For women aiming to transform their body composition-reducing fat mass while increasing lean muscle mass-understanding and strategically utilizing macronutrients is fundamental. This comprehensive guide breaks down the essentials of macronutrients (macros), how to calculate them, and how to tailor them to your specific goals of weight loss and muscle gain.
Macronutrients, Broken Down
Macronutrients, often shortened to "macros," are the essential nutrients your body needs in large amounts to function properly and provide you with energy. These are the building blocks of your nutrition plan, comprised of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
Macro #1: Carbs
Carbohydrates are the body's primary and most important energy source for almost all human cells, fueling high-intensity exercise, brain function, and mood regulation. When you eat carbohydrates, your body breaks them down into glucose-a form of sugar that enters your bloodstream and gets stored in your liver and muscles as glycogen. This stored fuel powers high-intensity exercise, which is key for building lean muscle and revving up your metabolism.
Healthy sources of carbs include:
- Fruit
- Oats
- Quinoa
- Buckwheat
- Berries
- Brown rice
- Sweet potatoes
- Legumes
- Corn
- Beets
- Farro
Macro #2: Protein
Protein is essential for building and maintaining lean muscle mass, powering chemical reactions in the body, and transporting oxygen. Protein makes up the enzymes that power chemical reactions in the body, and it also makes the hemoglobin that transports oxygen through the body. It also plays a key role in satiety, slowing digestion and signaling to your brain that you're full. By slowing digestion, protein also slows the release of glucose into your bloodstream to prevent the blood sugar and insulin spikes that can create health issues.
Read also: Keto Diet Macro Tracking Tips
Good sources of protein are:
- Salmon
- Cottage cheese
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
- Hummus
- Lean beef
- Nuts and seed butters
Macro #3: Fat
Fat is vital for maintaining cell membrane integrity, supporting brain and nerve function, and aiding in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. While it doesn’t trigger the same satiety hormones as protein, its slower digestion helps stabilize blood glucose, reduce cravings, and enhance overall hunger control.
Healthy fats can be found in:
- Avocado
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Nuts
- Sunflower seeds
- Seed butter
Counting Macros vs. Counting Calories
When it comes to counting macros versus counting calories, the main difference really rests in the intention. Calorie counting does not factor in the source of the calories. You can consume an unbalanced diet while staying within calorie targets. Counting macros can be tailored to be more specific to your weight loss or fitness goals. Instead of tracking calories, you’re tracking the components of calories that fuel your body. So, you might add more carbs to your plate when you’re training for an endurance event, like running a race.
Benefits of Counting Macros
Counting macros offers several benefits for women seeking weight loss and muscle gain:
Read also: Guide to Macros for Women's Weight Loss
- Weight Loss: Tracking macros may help create a more balanced and sustainable calorie deficit, which can lead to weight loss while preserving muscle mass and energy levels.
- Muscle Gain: Many people struggle to eat the amount of protein they need to build and repair muscle mass after workouts. Prioritizing protein and total calorie intake through macro tracking ensures your body has the nutrients to build and repair muscle effectively.
- Structured Nutrition: Most people need structure to guide their eating habits. Otherwise, people tend to eat what they want, when they want it. If you have trouble listening to internal cues, like when you feel full, counting macros can be helpful.
- Increased Awareness: Paying more attention to what you're eating will usually result in better choices and fewer calories. By getting the ideal combination of carbs, protein, and fats, your body will function optimally. Carbs fuel your energy production, proteins build up your immune system, muscle mass, and metabolism, and fats help absorb essential nutrients.
How to Count Your Macros
Here's a step-by-step guide to counting your macros:
Understanding Caloric Values:
- Carbs: 4 calories per gram
- Fat: 9 calories per gram
- Protein: 4 calories per gram
Step 1: Determine Your Macro Ratio
For general health, a common recommendation is 45 to 65 percent of your calories from carbs, 25 to 35 percent from protein, and 20 to 35 percent from fat. When counting macros for weight loss, prioritizing protein is often a key strategy supported by research. Higher protein levels help preserve muscle mass, enhance metabolism, and improve satiety, making it easier to maintain a calorie deficit. You may choose to aim for the upper range of 35 percent protein, or even slightly higher, up to 40 percent. You'd then adjust your carbs and fats accordingly to stay within your target calorie range. Personal preferences, dietary restrictions, goals, lifestyle, activity level, and existing health conditions can influence your ideal macronutrient balance, so consulting with a doctor or registered dietitian can help you nail down your exact numbers.
Step 2: Decide How Many Calories You Need For Weight Loss (If That's Your Goal)
You can use an online calculator like this one from The National Institute of Health or check out some other ways to find your number here.
Step 3: Calculate Your Macros in Grams
Use the following formulas:
- Carbs: Calories per day x percentage of calories from carbs / Number of calories per gram in carbohydrates (4) = grams of carbs per day
- Protein: Calories per day x percentage of calories from protein / Number of calories per gram in protein (4) = grams of protein per day
- Fat: Calories per day x percentage of calories from fat / Number of calories per gram in fat (9) = grams of fat per day
For example, if you were to aim for 2000 calories a day, with a macro breakdown of 50 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 20 percent fat, you might go for 250 grams of carbs, 150 grams of protein, and 44 grams of fat. Again, this ratio is general and not an expert-recommended one-size-fits-all plan. It may take some trial and error to nail down the best macro ratio for you.
Read also: Weight loss with macros explained
Potential Drawbacks of Counting Macros
While beneficial, counting macros also has potential drawbacks:
- Taxing: Counting macros involves planning and math, which can be cumbersome. It’s a bit cumbersome to count macros unless you eat the same thing every day, but then your diet becomes monotonous and probably not nutritionally adequate.
- Side Effects: Setting macro goals too low might cause energy fatigue, brain fog, and nutrient deficiency, while setting them too high might not give you the health benefits you’re looking for (weight loss, improved workout performance, etc.).
- Disordered Eating: Counting macros can become rigid or even obsessive when taken to extremes, disconnecting you from your natural hunger cues. It also might not be beneficial for anyone who finds meticulous tracking stressful or anxiety-inducing. For these individuals, focusing on intuitive eating, portion control, or seeking guidance from a nutrition professional might be more beneficial and sustainable. Remember: Your macro goals should act as guidelines, but you shouldn't feel obligated to hit them Every. Single. Day.
Beginner-Friendly Tips for Counting Macros
- Keep a Food Diary: If you want to test it out before upending your current eating plan, keep a food diary to get an idea of what you eat on a regular basis. You can also try incorporating macro-counting in spurts, starting for a week. That way, you’ll have a really good idea of the kind of foods you’re typically eating and where you need to adjust, and that may give you some really good insights.
- Focus on Whole Foods: Once you calculate and track your macros (per the instructions above), look at your food choices to see what changes you need to make based on those numbers. Be sure to choose less processed foods, choose whole grains and high-fiber foods, and healthy fats, limit refined sugar, and drink plenty of water.
- Consult a Dietitian: If you're looking to count macros for a longer period of time and have some serious weight loss or performance goals you're looking to achieve, consult a dietitian to personalize your plan.
- Spread your daily allotted macros across four to five meals, 3 or so hours apart, dividing your protein evenly across each meal. The meals directly before and after your workout should contain a lower fat-to-higher carb ratio.
Best Apps for Counting Macros
- MyFitnessPal
- Lose It!
- Eat This Much
- My Macros+
Macros for Muscle Gain
Gaining muscle is a common goal among many of my clients. And for good reason - having more muscle mass on your frame takes up less space than fat mass. You will naturally appear more lean, toned and fit by having more muscle on your frame. And, the more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism is and the more calories you burn all the time, which often translates to fat loss later.
Protein Intake for Muscle Gain
If you don’t want to find your personal protein needs, a sweeping, general recommendation for active women is no less than 100 g of protein per day. If you’ve never paid attention to protein consumption or have just started tracking, 100 g is a great daily baseline to meet, but understand that to maximize building muscle, you’ll probably need more.
Eating 0.8-1.2 g of protein per pound of current body weight leads to lean muscle maintenance (and sometimes gain) when combined with effective strength training activity. However, if you’re actively trying to gain muscle, you’ll want to shoot for that 1.0-1.2 g protein per pound body weight range.
Keep in mind that if you have a lot of body fat to lose, aiming for 0.6 g protein per pound of current body weight is a great measure, too.
Calorie Intake for Muscle Gain
It’s tough to build muscle if you’re in a calorie deficit, especially if you’re not new to strength training. This is why eating at maintenance (or more!) is preferred. Eating at maintenance means eating about as much as your body needs.
Eating at maintenance ensures you are well-fueled for and recovered from your tough workouts. Think about it this way - energy is required to have an effective workout, but energy is also required to recover and rebuild afterwards, too. Without adequate energy (calories), your workouts and recovery could take a hit.
While eating at maintenance supports muscle gain, if you are brand new to strength training, you might also see fat loss at the same time. This is termed recomposition.
HOW TO: Average the calories you eat over a 2-4 week period where no changes in body weight are seen.
Eating in a surplus means eating slightly more calories than your body needs, and it is one of the best ways to support muscle gain. This is because you’re simply providing your body with the extra fuel it needs to build muscle.
Eating in a surplus alone might not make you gain muscle though. You also need to be eating enough protein (see above) and participating in progressive overload strength training. And while eating in a surplus is great for gaining muscle, there is also a chance of gaining some body fat at the same time, but it’s a small price to pay for the most efficient way to put lean muscle on your frame.
HOW TO: Find your maintenance calories and multiply by 1.05-1.10 which represents 5-10% over maintenance calories.
If you want to minimize the amount of body fat you gain in a surplus, you can stay at 5-10% above maintenance for the remainder of your surplus phase. However, if you don’t care as much about a little fat gain, you can increase your surplus in increments of 5% every few weeks until you’ve reach a maximum 0f 20% over maintenance calories.
The "If It Fits Your Macros" (IIFYM) Diet
The IIFYM diet involves calculating the amount of protein, fat and carbs to be eaten each day in order to meet your weight goals. This is known as your basal metabolic rate or BMR.
Adjust for activity level: The BMR is multiplied by an activity factor to increase calories based on your activity level. This is known as your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE.
Adjust based on weight goals: If you want to lose weight, reduce your calorie intake by 15-25%. If weight gain is the goal, increase calories by 5-15%.
Determine your macros: Protein intake should be between 0.7-1.0 grams per pound of body weight. Fat intake should be between 0.25-0.4 grams per pound of body weight. All remaining calories are allotted for carbs.
For weight loss, the main idea is to reduce calories and increase protein to preserve lean muscle mass while losing body fat.
After doing all the calculations, the final IIFYM plan should tell you how many calories and how many grams of protein, fat and carbohydrates to consume each day.
Benefits of IIFYM
- Can Be an Eye-Opening Experience: Since IIFYM focuses on macronutrients, rather than calories, it can be a great educational tool for people who are unfamiliar with the macronutrient composition of foods.
- Helps You Achieve Your Weight Goals: Reducing calories does lead to weight loss in the short term. Since the IIFYM diet reduces calories by 15-25% for people who want to lose weight, following the diet should result in weight loss.
- No Forbidden Foods: No foods are forbidden on IIFYM, as long as they fit into your macros. Allowing all foods can also remove some of the pressure and guilt associated with other more restrictive dieting methods, making for a more enjoyable experience.
- Flexible and Easier to Stick To: With IIFYM, it’s easy to plan your meals around your lifestyle without feeling limited.
Downsides of IIFYM
- It’s Still a Diet: While IIFYM may be more flexible than other diets, it is still a diet.
- No Emphasis on Micronutrients: With so much focus on macronutrients, the importance of micronutrients like vitamins and minerals is somewhat ignored.
- Does Not Take Health Conditions Into Account: IIFYM may not be appropriate for everyone, especially people with health conditions that require special diets.
- Could Increase the Risk of Disordered Eating for Some: While macronutrient tracking can help people reach their health goals, it may trigger disordered eating in some individuals.
Macronutrient Ratios for Different Goals
Macronutrient Ratio for weight loss
Embarking on a fat loss journey requires a strategic approach to your macro ratio that promotes a calorie deficit while supporting muscle preservation. A high protein intake is indispensable, as it minimizes lean mass loss and maximizes satiety, making your calorie-restricted diet more manageable. For weight loss, several macro splits have proven effective. The traditional approach of 40-50% carbohydrates, 25-35% protein, and 20-30% fat works well for most people. However, many fitness enthusiasts find success with higher protein approaches like the 40/40/20 split, which allocates 40% to protein, 40% to carbohydrates, and 20% to fats.
Macronutrient Ratio for muscle gain
Gaining muscle is not just about increasing protein; it’s about providing your body with the right balance of macros to fuel growth and recovery. To optimize muscle gain, your diet should tilt towards a higher carbohydrate ratio, ensuring you have the energy to power through intense workouts and stimulate muscle growth. It’s about finding the sweet spot in your macronutrient distribution-a delicate balance that fosters muscle hypertrophy while providing enough fats and carbs for overall health and workout recovery.
Adjusting Macros Based on How You Feel
Tweaking your macro ratios can significantly impact how you feel daily, especially if you’re experiencing issues like hunger or low energy.
- Increase Protein for Satiety: If you’re constantly feeling hungry, try increasing your protein intake by about 5%. This can be done by swapping out some carbs or fats for protein-rich foods like chicken, fish, or lentils.
- Boost Carbs for Better Workouts: Do you find that your energy levels dip during exercise? You might benefit from adding more carbohydrates. Carbs are your body’s preferred energy source during workouts.
- Adjust for Better Recovery: If your workouts or recovery periods feel sluggish, your body might be telling you it needs more fuel. Reassess your carb intake, as insufficient carbs can lead to poor recovery.
- Improve Overall Caloric Intake: Feeling cold or generally low on energy might indicate that your overall calorie consumption is too low. Remember to listen to your body and adjust gradually.