you can kick ass during your workouts and be able to adequately recover so progress is seen and felt over time. We will also start to work on strategies and reflective practices that will allow you to shift to a mindful, intuitive way of eating - which will truly be sustainable for the long haul! This might include having some targets for protein intake, which many women I work with are struggling with when they start working with me. But does not necessarily mean all of the minutia described above.
This might result in weight loss / fat loss as you build muscle and you might find that clothes that were tight are more comfortable again. But we are shifting the focus from an outcome to habits that we can actually be in control of. What you will definitely gain is a tool box of strategies and habits that help you feel nourished, fed, and satisfied.
And this approach can feel scary as hell since it’s so different and foreign to what has been embedded into our psyches and beliefs of what “good” “valued” “worthy” bodies look like and what “it takes” to get there.
But if you are sick and tired of the on again, off again cycle of diets and lifestyles and are recognizing that the idea of “I’m just going to try this (insert diet/method here) one more time and it will be different this time” is really just jumping onto the on/off again cycle, why not try a different approach? One that might actually change your relationship with food, fitness, and your body?
If you are interested in chatting to find out if we’d be a good fit to work together for your nutrition goals, especially ones to support your training and overall wellness, schedule an initial 20 minute nutrition consult here!
Podcast Episode of the Strong and Simple Podcast: Should You Track Macros?