Good morning community!
In the previous chapter we explained what the macronutrients are, today we are going to start setting them up according to their goal.

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By taking any diet, the percentage of the three macronutrients will change according to the target for which a certain dietary regime is followed.
For example, in a low-calorie diet aimed at fat loss, fat and carbohydrates should be limited in favor of proteins.
In addition to preferring the proteins, it is also important the timing with which the macronutrients are taken.
What does it mean? It would not make sense in a low-calorie diet, for example, to binge on carbohydrates and fats before going to bed, but rather slow-release proteins would be preferred to have support at night (low fat cheese, for example, having caseins, or slow-release proteins) and lose as little muscle tissue as possible.
In a diet of muscle building, it would be good to limit the fat to the minimum possible with an average amount of protein and a high amount of carbohydrates to support the great efforts made in the gym.

But let's give also some practical advices:

Macronutrient division on hypocaloric diet

• 45% of proteins, equally divided into 4/6 daily meals
• 30% carbohydrates mainly focused 2/3 hours before training and in the next meal after training
• 25% fats distributed equitably in the distant meals from the exercise.

Wich, on an hypothetical diet of 2000 kcal lead to:

• 225 grams of proteins
• 150 grams of carbohydrates
• 55 grams of fats

Macronutrient division on hypercaloric diet

• 35% of proteins , equally divided into 4/6 daily meals
• 55% carbohydrates divided equally in all meals, with more quantities before and after workout in the gym
• 10% fats distributed equally in all meals

Wich, on an hypothetical diet of 2000 kcal lead to:

• 175 grams of proteins
• 275 grams of carbohydrates
• 22 grams of fats

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How to decide how much calories to take?

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First of all, we should calculate our basal metabolism, that is, how many calories we consume with normal daily activities.
For the lazy ones, the most famous formula is this:

Basal metabolism in kcal = 66.47 + (13.71 * weight in kg) + (5.03 * height in cm) - (6.78 * age in years).
The formula is approximate because each person is different, I suggest adjusting to a certain number of calories and tracking changes in the weight balance by editing kcal (week to week) to stay stable with weight. If you climb it means you are in surplus, if you go down it means that you are in deficit.

Once your basal metabolism has been discovered (ie remaining stable with the total weight of kcal), try to increase or decrease by 10% your caloric intake (according to your goal), trying to gain/lose around 200/300 grams x week of bodyweight.
An higher increase / decrease will result in greater loss of muscle in hypo-calorie and a greater accumulation of fat in hypercalorie at the expense of the muscle.
One advice, if you want to monitor calories and macronutrients, I use a very well-done app that is called Myfitnesspal

photo source

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Even for today is all, I hope the macronutrient chapter is a bit clearer. In the next chapter we will find out how to set up a basic workout at the gym.
See you on the next episode!

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