Count Macronutrients

It’s important to count your macros – your total intake, in grams, of fat, carbs, and protein – in order to know where your calories are coming from. Counting macros can help you gain muscle and boost your energy. Use nutrition labels to count your macros whenever possible. If you’re dining out or munching on something that doesn’t have a food label, look up the macro values in each item or do your best to estimate.

Steps

Counting Macros on Food With Labels

1. Check the serving size. Accurately counting macros means using the serving size to determine the macro content of whatever you ate. Look for the serving size just below the large “nutrition facts” header on the nutrition label.
   • Serving sizes vary according to different types of food. Some will be listed in ounces, others in fluid ounces, some in grams, some in units of food (i.e., “10 crackers”) and so on.
   • Be sure to check the servings per container, too. If a can of beets says that one serving has 80 grams of carbs and there are three servings per container, the whole can of beets contains 240 grams of carbs.
2. Tally the fat. Many nutrition labels have a total for all fat, then separate totals for saturated fat and unsaturated fat. There is no need to tally the different sorts of fat differently. Just make a note of the total fat, typically denoted in grams, in a small notebook. Alternately, add the totals in a fitness tracking app of your choice.
3. Take note of the carbs. Just like the fat total, the carbohydrate totals are usually denoted in grams. Make a note of the total carbs in your macronutrient notebook or fitness tracking app.
   • Sugar is often listed as a subcategory just below the carb count. However, you don’t need to create a separate category for sugar, since the total amount of sugar in a given food is included in the total carb count.
4. Note the protein. Protein is the third and final element in the macro-counting triumvirate. Protein, like the carbohydrate and fat totals, is expressed in grams. Write the protein count of the food you’re eating in a notebook or in your fitness tracking app alongside the other two.
5. Know what you don’t need to count. Lots of information on the nutrition label is irrelevant from a macro-counting perspective. For instance, don’t bother counting calories. Likewise, you don’t need to know the cholesterol or sodium contents of a given food (though you should always aim to consume low-sodium and low-cholesterol foods to keep your heart healthy).
   • Dietary fiber counts are also unnecessary when counting macros – though you should aim to get an adequate amount of fiber in your diet. Eat whole grain breads and pasta, and at least four cups of fruits and vegetables each day.

Counting Macros on Food Without Labels

1. Weigh your food. Weighing your unlabeled food is important for accurately determining its macro content. Place your food on a food scale in order to weigh it. Be sure to place your plate or bowl on the scale before zeroing it out, otherwise your weight measurement will erroneously include the weight of the plate or bowl.
   • For instance, you might weigh an apple and find that it weighs 25 grams.
   • Weighing fruits and veggies is less important than weighing meat because the weight of meat will change significantly when it’s cooked. Always weigh meat when it’s raw.
2. Search for nutrition facts online. Once you know the weight of your food, search online for the macro values (the total fat, carbohydrate, and protein contents, in grams) of your unlabeled food based on its mass. There are many nutrition facts databases online. Use your preferred search engine and a word string like “nutrition facts apple” to obtain the nutrition facts of an apple.
   • For instance, if you weighed a slab of beef and found it weighs 300 grams, you might search online and find that 100 grams of beef contains 15 grams of protein. This would yield a total protein count of 45 grams (three times 15). You’d then repeat the search for your other two macro metrics, carbs and fat.
3. Ask restaurants for nutrition facts. Many restaurants – especially larger chains – offer nutrition data sheets for everything on their menu. If you’re dining out, obtain the restaurant’s nutrition fact sheet and make a note of the macro data.
   • If the restaurant you’re dining at doesn’t offer nutritional information, eyeball your portion sizes/weights, then look the macronutrient content up later based on your estimates.
4. Learn to eyeball portion sizes. Identify the food or foods that you commonly eat, and the volume in which you eat them. For instance, if you eat a banana daily or almost every day, you should, in time, be able to abandon using the food scale for bananas because you’ll be so familiar with the macro counts of an average medium-sized banana. At that point, you can estimate macro tallies for bananas that are slightly outside this baseline measurement that you’ve memorized (whether they’re too large or too small).
   • Use your hand as a baseline. For instance, you might remember that an apple that is about the size of your fist has X amount of carbs, fat, and protein, while a scoop of ice cream that could fit in your hand has Y amount of carbs, fat, and protein.

Adjusting Your Macros

1. Adjust your macros for weight loss. If you want to lose weight, you should be getting 10-30% of your macro totals from carbs, 40-50% of your macros from protein, and 30-40% of your macros from fat. For instance, over the course of a day, you might have consumed 35 grams of fat, 15 grams of carbs, and 50 grams of protein.
   • Good foods to eat for weight loss while staying within your macro totals include bananas, apples, grapes, carrots, celery, nuts, groats, and avocados.
2. Adopt a bodybuilding macro regimen. A low-fat, high-carb macro regimen will enable you to build muscle and power through an intense workout. Macro regimens for bodybuilding typically aim for 15-25% fat, 25-35% protein, and 40-60% carbs.
   • When following this division of macros, you might eat 50 grams of fat, 50 grams of protein, and 100 grams of carbs by the day’s end.
   • Good foods to eat for bodybuilding while staying within your macro totals include potatoes, grapes, apples, avocados, seeds, whole wheat pasta, and brown rice.
3. Maintain your weight with macros. Because of individual variation, there is not a clear way to calculate what the optimal macronutrient balance is for an individual. On average, though, you will be able to maintain your weight by eating the same amount of calories you expend each day and by keeping your macronutrient ratios at about 30-50% carbs, 25-35% protein, and 25-35% fat.
   • Other common macro balances include 45-65% carbs, 10-35% percent protein, and 20-35% fat.
   • Some people believe that consuming each macro in equal amounts is best (for instance, consuming 35 grams of fat, 35 grams of protein, and 35 grams of carbs over the course of a day).
   • Talk to a doctor or dietitian about how to best balance your macro ratios.

Sources and Citations

See also

• Stay Away from Junk Food
• Choose Low FODMAP Foods As a Vegetarian
• Eat Properly
• Stop Being Hungry Quickly
• Develop Healthy Eating Habits
• Make Yourself Less Thirsty
• Avoid Food Triggered Seizures
• Cut Down on Junk Food
• Add Flavor to Quinoa
• Stay Thin

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