Are the Macro's directly linked to Calories?

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Thebonebed
Thebonebed Posts: 1 Member
in Getting Started
ie, if I hit the macros' 100% not 1 over or under... I should hit my calorie goal too right?

My thinking is no. I would think even if I hit Macro's (Protein, Carbs and Fats) that it's still possible to go over calories?

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  • x_blackrainbow
    x_blackrainbow Posts: 439 Member
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    4 calories per carb, 4 calories per protein, and 9 calories per fat. I just did the math on my macros (without exercise adjustments), and it would only put me over my calorie goal by 5 calories if I hit them all perfectly.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    marilynxmonster wrote: »
    4 calories per carb, 4 calories per protein, and 9 calories per fat. I just did the math on my macros (without exercise adjustments), and it would only put me over my calorie goal by 5 calories if I hit them all perfectly.

    ^ yep, it should be pretty close; just discrepancies in numbers that are rounded or sometimes mislabeled.
  • tryin2die2self
    tryin2die2self Posts: 207 Member
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    All of the people I know who are trying to nail down macros are not really interest in calories. Just trying to eat the right foods in the right amounts to make the number happen. However, hitting the macros spot on is not going to zone in on calories. I can have 20% carbs, 50% fat and 30% protein with 1,500 cal to 5,000 calories. It is all about the ratios.

    When I try to the hit my numbers tight I always seem to fall well below my 1,700 cal per day max.
  • Kimo159
    Kimo159 Posts: 508 Member
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    tryin2die2self wrote: »
    All of the people I know who are trying to nail down macros are not really interest in calories. Just trying to eat the right foods in the right amounts to make the number happen. However, hitting the macros spot on is not going to zone in on calories. I can have 20% carbs, 50% fat and 30% protein with 1,500 cal to 5,000 calories. It is all about the ratios.

    When I try to the hit my numbers tight I always seem to fall well below my 1,700 cal per day max.

    I don't think people really necessarily should be looking at percentages. Use percentages and your total calories you want to derive the grams of each macro and then try to hit the macro grams. If you hit your macros grams you would pretty much be bang on with calories +/- a few calories. If you were looking at percentages only then yes, you could easily go under or over.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited October 2015
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    4 calories per gram of carbs and protein, 9 calories per gram of fat. However, fiber and sugar alcohols/artificial sweeteners are carbs your body doesn't absorb so they technically have no calories and you'll need to subtract those grams. Also, food manufacturers are allowed to round down, and they do, so there will likely always be a little bit of a discrepancy.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    tryin2die2self wrote: »
    All of the people I know who are trying to nail down macros are not really interest in calories. Just trying to eat the right foods in the right amounts to make the number happen. However, hitting the macros spot on is not going to zone in on calories. I can have 20% carbs, 50% fat and 30% protein with 1,500 cal to 5,000 calories. It is all about the ratios.

    When I try to the hit my numbers tight I always seem to fall well below my 1,700 cal per day max.

    Macronutrient need shouldn't be calculated by percentage, it should be calculated by mass (gram amounts). If you have your macro goals set in gram amounts like you should, then calories will absolutely correspond.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited October 2015
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    AJ_G wrote: »
    tryin2die2self wrote: »
    All of the people I know who are trying to nail down macros are not really interest in calories. Just trying to eat the right foods in the right amounts to make the number happen. However, hitting the macros spot on is not going to zone in on calories. I can have 20% carbs, 50% fat and 30% protein with 1,500 cal to 5,000 calories. It is all about the ratios.

    When I try to the hit my numbers tight I always seem to fall well below my 1,700 cal per day max.

    Macronutrient need shouldn't be calculated by percentage, it should be calculated by mass (gram amounts). If you have your macro goals set in gram amounts like you should, then calories will absolutely correspond.

    This. Most people serious about hitting macros will focus on the gram numbers, and then it does correspond to calories (roughly but imperfectly, due to the rounding issues and different treatment of fiber).

    The exception might be people who are trying to do extremely low fat or extremely low carb (keto), as they sometimes focus on percentages.
  • caci88
    caci88 Posts: 53 Member
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    Theoretically they will match up. But because of inconsistencies in MFP your calories will often be over. I focus on the macros not the cals.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    HappyCampr1 wrote: »
    SueInAz wrote: »
    4 calories per gram of carbs and protein, 9 calories per gram of fat. However, fiber and sugar alcohols/artificial sweeteners are carbs your body doesn't absorb so they technically have no calories and you'll need to subtract those grams. Also, food manufacturers are allowed to round down, and they do, so there will likely always be a little bit of a discrepancy.

    Some manufacturers already subtract the fiber grams from the total carbs and calories, so whether you need to subtract them or not will depend on the food you're logging. Also, alcohol has it's own macro so it will add many more calories than it does carbs and this will throw your numbers off. You can get it close, but I've only ever had perfect one time in 20 months of logging.

    Yes and some manufacturers don't break out sugar alcohols on the label at all because they don't have to. The most obvious of these are things like zero calorie drinks which will list a few grams of total carbs, 0 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fiber and 0 calories. So 3 grams of carbs = 0 calories because those 3 grams are actually artificial sweeteners or sugar alcohols.

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