Have you ever tried a new diet, lost weight, jumped for joy, and then gained it all back? Have you ever tried a diet just because it worked for a friend, but it didn?t work for you? Have you ever stuck to a plan so rigidly you went a little crazy and ended up eating 25 Olive Garden breadsticks? Maybe you are doing everything you think is right, but that scale is just not budging! *insert high-pitched angry screams*
The cycle of success, failure, guilt, and starting over is a lot to carry emotionally. How about we set the record straight with a few helpful basics about food once and for all?! As I have recovered from an eating disorder myself, one of my biggest personal goals was to improve my relationship with food. I didn?t want to be afraid of it. I didn?t want it to dictate every move of my life or every MOOD of my life. I can confidently say today that so much of my personal recovery has come simply through educating myself about food and a whole lot of trust in the process!
*Photo credit: James Patrick (right)
Gosh, it’s hard for me to even believe I was ever that girl on the left. I remember so clearly thinking I had my eating disorder under control when this picture was taken. But c’mon?this picture says it all. I may have been free from my binge/purge behaviors, and even free from starvation, but clearly, the scale still controlled me. CALORIES controlled me!!! Macro counting (in conjunction with carb cycling) truly has FREED me, you guys. “So what is this macro counting thing?” you ask. Simply put, macro counting?allows you to take control of your body composition (once and for all), whether you feel you are too big OR too small, WITHOUT deprivation. In my case, I felt too small and wanted to gain…but this same concept?has been applied to carb cycling and has worked WONDERS for those needing to lose weight as well.
So let?s talk about food. Whether you are a clean eater, junk eater, vegan, vegetarian, Paleo, dairy-free, or gluten-free eater, ALL EDIBLE items are made up of 3 macronutrients: CARBS, FAT, and PROTEIN.
Here?s the downright truth: MOST diets fail because of one simple problem?they are not REALISTIC! It?s nearly impossible for even the STRONGEST OF WILLS to commit to an extreme plan that doesn?t account for real life moments like cake at birthday parties, pizza after baseball games, cotton candy at the carnival, handfuls of goldfish, and eating the remainder of your kids? mac and cheese. If you completely deprive yourself of these ?indulgences? for long periods of time, you will either end up in the crazy house OR in a cycle of binge and guilt. So where is the balance? Can you really reach your fitness goals without starving? YES! It?s time to shift our beliefs in food and how it affects our bodies.
I ALWAYS thought that if I ever wanted to see my abs and have nicely defined legs, I would have to consistently eat a perfectly clean diet (think chicken, brown rice, and broccoli), train 6 days a week, and rarely (if EVER) indulge in my love affair with sugar and baked goods. I told myself, sure… abs are nice, but I love donuts. And pizza. And ice cream. What if I told you that you could have abs AND donuts, pizza, and ice cream. Excited? Yeah, me too. Read on.
Tracking macros basically means consuming a balanced and appropriate ratio of carbs, proteins, and fats every day. An easy ratio to follow is 40% of your calories coming from carbs, 30% of your calories coming from protein, and 30% of your calories coming from fat. To break it down even further, if you need 1500 calories per day, your TOTAL macro intake for the day will be 150g carbs, 113g protein, and 50g fat. But before you start plugging in those numbers, everyone’s breakdown looks a little different according to your needs and goals. We will get there…hang with me.
It?s like working within a budget. How will you ?spend? your macros? To give you an example, I love oatmeal for breakfast! Well, I really love gluten-free lemon cake?for breakfast,?but let?s use oatmeal (my 2nd fave) as the example. Alright?oatmeal alone is mostly just carbs, so I may add some berries (more carbs), some coconut oil for fat, and a scoop of vanilla protein powder. It?s quick, easy, and delish! This meal comes out to be a total of 29g carbs, 14g fat, and 29g protein. That meal gets deducted from my total for the day, and now I have 121g carbs left, 36g fat left, and 84g protein left!
Using an app like MyFitnessPal (my favorite) will automatically track these numbers for you when you input your food items into the app. Easy peasy. Now, everyone has different goals, so this ratio doesn?t always translate perfectly across the board. For instance, due to my goals, existing body type, workout routine, and wanting to put on some serious muscle mass, my coach has me eating 55% carbs, 25% protein, and 20% fat every other day, then 68% carbs, 20% protein, and 12% fat the other days. These ratios help me add lean muscle mass to my frame while keeping my body fat low!
So why track macros?
Tracking your macros rather than just calories alone ENSURES that the calories you are taking in go to all the right places in your body. They preserve lean muscle mass and help rid unwanted body fat. That’s the goal! We are so conditioned to jump on that scale in the morning (totally naked, of course, because we need all the help we can get) and jump for joy if the scale goes down. But what if some of that weight loss is muscle mass? Your body just became slightly less efficient at burning body fat. Boooo! So, tracking those macros and being sure that our calories are distributed appropriately can allow us to rest easy and know that weight lost is the weight we WANT to lose?that extra fat jiggle.
What about calories? Do I have to track those too?
NOPE! Crazy enough, 1 gram of carbs always equals 4 calories (yes, whether it?s a gram of sweet potatoes or a gram of white sugar), 1 gram of protein always equals 4 calories, and 1 gram of fat always equals 9 calories. Interesting, right? So, if you are tracking your macros and hitting the same numbers every day, you will also be reaching roughly the same calorie goal each day.
Can I track my macros AND carb cycle?
YES!! This is just a more DETAILED way to focus on your overall composition and goals. On high carb days, your macro goals may be set to 200g carbs, 120g protein, and 39g of fat, but on your low carb days, maybe you get 125g carbs, 120g protein, and 60g fat. Again, these numbers are just examples, but in short, carb cycling (like in Extreme Transformation) and macro tracking actually work synergistically for maximum results!
The best way to get started on your own is to input your information and goals into a macro calculator, and I’ve got you covered there! Click HERE for an awesome one I found. Then, start tracking using an app like MyFitnessPal. It will take a little while to get the hang of it, but long-lasting and true results are what we are all after, right? Here’s the kicker: Online calculators can be off and not as precisely customized as a plan that comes from a real-life macro coach. The macro coach is going to cost more than ?free? online calculators to get started, but it’s the BEST investment I’ve made for my health and fitness EVER. Doing things on my own has proven to have me going in circles, and having a coach has truly been life-changing. For anyone interested, here are links to my own coach’s team…they are amazing, and I trust them with your plan completely:
Pro Physiques, or @theprophysiques on Instagram, or email them at?[email protected]
I also LOVE my good friend, Cori Baker…who many of you may already follow. She is incredible, is coached by the same coach I am, and is working wonders with her own clientele.?She’s?@cori_fit on Instagram, and her site is corifit.com/coaching.
Did it scare me to hear my coach say I needed to eat WAY more carbs than I was eating? YEP! Did I doubt it would really work for me? YEP! Was I afraid that eating carbs AND lifting weights would make me “bulk up? or gain weight in places I didn’t want to? ABSOLUTELY. What kept me going was the ability to be consistent on a plan, enjoy foods I always thought were on the naughty list (because they fit into my macros), and? drum roll please… THE RESULTS!! I could not have transformed my body the way I have this past year if it wasn?t for understanding HOW macros affect my body composition. I?m happier than ever, not afraid of food (or the scale), NEVER hungry, and flexible with how I eat. It?s a life I wish for everyone!
Now here’s something crazy…MOST people who need to lose weight actually are coached to INCREASE carbs or other macros when they begin following a macro counting plan. Here is my good friend, Kacey Luvi Pearson.
She increased her macros (and calories by about 500 a day) over the past 6 months with the help of a macro coach and shredded down to this!! Insane, right? True story. And one story I will be featuring in the upcoming months.
Here are some of my favorite MACROS I always keep on hand!
PROTEINS:
grilled chicken
extra-lean ground turkey
eggs/egg whites
Greek yogurt (nonfat, plain)
cottage cheese (low-fat)
protein powder (I use whey, but adjust according to your own food sensitivities)
CARBS:
brown rice
white rice (yes, I said ?white,? believe it or not)
sweet potatoes
red potatoes
white potatoes (there?s that ?w? word again?I?ll save my why for another post)
KIND granola
Udi?s gluten-free bread
Kodiak Cakes pancake mix (not gluten-free?but was a fave of mine before I pulled gluten. The Power Cakes are high in protein too!)
fruit
cereal (yes, I can eat cereal again!!)
oatmeal
brown rice powder (Quest is the only brand I know of that makes this. Great for shakes and baking gluten-free)
FATS:
flaxseed
olive oil
avocado
cream cheese
shredded cheese
coconut oil/butter
peanut butter
Be happy, healthy, and never go hungry!
Xoxo,
Heidi
Related reading:
Carb Confusion
The Power of Protein
Carb Cycling 101
Heidi-Approved (& Macro-Friendly) Fast Food Picks
Ask the Powells: How Do I Gain Healthy Weight?
The Extreme Cycle | Meal Planning Tips
Eating with Macros: A Day in the Life
*This blog was a collaborative effort with my good friend, and fellow macro counter, Kacey Luvi Pearson. Thanks, Kacey, for lending your experience, and for spending time putting our brains together and pen to paper on this one!
260 Responses
Hi, my fiance and I are looking to drop a significant amount of weight and we have been looking at macro tracking and the Extreme Carb Cycling program. Which would you recommend for us to begin with? I guess I am just having a hard time wrapping my brain around exactly how much we should be eating. When looking at the Extreme program, the portion sizes seem somewhat vague (just because sometimes it is hard to judge exactly what a thumb size is or palm), and I just want to be sure we are on the right track. We want to create our own meals, as the meals in the Extreme book are a little too complicated for every day meals. Is there something you can reference that might help us? I would greatly appreciate it!!!
Hi Shannon: In the Extreme Cycle, all your macros are figured out for you, and besides following the recipes in the book, you can get some great meal planning and creating your own meals tips in this post: https://heidipowell.net/10617. You both can do this!
I have been doing the extreme transformation from the book for about 2 months now, i have seen great results off of it but had seen Heidi’s post about this on facebook over the weekend and my husband and I started incorporating the macro calculator into our diet. I have already seen results since monday, do i need to recalculate my macros every week? Or just stick with the original one at the 20% weight loss i had calculated?
Hi Jenn: Congratulations on your results! You’ll need to recalculate your macros every once in awhile as you continue to lose weight since what you’ll need to lose weight will change. There’s not really a set answer as to how often to change, but when your weight loss slows down is a good indicator. We wish you the best!
hi!! thank you so much for posting this!! very informative! my son does this faithfully. the thought of eating more and more carbs is kinda scary but that is because of the additional plan you would have as well in regards to weight lifting and working out right? i just ordered your book. any advice is appreciated, Thanks again
Hi Donita: Yes, you are correct! Enjoy the book! 🙂
Hello! I bought Chris’ book and start carb cycling tomorrow. What macro count should I be shooting for on my high carb and low carb days?
Hi Jennie: All your macros are figured out for you for all of Chris and Heidi’s carb cycles, so you’re good to go!
I am interested about the extra comments on white rice and white potatoes. Is there a link to the place where you talk more about them? You mention above you would add a blog entry specifically to talk about them.
Thanks a lot!
Hi Team Powell!
After hearing about Chris and Heidi talk about carb cycling, I decided to read Extreme Transformation and give it a try. I was hooked after the first week!! Since then, I’ve done some online boot camps for carb cycling and tried some different protocols. I really liked the Extreme Cycle of 4 high carb days, 2 low carb days, 1 refresh. I know the calorie goal for high and low carb days is 1500. I saw the macro goals for low carb meals and high carb meals, but wasn’t exactly sure how to set the overall % in MyFitnessPal. Any help is much appreciated!!
Thanks for all you guys do! You have changed my life and I will be forever grateful!! The advice and response you’ve given all of these posts is really remarkable. Keep up the amazing work!
Hi Katie: Here are some percentages to aim for: High carb meals: 50% of your calories coming from carbs, 40% from protein, and 10% from fat. For low carb meals: 10% from carbs, 50% from fat, and 40% from protein. For breakfast, 40% from carbs, 30% from protein, and 30% from fats. And there is some awesome information in this post that can help with meal planning also: https://heidipowell.net/10617. You can do this!
I’m very interested about the white rice and white potatoes extra explanation. Is there a link to the post where you would talk more about them? Thanks a lot.
I am SO confused on how to connect counting Macros and Carbs Cycling. Are they 2 separate “diet plans”…I’m wanting to do The Fit Cycle (as I am training for a half marathon) I need more high carb days right now. But the macro calculator says I should be having over 1900 calories a day?…Please help clarify! The response of breaking the macro recommendations into percentages isn’t helping clarify my confusion. Thanks for everything! I’m excited!
I just found another comment where you explained “that a gram of carb or protein = 4 calories and a gram of fat = 9 calories.” Is this how they connect? So as long as i’m shooting around my 1900 calories, I’m good?
Hi Courtney: (Be sure and check my response to your other comment). Yes, this is how things work. You mentioned in your other comment that you’re confused by the percentages. Here’s how it works: Say you need 40% of calories from protein for the day, and your daily calorie recommendation is 1500 cals. Here’s the math to figure out how many grams of protein that is: 1500 x .40 = 600 calories. 600/4 = 150 grams of protein for the day. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Courtney: For the Fit Cycle, you’ll aim for 1200 calories on low carb days and 1500 calories on high carb days. These are the recommendations for losing weight, along with those percentages. If your main goal is not to lose weight, then you’ll want to follow a different daily macro total. And be sure and check your other comment for my reply too. 🙂
Hi Heidi! First of all I wanna say that omg ur amazing ? Love watching ur husband show, I started knowing bout ur healthy eating through FB. Love everything u post. I’m trying to eat healthy for the past three yrs but I always fail bad ? I have two kids,a 3yrs old and a 7yr old. As u can understand they drive me nuts n it’s super hard to eat healthy cuz u know kids. My husband works five days a week,he does not eat healthy at all but he’s sooo skinny ( lucky?) I work 2 days a week and spend most of the time w my kids. We live in Mendo in CA. One of the reasons I fail bad it’s cuz some times we don’t have the money to buy food. Some weeks we just eat the box pasta,quesadillas ect. Hard times ? Every time I grocery shop I buy lots of veggies meats but at the end I get stuck n don’t know how to cook it even though I have tons of recipes. Also my kids r soooo full of energies that I don’t have time. If I cook healthy I’m the only one that eat the healthy food. I have to cook like three different meals ? For my kids (they r sooo picky) for my husband n me. It’s so exhausting making three different meals and I just give up. I try to feed my kids veggies but they end up crying screaming at me n ugh I just don’t wanna deal w it ?. I also fail n this is the most important reason y. I love junk food. Ice cream,bagels, and specially chocolate! After like 3 to 4 days of eating “healthy ” I crave something sweet,a bagel w hazelnut spread,chocolate ect and my craving is so intense that I always fail. I feel like the drug addicts. I seriously can’t stop craving that kind of food even though it so bad ? I always eat it n at the end I feel guilty but I’m just so stuck like u don’t imagine ? Not sure what to cook some times, w my kids I don’t have time to work out most of the time like I would like. All I’m trying to say is HELP! Not sure what to do. I feel so depressed when I see my body ? I’m 25yrs n I weigh 148lb I used to weigh 154. I’m 5″3 I used to weigh 120 before my kids. I have never had a flat sexy stomach in my life. The older I get the more depressed I get n think I will never have a sexy body. Heck I have never wore a bikini in my life! I’m sure I need counseling cuz some days I feel so happy w energies n I’m willing to to accomplish my dreams but other days I feel so ugly lonely w out energies ? I’m sure most of what I feel is cuz one my body second I don’t have lots of patience w my kids n I think I’m a horrible mom n third cuz well we don’t have money. We live pay check to pay check which it sucks. I hope to hear from u soon. Im so sorry for my huge essay (LOL). ? Victoria ([email protected])
Hi Victoria: Thank you for sharing your story with us! As with anything in life that we want to change, it really is all about taking those baby steps one after the other. Here are a couple of ideas and posts that might help you get started on those changes you want to make: 1. Promises: These are Chris and Heidi’s #1 transformation/motivational tool: https://heidipowell.net/8679. 2. Meal planning and prepping: The more foods you prep ahead of time, the easier it is to put your meals together – especially with a busy family! 3. Helping your family to eat healthy: https://heidipowell.net/7986/funwithfood/. 4. Eating on a budget: https://heidipowell.net/6252/save-money-eat-healthy/. 5. Emotional eating: https://heidipowell.net/10663/10663/. And remember to take things one step – one promise – at a time. You can do this!
I’ve been taught that sugar is more likely going to turn to fat over carbs (controlled). How does sugar fit into the macro counting? Do you avoid it if you can? Thank you!!
Hi Ashley: Any sugars are carbs, and it’s best to choose complex carbs (vegetables, whole grains, legumes, etc.) and fruits when possible rather than more sugary products. Hope that helps!