Calculating calories into Macros...

Now that you know what a Macro is what next? 

All the calories you consume daily can be divided into the 3 categories as mentioned in my previous blog. (Fat = 9 calories, Protein = 4 calories, Carbs = 4 calories)  From there you can determine how many grams of each you are consuming and depending on your goals you can manipulate them to your specific needs whether its to lose or gain weight.  That's where math and calculations are involved.

I will try to make this simple.  Let's say you consume 1500 calories a day and you determine that 450 calories come from fat, 540 from protein and 510 from carbs.  If you take each of these numbers and divide them by the number above  (Carb = 4 cal, Pro = 4 cal, Fat = 9 cal) you will see how many grams of each Macro you are intaking.  See below:

Fats    450 / 9 = 50g
Pro     540 / 4 = 135g
Carbs 510 / 4 = 127.5g

To figure out what percentage of each you are getting from your total calories:

Fat      450/1500 = .3 = 30%
Pro      540/1500 = .36 = 36%
Carbs  510/1500 =  .34 = 34%

To double check your answers all the percentages should total 100%.  So by these numbers we can determine that of your 1500 calories, 30% is from fat, 36% is from Protein, and 34% is from Carbohydrates.

If you want something to do all of the above calculations for you simply use an app such as myfitnesspal.com, Macro Calculator or MyFitness Calculator.  I personally like myfitnesspal.com.