Last week we talked about how many calories you should consume in a day. But that clearly leaves a very important question later. “So how should those calories be understood?” Yes, I knew you were going to ask that. Macronutrients are a broad overview of what kind of calories you are eating. Like carbohydrates, proteins, fats and alcohol. You don’t normally see alcohol on that list because if you’re trying to lose weight, you shouldn’t be drinking alcohol.
Now this is the part that does about losing weight. While there are some generalities you can make about losing weight, like, you should eat in a small caloric deficit (see last week’s article), you should get some exercise (a future article), etc., nutrition affects everyone differently. So it’s always in your best interest to do a little research and see how your food choices affect you personally.
A popular place to start is 40/40/20. This means that you get 40% of your daily calories from protein, 40% from carbohydrates, and 20% from healthy fats. Having a good balance of nutrients is key to a good plan. You can use an online food calculator like fitday.com or myfitnesspal.com to enter your calorie information and see a pie chart of the nutrients you’re providing.
To explain very basically what nutrients do.
Protein – Proteins are responsible for building and repairing the tissues in your body.
Carbohydrates – Carbohydrates provide energy for your body.
Fats: Fats provide energy, energy storage, insulation, and contour to your body.
(source: ACE Personal Trainer Manual 3rd edition)
Now remember that this is a very basic and very simple explanation of what nutrients do. But this is why you don’t want to get all your calories from one nutrient and you also don’t want to eliminate a group of nutrients from a diet plan, they all have important roles to play in the function of your body.
As much as I wish I could just say “Eat this and you’ll lose weight,” that’s not how it works. However, there are some healthy foods that I can suggest for each of the nutrient groups. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other foods that can work.
As for protein, some good protein sources include turkey, chicken, lean beef, and tofu (come on, it’s not that bad). Good sources of carbohydrates are brown rice, whole wheat, cereals, oatmeal, and vegetables are another good source of carbohydrates. In the case of fats, you should not consume trans fats or fried fats, but rather healthy fats such as olive oil, natural peanut butter, fats from nuts, and fatty acids from fish. Another thing to consider is that you want to get food that is processed as little as possible. The closer your food is to the source, the less additives will be found in the food.
As a final note I would like to emphasize something from before, this is all a guideline. Nutrition affects EVERYONE differently, you should always do a little research to see how foods can affect you differently. Also something else I said last time, before starting any weight loss plan, you should check with your doctor to make sure you are physically fit and if there are any allergies you may have.