Macros, also known as macronutrients, help you track more than just calories and improve your diet. The macronutrient composition of food can affect your brain activity, how hungry or full you feel, your energy levels, and more. Often times, people follow their calorie goals, but don’t get the nutrients they need to perform at optimal levels.
This is where tracking macronutrients (and micronutrients) rather than just calories helps. This article goes into depth about macronutrients, micronutrients, how to track them, when you should track them, and so on.
Macronutrients, also called macros, define where your calories come from. There are three categories of macronutrients that provide energy – carbohydrates, fat, and protein.
1 gram of carbohydrates – 4 calories
1 gram of protein – 4 calories
1 gram of fat – 9 calories
You can adjust your macronutrient ratios to build muscle, maintain your body, or lose weight.
For example, the keto diet is popular for weight loss. This diet is very low in carbohydrates and high in fat. It follows the guidelines of 75-80% calories from fat, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbohydrates. With these macro splits, the body goes into ketosis and burns stored fat rather than glycogen (from carbohydrates).
If you’re not dieting or trying to lose weight, a good ratio of macronutrients looks like:
Carbs: 45–65% of total calories
Fats: 20–35% of total calories
Proteins: 10–35% of total calories
Macronutrients often get confused with micronutrients, which are the vitamins and minerals your body needs – such as vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, etc. They’re required in much smaller amounts, while macronutrients are required in large amounts.
Which one is more important? We recommend tracking both! While macronutrients will be more important to track for weight loss or muscle gain, micronutrients should be tracked to ensure you’re staying healthy and getting all the nutrients you need. It’s easy to miss out on them and become deficient.
The easiest way to track your macronutrients is to download an app like Cronometer and input everything you eat. This app not only tracks your macros, but it will track your micronutrients as well. You’ll be able to see exactly what nutrients you’re missing out on.
On a side note, we recommend weighing your food to get exact results. Estimating your serving sizes can be unreliable.
If you’re not ready to take on the keto lifestyle, choosing a ratio for macronutrients depends on your health goals. Are you trying to gain muscle? Lose fat? Maintain your current weight? Just eat healthier in general? We recommend simply trying a few different ratios and seeing how you feel after a couple of weeks. However, here are a few macronutrient guideline examples for various goals:
Build Muscle: 40% protein, 35% carbohydrates, 25% fat
Lose Fat: 45% protein, 35% carbohydrates, 20% fat
Lose Fat Quickly (Keto): 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbohydrates
Overall, macronutrients are important no matter what diet or lifestyle you follow. Simply changing your eating habits based on your macros can have a huge impact on fat loss, energy levels, brain fog, nutrient deficiencies, and other issues.
Laurice Wardini
Author