Episode Notes:
Nutrition information is abundant and can be overwhelming. It is impossible to go to a supermarket, restaurant, or fitness website without being bombarded with information about calories, protein, carbs, fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and a bunch of different numbers and percentages. But if you don’t understand the basics of calories, macronutrients and micronutrients, these numbers are relatively meaningless.
Fortunately, a basic understanding of nutrition math isn’t complicated. In this episode, we will cover the basics of calories, macros, micros, determining your basal metabolic rate, daily caloric needs, and figuring out a plan to help you reach your health and fitness goals. I will also share the tools and strategies I have used to successfully burn fat and gain muscle.
Topics
[2:29] What are calories and where do they come from?
[4:32] Fact or Fiction: 3500 calories equals one pound of fat
[6:55] Macros and their unique roles
[11:41] The most important micronutrients
[13:06] The app that helped me burn 15lbs of fat in less than two months
[15:58] Switching from Keto to Whole foods, plant-based
[17:44] Where to get started: Advice for building a custom nutrition profile
[20:49] The most important micronutrients and supplements
Thank you all for joining me on this journey to lifelong health, happiness, and higher performance. And remember, always be grateful, love yourself, and serve others.
Teaser
In this episode… all cellular processes require different vitamins and minerals, either reactants, cofactors, or enzymes. For example, as stated by Dr. Joel Gould, Vitamin K2 is a cofactor in 17 known enzymes, making it incredibly important for overall health. In other words, without sufficient K2, there are 17 known enzymes that can’t function properly… that’s scary…
Episode Intro
Learn II Perform: Practical lessons so that you can immediately learn to optimize your health, happiness, and performance.
Gratitude
For today’s gratitude expression, I would like to thank Under Armour for creating the MyFitnessPal app. I will share more info about MyFitnessPal in this episode, but basically, it is a simple app to help track all dietary intake, determining daily needs, evaluate trends, and even incorporate activity levels you’re your nutrition plan. When I started looking into tracking calories, macros, and micros, I was intimidated by having to track everything from every meal, but with the MyFitnessPal database, tracking my nutrition has been extremely easy, informative, and actually quite enjoyable. The free version is a great resource that has helped me to optimize my nutrition, so I am grateful for Under Armor for putting out a great free version to help people optimize their lives.
Topic Introduction
Alright, let’s get into it. Looking good and feeling good are among the top priorities for many people. Fitness goals designed to help people achieve their dream physique and optimize performance are extremely common, and people are willing to work extremely hard in the gym, spending countless hours on the treadmill while starving themselves to try and get results. Unfortunately, a lack of education over the nutritional component of fitness prevents many people from reaching their goals, despite months or years of literal blood, sweat, and tears. Ignorance to basics of nutrition math, whether intentional or not, is often what holds people back from making progress. After all, abs are made in the kitchen.
Fortunately, tracking calories, macros, and micros is a very easy skill that can drastically increase effectiveness and lead to big results. Although intimidating at first, the basics of nutrition math are very simple and can be implemented today.
So What’s The Bottom Line
Whether your goal is to burn fat, gain muscle, achieve high performance, be healthier, or any combination of all the above, your nutrition is your limiting factor – you will only be as successful as your nutrition allows. In this episode, we will cover the basics of three primary categories of nutrition:
1. Calories
2. Macronutrients
3. Micronutrients
1. Calories
Fundamentally, a calorie is simply a unit of energy. To be exact, a calorie is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius. What we refer to in terms of food are actually kilocalories, equivalent of a thousand calories [1]. In terms of energy expenditure in relation to metabolism and nutrition, these kilocalories are what we commonly refer to as calories.
In our diets, we obtain calories from three primary sources, known as macronutrients. There are fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Regarding calories, these macros are not made equally. One gram of fat has nine calories, while one gram of protein and one gram of carbs produce just four calories each [2, 3].
One caveat, however, is that significant evidence points to the fact that the caloric contribution of protein is more likely around three calories per gram. This is because protein has been proven to have a thermic effect of 25-30%, meaning that it actually requires additional energy expenditure to digest, absorb, and metabolize [4]. However, when counting calories, it is still appropriate to use four calories, but just be aware that the body will have increased post-meal thermogenesis when metabolizing protein [5].
Also, I should mention that alcohol is often considered to be a fourth macronutrient, contributing seven calories per gram, however the science is a bit more complicated [3]. There is some evidence that calories from alcohol do not contribute to energy intake in the same manner as other macronutrients, possibly due to the unique metabolic pathway that oxidizes ethanol without producing additional energy [6]. A study from 1993 also found that moderate alcohol consumption corresponded to lower BMIs, despite not understanding the metabolic pathways [7]. Unfortunately for those alcohol lovers, it’s not all rosy. Modern studies have found links between moderate to heavy drinking and obesity, but primarily attribute alcohol-induced obesity to factors other than its caloric content, including its role as an energy additive. This is because it stimulates food intake, doesn’t increase satiety, and inhibits fat oxidation [8-10].
So alcohol is much trickier, and honestly something that I, as someone who almost never drinks, does not understand very well. So for the rest of this episode, when referring to macros, I will simply be referring to fat, carbs, and protein.
Now, what really matters when trying to achieve your fitness goals, whether that be fat loss, muscle gain, or improving body composition while maintaining your current weight, is how calories contribute to weight. In 1958, it was proposed that 3,500 calories have the equivalent energy to one pound of fat, a theory that is still prevalent today [11]. It turns out, losing and gaining weight is not that simple. Complex bodily processes and a fluctuating, adaptable metabolism vary the actual mathematical relationship between calories and weight considerably [12, 13]. Although not black and white, counting calories is still a very valuable practice to achieve your health and fitness goals.
The most important part of building your nutrition plan is determining your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, which is the energy required for vital body functions while at rest [14]. Your BMR will tell you exactly how many calories you can expect to burn throughout a day just by existing. Now, everyone will have a different BMRs and it will change as your fitness level changes. So while you need to determine your BMR to effectively apply calorie counting to your goals, you must also continually update your BMR as your body changes and adapts.
Determining your BMR is actually quite easy. There are many different online calculators with built-in equations that do this for you, and they all roughly end up in the same ball park. If you Google “BMR calculator,” you will find a bunch. Just note, that these basic assessments will have a large area of uncertainty, so it is impossible to have an exact number, and that’s okay. Just for reference, I am about 185 lbs and my BMR is around 1900 calories. But note, that is the bare minimum to exist.
The next consideration is your lifestyle and activity level. Some metabolic calculators will ask for general activity levels and fitness levels to adjust accordingly. Working a desk job and sitting all day burns a lot fewer calories than being a construction worker and being active all day. Additionally, any workouts will create an additional caloric burn that must be accounted for. Depending on your day, the caloric needs can vary considerably.
Let’s do an example with calculator.net [15]. If I input my height at 6 feet, 0 inches, weight at 185 lbs, and age at 27 years old, and using the Mifflin St. Jeor equation, my BMR is 1,852 calories. But it also provides a table, noting that a sedentary lifestyle requires 2,223 calories and very intense daily exercise requiring up to 3,500 calories. On this site and others, you can play around with different formulas and activity levels to get an idea of what you BMR and daily calorie expenditure are.
Understanding calorie totals is as simple as that. Let’s talk about macros now.
2. Macros
If calories are the outside of the onion, macros are the next layer. As discussed, the three macro nutrients that we are focused on are fat, carbohydrates, and protein. They each serve different functions in the body and have unique value. Let’s go through them one at a time.
Fat is perhaps the most feared nutrient out there – often seen as the cause of cardiovascular disease and obesity. However, substantial evidence shows that fat, even saturated fat, has no correlation to cardiovascular diseases or all-cause mortality [16]. In addition, studies have found that replacing saturated fats with carbohydrates generates no improvement in health or all-cause mortality [17]. Additionally, although we associate dietary fat with body fat, they are actually quite different. Dietary fat, similar to dietary carbs and protein, may be converted to body fat, but it also serves a diverse amount of other functions in the body [18]. So to assume eating fat makes you fat is misguided.
Modern guidelines encourage a balance of healthy fats for optimal living, rather than avoiding fats [19]. Low-carb and ketogenic diets have both shown promise at improving cardiovascular health, although more long-term studies are required to fully understand the impact high fat diets have on the body [20, 21]. And most importantly, if you are a cheese and peanut butter love, like me – fear not! Multiple studies have shown that cheese consumption is directly correlated with decreased mortality and improvements in overall health, likely due to a great nutrition profile [22, 23]. Nuts meanwhile, are also linked to lower risk of many diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease [24, 25]. Peanut butter specifically has often been questioned, but it appears that issues with peanut butter are related to the processed hydrogenated oils in many peanut butter brands and corresponding lifestyle factors among many peanut butter eaters. As someone who eats 100% natural peanut butter, I am perfectly content to continue to include peanut butter as a staple in my diet!
A little off track there, as I do love cheese and peanut butter, but back to the point. There are many sources of fat, with some of the healthiest sources including healthy oils (olive, coconut and avocado oil in particular), nuts, avocados, fish, eggs, and dairy products. Because fats are so calorie-dense, it does not take a high volume of fats to reach caloric needs. Consider that a typical tablespoon of MCT coconut oil contains about 120 calories alone, more than about a pound of spinach [26]!
Next up, carbohydrates. Everyone’s best friend and worst enemy, carbohydrates are extremely abundant, especially in the standard western diet. Grains, fruits, and vegetables are all high sources of carbs. Some common examples include bread, pastas, rice, all fruit and vegetables, added sugars, and potatoes. Carbohydrates play an important role, especially through fiber. Fiber has been shown to be directly linked to gut health and overall health, particular through its role with the microbiome – a topic for a future episode [27].
There are also sugars, which have long been linked to dangerous health outcomes when consumed in excess, although recent studies question whether sugar is truly the main culprit [28, 29]. Like most things, this is a debate that requires far more attention. However, we do know that added and refined sugars result in a different impact on blood glucose levels than whole foods such as vegetables and fruit, potentially being the link between sugar intake and chronic disease [30].
Finally, we have protein, which is very predominant in meat, seafood, and dairy products. There are also substantial protein levels in different plant-based foods, including nuts, shelled hemp hearts, and different forms of beans. Protein is the primary source of amino acids for the body and is related to muscle function and growth and its applications extend to many important physiological systems [31]. Adequate protein intake is very important, however increasing literature shows that the requirements for protein are much less than originally thought, and that excessive protein intake is actually correlated with decreased longevity [32-34].
So that’s a quick rundown on what macros are, and at the end of the episode, I’ll tell you how to plan for and count your macros. Also, the science on determining your nutrition profile and macro breakdown is actually quite complex, so that will be a deeper dive in a future episode. For now, we are just looking at the basic math.
3. Micros
Micronutrients are a bit more complicated, so we are just going to do a quick overview. They correspond to the vitamins and minerals that support important bodily functions. Examples of micros include sodium, potassium, magnesium, Vitamin C, Vitamin K2, and Vitamin D.
Knowing your levels are much more difficult to track than calories and macros, and determining your actual needs are pretty much impossible without proper testing. Therefore, if you suspect that you have deficiencies or imbalances, or simply want to build a supplementation strategy, I recommend that you get bloodwork done to determine your nutrient levels. You can also do more comprehensive tests such as the Genova ION profile with 40 amino acids for a complete overview of your nutrient profile and identify any potential deficiencies, and I’ll put a link to that in the show notes [35, 36].
Although not as informative, simply tracking your diet and being aware of the micros present in the foods you commonly eat can help to give you a picture of what you are consuming and what you may be lacking. If you are experiencing symptoms or health issues, there may be certain nutrients commonly linked. Again, the best way to know for sure is to talk to your medical professional and get testing done.
For the purposes of this episode, I want you all to be aware that tracking micros can be very important to optimizing your health, and thus your happiness and performance. They are important, because all cellular processes require different vitamins and minerals, either reactants, cofactors, or enzymes [37]. For example, as stated by Dr. Joel Gould, Vitamin K2 is a cofactor in 17 known enzymes, making it incredibly important for overall health [38]. In other words, without sufficient K2, there are 17 known enzymes that can’t function properly… that’s scary.
Now, the best practice for maintaining healthy micros are to eat a whole foods diet with a large amount of diverse vegetables and fruit. Fruit and vegetables are a great source of most micros. For our carnivore friends out there, you can obtain a great amount of micronutrients as well, but it is critical to eat head-to-tail as many of the important micros are found in organ meat [39].
Personal Experience
Alright, so I’d like to now share my experience with learning and implementing nutrition math because I always used to think that counting and tracking calories, macros, and micros was super intimidating and impractical. But in the spring of 2020, I decided that if I was serious about achieving my health and fitness goals, both in terms of performance and physique, that I needed to be equally committed to my nutrition plan.
Before that, my only priority was protein intake. In my head, I would estimate my calorie intake and ensure that I would reach 200+ grams of protein each day. Everything else was an afterthought. I had no idea what my typical caloric intake was, yet for some reason I was frustrated when I couldn’t gain muscle or burn fat.
So to start taking it more seriously, I downloaded MyFitnessPal, which is an app produced by Under Armour [40]. It makes it super easy to input all of your meals and snacks with a large database of food products complete with their nutrition information, and you also have the opportunity to create your own meals and foods with detailed information on macros and micros. Built into the app, it also estimates your basal metabolic rate based on your weight and activity level, it recommends your daily caloric intake based on your goals (either weight loss, maintenance, or weight gain), and it provides a breakdown of daily macro and micronutrient intake, all in the free version!
With just a few minutes dedicated each day to tracking my food, I had a clear idea of my typical calorie, macro, and micro intake within just a few months. In addition, by taking the time to learn the nutrition profile of different foods and meals, I quickly learned how to accurately estimate the nutrition content of many different foods. I still track my meals for fun, but I don’t think it is as necessary anymore now that I have a really good idea of the calories, macros, and micros involved in my typical diet. And I’m also not a super, super hardo, so some days I don’t even track at all.
So, going back to my personal journey with experimenting with weight loss and weight gain, as referenced in episode six about fasting, I had reached a peak weight of 197lbs in the Spring of 2020. As I settled into the pandemic, I wanted to burn off that fat to get shredded for the summer. And although I have been working really hard on suppressing my ego, as discussed in last week’s episode, I must admit, that I definitely I wanted to come out of the pandemic with a six pack. But jokes on me because the pandemic never ended and the summer, along with the six pack, came and left before I even got to leave the house… but anyways, I initially set a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories per day, occasionally pushing towards a deficit of 750 calories per day.
With daily exercise, about 5 days of a week of high intensity workouts and two days of active recovery, my typical daily caloric needs ranged from 2,500-3,000 calories. Therefore, I set my typical caloric intake at about 2,000 calories a day. At the same time, I began by implementing a ketogenic diet to optimize fat burning. In building my ketogenic diet, I divided up my macros in the following manner: 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% carbs.
A few important notes, I set my protein cap at 25% for a few reasons. First, previously discussed evidence suggests that excessive protein intake is correlated with decreased longevity. And secondly, excessive protein intake defeats the purpose of a ketogenic diet as excess protein is converted into process through a process called gluconeogenesis [41]. You can reference episode six for more info on ketosis and gluconeogenesis.
Following this strategy, I was actually able to lose about ten pounds within the first month, and despite not having comprehensive testing done for percentage body fat, it was clear that this weight was almost 100% fat loss. While my target was a 70/25/5 breakdown, I typically consumed about 67% fat, 25% protein, and 8% carbs. My typical protein intake was around 125g per day, total carbs of about 40g per day, and net carbs about 25g (which is total carbs minus fiber), and about 150g of fat. Calories remained relatively constant around 2000 per day.
A few months later, I decided to experiment with a 100% whole foods, plant-based diet. In making the switch, my macros changed drastically. These new macros initially followed a strategy of about 60% carbs, 15% protein, and 25% fat. In doing this, my total carbs increased significantly, often exceeding 400g per day, including over 100g of sugar. I always think of the scene from Austin Powers when Fat Bastard makes the comment, “carbs are the enemy,” but in reality, this isn’t necessarily the case. Despite drastically changing my macros and increasing my calories to maintenance levels, I didn’t experience any changes in body composition or an increase in fat. For me, this was clear evidence that regardless of your diet strategy and macro breakdown, if your focus is on losing, maintaining, or increasing weight, it is essential to track your calories.
In addition to using MyFitnessPal for calorie tracking, I also receive calorie estimates from my WHOOP fitness tracker, using an analysis of my cardiovascular output to estimate caloric expenditure. Generally, I find that these numbers are quite comparable.
A few notes about weight gain and loss. I found that when trying to gain weight, a daily caloric surplus of 500 calories or more resulted in unintended fat gain in addition to muscle gain, so my recommendation for adding lean mass is to go slow and steady with a surplus of just 250 calories per day – quality over quantity. As for fat loss, I found that I could create a deficit of around 500 calories per day and still maintain muscle mass, and more importantly, my sanity.
And a final note on micro nutrients, by tracking my nutrition, I didn’t observe any noticeable gaps in my micro intake on a normal diet, but I definitely noticed a much larger micronutrient profile while following a plant-based diet. For supplementation, I always take Vitamin D3, K2, calcium, and fish oils every day, while periodically taking a multivitamin, Magnesium, Potassium, Selenium, Turmeric, and Vitamin B12 when following a plant-based diet.
So What Can You Do
First things first, you need to determine what your basal metabolic rate is. From there, you can begin to estimate your total caloric needs based on activity level and your goals. A quick google search of “BMR calculator” will give you a bunch, and I used calculator.net for the example in this episode [15].
MyFitnessPal will estimate your BMR based on your weight, and if desired, can also estimate your caloric needs based on general activity level while giving you the opportunity to input exercise. When adding activities or specific workouts, the database has built-in estimates for calories burned for different activities, making it super easy to track daily caloric needs.
So once you have a good idea of your caloric needs, you can determine your target calories for weight gain, weight loss, or body composition changes. I recommend a surplus of 250 calories per day when trying to perform a clean, lean bulk. If focused on more rapid weight gain, a caloric surplus of 500 calories per day would be more effective at rapid weight gain. For fat burning, I recommend a deficit of 500 calories a day, which I find to be effective and sustainable. And with a healthy diet and exercise program, this could set you up to exclusively burn fat, even more so if doing a ketogenic diet.
Another note, although we all want to reach our goals as quickly as possible, I strongly urge everyone to build a program that is sustainable. Body composition changes and achieving peak performance and physique does not happen overnight. For significant results, you will be required to maintain discipline over months or years to reach your goals. Any short-term fix often leads to crashing and burning, and potentially a host of other unintended consequences. Slow and steady is the way to go – make it something you can commit to and still enjoy your life. Balance is everything.
To review: Follow three easy steps to lose or gain weight:
- Determine daily caloric needs
- Set your daily calories for your goal: a deficit for weight loss, a surplus for weight gain, and aim for your daily caloric needs for weight maintenance
- Track your calories and try to achieve your daily target as consistently as possible
For macros, it really depends on your specific diet plan. Whole food, plant-based and vegan diets are drastically different than a carnivore or ketogenic diet. So depending on your diet plan and goals, your macros may vary. Here are a few general guidelines. If you are doing a ketogenic diet, I highly recommend trying to obtain at 70-75% of your calories from fat, and maxing out your protein at 25%. A common mistake with keto is that people eat too much protein. So even though carbs are extremely low, an excessive intake of protein will be converted into glucose through gluconeogenesis, and thus defeats the purpose of eating few carbs. Therefore, to ensure a state of ketosis and optimize fat burning, you really should aim for at least 70% of calories to come from fat. And of your carbs, try to eat high fiber foods that decrease the net carbs – cruciferous vegetables are your friends.
For all other diets, I generally recommend limiting protein intake to 15-20% of your total intake, and then filling in the rest of your diet with good quality foods. But whatever strategy you choose, make sure it includes healthy fats which facilitate a large amount of important cellular processes. Avocados, nuts, and healthy oils are your friends here.
In terms of micros, I would recommend getting blood work done if you are concerned about having any deficiencies. Otherwise, your best strategy is a diverse diet full of whole foods and lots of fruits and vegetables. Variety is your best friend, as sticking to just a few staples may limit the micros that you are receiving through your diet.
In addition, there are a few micros that I believe to be particularly important, and worth supplementing, if you are concerned about deficiencies. These are:
- Vitamin D3 during the winter
- Vitamin K2
- Calcium
- Vitamin B12 for those on a vegan or plant-based diet
- General Multivitamin for all people and general purposes
To close off this episode, I’d like to point out that calories are just estimates and shouldn’t be something you live and die by. In fact, companies are allowed up to a 20% error on nutrition label reporting [42]. Factor in the uncertainty of determining your daily caloric needs and the numbers get hazy. For this reason, it’s all about being in the right ballpark and being consistent, paying attention to your body and your progress, and adapting as necessary.
Here’s the bottom line: Counting calories and tracking macros are not meant to stress you out or restrict your life, but rather, provide you with information and insight to make better decisions and help achieve your goals. After tracking for a while, you may be surprised at the quantity of calories, macros, and micros you are or are not consuming, and how they may be holding you back from achieving your goals. And remember, the objective is not to be perfect, the key is to be informed and be consistent.
As author Robert Collier said, “Success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out” [43].
Episode Outro
To discover more, the full transcript of this episode with all citations is available on the website and you can also contact me on social media with any questions or comments. If you found this episode useful or think that it may help someone else, I encourage you to pass it along.
Thank you all for joining me on this journey to lifelong health, happiness, and higher performance. And remember, always be grateful, love yourself, and serve others.
References
[1] Osilla EV, Safadi AO, Sharma S. Calories. [Updated 2020 Aug 25]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2020 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499909/
