Why is counting macros considered the best way to lose weight?
While the commercial world was experiencing financial success selling Keto, Paleo, Weight Watchers, and other systems of diet restrictions, serious athletes, nutrition experts, and state universities had long known that following a macro-based (also known as IIFYM or flexible dieting) nutrition plan is the best ingredient to burning fat, getting lean, and optimizing performance. And it’s simply the best way to lose weight for anyone.
How is this possible? By understanding that not all calories are created equal.
If Counting Macros Is The Best Way To Lose Weight What Are Macronutrients?
Macronutrients or “macros” are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats – nutrients your body needs for energy and life. Micronutrients, on the other hand, are the types of nutrients that your body uses in smaller amounts, like vitamins.
The total amount of calories you are consuming as each macronutrient has the following caloric value:
- 1 gram of protein = 4 calories
- 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories
- 1 gram of fat = 9 calories
What Is The Macro Diet?
Instead of counting calories, the macro diet has you focus on the type of calories between a certain number of macronutrients: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
With flexible dieting, it’s not about how many calories you’re consuming, but what kind of calories you are consuming. Even if you set a strict calorie limit and stick to it, you could be eating the wrong combination of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats and not getting the nutrients you need.
For example, you could choose between one donut that is 200 calories or three eggs that are 200 calories. Both have the same amount of calories, but one (the donut) is made up of just sugar and fats, while the other (eggs) have important protein, fats, and micronutrients that your body needs.
Can you see why tracking or counting just a random calorie number doesn’t mean you are getting the best food quality or nutrients?
Five Reasons Why Counting Macros Is The Best Way To Lose Weight
1. Macros Offer Flexibility
Every diet only offers you restrictions.
Following Paleo or Keto? Hope you don’t like pizza or tacos. Both are low-carbohydrate restrictive diets that can offer a short-term solution, but give you nothing for sustainability long-term. Name any diet, and you can find what they restrict easily.
Counting macros to lose weight, on the other hand, offers you food freedom. You do not need to blindly follow any system, meal plan, or guide unless you want to. And even then, you can modify everything.
You make the choices on what to eat based upon your goals.
You can eat the foods you love while still making progress. Simply put: NO restrictions expect for what you want to restrict.
2. Macros Offer Consistency
As we all know, if you start a diet, you have to stick to it closely or risk losing all your progress.
But because we’re restricting so many calories and foods that we love, we become more at risk at bingeing or over-eating. And if that happens, more often than not, you have to start over.
This makes it a roller-coaster of a process, which is why so many people fail, and so many people utterly hate the dieting ride.
With macro counting, due to the flexibility it affords, you’re still able to fit any of the foods you like in your plan, which allows you to stick to it much better. Not only because you’re still eating foods you like, but because you can modify it to match your lifestyle and food preferences.
3. Macros Offer Adaptability
Life is ever-changing, and each new season of your life brings new opportunities and challenges.
Since your goals will change often, so can your macros. Whether you’re counting macros to lose weight, build muscle, or maintain your current physique, your macros can help at any point.
If you just started a new summer sporting league and you desire greater performance, you can tweak your macro numbers to help provide more energy and recovery from your food choices.
Stressed from a new promotion at work? Tweak your macros to bump up your carbohydrate intake to give your body the stress reducer it needs.
4. Macros Offer Less Guilt
You can indulge your appetite with less guilt, unlike other diets that force you to restrict entire foods and food groups.
You can fit anything into your macro number allowances. Alcohol? Check. Chocolate? Check. Pizza? Check. Tacos? Check.
You don’t need to get bored and burned out by your food choices. This isn’t a broccoli and chicken diet, either. Because of such a varied diet, your cravings go away, because you’re not deficient in anything.
Now, should you eat pizza everyday? No. Especially if you’re trying to get up on stage for an event, or maximizing your performance for a sport, or just trying to lean up. Finding a balance of good, nutrient-dense foods is very important.
But that’s the beauty of macros.
You choose what is the priority, and then you can eat and track around what’s important for you. And if you’re counting macros to lose weight and decide to go out with your friends and eat pizza, that’s okay. Because you don’t need to cut out every food.
5. Macros Offer Clarity
People spend entire decades trying to outwork their diet in the gym, or going from diet to diet, trying to find the way forward. Macros offer a clear, math and science-based approach, to burning fat and achieving lean body composition.
By counting macros, your biometric data, it’s insanely simple to bust through plateau’s, bloating, and fat loss problems.
And the tools you can use to track are easy to use! You can count your macros and scan food barcodes with apps such as MyFitnessPal and Cronometer. And you can weigh your body and food with scales easily bought off Amazon or at your local store.
And while exercise is highly recommended, and will help speed up the process, you don’t even need a gym membership to get results. Abs are made in the kitchen, and so is the body.
Macros will get you there fast, and possibly more importantly, help you stay there long-term.
What’s The Best Way To Count Macros?
The best way to start counting macros is to figure out your calorie needs, tally up your macros based upon your goals, and then use an app to track your macros.
This is easier than it sounds! I offer a Macro Tracking Guide For Beginners that explains in detailed steps how to begin today.
But sometimes new information can seem overwhelming and complicated. I offer an even easier way to get started – starting your journey with a nutrition coach.
If the idea of detailed tracking and finding your numbers seems challenging, which it can be initially, let me be your accountability buddy and nutrition coach, grab your numbers, create your meal plan, and start your transformation today.
The consultation call is free, so you have nothing to lose! (except for the weight that I’ll help you shed)
Action Step: Today, I want you to either book a call, or begin reading the Beginner Macro Tracking Guide and start with the best way to look, feel, and perform better!