Those serious about their strength and physique goals don’t only count calories; they pay close attention to what macros these calories come from (carbs, fat, and protein) because it leads to significantly better results.
The problem is that while using a macro calculator is quick and easy, counting macros and making meals out of them can be a pain.
Ask yourself, it worth the extra mental headache of counting uncooked rice as 73 g of carbs per 100 g, or will simplifying it to 70 g suffice? I would say that it’s well worth going with the simplification and it’s this way of counting that I’ll teach you in this guide.
The content is based on what I’ve learned guiding clients over the last decade — real people with busy lives, not fitness professionals who can dedicate all their time to this stuff. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- The Problem With Macro Counting
- The Importance of Consistency When You Count
- How To Make Your Own Simplified Counting Rules
- Simplified Macro Counting Recommendations
- Using Flexible Macronutrient Targets for Easier Weight Loss
- How To Make Meal Plans Out of Your Macros
- How To Count Macros When Eating Out
- Macro Counting FAQ
The Problem With Macro Counting
Before we begin, I’d like to point out that I don’t believe the majority of the general population should try to count their macros as the first step to getting in shape. There are much easier-to-implement lifestyle changes most people can make to get results.
(Eating more fruit and vegetables, cutting out desserts, getting more exercise, cutting down on alcohol, getting sufficient sleep, etc.)
However, past a certain point, it becomes necessary to count calories and macros drive further change. But the majority of people do not think about the nutrition labels on foods until they attempt to do so. And when they do, it can be overwhelming.
Let’s consider Freddie, who we met in my Nutrition Setup Guide. He’s just calculated that he needs to consume 180 g of protein, 40 g of fat, and 185 g of carbs each day. How will he do that?
He’ll probably walk into the supermarket that evening and start grabbing food items to look at what calories and macros are in them.
He’ll see that the majority of foods that he knows should make up the large part of his diet (fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and some dairy products) do not come with nutrition labels. It’s all the delicious shit in boxes and packets in the middle of the supermarket that have the labels, but he knows that building a diet that way isn’t going to be best for his long-term health.
Shit.
“Can someone just give me a meal plan?” Freddie screams. And sure enough, our phones are listening, and he’s served an advert delivering him that later in the day.
He buys but is bored after a month. He feels like a slave to the meal plan, not knowing how to navigate his nutrition targets without it. He’s stopped going out with friends and he won’t allow himself to have a slice of pizza at a party because “it’s not in the plan.”
Something has to change. He realizes that he has to learn to build meals out of his favorite foods that fit his nutrition targets if he’s going to reach his physique goals. He can go two routes from here:
- Log everything you eat into a nutritional calculator every day.
- Use simplified rules to help make building meals you love easier, and then rotate them across the week.
The first method can drive people nuts as they seek perfection, so it’s the second method that I recommend. But only after a period of logging everything. Why? Because people are horrible at estimating calorie intake.
Log Everything You Eat And Drink For Two Weeks So That Your Calorie Counting Doesn’t Go Horribly Wrong
The research on calorie counting shows that people are terrible at it. Under-reporting is rife.
I’ve lost count of the number of times that someone has told me that they are eating [insert low-calorie number here] per day, and yet they can’t lose weight. Sure, they might need to reduce calories further, but the chances are they are just screwing something up with the way they are counting.
Here are some common things people forget to count:
- The 40 g of fat in your salad dressing. (350 kcal)
- The calories from the cola and fruit juices.
- The two large-pour whiskeys you have every night. (250 kcal)
- The 30 g of butter you put into your coffee every morning because you’ve been tricked into believing that this “gives you energy” and helps burn more body fat. (270 kcal)
To prevent this from happening, I would recommend that you use an online calorie and macro counter to log every single thing except water that you put in your mouth for an entire week. You’ll need to buy a small electric food scale to do this.
You can use one or a combination of these nutrition calculators:
Try not to change your diet. What you discover may be enlightening.
The Importance of Consistency When You Count
It’s important to acknowledge that no matter how accurate we attempt to be with how we count our calorie and macro intake, we will never be perfect — there are food labeling errors and the estimations built into the nutrition calculators we use.
This is such a critical point that I’ll say that again:
There will be a difference between what you think you are eating and what you are actually eating each day.
Nutritional calculators are great to show us if we are making any large errors, but the numbers can give us a false sense of precision.
Instead of fighting this inevitable inaccuracy, we can embrace it by making simplified counting rules which make our lives easier.
So for example, instead of counting 100g of dry pasta as 73 g carbs, 2 g fat, and 15 g protein, we might choose to just count it as 70 g of carbs and 15 g of protein.
The only important thing then is that we are consistent with how we count. So for example, we don’t want to count our rice uncooked the one day and cooked the next, and we don’t want to swap between the values given in different calculators from day-to-day.
As we build up simplifications in our diet, we may end up a little over or under our target intake. You might think you’re consuming 1800 kcal, but you actually consuming 2160 kcal because of the simplifications. Does this matter? I’d argue not. Because as long as you are consistent, you can adjust things upwards or downwards relative to your intake baseline to get the desired result.
- If you are losing weight too fast, increase calories.
- If you are losing weight too slowly, decrease calories.
I know that’s not rocket science, but it’s something many folks seem to miss. They make new calorie calculations instead of making a simple macro adjustment.
How To Make Your Own Counting Rules
Before I get into some examples of simplified macro counting recommendations, I’d like to show you how I’ve made them, so that you know how to make them on your own.
Have a look at this label for 100 g of dried pasta. Here are some examples of simplified rules we can make:
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 70 g carbs, 0 g fat, and 0 g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 70 g carbs, 0 g fat, and 10 g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75 g carbs, 0 g fat, and 10 g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75 g carbs, 0 g fat, and 15 g protein.
- 100g of dry pasta ~= 75 g carbs, 2 g fat, and 15 g protein.
Actual: 100g of dry pasta = 73 g carbs, 2 g fat, and 15 g 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. The trade-off to greater accuracy is more complication.
I’d say that it’s better to underestimate because fat is slow to gain but can be quickly burned off, whereas muscle takes a lot of effort to gain, but can easily be lost if we lost weight too quickly.
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.
BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER…
May I send you that course along with my free nutrition ebook?
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It’ll be in your inbox by the time you’ve finished reading this article.
Simplified Macro Counting Recommendations
In this section, I will make some suggestions on simplified counting rules you can use.
Everything below is a simplification for raw (or uncooked) foods.
This is because the weight of food differs depending on how you cook it and how long you cook it. This is because water is gained or lost through the cooking process. If you cook a steak for too long, it loses water and weighs less. The fat and protein content is the same, but it weighs less. Similarly, if you cook rice or pasta for too long, it goes mushy because it holds more water and weighs more. Therefore, I recommend you weigh your food before you cook it.
If something is in a packet with the nutritional information label on it, look at the macro content and make your own simplified rule if you’re going to eat it often. Most things will be listed ‘per 100g’, others will be ‘per serving.’ Make sure you double-check and don’t assume that it’s to the nearest 100g always, or you’ll get caught out.
How to Count Carbs
1 g Carbohydrate = ~4 kcal
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. (Think bread, rice, pasta, potatoes.)
- Raw potatoes: ~15 g carbs per 100 g weight.
- Sweet potatoes: ~25 g per 100 g weight.
- Dried rice: ~70 g of carbs per 100 g weight. This 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 I’ve ignored protein and fat content in the starchy carbs. 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
- You may consider one ‘medium’ sized piece of fruit (an apple, a banana, a pear, an orange, etc.) to be 25 g of carbs.
- For other fruits, weigh them once and look them up.
- If you are unsure or hate the idea of ‘medium,’ weigh it once and look it up.
Pro tip: Avoid smoothies and fruit juice when dieting. They have all the sugar, but none of the fiber, so they are easy to consume but not very filling.
Vegetables
- You can see from the image below that leafy green vegetables have a low calorie amount per cup. For this reason, I feel it’s fine to simply not count them towards your targets. It’s not that the calories in these vegetables don’t have energy, it’s that you’re purposefully choosing not to count them. I consider a reasonable amount to apply this rule to as 2-4 cups per day.
- Count 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.)
- For anything else, look it up, make your own rule, stick to that rule. I’ll cover how to make your own simplified rules in the next section.
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: If you come across something labeled as “net carbs”, I’d recommend you ignore it. It’s labeling trickery. Count all the carbs as carbs. More on this here: Should I Count Net Carbs?
How to Count Protein
1 g Protein = ~4 kcal
- Uncooked beef/ chicken/ pork/ lamb/ fish 100 g = ~25 g of protein.
- One large egg = ~8 g protein 5 g fat.
- Egg whites = ~4 g protein.
The fat content in protein sources can quickly add up, so I would recommend you look up the fat content for all. Some cuts of meats have fastly higher fat content than others. This can push you over your fat macro budget for the day very quickly.
Here are the leanest protein sources:
- Chicken breast (skinless)
- Red meats that visually lack much whiteness
- Most white fish
- Some cuts of tuna (again, those that lack whiteness)
- Protein shakes
- Skimmed milk and 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, aside from chicken breast, is protein powder. Consider this if you are on a budget.
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. Avoid liquid food when dieting. But for those bulking and struggling to get in enough calories to hit your targets, liquid foods like protein shakes or fruit juices can be helpful.
How to Count Fat
1 g Fat = ~9 kcal
Fat has the highest energy density of the macronutrients. I 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 your 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
1 g Alcohol = ~7 kcal
It is challenging to make simplifications for alcohol, especially beer, as each drink will vary. Here is a rough idea:
- Beer @5%: ~150 kcal, ~12 g carbs, ~14 g alcohol (per 12 floz/350 ml can/bottle)
- White wine @10%: ~200 kcal, ~7 g carbs, ~25 g alcohol (250 g glass, 1/3 bottle)
- Red wine @10%: ~210 kcal, 9 g carbs~25 g alcohol
- Spirit shot @40%: 70/84 kcal (25 ml/1 fl.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 four European shots (25 ml), that’s 100 ml. 100×0.4×7 = 280 kcal. 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.
On the occasions where you may have many drinks, see my alcohol guide.
Using Flexible Macronutrient Targets for Easier Weight Loss
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 67 g of fat, 173 g of protein, and 266 g 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?
I’d recommend that you aim to be within 10% either side of each macro target for the day, 90% of the time. (As long as the other 10% of the time you aren’t abusing it by binge eating.)
For those who are already sub-10% body fat and destined for the stage, tighten this up to 5% either side.
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 your fridge.
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.
How to Make Meal Plans Out of Your Macros
Creating meals we enjoy doesn’t have to be tedious or difficult, we just need to apply the simplified rules we learned above, and convert them into meals that we enjoy so we can rotate them throughout the week.
Training Day Meal Examples
Assumptions:
- You have calculated your daily macros (using this guide) to be: 175 g of protein, 250 g of carbs, and 60 g of fat.
- You are going to train fasted in the morning (well, actually you’ll have a 25 g whey shake) and have two big meals for lunch and dinner, split 50-50. (More on timing options in that guide also.)
- Therefore, you need to make two meals, each with 75 g of protein, 125 g of carbs, and 30 g of fat.
(Note: It doesn’t have to be an exact 50-50 split, but let’s just roll with this for the example.)
Example lunch for a training day
What we have here is 300 g of shredded lean beef, 180 g of couscous, and a couple of fists of vegetables.
Using our simplified rules, the math on this is simple:
- We need 75 g of protein. There is ~25g in 100 g of uncooked meat, so we need 300 g of meat. (75/25)*100
- We need 125 g of carbs. There is 70g in 100 g of dry pasta/couscous, so we need 180 g of dry pasta/couscous. (125/70)*100
- 30 g of fat = Estimate 10 g of fat per 100 g of lean beef.
Note: Vegetables were grilled, so no fat has been added to the count. If you stir-fry these or add any oil to the cooking process, add that into your numbers. Fat can very easily be overlooked and will mess up your calculations if you don’t pay attention.
Example dinner for a training day
The first meal was easy enough, right? Let’s try the second meal of the day.
We still need the same quantity of protein, carbs, and fat. We’re going to choose a leaner cut of meat like turkey, rather than steak, as we only have 30g of fat to work with, and let’s say we want to feel really full with potatoes.
Here’s how that would look:
What we have here is 300 g of turkey steak, around 500 g of potatoes, and a couple of fists of vegetables.
Using our simplified rules, the math on this one is also simple:
- We need 75 g of protein. There is ~25 g in 100 g of uncooked meat, so we need 300 g of meat. (75/25)*100
- We need 100 g of carbs. There is ~20 g in 100 g of dry potatoes, so we need 500 g of dry potatoes (two medium or one very large one). (100/20)*100
- We need 30 g of fat. Turkey is very lean, so we have created our rule of 0 g of fat per 100 g. The fat calculated here comes from a couple of tablespoons of oil used to cook both the mushrooms and the turkey.
Tip: Reduce the fat used for cooking if you are trying to lower your numbers in any meal.
Rest Day Meal Examples
Now, let’s say you are having a lower calorie day, with lower carbs and more fats — something like 175 g of protein, 75 g of carbs, and 80 g of fat.
What’s the simple adjustment you might make?
Well, just choose a slightly fattier protein, and then drop out the majority of your starchy carbohydrate.
You might begin to see a pattern here; the ‘star’ of the show is your protein portion, which we then complement with veggies, carbs & condiments, depending on our goals.
Example meal for a rest day
Boring salads? Here’s how a salad can look:
Let’s break those numbers down:
- 80 g of protein from 300 g of chicken breast, one whole egg, 30 g of bacon, plus the 15 g of cheddar cheese.
- 0 g of carbs. Yes, there are almost 500 g of vegetables in this but, since it’s mostly greens, we make our lives easier by not trying to figure out how many grams of carbs are in lettuce, tomato, spinach, etc. You can choose to count them, of course, just be consistent with whatever you decide to do.
- 45 g of fat from the tablespoon of olive oil used in the dressing, the fat in the egg, the 30 g of bacon, and the 15 g of cheddar cheese.
Trust me when I say that you will be full after eating all that volume. When in doubt, remember:
- Pick your protein.
- Add veggies.
- Condiments and seasoning for flavor.
- Complete with carbs and/or fat, depending on your macros.
Do that with 6–8 different set meals you can rotate during the week and make it easy for yourself to hit your numbers.
Then as you get more experience, add in some more meals.
Start small and simple, then build.
Let’s look at what a day might look like rotating those meals
How To Count Macros When Eating Out
We know that being perfect isn’t the goal, but trying to stay consistent when eating out can be a challenge, too.
Bear in mind that restaurants don’t care about your macros, and the chef usually wants you to enjoy delicious food so you recommend them and come back often. This means that restaurants tend to serve large portions and have a lot of hidden (but delicious fats). The average restaurant meal is high in calories.
You can still enjoy meals out whilst maintaining progress, you just have to be smart:
- Try to replicate what you created at home as much as possible. Visual memory should help here with portion sizes, choices, etc… Use your hands to estimate!
- If you are trying to keep calories low, it might be a good idea to exaggerate the numbers in the meal in front of you, especially the fat count.
- Adjust the rest of the day around this event. Similarly to our alcohol guide, you can try to get your protein in early in the day so you can be a bit more relaxed when going out. Careful though, making this a daily occurrence will most likely have an impact on your progress. Keep that in mind.
“This is all great, Andy. But how do I count macros on things like burgers, pizza, etc…? Should I even bother?”
Excellent question. Here’s another example:
How can we estimate those macros?
Just like we have done at home, all we have to do is break it down into smaller steps.
The more you cook at home, the more you’ll learn about these things, and the easier it will be to estimate them for you.
- Look at the menu. A burger is simply meat, bread, cheese and whatever condiments the restaurant chose to make it tasty. With that in mind, our first step is to try and learn the quantities that the restaurant serves. This can be easily done by paying attention to the menu in front of your eyes, it usually states the weight of the meat and a list of the ingredients used to create your burger.
- Use your simplified rules. If you see “150g of pure Angus beef” on the menu, create a rule for yourself on how much fat content that type of meat has. Once you have created that rule, use it everywhere you go, it will keep things simpler and will help you stay consistent.
- Choose wisely. Ask for sauces to be served separately so you can control how much you add. They are usually mayo-based, so go with the macros of mayonnaise here.
- Add it all together. After deciding what you want and the simplified rules you are applying, you could use an online calculator to add all the ingredients up once, and see what the numbers approximately are. If you are cutting and want to be on the safe side, overestimate the fat macros by 5-10%. Again, be consistent here; remember that this is not a daily occurrence, so we are trying to make things as simple as possible.
Here’s how I simplified my calculations for the burger above, note that I added no sauce at all (I asked for it to be removed) and used my 15% fat content rule with the meat.
The meat could very well be 30% or 8% fat, but I will not stress about it since I’m trying to be as consistent as possible and can always adjust at a later stage if I see my numbers are all over the place, or I’m not making the progress I had anticipated.
I suggest you do something similar and make it as easy as possible to not stress yourself when eating out.
Prioritize cooking at home, and you will learn the proper skills to navigate your life outside the comfort of your kitchen.
EatThisMuch.com is also a great tool to plan out meals.
Macro Counting Q&A
Use a macro calculator, like The RippedBody Macro Calculator, to figure out your macros for your body type and goals in 60 seconds.
Just use my macro calculator.
Macros refer to the three macronutrients: carbohydrate, protein, and fat.
Calorie intake determines whether weight is gained or lost, but the macronutrient content of the calories you eat has a significant effect on whether that change is fat or muscle mass, how you feel, perform, and how easy your nutrition plan is to stick to. This guide teaches you how to make meals out of your macros once you have calculated them.
A macro diet should be rich in fruits, vegetables, have sufficient protein (1 g/lb of body weight per day), and be predominantly fresh and unprocessed foods. It is the same as any other “healthy” diet; the difference is that people have daily carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake targets which affect the specific food choices. This guide is here to teach you how to build meals out of your macros.
It’s possible to get shredded without counting anything if you are prepared to repeat the same meal combinations. I had two very successful cuts before I knew what I was doing, using that method. Here’s how it’s done:
• 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, 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. Do this as few times as you can, though, so that you’re eating as much as possible while still losing fat.
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.
I’ve got that covered in The Complete Nutrition Setup Guide: The Hierarchy of Importance for Physique Mastery. Make sure you read it cause if you understand that you’ll set yourself free from being duped by the BS in this industry.
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.
• 100 g of raw tomatoes: ~3 g carbs, 1 g protein, ~=16 kcal
• 100 g of spinach: ~3 g carbs, 2 g protein, ~=20 kcal
• vs 100 g of butter =100 g fat, ~= 900 kcal
Even if you choose to eat a truly huge amount of vegetables each day to keep yourself full, 1.5 kg/3.3 lbs for example, and choose not to count any of it, at the worst case we’re only talking a ~300 kcal 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 4 kcal per 1 g 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.)
No. The bodyweight change would be the same in both situations, however, this isn’t optimal for workout recovery or nutrient partitioning. This is why binge-starve cycles don’t lead to ripped physiques.
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.
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.
I hope you found it useful. If anything doesn’t make sense just hit me up in the comments.
– Andy
Please keep questions on topic, write clearly, concisely, and don't post diet calculations.
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Hey Andy! First off, thanks so much for all of the great information you put out. It has been so helpful for me!
Just a couple of questions on carb/calorie cycling:
1) Have you found this beneficial in regards to body comp and results? I know you have said you haven’t found much difference in these things when it comes to fasted vs. fed training (assuming whey/EAAs are ingested pre fasted). But, I am curious about carb/calorie cycling and results?
2) Do you set up your clients’ initial plans with carb/calorie cycling or do you just ask them what they prefer?
Hi Charles, thank you for the compliments and the questions.
1. Calorie and carb cycling is covered here: A Nutrient Timing Guide To Maximize Fat Loss and Muscle Growth
2. I make the decision for them rather than asking, based on their experience level. Options sometimes paralyze people, and I don’t want to overwhelm them. Feel free to change your decision down the road. The math to adjust is fairly straightforward.
This might be a really obvious question, but how do you recommend people count their calories, if not an app? Should I be keeping a notebook or spreadsheet or something along those lines?
Sure. Either will work. I like a small notepad because I feel I have quite enough technology in my life already. 🙂
Hi Andy,
I’m currently doing a 14:10 fasting plan. My goal being to eliminate unnecessary snacking and limit myself to 3 meals a day. However my protein macros is 130 g; divided into 3 meals that is approximately 43 g of protein per meal.
Everything I’ve read indicates that the body doesn’t absorb more than 25-30 g of protein per meal. Any excess is stored as fat or expelled as waste by the body. Is this correct? Does this mean my best option to hit my target Macros is to add a fourth meal?
Thanks so much for your help!
Hi Lisa, that’s just a myth. Three meals is perfectly fine. More on this here: A Nutrient Timing Guide To Maximize Fat Loss and Muscle Growth
Thanks for your quick response and also for all the work you put into your website. It is inspiring to see the hard work and effort you have put into chasing your passion!
Most welcome, Lisa. Thank you!
HI Andy
I really found this article is easy and clear and i really will apply it in my nutritional plan. But I have grey area
How do I apply Legumes and beans and dairy products?
Thanks
Hi Saleh, put these foods into the nutritional calculators I listed.
Hi Andy – the information on this site is fantastic, so thank you for that! Regarding macros and training days – should the targets be the same for days you are training strength vs a HIIT workout? I’m currently using the same target for both and curious if this is correct. Thanks
Hi Michelle, thank you.
In my nutrition setup guide where I suggest having higher calorie and carb intake on the training days, I’m referring to strength training, not cardio.
(Here’s the part of the guide that covers calorie and macro cycling.)
I’ve read that consuming more than 40g of protein at one time doesn’t work; that it loses it’s benefits. Do you have any information about that?
It’s a common myth.
Hi Andy, when you count your total proteins for your macros, do you only count those that come from meat, eggs, whey protein, or do you also count the ones that come from pasta, rice, cereals, etc. Thanks for all this information, it’s great.
Hi Alex. It can all be used by your body, so best to count all. 🙂
The problem with this is that when adding large amounts of carbohydrates, the protein of these increases and remains a low number for high-quality protein. Can it have negative factors in the process?
The quality of the protein is a little lower, but it can still be used and certainly isn’t a negative.
You can see that there is an approximate 20% difference in the EAA content of plant-based (left) and animal-based (right) protein sources.
So if you’re a vegan, I recommend that you consume 20% more protein to bring the quantity of the essential amino acids (EAAs) in your diet up to the level you’d have if you were consuming non-vegan sources. However, if you’re not a vegan and aren’t relying heavily on plant-based protein sources to meet your protein targets, you don’t need to adjust your protein intake as it won’t make a difference.
But yes, if you’re a vegan and dieting, it is harder to meet these protein targets while keeping to a calorie budget because of the carbs.
Thank you very much, I have been thinking about this topic for a long time and no enco works solution, I thank you very much andy💪🏼👐🏽
Most welcome, Alex!
Hi Andy,
I just discovered you through my husband and have been obsessively reading all your content, including your e-book which we have just purchased. Thank you for simplifying everything, we really admire your work!
I know you are mainly male focused but I have a question in relation to my macros. I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) and I wondered if you would apply the same calculation for my macros? Do you have any recommendation in terms of nutrition that might help?
I appreciate you might not know much about it!
Thanks in advance
Sophia
I’m sorry, Sophia, I have no idea. Try to find a doctor or RD who specializes in working with women.
Glad you’ve found my site so useful though and I hope this doesn’t take away from that.
Hi Sophia, I saw this post from a doctor friend of mine just now about PCOS and wanted to share it because it addresses PCOS. I hope you find it helpful.
Hallo Andy,
i have no question but i just want to thank you for the great, no for the gigantic great content you give for free!!!
i have been following Dr. Eric Helms, Dr. Mike Isratel and so on for the last 3 years and read most of their PDFs about Training and Nutrition. None of them come close to you!
You are the Gold Standard in Nutrition!
Hi Bilal, that’s is exceptionally high praise. Thank you. 🙏
Totally agree!
Hi,
I wanted to ask about the quality of fat/carbs (I apologize if it has been answered already or there is somewhere on the website).
Low-glycemic index carbs and unsaturated fats are better to include in our diet, right?. I was surprised I didn’t find any information regarding that on the website (again, I apologize if it exists somewhere and I just didn’t find it 🙂 ).
So how do the different types of carbs and fat, based on GI and saturation, affect our results on cutting and bulking, assuming that the calories remain the same ?
(e.g. 50 g of fat from walnuts vs 50 g of fat from cheddar – both 450 cals)
Thanks, great job with the website.
Chris
Hi Chris, thanks for the questions.
1) No, while it was once thought to be, we now know that the GI index is irrelevant to weight loss or gain.
Potatoes have a very high GI index but have the highest satiety rating of all foods, for example, and are a great option when dieting. This doesn’t that food choice doesn’t matter, just that you don’t want to judge foods based on their GI index (or GL index, which you may hear also). Prioritize fruits, vegetables, and minimally-refined foods in your diet.
2) Having a greater proportion of unsaturated fat in your diet than saturated, and avoiding trans fats, is a good heuristic for blood markers associated with lower disease risk. (Though if you’re fat, unfattening yourself is the first priority.)
This is as specific as I can get with regard to fat intake recommendations. But if you’d like to know something more specific about fat intake and blood lipids, look up Dr. Spencer Nadolsky as he lectures on the subject and has extensive experience working with patients.
Thanks for the reply !
I’m not sure if you have already mentioned it somewhere, but do you need to have different calories/macros on training vs non-training days, or can you just keep them the same every day?
If your goal is to have 150g of protein and 50g of that is coming from complex carbs (quinoa, legumes, oatmeal, rice) (and the rest from meat/animal sources) I should still be counting those 50g grams as protein?
Hi Jasj, thanks for the question.
You can keep the macros the same every day if you would like. I’ve talked about this here: A Nutrient Timing Guide To Maximize Fat Loss and Muscle Growth
It would be fine to count the protein in your case.
I’m training to play basketball overseas and I want to cut my body fat. I’m having trouble making meals to hit my macros on a daily basis. What can I do to make this process easy and stay consistent?
Create 6–8 meals you enjoy. Rinse and repeat.
What are your thoughts on the theory that our bodies can only digest 30-40 calories per meal?
Hi Al, thanks for the question.
If you meant to ask what you wrote, the answer is a categorical no.
But the 30-40 number is common enough that I’m going to guess you meant to write grams of protein, not calories, and when you say digested, you mean be utilized (or not be wasted). Assuming so…
There are studies showing that muscle protein synthesis is maximized at a ~2.5 g of leucine. (It is a little higher in older populations.) This will be ~25-40 g of protein, depending on the quality. This is where the, “Hey, you should only consume 25-40 g of protein in each meal or you waste it!” idea comes from.
But often, short-term mechanistic data like this doesn’t match what actually happens to muscle growth when you look over the longer term. So, the suggestion that anything above this number cannot be utilized for growth and repair (or is flat-out wasted) is, at best, an overstatement.
A higher meal frequency may lead to slightly better marginal gains, but this makes things much more complicated for little reward. Whether that’s worth it is down to the individual. Here’s how that looks:
This is taken from my article on the topic: A Nutrient Timing Guide To Maximize Fat Loss and Muscle Growth
Thanks Andy.
I truly believe you one, if not the, best guys out there for your speciality. Not that I’m an expert, but, I’ve done more than my share of research on these topics, not to mention hands-on/body-on self testing over the past 30+ years and I definitely feel like you give it to me straight. One of your best qualities is admitting when, in the past, you may not have had something completely right and fix it.
whenever i get the chance, I refer you to my family and friends.
keep up the great work.
stay well during these times
Thank you! 🙂
Hello Andy,
That was a very helpful article, thank you! I´m left with one question regarding Carbs. It is my understanding that not all carbs have the same absortion rate and that therefore it is better to eat some than others and at different times of the day. For instance, I should take slow abosrtion carbs for breakfast and fast abosrtion after workout. COuld you please throw some clarity here?
Thank you!
Hi Fernando, thank you for the question.
I’m aware of the theory, it’s been studied, and doesn’t seem to make any difference.
Thank you for a great article. I was under the assumption that “net carbs” was the correct carb value to use as well. If that is not the case, should we also not minus our daily fibre intake from our carb intake? Ex. If I ate 200g of carbs and 20g of fibre, would the total carb value still be 200g or would it be 180g (200g carbs – 20g fibre)?
Hi Nicholas, thanks for the question.
Tl;dr: For simplicity, I recommend people count all carbs (including sugar alcohols) as 4 kcal per gram and ignore the net carb concept; otherwise they risk getting themselves in a pickle.
If you google What are net carbs? you currently get this pop up first:
“The term ‘net carbs’ simply refers to carbs that are absorbed by the body. To calculate the net carbs in whole foods, subtract the fiber from the total number of carbs. To calculate the net carbs in processed foods, subtract the fiber and a portion of the sugar alcohols.”
This seems to be a fair representation of what is parroted around the internet fitness industry. But it suggests fiber and sugar alcohols are calorie-free, which is incorrect.
Fiber
Some fiber, while not digestible in the small intestine, is fermented in the colon, and that byproduct provides energy.
However, determining which fibers provide calories and exactly how many is quite difficult, so I recommend you count fiber as regular carbohydrate.
Fiber is good shit. It helps you poop, is important for gut health and nutrient absorption, and helps with satiety.
As a minimum, the FDA guidelines of 25 g/day for women and 38 g/day for men, are what I’d recommend, and I’d suggest not to go over 20% of your carbohydrate intake (which is particularly relevant when bulking).
Even if this doesn’t accurately reflect the energy intake from carbohydrate, it doesn’t matter because consistency is what is important if you are tracking, and the difference this will make in daily energy intake tracking is very small.
Sugar Alcohols
Sugar alcohols are commonly used as thickeners and sweeteners. They’re attractive to manufacturers as they allow them to advertise a product as having “zero sugar.” This benefits them because the masses have been brainwashed to be scared of sugar (which will have to be a rant for another day), and it allows them to suggest a product is ‘keto-friendly’ (not that I am a fan), which is rather misleading because, though to a lesser extent, they still affect blood sugar levels.
There are many types of sugar alcohols, all with different calorie values. (Arabitol has 0.2 kcal per gram, glycerol has 4.2 kcal per gram.) EU labeling requirements assign a blanket value of 2.4 kcal/g to all sugar alcohols, which is close to the mean and median average across all types, which is roughly 2 kcal/g.
So, if you pick up a protein bar, for example, that has 17 g of carbs with 4 g net carbs listed, and you only count this as 16 kcal, you’re kidding yourself.
If I google the most popular protein bar, I get Quest Nutrition. I’ll choose the chocolate brownie variety. Here’s the label:
The calories are 180 kcal per bar. The calories from fat and protein add up to 134 kcal, leaving 46 kcal for carbs. This means they have counted the 23 g of carbs within as 11.5 g of carbs, i.e., half, which is a good heuristic.
If someone were to subtract the 17 g of fiber and 1 g of sugar alcohol, this would leave them counting just 5 g of carbs for this product, putting them 26 kcal short. If they eat a lot of processed food and repeat this same mistake multiple times per day, every day, this will lead to a big difference in how many calories they think they’re consuming vs. reality.
So, while you could count sugar alcohols as 2 kcal per gram, and I suppose you could choose to count fiber as 2 kcal per gram as well, I suggest you keep things simple and count them both as regular carbs.
This way, when you’ve been dieting for a while, and your brain has started getting EXCEPTIONALLY creative with food math, you’ll be less incentivized to try to do sneaky shit like looking for the highest sugar alcohol and fiber-containing processed foods, and more incentivized to cook real food. The latter is going to be more micronutrient dense and likely keep you fuller for longer.
And as over-consumption of sugar alcohols, just like with fiber, can lead to bloating, terrible farts and diarrhea, you’ll smell better.
—–
Lastly, there’s an FDA rule that says if a food “serving” contains less than 5 kcal or 0.5 g of sugar, it can be labeled as calorie-free and carb-free.
So for example, as one Tic Tac contains a fraction less than 0.5 g, they get to claim sugar and carb-free, which you’ll see on the label:
(They could also list them as calorie-free, but they don’t.)
Point being: don’t choff a box of foods like this (mints, gums, etc.) and think they’re calorie-free. They aren’t.
Hi, I’m 6’3 260 and I want to get shredded I calculated my macros already which are 280g of protein, 280 grams of carbs, and 62g of fat I feel like when I eat Its too much for me and I feel bloated and heavy. Should I split my meals up to 4-6 a day to compensate for this?
Hi Baaseiah! Yes, that’s too much protein and you’re bound to feel bloated. I’d set your protein at 190–200 g per day. I have an explanation in point 11 in the notes on this calculator.
Merry Christmas!
Hi Andy,
Thank you for this very useful article! Just one remark: I don’t want to be nitpicking, but all of the figures regarding calorie contents are off by a factor of 1000. For example, 1g Protein ~= 4 Cal, not 4 kCal!
Ah, should have been a lower-case C (lower-case C). Corrected the article. Thank you.
Would it be unwise to use a simplify rule to only be counting the protein from meat/dairy/protein powder? If your diet has a lot of beans, bread, peanuts, and pasta, if you end up counting the protein in those foods do you have the chance of short changing yourself on your daily protein needs if a big chunk would be coming from incomplete sources?
Thank you, really appreciate this article on simplifying tracking. Also really dig the new calculator in one of the first links as well as the example food and quantity it gives you.
Hi John,
The complete vs incomplete sources thing only matters when the diet has an extreme lack of variety.
Think of it like this: if you buy a pack of lego that has 80% of the pieces you need, but you buy several different lego packs, you’ll have all the pieces you need. If you buy the same faulty lego pack over and over, you won’t.
If you have a diet which has a lot of any macronutrient, it’s best to count it.
Hi. I track my food raw with a digital scale. I’e come across info that states the calories in whole raw nuts are 25% lower when what is shown on all diet trackers because of how we chew them and how much is absorbed.
So if you weigh 4 ounces of almonds, you only absorb and count calories as 3 ounces of almonds.
Should I calculate this calorie discrepancy into my diet tracker whenever I eat whole raw nuts to compensate or should I ignore it?
Ignore it. Go with 4 ounces.
Remember the Who, What, Where, When, How that we learned in 5th grade English class? Well, it would be Very helpful if your article started with “What” by Defining macro. It’s not helpful to me, the reader, to learn how to be consistent in counting macros when I don’t know what a macro is. Thank you.
Thank you for the feedback. Explanation added at the top.
Interesting standpoint, argumentation and -most of all- way to make it clear, Carole Louise. However, I also find it – perhaps even more- interesting that many meanings and explanations appear and emerge kind of magically if one just starts to dedicate time to a once unknown thing.
Great POLITE answer, Andy! Seems you’re a truly fine and noble person.
Thank you, Thomas.