Macronutrients matter if you want to stay full, have energy, and lose more fat than muscle. There are three main macronutrients: fats, carbohydrates, and protein. There’s also a fourth macronutrient that many people don’t tend to think about: alcohol. Macronutrients are the large classification of nutrients that provide calories. Here they are briefly without going into a lot of science.
Fats
The first of four macronutrients are dietary fats. As we’ve already discussed, fats’ primary function is to act as an energy storage system.
Fat has on average about 9 calories per gram. Keep this in mind because fat has more than twice the number of calories than carbohydrates and proteins. You’ll see what I mean when we start looking at food labels in the next few videos.
Also, as we discussed, fat is either immediately used for energy or is stored as fat for later use for energy. The more fat you eat when eating more than your maintenance calories, the more fat you’re going to store.
Let me repeat that in a different way. The more fat you eat when eating over your calories, the more fat you gain. It’s not because fat doesn’t like you. It’s just what it does. Your body wants to store as much fat as it can so you can use it later when you need it.
But for some reason, and for some time now, carbohydrates have been the macronutrient that has gotten demonized. So, let’s talk about carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the second of the four macronutrients. You’ll most likely hear carbohydrates spoken as just “carbs.”
When we eat carbs, it breaks down in our body as glucose, or sugar. This is why you hear the term low or high blood sugar a lot. The sugar comes mostly from our broken-down carbs, and we have hormones like insulin and glucagon to regulate this sugar that remains in our blood.
Our bodies are primarily adapted to using carbs first for its fuel. Meaning, our body wants to burn off carbs before it uses fat or proteins for energy. This essentially means if you eat a high fat diet and a high carb diet, it’s the fat that’s going to stick around when you eat more fat and carbs than your body needs.
And I know what you’re thinking. So, you should just eat fewer carbs, right?
Yes, but also no.
Again, carbs and fat only become a problem for weight gain if you eat more calories than your body needs. This is when excessive fat is stored. Furthermore, carbs provide fuel for your central nervous system. They also provide energy for working your muscles, which is why it’s important to eat carbs when lifting weights. You don’t want to suffer in the gym. You want to be able to lift as heavily as you can so you can stimulate as much muscle as possible.
Carbs have, on average, about 4 calories per gram. Carbs are further classified as simple or complex, but for our purposes, whether the carb is simple or complex, it’s still a carb and both still contain about 4 calories per gram, unless it’s dietary fiber, which we’ll talk about a bit later.
For this program, and for life, I want you to care more about how quickly a certain type of carb increases your total number of calories and if when you eat them you feel full, more than caring about if the carb is simple or complex.
Proteins
Proteins are our third of the four macronutrients. It’s the macronutrient that’s most important for building muscle. It also helps repair and create other new parts of your body such as your skin, hair, and nails.
Protein is essential for building muscle mass and is made of molecules called amino acids. After we eat protein, it’s broken down in our body to make these amino acids.
Our body uses 21 amino acids, about a third of which are essential, meaning we must get them from our food because our body doesn’t naturally produce them.
Protein is commonly found in animal products, though it is also present in other sources, such as nuts and beans. But, as a side note, nuts are also very high in fat, effectively ruining their choice as a high-protein snack. Most nuts contain way more fat than protein.
That said, protein contains, on average, about 4 calories per gram. But as far as protein goes, I want you to eat solid and lean proteins. Solid means not liquid. Lean means low in fat, with low in fat meaning the food has more protein per serving than it has fat.
I say solid and lean because I’m not talking about protein powders or shakes. I’m talking about naturally filling meats that are low in fat or alternative sources of protein like tofu.
You want protein as the primary staple in your diet, whether your goal is to build muscle or not. In addition to building muscle and other new tissues, protein helps you feel and stay full much longer than the other macronutrients.
So, I prefer you get your protein from foods so your stomach can expand and signal to your brain that you’re full. I really don’t want you to use protein powders unless you must, like in a situation where at the end of the day you realize you didn’t reach your protein goal.
If you don’t get enough protein while dieting, you may lose a high percentage of muscle when you lose weight. You may also feel much hungrier than if you consumed mostly fats and carbs.
Alcohol
Alcohol is the fourth, but nonessential, macronutrient. It provides energy from its calories, but alcohol is not necessary to sustain your life. Alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram, so it sits between carbs and protein, which both contain about 4 calories per gram, and fats that contain about 9 calories per gram.
I don’t recommend consuming alcohol for various reasons, including because it slows down fat loss while dieting. But the idea of being aware of your calorie consumption is to have the flexibility to enjoy a normal life as you work towards your goals.
If having an occasional drink is a part of your lifestyle, then go for it. But, as with anything, moderating alcohol is crucial. And now that we’ve discussed calories and macronutrients, you can now put a number to what moderation means. Moderate, in the context of all foods means providing fewer calories than your body needs.
But even if you’re diligently tracking your alcohol, it can still impact your progress by negatively affecting your performance, recovery, and sleep. And it may also lead to overeating more calories than your body needs.
