In the Grand Scheme Of Fitness With Justin and Ethan

Macros 101: Your Gateway to Body Transformation

• Justin Schollard

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Confused about macronutrients? Wondering if counting macros is worth the effort or just another fitness industry buzzword? We're cutting through the noise to deliver straight facts about what macros actually are and when tracking them makes sense for your goals.

Macronutrients—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats—form the foundation of our nutrition, but understanding how they function in our bodies can transform your approach to eating. We establish a clear hierarchy of nutritional importance: calories reign supreme, protein serves as the right-hand man, while fats and carbs play supporting roles that can be adjusted based on your lifestyle and preferences.

Protein emerges as the star player for anyone interested in fitness, with research supporting intake between 0.5-1 gram per pound of body weight—significantly higher than government recommendations that merely prevent deficiency rather than optimize performance. We explain why protein deserves priority attention, particularly for those looking to change body composition or improve recovery.

The conversation gets particularly interesting when we tackle fat intake, the sneaky calorie source that can derail progress despite your best intentions. Even "healthy" foods like nuts, olive oil, and avocados can quickly push you over your calorie targets when consumed without awareness. We provide practical guidance on balancing fat intake without demonizing this essential macronutrient.

Perhaps most valuably, we offer perspective on who actually benefits from strict macro tracking versus who might do just fine with a simpler approach. The truth? About 80-90% of people can achieve remarkable results by simply managing calories and protein intake, without stressing over every gram of carbs and fat.

Ready to take control of your nutrition without unnecessary complexity? Join us for a conversation that will empower you with knowledge while keeping things practical, sustainable, and aligned with your real-life priorities.

Speaker 1:

We're talking about macronutrients. What are they? Who are they good for? Does it matter and in what context would it might make sense for somebody to take their nutrition protocol just a step further and dig into their macronutrient distribution. Hello everybody, welcome to episode 51 of in the grand scheme of fitness, formerly known as coaches corner and justin ethan. But you know we're in our year two now and we decided to do a little refresh on the name. What in the grand scheme of fitness just kind of feels fun and and um, a little kitschy, which you know we're always a fan of so so today we'll be talking about macronutrients.

Speaker 1:

What are they? Who are they good for? Does it matter, and in what context would it might make sense for somebody to take their nutrition protocol just a step further and dig into their macronutrient distribution.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't fit in my macros.

Speaker 1:

If it doesn't fit in your macros, then it ain't going to happen, right?

Speaker 1:

That's my motto, and that's it. You know, just to kind of kickstart this conversation off like we were doing some preamble here, kind of getting ready, and that was one of the things that just popped up to me is like I like macronutrient distributions loosely. There's some core, I think, like cornerstones that are important calories and proteins and then, like fats and carbs can kind of be more like what does today have in store for me? Or like what is? Is it the weekend or is it a dinner out? You know, but sometimes people are just too rigid with their macronutrient distribution and, um, you know, it's like. They're like maybe we're trying to have a dinner out or something, or we're trying to do something fun. They're like, oh, I'm already over my fats. It's like, yeah, but you're under on your calories, so who cares, you know?

Speaker 1:

and so, anyways, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but we're gonna kind of break into you know why one might want to use it, and I think we should start with just laying the foundation of just like, what are macronutrients A hundred percent, and what do they specifically do in our bodies, and then we can kind of maybe move into you know how to use it and what context it's good for Practices?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I mean. So often you hear people be like what are macros right? You know it's like yeah, so often you hear people be like what are macros Right? You know it's like yeah, so macros are just your macronutrients. They're just carbs, proteins and fats the primary nutrients we use for structuring our body and for energy, and they are the things that are also going to determine our body composition.

Speaker 1:

You are what you eat, folks, but not in the sense of like well, I guess kind of in the sense of like a burger and fries versus, like you know, chicken breast and rice.

Speaker 2:

We are what we eat in the truest sense of the term, but in this sense we're just going to think about, just like, the fundamental building blocks of our food and our body's utilization of them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so first up we got. Proteins is our, I would say, like the primary macronutrient, and no matter what style of dieting one may do, protein's always included. There's other ones that kind of may exclude other macros, but protein's kind of like the most important. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who would disagree with that, who is qualified, but protein. Obviously the sole purpose of protein is to build and maintain tissue Muscle of, of course, but other tissues as well. Not so great for energy production, not so great for hormone production, but damn fine for regenerating tissue. That we've broken down exactly. Um, what they say is that anywhere from like 0.5 grams to one gram is kind of like your window. Um, a lot of this depends on the person's body size, their, their appetite, like how, how well they uh get on board with eating protein. So like if we started, somebody yeah what their goals are.

Speaker 1:

You know, like you know, if you took someone who's 100 pounds and they want to put on muscle, probably wouldn't make much sense to put them on the lowest end of that spectrum, which is 0.5, because it's really not that hard to get 50 grams in. Yeah, I can do that in one meal, you know, right. Um, in that case they might want to be closer to one gram. But if you have someone who's 300 pounds, their goal is maybe just to maintain muscle tissue as they lose some weight, well then you know, 0.5 grams might make a lot more sense in that case. But some somewhere between 0.5 grams and a gram is what you want to shoot for. As far as your daily protein, like you can said, if the goal is more muscle hypertrophy, then you want to be kind of getting up closer to that 0.1 gram. But somewhere in that window you're probably going to be just fine.

Speaker 2:

A hundred percent and even for I mean, you know, I think there's also the understanding that the more weight loss is a goal, the higher your protein intake should be, because it's going to satiate you more. We have the thermogenic effect of protein, meaning 30% of the calories ingested go to just metabolizing the protein and it's going to help maintain lean muscle mass while you're in a caloric deficit. Hopefully you doing that in order to lose weight, and I also just want to remind people that when you look at maybe governmental recommendations of the daily protein requirements for a human being around 40, 50, 60 grams a day, depending on size that is to simply not die.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's just like to maintain your body.

Speaker 2:

That is literally the absolute bare minimum to not literally die.

Speaker 1:

Like the government, are not a bunch of sports scientists. No, no, it's 100% just the most.

Speaker 2:

So you know when we're talking about the extreme swing of. Oh, one document says 40 grams a day per human, versus we're asking you to eat 150 grams per day. Just remember, there's a very big difference between like holding on by a hair's worth of hope. Yeah, to not die based on protein requirement versus optimization.

Speaker 1:

Like do you want to just survive or do you want to thrive? Yes, 100%.

Speaker 2:

If you just want to survive, then sure you can just like eat 30, 40 grams of protein a day and you'll probably live no-transcript might just be an optimization of getting the most out of your workouts, like we're not necessarily talking about optimization of athleticism and being a pro athlete. Yeah, it's just you know.

Speaker 1:

So that's just thinking, and I think that like you know, what happens is, like ethan said, it is thermogenic, and so it's such a complex nutrient that it requires so much energy even to just digest itself that, like ethan said, a third of the calorie content and protein is is spent on just digesting the protein.

Speaker 1:

And so, and so it's a really great tool, if one is on a weight loss journey, to load up on proteins, because you get satiated, and we know that hunger management is one of the biggest hurdles people face when trying to lose weight is they're fucking hungry. And so if you can, like eat a ton, a shit ton, of lean protein and just have a full-ass stomach all the time, yeah well, it doesn't take a uh phd in in diet and uh uh in nutrition to to summarize that, like you're probably going to be uh much more consistent with your nutrition. So, anyways, so that's another big bonus of protein, but it come at. There is a point of diminishing return, like we said earlier, like if one is like 300 pounds, it's not realistic. You're going to eat 300 grams of protein a day. That's just probably not going to happen, right? And so, in that case, like don't be married to this idea that you have to eat one gram per pound, because that's what everybody on social media is saying.

Speaker 2:

Well, what is it? Because my understanding is one gram per pound is an easy shoot from the hip number for most individuals, but that it's technically one gram per pound for goal weight, and or 0.6, 0.7, 0.8 grams per total weight, depending on whatever.

Speaker 1:

Well, that depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to gain weight, then it just needs to be up.

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, but even then you look. So it's like if you're a 300-pound individual but your goal weight is 180 pounds, 180 grams of protein might be appropriate versus 300 grams of protein would just be absurd.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're not going to do that every day. You know what?

Speaker 2:

So I'd say there are different things, there are different ways to look at it, but more protein the better. Having a good chunk of protein in your diet is not going to hurt. I mean, I think you know, for most people, depending if you're not a very small individual that weighs 120 pounds or less, like 100 grams of protein minimum a day, totally.

Speaker 1:

And I think, even for most men, even, yeah, I was going to say I would say even for most individuals, no matter who they are.

Speaker 2:

I think if you just like hit 150 grams, which is a little bit of a mission, it's not like it's going to just happen without you thinking about it. But if just 90% of individuals, no matter where they're at, were to just hit 150 grams of protein every day, would probably get most of the results they're looking for 100%.

Speaker 1:

I mean like I've kind of realized that anywhere from 100 to 150, like, you're probably fine, even myself, like because we know that like 0.7 grams is kind of like the anabolic threshold. So 0.5 is fine If you're just starting out and you're hardly eating any protein at all and you're like French fries and pasta.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and like to try to get like a lean chicken breast in is like excruciating. Then you know what like. Maybe just to start, 0.5 is isa great place. Then you kind of want to inch up to 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, but uh, what we're finding just in the data and the research is like about 0.7, seems to be where you could probably put on some some good muscle mass, at about 0.7 grams and so so in real life terms, like like I'm 200 pounds, almost exactly, so that means that like that's like 140 grams it's not that crazy.

Speaker 1:

You know, like 140 grams um for a guy my size. Like anyone can do that, that's not crazy? A little attention 200 grams, like that takes effort, like that extra 60 grams, that's like a whole ass of their meal, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but but on the minimum threshold to kind of spur hypertrophy, 0.7 grams per pound, not hard, not hard to do and well and I don't want to get too lost in the weeds here, because so we're talking about macros and so again macronutrients protein, fats and carbohydrates, but those all summate to your total caloric intake for the day and those add up to your calorie targets, your calories calories for the day, and so you know.

Speaker 2:

I want to just bring back the truth that most people may or may not want to admit that carbs make you fat, yeah, but of course, just cut those carbs out, man, yeah. Well, okay, episode's over. I didn't want to release the big reveal? Get ahead. No, but we require a certain amount of energy a day, as any operating system of any type does, and if you overconsume energy, you're going to store that energy.

Speaker 1:

Have a surplus of energy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you have a surplus, your body is designed to store it, hence gaining weight, gaining body fat. And if you under-eat in those calories, you will start to dip into your reserves and lose body fat. So, fundamentally, there's just really no way around. There are many other factors, there are tons of other things that play into the gamut, but the most, the deepest cut is calories in, calories out. I don't care what anybody says, it's just, you can't escape the laws of thermodynamics.

Speaker 2:

We are an energy system and so, fundamentally, when we talk about macros, each of these nutrients of the three hold a certain caloric profile. They all add up to a total calorie of the day, and so you know, what prompted me to bring it back to this is when Justin talks about going from 140 calories of protein, or 140 grams, to 200 grams, that comes with a caloric baggage. Right, to add 60 grams of protein comes with a caloric baggage. And the, the, the, the. The game you got to play is choosing lean proteins, and so let's just, let's, let's do it real quick Carbohydrates four calories, perbohydrates four calories per gram, protein four calories per gram, and the infamous fat at nine calories per gram.

Speaker 2:

And so the idea being that in order to gain 60 calories or 60 grams of protein, you're going to add in calories, but oftentimes protein comes with fat, just the nature of the beast. Yes, the operative word is lean proteins. Yes, and that's why he said lean proteins. But even lean proteins will have some type of fat, and so the idea is that, as you try to reach a higher protein goal, you're inevitably going to probably include some type of fat calorie, unless you're just eating, like whey protein isolate all day, which is fine. But so just keeping in mind, like the, the, the larger umbrella over it all, depending on your goal, is going to be calories, and so when we're talking about macros, to me, I think about first and foremost is just understanding your energy requirements. How many?

Speaker 1:

calories do you need? Yeah, exactly, uh, exactly. And I think that, like if we were to create like a hierarchy of importance, at the end of the day, calories are king. It's the number. You want to gain weight, you gotta eat more than your body burns. If you want to lose weight, you gotta eat less than your body burns. Like but, but, but, but. Fundamentally, it's calories. It's as simple as that. Calories are king. Now you want to take it a step further Calories with a protein. So a calorie ceiling with a protein target.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I think that's why we kind of dove into the protein, because the calories are the utmost of importance, but the protein is second in command. It's the right-hand man.

Speaker 1:

Because you don't want to, just lose weight.

Speaker 2:

You want to lose fat? Yes, yes, you want to lose fat, yes, yes, most people, most people, don't want to lose a ton of muscle yeah, most people want to lose.

Speaker 1:

When they think about weight loss, they think about losing body fat. So how do we make sure that when we lose weight, that we're not just losing as much muscle as we are fat, protein?

Speaker 2:

protein and resistance training.

Speaker 1:

Yep, that's the number one thing protein up, like we talked about earlier, and then some good weight in your hand every week. Yeah, and that's how you keep the muscle mass on as you lose weight. So that's why I think 80 of the population could just simply go after a calorie and protein target and have amazing results yeah, I would agree like 90 90 of the.

Speaker 2:

The job is taken care of. If you were to do calories and protein and I was even in our little pre-show back and forth I was even saying that I find that clients that just pay attention to protein and put that in their sites often fall in line- because, it is a little bit of a mission. It's like trying to get 10,000 steps a day.

Speaker 1:

It's like a backdoor way of people hitting a calorie, keeping an eye on their calories and everything without having to say hey, you're counting calories now, right, because you're never gonna hit you.

Speaker 2:

realistically, depending if you don't have a dog or you don't have a certain kind of job, you're not gonna hit 10 000 steps unless you make it your, your choice. Yeah, unless you go on an afternoon walk or you do something intentional, the realistic situation is that you're not gonna hit 10 000 steps and so it's almost like protein is another way to think about that is like it's not that it's that hard to do, but unless you're paying attention, you're not going to hit a protein target, even if it's at a lower end. You've got to kind of pay some attention to it. You've got to try, you've got to put a little effort in there.

Speaker 1:

If we're telling you hey, you're 150. It can go either way. Let's say you're a 150-pound guy and you want to put on 20 pounds. You got to eat 150 grams of protein.

Speaker 1:

Let's say you're a 150-pound woman and you want to lose 20 pounds, you probably should eat 150 grams of protein, because they both function similarly in different directions. In the woman's case and I'm using gender because typically that's kind of the way it goes 150 pounds for a guy is typically a little bit smaller and whatever, that's kind of the way it goes 150 pounds for a guy is typically a little bit smaller and you know whatever. So but, um, you can send your hate mail to you know, uh, what are we called again? But uh, uh anyway. So because the thing is like, if, if, if you're 150 pounds, you want to lose 20 pounds, then eating 150 grams of protein a day is going to keep you nice and full and make sure that that muscle mass is staying on you as you lose weight and you're going to have the thermogenic effect of your calories.

Speaker 2:

Yep, it's almost a negative calorie If you're 150 pounds, you want to put on 20 pounds of muscle.

Speaker 1:

Now you're at least satisfying the rule of thumb of one gram per pound to give your body enough abundance of amino acids to then allocate them to new tissue.

Speaker 2:

So by just simply paying attention to protein and having to have to pay attention to your food, I find that a lot of time people fall in line and just we've talked about it before just the simple act of doing a food journal whether it's my fitness pal or a pen and paper or a notepad on your phone, just logging what you eat, tends to have a you know, an effect of self-regulation. Totally yeah, as soon as you start to pay attention, you start to self-regulate, whether you realize it or not, you got to know your numbers if you want to improve your numbers, yeah, and so I think, just by paying attention to protein alone.

Speaker 2:

I find that a lot of time people fall in line because they're making food choices that align for that and then all of a sudden, that meal is based off of this goal and then now this meal isn't just like a throwaway meal of pizza, it's like, oh, I should do xyz and get my protein requirement yeah, yeah, exactly, there's like a self-governing element of it, like okay if I have to backbone this one thing in there right, like everything else is built off of that totally and obviously there's opportunity to still overeat in calories.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying it's like some fail-proof situation, but I've definitely found that people that just pay attention to protein start to make leaps and bounds alone, even if they're not counting calories. And so again, you know. So the idea of macros. If you were to be super strict with that, you would dial in every gram.

Speaker 1:

You would have a protein target, you would have a carbohydrate target and then you have a fat target, and then what ends up happening is so there's two ways you can kind of go right. You can go calories and protein and not really worry about what a lot of people would consider swing macros, which are fats and carbs, because you know, depending on your week and your lifestyle, you can kind of interchange those.

Speaker 1:

And it's less impactful on your body composition than calories and proteins are, but that does require you to keep an eye on your calories and on your protein. Another way to do it, uh, which is what we're getting to now, is a full macronutrient distribution, and if, if, like this is probably like 10 to 20 percent of that would actually utilize use cases that would actually make sense to do, could do yeah, choose to do that.

Speaker 2:

Their life would actually be better. Exactly, have the goals for it. For it, we're not.

Speaker 1:

We're not all like justin, unfortunately I don't, to be honest, like I'm much more uh, protein and calories, to be honest, but I do tend to land more when I I don't even try. I'm not gonna worry if I, if I'm like not hitting those numbers. But it does tend to be that when I finish my mule log at the end of the day, my fats are always kind of somewhere between like 75 and 85 grams.

Speaker 2:

Well, to give context, this is also an individual that did do it strict for years, yeah, yeah, yeah, so like to give context, justin is being somewhat humble brag. No, he's, but in all truth he had the discipline to actually do full macronutrient for tracking many for about two straight years, two straight years, which is not an easy feat, so I got shredded, I'm not gonna lie like no shit fucking works.

Speaker 2:

But it's also at the same time he built habits and processes into his lifestyle that now him being a little looser still lands on target, and I think that the you know, one of the things I do want to kind of talk about all this is that, like counting macros in the truest sense isn't for everybody and realistically, I think, especially with nutrition like exercise, fuck it. I want to say everybody needs to get their ass in the gym do something.

Speaker 2:

There's no excuse. Three hours a week, I don't care if it's at home, I don't care if it's riding a mountain bike, just get your body moving calisthenics it doesn't matter, there's no excuse like you.

Speaker 2:

You, you can go on youtube and do a yoga class, yeah, for free, three times a week. I don't, I don't really care. To me, that's a, that's a, a barrier of entry that we all have access to. But nutrition is a little more difficult. It's tied to emotions. We have to deal with it hour in, hour out, every day. Circumstances play a little bit more of a role and but you know so, not everybody, I think, is cut out for macros, and I think there is a degree of that, as we've talked about so many times that, um, consistency is the number one most important, and if breaking again this is what we always go back to is like, whatever marginal benefit tracking your macronutrient distribution may have, it means nothing.

Speaker 1:

If that it becomes so overwhelmingly tedious for you that you quit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that you hate it right.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And we've talked about many times with intermittent fasting and other things.

Speaker 2:

There's lots of tools out there that can be used to play a part in how you regulate your calories and how you regulate your food intake, and I think that the understanding that they're tools and not the answer is one of the biggest things.

Speaker 2:

And I think that, no matter what, having some understanding of what your caloric intake is, what your protein goal should be, and then finding a tool that works for you whether it be intermittent fasting or eating one large meal for the day and snacks, or eating five meals throughout the day, or or figuring out how to order food from your favorite Uber Eats places to fit those things, it doesn't really matter, but that you just can't go in blind. And so I think for me, when I say macros, it's like the first step of personal responsibility is just knowing where, generally, your calorie target is, how much protein you should take in, and then from there, depending on your lifestyle and personality choices, figuring out where on the Batman belt of tools makes sense for you and it can change day to day based off of you know if you're going out to an Italian dinner with pasta and pizza, you know keeping your fat target totally regiment or intact might not make sense in that context.

Speaker 1:

But as long as you don't blow past the calorie ceiling and you're a little bit looser with your fats and your carbs, that's totally fine.

Speaker 2:

But somebody might not, you know. And again it just might even come to a place of hand measurements for portions. You know, I just think in the grand scheme of things I've just come to realize food In the grand scheme of fitness. In the grand scheme of fitness. I was trying not to say it.

Speaker 2:

That food is so tricky.

Speaker 2:

And again, it's all about the scale of where somebody can introduce changes.

Speaker 2:

Right, the example of if you drink soda, diet soda is better choice, sparkling flavored seltzer would be a better choice, water might be the best choice, but you know, on the scale of those things there's no right or wrong, it's just where can you actually implement change. And I think food I've just realized food is so tricky for people, myself included, you know. And so it's just one of those things that just at least having some understanding gives you some form of empowerment and that what macros are really saying is like do you understand the bottom line of what you, as an energy vessel, need and then choose to participate and dance with that? Because, realistically, you're listening to this with some type of goal in mind of losing weight, gaining muscle, being as fit or feeling as good as you can. And I think if you just have no understanding of how food plays into your body composition, which is probably the number one determinant of your health and metabolic disease, Like adipose fatty tissue is just the number one circumstance.

Speaker 2:

Is the just the number one circumstance? I mean, I was just watching this crazy meta study where they they took all these women and they fed one like 70 sugar in their diet and the other one's like 10 sugar, but they were still in a caloric deficit and basically all markers went down for both groups. It didn't matter. Didn't matter blood cholesterol, blood pressure. Everything went in the right direction, and so obesity is basically the the stepping stone to every disease.

Speaker 2:

Yes, like it's just like you, carrying extra weight, and so it's this understanding that knowing how to not gain extra weight means you have to know how many calories you're consuming and or what you need, and therefore developing some type of relationship with that understanding and even if you only do it once, but just because, because, to justin's point, like counting macros can be a bitch, like having a food scale like you, don't necessarily a lot of people don't want to be that person that pulls a food scale out at the restaurant or something of that. You know that's the most extreme. Yeah, I've heard stories of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean people take it way too far, you know. But but I think that, like, listen it, if it makes sense for you and your lifestyle, like, okay, let's go this way. Who would it make sense for? Maybe you're, just like, a very serious fitness enthusiast and you live a very regimented life anyways, and, um, you know, the occasional dinner out isn't enough of a deterant to make you not want to achieve your greatest potential, because, at the end of the day, if you do track your macros, you will get to your goals faster.

Speaker 2:

There's no doubt about that. It's the quickest route If you count gram for gram. If you're measuring every gram of protein, carbs and fats, then you're probably going to get to your goal a lot faster.

Speaker 1:

You're just then, you're gonna. You're probably gonna get to your goal a lot faster. And so if you, you know, like, like, what's crazy to me is just like you take an athlete, for example, and most of them just eat more or less okay, but so few are actually going to that level where if you're like a performance athlete man, you would, you would just be so much better if you did track your macros. Because what, what I'd like to get to is like we covered protein very well, I think, but now there's like carbohydrates and fats, and I think everybody kind of understands that carbs are more like energy. At this point, you know, like it's just your body's primary um go-to for energy production. Right, glucose is just boom, it goes in your system. I don't give a shit how fast it gets in your system. I don't give a shit how fast it gets in your bloodstream. I don't give a shit how much you know what. On the glycemic index some carbohydrates.

Speaker 1:

At the end of the day, like we got to give our body a little bit more credit than that. Like it's pretty sophisticated, it knows how to do it. Unless you have some sort of metabolic disease or you have, you know, insulin resistance will spike. That's a different conversation. Most of us don't need to be wearing a glucose monitor, so yeah and so you know, let's say, we have like our total calorie intake, which you know an average.

Speaker 1:

You know maintenance would be something like for women, maybe your body weight times 12 and for men, maybe somewhere between your body weight uh times 15 give or take, right, that's just an easy way to kind of land. So in my case I'd be about 3 000 calories a day would be maintenance, which is about right. So in my case, let's say I want I'm a performance athlete or I'm a bodybuilder or I'm a strength athlete or I'm just a really serious fitness enthusiast, and I want my macros tight. How I would do it for me would be to the one gram of protein per pound which we've already covered. So in my case that's 200 grams protein a day, easy peasy. We know that I'm going to stay at maintenance because I want to perform well, but I'm not looking to get any bigger, I'm not looking to get any smaller. So I'm just going to eat at maintenance. And in my case, my body weight times 15 leaves me around 3 000, 2900, 3100, somewhere around there. Let's just say 3 000 for easy math. So I know, of that 3000 calories, I gotta have 200 grams of protein every day and another macronutrient that, uh, we can certainly find point of diminishing return. Just like protein, anything over a gram, we hit a diminishing return.

Speaker 1:

On fats. The same way, anything over like kind of like 0.5, we really hit diminishing returns. Like your body can only use so much fat to like create hormones and stuff. Like it's just and in my I'd be a hundred grams of fat a day, it'd be 0.5 times my body weight. You know what I mean. So that's just too much. Somewhere like 0.4 is probably a little bit better. It's a lower end, maybe 0.3, but in that range somewhere. So in my case it's probably about 75, 80 grams of fat a day is really all I need.

Speaker 1:

And then so that leaves us with the last macronutrient, which is carbohydrates. They're carbies, and so I add up which you don't eat. I add up my yeah, which we all know are terrible and gonna kill everybody. So I take my proteins, which is 200 grams times four, which is 800 calories. I take my fats, which is 75 grams times nine, which is about 700 calories, and so I have, you know, a grand total of 1500 calories, but I'm trying to eat 3000. Well, that means I backfill the entire diet rest of my calorie intake from carbohydrates which my people might go what? Yes, that is probably going to be about 300 to 400 grams of carbs a day, which people say hard, but are you?

Speaker 1:

going to just die of diabetes tomorrow. Yeah, turns out that's maintenance calories. For me it doesn't matter, and if you're training and if you're creating that channel for your body to metabolize those calories, it's all relative folks.

Speaker 2:

If you're a couch potato.

Speaker 1:

Do you want to be eating 400 calories or 400 grams of carbs a day? Probably not. If you're training every week and playing sports and active as hell, then that's nothing, that's fine, it's nothing. And so that's how you want to look at. If we were to do a full macronutrient distribution, proteins have a point of diminishing returns after one gram per pound. Fats have a point of diminishing return after 0.5 grams per pound. So once you've kind of met those two things, the only macronutrient left, folks, is carbohydrates, and that's what fills in the entire back end of your macronutrient distribution. So that's how one could land on their macros, which then in turn informs their calorie intake.

Speaker 2:

But I think the biggest thing again when we talk about calories are supreme top of the mountain is that in the end that's going to determine the most. Hence the study I just talked about where people are eating tons of the mountain is that it's in the end that's going to determine the most. Hence the study I just talked about where people are eating tons of sugar. Yeah, you know, it's, I think, even if you're not exercising.

Speaker 2:

I think that fundamentally, outside of genetic predetermines towards diabetes or pre-diabetes because we can't take away genetic factors into people's outcomes in their lives it just is what it is Right. But outside of that, there is just going to be the fact that if you overeat the calories, that's going to be the biggest thing. And you know, to what Jess was saying earlier, it's that, like outside of the protein, the energy sources of fat or protein aren't going to matter the most, but that fundamentally, for optimal living in any capacity, that the fat is going to have that ceiling. And then carbohydrates are the game that you can kind of play with yeah and like you could.

Speaker 1:

just a super simple way to like guarantee body composition throughout the year is you fix your protein and fix your fat intake. So let's say you fix your protein and fix your fat intake. So let's say you get your body weight kind of like more or less where you want it, like yeah yeah, think about it.

Speaker 2:

Think about it like let's say you're you know, on a numbers sense I think it's just a danger.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, but like if we're talking about someone who's interested in macronutrients right, yeah, of course.

Speaker 1:

Then you could potentially like what. What could work very well is like okay, I, I'm only like, it's just easy for me to hit 150 grams of protein a day. I'm just going to lock it in, fine, for 80% of people that's totally cool, it's doable. And then I'm just going to lock in, you know, 70 grams of fat, because whether I'm 220 pounds or 180 pounds, 70 grams of fat is still in that range, fine, cool. And then throughout the year you can just kind of throttle carbohydrate up and down. So maybe you want to bulk up, you can bring up your carbohydrates until you're in a calorie surplus and then after three, four months of that, you can throttle carbs down and bring it into a little bit of calorie deficit without even having to touch fats and proteins yeah again, and I think that that's just.

Speaker 2:

I'm just thinking about general population.

Speaker 1:

I just think about you, know it's just so that's just cause it's it's.

Speaker 2:

It's very easy to say keep your fats the same and just eat plain white rice. To increase your carbohydrate, just eat a plain tortilla. You know what I mean. Like the, the ability to increase 200 grams of carbohydrate in your diet without increasing fat is extremely difficult, and it's just one of those things that yeah, listen.

Speaker 1:

I mean listen obviously like if you have, if you if you're eating, uh, you know, um oatmeal that has fat in it, for example, like a little bit, and yeah that that still goes into the total amount of fat.

Speaker 1:

It's not like you just like always have the exact same stick of butter in your eggs. You know like you obviously have to make adjustments, but you know, just like, because there is points of diminishing returns from proteins and fats, then carbs are the are like sort of the throttle that you can go up and down on. Depending on that. You know goal phase For sure.

Speaker 2:

Let me, let me. Let me rephrase it for the the, the more normal man who hasn't counted every single macronutrient for two years. What?

Speaker 1:

You call yourself a man.

Speaker 2:

Is that fats tend to be the tricky thing? Yeah, they tend to they tend to be the sneaky sneaky beast in there. You know, we've talked about in a previous episode where most carbohydrates tend to come with fat. So if you eat a bag of chips, yes, it's potato, but it's fried in fat. Most people eat popcorn with butter. Most people eat potato with butter and sour cream.

Speaker 2:

It's very rare that you get a isolated carbohydrate source that doesn't have a fat. The other tricky thing is that proteins tend to come with fats, especially animal proteins, but even tofu tends to carry a lot of fat. You know, like tofu being one of the cliche protein substitutes for a non meat eater, there's a fair amount of fat in tofu, and so I think the thing that's just just to be aware of for those that might not be in the full count the gram world, is to just be aware that fat is kind of like the, the secret enemy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's real sneaky, it's real sneaky, and just from a caloric standpoint, fats are great. As justin said, we need them for hormone production. We need cholesterol for our hormones. There's all types of things that fats are necessary for. If you ever watched the, the show alone where people survive out in the wild. They want fats, they want fats, they actually can't. If they only have lean protein, they will die.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, you get protein poisoning. You get protein poisoning.

Speaker 2:

So fats are not. It's not that we're demonizing or I'm demonizing or that fats are bad. It's just that they're so calorically dense.

Speaker 1:

They're so easy to get and they're so calorically dense and we know that calories are king.

Speaker 2:

And so if you're not paying attention.

Speaker 1:

That's how it kind of backs into it becoming a problem, and so that's why, like, I'm still getting 70 to 80 grams of fat a day and every fat source I have at this point in my life is low fat. So, like it's low fat cottage cheese, it's low fat sour creams, low fat cheeses, it's reduced fat mayonnaise, it's spray oil. I mean, like every, I purposefully make these decisions because even with that level of effort, I'm still right, smack dab in the middle of where I should be right and so if you go, if you have a normal day where it's full fat cheeses, full fat creams, full fat condiments, you know, even like an 80, 80, 20 ground beef.

Speaker 2:

It's, it's like just a regular ground beef.

Speaker 1:

It's crazy you know it's 120 grams of fat. Oh yeah, you know but people eat 150.

Speaker 2:

If you eat any type of cheese, you're eating 150 grams of fat coming in easy. Yeah, so you know you really got to keep your eye on that fat, or else it's like yeah and it's just the hard truth, because, again, adipose fat tissue is going to be the number one disease creator had so much unchecked fats that there's just no room left for carbohydrates, and that carbohydrate deficit or that low carb is going to make you feel like lightheaded, and so it's like or even protein too.

Speaker 1:

You just got room for nothing you got room for nothing, and so it's like, by keeping an eye on fats, gives you more space in your calorie allotment for carbohydrates, which are going to make you feel a little bit more energetic and sharp throughout the day, I mean it's like you know it's a good example is like if you were to like take like a classic bag of chips, you'd be surprised.

Speaker 2:

I have like 420 calories in them, right, they might have like 25 grams of carbohydrates, so that's like 100 calories versus carbohydrates. Now you have 300 plus calories of fat from the chips being fried in oil. If you're 130 or 40 pound woman who is on a 15 1400 calorie diet, you've just basically eaten a large majority of your calories from a simple bag of chips of your calories.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's like a quarter of your calories, you've gotten zero protein in, you've gotten 20 grams of carbs and you've just like loaded up on the fat, and so now it's just an easy example of how quickly those fats can just kind of sneak in there. It's like oh, I'm just gonna have a bag of chips. I'm driving home hungry, I have it.

Speaker 2:

or my kid's bag of chips is in the backseat of the car, or you know, you just went in to get a water and next thing, you know, because you're hungry, you get the bag of chips and all of a sudden you've just taken 25, 30 percent of your calories. I mean some, some, to use females as an example. Some females need to eat like 1300 calories. You know what I mean. So that's more than 25 of the calories that goes in a bag of chips. That doesn't satiate you.

Speaker 1:

You know this is like an any okay. So a bag of chips is like certainly like an example of where it can go like very wrong very quickly. But then, like I think the more common and frustrating part is when you think you're eating healthy. Because it's like I had, like, my mixed nuts, I had my cacao powder, I had my olive oil, in my salad, put a bunch of peanut butter or almond butter in my smoothie Sprinkled some feta cheese over my and it's like these are all healthy things and I agree they are.

Speaker 1:

But man oh man, do they stack up and you know you could turn like a regular 200, 300 calorie salad into like an 800 calorie salad real quick by adding all these, you know, oils and nuts and and cheeses on it, and so it's just like being conscious of that fat intake. And again, neither ethan or I are trying to say don't eat fats. Of course you get, you need fats, but you can plow through 100 to 150 grams of fat very easily in a day by with, with having good intentions of eating healthy, yeah, with not even eating like blocks of cheese 1500 calories.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, go go look at the pre-made salads from trader joe's, you know, and they have the calories before adding dressing. After adding dressing, yeah, and you look at it before it's like, oh, 120 calories. And then it's like, oh, you add, like the, the crunchy fried sesame sticks and the dressing and this and it, it's like 420 calories for this little bowl salad and you're just like that's not really. It just kind of gives you an insight real quick.

Speaker 1:

So you know, bottom line, guys, is like you need all three, I think you don't need carbs. It's important though, like unless there's some sort of metabolic issue, but like for the most part, like, determine your calorie intake. Calories first, you know um, depending on your goal. If you want to lose weight, you know 10 to 20 deficit. You want to gain weight, 10 surplus. That's really all you need, so your range really isn't even that crazy. If you think about it, you know you're looking at like a 20 to 30 range, whether you want to lose or gain, and so the margins are pretty small, actually, you know um.

Speaker 1:

And then from there, at least proteins right, at least at least the proteins and then, if after a while of that, if you for, for the curious and academic minded out there who want to just see what they're made of, there's nothing wrong with at least trying for a little bit and just seeing if you feel good. If you're training hard, you feel good, recovering, you got tons of energy like, oh, this is so much better. Then, you know, maybe a macronutrient distribution might make sense for you in that case. You know, you got anywhere from like 0.7 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. You got 0.3 to 0.5 grams of fat per pound of body weight anywhere in that range is fine. And then the back fill the remainder of your calories with carbs and voila, there is your macro nutrient distribution. Yeah, it's good stuff. Good stuff, team.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so that was 51 of in for the sake of fitness in the grand scheme of being in, you know, for the sake of fitness, we're we're considering it in the grand scheme the grand scheme of fitness.

Speaker 1:

We're considering in the same, in the grand scheme of fitness with justin and ethan. We'll check you all next week. Peace out, bye.