I’m glad you asked, there’s no shame in not being familiar with macros, I was a beginner, too! Macros are short for macronutrient, which is defined as the nutritional part of food that is required in large amounts to ensure good health. The three main macronutrients are: protein, carbohydrates, and fat as these are the macros that provide calories, thus, this is what we track when counting macros.

Speaking of calories, here’s a breakdown of how many calories are in a gram of each of the three macros that we track:

• Fat = 9 calories/gram
• Carbs = 4 calories/gram 
• Protein = 4 calories/gram

Ready for the biggest secret that the diet industry doesn’t want you to know? The way to lose weight is to be in a caloric deficit over time. What this means is that you will need to consume fewer calories than you use consistently to achieve weight loss. That’s it, that’s the big secret!

You don’t need a fancy diet plan with shakes, smoothies, and bland food. In fact, there have been studies that have proven that you can eat nothing but packaged junk foods (think Little Debbies) or McDonalds for a period of time and still lose significant weight. How? Because the participants made sure that they were still eating fewer calories than they were burning.

Calories in vs calories out is science. It works every time. However, we all know that the quality of the food that we eat matters, both from a health perspective and an aesthetic perspective, which is where macro tracking comes into play.

When tracking macros, you get to improve the quality and permanence of your weight loss by optimizing what you’re actually losing. For most of us, we want to look healthy, toned, and athletic. This means that what we really want is to lose body fat and maintain our muscle mass. This is accomplished through macronutrient ratio optimization and tracking.

In the beginning, yes. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, you will need to spend a significant amount of time getting to know your preferred macro tracking app, understanding how to properly weigh and measure your foods, and learning how to log this properly. That said, once you get in the habit of tracking, it will go so much smoother and it’ll become second nature, promise.

Nope! There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to macros, but understand that choosing high amounts of junk food will make it difficult to hit your macros. Not to mention that you would feel cruddy without proper nutrients.

The truth is, you will probably find yourself eating healthy, nutrient-dense foods about 80% of the time. These are the foods that will not only help you hit your macros efficiently, but will fuel your workouts, give you energy, improve your digestion, and overall help you feel great. The other 20% is wide open for you to incorporate whatever treats you want. This is a healthy, sustainable way to lose weight as nothing is off-limits. If you can fit it into your macros, you can eat it!

First, I highly recommend downloading my Counting Macros Starter Kit as I have outlined all the steps necessary to get started. 

Next, go ahead and get yourself a food scale and some measuring cups so that you can begin weighing and measuring your foods accurately. Also, choose a macro tracking app to get started with. I use and recommend the 1st Phorm app but other options include My Fitness Pal, Cronometer, and Macro Stax.

Once you have the tools you need, start tracking your normal intake for at least a week. Try not to judge yourself or make any modifications. Just log and track your normal intake so that we can get a good idea of where you’re currently at with your nutrition. 

Lastly, you’ll want to get some custom macros so that you can start eating to hit them. You can go about getting custom macros a number of ways. There are plenty of free online calculators and resources, or you can contact a macro coach to set your custom macros for you. If you download and use the 1st Phorm App, I can help you with that right in the app!