Macronutrients are nutrients our bodies need in large quantities. These are our proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. We know that a caloric deficit is needed to produce fat loss and progressive overload through heavy resistance training is needed to achieve muscle growth. Tracking macros optimizes these 2 occurrences, so that you craft a well-rounded physique. The problem with not tracking your macros while being in a calorie deficit is that you can be losing more muscle mass than body fat during a cutting phase.
The Role of Protein in Body Recomposition
Protein is known as your major macronutrient. It plays several key roles in body recomposition. Protein is responsible for repairing muscle tissue after an intense strength training workout, building new muscle, or retaining muscle mass depending on the size of your calorie deficit. Eating sufficient protein can also reduce your risk of injury when performing heavy resistance training. Protein is also your most satiating macronutrient. It does the best job keeping you full on a lower calorie diet due to it’s high thermic effect. The body takes longer to digest protein than any other macro.
The Role of Fat in Body Recomposition
Dietary fat is an essential macronutrient for the following reasons. First, it is responsible for maintaining our hormonal health, especially functioning testosterone levels in men. Secondly, fat is the body’s preferred fuel source for low-intensity physical activity such as walking, dancing, or any kind of random physical activity you do outside of formal exercise. Also, fat is very satiating due to its high caloric density. It promotes fullness on a lower calorie diet. Lastly, fat makes food taste delicious. For example, some people may find dark meat chicken to be tastier than white chicken due to the higher fat content in dark meat chicken.
The Role of Carbohydrates in Body Recomposition.
Carbohydrates are an essential macronutrient for a few reasons. First, they support training performance. When you are doing any kind of high-intensity physical activity such as resistance training, the body’s preferred fuel source is carbohydrates. Secondly, carbs work in partnership with protein in building muscle. After an intense workout session your glycogen storage is depleted. Once you have a meal after your workout that contains carbs, you refill your glycogen storage. This helps you build or retain muscle while being in a caloric deficit. Third, carbohydrates help promote satiety on a fat loss plan, especially if your diet stresses in slow-digesting complex carbs. Lastly, carbohydrates promote neurotransmitters in your brain that helps you sleep at night. This is a great thing since sleep is important for your hormonal functioning.
Fat Loss vs Weight Loss
People tend to use the terms weight loss and fat loss interchangeably. There is a difference between the two. When some people focus on weight loss and they see the scale going down quickly, they automatically equate it to fat loss. It is possible to lose weight and not lose fat even though you’re in a caloric deficit. If you are in too big of a caloric deficit, not strength training, not getting in sufficient protein, not maintaining functional hormones, and doing too much cardio, you could be losing more lean body mass than body fat. You don’t want that to happen, because your metabolism will decline and your physique won’t look as good after you lose the weight. You would look like a smaller version of yourself with not much muscle definition. Fat loss should be treated as a slow process, but depending on the individual and how high their body fat percentage is, some people can lose fat at a faster rate than others. People with significantly high body fat percentages can lose weight in the form of pure body fat and water just by virtue of reducing their calories to a large degree. When your body has more fat to tap into for energy, you are not at risk for muscle loss despite being in a large energy deficit.
The Best Macronutrient Ratio
The best macronutrient ratio for fat loss is more of a balance. For example, if you are a 160-pound female cutting on 1600 calories per day, your macros would look like 25% – 30% of calories from protein, 30% of calories from fat, and 40-45% of calories from carbohydrates. The exact ratio of macros will be dependent on the protein needs of the individual. We will discuss protein more in depth in a later article. Truth be told, you don’t have to track all three macros meticulously. The most important thing for your fat loss diet is making sure your calories and protein needs are met. You don’t have to track fats and carbs. They will fall into place. However, you should make sure you are eating fats and carbs in your diet, but you don’t need to track them to the degree you need to track protein.
Tracking Macronutrients Gives you more Dietary Freedom
Dieting should not be a miserable experience. If you have your calories and macros accounted for, you can still eat the foods you love and get the body you want. It is advantageous to make sure your diet stresses in healthy foods you in enjoy eating, but you can still fit in some pleasurable junk foods daily. A good rule of thumb is your diet should be roughly 75%-80% healthy minimally processed foods and the other 20% – 25% should be the junk foods you can eat with discipline. If you pair this strategy with an intermittent fasting plan, you get even more dietary freedom. You don’t necessarily have to eat small portion size meals throughout the day. You can condense your diet into 1 or 2 large meals a day and a little dessert at night.
Conclusion
We can’t only focus on a caloric deficit for body recomposition because the weight we lose may not necessarily be healthy weight. We still must make sure sufficient macronutrient intake especially protein is accounted for. Good macros are essential for us to maintain our lean body mass, training performance, satiety, hormonal functions, and sleep. Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates all play different roles in our health and physique development. No one macro should be demonized.
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