my fitness pal – Love. Laughter. Life. Medicine.

I’ve always been fascinated by nutrition, but I’ve never had the discipline to really take control of my nutrition. Well, it’s time. It’s a good time for me to truly dive in and learn about nutrition as well as be able to teach my daughter good eating habits.

In the workout community, people seem to talk a lot about macros. What the heck is a macro?

“Macronutrients are what make up the caloric content of a food,” says McMahon. Sometimes referred to as “macros,” the three categories of macronutrients are carbohydrates, fat, and protein. The caloric combination of the macros is where that mysterious total number of calories comes from. Here’s the breakdown:

1 gram of carbohydrates = 4 calories

1 gram of fat = 9 calories

1 gram of protein = 4 calories

So it’s not about how many calories are in your food, but what kind of calories are in your food.

How to read nutrition labels Macro-style

macro-calculator-60-days — From Muscle and Fitness

Stats I entered for all the below calculators:
39 F, 148 lb (that’s a guess), 5’7″, sedentary job (sometimes) but works out 3-4x/wk doing Alexia Clark.
Training day (cardio not included): Carbs 205g (56%), Fat 33g (10%), Protein 126g (35%), Calories 1,620
Rest day (including cardio): Carbs 105g (35%), Fat 42g (14%), Protein 153g (51%), Calories 1,408

Flexible Dieting macro calculator

Carbs 157g (42%), Fat 41g (25%), Protein 122g (33%), Calories 1,491

IIFYM Macro calculator

Carbs 137g (45%), Fat 30g (10%), Protein 137g (45%), Calories 1,270

Kathy Hearn Fit macro calculator

Carbs 116g (39%), Fat 51.7g (18%), Protein 125.6g (43%), Calories 1,432

Meal prep on fleek macro calculator

Carbs 172g (48%), Fat 44.4g (12%), Protein 138.8g (39%), Calories 1,646
Per meal breakdown (for 3 meals/day)=Carbs 57.6g, Fat 14.8g, Protein 46.3g, Calories 549

Avg numbers according to the macro calculators above:

Carbs 149g
Fat 40g
Protein 134g
Calories 1,478
46% Carb/ 12% Fat/ 41% Protein

I have to be honest…I can’t tell you when the last time I ate 1,500 calories in a day. That seems to me to be more calorie restrictive than I would like to be. We’ll see how this goes. I’ll be logging my food diary via MyFitnessPal App.