What are macros? Are they important and is there one standard way to work them out?

PaulThomp23

So ive been on a plateau for a while now. Havent lost weight since i gained some of it back after injuring my ankle even going back to the way i was exercising before the injury at which point the weight was coming off steadily. Has something gone wrong since i injured myself that i need to take into consideration??? at one stage (before i started logging on here) i was eating well, always less that 2000cals per day and did 8 exercise classes a week. I was checking in with my doctor and the weight was coming off fine. Then after the ankle thing i went back to exactly the same routine and nothings changed.
Ive spoken to a few guys the the gym that are talking about my macros and 2 of them offered to work out what my needs were but both came back with different numbers because they work them out differently..?
Doc says its nothing to do with what im doing and did a full blood screen, the results of which i get back next week. And then yesterday a personal trainer at the gym told me that I wasn't eating enough...? I am so confused. I know theres no one right way to lose weight but there has to be some happy medium for everyone.....?

yarwell

There isn't a fixed value. MFP has a default 20% protein 30% fat and 50% carbs but various exercise orientated people will opt for much higher protein intakes calculated in grams of protein per unit of weight of something or other. The variation in the latter makes me chuckle.

If you eat 1800 calories a day at MFP's standard numbers you'll have 90 g/day of protein intake which will be adequate although it won't be viewed as "optimal". Do that for 3-4 weeks and adjust according to the weight loss.

SezxyStef

Yes there is. Log consistently and accurately.

Use a food scale, use the correct entries and eat as much food as you can while still losing the weight you want.

If you are using MFP set an appropriate activity level before exercise to get your calorie goal. Eat up to it.

If you exercise log it here and eat back at least 50% of those calories.

Macros are for health, calories are for weight loss.

Macros are personal figure you will need 0.8 grams of protein for every lb you weigh, Fats are 0.35 grams for every lb and the rest carbs.

However a pretty good standard is 40/30/30...

As for the PT blow him off...he's a nut case. Not eating enough my butt...tell that to the kids who starve in Africa...smh.