What is "Tracking Macros", and How To Use It To Lose Fat & Gain Muscle
WHAT IS “TRACKING MACROS”?
AND HOW TO USE IT TO LOSE FAT & GAIN MUSCLE
Written by Jonathan Fletcher
If you want to take control of your nutrition and get serious about fat loss or building muscle, there’s really no better way than tracking macros.
If you’ve been on the interwebs in the last few years and googled anything about nutrition you’ve probably seen the term “MACROS” OR “MACRONUTRIENTS” pop up.
Maybe you rushed out to Whole Foods and headed straight for the Macronutrient aisle so you could start taking advantage of this new superfood for fat loss! Sadly, you couldn’t find a bag of macros, but you found this article and that’s even better!
Well when you finish reading this article you’ll know exactly:
What Macros and Macronutrients Are
What Tracking Macros Means
Why To Track Macros
How To Track Macros
Common Mistakes People Make When Tracking Macros
Let’s get started with some DEFINITIONS you should know.
What are Calories?
A calorie is a measurement of energy. The foods that we eat contain different amounts of calories (energy). Some foods have a bunch of calories and some, not so much. After we eat, our body extracts the energy (calories) in the food that we eat, converts it into an energy type that we can use (and store) to power everything we need to do. Everything from sleeping, to reading this article to lifting weights in the gym… It’s all powered by those calories in your food.
What are Macronutrients (or Macros)?
The term “Macros” is an abbreviation of “Macronutrients” so feel free to use them interchangeably.
Ok, pay attention because this is important. Now that you know that all food contains calories, I want you to understand that all of the calories in a food can be broken down into 4 categories of macronutrients.
Macronutrient Categories:
Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat
Alcohol
More on these later. For now just remember that all of the calories in food can be broken down by the quantity of each macronutrient in it. Every calorie gets accounted for into one of these macro categories.
It’s rare that a food contains calories from 1 macronutrient only. Typically a food will be made up of a combination of 2 or more different macros in different amounts.
You might have been surprised to see Alcohol on this list. We won’t spend much time on it here in this article since it’s not contained in food and doesn’t have any benefit when it comes to making improvements in your nutrition. We will talk about how to keep track of it within your macros later though so stay tuned.
What is Protein (The MUSCLE Macronutrient)?
Protein is an essential nutrient. We need it to stay alive. Protein in food contains amino acids that form the building blocks for tissues in our body like muscle. Different foods contain different amounts of protein. For example, an average sized chicken breast contains about 30g of protein while a handful of almonds has about 6g of protein.
KNOW THIS: 1 gram of protein contains 4 calories.
What are Carbohydrates (The ENERGY Macronutrient)?
Unlike protein, you can survive without carbohydrates. But is a life without carbs really worth living?
But seriously, carbohydrates are the preferred energy source for our bodies. When we eat carbohydrates they are converted into glucose and are burned for energy or stored as glycogen in our muscles and liver as reserve energy.
You probably already have an idea about what foods contain carbs since they get talked about a lot. Veggies, fruits, grains, beans and all of these guy’s cousins are the big boys in the carb category.
Just like protein, very few foods that have carbohydrates are PURE carbohydrates. Most foods with carbs also have some amount of fat and protein in them.
KNOW THIS: 1 gram of carb contains 4 calories.
What is Fat (The HORMONE Macronutrient)?
Just like protein, dietary fat is an essential nutrient. You need to eat it to stay above the dirt.
Dietary fat is necessary for some vitamin absorption (A,E,D and K) and adequate fat intake is necessary for normal hormone production and regulation.
Fat comes in 3 main varieties in our diet.
1: Saturated Fats- Fatty beef, lamb, pork, butter, cheese, dairy
2: Monounsaturated Fats - Olive oil, avocado, many nuts and seeds
3: Polyunsaturated Fats - Fatty fish, walnuts, flax seeds, tofu
Once you start “tracking macros” you will very quickly see that fat is hiding in tons of foods and it is quite easy to get enough fat in your diet without putting in much extra effort.
***As a rule we suggest keeping your saturated fat intake to less than 10% of your total calories for overall health reasons.***
KNOW THIS: 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories
| FAT DISCLAIMER |
One thing to be 100% clear about, do not confuse the dietary fat in your food with the stored fat on your body.
They share a name, and that’s about it.
The fat we store on our body comes from consuming too many calories, regardless of what macronutrient they came from.
It is not necessary to eat a certain amount of fat in order to lose fat.
Tell me about Alcohol (The FUN Macronutrient).
We're all adults here right? We like to have a drink every now and then and we think if you have a healthy relationship with alcohol you can incorporate it in moderation into an overall healthy lifestyle.
KNOW THIS: 100% pure ethyl alcohol has 7 calories per gram
WHAT IS TRACKING MACROS?
Every single calorie in a food gets put into one of the categories we just learned about above. Ever. Single. Calorie.
Tracking macros is the process of accounting for and logging the number of grams of protein, carbs and fat in the food that you eat each day.
Typically, if you are tracking macros you have specific goals for how much of each macro you’re trying to eat each day.
Tracking macros and trying to eat a certain number of grams of each per day is also a way of reliably and accurately tracking calories.
How so you ask? Remember, we know how many calories each gram of each macronutrient contains.
REMINDER: Protein and Carbs - 4 calories per gram, Fat - 9 calories per gram.
And if your goal is fat loss or muscle building you’re going to need to be eating the right amount of calories.
If you were to look at the label on the back of your cocktail peanuts (see photo below) you would see that one serving has:
14g of fat
5g of carbs &
7g of protein
How does that work out in calories?
14g of fat * 9 = 126 calories from fat
5g of carbs * 4 = 20 calories from carbs
7g of protein * 4 = 28 calories from protein
126+20+28 = 174 Total Calories
To summarize, TRACKING MACROS is the process of digging into the amount of protein, carbs and fat in foods and eating in a way that allows you eat within your “budget” for each for the day.
Fancy Ass Cocktail Peanuts
Notice that the food label says 170 calories instead of 174. Food companies are allowed to “round off” their macro totals which ultimately affects the number of calories that they report on the label. It’s RARE that a company over reports the calories. Usually they are UNDER. #conspiracytheory
WHY SHOULD I TRACK MACROS?
Maybe you’re wondering why bother with all of this nonsense?
Aren’t total calories the most important thing for weight loss?
You’re right! Total calories are KING!
Want to lose fat? Eat less calories than you burn.
Want to bulk up? Eat more calories than you burn.
But let’s not confuse WEIGHT LOSS and WEIGHT GAIN with FAT LOSS and MUSCLE GAIN.
Total calories is the thing that determines whether or not you gain or lose fat, but how you spread those calories out across the 3 macronutrients determines your BODY COMPOSITION.
Body composition is what you see in the mirror when your shirt is off.
Do you have any muscle tone? Do your arms have shape or do they look like those smooth holiday sausages at the kiosk in the mall in December?
I’m the same body weight in these two photos but my body composition is not the same.
Body composition example of Jonathan
Losing weight is simple.
It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s not complicated.
But if you want to improve your body composition, weight loss should not be your goal.
Fat loss and building muscle should be. We have a fantastic article on this if we do say so ourselves.
And there is no better tool to make sure that you’re improving your body composition than tracking macros.
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that your training plays a roll in your body composition changes too. If you’re looking for a training program to maximize your progress we have you covered.
HOW DO I TRACK MACROS?
So you wanna track your macros?
Ok, here we go! You don’t have to build your own spreadsheet or method of keeping track of all of this stuff… “They have an app for that”.
Here’s what you’re going to need:
A smartphone or a computer
A digital food scale
An understanding & loving significant other
Most of our clients use the app “MyFitnessPal” to track their food intake/macros although there are several great apps like Chronometer and LoseIt out there also.
When you set up the app it’s probably going to have you input your current weight, activity level and goal.
It will spit out it’s recommendations on total calories and goals for each of the 3 macronutrients.
Are these good recommendations? I’ll just say that they are not typically in line with our philosophy. Keep reading for a resource we built for this that you can have for free.
Ok so let’s assume you have your goals set for your protein, carbs, fat, and subsequently your calories.
The mission for the day is to eat the right amount of grams of each. It’s a little like food Tetris.
You’re going to be really bad at it at first.
Example of Macro Goals in MyFitnessPal
Example of Macro Goals in MyFitnessPal
You’ll get to the end of the day and you’ll be staring into the refrigerator looking for a food that has 20g of protein, 3 grams of carbs and 1 gram of fat.
You’ll get better with practice and you’ll find foods that you like that help you reach your goals. That’s one of the main things that a nutrition coach helps with.
Planning is a big part of tracking macros. Think about it like a budget. If you’re going to end up not “out spending” your macros you’ll need to put in some forethought instead of just winging it.
If you choose not to pre-log your food a day ahead we would recommend at least pre-logging the meal or snack that you’re about to eat to make sure it isn’t going to surprise you as far as the total macro content.
If you’re eating a bunch of complicated recipes every day or eating out at restaurants a lot you’re headed up a long, frustrating road.
Simplifying meals and making the majority of your own food is the best way to know what you’re eating and therefore make progress with your efforts in macro tracking.
Pro Tip #1
Many of our clients like to skip ahead a day in their food log and “pre-log” the next day with a general plan of what they’re going to eat. If things don’t go as planned it’s easy enough to adjust their log based on how the day actually played out. This strategy can keep you from devouring your entire day’s worth of carbs by lunch leaving you eating a mountain of just shrimp for dinner.
Pro Tip #2
When logging, look for easily adjustable entries. A little digging can save you a ton of frustration. If you eat 200g of rice it’s a lot easier if you use a food entry that can be adjusted by the gram vs. one that has you trying to convert oz to grams or worse yet cups to grams.
WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISTAKES WHEN TRACKING MACROS?
One of our goals as nutrition coaches is to not only help our clients find the right number of each macro to eat to reach their goals, but to also make sure they’re doing this whole process right.
This stuff can be really confusing and it’s easy to screw up. We’ve seen it all. As a matter of fact we wrote an entire blog post about how to track your food in the MyFitnessPal App.
Here are some of the most common mistakes we see:
Using shady entries in the app - Don’t just blindly trust the food entries you see in the app. Do a little research on the google machine or compare it to the nutrition label on the package to make sure it jives.
Logging meat wrong - If you weigh your meat raw, search for an entry that matches the statistics for raw meat. Same goes for cooked meat.
Logging Net Carbs - Net carbs are Carbs minus Fiber grams. But the truth is that we don’t know exactly how many calories from fiber are absorbed so count them anyway. #nonetcarbsnonsense
Setting different macro goals for rest and workout days - Don’t overcomplicate things. Stick with the basics and master it.
Eating extra food because of activity trackers - We are proud that you burned 400 calories on your run, but don’t eat more because of it.
Forgetting to log - Enough said .
Using too many estimations and using cups/tablespoons instead of weight measurements - There’s a big difference between 2 Tablespoons of Peanut Butter and 2 heaping Tablespoons of Peanut Butter.
Not tracking alcohol correctly - Here’s how to track alcoholic drinks to make sure that you don't over consume calories. 1. Look at the total calories in your drink. 2. Search your app database for “alcohol carbs”. 3. Adjust the serving quantity until you see the number of calories in your drink(s). This will remove the correct number of calories and carbohydrate macros from your daily budget. We generally advise against stealing macros from fat for alcohol and we forbid stealing them from your daily protein intake.
Final Thoughts
Like I said, just like anything, this takes practice. And you WILL get better at it with practice. Don’t lose sleep over trying to hit every macro down the exact gram.
We tell our clients that a “perfect day” is one where they get within 10g of protein and carbs and within 3-5g on fat.
The most important thing is that you treat this as a learning experience and always strive to get better.
When you mess up and accidentally eat 100 extra grams of carbs, forgive yourself and move on to next choice.
Don’t write off the whole day or the whole weekend. That will never work.
I mentioned earlier that we had a free resource for helping you set up your target Protein, Carbs and Fat. You can get it below.
We also can help you 1 on 1 with nutrition coaching. A plan that meets you where you are and will no doubt change your perspective of what sustainable nutrition can look like in real life.
We can only work with a select number of clients so if you’re interested, reach out today and let’s see if we’re a good fit.
Thanks for reading!
Jonathan
P.S. If you’re into fitness and nutrition, be sure and subscribe to our weekly Podcast.
