More on Macros
I have created the meal plans to show you how to incorporate healing foods and to show you how to track your macros. When you are planning your own meals, you want to plan meals according to the fat, protein, and carbohydrates specific to you and your daily caloric requirements. You may choose to break your eating window into smaller meals or a larger meal and snacks. We track macros instead of total calories (total calories still matter) because your macro breakdown matters. If you eat all carbs to meet your calorie goal, you will not get positive results.
This is for example purposes on how your daily requirements are calculated. Refer to Meal Planning for more guidance.
What you’re eating 5 Days a Week
50-55% fat
30-35% protein
10-15% carbohydrates
One (two days if necessary) a week, will be regular macro days. On these days, you will be eating 55% carbs, 15% fat, and 30% protein.
Example:
A 45 yr old, 5’5”, 150 (lb) woman who has a goal weight of 125 lbs would have the following macro counts on a Regular Macro Day.
1401 - 1496 Calories
Carbohydrates 157-168 g or 55% (157-168 g x 4 calories = 630-673 calories)
Protein 105 - 112 g or 30% (105-112g x 4 calories = 420-448 calories)
Fat 38 - 51 g - 15% (38-51g x 9 calories = 350-371 calories)
On a Lower Carb / Higher Fat day, we are keeping our carbs under 50g. Protein will remain the same at 30% and fat will make up the balance. It will look like this:
1401 - 1496 Calories
Carbohydrates 50 g - approx 13% (50g x 4 calories = 200 calories)
Protein 105-112g 30% (105-112g x 4 calories = 420-448 calories)
Fat 86-94g - approx 57% (86-94g x 9 calories = 781-848 calories)
SUMMARY of weekly plan
5-6 Days a week - LOW CARB - Higher fat, Moderate protein, Carbs under 50g.
1-2 Days a week - REGULAR MACRO - Based on your recommendations (age, activity level etc.) You may wish to only have one Regular Macro Day and have 6 Lower Carb Days.
Here is how to manually calculate total macros for a day.
Note: I have given you your counts, this is intended to show you how we arrived at those numbers.
Throughout the program I will help you understand how to break down your day, when you are ready to plan on your own.
I’ll use a 1500 calorie day as an example (keep in mind, you have a range to play with). I also rounded the numbers to keep it simple.
Low Carb Day:
1500 Cals
Protein is always 30%
So 1500 x 30% = 450 calories. 450 calories divided by 4 (the number of calories in a gram of protein) = 112g
Carbs
1500 - 200 calories. It's 200 because we want a max of 50g of carbs on this day (50g x 4 calories =200).
Fat
Carbs and protein combined is 30% + 13% = 43%. Therefore your fat percentage is 57% (100%-43%)
our fat calories are then 1500 minus your carb and protein calories. 1500 - (450+200) 1500-650= 850 calories
Your grams are 850 divided by 9 (the calories in a gram of fat) = 94g.