How To Count Macronutrients Intake? Easy Approach

Tracking your meals is beneficial for everyone trying to lose some weight or has specific nutrition goals. You can not track every calorie you take, but you can keep track of your micro-nutrients. Your body’s macronutrients daily include carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Tracking micronutrients has many benefits. By focusing on macronutrients, you can have a more balanced diet full of nutrients that will give many health benefits. This practice can help you achieve your health goals much faster. Besides, it will also make you aware of the importance of certain foods that are good for your health.

Now the main question arises; How to count macronutrients intake? But first, it’s essential to know what macronutrients are?

What Are Macronutrients?

To successfully count the macronutrients, it’s vital to know what they are and why every person needs a different macronutrient ratio than others.

Carbohydrates:

Carbohydrates include sugar, fiber, and starch. Most carbs types broke down into blood sugar means glucose that your body needs as energy for proper functioning. The glucose is stored in the muscles and liver as glycogen.

Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, which makes the most significant portion of our calorie intake. Carb intake is still one of the most debated topics. But most health organizations suggest it’s better to take 45 to 65% of your daily calories from your carbs.

Carbohydrates are easily found in foods like starchy vegetables, dairy products, beans, fruits, green juices, and grains.

Fats:

Fats have the maximum number of calories, among other macronutrients, providing your body with 9 calories per gram. Our body needs fat for vital functions like nutrient absorption, hormone production, and temperature maintenance.

Generally, this macronutrient intake suggestion ranges from 20 to 35% of total calories, but most people meet their weight loss goal by following a higher-fat diet. Fats are easily found in butter, nuts, avocados, oils, fatty fish, and nuts.

Proteins:

Proteins provide 4 calories per gram, like carbohydrates. They are essential for critical processes like immune functioning, signaling, and tissue building. The recommended amount of protein in your calorie intake is about 10 to 35%. However, its recommendation can differ according to your health goal, age, and other factors.

Protein-rich foods include; eggs, tofu, poultry, and lentils.

How many calories do macronutrients have?

Each macronutrient has a specific calorie count per gram:

Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram.

Fats have 9 calories per gram.
While protein has the exact calorie count as carbohydrates.

How Many Macros Should I Eat Daily?

There is precisely no answer to this question. Every person has a different body, and their preferable micronutrient also varies. However, the macronutrient ration suggestion by the federal dietary is as follows:

20 to 35% of fats.
45 to 60% of carbohydrates.
The remainder is for protein.

The federal recommendation is based on the fact that carbs serve as the body’s primary energy source. Besides, carbs are the easiest macronutrient to convert into energy. The metabolism of protein and fats takes comparatively longer and are much more complex procedure. It will serve best when you need quick energy.

Your macronutrient ratio also depends on how your body responds to specific foods and your health goals. For example, some people try persuading a low-carb diet. I would never try it as I know my body performs best when I am at least eating 50% of the carbs. Similarly, some people feel discomfort in their digestive system after having a rich protein diet, while others perform well.

Remember that the people who are on diets, especially people on keto diets, count their net carbs, not the total carbs. You must be thinking why they are counting net carbs. Our body doesn’t digest fiber, which means it doesn’t give energy to our body. That means the calories from the fibers shouldn’t be in the counting.

How To Count Macronutrients?

The tracking process involves counting macros means how many grams of ‘macronutrients you are consuming each day. And as mentioned above, each macronutrient provides a specific calorie count per gram, so you are also counting calories.

Once you have set your calorie goal, you can easily count your macronutrients intake by the following three steps;

Step 1: Know the total calories per macro

The calorie breakdown of the macros is as follows; Protein and carbohydrates have four calories per gram. Meaning a beverage item and food containing 10 g of protein will have 40 calories. Fat is the highest calorie nutrient that, has 9 calories per gram.

Fat has double the number of calories as compared to carbohydrates and proteins. Thus, any food with 10g of fat will have 90g of calories.

Step 2: Calculate the total macro calories

You can calculate the amount by using the nutrition fact labels. Yes, it’s a simple step, as anything nowadays comes with the nutrients label on which every micronutrient is listed. Besides, it’s what the FDA uses for calculating the foods’ calorie amount.

For example, the nutrition fact table in the whole grain cereal says that it provides you with 13 grams of carbs, 3 grams of fat, and 3g of protein. You can easily calculate the calories by multiplying them by the total number of calories in their per-gram calorie count.

13g carbs x 4 calories per gram = 52 calories
3g of fat x 9 calories per gram = 27 calories
3g of protein x 4 calories per gram =12 calories

The calorie amounts combined have an equal number of calories for the food- 90 calories per serving.

Step 3: Assess the Macro ratio

To find the percentage of each macronutrient, you have to divide each calorie amount by the total calories and then multiply the amount by 100. This % will differ from the general label that looks at your total daily need.

27 fat calories/ 90 calories x 100% = 30% of calories from the fat

12 protein calories/ 90 calories x 100% = 13% of calories from the protein

52 carbohydrates calories / 90 calories x100% = 13% of carbohydrate calories

The percentage of all these nutrients must be equal to 100%.

Conclusion

You can monitor the calories you take by tracking the macronutrient intake, like protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Calories don’t represent your nutritional content, so people prefer watching their macro count.

Counting macros isn’t tricky, but it takes energy and effort, making it a little hard for some. Adjusting to counting macros is a behavioral change. It can be overwhelming to set a new approach to looking at food, but there will be a learning curve.

FAQ’s

Can I calculate my macros?

Dieters can calculate macros by themselves by breaking down their calorie needs into the percentage of fats, carbs, and proteins according to their goals.

How to count macronutrients?

Here is a brief description of the steps that are mentioned above in detail:

Determine your daily calorie intake requirement
Factors in your weight goal
Identify your macronutrient ratio

Plug all values in the macronutrient calculator
Track your macros

What’s the ideal macro ratio for weight loss?

According to professionals, the ideal ratio of macronutrients for weight loss is 5:3.5:1.5 for carbs, protein, and fat. By joining this ratio with some exercises, you can gain your weight loss goal much more quickly. The results will be much better than the increasing protein and reducing carbs diets.

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