Macros 101

What are macros and why should you be counting them? This episode is the perfect place to start if you've heard people talking about macros and you want to get started but don't know where to start! Or maybe you've been tracking for awhile but you're still a little unsure of how you should be tracking?

Bree has compiled all the most-asked questions she gets from her clients and followers to help you learn everything you need to know about macros. This is Macros 101!

Learn more about Bree and her training programs at www.bodybybree.com or follow her on Instagram @bodybybreefitness for more tips on macros!

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Are you looking for a space where you will learn to improve your mental strength and emotional health and free insecurities from the inside outfit? Take the first step to living a more meaningful life with a better meaning of 5 by 35. I'm your three, I'm a third five trainer, entrepreneur, and a mother of three thousand of women to take action through fitness, nutrition, meditation, personal development, and aligning thoughts with action. This podcast is for those who are ready to feel inspired and motivated to live a more purposeful life. Let's grow together. All right, you guys, I'm so excited because today I get to talk all about something that I am very passionate about, and that's all about macros. We're talking about macros 101. This is going to be your jump start to macros, and I actually asked my followers what questions they have, and then I compiled all of these questions between my clients and my followers, and I created a list for you guys, and I'm going to go through and answer all of the most commonly asked questions about macros. So the first thing is what are macros? Macros are your carbs, your fats, and your proteins. And macros is short for your essential macronutrients, and that's what you need in order to survive. So you need all three of those. And when people say they're tracking their macros, they're basically just tracking their carbs, their fats, and their proteins. And when you track those in grams, usually you'll have when people say, Can you calculate my macros? You'll have a coach or you can do online calculator, but I don't think they're very accurate to figure out your numbers. So how I personally figure out your numbers, the reason why I don't love online calculators is because they don't take into account, you know, if you've been in a calorie deficit for months, and then let's say you're your it says that you're supposed to be at, you know, 1900 calories, but you've been at 1200 for the last seven months. We wouldn't just jump you right up to 1700, or you're gonna gain weight pretty quickly. Uh, you're gonna have to reverse diet. And so that's when a coach, if they know what they're doing, can help you. And that's why I suggest a coach over just an online calculator because you're gonna get a different number uh on all different calculators. Um, so that's what macros are, and um how do you track macros? Basically, you're going to log into MyFitnessPal app and you're gonna have a goal. So let's say ballpark, your goal is 160 grams of carbs, 130 grams of protein, and 45 grams of fat. Now, those numbers can vary. I'm gonna get a little sciencey on you. They can vary according to your percentages, um, and that's what your goal is. So let's say your goal is weight loss, you might have your percentage of carbs be a little lower. If your goal is to gain muscle, then your carbs are gonna be higher. Um, so and if you want aggressive, then you're gonna be at even more of a calorie deficit. So there's a lot of things that go into figuring out your numbers. But once you have your numbers, you're gonna put them into the goals part of the MyFitnessPal app. And um basically whatever you eat, you're just gonna plug it into the MyFitnessPal app and it's gonna tell you your fat grams, your carb grams, and your protein grams for everything you eat. And once you hit your goal, you're done. So um I actually have seven days of educational videos teaching you exactly step by step how to do all of this when you purchase to train with me, but um that's just a brief overall on how you're actually tracking your macros. So let's say you have 25 grams of carbs that you want to eat for lunch. You can either eat 25 grams of carbs in a handful of gummy bears or in half a cup of rice. Now, obviously, the half a cup of rice is going to have more fiber, it's gonna have more nutrients, it's gonna keep you full longer, and it's a better choice. But carbs are carbs, so you can choose which what you want to use it with. I always suggest filling your carbs with 80% whole clean foods, and then you can have 20% um of fun foods. So it's like maybe you want a chocolate chip cookie at night, or maybe you know, it's the weekend and you do want in and out, you can actually fit those into your macros, which um goes into my next question: why are macros so beneficial? And the reason why they're so beneficial, there's there's two sides. The first one is that you are able to eat foods in moderation and you never have to cut out major food groups. That's a huge one because when people start cutting out carbs, like you can't live without carbs. So, um, and when people do, like I'm not bashing the keto diet, but let's say you're on the keto diet, how long can you do that? You can't sustain that forever. And once you start eating carbs again, your body's gonna be all out of whack and it's gonna gain the weight back, if not more, and really fast. So that's why I love macros. I can eat out with my friends, I can have a date night with my husband, I can fit an Oreo here or there, you know, and it's not gonna mess up with my um results. And I feel human. I don't ever want to feel like I'm on an extreme diet that's really restricted, that I can't ever eat, you know, bread or cheese or carbs. That would just suck for me because I love food. I'm a foodie. So if you are if you like food like me, macros will be a great option for you. Um, another question was how long should you track for? And that totally depends on you. Um, if I'm in a maintenance phase and I just feel really good, I actually don't track anymore because um I have done it for so long that I have taught myself how to see portion sizes. So I don't necessarily weigh and measure everything, but I know about what my body needs as far as the protein and the carbs and the fats, and that's so valuable. So some people, it actually really depends on your personality how long you decide to track. Some people are type A and they love having the accountability, they love having a plan, they love knowing that if as long as they hit these numbers, they're gonna be good, and it really works for them. For me, I'm actually more of a like easy-going personality, and so I really like to track when I'm trying to hone in on maybe like I have a vacation or I have a goal or a photo shoot or whatever. I get hone in on tracking my macros, wing, and measuring everything, and um, it works like a charm. It's great, but I don't live my life by the numbers. I don't live my life by tracking uh the numbers once I've mastered it. So I suggest uh depending on your personality, some people um will hate it, to be honest. They'll be like, this is way too much work. Like my sister, she's like, No, there's no way that I would ever be able to track macros. It's just too tedious, too time consuming. I just don't care that much. But she also looks really awesome and she's pretty fit and healthy herself. So I said, you know what? Just track for two weeks to teach yourself portion sizes and show yourself how much protein and fat and carbs you should be eating. And then you can guess after that. You can just do more of an estimate after that. But it's very, very eye-opening because I remember when I first started tracking macros, I was like, man, why am I not seeing results? Um, before I started tracking. And it was because when I started tracking, I noticed that even just for breakfast, I was eating half an avocado, um, an egg with the yolk, a slice of cheese, and then a piece of bread with some butter on it. That was 40 grams of fat, which is fine. But my goal for the day was 45 grams of fat, right? So there's so many ways that you could waste your calories and your fats and not even know it if you're not tracking. So it's really eye-opening to start. Um, and yeah, that that just helps so much. Another question was uh, how long does it take to see results? And that actually depends on how aggressive you are with the macros. I personally believe in a sustainable lifestyle change. So I don't do like extreme cuts or uh anything like that. I believe in having you create healthy habits that you can do forever, long term. So you should have tons of energy, you should feel really good, um, you should be really energized for your workouts. And most of my clients, the res what I hear for the feedback from them is that they cannot believe how good they feel. They say, I don't feel like I'm on a diet, I'm seeing results, I'm eating more than ever, and I'm able to eat my favorite foods in moderation. And that's the goal. The goal is to have that balance. So um I would say you track as long as you, or I mean, sorry, how long does it take to see results? I would say it changes for every single person, and it depends on what your results are. Some people might want to lose five pounds and they can do that in a month, and some people want to lose 50 pounds and it might take a year, and that's okay. So, what I've found is you don't actually put a timeline on the results, focus on your daily habits, focus on hitting your numbers, and however long it takes is how long it takes. But don't get frustrated with the process, just trust the process. Um, when should I switch my macros? This is a good one. Um, and I would say if you have lost more than 30 pounds, then it's gonna change your macro count. Or if you have hit your goal and you're ready to like reverse out. So let's say you hit your goal and you want to go back up to maintenance calories instead of your um your deficit calories, then we'd slowly reverse you out so that you can maintain and you can have a lot higher calories and keep your muscle mass. Another question I got was how do you eat out and track? And this is a good one. I love eating out. I don't think it should ever restrict you. Like being on a diet should not restrict you from not being able to eat out. So what I do is before I go, I will look up what I'm going to eat. And if it's a chain restaurant, it's always in my FitnessPal app. And I'll log it before I go. So I've already made the decision. I take the decision away. I already know what I'm gonna order and it makes it easy. If it's not a chain and it's hard to find what it is, you can either make it your free meal for the week because I have one free meal a week where I just, you know, I don't track it and I just enjoy it. Or you can try to guess. And let's say you got a hamburger from a place, you can look in MyFitnessPal, a typical hamburger, and log that. Uh, so that's how I eat out and track. I never let it be so strict that I can't be with my friends, I can't enjoy um, you know, situations and date night with my husband. Uh the last question is what if I binge and I don't know how many macros I ate? This is a good one. Um, first of all, if you're binging, it's probably because your macros are too low. So if your macros are too low and you can barely make it till the weekend, and then on the weekend you just binge, that's not a good cycle, and we want to avoid that. That's actually yo-yo dieting, and it's really, really hard on your body, really hard on your metabolism, and it's like the number one way to just store fat. So we want to avoid that. The what you want to do is consistency and you want to be consistent with your body, be predictable so your body has no reason to store fat because it's not in a scarcity mode and it's not scared that you are starving it. So, um, first of all, look at your macro count and see if maybe you need to give yourself a couple hundred more calories throughout the week so that you don't feel the need to binge. Um, second, if you did binge and it was just crazy and you have no idea how much you ate, I would say start over the next day and or even the next meal and just start clean. Just say, okay, I messed up, I'm not gonna have guilt, I'm gonna move forward because the the thing is you're not gonna be perfect, you're gonna have times where you're gonna do that. Um, choose to move on, don't have guilt with it or it will just affect you even more and it's gonna be harder to get over and you're gonna just lose confidence in yourself and you don't want to do that. So give yourself grace, just move on, get right back on the horse, and you'll be fine. So hopefully this was um helpful with our macro 101 chat. And if you guys have more questions, feel free to email me, Brie at bodyby.com. I would love to help you out. I would love to have you as a client if you want to learn more and you like having the idea of a coach holding you accountable and checking in for every workout and you know, macro adjustments, all of that. Uh, feel free to email me at Brie at Bodyby Brie.com and have a beautiful day, you guys.