What are macronutrients?

There are three macronutrients — protein, fat, and carbohydrates. These macronutrients make up the calories in our food. Alcohol also contributes to calories. However, it is not considered a macronutrient because it is not required in our diet.

By understanding the purpose of each macronutrient and how much we need, you can plan your short-term and long-term nutrition goals.

Where are the macronutrients located on a nutrition label?

Nutrition label with arrows pointing to protein, fats, and carbohydrates

Protein

Protein has 4 calories per gram

Amino Acids

Protein provides your body with amino acids. Amino acids are also known as “the building blocks of muscle”. At a high level, they are essential to build and maintain muscle mass. There are 22 total amino acids, but there are 9 essential amino acids that our body cannot produce on its own: 1

  • Histidine
  • Isoleucine
  • Leucine
  • Lysine
  • Methionine
  • Phenylalanine
  • Threonine
  • Tryptophan
  • Valine

You can get these either through normal protein intake or you can use an amino acid supplement. Take a look at our article on EAA calories for more information about how these supplements directly contribute to your calorie and protein goals.

Incomplete vs. Complete Protein

You may hear proteins referred to as “complete” or “incomplete”, especially in the case of plant-based proteins. A complete protein has all 9 essential amino acids in adequate proportions. Many plant-based protein sources have a couple of EAAs that are very low or missing for their portion of the amino acid profile. So, they could be classified as “incomplete” proteins.

Improving Amino Acid Profile

Your body stores up the amino acids that you get from the proteins you eat throughout the day, and collects them into what can be thought of as a pool of amino acids. Your muscles can then use amino acids from this pool as necessary. Eating enough diverse protein every day will ensure that you always have enough of all the different essential amino acids for your muscles to use. Typically, if you are in a caloric maintenance or surplus, you will get plenty of these without any extra effort. However, those eating plant-based, especially those in a caloric deficit, could benefit from using an EAA supplement. It can help increase any lacking amino acids throughout the day.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram

Dietary carbohydrates are “conditionally essential” for human survival. This means that they are not required by most people in our diet. There are some genetic conditions that make the intake of dietary carbs necessary though. 2 For the rest of the population, the human body can make all that it needs to live on its own. Aiming for the bare minimum for survival isn’t exactly a lofty goal. Almost everybody should still eat carbs.

Types of Carbs

There are three main types of carbohydrates:

  • Sugars
    • Simple carbohydrate
    • Typically, in the form of glucose or fructose in food
  • Starches
    • Complex carbohydrate
  • Fiber
    • Complex carbohydrate

Glucose

When digested, carbohydrates are broken down into sugar molecules called glucose.3 Cells in your body use glucose for energy. Fiber is the exception here because most fiber cannot be broken down by the human body. This broken down glucose is then stored in the muscles and liver, and to a much lesser extent, some other organs. It’s stored in a form called glycogen.4

Glycogen

You can think of storing glycogen as charging up your body’s glucose battery. When the glucose in your bloodstream gets low, the liver releases glycogen stores into the bloodstream. This makes glucose available for your body to use.

About 75% of your stored glycogen is in your muscles. Muscles typically use their own stores to function instead of using glucose from your bloodstream.5

Exercise will deplete muscle glycogen stores even faster. So, you will want to eat carbohydrates regularly to replenish these stores. This ensures that your muscles have plenty available to use when needed. This is also why you may read about endurance athletes “carb loading” before long duration or intense events. They are loading up their glycogen stores as much as possible before their event!

Fat

Fat has 9 calories per gram

At 9 calories per gram, fat is over twice as calorie dense as protein or carbs. The most common form of dietary fat that you will encounter is probably oil. The calories from oil can stack up fast, since just one tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. However, fat isn’t entirely detrimental; in fact, a healthy human requires it. Fat helps to protect your organs and promote healthy joints. It is also required for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin A, D, E, and K.

Types of Fat

Fats are made up of these four types:

  • Mono-unsaturated fats
  • Poly-unsaturated
  • Saturated fats
  • Trans fats

A Note on Trans Fats

Trans fats, in particular, serve no beneficial purpose, and you should entirely avoid them where possible. The health risks of this type of fat are much more clear than other types6. In the US, the FDA has actually banned the addition of trans fats to food.7 Small amounts of trans fats do occur naturally in some foods, but it is not enough to be concerning in this natural form. You will mostly come across concerning levels of trans fats in low-quality packaged and frozen foods, baked goods, and some fast food.

Fatty Acids

There are essential and non-essential fatty acids. In this article, we will focus on the two types of essential fatty acids. Your body cannot produce these on its own, so you must get them from your diet. These are Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids. On a plant-based diet, these come almost exclusively from various seeds, nuts, and oils. Tofu is a decent source of plant-based Omega-3 as well!8

A Note on Omega-3

Most plant-based sources of Omega-3 only provide them in a form called ALA. This form is not as easily used by the body as the forms from animal products, known as DHA and EPA. However, you can get vegan algae oil as a supplement, which will directly provide DHA and EPA from a plant source.

How to Use Macronutrients

Now that you understand how the body uses each macronutrient, it should be clear that any diet that extremely limits any macronutrient probably won’t be optimal for fitness or performance. There are some medical reasons that a doctor may instruct you to limit a macronutrient or some type of food. As always, if your doctors or other medical professionals give you an instruction, you should follow it.

For an otherwise healthy person, I wouldn’t recommend any diets or meal plans that are low-carb, low-fat, or low-protein. They aren’t necessary, and will introduce other problems like low energy levels and poor recovery. The key is getting healthy versions and levels of each of the macronutrients. So let’s talk about what that might look like in your plan.

Protein Usage

Discussions about protein goals/targets can get complicated because different types of targets are appropriate for people with different goals. For protein goals, I like to split people into two main groups: normal healthy people and people who want to optimize muscle mass.

Normal healthy people only need to hit the official recommended daily allowance for protein. This will prevent any potential medical issues that may arise from a legitimate protein deficiency. The RDA for protein is around 0.4g/lb (0.8g/kg) of body weight per day.9

People who want to optimize muscle mass will want to aim higher on protein. They should get around 0.8-1.2g/lb (1.6-2.2g/kg) per day.10 The low end is enough for almost everyone’s goals. So, don’t feel pressured to reach the top end of these ranges.

Lean body mass should be used here for the body weight number. Lean body mass refers to your total body weight minus the weight of your body fat. You can estimate your body fat percentage in a few different ways. A DEXA scan is probably the most accurate.

Protein is also the most satiating macronutrient.11 This means that it helps you feel full longer. As a side note, fiber and food volume are even more satiating than protein! You should try to get some protein with every meal to keep hunger at bay. This will also make it easier to hit your daily protein targets, instead of trying to fit your whole daily target into one or two meals.

If you truly want to optimize for a few more percentage points of muscle mass, try to get at least 20g of protein every 3–4 hours throughout the day.12 This helps trigger muscle protein synthesis, a process that builds and repairs muscle. This can be triggered a few times each day if you get enough protein in one dose. Protein timing is a small optimization in the grand scheme of things. It is far more important to hit your daily goal every day, regardless of timing throughout the day.

A Note on Vegan and Plant-Based Protein

The digestibility, bioavailability, and protein quality of vegan protein sources are widely debated. New studies are coming out all the time showing that plant-based proteins are nearly equivalent to animal proteins for the purposes of optimizing for muscle. However, until this science is settled, vegans and plant-based athletes may choose to increase their protein intake by 10-15% over the normal targets for omnivores. This helps make up for any gaps in amino acid profiles or bioavailability.

Example Case

A person at 200 lbs (90.7 kg) of body weight and 20% body fat would have a lean body mass of about 160 lbs (72.5 kg). Their protein target options would look like the following:

  • Normal healthy person: 60-80g per day
  • Person optimizing for muscle mass: 130-190g per day
  • Vegan optimizing for muscle mass: 150g-200g per day

Fat Usage

For a fat target, you will want to aim for somewhere around 0.3g-0.6g/lb (0.7-1.3g/kg) of body weight. You can adjust this to your preference depending on the types of foods you like to eat.

Example Case

Our previous example’s 200 lbs person would target 60-120g of fat per day.

A Note on Saturated Fat

Various health-oriented organizations have maximum intake recommendations for saturated fat. This is because of its links to heart disease. The ADA recommends keeping saturated fat to a maximum of 7% of daily calories. The USDA recommends a max of 10%.

For a 2000 calorie diet, this means you would not want to exceed saturated fats somewhere in the range of 16-23g. Ongoing research continues to examine saturated fat. It appears to indicate health risks from a high ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats in a diet.13 The most beneficial way to reduce saturated fats is to replace them with poly-unsaturated fats.

Carbohydrate Usage

After hitting your protein and fat targets for the daily intake, carbohydrates should make up the remainder of the calories in your calorie goal. There is no specific intake recommendation for carbs as a whole. But, there is a recommendation for fiber.

Fiber

Fiber is a carbohydrate, but your body does not digest most fiber. Because of this, it does not contribute to calories or glycogen stores. The official US dietary guidelines provide a good guideline for fiber intake. They recommend getting 25-35g per day. Fiber has many health benefits related to cholesterol and general heart health.14

In your calorie tracking app, you can enable “net carbs” mode. This mode helps you understand the carb intake that actually contributes to your calorie count.

Net Carbs = Total Carbs – Fiber

Low-carb or “keto” breads often have a high fiber content. This keeps the calories and net carbs very low.

Macro Cheat Sheet

Macronutrient infographic

Conclusion

Understanding and managing your intake of macronutrients — proteins, fats, and carbohydrates — is important to optimizing your progress on a fitness journey and a healthy lifestyle. Each macronutrient plays an essential role in our body’s function. They build muscle and store energy, protect organs, and aid in nutrient absorption.

Remember that individual needs may vary based on your health status, activity levels, and dietary preferences. It’s essential to aim for a varied diet rich in quality macronutrients. This ensures you’re meeting your body’s needs. Consult healthcare professionals for personalized advice. Ultimately, a well-informed approach to macronutrients can empower you to make choices that enhance your well-being. It can also support your long-term health and fitness aspirations.

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557845/ ↩︎
  2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32102704/ ↩︎
  3. https://medlineplus.gov/carbohydrates.html ↩︎
  4. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23509-glycogen ↩︎
  5. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23509-glycogen ↩︎
  6. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-cholesterol/in-depth/trans-fat/art-20046114# ↩︎
  7. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000786.htm ↩︎
  8. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/essential-fatty-acids#food-sources ↩︎
  9. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-much-protein-do-you-need-every-day-201506188096 ↩︎
  10. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/52/6/376 ↩︎
  11. https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)23664-3/fulltext ↩︎
  12. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23459753/ ↩︎
  13. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2950931/ ↩︎
  14. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8d0680bq ↩︎

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