MacroNutrients???

What is a macronutrient?  

Let's break this word apart... "Macro" means large, "Nutrients" are those substances that your body needs to grow, to help maintain your metabolism, and to keep your body running.  Macronutrients help  provide the bulk of our energy.


So where do you find macronutrients?


Protein. Fat. Carbohydrates.  There is the key to where you find macronutrients and the primary nutrients to our total caloric intake.

So in the image in the upper right is a great diagram on where we breakdown the three keys to macronutrients and a great example of good carbohydrates, good fats and healthy proteins.

The image just below that breaks it down so you can see types of food from poor selections to the best.

So how much macronutrients do I need out of each category?

So we need to understand what a gram of protein means to a calorie.   One gram of protein is equivalent to four calories.  One gram of carbohydrate is equivalent to four calories. One gram of fat is equivalent to nine calories.

So that was easy...So know how much protein do I need?  So take a 150 pound person, their protein intake should equal their weight.  150 pound person, 150 gram of protein.  We then take that 150 grams of protein and times that 4 which means that they need to consume 600 calories of protein each day.

Okay, onto fat!  So based on this 150 pound person, at a 1,200 caloric intake need.  You will take the caloric need (1,200 calories) x .25 (25% = 300 calories) divided by 9 (9 calories per gram of fat) = 33.33....so rounded up this 150 pound person needs to eat 34 grams of healthy fat per day.

Carbs...NO NOT CARBS!  Yes, you need carbs!  So out of the 1,200 calories, we have allocated 600 for protein and 300 for fat, so that leaves us 300 calories left...since 1 gram of carbohydrates is equivalent to 4 calories we divide 300 by 4 and get 74 grams of carbohydrates.

So 150 pound person with an intake of 1,200 calories should have...

150 grams of Protein to help your growth of new tissues and tissue repair
34 grams of Fat to change your body composition and keep your hormones in check
74 grams of Carbohydrates to give you the energy you need to be yourself!!


SO WHAT NOW?

Take what you just learned, save the images, see how you fair and adjust your food per your new learnings.  Take it and use it!  And remember, these figures are baselines, each individual will need to adjust based on what you goals are for your body.