The Basics of Nutrition and Macros

Not all of us have the hyperactive metabolism of a super hero, so we need to pay more attention to what we put in our body calorie wise. But to do that, you first need a basic understanding of calories and macronutrients. Away we go.

Calories and Macros

"Count your calories!" "Track your macros!" Dear god which is it?!?! To quote one Mr. Meeseeks, "Well, it's both". First, what is a calorie? A calorie is actually a unit of energy, and your body requires a certain amount of "energy in" per day. You have a Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) which is how much energy (calories) your body requires at rest. There are several factors that affect an individual's RMR. In addition to your RMR, you also use energy to move as well as exercise. These are known as your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT), and Exercise-Related Activity Thermogenesis (EAT). So in short, the more you move, the more energy your body needs. But what about macros?

"Macro" is short for macronutrient. The macronutrients are protein, fat, carbohydrates, and alcohol. Each macronutrient has a different energy value per gram.

1g of protein is 4 calories

1g of carbohydrate is 4 calories

1g of fat is 9 calories

1g of alcohol is 7 calories

So if I eat 180g of protein, that is 720 calories (180x4). 200g of carbs would be 800 calories (200x4). 55g of fat would be 495 calories (55x9). This would equal 2015 calories. So the macros create your caloric intake. Make sense? Now let's talk about food quality.

Food Quality- Processed vs Unprocessed Foods

You will find articles talking about how food quality doesn't matter, and articles claiming it is the ONLY thing that matters. So which is it? To quote the ever wise Mr. Meeseeks again "Well, it's both". The truth is somewhere in between. First I want to define "processed" vs "unprocessed". Unprocessed foods are typically the whole forms of fruits, veggies, meats, even eggs, and whole nuts. Foods can be processed in many different ways, but anything that went through some sort of "process" to become the current form is considered a processed food. This is pretty much everything else in a grocery store. Boxed and prepackaged foods, snacks, dairy products, ground meats, etc. 

Now, all food is made up of calories (energy), so regardless of the quality of food, if you take in MORE energy than you burn, you will gain weight. Yes, you could gain weight eating nothing but broccoli and carrots (though you would feel awful due to the sheer amount you have to eat). No matter how "clean" or "healthy" a food is, there are still calories. On the opposite side of things, you could eat nothing but "unhealthy" and processed foods and still LOSE weight so long as you consume less total calories than your body burns. This is simply the law of thermodynamics. So then how does food quality come into play? In a few ways actually.

In the US, food labels are allowed to have a 20% margin of error. That means that your food could contain up to 20% MORE or 20% LESS calories. The less processed a food is, the less of a margin of error there tends to be in it's calorie content. Processed foods also require less energy by our digestive system to convert to energy since less of the food has to be broken down since it is processed. Yes, your body uses energy just to break down food. This is known as the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) and makes up a small portion of your total metabolism. In addition to requiring less energy to metabolize, they also tend to be less filling. In a study recently comparing unprocessed vs processed food diets, participants in the study on the processed food diet ate on average 500 calories more per day than the unprocessed group.

This doesn't mean I think you should avoid all processed foods. In my experience, allowing people to eat a certain percentage of foods that they enjoy will allow them to adhere to a nutrition plan for their goal better. I personally aim for 80% unprocessed and 20% processed. This allows me enough "fun" food to stay sane, but keeps me full enough to limit cravings and snacking. 

I hope that provided some general information on calories, macros, and food quality so that you can understand nutrition a little bit better, and start making more educated decisions on how you eat.