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** THE COST OF MACROS **
Think of your diet like your spending budget. You wanna get the most value for your dollar... or in this case, the most filling meal for the least calories.
Key takeaways (I'll do this first for the TLDR factor):
- Protein doesn't store as body fat often. Excess mostly gets pooped out.
- Carbs burn quickly. But if paired with fats, will cause excess fat intake to be stored.
- Fats keep you full, but are high in calories. Excess fat is easily stored by the body, so keep an eye on this macro!
Protein:
This macronutrient requires the most energy for your body to process. It takes a long time for your body to break down and distribute it as needed.
It has the satiety of fat and is hard to overeat. In excess, it takes too much energy to convert this into stored fat, so the body would prefer to eliminate the excess (💩).
Its cost is high as far as the body is concerned and therefore should be treasured most amongst the other macros.
Fat:
Dietary fat requires minimal effort for the body to process and can be a long-lasting satiety tool. It's moderately-priced as the body sees it.
This comes at a cost though: as it is the most calorically-dense of the macros (twice as many calories per gram compared with the other two), it's overconsumption will come easily.
Fat's trap though, is that the excess is nearly an instantaneous 1-to-1 transition to store it with virtually no effort if there is excess. So be careful!
Carbohydrates:
Carbs are cheap and super clean-burning fuel. They burn off very quickly and will need to either be replenished or mixed with other macros to have sustained satiety.
Carbs cause energy spikes and increase insulin levels which will cause muscles to grow... and also your butt lol.
Watch how much fat you consume with carbs because - while the body will burn the carbs off right away, utilizing those calories first because they're cheaper - the more expensive fat will be stored as body fat from the insulin spike!
Diet Calendar Entries for 22 July 2019:
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1944 kcal
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Fat: 75.84g | Prot: 207.32g | Carb: 118.47g.
Breakfast: Valu Time 1% Low Fat Milk, Isernio's Premium Ground Chicken, Great Value Large White Grade A Eggs. Elevenses: Coffee (Brewed From Grounds), Nature's Best Isopure Original Creamy Vanilla Whey Protein Isolate, Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder. Lunch: Fiber One Oats & Chocolate Chewy Bars. Dinner: Granny Smith Apples, Beef, Hillshire Farm Polska Kielbasa (2 oz), Cooked Sauerkraut, Ocean Spray Diet Cranberry Juice, Isopure Zero Carb Whey Protein Isolate (Strawberries & Cream), Smucker's Sugar Free Strawberry Preserves, Daisy Low Fat 2% Small Curd Cottage Cheese. Supper: Extra Strength Melatonin Gummies, Dr. Tobias Triple Strength Omega 3 Fish Oil, Vitafusion MultiVites Gummy Vitamins. more...
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2223 kcal
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Activities & Exercise:
Cooking - 30 minutes, Resting - 6 hours, Sleeping - 5 hours and 30 minutes, Watching TV/Computer - 1 hour, Driving - 1 hour, Showering - 30 minutes, Bus Driving - 9 hours and 30 minutes. more...
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 Comments
Interesting. Food for thought.
22 Jul 19 by member: FullaBella
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22 Jul 19 by member: gz9gjg
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You still need a calorie surplus to gain fat even if fat and carbs are high, though. I mean, if you're at maintenance it's possible to lose muscle and gain fat if protein is low and there is no resistance training.
22 Jul 19 by member: -Diablo
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Yes! My favorite are carbs and protein. I feel protein maintains me satisfied
22 Jul 19 by member: rosio19
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22 Jul 19 by member: rosio19
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Also, protein is a potent stimulator of insulin. A 20-gram protein shake will spike it plenty post-workout.
22 Jul 19 by member: -Diablo
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Slight disagreement about excess protein being pooped out.
Protein is broken down to individual amino acids. Amino acids are carbohydrate fragments with an amino group attached. When more amino acids than required are ingested, the amino acid group is detached from the carb fragment, combined with another amino group to make urea. Urea is excreted by the kidneys. The carb fragments are combined to make new glucose molecules. This process is called gluconeogenesis. This glucose is handled like all other glucose molecules. It is burned for energy, converted to glycogen or stored as fat.
23 Jul 19 by member: Gail531
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Spot on, Gail. Any macro causing a surplus will cause weight gain even if it is in a roundabout way.
23 Jul 19 by member: -Diablo
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One of the first things when I arrived on the shores of FS Land was the idea of too much protein automatically turning to carbs. The Fear was tremendous. People were wigging about 70 grams per day. Never did find the source of the fear but at least it has abated to a degree. And yes, for those with maintenance in mind you can in fact gain fat and lose muscle when you do too little lifting and too much other stuff. Other stuff like walking/running. Or you eat too little and do much cardio with little or zero lifting. Great post Chris.
23 Jul 19 by member: Terrapin12
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Yep, recomping can happen in reverse. I've quit lifting over the winter months and kept eating either at maintenance or slightly above and have gotten soft and weak. The mirror showed obvious muscle loss and fat gain. I don't plan on ever letting that happen again.
23 Jul 19 by member: -Diablo
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This is very helpful and simply explained. Thanks for posting!
23 Jul 19 by member: kristineeb
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Nice simple explanation. Thank you for your clarity of thought. I recognize that there is lots of more complicated explanations available but for my purposes this is sufficient information!
23 Jul 19 by member: 59Carol
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How great that you put all this information out there. Thank you
23 Jul 19 by member: tatauu22
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Short, sweet and to the point—I likey! 👍🏻
23 Jul 19 by member: laraae
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Great info! Thank you for this!
23 Jul 19 by member: endya1
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