Macros Explained: A Beginner’s Guide

What do you need macros explained for, you say?

Well, if you’ve been around fitness people long enough or online where fitness shit is discussed (or more like argued, if we’re being honest), chances are high you’ve come across the term “macros”. Upon hearing that word, chances are even higher that you’ve scratched your head in wonderment at what the fuck automated keyboard commands have to do with anything.

While I wouldn’t make the same mistake because I’m smarter than that, it’s completely understandable to think of programmable patterns when the term “macros” is used. In regard to fitness, however, the use of “macros” refers to macronutrients and they’re what you should concern yourself with if you want to make much needed changes to that body of yours, as I’m about to explain.

What are macronutrients?

Well, they’re…ummmmm…nutrients that have…ummmmm…great significance on our diet.

Word context clues, people!

More specifically, macronutrients are the nutrients needed in large amounts to balance our hormones and keep our energy levels high. Their consumption in the proper amounts also makes sure that we actually burn fat and gain muscle (or don’t lose it). These nutrients include protein, carbohydrates, and fat, all obtained from food. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them before but yeah, protein, carbohydrates, and fat are examples of the different types of macronutrients. Macros, as they’re known in the biz, each play an integral role in your developing a body to die for.¹

At this point we should discuss each macro, but we’re not going to because something else necessitates coverage before doing so.²

That special something we must first understand is what muscle is and what it does.

Only once understanding muscle can we break down each macro and understand why they’re so important for reaching our desired health and appearance.

Skeletal tissue is one of three types of muscle tissue in the body, the others are cardiac and smooth tissue. We don’t care about those two because their control is largely out of our hands and they don’t play as big a role, if any, in our cosmetics as much as skeletal tissue does.

Being what people mean when they talk about “muscle”, skeletal tissue is organized into bundles of long, striated cells called muscle fibers. These muscle cells are responsible for posture and support, as well as the movement of our bones.

Additionally, as every gym brah knows, it’s thanks to muscle that they can have bulging biceps, flaring lats, a barrel chest, and tree trunk legs — if gym brahs actually trained legs, that is!

While gym brahs know about the many wondrous ways that muscle helps compensate for their lack of personality, low self-esteem, baby dick size, and other shortcomings (see what I did there?), many of the opposite sex miss that adding muscle is what’ll give them the curves and booty they desperately want but don’t weight train hard enough for because they think they have dormant mutant genes that are going to turn them into Schwarzenegger in drag if they even look at a heavy dumbbell!³

Muscle also serves the vital function of heat production, an act that helps the body burn even at rest. We can see how big of a deal this is just by considering that a pound of muscle burns 14 calories a day while a pound of fat burns 2-3 calories. Now consider that muscle burns those 14 calories even when you’ve been glued to your TV all football Sunday rooting for teams and players that don’t give a fuck about you — instead of you…hmmmm…using that time to do something more constructive with your family. Yeah, that’s right. Muscle whoops fat’s fat ass in calorie burning!

As we see, there are a handful of reasons why building muscle and preventing its loss are of paramount importance. Keeping this in mind, let’s turn our attention to the three macronutrients and how they factor into the loss or retention of our highly prized muscle.

PROTEIN

Protein, or amino acid, is generally thought of as just the building block of muscle. Leaving it at that severely undersells how large of an impact protein has on the entire human body.

In all fairness to it, protein is involved in nearly all the biological processes that are key to survival and proper functioning, from the synthesis of enzymes, hormones, and proteins that make up the skin, eyes, bones, and most of the body’s other solid matter; to giving cells their structure; to nutrient transporting and storage; to even acting as a source of energy.⁴

Broken down into amino acids from animal-based products, protein should be a part of any diet in order to supply the body with an adequate stream of essential and non-essential amino acids, which are necessary to keep the body in an anabolic, or muscle-building, environment so muscle protein synthesis can occur.⁵ Sources of protein-rich foods include beef, chicken, fish, dairy and, less preferably, protein powder.

CARBOHYDRATES

The body’s primary source of fuel is carbs, which it breaks down into glucose and stores as glycogen in the liver and muscle cells. What’s unused as energy gets stored in reserve as fat for the body’s future needs.

There are two kinds of carbs: complex and simple.

Complex carbs are long chain sugar molecules that are rich in fiber and keep you feeling fuller longer.⁶ Complex carbs also provide long-term energy due to their high fiber content causing them to digest much slower than simple carbs, which are made of significantly less sugar molecules and quickly break down into the bloodstream for immediate energy.⁷⁸

A diet too high in carbs can lead to the excess stored as body fat. For some this isn’t a problem because they’ll just burn off the stored fat later. But for others who are sedentary or respond poorly to insulin, the fat gets stored in the hard to lose places around the abdominal organs (e.g. liver, pancreas, kidney), producing the dreaded “love handles” that are giving you that beer belly or muffin top look.⁹

A diet too low in carbs can have you draggin’ ass in the gym, meaning that you won’t have enough energy to push yourself hard during your training sessions. On top of that, you also won’t be able to go about your daily business without turning into a sourpuss because you have no energy to be that delightful puddin’ pop everyone’s grown to know and love (or at least pretend to). Moreover, with the body deprived of carbs to power itself and due to the soon discussed role that fat plays, the body is more likely to become catabolic. What does that word mean? It’s a fancy schmancy way of saying that the body breaks down lean tissue, or muscle, for its fuel needs.¹⁰

DIETARY FAT

As was said in the previous section, unused glycogen gets stored as fat for later use as energy. Other than serving as a power source, fat also provides insulation and offers protection for the inner organs. Almost everyone knows this about fat. What may be lost is that fat helps the body absorb vitamins and is essential for proper hormone and brain function. Fat also helps cushion the joints, which is important as you begin lifting heavier weight, something you HAVE to do in order to build that body fat burning doohickey called “muscle”.

Dietary fat comes in different varieties, none of which I’m getting into here.¹¹ Just know that fat is primarily found in meat, dairy, fish, nuts, and oils. Also know that if you eat too much fat then…

*drum roll*

…you won’t get fat!

Well, not necessarily.

Fat doesn’t make you fat. But like eating too much of anything else, what you don’t burn off gets stored for future purposes as body fat.

As for a diet deficient in fat, a spate of issues arise. Hormone imbalances, insulin resistance, poor cognitive performance, heart problems, and mood disorders are just a few of the things brought on by inadequate fat consumption, explaining why the body isn’t too keen on letting go of it!

This primer is nothing more than macros for beginners. Thanks to it, you should now have a better understanding of the functions of macronutrients. And the sources of macronutrients. And why I’ve typed out “macronutrients” so many times when I didn’t really have to or “macros” would’ve done as good of a job.¹²

So what comes next is me telling you all you have to do to make the much needed changes to that body of yours is eat a diet consisting of the right ratio of fat, protein, and carbohydrates.¹³

After I tell you that, next comes me telling you that once you know what that right ratio is, you can follow something like If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM), a dietary strategy that doesn’t forbid any food or food group but instead allows the eating of anything as long as it fits one’s daily macro targets. Yeah, ANYTHING!!!¹⁴

And then after you tell me that, next comes you telling me the figuring out my macros part!

Look at you, ahead of the curve!

So how do you figure out your macros? Well, you figure them out with math!

What’s the right ratio for you? That’s up to you to calculate, player!

If you’re having difficulty reading between the lines, I’m giving you the brushoff because this article is long enough already and, unlike you apparently, I have a life and other things to do!¹⁵

Glossary: biceps, calories, chest, diet, dietary fat, dumbbell, fitness, glucose, gym, hormones, lats, muscle, muscle tone

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Monster Longe

Monster Longe is a personal trainer in San Diego. He has been lifting weights for +25 years and training clients in the gym and online for about half of that time. When not working with clients or making content that's easy to read, understand, and apply to everyday life, he enjoys long walks and leaving buildings crushed and entire city blocks decimated in his wake.

Macros Explained: A Beginner’s Guide

PROTEIN

CARBOHYDRATES

DIETARY FAT

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