Beginners Guide to Macros.

I’m a believer, if you are in a calorie deficit (you burn more calories than you consume) you will lose weight – as simple as that (she says).

First, we need to establish how much we typically eat and what effects this has on us. do we maintain weight, gain or lose? From this we can then (with our goals in mind) work to a target of calories, but as much as one may like to It wouldn’t be realistic to eat 1600 calories worth of chocolate!, This is where focusing on those macros (macronutrient) which are three different categories of nutrients we eat come in: 

• Protein – Meat, Fish, Seafood, Eggs, Dairy, Beans, Pulses, Nuts.

• Carbohydrate – Grains, Bread, Cereal, Pasta, Fruit, Vegetables, Dairy, Sugars.

• Fat – Oils, Lard, Butter, Cheese, Fatty cuts of Meat, Cream, Chocolate, Biscuits, Cakes, Pastries.

There is no standard number of macros a person should eat. It varies from person to person and depends on your height, weight, activity level, age and your personal goals.

With all this in mind and for optimal results, based on what we want to achieve, (i.e. lose weight, gain muscle or maintain weight) we would set targets for each of the macros along with your calorie target to help achieve your personal goals. 

There are lots of benefits for counting macro’s including those I have briefly mentioned above, not only is it making us more mindful of what we are consuming, eating a well-balanced diet, it encourages great flexibility, not having to deprive ourselves of foods we enjoy that may be deemed as “naughty treats” having more control of your macros can enable you to enjoy the occasional chocolate bar (just not all of your daily calorie allowance worth). Lets not forget, we should always aim to add lots of veggies each day, eat a rainbow of different varieties of veg is always a good rule as there are lots of benefits to this too.