How to structure your diet!

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Table of Contents

• Men’s Must Read Article

• Parker’s Breakdown: Macros/Calories tracking

• Fitness trivia ❓

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🚨Men’s Must Read Article🚨

How to Count Macros: A Step-By-Step Guide

It can be hard to understand all this macro and calories stuff!

How many calories do I need to eat? How much protein or fats should I get? Do I even need carbs?

To make it easy, Healthline.com has made this step by step guide to help you!

Here are some of the main points: 👇👇

• To count macros:

  • Figure out your calorie needs based on factors like activity level

  • Decide your ideal macronutrient breakdown (e.g. 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat)

  • Track your macros and calorie intake using an app or food journal

• Benefits of counting macros

• To meet macro needs, focus on foods rich in the macros you need to consume more of

Parker’s Breakdown: Macros/Calories tracking

Getting started in the gym can be so overwhelming.

You have to figure out a routine, you have to figure out the form of each workout, and on top of that you may feel self conscious in front of everyone.

Then once you figure out that, you hear all about how you need to track your macros and calories and it feels like you are starting all over again. You hear that you need x amount of protein and a certain amount of fat and some will tell you to eat everything in sight to bulk up, while others are telling you to eat rice and chicken to get leaner.

When it comes to me, I’m all about keeping things as simple as possible, so in the simplest way I’m going to break all this down for you!

First, you need to decide what your goal is. Do you want to add more muscle mass or do you want to get leaner? Once you have figured this out we can take our first real step!

You are going to go to a TDEE calculator. Put in your information and it will spit out a very rough estimate of your calories that you need to maintain the weight you are at right now. All this calculator is telling you is roughly how many calories you burn in a day.

After you have done this, I would eat at the maintenance calories it gives you while weighing yourself everyday. Do this because like I said, it’s a very rough estimate. So for me the maintenance calories are 200-300 calories high which would make me put on a little weight. So play with this number a little bit until you find the sweet spot where you are maintaining your weight pretty well. (It is ok to fluctuate 1-5 lbs every morning.)

Once this is done, we go back to your goal. If you want to gain weight, add 100-200 calories to the maintenance calorie number and eat at that number for a couple weeks. Your body will then adjust and you will quit putting on weight. At that point add another 100-200 calories. Doing this slow progression will make sure you are not pounding on fat and keeping it mostly muscle.

If you want to get leaner, just do the exact same thing but with taking away calories. So only take away 100-200 calories at a time. Now with bulking or cutting, try to avoid going extreme. Do not eat over 4000 calories in a day and do not eat less than 1500 calories a day.

After you have figured calories, it’s time for macros. This is where I make it really simple.

For protein, eat 1 gram per lb of bodyweight. So if you are 200 lbs, eat 200 grams of protein.

Next is fats, I like to keep my fats on the higher end because fats are vital for hormone production and regulation and they make me feel good and full. I make fats about 30-40% of my total calories. To figure this out, take your total calories you are eating, for example 2,500 calories. Multiply that by the percentage of fats you want, so let’s say you want to try higher fats so 35%. You would do 2,500 x .35 = 875 calories. So take whatever number you got, in our case it is 875, and divide it by 9 (There are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat). So for our example 875/9 = 97 grams of fat should be in this example diet. So find the number you need with the math I just gave you.

Carbs will be the remainder of your total calories, so by following the same example diet you will have 35% left over. Carbs are 4 calories per gram, so you would multiply 2500 x .35 = 875 calories. So for our example 875/4 = 218 grams of carbs should be in this example diet.

So if you are bulking you will be eating more carbs than on a cut. That is the easiest way to do it.

Lastly, everyone is going to try to tell you go keto, or low fat, or low carb or whatever. Don’t listen to them. Instead try it out for yourself with an open mind, see what you feel best on, and stick with that! Everyone is different! I keep my macro split pretty even across the board because that is where I feel best! Hope this helps!

Fitness trivia ❓

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