Macros 101

Calvin and Brooke Masters: Thanks for tuning in to Master Your Metabolism. If you found value in today's episode, it would mean the world to us if you'd hit subscribe and share this episode with someone who could use a little guidance in their health journey. Ready to take the next step? Head over to www.mastersfitnesscoaching.com and you can book a free call right from the site. You've counted every calorie, tried every diet, spent hours in the gym, and still something's missing. You want more than just weight loss. You want your energy back. You want your confidence restored. You want a way of living that doesn't feel like punishment. Welcome to Master Your Metabolism, where we cut through the noise, ditch the fads, and give you a real plan to become the healthiest, strongest version of you. Brooke Masters: Hello everybody and welcome to Master Your Metabolism. My name is Brooke, the masters, I am here today to discuss macros. You hear about it all the time and I get questions ⁓ I be tracking calories? Should I be counting macros? And just wanted to be able to give people some information so they can understand and make the decision based on what their goal is. So to clarify, macros is just macronutrients. Calvin and Brooke Masters: so we can chat about your goals and how we can help support you. Don't forget to join our Facebook group where we're sharing coaching tips, support, and tricks to help keep you on track and continue making progress. You don't have to do this alone. We're here to walk with you every step of the way. Until next time, stay consistent, stay kind to yourself, and keep mastering your metabolism. hosted by our team of expert coaches with proven strategies, science-based tips, and real life encouragement, not just to help you lose fat, but actually create that lifestyle that you love. You've tried everything. Now, let's try what actually works. This is your turning point. Let's go. Brooke Masters: So you have different types of foods there are protein sources, carbohydrates and healthy fats. So of these macronutrients has a purpose. Protein you want to think of as the blocks. That is what your body requires to be able to build muscle, maintain muscle. ⁓ These are that actually help your body in order to function. It keeps you full. You actually can Calvin and Brooke Masters: Let's do this together. Brooke Masters: burn calories in the digestive process of eating protein. So it is probably one the one new macronutrients that I always tell people to really prioritize. Think about what your goal would be for the amount of protein your body requires. A good gauge is by your lean body mass. So whatever your goal weight is, if your goal weight is 150 pounds, then you want to eat 150 grams of protein. If you've only been eating like 50 grams of protein per day, where I do see many women with a lot of carbohydrates and not a lot of protein, the first thing I do is just slowly bring their protein up because if you do increase it too quickly, it can cause some digestive upset. The only time that I adjust that much protein, again, each person is an individual, so they all have different circumstances. But if you have any digestive issues, if you are in perimenopause, there are certain things that you wanna look at when you are determining how much protein somebody should have. ⁓ always for women, a good gauge is at least 100 grams. Again, you are training, you want to have a little bit more. ⁓ If are pretty much just walking or sedentary, you don't need as much. So ⁓ is to keep in mind. Now, ⁓ also something know about each of the... macronutrients is each one has a certain calorie content. So a gram of protein, so like chicken, if you have three ounces and it has like 25 grams of protein, then each gram is gonna be four calories. So 25 grams of protein is going to be 100 calories, right? 25 times four, there we go. So. This is where you wanna kinda think about when you're putting your meals together. Carbohydrates is the next one. Carbohydrates, those are the foods that will fuel you, give you energy, and also help with recovery. They are also the ones that you crave carbs at night. And the reason being is because your body's tired. Your body wants to go to bed, but you're deciding to keep it up. So your body is going to crave energy, an energy source. So... Typically, it's those quick sugars that you're going to crave. That's why. the best time to eat carbohydrates are going to be times when you are active. You think about it as going to fuel you and give you recovery. So having the majority of your carbs pre and post workout, when you are active throughout the day, so you don't really need them in the evening if you're going to go to bed. You don't really need them in the morning when you first wake up. But again, each individual is different. Some people wake up in the morning starving and use things like fibrous carbs, like blueberries or some type of fruit. Before bed, there are some people that do better when they have a mix of some protein, carbs and fats before bed and it helps them to sleep. But want to in general think carbohydrates are going to help with recovery and fuel. And they also are very necessary for thyroid function. Again, when your body is super stressed, your body could use some carbohydrates. So when people are restricting carbohydrates for long periods of time and they start noticing less energy, their metabolism all of a sudden is slowing down and not working properly, their digestion is slowing down, that is kind of something that you really want to keep in mind that you don't want to remove any of the macronutrients. You can do things in a carb cycle. where you have days that are higher, days that are lower, when you happen to be more active or less active. That's a great strategy that I use with a lot of women in perimenopause or menopause, where we are using the food efficiently and creating a system that our body never adapts because we are changing things around. So that is one option as well. something like healthy fats, those are super important. So healthy fats are calories per gram. where carbohydrates and protein are only four calories, healthy fats are nine. So if you do have a goal, I always tell people you want to watch it with the healthy fats because you have that extra scoop of peanut butter, those extra handful of nuts, those calories add up real fast. But healthy fats like olive oil, salmon, flaxseed, hemp seed, those healthy fats amazing with bringing down inflammation in the body, helping to support hormones. ⁓ All of these things are very necessary, especially with my, you know, women that are older, you know, anybody that has health issues, healthy fats are Like those are the things that are going to help your body to, again, when inflammation is gone crazy in your body, you want to think that inflammation of the cells affects all cells. It's not just a certain area. So if you're on hormone replacement and you're super inflamed, the hormones can't signal. Insulin, any type of hormone in the body is going to be impacted if fats are too low. So it is something that you want to keep. usually say for women, depending your size, 40 to 60, men, you're going to look at more 50 to 70. You can a little bit higher. Some of my higher stress individuals do really well with fats. This is something that we see that we have certain people that We give them a free meal, something like a burger and fries, a mix of some carbs, some healthy fats, some not so healthy fats. But again, the combination sometimes will help to bring down that stress response and they work really, really well. We have some people that they work really well with carbs. So the most important thing is when you are starting to manipulate the types of foods you're putting in your body, taking data and seeing how your body responds, but not just what your weight is doing on the scale. because if eat a lot of carbs, it will bring glycogen into the muscle. It will make you look way more on the scale. But depending on how you use them, it could be, again, going into the muscle, and that is what will make more weight on the scale. But really looking at energy level, looking at strength in the gym and recovery are great markers as well as digestion. getting to the point of should I track calories or should I track macros? Well, if you are tracking macros and you know each gram of protein is going to be four calories and each gram of carbs is going to be four calories and each gram of fat is gonna be nine calories, when you start tracking on an app like MyFitnessPal or Fitbit or there's plenty of free apps to be able to track your macros, we use one with our clients. that we are able to track the foods they're eating, it automatically populates how much protein they eat in a day, how much carbohydrate they eat in a day, how much healthy fat. And then it gives them the calories based on what they're eating. So you are essentially tracking calories when you do macros. The difference is when people track only calories. The problem is, yes, if you're on a caloric deficit, you should lose weight. Yes. However, it's really the outcome of not just the scale, right? Because you will have 1200 calories of Oreo cookies are not going to do the same for you as 1200 calories eggs, fish, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, veggies, fruits, some olive oil, things like that, because the macronutrients are the fuel. That's what's going to allow your body to get the micronutrients and macronutrients that you require for digestion, thyroid function, hormones, function, all of those things in your body, not just building muscle, but all of those things allow your body to utilize the fuel to be able to perform. And ultimately, do you want to just be this skinny little frail, unhealthy Or do you want to feel a lot of energy and feel amazing and have great skin, have great hair, have all of the things working so that you finally reach that goal and you have the body that you've been working so hard for, you actually have the energy to go and enjoy stuff that you weren't able to do before if you were overweight or unhealthy or in a spot that your body wasn't responding so well. So that's what you want to kind of think about because yes, calories is going to put you in a deficit. But if you want the energy, you want the look, you want to have toned arms, you know, that's where it really makes a difference because again, the protein is going to support muscle growth. You, ⁓ will help keep you full. Carbohydrates are the fuel in the recovery and it'll also keep you feeling good. They're amazing. Healthy fats are going to protect your hormones, keep inflammation down, and they do take longer to digest. So healthy fats take a few hours to break down. So that's why, like, if you go out to eat to a restaurant and order food, granted, they are cooking with some type of oil, that's what makes you feel, like, stuffed when you walk away from there. It's just a lot of fats, and it will take a long time to break down. So you also want to keep that in mind, that when you are tracking your food, ⁓ and you are going to eat out, you're not gonna be bringing your scale to a restaurant. But if you wanna get an idea of what it is, I always tell my clients to add in like a tablespoon or two of oil based on what they get they are cooking with it. So it just helps to keep things accurate because if I have someone that tells me, hey, I've been ⁓ on point, my calories are low, why am I not losing weight? But I'm eating out four to five times a week, chances are that meal that you are eating out is probably another like thousand calories. that might be the reason that you are not dropping weight. So that is usually the first thing that I tell people when they are traveling. But if your goal is to improve body composition, your goal is to ⁓ okay, I to really see what I can do. There are phases. With fat loss, there are phases to go into a recovery phase, being at your maintenance. But when you're using macronutrients, you want to think of it as a skill and you want to learn what the foods are. What are proteins? What are carbohydrates? Fiber and healthy fats. Because if I understand what the foods are, and even if I made a plan for myself, I also want to learn how to put things in there that I like. And that is the great thing about macronutrients. Well, I know I have this much protein for the day, this much carb, this much healthy fat. Cool. I'm going to go ahead and put the meal that I want to enjoy at the restaurant. I'm going to put that in first. And then I'm going to work my day around it so I can enjoy that. It's almost like a bank account. And I am budgeting the food that I want. If I want to go and enjoy a slice of pizza, that's going in first. I enjoy that slice of pizza and put my other food in around it. This is how you can have a healthy lifestyle where every once in a while you wanna enjoy something you like, you throw it in there. That's balance. But having to restrict all the time and feel during the week that I have to be under this amount of calories and I can't enjoy anything I like, what happens when you go out to dinner? What happens when you go on vacation? What happens when things get stressful, right? So understanding how to use macronutrients allows you to still keep in some fun foods while having the foods in a way that you start learning how your body responds. You learn how your body feels when it's fueled properly. when I tell people, you know, eating healthy, yeah, is the side effect that you will start, you know, seeing really nice shape in your body? Absolutely. Is the side effect that your digestion works properly, you sleep better? ⁓ You wake up and you don't need to drink six cups of coffee in order to just make it through the day. It's because my body is now getting the fuel, right? Think about your car. And if you're just giving your car like the lowest gas or you're giving your car the best gas, you're taking care of the inside. You are making sure it's detailed. You are making sure it's going for tuneups. You make sure it's gonna drive better. It's going to last longer. And that is the ultimate goal. So. If you have any questions about, hey, how do I get started? How many calories do I know that I need to get started with? How much protein should I be starting with? How many carbs should I be starting with? Always reach out. Our link is in the show notes. I hope you got some valuable information from this episode. And if you have any other questions, please just reach out. I would be happy to help. And thank you as always for tuning in to Master Metabolism follow us for more. Subscribe to our channel. and we are always here to help. Thank you so much.