What is the FIRST thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word DIET?

Is it that you will eat vegetables all day and starve until you lose the weight?

The problem with the word diet is that it has been related with eating less and missing the food that you like.

It hurts just to name the word diet!

You probably feel actually embarrassed to say you are on a diet because you do not fit in your pants anymore.

I used to be on a diet a lot, follow a plan specially designed to cut my calories. It worked perfectly and it help me to get back in shape.

But then what? Following the same plan forever was no an option. So, I will slowly go back to my old habits.

Today I want to talk about a permanent solution to finally eat healthy and maintain this habit for life.

The one Secret to finally ENJOY what you eat so you can make your healthy eating a lifestyle!

An intro to MACRONUTRIENTS

Understanding macros will allow you to design your own meal plan with food that you love.

In addition, you will have a better understanding of what you eat.

But first let’s go a little technical and dig into the meaning of macros.

Macronutrients refers to the protein, carbs, and fat found in all types of food and our body needs all of them for growth and development, for circulation and for energy.

Protein provides the body with amino acids for muscles. There are 9 amino acids that you need to consume because your body can’t make it on its own.

Carbs provide the body with FUEL. They are broken down into sugar and provide immediate energy or it is saved for later.

Fats are another source of energy and they also help control your appetite

Counting calories vs counting macros

When you count calories, you are keeping track of the number of calories you eat versus the number of calories you burn in order to lose weight.

This sounds great when you are having a healthy and balance nutrition. But calorie deficit does not always mean it is a healthy and balanced meal.

For example, you can be in a calorie deficit when you eat 6 cookies that are 200 calories each for a total of 1200 a day,

However, your body will not have all the nutrients you need, you will definitively not be in shape, and your body will not function properly.

Counting macros is tracking calories but also taking in consideration the grams of protein, carbs and fat that each food contain for a more balanced and healthy meal.

In addition, the great news is that counting macros can help you not feeling deprived of good food.

You will have a better chance of being in shape since you are fueling your body with a more efficient nutrition.

You are in control of your nutrition

There are a lot of diet trends out there (or should we say nutrition trends?)

By the time I am writing this blog, the most trending ones are Keto and intermittent fasting. Probably in few months we will have a new one coming.

However, the amazing benefit of using macros is that once you understand it you can decide any nutrition type you want.

Low carbs

Moderate carbs

High carbs

How to calculate your macros?

The first thing you need to understand is that calorie deficit is what is going to help you lose weight, so you always need to look at your calorie intake.

Therefore, let’s look at how calories work inside macros

STEP ONE: Choose your macro ratio

There are many macro ratios options to choose from depending if you want to go low carb, high protein or low fat.

However, you must remember that the ultimate goal if that you pick a realistic plan you can follow and be successful with.

For the purpose of you understanding how macros work let’s use as a guide the acceptable macronutrient distribution ranges (AMDR) of 45–65% of your daily calories from carbs, 20–35% from fats and 10–35% from protein.

So, we will use the following macro ratio for this example case study:

45% from carbs

35% from protein

20% from fat

STEP TWO: Calculate your calories from each macro

Now let’s say you usually eat 2000 calories, but you want to go on a deficit to lose some weight. So now you want to eat 1600 calories.

Following the chosen macro ratio, your calorie intake will break as follow:

45% of 1600= 720 calories from cabs

35% of 1600= 560 calories from protein

20% of 1600= 320 calories from fat

STEP THREE: how many grams per each macronutrient

For each gram of protein, you will count 4 calories, for each gram of carbs you will also count 4 calories, and for each gram of fat you will count 9 calories,

Therefore, using the calories per macro we will calculate the grams you need for each.

720 calories from cabs divided by 4 calories per gram= 180 grams

560 calories from protein divided by 4 calories per gram= 140 grams

320 calories from fat divided by 9 calories per gram= 36 grams

Daily macro intake:

180 grams of carbs

140 grams of protein

36 grams of fat

STEP FOUR: distribute macros among your daily meals

Now we go ahead and divided it by the number of meals you eat. So let, say you have 3 main meals and 2 snacks for a total of 5 daily meals.

Using this approach will help you make sure you are eating balanced, and that most importantly you are staying within your calorie’s intake goal for weight loss.

Tracking macros

Now that you know how to calculate your macros you can plan a more balanced meal.

So, let’s see how you can track your macros and get all the benefits.

The best way will be using an app to keep track of your food. I have used MyNetDiary, My fitness pal, and MyMacros+. I like them all.

But for the purpose of this blog, I will create a meal sample so you can see how it works.

Example Meal 3 (Lunch):

Rotisserie chicken with jasmine rice and avocado

 Using the suggested serving sizes we get the following:

Therefore, your lunch will have 375 calories and your macro for that meal will be 39 grams of carbs, 30 grams of protein, and 11 grams of fat.

It is important to understand that hitting the exact numbers will always be hard but we need to stay pretty close.

In addition, remember that targeting the calories is the main goal for weight loss.

So, add up all your total calories for each meal and make sure you do not go over your daily calorie goal.

Sometimes you will need to move numbers around in between your meals so you can get closer to you target numbers.

For that reason, I highly recommend using a tracking app.

Understanding macronutrients has make it easier for me to follow a healthy nutrition and design my own meals with food that I like.

I hope this information has been helpful for you in your journey of finding a better and recharged version of you.

Did You Get Some Value?

I hope you did, all my tips are from my experience and what has actually worked for me.

If I was able to find a healthy balance in my life I am sure you can too!

Feel free to share my content if you found it valuable. and if you ever have any questions, I will be glad to help CONTACT ME