Macros / grams

moya1219

Hi im changing up my meals to see what works for me and someone told me to try macros?

I used an online tool to calculate my needs for my weight to lose weight and i got the following numbers

Protein- 169 grams

Carbs- 119 grams

Fat- 75 grams

How do i calculate grams with my food? Is there a way i can convert punces to grams? I tried googling was 4 oz of chicken is in grams and it say 113.4 grams... so technically its not much protein in a day. At least thats what im getting from it.


I need help obviously trying to figure this out any help is appreciated thanks !

distinctlybeautiful

Grams of food are separate from grams of macros. Just because your serving of chicken weighs 4 ounces (or 112 grams because there are 28 grams in an ounce) doesn't mean you're consuming 112 grams of protein. You have to determine the macronutrient makeup of your foods.

nutmegoreo

^^^ Yes, when you log your food here, if the entry is correct, it will give you the macro breakdown of those foods. It is best to verify either by looking at the label on the package, or in the case of chicken, at the USDA website.

Which site did you use to calculate those macros? Is your goal weight loss?

kommodevaran

That's a lot of protein. Are you a bodybuilder?

Susieq_1994

Food grams are not equal to macro grams. For example, a 100g chicken breast contains somewhere in the ballpark of 24g of protein. A 70g piece of bread might have only 30g of carbohydrates. And so on. No food is made up of PURELY one macronutrient except oils and refined sugar, and you'll note that both of these food items are processed specifically to achieve that goal of obtaining pure oil or pure sugar from something like olives or sugarcane.

Hope this helps.

lemurcat12

Have you logged on MFP? When you do it will give you the macro breakdown. The easiest way to start is either prelogging and adjusting or -- what I would recommend -- logging and not worrying about hitting it at first but adjusting each day to come closer. You learn pretty quickly how to hit the macros.

That said, there's no real point in just going to some internet site and getting macros and then trying to hit them perfectly. The right macros depend on goals and very few people need to hit them exactly. As mentioned above, that protein goal is probably far higher than you need for any goal you are working on -- to preserve muscle at a deficit while active you likely don't benefit from getting more than .8 g/lb of healthy goal weight (or just healthy weight if you are a healthy weight now). More doesn't hurt, but it's often hard to get and not beneficial (and expensive). The fat vs. carbs numbers are really personal and depend on how you feel, how you like to eat, what feels you up. (I don't worry about fat vs. carbs personally, but just choosing healthy fats and carbs that are nutrient dense and fill me up as the main things I eat.)

Anyway, a good way to start is to log a few days, see where you are, and then decide what you need to change (say, increasing protein or decreasing carbs) and then look at the diary and decide "oh, I need more protein, maybe a 50% larger serving of chicken" or "I need to make room for the protein and probably fewer carbs, I'll cut my serving of potatoes at dinner to a smaller one" -- stuff like that.