As anyone who’s ever embarked on a health and fitness journey knows, limiting your calories, eating less fatty foods, and swearing off chocolate will only get you so far. Feeling constantly hungry and repeatedly denying yourself the meals you enjoy isn’t sustainable and, more often than not, fails.
So what can you do to set yourself up for success instead? Learn how to track macros, otherwise known as proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Understanding the three essential nutrients your body needs to function will give you invaluable insight into your real-time dietary needs.
Ready to improve your nutritional habits, safely increase your energy levels, and reach a healthy, sustainable weight for your body type? Let’s dive in…
What Are Macros In Food?
Macros are the three key nutrients your body needs to perform essential functions. And, since each one provides a certain number of calories per gram, tracking macros gives you better control over your diet, and a deeper understanding of where your calories are coming from. Put simply, macronutrient tracking can help you achieve your health and fitness goals faster and more accurately than simple calorie counting.
Let’s take a look at the three key macronutrients, what they do, and why you need them in your diet.
Protein – Your Body’s Building Blocks
Okay, mini science lesson time. There are 20 amino acids, aka your body’s internal building blocks, and you need all of them to function properly. Your clever internal system can synthesise 11 of them all by itself, the other 9, the ‘essential amino acids’, must come from your diet. That’s where protein (which is made up of amino acids) comes in!
- Internal support: protein helps to build healthy muscles, bones, and organs. It’s particularly essential therefore during childhood and adolescent years, and throughout pregnancy. It also aids repair after exercise and when you sustain an injury through physical activity or illness. Protein will even help to prevent muscle loss making it especially important for athletes, older adults, and anyone on a low-calorie diet.
- Hormone support: protein provides support and aids the production of several hormones your body needs to function properly. These hormones control blood sugar levels, growth, hydration, metabolism, your appetite, and more.
- Connective tissue strength: proteins form the structure of your internal organs, as well as your cells, skin, hair, and nails. These proteins include keratin and collagen which give your skin and connective tissue their strength and elasticity. Another reason a protein-rich diet is particularly important during childhood and pregnancy!
- Double duty: Even though it’s not the primary function of protein, when needed, it can provide your body with energy when you’re low on carbohydrates.
- Immune System Support: Proteins produce antibodies which help your immune system defend against bacteria, viruses, and other parasites.
- Weight Management: Protein-rich foods make you feel fuller for longer. This can help curb sugar cravings and suppress the urge to over-consume.
Protein Rich Foods To Add To Your Diet:
For a balanced diet rich in healthy proteins, look to foods such as chicken, beef, fish, turkey, eggs, and dairy products.
On a plant-based diet? No worries. You can find all the protein your body needs in foods like tofu, lentils, beans, quinoa, nuts, and seeds.
Carbohydrates – Your Body’s Main Fuel
Carbs are your body’s main and most efficient source of energy. They’re made up of sugar structures and can either be classed as simple, or complex. So what’s the difference and what’s the glycemic impact (the change in your blood sugar levels)of these types of carbs?
Simple Carbohydrates: Made up of only one or two sugar units, these carbs offer little nutritional value. Your body breaks them down very quickly, so you receive a fast but also fleeting boost of energy.
This rapid crash and the fact that you quickly feel hungry again are the reasons so many people believe carbs are addictive and a key culprit for undesired weight gain. What’s more likely is, we eat more in an attempt to fill ourselves up, and end up over-consuming our recommended daily intake.
Simple carb foods include: sugar, white bread, and dairy. Similarly, refined carbohydrates refer to processed foods where ingredients are stripped or changed in a way that eliminates their natural goodness. This includes foods like cookies, cakes, sweets, and many packaged snacks.
Complex Carbohydrates: These carbs arepacked with vitamins, minerals, and fibre. They’re also made up of longer sugar unit chains which take longer to digest and provide a slow and steady release of energy. In short, complex carbs are much healthier and genuinely beneficial for building a balanced diet.
Complex carb foods include: brown pasta and rice, whole grains, oats, lentils, beans, and starchy vegetables such as corn and potatoes.
Fats – Essential and So Misunderstood
For years, we’ve been sold the idea that to stay healthy and maintain a balanced diet, we should avoid fatty foods. It’s not true.
Yes, some fats, especially in excess, are bad for us, but the good fats? We need them!
Healthy Fats: Healthy fats help you to absorb nutrients, support your heart health, and aid cognitive function. They can also lower your cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease. They can even reduce cardiovascular, joint, and gut inflammation. Sound good? Here are the healthy fats you’ll want to look out for going forward.
Polyunsaturated fats: found in fatty fish like sardines, salmon, mackerel, and herring, also sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts.
Monounsaturated fats: find these healthy fats in olive oil, peanut oil, avocados and nuts, such as almonds, cashews, and macadamias.
Unhealthy Fats
We all know that, when overconsumed, unhealthy fats can contribute to weight gain. But did you also know that, eaten in excess, they can raise cholesterol levels, promote high blood pressure and inflammation, and increase the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and strokes.
That’s not what we want from our diets, so let’s dive a little deeper. We know all about the good fats and how to incorporate those, but which fats and foods should we limit?
- Saturated fats: found in processed foods and items such as butter, cheese, milk chocolate, coconut oil, cocoa butter, poultry skin, and fatty cuts of red meat.
- Trans fats: you’ll find trans fats in fried takeaway food, baked goods such as cakes, biscuits, and pastries, snack food including crisps and packaged snacks, and frozen dinners such as pizza, oven chips, and pies.
So does this mean you must avoid these foods altogether and forever? No. Instead, treat them as an indulgence you get to enjoy in moderation rather than every day or for every meal!
How to Balance Your Macros
As a very general rule of thumb, healthy adults within a healthy weight range should aim for their macros to look like this:
- 20-30% healthy fats
- 20-30% protein
- 40-50% complex carbohydrates
This breakdown lends itself to a well-balanced diet that’ll give your body all of the energy and support it needs to thrive.
That said, we recommended these ratios for healthy individuals who are happy to maintain their weight. Your intake can and should shift depending on your health status and goals for the future such as weight loss and gaining muscle. If you want to get specific, try using an app or macro calculator. These tools can recommend a plan based on your current height, weight, and age group, which may be a helpful jumping-off point.
If you’re hoping to make improvements beyond the realms of food nutrition alone, we highly recommend elevating your diet with supplements.
Our dissolvable Derma strips will give your hair, skin and nails the vital vitamins, minerals, and proteins they need to thrive, whilst our Energy strips will help you squeeze the most out of your day! From heart health to improved immunity, we have all the health vitamins you need to boost your wellbeing from within.
How to work out macros for weight loss
Adults focusing on weight loss may benefit from a higher percentage of protein and a lower intake of healthy fats. Protein will help control your hunger and maintain a healthy muscle mass, whilst a reduction in fat consumption will support the calorie deficit necessary for losing weight. Make only small, sensible adjustments and remember the aim is to maintain a balanced diet in all areas.
How to track macros for muscle gain
Keep protein levels high for muscle strength and repair, and increase complex carb intake to boost your energy and fuel workouts. Then, use healthy fats to balance out the rest of your diet and support your heart health.
Of course, everybody’s health needs are different. How you consume and track macros will depend on your age, your sex, and your activity level. Don’t be afraid to conduct your own research, ask your health provider for assistance, or practice some good old trial and error. Start with the basic macro recommendations and, based on your results, make small adjustments to find what works best for you and your body.
Should You Track Your Macros?
To track or not to track, that is the question. Whilst some can’t live without it, others find macro tracking too restrictive.
The pros? Tracking macros will give you a much more accurate view of your diet than simply noting your calorie intake. It’ll help you to pinpoint areas for improvement and keep you on track to achieve your health goals. Many also find it useful for portion control.
On the flip side, if we’re being totally honest, tracking macros can be time-consuming. Some feel the approach is so numbers-focused that it becomes a chore, taking the joy out of food which should be enjoyed and used to nourish your body.
Our advice? Take it slow. Learn the basic macro content of your favourite foods and meals, then slowly build your knowledge from there. Use the information you learn going forward to build a diet that’s healthy, balanced and, most importantly, sustainable. Oh, and if you need a little extra encouragement or advice on your health journey, our supplement guides are always here to lend a hand and help build up your wellbeing knowledge!