Help me understand Macros

WeepingAngel81

I have been counting calories for almost a year now, and I often see information about people hitting their macro goals. I had a conversation with my mom yesterday about my dad losing weight and how he is looking more at his fat, carbs, and protein along with calories. My mom lectured me about needing to watch these as well, however, I often hear calories in/calories out. I have seen a close friend of mine lose a significant amount of weight under the watchful eye of her doctor by dropping carbs. She was dangerously obese and is now at a healthy BMI. My father is also considered obese, he is pushing 70, and has had a history of diabetes. I started at 5'7" and 170lbs with no prior health issues. Does the personal circumstances have anything to do with who should watch macro and when?
When is the appropriate time to watch your macros? What are the reasons for tracking them VS. not? Is weight loss a combination of macros and calories or is it as simple as calories in/calories out?

BigT555

to put it very basically, calories for weight loss, macros for health.

you can lose weight on an all fat, all carb, or all protein diet (or any combination of macros) as long as you are in a calorie deficit, but in order to have good general health you need to have a decent split between your macro-nutrients

amgerbin

I'm with you WeepingAngel - it is so confusing! Between switching up my workouts, worrying about my BMI, tracking calories and NOW...these macro things - UGH. I consider myself to be a healthy person, been doing Insanity and watching my food intake. But now factoring in the ratio for the macro thing is overwhelming. How does one wade through all this information to make informed decisions?

I did google it and spent some time reading articles and guides to help but it's still a lot to digest. Literally.

earlnabby

I would take the confusion out of it to start by going with the MFP defaults, unless you have a specific reason to limit a particular macro. For example, I was diagnosed with T2 diabetes in January so I have a carb limit set by my doctor. I let MFP default the other two macros until I had a better handle on what I was doing.

After you eat with the defaults, you can start playing with them and see how you feel. Lower your carbs. If you lack energy, then you know that lower carb is not for you and raise them again. It is really trial and error. I really don't have a good grasp on the science behind each of the macros but I just know that balancing them out makes me feel good, rarely hungry, and has allowed me to lose.

diannethegeek

This is the link that I used to set my macros and I know that others have found success with it as well: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets Note that with this setup you're setting the minimum amount of fat & protein that you need and filling in the rest of your calories with carbs or more fat & protein as you like. It's not a percentage split like MFP's defaults and other programs might use.

WeepingAngel81

Thanks for the links, and the tips. I will look into those. When I first started with MFP, I tried to figure all of that out, I tried to hit my macros, but then I was either way over calories or way under. There didn't seem to be a happy medium. Trying to figure it out is overwhelming!