Overview
Regardless of your fitness goals (e.g., weight loss, muscle hypertrophy), calculating your macros is essential to accelerate your journey.
You see, the body uses the food we eat to generate energy, which allows for the breakdown/synthesis of fat, protein, and complex carbohydrate. Therefore, if you learn how to adjust your macros based on your fitness goal, the process will be a lot shorter.
For this reason, many fitness gurus emphasize the importance of calculating your macros to adjust their ratios for optimal results.
In this article, we will cover the impactful parameters of macro tracking, including your basal metabolic rate, total daily energy expenditure, and the main macronutrients.
The basal metabolic rate (BMR)
The basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is a physiological parameter used to estimate your TDEE.
BMR is subject to several factors, including age, gender, height, weight, lean muscle mass, body fat percentage, degree of physical activity, dietary choices, and genetics.
This number refers to how many calories your body needs to maintain the function of your organs without taking into account any physical task (not even walking around the house).
How to boost BMR
1. Watch what you eat
Eating a diet that consists of whole foods, fruits, and vegetables will inadvertently speed up your metabolism.
To take this to the next level, try to include foods with BMR-boosting properties.
For instance, scientists found that green tea contains substances known as catechins, which boost lipolysis (i.e., fat burning) during physical activity.
Green tea also gets rid of pro-inflammatory cytokines found in the blood and gut, further contributing to its metabolic-boosting effect.
Note that severe caloric deficit can slow down BMR since your body considers the lack of food a sign of distress.
2. Stay active
Regular physical activity is extremely effective at increasing your metabolism. More specifically, weight lifting is the optimal way to prevent the breakdown of your muscles.
A sedentary lifestyle, on the other hand, is a real enemy of BMR that should be avoided at all costs.
For instance, instead of driving to the local grocery store, go for a walk. Additionally, try to do the chores of your house by yourself. Trim the backyard yourself instead of seeking the help of another person.
3. Take dietary supplements
Certain dietary supplements can boost your metabolism significantly. Some classic examples include green tea, turmeric, and ginger.
However, make sure to consume the products with the highest quality to reap these benefits. Also, speak with your primary care physician or nutritionist if you have any underlying medical condition.
The total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)
While it is true that BMR is an important parameter to calculate, estimating the number of calories needed by your body is even more essential.
During the day, you will be active, which regularly generates cycles of muscle contraction-relaxation. For instance, when you are walking around the house, several muscles get recruited to contract, consuming energy in the process.
Your TDEE is even more significant if you exercise regularly.
In summary, all the activities you perform during the day will contribute to your TDEE, which makes this parameter particularly important when trying to lose weight or gain muscle.
The macronutrient calculator uses a variety of information to calculate your TDEE, including:
- The degree of physical activity you get (e.g., sedentary, light activity, moderate activity, intense activity),
- Whether you exercise or not
- Information extracted from your BMR
Macronutrients
Macronutrients refer to carbohydrates, lipids, and protein. Some experts add other elements to this definition (e.g., fiber); however, and for our purpose, we will stick to these three macros.
Each macro has specific roles in the cell, such as producing energy, synthesizing enzymes, and protecting the cells from invaders.
Adjusting the ratio of these macros based on your fitness goal is what everyone should be doing to speed up the process.
For instance, in the ketogenic diet, people limit their carb intake to under 50 grams per day while increasing fat intake to 50-55% of their total calories. This adjustment interferes with the body’s way of generating energy, which leads to substantial weight loss.
Another example is muscle hypertrophy:
According to credible scientific sources, you need to consume the following ratio of macronutrients to gain muscle mass or at least prevent its breakdown:
- Protein – 1 gram per pound of body weight (2.2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight)
- Lipids (i.e., fats) – 0.3 grams per pound of body weight (0.66 grams per kilogram of bodyweight)
- Carbohydrates (i.e., sugars) – the rest of the calories
Diet and macro tracking
Being on a diet may influence the ratio of macronutrients you eat. For instance, if you are following the ketogenic diet, this means you will be consuming a lot of fats and fewer/no carbs.
If you are on lean bulk macro tracking, you may need to increase your intake of protein and carbs to help your muscles grow.
On the other hand, if you want “to cut”, you should cut on carbs and focus on staying satiated (feeling full) for a longer time.
Depending on the type of diet you are following, tracking your macro can prove challenging. If you are new to the field of fitness and nutrition, having to follow a strict diet and track your macros can be daunting and overwhelming. Therefore, you should only track your macros if you are comfortable with the whole process of dieting and tracking.
In other words, if you already tracked your macros before and you feel comfortable with the concept, you could start doing that when following a diet.
Takeaway message
Calculating your macros is crucial to accelerate your fitness journey and reach your goals faster. All professional athletes pay attention to the parameters we listed above to optimize their performance and help their bodies recover in an ideal manner.
We hope that this article managed to shed some light on the role of understanding BMR, TDEE, and macro tracking in the field of fitness.
