In Part I, I gave you a basic outline of what’s required to lose weight and how to get started. You now know that in order to lose weight you must burn more calories than you eat and that you have to know where you’re at to get where you need to go. In Part II I’m going to teach you a little about Macronutrients and the roles they play in weight loss.
All calories have the same amount of energy. ~4.2 Joules to be exact. Every gram of protein contains 4 calories. Every gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories. Every gram of fat contains 9 calories. As we touched on in Part I, you’ll lose weight eating 2,000 calories of McDonalds or 2,000 calories of healthy food as long as you’re burning more calories than you’re consuming. The different lies though in the way your body handles different types of food and macronutrients.
For instance, due to the “thermic effect” of food, your body uses different levels of energy to metabolize different macronutrients. Protein, for example requires more than 2x more energy to metabolize than carbohydrates or fat. In other words, your body will burn a lot more calories in the digestion of protein than it will carbohydrates or fat.
Due to the Glycemic Index (GI) of foods, some will cause spikes in your blood sure, potentially leading to hunger and over eating. High GI foods such as refined grains and sugars create a rapid blood sugar spike. Although you must still eat more calories of these foods than you burn to see weight gain, this blood sugar spike and consequent crash increases hunger and the risk of over-eating.
Not all foods satiate (fill you up) the same. Don’t believe me? Try eating 500 calories of egg whites and potatoes in the same time it would take you to eat 500 calories of donuts.
Weight loss occurs when you burn more calories than you eat. Period. But, understanding how the different macronutrients impact the body is important to develop the best strategy for weight loss.
Using MyFitnessPal and the information in Part I, you should know by now the calories needed for you to lose weight. Using the information above, you can now begin to adjust the macronutrient ratios to improve the way you’re feeling and performing. It’s generally a good idea to start at 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. So, if you weigh 200lb, setting your protein goal at 200g is a good starting point. From there, you can adjust to how you feel.
Feeling extra lethargic after tough workouts? You may want to dial your carbohydrates up. Feeling extra hungry? Dial the carbohydrates down and increase your protein. Keep in mind these are all very general solutions and it takes some serious trial and error to really begin to find what works. If you really want to dig in and figure out the macronutrient and calorie amounts to hit your target, drop me a message and let me know!
