Do macros matter?

Keto! High carb! Cut out sugar!

Can you even keep up? We can’t either.

Overall, the only thing that matters to lose weight is eating less than you burn. Move more and eat less. Simple.

However, the one thing that matters most in a diet, is adherance, keeping to it. So changing your macronutrient ratios to suit the foods you prefer may be beneficial in the long run. You’ll naturally fall into one of the 3 macronutrient ratios.

You can eat a pizza a day and lose weight. You’ll be miserable, you’re body will feel horrible, but you’ll lose weight. So we need to make sure you’re eating the required amounts for a safe, functioning body.

So, let’s break down the 3 most common macronutrient breakdown, why they exist, the theory behind them and why they may be right for you.

Balanced diet. The general ratio for a balanced diet is

Keto. All the rage nowadays. Named after ketones, the alternate fuel source the body uses when carbohydrate intake is low (<10% of daily intake). Benefits include shedding a whole tonne of water weight (1g of water is stored with 1g of carb), making it seem like you’re losing a load of weight fast but in reality you’re just shedding water. However, moving past the usual trickery of shedding water weight, there are tremendous benefits, like improved cognitive function, improved fat burning and X. Example foods in the keto diet is more oil/butter, meat and nuts.

High carb. A cyclists best friend! High carb diets have repeatedly been shown to improve performance in endurance studies. This doesen’t mean binging out on sugar all the time, but instead focusing on consuming oats, pastas and breads.

We recommend on the high side of protein. There is a big debate about the amount of protein you should be eating, but for you, the reader, you are probably already on our 6 week challenge (if you’re not the link is here: X), and so you’ll be training 3x per week, so you’ll need the protein to recover from the workouts and make sure you’re ready for the next one.

High protein - 1g per pound of lean bodyweight/weight you’re aiming for in protein. Multiply this by 3 to work out how many calories you’re getting from protein. Minus this value from your daily intake to lose weight (see this calculator here to work this out: X). 1g per KG in fat. Multiply the fat by 9, and then have the rest in carbs.

FOR EXAMPLE:

I weigh 95kgs. I’m aiming for 90kgs. 90kgs is 200lbs. Therefore, 200 grams of protein (we know, it’s a lot, if you want to know why this is so important check out our post here: X)

I need to eat 3000kcals a day to lose weight as I’m extremely active. Therefore, I need to eat 3000-(200*3) = 2400kcals in fats and carbohydrate.

Due to my intense training schedule, I prefer to tend on the higher carb side. So I eat 100grams of fat a day, 2400-(100*9) = 1500kcals left for carbohydrate, which is 1500/3 = 500grams of carbs!

Overall: 3000kcals per day.

Protein - 200grams

Fats - 100grams

Carbohydrate - 500grams