Tuesday, April 16, 2024

What Is Your Macro?

I know it seems like every day there are new terms for everything we do. Ever since weight loss has become a science, your doctor would tell you to lose some weight. You need to eat less and exercise more. Most of the time that would go in one ear and out the other. Only to give you temporary results. But now there is more science around losing weight and there are results to prove it. 

Believe this or not, those people who order their food online claim they buy less food, eat better, save money, and lose weight. It's kind of like the woman who sends her husband with a list to do the shopping. He buys everything on the list and comes home. Most men don't browse the alies. 

Losing body fat is not about eating less, it's about eating the right foods. Macro is one of those new words that pertain to your eating habits.

What’s a “macro”? In this case, it means getting all the nutrition you can in the least amount of calories. Maximize your meals. It's the whole idea behind losing weight. 

We always hear that we need to eat 3 well-rounded meals per day; breakfast, lunch & dinner. But what our bodies and metabolisms tell us, is that we need to be eating 5 – 6 small meals per day, essentially making each meal a “snack.” Also, be sure to be eating every 2 – 3 hours to keep your metabolism boosted throughout the day! Now I have my breakfast foods at breakfast time (within 45 minutes of waking up) and I have my dinner foods at dinner time (chicken, rice, vegetables), but I also eat less of them at one time and spread them out throughout the day. I’ve recently seen an article that states you should not eat more than 400 – 500 calories in one sitting. This makes sense if you’re eating 6 times per day!

My Calorie Intake (estimate) Breakdown

Breakfast: 194 calories + Green Tea

Snack: 202 calories

Lunch: 325 calories + Green Tea

Snack: 156 calories

Dinner: 358 calories + Green Tea

Dessert: 169 calories

Daily Calorie Intake = 1,404 calories

If you need help calculating what you should be eating, there are a lot of macro calculators out on the internet. The problem is they give different numbers. In fact, I got different numbers for TDEE, BMR, and Macros from almost every calculator. This makes it difficult to understand what exactly you are supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer or solution to this problem right now, except to use a few different calculators and find values that make sense based on all the given values. Here are a few calculators I used to find my current macros.

The Healthy Eater

IIFYM

KatyHearnFit

BodyBuilding.com

FBG Girls

MuscleForLife

Keep in mind, that just because 2 calculators say the same thing, does not mean you should automatically use that count. It could simply mean they used the same formulas.

Now It’s important to stick as close as possible to your calorie goals to see the results that you want, but it’s also really important to eat when your body tells you it’s hungry (when it needs more nutrients). It’s also important to know when you are hungry and when you need water! If I’m between meals/snacks then I’ll drink half of my CamelBak water bottle and eat up to 5 almonds. That will usually tell me if I’m actually hungry. On the other hand, don’t stuff yourself sick. If you’re not hungry but you have more calories for the day than you are supposed to consume, it’s okay. If this happens repeatedly re-evaluate when you are eating throughout the day, maybe you are eating too little calories in the morning? It’s also smart to recalculate your macros every once in a while. Your intake needs to change as your body and goals change!

Follow me on X, the former Twitter, @ray0369 to get a link to my latest posts.

If you want to lose your body fat look for my e-books at the websites listed below. You’ll get information on Healthy eating, exercise, and diet. Instead of spending hours on the internet reading dozens of posts, you can save time by picking up one of my e-books. There are two e-books. “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight?” is available at all the online bookstores selling for $3.99. Go to any of the websites below and search the title to find my e-book. This book gives you all you need to lose weight without spending money on gym memberships, diet plans, or meal plans. 

Look for my first book at Amazon.com, bn.com, iBooks, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, or Gardner Books in the U.K.

My new e-book is available on Smashwords.com and other online bookstores. Just type “getting to a Healthy Weight” in the search box at the top of the home page. 

Look for my podcast by searching “How Bad Do You Want To Lose Weight” on the podcast app that you use. You’ll see a piece of my book cover.



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