Who hasn’t asked themselves this question?!

Especially when trying to stick to a nutrition goal, we know how confusing it can be to figure out how many calories you should be eating and what macro nutrient ratios to aim for.

There is a ton of information on-line and it can be very different depending on where you look. So your best bet is simply to start with a general goal and stick to it for 3 or 4 weeks, track your results and proceed to make adjustments if necessary.

We will try to explain step by step how to calculate just how many calories you should aim for as well as how much protein, fat and carbs.

1. Calculate your Daily Caloric Requirements.

This is an easy to follow calculator to use –> http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

2. Once you’ve established what your calorie needs are, using this simple formula to determine your macronutrient ratios.

Low-Carb Day
20% of calories from Carbs
50% of calories from Protein
30% of calories from Fats

High-Carb Day
45% of calories from Carbs
40% of calories from Protein
15% of calories from Fats

*. Even if you’re not doing carb cycling, this would be a good place to start as a general goal, track your progress and adjust if necessary 😉

3. Do your Math!

If, for example, your goal is 2000 calories: and you’re on a Low carb day, you’d need 400 calories from Carbs, 1000 calories from Protein and 600 calories from Fat.

Now remember this:

1 gram of Carbs = 4 Calories

1 gram of Protein = 4 Calories

1 gram of Fats = 9 calories

Based on this information, we can see that in the example, that person would need 100 grams of carbs, 250 grams of protein and about 66 grams of fat to hit their Macronutrient goal.

4. Track your food to stay on target.

Use My Fitness Pal, modify the Macronutrient ratios Goal and try to get as close to them as possible. It’s near impossible to be exactly on target everyday and that’s ok. Simply do your best 🙂

5. Google is your friend.

If you’re still low on calories or are running out of ideas on what foods to use, low carb/high carb recipes, whether a certain food is a carb or a protein or fat… Google it! Need to know how many grams of protein there are in chicken breast? Google it! Need to know how many grams of Fat there are in an egg yolk? Google it!  🙂

There are TONS of information there,  do your research. Not everything works for everyone, and you will do better by fully understanding WHY you are eating a certain way instead of eating this and not that “because my trainer said it was I should”.

Hope this helps, research, learn, do your best and stay strong!

DP Pack