You must have heard the term Macro counting, yes, counting your Daily macronutrients is very crucial for a healthy body. Improve muscles, shed pounds, and improve your performance by calculating your macros. You can do it manually, but what? It takes time, oh we don’t have much in this busy life, right? Don’t worry, there are many macro calculators available online to calculate your daily macros.
Your macronutrients and calories are important. You know what it’s as basic as general relativity, the body expends energy, and food supplies it. Some individuals consider macro counting to be anti-diet, however, this is not the case. It’s simply a diet. Counting calories and monitoring meals will help you acquire a better understanding of how to consume sensibly for your objectives throughout time.
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What Macros are?
The term “macros” refers to macronutrients. Because macro implies huge, your body needs more of these nutrients to work effectively. Furthermore, all of these nutrients give energy to your body in the form of calories or kcals. Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are the three categories of macronutrients.
Let’s see, what is the role of these three macronutrients in our body?
Protein:
Protein is made up of amino acids, they are the building blocks of protein. Non-essential amino acids and essential amino acids are the two kinds of amino acids.
Non-essential amino acids are not necessary for the diet since your body can produce them.
Your food must provide you with essential amino acids. Essential amino acids can be utilized alone or, in rare instances, converted into non-essential amino acids.
Proteins contain 4 kcal per gram:
Protein’s main benefit is that it aids in the formation of tissue, such as muscle. If you need more muscle mass you need to consume more protein. Protein takes more calories to digest than other macronutrients due to its very high thermic impact.
Carbohydrate:
Carbohydrate is a biomolecule made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen that serves as the body’s primary source of fuel. Carbohydrates assist to manufacture certain amino acids and allow for frequent bowel movements in addition to being your primary energy source. Fiber is a carbohydrate that your digestive tract cannot break down.
- Carbohydrates contain 4 kcal per gram
True, protein and fat may be used as fuel, but carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source unless on very high fat and low carb diet, such as the ketogenic diet, which leads the body to burn fat for fuel in the absence of carbs. Some carbohydrates are simple and some are complex in our bodies.
Fats:
You have to be careful when measuring the intake of fats because it contains twice the calories per gram than proteins and carbs. Fats help to cushion organs, store energy, produce specific hormones, maintains the integrity of the cell membrane, and absorb fat-soluble vitamins.
- Fats contain 9 kcal per gram.
There are two main types of fats, “saturated” and “unsaturated” fat. These types contain many subcategories, Omega-3 is one of those, and it comes under polyunsaturated fats.
What is macro counting?
Because macronutrients are found in all foods, when someone claims they are following a macro-based diet plan, they are referring to the practice of calculating macronutrients. Because each macro has a fixed quantity of calories, you calculate your macro total depending on your caloric intake.
Counting calories will help you lose or gain weight as per your need. Anyhow, whether you want to develop muscle and strength or reduce fat, you must dial in some specific macronutrients. This is because each macronutrient has a unique purpose in the body.
How to calculate macros?
Arrange your macros in hierarchical order according to your need and their importance. It is a basic step in creating a macro-counting plan. Calories rank first since your total calorie intake determines whether you lose or gain weight.
Consider calories to be a company, and your macronutrients to be the sectors of labor. You’ll determine your daily calorie intake based on your goals and then split that amount into your macronutrients.
There are various methods to count macros like apps (macro calculator), hand method, and food scale.
Here we will discuss macro calculator, how they help us in counting macronutrients and also saves our time doing it.
Some of the best macros calculators are listed beliow:
- https://www.macrocalculator.org/
- https://barbend.com/best-macros-calculator/
- https://mariamindbodyhealth.com/calculator/
Macro-calculator:
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- Choose a gender and a goal. Enter your age and body fat percentage.
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- Enter your height and weight in either standard or metric measurements.
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3. Choose the number of meals per day, the degree of exercise, and the protein content.
4. Click the Calculate button to view the outcome.