Confused About Macros?

chivalryder

Yesterday, I was having a lovely discussion with some people as to how much protein you actually need to have in your daily intake. Lots of fun, I swear.

I have always followed the general rule of "0.8g of protein per pound of body weight." I've also heard it should be per kg of body weight, or per pound of lean mass, and so on. What I haven't found yet was a strong, creditable source with plenty of research and information to back it up.

Well, one person spoke up yesterday that the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that it should be 15% of your daily caloric intake.

Now, I never trust a word anyone says, and she used a very creditable source, so I decided to do some digging and came up with this:

Protein and Amino Acid Requirements in Human Nutrition

The most recent report published by WHO on the very matter.

On page 125 of the above report (the entire thing is 265 pages, if you feel like reading all of it) it reads:

7.10 Summary of protein requirement values for adults, including
women during pregnancy and lactation

The requirement indicated by the meta-analysis (6) (a median requirement of
105 mg nitrogen/kg per day or 0.66 g/kg per day of protein) can be accepted
as the best estimate of a population average requirement for healthy adults.
Although there is considerable uncertainty about the true between-individual
variability, the safe level was identified as the 97.5th percentile of the population
distribution of requirement, i.e. 133 mg nitrogen/kg per day, or 0.83
g/kg per day protein. Thus 0.83 g/kg per day protein would be expected
to meet the requirements of most (97.5%) of the healthy adult population.

In other words, for 97.5% of the adult population around the entire world, 0.83g of protein per kg of body mass (I read the early section of the document - it's talking about total body mass, not lean body mass) per day is enough to keep you going.

That being said, I would use this as a minimum target to achieve. It's the "adequate" amount, meaning that less isn't so good, but there's nothing wrong with more.

Today, I decided to dig deeper and look into what they say about fat intake. I found the following:

Fats and Fatty Acids in Human Nutrition

On page 14, it reads:

Minimum total fat intakes for adults a
• 15%E to ensure adequate consumption of total energy, essential fatty acids, and
fat soluble vitamins for most individuals.
• 20%E for women of reproductive age and adults with BMI <18.5, especially in
developing countries in which dietary fat may be important to achieve adequate
energy intake in malnourished populations.

and

Maximum total fat intakes for adults a
• 30–35%E for most individuals.

a To optimize health, special attention should be given to both the overall dietary pattern, in terms of types of
food consumed, and total energy intakes, in relation also to anthropometric (age group, BMI) and lifestyles
characteristics

So, long story short, you've got your minimum (15% for men, 20% for women) and maximum (30-35%) requirement for total fat intake in the form of a percentage of your total caloric intake.

tl;dr


You should aim to consume a minimum of 0.83g/kg of body weight in protein every day (1 lb = .45 kg) and at least 15% of your caloric intake should come from fat.

Note, these are MINIMUMS. You should try to eat more than the above.

For me, being a 240lb man (109kg) with an intake of 2400 calories it breaks down into the following:

Protein (0.83 * 109*) = 91g minimum
Fat (2400 * .15 / 9) = 40g minimum

Carbs fill out the rest, so

2400 - ( 91 * 4) - (40 * 9) = 1676 / 4 = 419g

Now, when logging my foods, this is how I will approach it:

I will set 91g as my protein target, but I will eat above this target.

I will set 40g as my fat target, but I will try to eat above this target.

I will set my carbs to 419g as my target, but I will try to eat under this target.


I hope this is helpful to some people.