TIPS ON THE DIET PLAN
All About Putting Your Meals Together
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Key Takeaways from Video:
- What are calories?
- Calories are the energy in food. They are responsible for our changes in body weight. If we eat fewer calories than our body needs, we lose weight. If you eat more calories than our body needs, we will gain weight.
- What are macros?
- Your macros are your macronutrients and these macronutrients make up our calories. There are 3 main macros (with the 4th being alcohol): protein, carbs, and fats.
- 1 gram of protein is 4 calories.
- 1 gram of carbohydrate is 4 calories.
- 1 gram of fat is 9 calories.
- Macros are responsible for changes in our body composition and each play a specific role.
- Proteins help maintain, build, and repair muscle tissue.
- Carbohydrates are our main source of energy for exercise.
- Fats are also an energy source and help create an optimal hormonal environment.
- Where can you find them?
- You can find your macros and calories on the nutritional labels of the foods that you are eating.
- If the food has a label, it will be somewhere on the package.
- If you are looking up fresh fruit, veggies, or a food without a label, you can often find these online by searching Google entering the food and the word nutrition behind it.
- You may often be able to check the websites fatsecret and nutritiondata.
- How to track a meal?
- You can use pen and paper or apps like:
- You will also need a food scale like this one:
- Weigh out your portions on the food scale and add up the macros in the foods you are eating.
- For example, if a 1oz serving of chicken has 6 grams of protein and you end up eating 4 ounces, you consumed 24 grams of protein.
- Example Meal
- In the video, you will see how to track an example meal using nutritional labels, pen and paper, and a food scale.