Ripped Fitness Tips

What does “Macros” mean?

Before we get started, let me explain what “macros” means.  “Macros” refers to 3 macro-nutrients:  carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.   Every food you eat has one, two or all three of these macro-nutrients.  When you are looking to achieve ANYTHING in the fitness realm, you need to analyze how much you are eating of each specific category.  This article will give you a basic understanding of macros, caloric intake, and how they relate to fat loss.  Please remember while you read this that the numbers are estimates.  This breakdown is for those of you relatively new to these concepts… and as always, remember that we are all different.  I simply want to get you started – you can tweak the numbers later.

How do you determine how much of each macro to eat daily?

First you need to decide what your specific fitness goal is.   There are three, general goals when it comes to fitness: 1. lose body fat. 2.  Gain lean muscle mass.  3.  Maintain current body composition.  Now, the purpose of this page is to get you RIPPED, meaning if you are reading this, you likely have the first goal in mind: to lose body fat.   So our goal is reducing body-fat percentage, while retaining as much muscle as possible.

How do you tailor your macro-nutrients to help you reach this goal of fat loss?

Body fat reduction is all about caloric intake manipulation.   In order to reduce overall body fat percentage, one must end the day in a “caloric deficit”.  This means we need to expend more calories than we consume in order for our bodies to burn through some of the excess fat-stores we have on our bodies.

Let’s not have a look at how this relates to our daily macros.  The good news is, no matter what we determine to be our goal for daily caloric intake, we can use a simple ratio to determine our macros.  That ratio is:

• 40% carbs
• 40% protein
• 20% fat

This is a good, simple starting point when determining your macros calculation for fat loss. Keep this ratio in mind as we move in to our discussion of daily caloric intake.

Daily caloric intake.

Let’s start with how many calories you need to eat a day to stay the same – to not lose or gain any fat.  This number of calories, of course, differs for everyone.  There is simple equation, however, which you can use to find your “maintenance caloric intake”.  “Maintenance caloric intake” refers to how many calories you need to consume in order to maintain your physical body while performing the exercise you perform daily.  Obviously, the more you exercise, the more calories you need to consume in order to fuel yourself while maintaining your current weight.

Determining your “maintenance caloric intake”.

 

Here is a simple formula that will give you a good start when determining your daily maintenance caloric intake.

Your weight   X     15  =  Maintenance Caloric Intake

Remember, this is an estimate, and you will need to tweak the numbers later.  I am assuming you are an activate person (you workout 3 to 5 times a week) and you have an average metabolism.   Let’s take me for example, I am 180 lbs, so my maintenance caloric in take is:  180 x 15  =  2,700 calories.  That means, for me to maintain my current body composition, I need about 2,700 calories a day.

Using your “maintenance caloric intake number”  to reduce body fat. 

So how do we use the number we just calculated to lose weight?  Remember, we said we need to be in a caloric deficit in order to lose body fat.  This is where that idea comes in to play.  I recommend that you consume between 300-500 calories beneath your maintenance caloric intake in order to lose body fat.  So for me, that would be between 2,200-2,400 calories a day.

Once you know this number, track your daily eating so you know you are in a caloric deficit.  Plan your meals with the 40/40/20 ratio principle that we discussed above and watch the fat burn off!

I will provide a more in-depth breakdown of how to achieve the 40/40/20 ratio in a different article.  This is just a beginning / summary of macros and caloric intake for fat loss.

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