A Breakdown of Macronutrients and Why You Need Them
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I’m so tired of hearing people go on low carb diets, high fat diets, and even low fat diets. I’m so tired of people neglecting their protein intake. I’m also tired of seeing people neglecting a macronutrient thinking it’s going to be the BEST way to see results.
Most people do not understand the importance of consuming all three macronutrients – protein, fat, and carbs. They also don’t understand the damage they are doing to both their health and their results by neglecting one of the three.
That’s why in this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, I give you a breakdown of each macronutrient, what they are, the benefits of each, and what happens when you don’t consume enough of each, helping you understand why you need to nourish your body with enough of each macronutrient daily!
Get access to my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: www.macrocountingmadesimple.com
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, there beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go.
I am so tired hearing people going on low carb diets, high fat diets, low fat diets, low calorie diets. Summertime brings it all out. I am tired of people not understanding and neglecting the importance of in taking protein every day and how important that is. And I'm honestly just tired of people in general neglecting macronutrients, specific macronutrients, whether that's protein, carbs, and fats, all three or one of the three, thinking that one specific way is the best way to go. Honestly, most people don't understand the importance of consuming all three macronutrients and how each one of them plays a vital role in our health. And they all do different things and really neglecting one of them or all three of them can really impact the results. And so that's why in this podcast episode, I want to give you kind of a breakdown of each macronutrient. This is something that I wish I would've learned, especially in college and really getting into this I had no idea how to properly nourish my body.
And so that's why on this podcast, I really try to make episodes that are friendly for people who are just getting into this or people needing a refresher, or maybe you're confused. There is so much information, whether that's on Pinterest, that's on Google, that's on TikTok, on Instagram. There's conflicting information. There is conflicting viewpoints. And maybe you are just so confused and you don't know which route to go. If you are wanting to learn how to properly nourish your body, hands down, I'm telling you it's super important to nourish your body with enough of each macronutrient daily. I've heard this time and time again. Oh, counting macros is a diet. I completely 100% disagree. I believe that macro counting is a tool that can help you. And whether that is going into this and counting every single macronutrient to a T every day, if that's what you want to do, amazing.
If you just want to learn though how much your body needs, and then just start educating yourself and trying to at least at the very minimum, hit your protein intake and then let the overall calories be divided into carbs and fats. But it's really important that you are eating all three of them and that you are eating them in a balanced way. And so, I am a firm believer in macro counting. I have been doing it now for almost a decade, a little shy of a decade. And I'm telling you of course my approach to macro counting has changed dramatically since I first started it simply because I'm a lot more educated now on what meals and snacks and foods are comprised of macronutrients. I'm just very familiar with food. I'm very familiar with how much my body needs. I know how to do it.
I can do it like in my sleep because I've done it so much. I'm super educated on the protein, carbs, and fats in specific foods. And then I also on the flip side know what it feels like to have the energy, the vitality that comes from properly fueling my body. So if I ever am on low on energy or I'm feeling a certain way, it's typically drives back to am I properly fueling my body? That's the first thing that I always go to. Am I hydrating my body? And then kind of go from there, but I'm telling you guys, if you can just have a base knowledge of macro counting, it will transform your health. It truly will. So before I dive into today's episode, I wanted to share this super sweet review that comes from yapper7116.
She gave a 5 star review and said, "Keep shining bright dear one. As a woman in her 40s, counselor, life coach, and mother of a teenage girl, this podcast is relevant in pretty much every area of my life. Julie is an old soul who shares her own personal wisdom in such a relatable and intentional way. She really makes us feel connected and understood. I love listening to these podcasts while wandering in the desert and find so much inspiration, both personally and professionally. Thank you for sharing your bright light with all of us, Michelle Fraley."
Michelle, thank you so much. I love this so much. First of all, you sound like you are conquering it. My man, you are a counselor. You're a life coach. And you're a mom. I am so inspired by you. And I'm so grateful that this podcast has helped you. If you guys haven't already left a rating and review on Apple podcast, that is my one ask of you. If this podcast or any specific episodes have impacted you, I want to know about it. We want to know about it here. And all you have to do is type in Embrace Your Real to the podcast app on any Apple device. And then you'll be able to scroll all the way down to the bottom of that page. And you can leave your rating and review. If you do, please, please, please let us know, screenshot it, send it to us in a direct message on Instagram, whether that's on my personal page, JulieALedbetter or on the podcast page, Embrace Your Real. And we just love connecting with you. And we love hearing how this podcast is impacting you.
I appreciate you guys so much in advance. Now, let's dive into macronutrients and really the breakdown of each one. Macronutrient number one that I'm going to talk about is carbohydrates, AKA carbs. So carbohydrates are not just found in fruit, bread, pasta, muffins, and chips. They're actually found in a lot more foods that you might not even realize. For example, carbohydrates are in nuts, they're in vegetables, they're in sauces and dressings, most popular oak milk, which is very popular nowadays. And honestly so much more, a lot more foods, especially when I first started counting macros I didn't realize how many foods actually contained carbohydrates simply because I was led to believe that they were protein or whatever, based on the marketing. But I think this oftentimes leads people to overeating carbs because they're just unaware of what foods actually contain carbs.
Hence why I believe that tracking your food intake can be really helpful. It can show you where carbs are hiding in your daily intake. For reference, one gram of carbohydrates equals four calories. So if you eat something that is like 100% carbs with no fat and protein, and it contains 20 grams of carbs, that would equal 80 calories, right? 20 grams times four calories per of carb equals 80 calories. So that's how that kind of mathematical breakdown and trust me, I am not good at math. I've always been in like the lowest of the math classes. And so when I first got into macro counting, the biggest thing that I was scared about was, well, I'm not good at math, so I'm not going to be able to be good at this. And I'm telling you'll catch on really quickly. And there really isn't a lot of math involved, especially because we now have apps that do basically everything for us when it comes to calculating things, which is so nice.
And so you don't really have to worry about doing the specific math on paper, but back to carbohydrates. So carbs actually break into glucose, which is a form of sugar in your body. So glucose, AKA blood sugar is the main source of energy for your body cells, your tissues, your organs. Let me repeat that. Carbs are the main source of energy for your body, cells, tissues, and organs. Under the umbrella of carbs is fiber. So fiber is a complex carbohydrate. So when you hear about eating more fiber, you need to eat more fibrous carbohydrates. Your body cannot break down most fibers. So eating foods with fiber can help you feel full and make you less likely to overeat. Diets high in fiber also have many other health benefits. They can help prevent stomach or intestinal problems such as constipation. They may also help lower cholesterol or blood sugar.
And fiber is honestly found in so many foods as well. And this is something that I didn't know until I started tracking my food intake, just looking at these things and educating myself, but foods from plants, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains. Those are all very pretty high in fiber. If you want to learn more about fiber, I have a whole podcast episode about it. It's episode 51, are you eating enough fiber? I explain kind of what you might be missing in your daily food intake if you're always hungry. So I will go ahead and link that. And also I do talk about the effects of overeating fiber, because that's definitely something too, right? It's not just undereating fiber. If you overeat what your body needs in fiber, that can lead to feeling constipated. That can lead to feeling bloated. And so really finding that happy medium is really important.
So what are the benefits of carbohydrates aside from being your main source of energy in terms of building the body that you want? Well, when it comes to building the body that you want, your body needs carbs to build muscle and without muscle, you're going to struggle to build the body that you want. Carbs are super important for muscle building because they're protein sparing, which basically means that your body looks to glucose, which is the term for carbs stored in your body for energy instead of breaking down muscle tissue for energy. So if your body doesn't have the carbs to break down as fuel, it will turn to muscle to break down as fuel. So if you are working out and you're not giving your body enough carbs, the muscle you are working to gain and build is just going to get broken down for food.
So essentially you're working against yourself and you're preventing yourself from changing your body composition. Therefore carbs, especially post workout can prevent muscle loss and also can help repair muscles. Now, I want to dive into kind of like the signs of what can happen if you're not eating enough carbs. Number one, you likely have major food cravings all the time, especially for less nutrient dense foods.
So maybe you have a major sweet tooth or salty snack craving. Again, those cravings are not bad, but if you're not eating enough carbs in general, it's likely that your body's going to have these food cravings. And it's more likely that you're going to give into them and you're going to be then overeating on carbohydrates. Like you're eating a whole entire bag of chips and then you just feel super bad after that simply because you're just not eating enough carbs. And for me, I have found that having a balanced approach throughout my day. So having at least three balanced meals with some snacks in there as well, that's what keeps my cravings at bay. And again, cravings themselves, you can eat whatever you want in moderation. I am all for that. And that's super important, especially to your mental sanity when you are on this journey of building the body that you want, but everything in moderation, right?
Number two, the second sign that you're not eating enough carbs could be fatigue or brain fog. So maybe you're having trouble concentrating, being productive, or focusing at the task at hand. Number three, you're having headaches. If you're regularly having headaches and you're unsure why, it could be two things. It could be that you need more water, which oftentimes I always look to that and I say, okay, am I drinking enough water? Which side note, if you don't know how much water to be drinking, a great baseline is 0.67 times your body weight in pounds. So 0.67 times your body weight in pounds equals the minimum amount of ounces that you should be intaking daily. And if that is something, if you're like, I don't want to do the math, I would shoot for a minimum, a minimum of 100 ounces of water per day.
Number four, bloating and constipation. Okay. So you eat less carbs because you want to lose weight, but eating less carbs actually makes you extremely bloated, which could make you look bigger than you actually are. And honestly, you're so much more uncomfortable. When you try to eat less carbs, but then you just get more bloated, it can be a nasty cycle. And that was something that I really struggled with in college. I was bloated all the time, so much so that I remember working one day at the salon and a woman came up to me and she said, "Oh my gosh, you're expecting." It was so, so embarrassing. I can't even tell you. I mean, even to this day, I feel like I still have PTSD from that day. Because number one, I had the worst body dysmorphia. I was undereating. I was over exercising. And I thought that the equation to get the body that I wanted was to do as much cardio as possible, limit the weights, and eat as less as possible.
And yet I was bloated. I was constipated. I was so fatigued and I didn't understand. It was because I was not educated. And you guys, I was so bloated. I mean, now looking back, I was like, I mean, never do that. Never just expect someone is expecting and go up to them, but I could now honestly see why she thought that because I was so bloated all the time. So if you're bloated and constipated all the time, it could honestly be that you need to add more carbohydrates into your diet. Again, fiber, water intake, all of those things. It could be triggered by that. So just keep that in mind.
Number five, feeling cold. This was me all the time. I felt cold all the time. Typically, that is a sign that you might need to be fueling your body with more carbohydrates. And number six, mood swings. If you have unstable mood swings and you switch very quickly from being ultra happy to super irritated quickly, this could mean that you need to eat more carbs. So do it not only for yourself, but do it for the people around you, your coworkers, your friends, your family, seriously. No one wants to be around someone that has extreme mood swings. That honestly could be, it could be, not always the case, but could be just cured from eating more and properly fueling your body.
macronutrient number two, which is fat. So before we dive any deeper, I want to set one thing straight. And this is something that I believed for honestly a decade, if not more of my life, I thought eating fat would make me fat. I just thought it. I was eating low fats, low carbs. Honestly, I don't even remember what I was eating because I was reducing my calorie intake to 800 calories, a 1,000 calories. And if I went past like 1100, 1200 calories a day, I felt like I was the worst thing ever. And I was just like punishing myself and I would do extra cardio. And I was in this just this mind, just this like toxic cycle of thinking that, man, I need to burn off every single thing. It was such a toxic mindset, but that was my reality. Please, please, please know that you should eat the entire egg. Do not just eat the egg whites. Like you can eat the entire egg without guilt.
Put the real extra virgin olive oil on your salad, instead of the low fat salad dressing. You can do that. You can eat the cheese. You don't have to eat fat free cheese. You can eat the cheese without guilt. Dietary fat and body fat are two totally different things. So that is one thing that I wish I would've learned. It would've saved me so much energy and so much time. And I need you to get that through your head now, because again, my goal in this podcast is educating you, encouraging you, and reminding you of the truth. Fat is good. Fat is good. Fat is good. We need to eat it to thrive and build the body that we want. So one thing to know about the macronutrients is that fat actually is the highest caloric value per gram. And it is essential for our good health, wellbeing, as well as our hormones.
So let me repeat that again. It is essential for our health, our wellbeing, and our hormones. Without eating enough dietary fat, you will likely struggle to reach optimal health plain and simple. For reference one gram of fat equals nine calories. So let's say for example, you are eating something with 100% fat. This is pretty rare. I mean, I guess a good example of this would be virgin olive oil. So if you are eating something with 100% fat and no carbs, no protein, and it contains 20 grams of fat, that would equal 180 calories, right? So 20 grams times nine calories per gram of fat equals 180 calories. Again, you're not likely going to have to do the math like this because if you're using like a macro tracking app, like My Macros Plus, My Fitness Pal, or there's tons of other ones out there, it does it all for you.
But it's good to know at least so that you have kind of that frame of reference. So why the heck do I keep saying that you need to eat fat? Well, in terms of your body composition, your body needs to eat fat in order to stay lean. This is because your body actually needs you to eat fat in order for it to burn fat. Again, eating fat does not make you fat. Eating fat can actually help you burn fat. And also, like I mentioned earlier, eating enough fat can support hormone functioning and it can also help to regulate your hormones. For example, eating enough fat will help you balance your hormones, your testosterone, estrogen, which are two hormones that are very important when it comes to fat loss and the maintenance of lean muscle mass. Plus eating fat can also help to support your thyroid hormone function, which is a hormone that is very involved in your body fat regulation.
In fact, having a low thyroid hormone is actually very common... It's a very common reason why women might not be able to lose fat and also eating fat can help you regulate your hunger hormone because fat is very filling when it's paired with protein. Fat can actually lead to greater satisfaction from eating and it can actually help you curb both your hunger and your cravings by keeping your hunger hormones in check. Many times when you're feeling hungry all the time and you have those crazy cravings and can't figure out why, because you feel like you've eaten enough, it's likely because your hunger hormones are out of whack. So eating enough fat daily can actually help to combat that.
Fat also can help with nutrient absorption. There are some vitamins that are fat soluble, which means that they need to be eaten with fat in order for your body to actually absorb them. Plus fat plays a role in your metabolism. When you're eating enough fat, you will help to support a faster metabolism. It can also play a role in your cell growth and the more cells you grow, the more turnover you have and the younger you can look.
And lastly, this is super important for women to know that eating enough dietary fat is very important for reproductive health. So not eating enough fat long term can be a common cause of infertility. And I'm not an infertility specialist. Please, please, please go to someone that is a specialist in this, but this is definitely something that can impact that. And that's very serious stuff. So definitely keep that in mind.
Macronutrient number three, protein. So protein is the most important macronutrient when it comes to building the body that you want. I am not saying it is the most important macronutrient in general because all three are needed for optimal health. All three of them do totally different things. They have different functionings in our body, but if I had to choose one and only one macronutrient to track and not track the other two and still build the body that you want, I would only track protein. In fact, I am in a phase right now where I'm only tracking protein and overall calories. So that's definitely something to keep in mind. I know some people do that. Other people they're tracking all three macronutrients and maybe when they go on vacation, they're at least monitoring their protein intake. It is so important to at least be eating enough protein. Let me say that again.
It's so important to your optimal health and to reaching and building the body that you want, that you are eating enough protein. My personal goal is 145 to 155 grams of protein per day. Of course, this is going to look different and be different depending on your body, what your body composition goals are, your daily activity, et cetera, et cetera. So please figure out your own personal grams of protein per day. Don't just go off of mine.
We have totally different bodies, different heights, different weights, different activity levels, different goals, all those things. But I have found that it's literally impossible to overeat carbs when I'm eating that much protein per day, simply because it's just so filling. In fact, I have found that it's hard to overeat in general when I hit my protein goal, simply because it fills me up so much. For reference, one gram of protein equals four calories, just like carbohydrates. So if you eat something that is 100% protein, no fat, no carbs. A great example of this is egg whites. So like carton egg whites, let's say contains 20 grams of protein, that would be equal to 80 calories, right? 20 grams times four calories per gram of protein equals 80 calories.
Now let me kind of give you a quick breakdown of what protein actually is. So protein is made up of amino acids and amino acids is what essentially makes up your muscles, which means that your muscles are made by protein because amino acids are the building blocks of muscles. There are 20 different amino acids and nine of them are essential amino acids. This is because your body cannot make them its own and must be eaten through food for your body to get them. Your body also cannot build muscle without all 20 amino acids available. Hence, why prioritizing the nine amino acids is very, very essential. Foods that contain all 20 amino acids are actually called complete proteins. So all animal-based foods are classified as complete proteins, whereas most plant-based foods are not. Most plant-based foods do not contain all 20 amino acids. And this is something that I can dive deeper into a different episode, but I do want you to be aware of that.
So what are the benefits of protein? Well, as I mentioned, muscle is created by protein. So the more protein that you eat, the more muscle you can build. One caveat to this that I want to bring up is that it's really important that if you are in a muscle building phase, you are not in a caloric deficit. You are in a caloric surplus. It's really important that you are in a caloric surplus to build muscle, but the more muscle you will build, the faster your metabolism can be. So more muscle means that you'll have less body fat and muscle can actually burn more calories around the clock without having to move than fat does. So the amount of calories that you will burn daily will go up from just having more muscle alone. And the more calories you'll burn, the more fat you burn, right? So it's kind of like one thing builds off of another. Like I mentioned earlier, protein fills you up.
So it's great for crushing your cravings, crushing your hunger, and keeping you full for hours. I have found that eating more protein can really help you crush those food cravings. There have been countless studies that people have done to prove this, but let me just highlight a couple. Number one, one study in overweight men showed that increasing proteins simply by 25% of calories reduced their cravings by 60% and the desire to snack at night by half. And in another study focused on overweight adolescent adults, they actually found that eating high protein breakfast can reduce their cravings and late night snacking as well. Lastly, protein is a thermogenic food. Digesting and metabolizing protein burns calories. So this is often termed the thermic effect of food, which is often referred to if you're reading any sort of study, or if you're looking into more of like the science of nutrition, it can also be pronounced or abbreviated with TEF.
To be honest, not all sources agree on the exact amount. It is clear that 20 to 30% of the calories that you consume from protein is burned simply through digestion, which is way higher compared to carbs, which is about five to 10%. And then fat is zero to 3%. So for example, if you're eating 100 calories of chicken, your body will only absorb about 70 to 80 of those calories. And 20 to 30 of those calories can be burned automatically. So there you have it on protein. The benefits that I shared overall for carbs, fats, and protein are mostly related to building the body that you want, but there are countless more benefits that all three are related to your overall health and wellbeing. And if I were to discuss them, honestly, this episode would be hours long, but I hope you kind of get the gist of why all three of them are important and why none of them should be neglected all together.
With that being said, the question you might be thinking is great. Now that I have all this knowledge about macronutrients and why all three of them are important and the different roles that they play in my overall health and wellbeing, how many do I need daily? That's honestly one of the most important questions that you might have, and that might be the most confusing thing to you because there are so many people out there that share tons of different information, that's all conflicting information. And it's really important that you figure out a simple approach that is comprehensive enough so that it gives you enough background for you to understand. But it's not so overwhelming that you just give up. I actually created an online academy for this, and we actually provide you your customized macros based on your body and goals. So if you're super intimidated with figuring this out on your own, and you're like, like I said, I'm not good at math. I don't want to do this. We can help you get kick started in that.
And basically what happens is when you purchase this online academy, you are prompted to fill out an extensive questionnaire form. This is not just like, "Hey, what's your age? What's your weight? What's your height. Let's figure out your macros." I mean, we ask you extensive questions based on your background, where you're at. And from there, we actually take all that comprehensive information. And then we calculate your macros based on where you're at, what your history is, and what your goals are. And not only do we just give you like one number of, hey, these are your macros. We give you a progressive macro set, meaning that as your body stalls or plateaus, you are going to be changing your macros based on that. Now we always advise you that you at least stick with one macro set for four to six weeks starting with, to make sure that you're staying consistent.
And we kind of outline all of this. So I'm not going to go deep, deep, deep into this. We outline all of this. Once you purchase, we just guide you through the process step by step. And then we send you a customized PDF that has all of your macros. And not only that, not only your macros, your progressive sets of macros, that will honestly last you about a half a year if not longer, depending on how slow or fast you go through it. But we guide you step by step. We show you the calculation so that you know exactly how to do it. We do not gate keep here. We believe that this should be the last nutrition program that you ever have to purchase. Simply because again, like I mentioned earlier in this episode, I do not believe that macro counting is a diet.
I believe that it is a lifestyle. I believe that it is something that you can honestly use for the rest of your life and the knowledge and the education that you learned from just learning how to properly fuel your body is priceless. And it's something that will stick with you for the rest of your life. And we don't want you to feel like you have to rely on a coach for the rest of your life to give you your macro. So that's why we show you. We don't gatekeep anything. We show you step by step how we did it so that you can do it in the future. So if you want to learn more about that, plus we give you everything that you need to know to successfully count macros. There's modules. There's a Facebook group. There is a huge ebook that we give you that's about 150 plus pages of just tons of information so that you can seamlessly integrate this into your daily life.
If you want to learn more and get access to this, you can go to macrocountingmadesimple.com. Again, that's macrocountingmadesimple.com. We will easily link it in the show notes, so that you can go and check that out and join. We would absolutely love to guide you on your macro counting journey. But again, I hope that you found this helpful. I hope that this was educational for you. If you have someone in your life that you feel like, man, I think that they would really benefit from kind of this breakdown of the macronutrients and why they're important, or maybe there's someone in your life that has just been super confused by this. Maybe you know all this information, but they've been confused and they've been asking you questions and you don't really know all the answers, direct them to this episode and just say, "Hey, check this episode out."
You can copy the link and send it to them in a text message. Or you can also screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story. We love, love, love connecting with you. We love seeing your aha moments and we love seeing who is tuning in. That is all that I have for today's episode. Thank you again for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, JulieALedbetter. Yes, it's with an A in the middle, for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.