Back
Confused about which macro diet approach is best for weight loss? Should you be low carb, high fat, or high protein? The truth is, what works for one person doesn’t always work for everyone. Here is exactly how to determine the best macronutrients for your weight loss goals.
How Do You Determine Your Macros?
The easiest way to calculate your unique macro needs is by using a macro calculator.
Based on your calorie needs, fitness level, and other personal characteristics, you can roughly estimate how much of each macronutrient you should aim to get a day, and learn how to portion your food accordingly.
Calculate your perfect personalized macro goals!
Why Should You Follow a Macro Diet for Weight Loss?
In reality, you can lose weight on any diet as long as you stay in a consistent calorie deficit. Meaning the number of calories you eat each day is below your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
However, what you eat can make the weight loss process feel easier or harder.
Plus, the quality of your choices can strongly impact body composition - how much body fat and muscle mass you lose or maintain in the process.
Luckily, macronutrients solve a lot of these concerns all at once.
Macros are your calories from food organized into nutrient groups: protein, fat, and carbs. Each of which provides different health benefits and a different amount of calories (protein = 4 calories per gram, carbs = 4 calories per gram, and fat = 9 calories per gram).
Counting macros can help you lose weight, and a good macronutrient ratio can help you control your appetite, support energy levels, lose more body fat, and protect your lean mass while in a calorie deficit.
This means, you can potentially lose more fat, build muscle, and achieve better results overall with a macro diet compared to calorie control alone.
What Is the Best Macro Ratio for Fat Loss?
Each macro is used a little differently by the body, and understanding how each one supports your daily health and fitness needs is key:
- Carbs are your preferred source of quick energy, and excess carbs can be stored in your muscles for fuel or as body fat.
- Fat is your source of long-term energy, used as immediate fuel or stored as body fat.
- Protein is the builder macro, used to build and maintain a majority of the cells throughout your body, including your DNA, bones, and muscle mass - any excess protein can be used as energy or stored as body fat.
Find out how to properly meal prep with your macros in mind!
Counting Macros for Weight Loss
Knowing your macros is only half the battle, you’ve also got to organize your food choices accordingly. This means meal planning with nutritious foods that fit your macros.
How Many Carbs Do You Need to Lose Weight?
It feels like carbohydrate intake has become one of the most controversial topics when it comes to losing weight. For decades, health and nutrition experts have battled it out over low-fat and low-carb styles of eating for the best results. And in recent years, a keto-style diet has taken the low-carb approach even further by restricting them to less than 5% of your calories.
According to the US Dietary Guidelines, Carbohydrates should make up 45% to 65% of total calorie intake. But other popular diets recommended intake as low as 20g of carbohydrates per day.
Is there any proof that cutting carbs is an efficient way to lose weight, and how many carbs do we actually need?
First, as far as we know, weight loss is only accomplished by eating fewer calories than you burn each day. So the argument is not whether or not eating too many carbs will make you fat; it's whether or not eating fewer carbs can promote more body fat loss during a calorie deficit. And whether or not low-carb diets offer specific advantages over other macro diets for weight loss.
The truth is, there is plenty of research suggesting low-carb diets may be more beneficial than low fat. But there are also large, high-quality studies implying no difference between the two (1).
What we can take away from the science is that everyone is a little different when it comes to their dietary needs. We are in need of more individual approaches to dieting and more research, looking at what variables we should be guided by.
They type of carbs you choose is likely more important than the amount for most people.
Carbohydrates come from anything that grows out of the ground, including fruits and vegetables - and carbohydrates contribute fiber to the diet. They are the body's quickest and most efficient source of fuel and the only macro that is able to readily supply energy to the brain (ketones can also do this, but requires your body to go into a state of ketosis and metabolize fat into usable fuel).
They are also important for muscle recovery, endurance, and strength building. And they play a role in helping regulate our energy, mood, and self-control. Lack of carbs can actually make you "hangry," tried, and even create brain fog. And poor blood sugar control from too much added sugar and poor dietary choices can do the same thing.
Depending on your fitness level and personal goals, striving for low carb intake (less than 100g of carbs per day) may not be the best solution. But the less active you are, the fewer carbs your body needs.
Depending on your calorie level, you will want to eat roughly 30 to 60% of your calories from carbohydrates. Use this quiz to get your carb macros!
Carbohydrates are embraced in the athlete world. Macro timing and balance
| Higher Carb Foods | Low Carb Foods |
|
|
How Much Protein Do You Need to Lose Weight?
Protein is the most unique of all macros because it is not a preferred source of energy and is the least likely to be stored as body fat. Protein also helps maintain lean muscle takes more energy to digest (more thermogenic than the other macros), and is thought to help control hunger and reduce cravings.
Research continues to suggest that higher protein intake may support more weight loss, but the amount of protein you actually need is still widely debated. US Dietary Guidelines recommend 0.36 to 0.45 grams per pound of body weight - while others argue this amount is based on getting minimum adequate needs for the general population and does not take into account differences in body composition and fitness needs.
Some studies point to 0.45 to 0.55 grams/pound body weight as the minimum intake (2,3,4,5,6). And when looking at weight loss in specific, some studies argue that even higher protein intake at 0.6 to 0.72 grams/pound, and meals providing at least 25 to 30g of protein are associated with decreases in appetite and better weight management overall (7). Furthermore, studies looking at athletes who are cutting calories, suggest that intakes as high as 1 to 1.5 g/pound to minimize their loss of lean mass (8,9,10,11).
Overall, science suggests that approximately 0.6 to 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight with sufficient energy intake can support building lean mass while cutting calories.
And while some research still argues that eating more than 0.8 grams/pound does not result in any additional benefits, additional intake has not shown to be harmful either.
How Much Fat Should You Eat to Lose Weight?
Dietary fat is essential for good health, but because it is the most calorie-dense macro, it can also be easy to overdo it.
The amount of fat you need each day to lose weight ultimately depends on the person. Some people are much more efficient at utilizing fat for energy and do well on a higher-fat diet, while others prefer higher carb intake - this is partially determined by your fitness needs as well as your overall lean body mass.
For most, keeping your fat intake around 20% to 30% of your calories will support good health and provide an ideal macro ratio for fat loss.
The Verdict
Your perfect macros can depend on your individual goals, activity level, age, health, genetics, and much more.
For weight loss purposes, a moderate-fat (20% to 30% of calories), moderate-carb (30% to 40% of calories), and a high-protein diet (25% to 35% of calories) tend to work for most people.
It can also help to use a scaled approach if you are newer to dieting - cutting a bunch of carbs or jacking up your daily protein intake all of a sudden can feel pretty difficult at first. So if you are new to the process, start slowly and work your way towards your macro goals.
You can also hold yourself accountable, practice flexible dieting, and make sure you are hitting your goals using a macro-friendly tracking app.
An app does all the hard work for you, by automatically counting your macro intake as you log food. Plus, with a searchable database of millions of food items, you can get a handle on your intake even without a nutrition label.
Take this 2-minute quiz to get your personalized macros!
Receive expert advice on what to eat for weight loss, how to resist cravings, and how to set goals you'll stick to.
Get the Your Ultimate Macro Meal Prep Guide Today!
