Introduction
Hello and welcome to todays blog post on Calories and Macronutrients 'C&M'.
As it's the new year I've got a feeling most of us will be setting health and fitness goals! Some of them may be to lose body fat, tone up, build muscle and strength. Or just to feel all round comfortable and confident in our own skin. Whilst following an exercise plan, going to the gym and being more active is awesome and can definitely help accomplish your goals. It's super important to not overlook the importance of your diet and C&M.
In todays fitness world people are generally becoming more aware of the term C&M and how to manipulate these to reach a body composition or performance goal. However, not everyone is aware of C&M and there are still some grey areas around the topic... all of which I will clear up in todays blog post. You will be informed on energy balance, goal setting, calculating C&M, how and when to adjust your C&M, tracking calories, and I will be debunking some C&M myths.
Energy Balance
Energy balance is determined by your energy in vs your energy out.
More energy in and less energy outgoing will result in weight gain from being in a calorie surplus. Less energy in and more energy output will result in weight loss from being in a calorie deficit. A balance of both will result in weight maintenance (although it's difficult to maintain a perfect energy balance).
Quite simply put, energy in consists of all food and drink consumed which contains calories. Macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) all make up your calorie intake... more of this in calculating macronutrients.
Your energy output is determined by your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). This is made up by your:
Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) also known as Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is how many calories your body burns every day just to survive.
Thermic Effect Food (TEF). Your body burns calories through the digestion of food.
Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). How many calories you burn through non exercise activities. Such as going for a walk, going up the stairs, doing house work etc.
Physical Activity. How many calories you burn through planned exercise.
As you can see from the figure to the right, the amount of calories are burnt through each of the determinants that make up your TDEE.
Your BMR calculates for roughly 50% of your calorie expenditure. Your NEAT is the second biggest calorie burner (for most people). In reality, a minimal of our overall TDEE only comes from your physical activity. This is not to say that your physical activity is pointless. But show just where and how much you burn calories from.
Goal Setting
Before calculating your estimated maintenance calorie intake you first need to write down what your goal is. Your health and fitness goal may require you to eat less or more calories, higher carb/ less carb, higher protein/ less protein and so on.
Side point: Your macronutrient ratio can often depend on the person and their preferred eating style. For example, some people like to eat a high fat low carb diet.
The most common goal for the average gym-goer is to lose weight/ body fat and this person needs to be in a calorie deficit, eating a moderate amount of carbohydrates, high protein, and low fat - this is not always the case, just an example.
Other fitness goals may be more complex such as to improve running/ cycling performance. If that's the case this person will need to eat a higher carbohydrate diet to fuel their exercise. but may also need to lose body fat so would still need to eat in a calorie deficit.
Once you decide what your goal is (body composition or performance based), you can then begin to workout your calorie requirements and how much of each macronutrient you need to be eating.
Calculating Calories
There are two ways to calculate your required daily calorie intake. It's important to do this to find out how many calorie you need to consume daily to maintain a healthy weight. Regardless of your fitness and performance goals.
First way - use some fancy calculation and calculate yourself by using a calculator.
Second way - use an online calculator.
They both use the same equations.
Before you calculate your calories, there are many different calculations to determine your calorie intake. Do not panic. Pick one online calculator/ calculation and stick with it. Track how your body or weight changes to the calories/ macronutrients you are eating and make adjustments when needed. There are no magic calculators.
One online calculator I use is www.tdeecalculator.net, it gives you your calorie intake for the day/ week, shows what your ideal weight should be, what macronutrients you should be consuming and a few other things based of formulas which is always interesting to know.
Calculating Macronutrients
Calories come from macronutrients, which are the three main food groups, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. To each gram of these macronutrients it will hold a calorie value.
Carbohydrates and protein hold 4 calories per gram and fats hold 9 calories per gram.
Macronutrient calculations can be given on online calorie calculators. For example from the link I posted onto this blog post or even through MyFitnessPal.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are used for energy, they help us feel awake, help us to perform better, and can aid recovery. Carbohydrates can be categorised into simple and complex carbohydrates.
Simple carbohydrates are fast absorbing, they will normally be broken down within an hour and they come from foods such as fruits, vegetables, sweets, biscuits etc. They generally have a higher sugar content compared to complex carbs.
Potatoes, rice, bread, pasta, oatmeal are forms of complex carbs, generally lower in sugar and they take longer to break down. Both forms of carbohydrates are good and can provide the body with energy, micronutrients and fibre.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that carbohydrates make up 45 to 65 percent of your total daily calories. So, if you get 2,000 calories a day, between 900 and 1,300 calories should be from carbohydrates. That translates to between 225 and 325 grams of carbohydrates a day.
Protein
Proteins form building blocks for new tissue in the body. They repair body cells, make enzymes as well as hormones and antibodies. The more often someone trains the more protein they will need to consume compared to a non-trained individual. Resistance training tears down muscle fibres, protein is needed to repair these fibres so they can heal and grow back stronger. Protein comes from meat, eggs, nuts, vegetables, and dairy products.
Some people believe that protein is only needed after working out but there should be a good amount of protein consumed in each meal. Not only to help with recovery but also to help us leaving full and satisfied, tempting us away from eating more!
Between 1.25 – 2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight per day should be consumed. So if you weigh 80kg consuming between 100 and 160 grams of protein would be seen as optimal, depending on your current body composition and goals.
Fat
Fat is an essential macronutrient and has gotten a lot of bad rep because it’s called fat. Fat makes up the structure of all cell membranes, brain tissue, nerve sheaths, bone marrow, used for warmth, and energy.
There are different sources of fat: monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats (including omega-3s), trans fats, and saturated fats. Saturated are considered to be the unhealthy fat sources and can be found in foods such as cakes, biscuits, chocolates, fried food, pastries, commercially baked and packaged foods.
The dietary reference intake (DRI) for fat in adults is 20% to 35% of total calories from fat. That is about 44 grams to 77 grams of fat per day if you eat 2,000 calories a day.
Note: The recommendations for macronutrient intake given in this blog post were referenced from national guidelines of USA and the UK. These recommendations have been suited for the common person and you should speak to a personal trainer (me) or do your own research into what/ how many grams of macronutrients you should be consuming in your calorie intake.
Calorie Adjustments
During the course of your journey to reach your health and fitness goal calorie adjustments will be required. Of course, this will depend entirely on what your goal is. Let me give you an example of adjusting your calories to losing weight...
To lose weight you need to be in a calorie deficit.
If your maintenance calorie intake is 2500 kcal, you can lose weight at eating 2300 kcal (200 calorie deficit). Eventually you will hit a plateau and will need to either go into a greater calorie deficit at 2100 kcal or increase your activity to put you into a negative energy balance, for example.
Yes, you could lose weight eating 1000 kcal daily and exercising 7 days per week but it is neither healthy or recommended and you will quit after 3 days. It is important to think long term when the goal is weight loss.
You want it to almost seem you are 'dieting' without actually following a 'diet'. You want to be able to eat as much as you can whilst being in a calorie deficit and slowly taper your calories down when you hit a plateau in your weight loss.
This way you'll have more energy, won't feel like you're starving, have better workouts, be able to function better day to day, sleep better, be able to eat more food! And you'll be able to stick to your diet for a longer period of time so you can eventually reach your goal.
Anyone who follows a restrictive diet or restricts food groups/ calories to quickly never sticks with that diet. FACT.
Tracking Calories
To track your calorie intake I recommend to download myfitnesspal.
Create an account, enter your details, select you want to lose 1 - 2 lbs a week (if you select more then it will put you in a crazy calorie deficit), and practice using the app.
If you have never tracked calories before it is going to be a brain fuck. So, you can either quit... or practice using it for a few weeks and get better with it and then you'll be perfectly fine after that.
Tracking calories on myfitnesspal allows you to be able to:
1) Learn about the calorie and macronutrient value you of foods. The opportunity to enter in foods and see their macronutrient value can help you to make better choices.
2) Helps you to portion control. You aren't going to blow 1000 kcal on a single meal because you know that may take up a lot of your calorie intake for the day.
3) Helps you understand how many calories your body needs.
4) Help you with planning your foods throughout the day so you can keep within your calorie intake.
5) Helps you to make more thought out choices on what foods you want to eat. Now you now you can only consume a certain amount of calories, you'd be silly to waste 300 - 500 kcal of that on a bottle of coke. Instead you would opt for the sugar free one and so on.
Sally
For now, let's say Sally who is 25 years old, is 5"4, weighs 80kg, lives a sedentary life style decides she wants to lose weight and increase her fitness. She uses tdeecalculator.net to determine her C&M requirements.
Below we can see how much calories she needs to consume to maintain her weight and how much that is spread across the week. Also, it shows how her maintenance calorie intake would adjust if her activity levels were to increase.
Furthermore, we can see what her ideal weight is and her BMI (body mass index) score is.
Lastly, we can see what her macronutrient ratios are if she wanted to maintain her weight. The macronutrients are calculated to 2,054 calories. By selecting cutting or bulking the calories would adjust and therefore the macronutrients would adjust too.
As Sally wants to lose weight she needs to be in a calorie deficit. To do this she either needs to eat less or move more, or do both to put her in a negative energy balance.
She has previously been sedentary, doesn't live an active lifestyle, and has never tracked calories. Now she is undertaking a new training regime and doing 3 x 45 minute workouts per week consisting of low intensity cardiovascular exercise and resistance based exercise.
She is following a tailored programme suited towards someone coming into the gym for the first time. As well as this, she has started to track her calories hitting her maintenance calorie intake.
Therefore, she will be in a calorie deficit as she has increased her exercise from 0 to 3 times a week and started to eating maintenance calories (tracking on myfitnesspal), as she has never done this before she could have been eating 500+ calories daily.
By making these simple changes she will be eating less and moving more than she normally does. She is now in a calorie deficit. Therefore, she will see some changes to her body composition and lose body fat.
Only when her results start to slow we can then either adjust 1 of 2 things: 1) increase her daily activity or 2) decrease her calorie intake.
There is no right or wrong thing to do here.
For example, she may not have the time to include another workout or extend her workouts already in the week. One option is to decrease her calories anywhere between 100 and 200 calories.
I would never to drastic calorie drops whether it's the first day of dieting or the 60th day. Drastic calorie drops can cause great difficultly for sustainability, energy, mood, concentration, and sleep.
As Sally begins to lose weight, she will need to carry on changing her energy balance to make sure she is always in a calorie deficit and working towards her goals. By either adjusting her exercise, diet, or even her NEAT.
A good way to tell if it's time to go into a greater calorie deficit is to track body weight weekly or take photos/ measurements. If nothing changes in 14 days I would slightly adjust the calories or activity.
Myths
If you eat McDonalds it will make you fat - WRONG. If you are in a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
Protein shakes can make you can weight or get fat - WRONG. If you are in a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
Eating too much fat will make you fat - WRONG. If you are in a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
Eating too much sugar will make you fat - WRONG. If you are in a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
Eating calories late at night will make you fat - WRONG. If you are in a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
Skipping breakfast makes you gain weight - WRONG. If you are in a calorie surplus you will gain weight.
I'll stop here.
It always comes down to calories.
If the goal is weight loss, you need to be in a calorie deficit.
Yes, you should manage your food choices and select healthy fresh foods and try limit your saturated fat and refined sugar intake. But if you are consuming a healthy balanced diet, exercising or being active most days, and not over consuming on calories, you don't need to worry too much about the finer details.
Any questions leave a comment or drop me a message.
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