Now that we are tracking calories, and have the biggest tool to change body composition, we can look at macro nutrients and how they fit in our lifestyle and make calorie consumption easier or harder.
If you missed part 1 of our series, check that out before finishing this video!!
Macro nutrients are simply protein, carbs and fats. Protein comes from sources like beef, chicken, eggs and fish. Carbs come from sources like fruits, vegetables, rice and pasta. Fats come from sources like oils, avocados, butter and nuts.
As you’ve heard before, protein is the building block to our muscles. But protein plays a vital role in keeping hunger away. If you’re consuming the proper amount of protein in a day, eating at a deficit or your maintenance number of calories becomes far easier. We should all be striving to eat .75x our bodyweight in grams of protein everyday. So for a 150 pound person, they should be eating 112g of protein at the bare minimum.
The older you get, the more important protein becomes in your diet. Maintaining muscle mass is one of the biggest things we can do for ourselves and having adequate fuel to maintain it is paramount.
Carbs are the primary source of energy used on a daily basis. Carb consumption is vital for people with active jobs and active lifestyles as it provides energy to perform these tasks with optimal fuel levels.
Yet carbs that are eaten in excess is when problems arise. Overeating carbs is something that can happen at the snap of a fingers because you don’t get full very quickly.
Carb intake for someone looking to lose weight should be between 0.7 to 1.0x bodyweight in grams. While actively level increases, and the desire to lose weight decreases, carb intake can increase upwards of 1.5-3x bodyweight in grams.
Fat is generally know as the longer term energy source as well as the macro nutrient most known for regulating hormones and optimizing body function.
There are multiple different types of fat, at Tilla Fit we recommend sticking with fat sources that originate from earth, this includes butter, tallow and meat fats. If using oil, we recommend Olive Oil.
For the majority of people, hanging around 0.3-0.4x your bodyweight in grams of fat is a healthy level. This means for our 150 pound person, eating around 45g of fat a day would be great.
We’ve now talked about both calorie consumption and macro nutrient intake. Analyzing and tracking these two things can go an extremely long way in getting you one step closer towards your health and fitness goals!
Take a screen shot of this graph as a recap of what we just discussed detailing the macro breakdown based on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Up next in week three of our series will be more about tracking and measuring calories and macros.
