Macro-Nutrients Breakdown

Macro-nutrients, simply defined as: A type of food required in large amounts in the human diet.

There are three macro-nutrients:

•  Protein
• Carbohydrate
• Fat

While each macro nutrients provides calories, the amount of calories that each one varies.

• Protein = 4 calories per gram
• Carbohydrate = 4 calories per gram
• Fat = 9 calories per gram

So, now that we know that calories come from macronutrients, and how many calories each of these macro-nutrients provides, we can calculate how much they should contribute to your diet.

Macro-nutrients are commonly expressed in percentages and referred to as micro-nutrient ratios, or nutrient ratios. For example, they can be expressed as 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates, 20% fat. This can be simplified to as 40/40/20 and would equate to:

Percentage to grams

• 3294 (daily calories) x 0.40 (protein) / 4 (calories per gram) = 329.4 grams of protein

• 3294 (daily calories)  x 0.40 (protein)  / 4 (calories per gram)  = 329.4 grams of carbohydrate

• 3294 (daily calories)  x 0.20 (protein)  / 9 (calories per gram)  = 73.2 grams of fat
  
  

Grams to percentage (vice versa)

• (329.4 x 4) / 3294 x 100= 40%

• (329.4 x 4) / 3294 x 100 = 40%

• (73.2 x 9) / 3294 x 100 = 20%
  
  

So, for me to gain muscle and lose fat, I must consume 329.4 grams of protein, 329.4 grams of carbohydrate and 73.2 grams of fat in ONE day.

To break it down even further, if I eat 6 meals a day, then each meal will contain:

Calories per meal:

• 549 calories
  

Protein:

• 54 grams
• 219 calories
  

Carbohydrates:

• 54 grams  
• 219 calories
  

Fat:

• 12 grams
• 109 calories
  

Rough rule of thumb: 500 calories over maintenance is bulking, 500 calories below is cutting.

Note: your daily calorie needs will differ depending on sex, weight, height, age and your activity levels.

If you’re too lazy to calculate by hand, you can calculate your daily calorie needs with a calculator and as well as your macro-nutrients. Click Here :P

Well, hope that gave you a little insight on macro-nutrients. As a bodybuilder, it's important to consume the correct amount of nutrients in order to grow muscle mass. Though most of the time, I would guess how much I would have to eat. Not really effective. Anyway, I've started to measure my meals now. It's a pain having to measure and scale everything. :(

Stats:

Going to give this a try and will see how it turns out.

3294 calories
40/40/20