What Are Macros?
Macros, or macro-nutrients, stand for protein, carbohydrates and fats. - When somebody asks “do you track your macros?“, that basically means – do you track how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you are taking in each day?
- When somebody asks “what are your macros?“, that basically means – how many grams of protein, carbohydrates and fats are you taking in?
- When somebody says “my macros are 150 P, 200 C, and 40 F“, that basically means they are eating 150 grams of protein, 200 grams of carbohydrates and 40 grams of fat each day.
- When somebody says “I can eat this because it fits my macros“, they basically mean – I can eat this because the macros (amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats) in this (insert food item here) won’t bring me over the amount of macros I consume daily.
- Some people track just their macros (protein, carbohydrates and fat intake) and some people just track their calories. There’s no right or wrong approach.
- Personally I’m more of a macro counter, but at the same time I do not measure or count anything – I just do rough estimates in my head and be sure to get in my 115 grams of protein daily.
- Protein and Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram.
- Fats have 9 calories per gram.
- If a food item has 20 grams of protein (20 grams X 4 calories), 30 grams of carbohydrates (30 grams X 4 calories) and 7 grams of fat (7 grams X 9 calories), than that food item should have roughly (80+120+63) 263 calories in it.
- If someone eats 125P, 200C and 50F a day, they are roughly consuming (125×4=500)(200×4=800)(50×9=450) 1,750 calories each day.
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