Hey (fit) girls and guys!

2015 has really been a great change for all of us. I mean.. a lot of people have tried superfoods, detoxes, we’re more active than ever, girls are doing Kayla Itsines or Ballet, or.. whatever. Guys are going to the gym, we’re all following healthy people, foodies and inspirational people on instagram… (Please don’t feel affected or upset if you don’t, I’m not saying that you have to ! )
And what I saw, was that a lot of health and fitness bloggers were talking about “Counting Macros”;
” Me and my love counting macros “, “If it fits my macros , I can eat it”, “2 Ice Cream’s because they fit my macros “.
All I was thinking was: What the Hack are macros ? So I figured it out, did some research… and today I’m going to tell you about macros 🙂

IIFYM – Flexible Diet

If It Fits Your Macros : Losing fat (& weight) by eating what you want.
IIFYM bascially means: if it fits your macro nutrients: the amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fat that your body needs, then you can eat it. At first you need to calculate how much your body needs and then you can find out what foods you’re going to eat, so that you have enough of everything on one day. This means you don’t have to eat broccoli and chicken with rice only. On the other hand: it doesn’t mean you can go overboard with sweets and delicious bad food, you also have to make sure that you’re getting enough vitamins and greens. The great thing about IIFYM is that you are free in what you want to eat, so no forbidden foods any more!

Calculate your Macros

BMR: Basal Metabolic Rate
This depends on your age, sex, weight and daily activities.
Women: 655 + (9,6 x weight in kg) + (1.8 x hight in cm) – (4,7 x age)
Men: 66 + (13,8 x weight in kg) + (5 x hight in cm) – (6,8 x age)

Now you know what your body needs, you’re going to calculate your activities.
How? Multiply your BMR with one of the next numbers:
1.2 : little or no activity
1.3 – 1.4 : light active
1.5 – 1.6 : moderate active
1.7 – 1.8 : really active
1.9 – 2.0 : Extremely active

Want to lose weight? Multiply the number that you just got with 10 – 20 % of the calories.
Want to gain weight? Add 10 – 20 % of the calories.

Little or no exercising for you?
Then you’ll need 0,8 proteins per kg. If you’re doing strength training,
then you’ll need 1.8 proteins per kg. So if you weight 55 kg and doing strength training, you’ll need 1.8 x 55,0 kg = 99 proteins

1 gram protein, contains 4 calories. So multiply those 99 with 4 and you’ll need: 396 calories.
An average person needs 1/2 gram fat per kg. So you’ll need 55,0 kg x 1 = 55 gram of fat.
1 gram of fat contains 9 calories, so you’ll take 55 x 9 = 495 calories out of fat.
Carbohydrates: your BMR + Activity – all of what you just calculated = the amount of calories that you’re “allowed” to eat.
1 gram carbohydrates contains 4 calories, so the allowed amount of calories divided by 4 = the amount of carbohydrates.

 © bodybuilding.com

The super handy app

If you don’t want to calculate it all yourself, then you could also use this app -or go to the website myfitnesspal.com– called “My Fitness Pal”. It’s a free app, that calculates all your macros for you. You can fill in all the things listed above and it will calculate how much you’ll need. Plus: you’ll have a food-diary and you can fill in what you ate (plus scan items with your phone, super easy!) and see if you had enough of everything (or too much)

It definitely takes a little work to fill it all in, everyday, but: you really get great insight in what you’re eating and what you should eat more.
I’m going to do this for a little while and see if it works for me and if I get enough macros or not… 😉

What about you? Did you hear about macros before and are you going to count them yourself too?