Counting Macro's for Beginners

Macronutrients are food (fat, protein, carbohydrate) required in the human diet. There are three macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Fat is primarily energy storage, after about 20 minutes of continuous exercise the body will burn fat to maintain energy output. Protein can be thought of as muscle building blocks and carbohydrates quick energy. Of course, this is for beginners, so this is extremely simplified. Protein and carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram. I highly suggest using a spreadsheet such as Excel, or an app such as My Fitness Pal. If you eat healthy, home cooked foods, you may have to google some information, but the information can be found. I am not a dietician, so i will not address the subject of how many carbs, fats, or proteins we should consume for healthy reasons. I personally supplement 70grams of carbs and 75 grams of protein in addition to 4 medium sized meals a day to maintain a 1g/Lb of body weight ratio of protein. Counting macros will really help you if you are dieting or training. Remember, if you are trying to loose weight its all numbers. Calories in versus calories burned. The same is true with training. The process itself is simple: count the grams of fats, carbs, and protein per meal and log it. My Fitness Pal makes this super easy, just punch in some numbers and boom, its logged. This is nice because it will show you a trend. like what you were eating last month, 6 months ago, etc. I also recommend using Run Keeper to log your exercise outside the gym, this will make it easier to accurately log calorie expenditure it works for all kinds of activities such as yoga, walking, skiing, weight trying, and many more. Macronutrients will be discussed more in depth in my next blog.