Macro Crash Course
Macro Crash Course!!
Macros are something that are important to pay attention to as you progress on your journey. I have seen clients that appear to eat healthy, but their macros are out of whack, thus they are not losing weight, when that is their goal.
Macros are short for macronutrients. They are big category nutrients that fuel your body. Foods are put into three categories: protein, fats, and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are digested in the intestine, where they are broken down into their basic units:
Carbs into sugars
Fats into fatty acids and glycerol
Protein into amino acids
Here is a brief breakdown of each macro:
Protein-Protein is the long burn fuel source. Protein makes the body work to break down, thus it stays with you for a long time. Protein has 4 calories, or energy, per gram. Protein also saves you around 25 percent of the calories taken in by its thermic effect to break down. Protein is the macro to help build and repair muscle.
Fat-Fat is essential to your body running like a well-oiled machine. Fat is the longest lasting fuel source for your body. It helps protect your organs, helps your brain function, and is used as reserve energy. Fat has 9 calories per gram, so you can eat less, and get more energy. When we overeat, fat is what is built up so we can use it later.
Carbohydrate-Carbohydrates are the rocket fuel for your body. They are burned the quickest and give your body the quickest and biggest energy spikes. Carbs have 4 calories per gram. Over-eating carbs, or eating processed carbs can lead to unhealthy habits and issues like diabetes.
Not all forms of the same macro are equal. If you are beginning to pay attention to macros, just know that the more it looks like what it came from, the better. If it looks like the food, then it is processed less and has fewer extra ingredients.
There will be a point when you need to learn how to properly manipulate your macros to continue to reach your goals. We will cover this in future posts when we get a handle on simple substitutions, which is the next step to take after our food journals have been recorded.
We’ll go back to looking over the food journals and seeing what to do next…
