Macros Vs Calories: What's More Important For Keto Success?

The keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb, and moderate-protein diet. It requires careful tracking of macronutrients (macros) to ensure the body enters a state of ketosis, where it burns fat for energy instead of glucose. While calories are important for weight loss, tracking macros is crucial for achieving ketosis and maximising the benefits of the keto diet. This involves monitoring the percentage of calories derived from carbohydrates, protein, and fat to ensure they fall within the desired ranges.

Counting calories vs. counting macros

Macros, or macronutrients, are the energy-supplying nutrients that the body needs in large quantities: fat, protein, and carbohydrates. They are the building blocks of your body that you get from food, and they directly convert into energy (or fuel) for your body. The calories in the meals that you eat all come from one of these three macronutrients. Each plays an essential role in your body.

Counting Calories

Counting calories will give you a general idea of how much energy you're taking in per day. Calories are a measure of energy, so they are important for weight loss. That's because if you eat more energy than you use, you will gain weight. However, it is important to note that not all calories are created equal. For example, protein burns more calories due to its thermic effect, and whole foods are generally better sources of calories than processed foods.

Counting Macros

Counting your macros lets you know how that energy is working in your body. For instance, if you count calories and restrict your energy intake, but the majority of those calories come from carbohydrates, you could be negatively impacting your blood sugar without realizing it. On the other hand, if you count your macros, you can ensure you are getting the right amount of fat, protein, and carbs each day. This ensures you are getting the building blocks you need, the fuel to support your cells, and adequate nourishment to keep your body going.

Macros and the Ketogenic Diet

The concept of macros is especially important on the keto diet. To enter a state of ketosis, you must limit carbohydrates. Therefore, tracking your macros can help you maintain ketosis and ensure you are following a high-fat, moderate-protein, very low-carb plan. This is important because precise intakes of macros lead to better results, including weight loss and body composition changes.

Takeaway

Whether your goal is fat loss, blood sugar regulation, or increasing lean muscle mass, macro counting can be a superb way to help you achieve your goals. With the added benefit of keeping you aware of the food groups you're consuming, counting macros is an excellent way to stay on track with an individualized approach to your body.

The importance of macros on the keto diet

The keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb, moderate-protein diet. It involves reducing your carb intake so that your body enters a state of ketosis, where it burns fat instead of glucose for energy. This can lead to weight loss and is also said to offer health benefits such as improved mental clarity, reduced food cravings and appetite, and better mood.

The keto diet is more than just another low-carb plan. It is important to track your macros or macronutrients (fat, protein, and carbohydrates) to ensure you are getting the right ratio and staying in ketosis. This is because the body normally burns glycogen (from carbohydrates) for fuel, but the keto diet encourages it to use byproducts of fat metabolism (ketones) for fuel instead.

The keto diet typically involves getting around 70-75% of your calories from fat, 20-30% from protein, and keeping your carb intake to 5-10% of your calories. This is where the concept of "counting macros" comes in.

Counting macros

Counting macros is important on the keto diet because it helps you get into a state of ketosis. Carbohydrates play a crucial role in energy metabolism, and as long as your blood has glucose from carbs to work with, it won't switch over into fat-burning mode. Therefore, to enter ketosis, you must limit carbohydrates.

Counting macros allows you to set yourself up to consume the right amount of fat, protein, and carbs each day, ensuring you get the necessary building blocks, fuel, and nourishment for your body.

Benefits of counting macros

In addition to helping you get into ketosis, there are several other benefits to counting macros:

• Personalization: Counting macros allows you to personalize your diet according to your age, activity level, and health status. For example, a weight lifter will have different protein needs than a software engineer.
• Enhanced diet quality: Counting macros encourages you to pay more attention to the quality of your diet and choose healthier options.
• Weight loss: While calories do play a role in weight loss, where those calories come from is also important. For example, switching out high-carb foods for protein-rich foods can help you feel more satisfied.
• Specific health conditions: Counting macros can be beneficial for managing certain health conditions, such as diabetes. Limiting carbohydrates can help keep blood sugar from spiking.

How to count macros

There are a few different ways to count macros:

• Use a macro calculator: You can use an online calculator to input your age, height, weight, gender, activity level, and body fat mass to find your optimal number of calories and macronutrient ratio.
• Know your nutrition labels: Read nutrition labels to find the breakdown of calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates per serving.
• Track your macros: You can use a notebook or app to track your macros and stay within your daily ranges.

Takeaway

Tracking your macros is essential on the keto diet to ensure you are getting the right ratio of fat, protein, and carbohydrates to stay in ketosis. Counting macros offers several benefits, including personalization, enhanced diet quality, weight loss, and management of specific health conditions.

How to count your macros

Counting your macros is an essential part of the keto diet. The term "macros" is short for macronutrients, which are the essential building blocks of your body that you get from food. They are also the part of your food that directly converts into energy for your body.

There are three types of macronutrients: fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Each plays an essential role in your body, and they all have different effects on your health and weight loss goals.

• Calculate your macros: Use a macro calculator to determine your optimal macro ratio. These calculators will take into account factors such as your age, height, weight, gender, activity level, and body fat mass. You can adjust your daily calorie needs based on your weight gain or loss goals.
• Understand your nutrition labels: Read the nutrition labels on food packaging to find the breakdown of calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrates per serving. This will help you make informed choices about the foods you eat and ensure they align with your macro goals.
• Create a meal plan: Formulate a meal plan to make staying within your macro ranges easier. Many recipes and meal plans are available online that already include the macronutrient breakdown, making it more convenient for you to plan and track your macros.
• Track your macros: Use a notebook, your phone, or a specialised app to track your macros throughout the day. This will help you stay accountable and make adjustments as needed.
• Adjust as needed: Everyone's body is different, and you may need to fine-tune your macro ratios to optimise your health and fitness goals. Play around with your macros and give yourself time to see what works best for your body.

Remember, while counting your macros is crucial, it's also important to focus on the quality of your diet. Choose healthy options like lean meats, vegetables, and healthy fats to ensure you're getting the right balance of nutrients while staying within your macro ranges.

Modified keto diets

The modified keto diet, also known as keto 2.0, is a less restrictive version of the traditional keto diet. While the traditional keto diet is defined by a strict macronutrient breakdown, the modified keto diet is more flexible.

The traditional keto diet recommends that 60-75% of total daily calories come from healthy fats, 15-30% from protein, and 5-10% from carbs. In contrast, the modified keto diet typically includes 50-55% of total daily calories from fat, 30-35% from protein, and 15-20% from carbs. This means that the modified keto diet allows for a higher proportion of carbs and protein, and a lower proportion of fat, compared to the traditional keto diet.

The modified keto diet is considered to be more sustainable and flexible than the traditional keto diet, as it allows for a higher daily carb intake. It is also thought to be healthier, as it encourages the consumption of more plant-based fats, lean proteins, and nutrient-rich foods. However, it is unlikely that the body will reach ketosis on the modified keto diet due to the higher proportion of carbs.

There are two variations of the modified keto diet: the cyclical keto diet (CKD) and the targeted keto diet (TKD). The CKD involves following a standard high-fat keto diet for five to six days and then switching to a high-carb, low-fat diet for one to two days. This approach is suitable for athletes who need to replenish their glycogen stores. The TKD is similar, but the additional carbs are consumed either before, after, or during a workout, making it a good option for fitness enthusiasts.

The importance of micronutrients

Micronutrients are essential to the body's daily functions, and a deficiency can have serious health consequences. While a balanced diet of whole foods should provide adequate amounts of most micronutrients, the ketogenic diet's restriction of high-carbohydrate foods like fruits, vegetables, and grains can make it challenging to obtain sufficient micronutrients.

The potential for micronutrient deficiency on a ketogenic diet is significant. Studies have shown that the ketogenic diet often provides sub-optimal levels of many micronutrients, and the serious adverse effects associated with prolonged use of the diet may be due to its reduced micronutrient content. Therefore, supplementation with vitamins and minerals or a focus on specific vitamin-rich foods is recommended.

• Thiamin (Vitamin B1): Found in salmon, liver, beef, mussels, nutritional yeast, pork, and trout. Thiamin deficiency can lead to neurological problems, heart issues, and metabolic disorders.
• Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5): Found in salmon, liver, eggs, chicken, turkey, trout, and sunflower seeds. While clinical deficiency is rare, it can adversely affect multiple body systems.
• Folate (Vitamin B9): Found in liver, asparagus, okra, spinach, collard greens, turnip greens, and broccoli. Folate is important for preventing neural tube defects, stroke, and certain cancers. Deficiency is associated with increased cancer risk and neurological disorders.
• Biotin (Vitamin B7): Found in beef liver, eggs, and salmon. Biotin is crucial during pregnancy for embryonic growth. Deficiency can cause hair loss, dermatitis, neuromuscular problems, lethargy, and depression.
• Vitamin D: Found in liver, eggs, fatty fish (such as herring, salmon, tuna, and sardines), cheese, butter, and some plant sources like shiitake mushrooms. Vitamin D is essential for bone health and muscle contraction. Deficiency can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.
• Vitamin E: Found in wheat germ oil, dry roasted sunflower seeds and almonds, sunflower oil, safflower oil, hazelnuts, peanut butter, spinach, and broccoli. Vitamin E acts as a biological antioxidant, protecting against the harmful effects of reactive oxygen species. Deficiency is rare but can cause skeletal muscle pain, anemia, and degenerative neurological problems.

In addition to these vitamins, it is important to ensure adequate intake of major minerals like calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, and sodium on a ketogenic diet.

Overall, while the ketogenic diet has gained popularity for weight loss and other health benefits, it is crucial to prioritize micronutrient intake to avoid potential deficiencies and adverse health effects.

Frequently asked questions