Presently, many people are more interested in living a healthy lifestyle. They are more curious than in the past about what they should eat and what they should stay away from to remain fit and healthy. Keeping your diet under control is the best way to wage war on fat. The pressing question is how many calories should you eat a day to lose weight?
The answer to this question is difficult because every person’s body is different. There is an answer and it can be found in your daily macronutrient intake. That leads to people talking about macros. You may have heard these terms “flexible dieting” or “if it fits your macros”, which are becoming buzzwords and concepts gaining popularity because the method is easy and flexible to follow.
What Are Macros?
The term Macro is short for macronutrient. The prefix macro means large. Macronutrients are compounds your body needs in large quantities to create calories.
The three macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Each macronutrient provides calories in different amounts:
- Carbs provide 4 calories/gram
- Proteins provide 4 calories/gram
- Fats provide 9 calories/gram
What Do Macros Do?
Counting macros accomplishes 3 things:
- You lose the fat you’ve been trying to get rid of.
- You hold onto your lean muscle mass.
- Your body remains satiated and you feel full most of the day.
Macros in your diet are necessary for a healthy lifestyle. Each type of macronutrient serves a unique function in human body. Different diets and lifestyles demand different ratios.
You only need a certain number of calories, and that amount varies from person to person. Specifics are based on your unique history, fitness level, metabolism, and genetic predisposition.
On Keto, you don’t want the 45-65 gms of carbs the government agencies recommend. The plan on Keto is to cut the carbs down to a maximum of 5 carbs (or net carbs) per day.
Why Track Macros Instead of Calories
Tracking macros instead of calories have its benefits. Using this method allows you more latitude to choose the food items you rather eat than a meal plan telling you what to eat. If you are just tracking calories, you land in the same trap as before on the Standard Western Diet, eating all proteins, and carbs, but no fat, or all fat and carbs but not enough protein.
To make sure that you’re getting a healthy amount of each macronutrient, you want to track macros. Today, there are high tech gadgets and phone apps as well as software programs online. All of these make calculating macros a lot easier than doing pages of math
MyFitnessPal or Fitocracy Macros are a couple examples of programs that track macros.
How Can You Calculate Macro Amounts?
You still need to do some math. Just not as much. First, you accurately measure your food. You can use the nutritional information on the label for packages. You will need to search nutritional facts online for that kind of information on fresh whole foods.
If you don’t have access to one of the gadgets, you can easily use a Macro Calculator. It’s the easiest way to measure your macros:
