The purpose of this guide is to offer an easier and more sustainable method to counting your macros than entering every single food and drink you eat, every day, into a nutritional calculator. The trade-off to this is a little more thought up front, but getting this right will potentially make or break your fitness success.
Note: You can download my calorie and macro setting guide here. Join 50,000+ others.
How To Count MacrosThe RippedBody.com Philosophy & Approach
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This guide is based on what I’ve learned guiding clients with this over the last several years. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Tracking Macros: Why Consistency is Important
- Macro Counting: Simplified Rules
- How To Make Your Own Counting Rules
- Macro Counting: Flexible Targets for Easy Dieting
- How to Calculate Your Macros
- How to Make Meal Plans
1. Tracking Macros: Why Consistency is Important
Weighing and counting everything to the exact gram for months on end doesn’t encourage a very healthy relationship with food, and relying exclusively on packaged goods with a nutritional label isn’t a very healthy or tasty way to go either. This is why I suggest that people simplify the way they count their macros rather than driving themselves nuts seeking perfection.
Simplifications will lead to some inaccuracies, however, I don’t believe that inaccuracies need to matter as long as we’re, a) not wildly off from what we thought, b) consistent with our cooking & counting methods so that we don’t have large variances from day-to-day.
Common Counting Mistake 1 – Miscounting leading to energy intake being way off target
Here’s are some examples of how this commonly happens:
- Your daily lunchtime salad that you thought wouldn’t be worth counting (because it’s mostly leafy green vegetables) actually has 40g of fat in it because of the dressing.
- You forgot to count the cola/ fruit juices in your diet.
- You’ve been melting 80g of butter into your coffee each morning because you read that you would burn more fat this way, so you decided not to count it.
Figure 1: What we don’t want: average calorie/macro intake wildly above or below target.
Common Counting Mistake 2 – Miscounting leading to large fluctuations in daily energy intake
Here’s are some examples of how this commonly happens:
- After tough days at work, you’re in the habit of drinking several beers. You count the carbs but forget to count the alcohol. (More on this below.)
- Some days you grill your meat, some days you fry it, some days you sous vide it (boiling your meat in a zip lock bag, I hear this is a tasty trend in California). You count the macros as the same regardless of cooking style, forgetting that fat intake will change depending on the method.
Figure 2: Unacceptable vs Acceptable average daily calorie/macro intake fluctuations from target
It’s too easy for counting mistakes to occur or things to slip in unnoticed into our diets. They quickly add up to big differences, so here’s some homework: Without changing your diet, use a nutritional calculator to count the calories and macros in every single thing except water that you put in your mouth for an entire week. Use one or a combination of these nutritional calculators:
FitGenie (put together by my co-author on The Muscle and Strength Pyramid books) / MyFitnessPal / Getmymacros.com
Be Consistent With Counting & Cooking Methods So You Can Make Relative Adjustments
Recall the example of our pet rabbit at the top of the post – the cheeky little bugger is sure to be eating some grass from the garden too, so we won’t know his actual energy intake. However, we know that on his current “3 carrots and some grass” diet he’s gotten fat, and we can guess that the carrots are going to be the main energy component of the diet, so we know it’s likely a good idea to try him on a ‘2 carrots a day’ diet for a while.
We can take a similar approach ourselves. (The difference here is that while the rabbit may start munching more grass from the garden as hunger kicks in, we won’t do this to ourselves.)
It is not necessary to know exact intake or energy expenditure as long as you are willing to track things and then make adjustments.
Figure 3 – A manageable (but not ideal) range of calorie intake inaccuracy.
Let’s say we aim for the black line as our target intake, but we don’t know whether we’re over or under 20% of our target – this definitely isn’t ideal but if you track things over several weeks, you can adjust things relatively. Then,
- If your weight is falling too fast, increase calories.
- If your weight not falling in line with how you planned, decrease calories.
I know, that’s not rocket science but it’s something many folks seem to easily miss. They make complete re-calculations instead of adjusting from their baseline. Here‘s my free email course on how to do that.
Ah, but what about macros, it surely matters if one is way off compared to the others, right?
Yes, naturally. We’re still counting macros so we’re not going to be way off with any of them. We just want to make things easier for ourselves. The next section covers how.
2. Macro Counting: Simplified Rules
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Ask yourself, it worth the extra mental headache of counting rice as 71g of carbs per 100g of dried weight, or will simplifying it to 70g suffice? I would say that it’s well worth going with the simplification. Here are some suggestions.
Important Notes:
- Everything below is a simplification for raw or uncooked foods. Cooked weight simplifications are not given because the water weight they contain will vary depending on the degree to which they are cooked.
- If something is in a packet with the nutritional information label on it, look at the macro content and make your own simplified rule from that. Most things will be listed ‘per 100g’, others will be ‘per serving’. Make sure you double-check and don’t just assume that it’s to the nearest 100g always or you’ll get caught out.
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How to Count Carbs
1g Carbohydrate ~=4kCal
Carbs are going to come through your diet in a variety of sources: fruit, starchy carbs, veg and in the other things you don’t generally think about like dairy, sauces, and drinks.
Starchy carbs
These will form the bulk of your carb intake. – (Bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.)
- Raw Potatoes ~15g-20g carbs per 100g weight.
- Sweet potatoes, ~20-25g per 100g weight.
- Dried Rice ~70g of carbs per 100g weight. Works for most dried pasta too.
- Bread – varies (some manufacturers add a lot of butter for flavor). Look at the nutritional label if available or in one of the nutritional calculators.
You’ll see that protein and fat content in the starchy carbs have been ignored in the above simplifications. That’s purposeful to make things easier, but it’s up to you.
Pro tip: Microwavable rice and other similar things won’t conform to the simplifications above because they are partially cooked and have greater water content.
Fruit
- Consider one ‘medium’ sized piece of fruit (an apple, a banana, a pear, an orange, etc.) to be 25g of carbs.
- Other things like berries, melon, etc? Weigh them once and look them up.
- Unsure, or hate the idea of ‘medium’? Weigh it once, look it up.
Pro tip: Avoid smoothies and fruit juice when dieting. – All the sugar, none of the fiber. Easy to ‘eat’ but not very filling.
Vegetables
- Count the carbs in starchy vegetables as they are more energy dense. Examples: carrots, peas, corn, potatoes, parsnips. (When looking these up you’ll see that the energy content is relatively high for a vegetable, and fiber content per gram of carbs is low.)
- Don’t bother counting the carbs in any leafy, green vegetables.
- Consider ignoring the rest. – Look it up, make a decision, stick to that decision.
Pro tip: A can of diced or chopped tomatoes is a great idea, but if the math doesn’t add up on the ingredient label to what it should normally, that’s probably because that particular manufacturer added sugar. You’ll want to count the carb content of this in that case.
Carbs in other things that add up quickly and are easily missed:
- Drinks (milk, juice, soft-drinks)
- Dairy
- Protein powder
- Sauces
- Salad dressings
Check the packaging, or look it up and count it against your daily target.
Pro tip: “Net Carbs” If you come across this, ignore it. You’ll likely find it on protein bars or other healthy snacks if you’re into those things. Count the fiber and sugar alcohols in them against your carb target for the day – they still have energy (though not as much energy admittedly), but you can’t just gorge yourself on these things. Exactly how much energy depends on the fiber type or the sugar alcohol type and is probably a road you don’t want to go down.
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How to Count Protein
1g Protein ~=4kCal
- Uncooked beef/ chicken/ pork/ lamb/ fish 100g = ~20-25g of protein.
- One large egg = ~8g protein 5g fat.
- Egg whites = ~4g protein.
The fat content in meat can quickly add up so be careful that your choices of cut don’t add up past your fat macro budget for the day. Here are the leanest protein sources:
- Chicken breast (skinless),
- some red meat,
- white fish,
- some cuts of tuna,
- protein shakes,
- Skimmed milk & other, low-fat dairy.
To say that I am not a fan of supplement companies would be an understatement. However, I do concede that in most countries in the world, the cheapest way to hit your protein requirements is protein powder, so if you’re on a budget then consider this.
Pro tip: The trade-off to drinking our food is that it is less satisfying, more easily digested, and we get hungry quicker than if it were eating regular food. Casein protein is the most filling type of protein powder due to the slow rate of absorption. For those bulking, liquid food like this or fruit juices can be your friend.
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How to Count Fat
1g Fat ~=9kCal
In contrast to vegetables, fat is highly energy dense. Generally 1g of weight = 1g fat = 9kCal. As the energy content can add up quickly I’d suggest that you consider counting the fat in everything.
How many grams of fat are in that cut of steak? How about after it’s grilled and some fat has dripped off of it, should I weigh the fat and deduct from the total?
Here’s the most sensible strategy – look it up in a nutritional calculator, make you best educated guess at the fat content, and then forget about it. You’re likely to eat the same cuts of meat again and again so it won’t matter because you’ll be following the ‘consistency rule’.
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How to Count Alcohol
1g Alcohol ~=7kCal
It is difficult to make simplifications for alcohol, especially beer, as each drink will vary. Here is a rough idea:
- Beer @5%: ~150kCal, ~12g carbs, ~14g alcohol (per 12floz/350ml can/bottle)
- White wine @10%: ~200kCal, ~7g carbs, ~25g alcohol (250g glass, 1/3 bottle)
- Red wine @10%: ~210kCal, 9g carbs~25g alcohol
- Spirit shot @40%: 70/84kCal (25ml/1fl.oz)
- You can look up your favorite beer (or other alcohol) here.
Most generic spirits will be 40% alcohol with no other macro content. You take the amount you drink, multiply by the alcohol content, then multiply by the calories per gram of alcohol.So if you have 4 European shots (25ml) that’s 100ml, 100g; 100×0.4×7 = 280kCal. Deduct the carbs from your allowance for the day.
Alcohol isn’t part of your three macro targets, but it is going to count towards the daily calorie balance which needs to be maintained, so reduce your carb and fat intake accordingly. If you’re going to binge drink then see here.
Pro tip: Zubrowka mixed with apple juice. Tastes awesome, thank me later.
3. How To Make Your Own Counting Rules
That above was not an attempt at an exhaustive list. The idea is to give you examples so you can learn how to make them on your own, for the foods that you like.
Have a look at this label for 100g of dried pasta. 
Here are some examples of simplified rules we can make:
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 70g carbs, 0g fat, and 0g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 70g carbs, 0g fat, and 10g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75g carbs, 0g fat, and 10g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75g carbs, 0g fat, and 15g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75g carbs, 2g fat, and 15g protein.
Actual: 100g of dry pasta = 73g carbs, 2g fat and 15g protein.
In all but one of the above examples, calories will be underestimated. You’ll see that they range from least to most accurate top down, with the last barely being a counting simplification at all.
How accurate you wish to be with your rules is up to you. Clearly the trade-off to greater accuracy is more complication, however, I’d say that it’s better to underestimate and over-consume than vice versa. Here’s why:
Fat is slow to gain but can be quickly burned off. Muscle takes a lot of effort to gain, but can easily be lost if there is an excess calorie deficit, inadequate training intensity, or inadequate protein intake.
If we verge on the side of undercounting rather than overestimation it’s better for lean mass preservation, and a safer long-term strategy overall.
Figure 4: Target area of intake to think about when constructing counting rules
When dieting, it’s better to underestimate and over-consume than vice versa.
The green area in the figure above represents the target area. Think about this when constructing your simplified rules. Be on the black line or slightly above.
4. Macro Counting: Flexible Targets for Easy Dieting
Ok, so we’ve made our lives a lot easier. We know we’re a little inaccurate, but we’re in the right range and we’re being consistent. Within the counting framework you’ve created to make life easier, are you now going to shit it all up by aiming to get exactly 67g of fat, 173g of protein and 266g of carbohydrate each day? I certainly hope not – this is exactly the all-or-nothing mindset we’re trying to avoid. So this begs the question, how accurate should we be?
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In my experience the following works very well: Goal: Shoot for 10% either side of each macro target for the day, 90% of the time (as long as the other 10% of the time isn’t total binge eating) and you’ll be fine. For those on a deadline – magazine shoot, competition, etc. – and are already <10% body fat, tighten this up to 5% either side. This is more for the psychological security that it will bring, in case you have to wait for a whoosh for example, than anything else. |
Practice this for a week or two little and when you can start getting within that +/-10% accuracy target, start tracking.
As much as you think your diet may be varied, the foods that you actually cook from and eat will not be that numerous, so it won’t take long to look everything up in one of the nutritional calculators I listed above once. (Just do it when you get home from the supermarket over the next week so that it isn’t a chore.)
Make a note of any new foods on a memo sheet (‘cheat sheet’) and pin it up on the fridge in the kitchen. Put together a few meals out of your favorite foods, and put these meals together so that you have a set of meals for your training days and rest days that fit your macros, then rotate them. Build on this number over time to bring variety to your diet. From here you don’t need to recalculate things, you just refer to the cheat sheet up on your fridge.
5. How to Calculate Your Macros
Stick your email address in the box at the end, I’ll send you my free, 100-page, mobile friendly ebook covering the theory and application of calculations and meal timing… which you are of course free to skip and just download the spreadsheet. The link is at the end of the introduction chapter in the book.
6. How to Make Meal Plans
This is as simple as using the guidelines above to get you started. The free tool called EatThisMuch is great also.
Macro Counting FAQ
What if I don’t wish to count at all?
It’s actually really easy and doable to get shredded without counting anything if you are prepared to eat the same meal combinations over and over again. I had two very successful cuts, before I knew what I was doing, using that method. Here’s how it’s done:
- You’re going to need to cook most of your meals at home. Be sure you are consuming protein at each meal. Create a schedule based on your meal preference and stick to it.
- Track your body measurements and ensure your data is moving downwards.
- If you need to make a reduction, don’t bother counting it, just remove a fist-sized portion of carbohydrates from your food each day.
- This should keep the scale moving in the right direction. Each time the fat loss stalls, remove another half-fist of carbohydrates from your meals. You should do this as few times as you can, though, so that you’re eating as much as possible while still losing fat.
Then, Bingo! You’re shredded.
Using this method, technically your fat intake will remain pretty much unchanged throughout your cut, which isn’t optimal – carbs are important to fuel your training and you don’t want to go too low on them – however, that’s a small trade off to make in order to utilize this very easy method.
It also helps to not have a girlfriend or be dating during this. For obvious reasons.
Why is it safe to not count most veg?
Vegetables are not very energy dense. With the exception of the few starchy ones (such as potatoes and carrots), it’s tough to eat so many that it makes a significant impact on your calorie intake.
100g of raw tomatoes: ~3g carbs, 1g protein, ~=16kCal 100g of spinach: ~3g carbs, 2g protein, ~=20kCal
vs
100g of butter =100g fat, ~= 900kCal
Even if you choose to eat a truly huge amount of vegetables each day to keep yourself full, 1.5kg/3.3lbs for example, and choose not to count any of it, at the worst case we’re only talking a ~300kCal increase above what you were counting – if your digestive system were as efficient as a cow that is.
In reality, the energy availability of that veg will be lower than the standard 4kCal per 1g for carbs because it will be mostly fiber, which our bodies are not very good at taking the energy from. Also, it’s likely that your gut won’t be able to handle such a high amount of fiber anyway, and the severe bloating and/or diarrhea will get you to limit yourself naturally.
In a nutshell, fibrous (non-starchy) vegetables aren’t something we need to worry about counting. (My fiber and intake guidelines.)
Are large swings in calorie intake from day to day fine if they lead to the same average intake over time?
No. The bodyweight change would be the same in both situations, however, this isn’t optimal for workout recovery or nutrient partitioning so you’ll be fatter, with less muscle in the ‘wild swing’ condition (see: ‘common mistake 2’ diagram). This is why binge-starve cycles don’t lead to ripped physiques.
Why do you say under-counting is less common?
People tend to auto-correct. Hunger intensifies and eventually leads to binges followed by more strict adherence.
What about eating out?
If you’re eating out in restaurants all the time, and/or partying your ass off all the time, then no matter how much of a cheat-sheet I give you, you’re not going to have success with counting macros so forget it. Diet adherence goes out the window after a few drinks anyway, and it’s easy to wake up surrounded by kebab wrappers.
It’s difficult to guess what macros are in foods at restaurants (particularly hidden fat), so while you can do your best to eyeball the foods (if you have experience from home cooking to base this on) your diet is not going to be accurate enough overall if the frequency you eat out is too high. – Nobody said there wasn’t a tradeoff.
Why not use one of those macro calculators forever?
You can do that, but I don’t see it as being a long-term sustainable strategy.
What about [insert food here]?
Look it up in a calculator, make an executive decision on what you deem to be a reasonable simplification for this food, stick to it and that way you have the ‘consistency rule’ covered. If this worries you, press this button and come back.
Oh but I live in country x and the food is very oily.
Excellent. The least fatty cuts of meat will probably be the cheapest ones in your supermarket. Rejoice friend. The food is weird you say? Come try the supermarkets in Japan. I have to skip past the octopus, whale, & cod semen to get to the meat & poultry section every day.
I live in a country where the nutritional information is not typically listed on food packets or in restaurants?
Your best bet is to cook at home. Rice, pasta, potaties, quinoa, etc… these basic carbs have the same nutritional info everywhere, so even though it may not be listed on the packet in your supermarket, just weigh it and then google it in english to get the nutritional information. Same principle with vegetables and meat also. You just need a small kitchen scale which may cost you $10.
I prefer to count everything. Is this ok?
That can be absolutely fine. However, it’s also an indication of a slightly OCD personality, and for that reason you may benefit from letting go to reduce stress.
Ah, but now I can’t throw my macros up onto a forum to ask if they look right. What say you?
Sure, but do you want multiple unqualified opinions on whether your macros are ‘correct’ or is that going to just confuse the situation? You can read my calorie and macro setting guide to see if they are in the right ballpark yourself. From there, “Are these macros right?” is the wrong question to be asking, it should be, “How are these macros working for me?”
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Alright, I think that’s enough for today. Let’s talk about putting your macros into meal plans and using ‘balancing foods’ to get to within those 10% targets another day.
I hope you found it useful. If anything doesn’t make sense just hit me up in the comments. – Andy
The purpose of this guide is to offer an easier and more sustainable method to counting your macros than entering every single food and drink you eat, every day, into a nutritional calculator. The trade-off to this is a little more thought up front, but getting this right will potentially make or break your fitness success.
Note: You can download my calorie and macro setting guide here. Join 50,000+ others.
How To Count MacrosThe RippedBody.com Philosophy & Approach
|
This guide is based on what I’ve learned guiding clients with this over the last several years. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- Tracking Macros: Why Consistency is Important
- Macro Counting: Simplified Rules
- How To Make Your Own Counting Rules
- Macro Counting: Flexible Targets for Easy Dieting
- How to Calculate Your Macros
- How to Make Meal Plans
1. Tracking Macros: Why Consistency is Important
Weighing and counting everything to the exact gram for months on end doesn’t encourage a very healthy relationship with food, and relying exclusively on packaged goods with a nutritional label isn’t a very healthy or tasty way to go either. This is why I suggest that people simplify the way they count their macros rather than driving themselves nuts seeking perfection.
Simplifications will lead to some inaccuracies, however, I don’t believe that inaccuracies need to matter as long as we’re, a) not wildly off from what we thought, b) consistent with our cooking & counting methods so that we don’t have large variances from day-to-day.
Common Counting Mistake 1 – Miscounting leading to energy intake being way off target
Here’s are some examples of how this commonly happens:
- Your daily lunchtime salad that you thought wouldn’t be worth counting (because it’s mostly leafy green vegetables) actually has 40g of fat in it because of the dressing.
- You forgot to count the cola/ fruit juices in your diet.
- You’ve been melting 80g of butter into your coffee each morning because you read that you would burn more fat this way, so you decided not to count it.
Figure 1: What we don’t want: average calorie/macro intake wildly above or below target.
Common Counting Mistake 2 – Miscounting leading to large fluctuations in daily energy intake
Here’s are some examples of how this commonly happens:
- After tough days at work, you’re in the habit of drinking several beers. You count the carbs but forget to count the alcohol. (More on this below.)
- Some days you grill your meat, some days you fry it, some days you sous vide it (boiling your meat in a zip lock bag, I hear this is a tasty trend in California). You count the macros as the same regardless of cooking style, forgetting that fat intake will change depending on the method.
Figure 2: Unacceptable vs Acceptable average daily calorie/macro intake fluctuations from target
It’s too easy for counting mistakes to occur or things to slip in unnoticed into our diets. They quickly add up to big differences, so here’s some homework: Without changing your diet, use a nutritional calculator to count the calories and macros in every single thing except water that you put in your mouth for an entire week. Use one or a combination of these nutritional calculators:
FitGenie (put together by my co-author on The Muscle and Strength Pyramid books) / MyFitnessPal / Getmymacros.com
Be Consistent With Counting & Cooking Methods So You Can Make Relative Adjustments
Recall the example of our pet rabbit at the top of the post – the cheeky little bugger is sure to be eating some grass from the garden too, so we won’t know his actual energy intake. However, we know that on his current “3 carrots and some grass” diet he’s gotten fat, and we can guess that the carrots are going to be the main energy component of the diet, so we know it’s likely a good idea to try him on a ‘2 carrots a day’ diet for a while.
We can take a similar approach ourselves. (The difference here is that while the rabbit may start munching more grass from the garden as hunger kicks in, we won’t do this to ourselves.)
It is not necessary to know exact intake or energy expenditure as long as you are willing to track things and then make adjustments.
Figure 3 – A manageable (but not ideal) range of calorie intake inaccuracy.
Let’s say we aim for the black line as our target intake, but we don’t know whether we’re over or under 20% of our target – this definitely isn’t ideal but if you track things over several weeks, you can adjust things relatively. Then,
- If your weight is falling too fast, increase calories.
- If your weight not falling in line with how you planned, decrease calories.
I know, that’s not rocket science but it’s something many folks seem to easily miss. They make complete re-calculations instead of adjusting from their baseline. Here‘s my free email course on how to do that.
Ah, but what about macros, it surely matters if one is way off compared to the others, right?
Yes, naturally. We’re still counting macros so we’re not going to be way off with any of them. We just want to make things easier for ourselves. The next section covers how.
2. Macro Counting: Simplified Rules
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Ask yourself, it worth the extra mental headache of counting rice as 71g of carbs per 100g of dried weight, or will simplifying it to 70g suffice? I would say that it’s well worth going with the simplification. Here are some suggestions.
Important Notes:
- Everything below is a simplification for raw or uncooked foods. Cooked weight simplifications are not given because the water weight they contain will vary depending on the degree to which they are cooked.
- If something is in a packet with the nutritional information label on it, look at the macro content and make your own simplified rule from that. Most things will be listed ‘per 100g’, others will be ‘per serving’. Make sure you double-check and don’t just assume that it’s to the nearest 100g always or you’ll get caught out.
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How to Count Carbs
1g Carbohydrate ~=4kCal
Carbs are going to come through your diet in a variety of sources: fruit, starchy carbs, veg and in the other things you don’t generally think about like dairy, sauces, and drinks.
Starchy carbs
These will form the bulk of your carb intake. – (Bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, etc.)
- Raw Potatoes ~15g-20g carbs per 100g weight.
- Sweet potatoes, ~20-25g per 100g weight.
- Dried Rice ~70g of carbs per 100g weight. Works for most dried pasta too.
- Bread – varies (some manufacturers add a lot of butter for flavor). Look at the nutritional label if available or in one of the nutritional calculators.
You’ll see that protein and fat content in the starchy carbs have been ignored in the above simplifications. That’s purposeful to make things easier, but it’s up to you.
Pro tip: Microwavable rice and other similar things won’t conform to the simplifications above because they are partially cooked and have greater water content.
Fruit
- Consider one ‘medium’ sized piece of fruit (an apple, a banana, a pear, an orange, etc.) to be 25g of carbs.
- Other things like berries, melon, etc? Weigh them once and look them up.
- Unsure, or hate the idea of ‘medium’? Weigh it once, look it up.
Pro tip: Avoid smoothies and fruit juice when dieting. – All the sugar, none of the fiber. Easy to ‘eat’ but not very filling.
Vegetables
- Count the carbs in starchy vegetables as they are more energy dense. Examples: carrots, peas, corn, potatoes, parsnips. (When looking these up you’ll see that the energy content is relatively high for a vegetable, and fiber content per gram of carbs is low.)
- Don’t bother counting the carbs in any leafy, green vegetables.
- Consider ignoring the rest. – Look it up, make a decision, stick to that decision.
Pro tip: A can of diced or chopped tomatoes is a great idea, but if the math doesn’t add up on the ingredient label to what it should normally, that’s probably because that particular manufacturer added sugar. You’ll want to count the carb content of this in that case.
Carbs in other things that add up quickly and are easily missed:
- Drinks (milk, juice, soft-drinks)
- Dairy
- Protein powder
- Sauces
- Salad dressings
Check the packaging, or look it up and count it against your daily target.
Pro tip: “Net Carbs” If you come across this, ignore it. You’ll likely find it on protein bars or other healthy snacks if you’re into those things. Count the fiber and sugar alcohols in them against your carb target for the day – they still have energy (though not as much energy admittedly), but you can’t just gorge yourself on these things. Exactly how much energy depends on the fiber type or the sugar alcohol type and is probably a road you don’t want to go down.
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How to Count Protein
1g Protein ~=4kCal
- Uncooked beef/ chicken/ pork/ lamb/ fish 100g = ~20-25g of protein.
- One large egg = ~8g protein 5g fat.
- Egg whites = ~4g protein.
The fat content in meat can quickly add up so be careful that your choices of cut don’t add up past your fat macro budget for the day. Here are the leanest protein sources:
- Chicken breast (skinless),
- some red meat,
- white fish,
- some cuts of tuna,
- protein shakes,
- Skimmed milk & other, low-fat dairy.
To say that I am not a fan of supplement companies would be an understatement. However, I do concede that in most countries in the world, the cheapest way to hit your protein requirements is protein powder, so if you’re on a budget then consider this.
Pro tip: The trade-off to drinking our food is that it is less satisfying, more easily digested, and we get hungry quicker than if it were eating regular food. Casein protein is the most filling type of protein powder due to the slow rate of absorption. For those bulking, liquid food like this or fruit juices can be your friend.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How to Count Fat
1g Fat ~=9kCal
In contrast to vegetables, fat is highly energy dense. Generally 1g of weight = 1g fat = 9kCal. As the energy content can add up quickly I’d suggest that you consider counting the fat in everything.
How many grams of fat are in that cut of steak? How about after it’s grilled and some fat has dripped off of it, should I weigh the fat and deduct from the total?
Here’s the most sensible strategy – look it up in a nutritional calculator, make you best educated guess at the fat content, and then forget about it. You’re likely to eat the same cuts of meat again and again so it won’t matter because you’ll be following the ‘consistency rule’.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
How to Count Alcohol
1g Alcohol ~=7kCal
It is difficult to make simplifications for alcohol, especially beer, as each drink will vary. Here is a rough idea:
- Beer @5%: ~150kCal, ~12g carbs, ~14g alcohol (per 12floz/350ml can/bottle)
- White wine @10%: ~200kCal, ~7g carbs, ~25g alcohol (250g glass, 1/3 bottle)
- Red wine @10%: ~210kCal, 9g carbs~25g alcohol
- Spirit shot @40%: 70/84kCal (25ml/1fl.oz)
- You can look up your favorite beer (or other alcohol) here.
Most generic spirits will be 40% alcohol with no other macro content. You take the amount you drink, multiply by the alcohol content, then multiply by the calories per gram of alcohol.So if you have 4 European shots (25ml) that’s 100ml, 100g; 100×0.4×7 = 280kCal. Deduct the carbs from your allowance for the day.
Alcohol isn’t part of your three macro targets, but it is going to count towards the daily calorie balance which needs to be maintained, so reduce your carb and fat intake accordingly. If you’re going to binge drink then see here.
Pro tip: Zubrowka mixed with apple juice. Tastes awesome, thank me later.
3. How To Make Your Own Counting Rules
That above was not an attempt at an exhaustive list. The idea is to give you examples so you can learn how to make them on your own, for the foods that you like.
Have a look at this label for 100g of dried pasta. Here are some examples of simplified rules we can make:
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 70g carbs, 0g fat, and 0g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 70g carbs, 0g fat, and 10g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75g carbs, 0g fat, and 10g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75g carbs, 0g fat, and 15g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75g carbs, 2g fat, and 15g protein.
Actual: 100g of dry pasta = 73g carbs, 2g fat and 15g protein.
In all but one of the above examples, calories will be underestimated. You’ll see that they range from least to most accurate top down, with the last barely being a counting simplification at all.
How accurate you wish to be with your rules is up to you. Clearly the trade-off to greater accuracy is more complication, however, I’d say that it’s better to underestimate and over-consume than vice versa. Here’s why:
Fat is slow to gain but can be quickly burned off. Muscle takes a lot of effort to gain, but can easily be lost if there is an excess calorie deficit, inadequate training intensity, or inadequate protein intake.
If we verge on the side of undercounting rather than overestimation it’s better for lean mass preservation, and a safer long-term strategy overall.
Figure 4: Target area of intake to think about when constructing counting rules
When dieting, it’s better to underestimate and over-consume than vice versa.
The green area in the figure above represents the target area. Think about this when constructing your simplified rules. Be on the black line or slightly above.
4. Macro Counting: Flexible Targets for Easy Dieting
Ok, so we’ve made our lives a lot easier. We know we’re a little inaccurate, but we’re in the right range and we’re being consistent. Within the counting framework you’ve created to make life easier, are you now going to shit it all up by aiming to get exactly 67g of fat, 173g of protein and 266g of carbohydrate each day? I certainly hope not – this is exactly the all-or-nothing mindset we’re trying to avoid. So this begs the question, how accurate should we be?
|
In my experience the following works very well: Goal: Shoot for 10% either side of each macro target for the day, 90% of the time (as long as the other 10% of the time isn’t total binge eating) and you’ll be fine. For those on a deadline – magazine shoot, competition, etc. – and are already <10% body fat, tighten this up to 5% either side. This is more for the psychological security that it will bring, in case you have to wait for a whoosh for example, than anything else. |
Practice this for a week or two little and when you can start getting within that +/-10% accuracy target, start tracking.
As much as you think your diet may be varied, the foods that you actually cook from and eat will not be that numerous, so it won’t take long to look everything up in one of the nutritional calculators I listed above once. (Just do it when you get home from the supermarket over the next week so that it isn’t a chore.)
Make a note of any new foods on a memo sheet (‘cheat sheet’) and pin it up on the fridge in the kitchen. Put together a few meals out of your favorite foods, and put these meals together so that you have a set of meals for your training days and rest days that fit your macros, then rotate them. Build on this number over time to bring variety to your diet. From here you don’t need to recalculate things, you just refer to the cheat sheet up on your fridge.
5. How to Calculate Your Macros
Stick your email address in the box at the end, I’ll send you my free, 100-page, mobile friendly ebook covering the theory and application of calculations and meal timing… which you are of course free to skip and just download the spreadsheet. The link is at the end of the introduction chapter in the book.
6. How to Make Meal Plans
This is as simple as using the guidelines above to get you started. The free tool called EatThisMuch is great also.
Macro Counting FAQ
What if I don’t wish to count at all?
It’s actually really easy and doable to get shredded without counting anything if you are prepared to eat the same meal combinations over and over again. I had two very successful cuts, before I knew what I was doing, using that method. Here’s how it’s done:
- You’re going to need to cook most of your meals at home. Be sure you are consuming protein at each meal. Create a schedule based on your meal preference and stick to it.
- Track your body measurements and ensure your data is moving downwards.
- If you need to make a reduction, don’t bother counting it, just remove a fist-sized portion of carbohydrates from your food each day.
- This should keep the scale moving in the right direction. Each time the fat loss stalls, remove another half-fist of carbohydrates from your meals. You should do this as few times as you can, though, so that you’re eating as much as possible while still losing fat.
Then, Bingo! You’re shredded.
Using this method, technically your fat intake will remain pretty much unchanged throughout your cut, which isn’t optimal – carbs are important to fuel your training and you don’t want to go too low on them – however, that’s a small trade off to make in order to utilize this very easy method.
It also helps to not have a girlfriend or be dating during this. For obvious reasons.
Why is it safe to not count most veg?
Vegetables are not very energy dense. With the exception of the few starchy ones (such as potatoes and carrots), it’s tough to eat so many that it makes a significant impact on your calorie intake.
100g of raw tomatoes: ~3g carbs, 1g protein, ~=16kCal 100g of spinach: ~3g carbs, 2g protein, ~=20kCal
vs
100g of butter =100g fat, ~= 900kCal
Even if you choose to eat a truly huge amount of vegetables each day to keep yourself full, 1.5kg/3.3lbs for example, and choose not to count any of it, at the worst case we’re only talking a ~300kCal increase above what you were counting – if your digestive system were as efficient as a cow that is.
In reality, the energy availability of that veg will be lower than the standard 4kCal per 1g for carbs because it will be mostly fiber, which our bodies are not very good at taking the energy from. Also, it’s likely that your gut won’t be able to handle such a high amount of fiber anyway, and the severe bloating and/or diarrhea will get you to limit yourself naturally.
In a nutshell, fibrous (non-starchy) vegetables aren’t something we need to worry about counting. (My fiber and intake guidelines.)
Are large swings in calorie intake from day to day fine if they lead to the same average intake over time?
No. The bodyweight change would be the same in both situations, however, this isn’t optimal for workout recovery or nutrient partitioning so you’ll be fatter, with less muscle in the ‘wild swing’ condition (see: ‘common mistake 2’ diagram). This is why binge-starve cycles don’t lead to ripped physiques.
Why do you say under-counting is less common?
People tend to auto-correct. Hunger intensifies and eventually leads to binges followed by more strict adherence.
What about eating out?
If you’re eating out in restaurants all the time, and/or partying your ass off all the time, then no matter how much of a cheat-sheet I give you, you’re not going to have success with counting macros so forget it. Diet adherence goes out the window after a few drinks anyway, and it’s easy to wake up surrounded by kebab wrappers.
It’s difficult to guess what macros are in foods at restaurants (particularly hidden fat), so while you can do your best to eyeball the foods (if you have experience from home cooking to base this on) your diet is not going to be accurate enough overall if the frequency you eat out is too high. – Nobody said there wasn’t a tradeoff.
Why not use one of those macro calculators forever?
You can do that, but I don’t see it as being a long-term sustainable strategy.
What about [insert food here]?
Look it up in a calculator, make an executive decision on what you deem to be a reasonable simplification for this food, stick to it and that way you have the ‘consistency rule’ covered. If this worries you, press this button and come back.
Oh but I live in country x and the food is very oily.
Excellent. The least fatty cuts of meat will probably be the cheapest ones in your supermarket. Rejoice friend. The food is weird you say? Come try the supermarkets in Japan. I have to skip past the octopus, whale, & cod semen to get to the meat & poultry section every day.
I live in a country where the nutritional information is not typically listed on food packets or in restaurants?
Your best bet is to cook at home. Rice, pasta, potaties, quinoa, etc… these basic carbs have the same nutritional info everywhere, so even though it may not be listed on the packet in your supermarket, just weigh it and then google it in english to get the nutritional information. Same principle with vegetables and meat also. You just need a small kitchen scale which may cost you $10.
I prefer to count everything. Is this ok?
That can be absolutely fine. However, it’s also an indication of a slightly OCD personality, and for that reason you may benefit from letting go to reduce stress.
Ah, but now I can’t throw my macros up onto a forum to ask if they look right. What say you?
Sure, but do you want multiple unqualified opinions on whether your macros are ‘correct’ or is that going to just confuse the situation? You can read my calorie and macro setting guide to see if they are in the right ballpark yourself. From there, “Are these macros right?” is the wrong question to be asking, it should be, “How are these macros working for me?”
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Alright, I think that’s enough for today. Let’s talk about putting your macros into meal plans and using ‘balancing foods’ to get to within those 10% targets another day.
I hope you found it useful. If anything doesn’t make sense just hit me up in the comments. – Andy
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About the Author
Andy Morgan
I am the founder of RippedBody.com, this is my sincere effort to build the best nutrition and training guides on the internet. Some readers hire me to coach them, which I've been doing online, via email, for the last six years. If you're interested in individualized, one-on-one nutrition and training coaching to help you crush your physique goals, let's start the conversation.
172 Comments on “Macro Counting 101: The Comprehensive, No-Nonsense Guide”
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looking to calculate my macros. thank you!
Hi Lil, I’ve put a link at the top and bottom of the guide.
Hi Andy,
How would I go about counting the macros in deep fried food, for example cutlets?
This is something to put into one of those online nutrition calculation tools I listed, Gustaf.
Great read. thanks
Most welcome, Lauren. 🙂
Best website on the net. Thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge.
Jason, most welcome, and thank you for the compliment. It’s something I aspire to but the edits and improvements never seem to end. I’ll keep working away. 🙂
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Macro calculation help?
Hi Jade, sure, see the box at the end of the article. Enter your mail address to get the calculator I put together based on my calculation guide.
Andy,
Fantastic stuff here. I have calculated my macros and am all set for rest days. I’m at ~14% BF. My question is for training days.
I am 42 and have some issues causing me to train at a lower weight higher rep level and not train as intense as I used to be able to. I have some nerve damage producing a really weak arm and an SI joint I’m trying to rehab. I also have a sedentary desk job.
So my question is on training days I have calculated 80-85 gr of carb per meal x3 meals, 20 gr fat, 60 gr protein. I hit my macros for the first 2 meals, by meal 3 I just wanted to skip the carbs and eat the protein/fat and go to bed. I’m trying to cut, so is that acceptable, or should I just power through? I also workout fasted 6:00 am.
Thanks for the guidance.
Ryan
Hi Ryan, thanks for the question.
Summary: “Can I skip some of the carbs in the last meal before bed?”
– You could, but then you will be down on your calorie balance for the day. Unless you stick to your calculations, you won’t be able to determine if you need to make an adjustment (and by how much if you do), because you won’t have created a consistent baseline. I would recommend that you eat them.
HI,
i have a question about sugar alcohols; lets say im eating a pint of halo top, do i subtract the sugar alcohols from the pint or how would i work that out?
thankyou!
Hi Camila, this is covered at the end of the carb section, the paragraph starting with, “Pro tip.”
Thank you for the question.
Hi Andy,
thanks for the content that you share with us! 🙂
My question refers to the need of supplementation.
I consider myself as a hardgainer/person that is saturated very fast. As I am going into cutting I calculated with your calculator my daily protein intake to ~140g.I have tracked my eating habits for two weeks and I see that in this time I didn’t have one single day where I exceeded 100g of protein. I have already identified the (natural) nutrition with the highest protein amount which I will consume and I realised that I can only reach the 140g per day with the help of supplements.
Do you have experience with hardgainer-clients that could reach the high amount of daily protein intake withou the help of supplements successfully over several weeks?
I wonder how their meal plan looks like.
Thanks a lot! 🙂
You can hit 140g of protein each day fairly easily if you choose more protein heavy foods from the list above.
HI Andy
Firstly, your website is a great resource for understanding nutrition! Had a quick question.
[Deleted by Andy.]
Thanks
Tahir (UK)
Tahir, thank you for taking the time to comment. Glad you’ve found the site so helpful. I don’t answer questions on calculations as stated in the comment rules, so I deleted it for brevity for others reading through the comments. See the third item in the FAQ, it will help.
Andy
Hi Andy,
First of all, great content on this site.
Must be one of the best one out there.
I’ve been reading through loads of the articles the last few weeks and calculated my macros (c,p and f) and total calories according to your guide.
I figured out that my daily calorie intake for maintenance should be 2170 calories.
On training days that would be 2600 calories and rest days it would be 1700 calories.
Does it look correct to have a difference in 900 calories between training days and rest days?
My BF% is 19.1.
Hoping for a reply from you.
Anyways I will try this for 3 months and hope for a good progression, since my goal is to cut my BF % down to 10%.
Hi Torgeir, thank you. Please see the third FAQ item.
Hi Andy,
Just a quick question that was always bothering me. Should I count carbs from vegetables in the total daily carb intake or should I only count starchy carbs ans sugars ?
Regards.
See the section on vegetables Nick.
Andy Im loving this, but could you clarify this Marco Split calculation for me.
Your training day calorie intake = (Target average daily calorie intake*7)/(Number of training days per week+(Number of rest days per week)*(1-(chosen percentage calorie difference between training and rest days)/100))
For the life of me I cannot seem to make the numbers match the example you gave for o’l Tom. You mention the automated calculator/spreadsheet, which would likely benefit a dullard like myself, but I cant seem to find a link out to that either.
Sorry to bother..just try’n to get ripped!
Thanks
Hi Derek, pop your email address in the box at the top of this page. The spreadsheet is linked in the book.
Hey Andy,
Awesome content that you provide throughout all your site, love it!
Though on this topic (counting macros), one thing bothers me:
You speak a lot about fluctuating calories from day to day (outside of an acceptable range), that’s bad, even if the weekly intake stays correct.
But what about fluctuating macros with a constant calorie intake? Let’s say one day more carbs and compensate (calorie-wise) by diminishing my fat intake, and the day after, an overconsumption of fat leads me to reduce carbs to balance my calorie intake (of course I would try every day to have enough proteins). Does that put the same kind of stress than calorie fluctuation?
If that’s ok, why not counting calories overall + quantity of proteins (as long as the carbs/fat balance is not overly wrong)?
Can’t seem to find any litterature on it (though a few coaches recommend this method).
Keep up the good work!
Thanks.
Hi Thomas, thanks for the compliment, very happy to read that you find the site so useful.
“If that’s ok, why not counting calories overall + quantity of proteins (as long as the carbs/fat balance is not overly wrong)?”
You could certainly do that. The key is to find a balance between the level of complication necessary to get results, and what you can sustain. It all depends on the individual, their goals, and their current position.
For example, I have a friend who’s looking to diet and needs to take off 30-40kg. He’s failed with dieting multiple times before. Will I recommend to him that he tries to count his carbs and fats? Hell no. That extra layer of complication right now could tip the balance to him failing again. Monitoring protein intake in his case and keeping the calorie balance roughly in check is the right way to go for him. Looking at his fat and carb balance would come later.
Now, if I have an athlete looking to get shredded for the stage, it absolutely matters. If their carb intake is off they’re performance in the gym will be affected (which negatively impacts our ability to hold onto muscle mass when dieting) and will stop them looking their best on stage. If thy go the other direction and eat too many carbs and too little fats, it can affect hormonal regulation, and make them hungry and moody (among other things) which will threaten performance and adherence.
Everyone else is somewhere in-between. It’s not black and white, there are shades of grey. You need to find your own personal balance point.
Hope that helps.
Thanks a lot, so I will not bother with counting all macros (I mean carbs and fat) until I stall in my weight loss or other goals (right now I am somewhere between 25 and 35% BF I think).
I am nowhere near a stage bodybuilder right now (nor is it my intension to become one).
Most welcome Thomas, glad that helped.
Andy hi,
I used the complete guide to set up my macros but I get a negative result for carbs on the rest days. You have mentioned it somewhere in the site but I was unable to find your suggestion when this happens. So I had to ask! Thanks for your time !
Hi Nick,
Check that you didn’t set your fat loss rate too high for your current level of body fat. If you have that right, then reduce the calorie split between the training and rest days (from 30% to 20% for example). If you’ve already done that, then reduce it further manually by just taking some of your carb intake from the training days and adding it to the rest days.
Hi Andy.
Great site, found everything really helpful!
Apologies if this isn’t a relevant post for this question, but I’ve searched your site and can’t find anywhere else more appropriate.
Anyway, I’m wondering, seeing as you’re living in Japan, if you’ve come across Konjac-based goods/Konnyaku?
I’ve recently read about this ‘miracle’ Japanese plant food online, and of course I’m very sceptical.
If you haven’t heard of it (nobody else I’ve asked has), its made from the Konjac plant, is tastless (but takes on the flavour of whatever it is cooked with) and has an apparently strange texture, but for every 100g, there are about 9 calories and 3g of fibre (the other 97% is water apparently). Its been touted as a great way to stay full without using up a daily calorie budget, and I’m definitely intrigued, especially as I’ll soon be undertaking a large cut when I get home (been travelling for the past few months).
I was thinking it would be a great addition to rest day meals in particular, which are already devoid of carbs other than F+V.
Any info or opinion you have on it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Phil
Hi Phil. Yes I know about konyak, very low calorie. It’s pretty much just a tasteless goo. Go for it if you like, definitely isn’t on my personal menu.
Andy, it would be nice if you could make some portion size visuals for those of us who, for whatever reason, can’t get a digital weight scale. Comparing such grams of certain uncooked/raw food with some common object. There are plenty of such on the net, i.e. 85 grams of meat = size of a deck of cards, 1 cup of starch = a tennis ball. But I think that that’s only for cooked foods.
Solis, thank you for the suggestion.
I won’t be doing this, as to do so would be to just add in too much room for error (screw-ups) on top of an already simplified rule set.
If you can’t get a digital scale, cup measurements can be used also – just google to find the values. Slightly less accurate but it will do as a start point, though not something I’d get clients to do.
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Hi Andy,
I’m trying to drop lbs and I know my lean body mass. How much should I be multiplying my protein, carb and fat grams by to drop lbs? I have seen this number vary from .5 all the way up to 2. It’s confusing!
Hi Kenya, start here and then read the complete set-up guide when you’re after more details.
Sounds good. Thanks Andy.
Hey Andy, love the content. Thanks for sharing.
I plan to start Slow Bulking at 2700/day. If I ride a mountain bike for 1.5 hr, 3-4x/week, should I simply increase cal’s on those days by the approximate amount burned while riding?
Is that amount of cardio likely to interfere with muscle gains due to competition for recovery resources?
Hi Brent, thanks for the question.
Two options, either:
1) Do that.
2) Increase your activity multiplier in your TDEE calculation.
I could argue both the practical implementation pros and cons along with the efficacy pros and cons of each, so just do what you feel most comfortable with/find easiest.
“Is that amount of cardio likely to interfere with muscle gains due to competition for recovery resources?”
– Yes, it will interfere to an extent it is two different/competing metabolic pathways. However, fortunately, you’re a cyclist, and this is one of the least impactful due to the lack of eccentric component in your training. So, I wouldn’t worry about it – your nickname is ride2live, not live2lift after all. More theory on all this here:
• On Cardio for the Physique-Focused Trainee
Hey Andy, can u suggest me the diet plan for intermittent fasting
Hi Rohan.
Short guide:How To Calculate Your Leangains Macros
More detailed guide: The Complete Guide To Setting Up Your Diet
You’ll find all the site’s guides easily accessible from the menus at the top of the page or the yellow menu button on the left. Good luck!
Hello Andy
I’ve tried to look on the Internet but answers are confusing. When you look at the nutritional facts label of rice, pasta, buckwheat etc… is the data valid for dry or for cooked food ?
I mean, if I weight 100g of cooked rice it equals to less dry rice, right ? So if the data is for dry rice, I’m probably getting less carbs than I should.
Thing is, I always cook a bunch of rice/buckwheat (whatever..) to have enough for a few days. Then I weight the serving when I’m going to eat it. So I always measure it cooked.
thanks in advance for your help!
Slidhr
This will be the food in it’s current condition, though sometimes there is another nutrition panel next to it that has the cooked information.
Hi Andy – it looks like 200 grams of protein is what that particular macro looks like for me according to your plan. Given that I’m only eating two meals per day and have tried to eat (not drink) 100 grams of protein at each meal… I’m finding it a LOT (almost too much) of meat to digest at each sitting. Am I the only person who finds this to be the case?.
Hi Brandon. Sure, it can feel like a lot. Feel free to add in some protein shakes until you get used to it. Then if/when hunger pangs eventually catch up with you as you progress with your diet, swap out the liquid calories for real food and that way you’ll stay fuller for longer throughout your diet.
Hi Andy, what are your thoughts on the use of big amount of Diet/light Coca Cola and/or black coffee during the day? Do you see any negative impact on the diet itself?
Hi Jose, thanks for the question.
None of those drinks will have a negative impact on the diet. The black coffee will have a slightly appetite-suppressing effect.
In the long term though, if you’re an overweight guy with a sweet tooth, it’s best to train yourself out of those habits, so it may be best to wean yourself off of the cola.
Hi Andy, I enjoyed reading your page…I have been using a spread sheet to calculate my macros, but my ratios are always add up over 100%…are the fats, carbs and proteins ratios supposed to add up to over 100% or be on the dot?..because mine usually go above… for example:
Macros (%)
FAT CARBS PROTEIN Total
Mon 26.7% 32.8% 46.4% 105.9%
Tue 30.2% 30.5% 43.5% 104.2%
Wed 35.8% 37.2% 38.8% 111.8%
Thr Fri and Sat i repeat the same meals…
Thank you for your time
Hi Emmanuel.
A ratio in this sense means the percentage portion of the total calorie intake allotted to that macro. It’s not possible to have more than 100%. Forget trying to calculate ratios anyway:
• The Myth Of The Best Macro Ratio
Hey Andy Great Info You Provide Here.
I have 2 questions….
1. Tracking Calories for the rest of my life. Personally i don’t think this is the way. Everyday, inputting data into a application to see how much im eating. May this is just me but what are your thoughts is there an easier way?
2. I’m Bulking on 2,700 Calories and gaining weight. However, i hate the fact that i feel bloated, have Gas Makes me feel horrible. Do you think I’m eating too many calories.
Whats your thoughts thanks.
Hi Sunney. Yes, I agree, trying to put things into a nutritional calculator every day forever is completely unrealistic. It’s not really what I’m saying here. – Just remember the macros in the meals that you regularly eat, and then only use those calculators when you eat something different. The average person will eat somewhere between something like 8 and 15 meals only on a regular basis. So there’s no need to do it forever.