By James Bishop ‘17
Throughout history, there have been various dietary recommendations, ranging from 2500 B.C. when a Babylonian stone tablet recommended people who didn’t feel well to not eat onions for three days, to modern day recommendations given by the government that include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, proteins, and low fat foods; however, not until recently have health organizations discussed caloric intake and macronutrient splits. Although food quality does matter, healthy body composition trumps micronutrient intake and having no food source restrictions in a diet makes the diet sustainable and integrates the diet into one’s lifestyle. So, let’s talk about flexible dieting/macronutrient counting.
First, we need to understand calories. Calories are a unit of energy. The body uses calories in a variety of ways that make up one’s total daily energy expenditure or TDEE, which is the measure of all the calories used in a day.
The first use is basal metabolic rate, or BMR. BMR is the amount of energy one uses to exist and accounts for approximately 60% to 75% of one’s TDEE. BMR depends on the individual and can vary a lot based on muscle mass, fat mass, and variables scientists have yet to understand.
The second use is non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. NEAT is the measure of energy expenditure from physical activities other than exercise. NEAT varies a lot based on one’s weight because more weight requires more energy to move. Also, people with active jobs (like construction workers) have higher NEAT than do people who work inactive jobs (like an office worker). Nevertheless, NEAT is something that everyone has direct control over, and NEAT can be manipulated to work towards goals of weight gain or weight loss (an article for another time).
The third use of energy is exercise-induced energy expenditure, or ExEE. ExEE is pretty self-explanatory and is just the amount of calories burned from exercise, both anaerobic and aerobic. There are differences in each type of exercise and the calories burned post-workout in EPOC, but these are more complicated to calculate (if they can be calculated) and should be discussed in an entirely separate article.
So now that we know what makes up TDEE, let’s discuss how it effects bodyweight. When the body has excess calories, or calories not used in TDEE, the body stores those calories in some form of weight gain, either muscle glycogen, fat, or muscle mass. Unused glycogen eventually turns into fat, but that’s also another subject for another time. The most basic thing to take away from this, however, is eat more than you burn to put on weight and eat less than you burn to lose weight. This is something a lot of people gloss over when they say to “eat clean” or “cut out the junk food” to lose weight. Although junk food is typically more calorie dense than “clean food,” everything you put into your body has calories, which essentially act in the same way. Anyone can get fat eating just chicken and broccoli just as anyone can get fat eating PopTarts and ice cream, which both happen to be staples in my diet.
Yes, the body does need certain nutrients, but restricting oneself to a diet that only consists of “healthy foods” is not only boring but potentially detrimental because too much restriction can lead to eating disorders. Satisfying cravings should not be viewed as a bad thing. Instead, a little indulgence is good because it prevents binging and encourages a healthier mindset; however, indulgence does not have to be a “cheat” or have to be viewed as unaligned with one’s goals if one counts calories or macronutrients.
Macronutrients, or macros, make up calories, and there are three of them: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Carbs and protein each yield 4 calories per gram and fats yield 9 calories per gram (these numbers account for the thermogenic effect of food, also another topic for another article). Also, that fat is not that bad. Fat does not make you fat. Period. Eating too much food makes you fat. So, let’s talk about how to set up macronutrients now. There are essentially two camps of macronutrient intakes, those for athletes and those for non-athletes, but first one needs to know how to find out one’s TDEE to create a caloric deficit, eat at a maintenance, or eat at a caloric surplus.
This process is relatively easy. Download a calorie counting app (MyFitnessPal is free and has an expansive database of foods) and count calories for the week. Eat as you normally would, and then average the daily calories to find about where you should be. Once you do that, you can figure out your macronutrient split. There are ultimately two general groups people fall into when setting goals; athletes and non-athletes.
First, let’s talk about athletes. Since athletes undergo some form of physical stress on most days, they need protein to recover from bouts of exercise. Exercise scientists typically recommend anywhere from 0.8 to 1.25 grams per pound of bodyweight of protein for natural athletes. Anywhere within this range is fine, as long as the amount allows recovery from bouts of exercise. Going excessively over on protein (around more than 1.5 times bodyweight) will just lead to excess fat gain because the protein not used for recovery will be turned into glycogen, which will either be expended in exercise or stored as fat. Note that protein (and carbs, depending on which thing you read that misleads you) does not make a huge difference post workout. There are no reputable studies that confirm protein shakes within 30 minutes of training do anything different than protein shakes 4 hours after training. I have made the most hypertrophic and strength gains eating more than 50% of my daily protein in the morning and having almost none post workout than I did when I had protein immediately post workout. Protein timing makes no difference. The next macronutrient to figure out is fat. Fat is an essential macronutrient, meaning that your body needs it to function. The minimum recommendation is usually 0.25 to 0.3 grams per pound of bodyweight, but there really is no maximum, assuming one doesn’t eat past one’s TDEE. It is recommended that individuals have 1g-3g of Omega-3 fats daily, so a lot of people take fish oil pills in the morning along with their multivitamins. Omega-3s help oxidize fat, lubricate joints, and encourage heart health. Once fat and protein are figured out, the only macronutrient remaining is carbohydrate. The easiest way to calculate this is to fill in the remainder of one’s calories via carbohydrates. So, if someone needs 150g protein, 50g of fat, and 2300 calories, he or she would need 310-315 carbs. The timing of each nutrient does not matter too much, but carbohydrates do feed performance and quicker acting carbs (like candy/sugary things) before sporting events or bouts of exercise can be beneficial for performance (ketogenic diets and other weird exceptions are a discussion for another time). Regardless of when you eat your macros, eat them and do what works for you. The goal of flexible dieting/macro counting is to allow people to reach goals while living a normal life, not carrying around 6-8 meals per day of chicken and rice that are eaten every 2 hours. Also, eating every 2-3 hours does not boost metabolism. That is another lie. Intermittent fasting (another topic for another day) involves not eating for extended periods of time and works just as well as eating meals every 2-3 hours if not better, because intermittent fasting has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in insulin resistance individuals.
For non-athletes, macro counting is really more synonymous with calorie counting. Since non-athletes are either trying to lose weight or maintain weight, they only need to focus on calories. Although fats, carbs, and proteins do different things to the body, as long as a non-athlete eats about 0.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight and at least 0.25 to 0.3 grams of fat per pound of bodyweight per day, he or she will be fine. Similarly to athletes, having 1g-3g of Omega-3 fats per day is good for health along with a multivitamin.
Hopefully this article is a good starting point for people looking to lead healthier lives or align their diets with their goals. I also hope that this article cleared up some common misconceptions.
To ask James a health or fitness question, please submit your question in the comments section.