Macronutrients, or macros, are nutrients that your body needs in large amounts to perform everyday functions. The three macronutrients that fuel energy, store energy, and build and repair cells are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Tracking your macros can be an effective way to make sure that you are getting enough nutrients each day. It can also help with gaining or losing weight. Tracking macros will be different for everyone.
This article will review general guidelines for how to determine macros for a healthy diet.
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How to Count Macros for Weight Loss
Successful weight loss can be achieved when you maintain an overall calorie deficit. This means that you use more calories during the day than you are consuming through food. Weight loss can be achieved through taking in fewer calories, exercising more to burn more calories, or a combination of both to create a calorie deficit.
It is important to pay attention to your macros when trying to lose weight this way to make sure that you are still maintaining proper levels of nutrients. For most people looking to lose weight, fat loss is the goal while maintaining muscle mass. This requires maintaining an adequate amount of protein, while cutting calories from carbohydrate and fat sources.
Protein
As a general rule of thumb, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of protein for a healthy adult who performs minimal physical activity is 0.8 grams (g) of protein for every kilogram (kg) of body weight (g/kg), or approximately 0.36 g per pound of body weight. This comes out to at least 54 g of protein per day for a 150-pound person.
When you increase your activity level, your protein intake also needs to increase to support your muscle function and prevent the breakdown of muscle fibers according to the following guidelines:
- Minimal physical activity: 1.0 g/kg, or approximately 0.45 g of protein for every pound of body weight
- Moderate physical activity: 1.3 g/kg, or approximately 0.59 g of protein for every pound of body weight
- Intense physical activity: 1.6 g/kg, or approximately 0.73 g of protein for every pound of body weight
This comes out to 67.5 g, 88.5 g, or 109.5 gof protein per day for a 150-pound person depending on physical activity level.
Fat
Once you achieve your adequate level of protein per day, you want to make sure you are getting enough fat in your diet. Dietary guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) recommended fat intake between 20% and 35% of total calories.
The minimum of 20% calories from fat is needed to ensure that you are getting enough essential fatty acids and that your body can absorb fat-soluble vitamins, vitamins that can be absorbed only in the presence of fat. While 20% to 35% is the recommended range, there is no upper limit (UL) since there are no negative side effects associated with a higher fat intake, as long as the fat is from healthy fat sources.
To determine your fat intake, you first have to determine your ideal calorie intake per day. This will differ from person to person. For weight loss, your daily calorie goal will need to be lower than your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), a calorie calculation derived from an estimation of your physical activity and basal metabolic rate (BMR), the amount of calories you burn at rest.
Once you have this number, you will multiple it by 20% to figure out your minimum daily amount of fat calories. For a 2,000-calorie diet, this comes out to at least 400 calories from fat. You then divide this fat calorie number by the number nine, since there are 9 calories in every 1 g of fat.
For a 2,000-calorie diet with 20% (400 calories) coming from fat, this equals a minimum of at least 44 g of fat per day.
Carbohydrates
More math is needed to figure out your carbohydrate amount. To do this, take your daily calorie goal and subtract the calories from fat and protein. Because each gram of protein has 4 calories, you will multiply your grams of protein per day to figure out your protein calories.
You will then subtract this number, along with your fat calories, from your total calorie goal to come up with your carbohydrate calories. Because each gram of carbohydrate also has 4 calories, you will then divide your carbohydrate calories by 4 to determine your number of carbohydrate grams.
How to Count Macros to Gain
For gaining weight, you may also want to track your macros to make sure that you are getting enough calories per day to support weight gain. Whether you want to gain overall weight or specifically muscle mass, your macro breakdown may look slightly different.
Weight
Gaining weight typically requires a calorie surplus, or consuming more calories than your body needs to complete everyday functions. Calculations for gaining weight typically start with an additional 100–200 calories per day added to your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), but this number can be highly variable depending on how much weight you intend to gain.
Weight gain can be accomplished through a variety of different macro combinations, as long as your overall calories for each day exceeds what your body needs. Usually, this is accomplished either through increasing your fat or carbohydrate intake.
Each gram of fat has more than double the amount of calories as a gram of protein or carbohydrate, so eating more grams of fat per day easily increases your calories per day as well. Because fatty foods can be filling, however, some people may feel full on a higher-fat diet and are unable to consume enough calories.
Increasing your grams of carbohydrates per day will also help you gain weight. Simple carbohydrates, like sugar, bleached flour products like breads, pastas, cereals, and crackers, white potatoes, and white rice are fast-digesting carbohydrates that lack fiber to fill you up.
These foods are easier to eat in larger quantities without feeling full, which can help you increase your carbohydrate intake per day, and overall calories to help you gain weight.
Your fat and calorie grams can be calculated from your daily calories goal after your protein needs are subtracted from your daily total. Protein guidelines remain the same whether you are gaining, losing, or maintaining weight.
Muscle Mass
If you are looking to gain muscle mass, you not only need a higher calorie intake each day, but also need to focus on your protein intake and exercise in the gym. Higher calorie intake without stimulating your muscles through exercise like lifting weights, doesn’t send signals to your body to build more muscle. Simply consuming more calories more often results in gaining body fat.
Consuming more calories from protein can help gain muscle mass rather than body fat.
The protein requirements for weight loss are the same for muscle mass gain depending on your physical activity level:
- Minimal physical activity: 1g/kg, or approximately 0.45 g of protein for every pound of body weight
- Moderate physical activity: 1.3 g/kg, or approximately 0.59 g of protein for every pound of body weight
- Intense physical activity: 1.6 g/kg, or approximately 0.73 g of protein for every pound of body weight
Because too much protein can have negative side effects, including kidney damage, excess protein beyond these amounts is generally not recommended beyond 2 g/kg, or approximately 0.91 g of protein for every pound of body weight.
Nutrition Mistakes That Hinder Muscle Growth
Macronutrients Explained: Benefits of Thinking Big Picture
Whether you are looking to gain weight, lose weight, or maintain a healthy body, it’s important to think about your macros on a large scale when it comes to supporting your body functions. Counting calories alone isn’t necessarily ideal for maintaining proper nutrition of your body to fuel your functions and achieve the body composition that you desire.
People who follow specialized diets should pay extra attention to their macronutrient ratios to make sure that they are not deficient in any category. People who are vegetarian (do not eat animal flesh), vegan (do not any eat foods derived from animals, including eggs and dairy), or pescatarian (mainly eat a seafood and vegetarian diet) often do not consume the same levels of protein that other people do due to decreased consumption of animal products.
If you follow one of these diets, tracking your protein intake is especially important to make sure that you are getting enough to support your body's functions.
Macronutrients: How to Be Sure You’re Getting Them All
Special Precautions and Reminders
Before adjusting your macronutrients to suit your needs, always make sure to check in with a healthcare provider to make sure that you are not doing any type of drastic change that can negatively impact your health.
While lowering carbohydrate and sugar intake in people with diabetes, for example, is beneficial to lower blood sugar, lowering your carbohydrate intake by too much can be potentially dangerous and cause hypoglycemia. Other conditions, like digestive issues, can get worse by having too high of a fat intake, whereas too low of a fat intake can cause hormonal issues.
Working with a registered dietitian to create a macronutrient ratio that suits your individual needs and goals is best to make sure that you are adjusting your dietary needs safely for your own personalized health. Everybody is different, so not everyone should follow the same macronutrient ratios.
Macro Foods to Eat Regularly
Every food you eat has a macronutrient breakdown, but some foods are better than others for supporting optimal health. The best macronutrient sources come from whole, minimally processed food, such as unprocessed meat, poultry, fish, eggs, fruits, vegetables, tubers, nuts, and seeds.
These food sources also contain high levels of micronutrients, or vitamins and minerals that are important for supporting healthy body functions. Whole foods also can help keep you full for longer, especially if they have healthy amounts of dietary fiber. They can also help to lower levels of inflammation throughout your body.
How to Follow an Anti-Inflammatory Diet (and Why You Should)
Macro Foods to Eat in Moderation
Although not particularly nutritious, even unhealthy food is made up of macronutrients, mostly unhealthy fats and high amounts of carbohydrates through sugar. Heavily processed food and snack items, fried food, and desserts are best eaten in moderation. These foods can increase inflammation throughout the body and are typically low in beneficial micronutrients and dietary fiber.
Summary
Macros, which are short for macronutrients, are the three main nutrients of the body that are required in large amounts to fuel everyday functions. Macros include carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Generally, you need to meet a minimum amount of protein and fat, while your carbohydrate amount can fluctuate.
Tracking your macros regularly and adjusting the amount that you consume from each category can be helpful for overall health, weight gain, or weight loss. Because making drastic changes to your diet can have negative effects on your health, it is important that you consult with your healthcare provider before making changes to your diet. Consider talking with a registered dietitian to figure out a macronutrient ratio that works for you and helps you meet your goals.
