While counting calories may be more accurate than simply “watching what you eat”, it certainly can become a cumbersome chore each day. Beyond that, the results you achieve are much more related to the the types of foods you eat than calories alone, which makes the below superior (and more convenient) “counting” method our go-to technique for accurately and ideally determining the amount of food you should eat each day to support your body transformation goals.
The rule? Count macronutrients, not calories.
You see, there are 3 macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat), and a good balance of all 3 of these nutrients is essential to dropping flab and optimally changing your body.
Even more, when counting macronutrients you no longer have to count calories as each gram of each macronutrient has a set caloric value.
Carbs are 4 calories per gram.
Proteins are 4 calories per gram.
Fats are 9 calories per gram.
So, by determining the appropriate number of grams of each macronutrient you should eat daily, you’ll automatically be controlling your calorie intake at the same time.
How do you figure that out? Easy, just use our formula below.
First, multiply your body weight by 10 to obtain your goal daily calorie intake.
For example, let’s say you weigh 180 pounds; your daily goal calorie intake would be 1800.
Now, we are going to break down those 1800 calories into a ratio of 40% protein, 30% carbs, and 30% fat.
Because protein is the most metabolic nutrient, we build the foundation of our fat-burning diet around it. Likewise, both carbs and fat offer unique benefits (energy from carbs and hormonal support from healthy fats), so a 40/30/30 make up gives us a great balance of each.
Now, let’s figure out how many grams of each macronutrient we’ll want to eat.
To figure our protein intake, we’ll first take our daily calorie goal of 1800 calories and multiply it by 40% since 40% of our calorie intake will be from protein. This gives us 720 calories from protein. Now, since we know protein is 4 calories per gram, we’ll divide those 720 calories by 4 to get our daily gram goal for protein.
720 / 4 = 180.
So our goal each day is to eat 180g of protein. Simple enough.
Now, we can repeat this process for carbs and fat.
For carbs, 1800 x 30% = 540 calories from carbs. 540 divided by 4 calories per gram equals 135g of carbs daily.
For fat, 1800 x 30% = 540 calories from fat. 540 divided by 9 calories per gram for fat equals 60 grams of fat.
So, in our example, a 180 pound individual would need 180g of protein, 135g of carbs, and 60g of fat daily to ideally support their fatloss and body transformation goals.
Of course, you can easily find your individual macronutrient needs in a few minutes by plugging your own body weight into the simply formula above.
Counting macronutrients trumps counting calories as it ensures you are getting a balance of each major nutrient. If only counting calories, your diet could actually be very imbalanced. Just think if you ate 1800 calories of M&Ms each day! You’d hit your calorie goal, but your body wouldn’t be too pleased with you!
Counting macronutrients also has you working with smaller numbers, so it tends to be less to manage when already having a million other things on your mind. Just take a look at the protein, carb, and fat totals of the foods you eat, jot them down (I use my iPhone) and strive to come within 5% of your daily goals for each macronutrient at the end of the day.
If you’re someone who has been “eating healthy” without seeing the results you deserve, it may be time to get a little more precise with your food intake and counting macronutrients is the most accurate, most convenient way we know to hit your numbers and transform your body, quickly and efficiently.