Holy Macros!

You ever notice how things seem to happen right when you need them? I attended a workshop that my boot camp trainer put on. It was called "How to have your cake and eat it too".  YES! Lose weight and eat cake? Yes please! I signed up hoping to find an answer to my cravings issues. 

The topic of discussion was macro nutrients. What are Macros? Carbs, Protein, and Fat. All food is made up on some combination of the 3. We learned what role each plays: Carbs are fuel, Protein for muscle repair/growth, and Fat for vitamin absorption/temperature regulation (to put it simply). So how much of each of these do you need? Well that is dependent on your body type. The three body types are Ectomorph, Endomorph, and Mesomorph. You can look up the other two, but I ended up being an Endomorph. For an Endomorph, your ratios "starting point" is 25% Carbs/35% Protein/40% Fat. 

Then we did some math to figure out calories and macros. I won't bore you with the details, but here's what I ended up with:

Calories: 1700 

Carbs: 106g

Protein: 149g

Fat: 76g 

I really don't know how people tracked this prior to My Fitness Pal, but I am very glad that I don't have to. I've been doing good with tracking the last month, so I looked to see how I stacked up against these values. Well, my carbs were about double, I could use some more protein, and my fat needed to be tripled!!! The only thing I can say, is that I was in range with my calories (yay me!).

So what now? Well slowly work toward these numbers and see how it effects my body. Will it help the cravings and get me closer to my ideal body? I hope so! I am losing weight right now, so no need to completely abandon what I'm doing, but I want to continue progressing. And honestly, who knows if the ideal ratio for MY BODY is the above. As a runner, I highly doubt I'll go down to just 106g of carbs. You can't run a half marathon on that! And I'm starting to feel the itch to do some races ;)

Overall, I learned that this journey is really about trial and error. I am going to have to experiment to see what works for ME. Also, you can't eat shit and expect to get the body you want. Could I have a piece of cake or a few drinks? Sure. But if I want to keep progressing, that means I have to tweak my other meals that day to still hit my macros. There is no more eating with reckless abandon. I can't have drinks, an appetizer, a meal, AND dessert unless I'm ok with the consequence of that. Which is, I will spend the entire week working off that excess and getting back to where I was.

I think at the beginning, I was looking for some trick out of this and kind of felt like my cravings were controlling me. In reality, I have a choice. I can choose my moments to indulge or I can work week after week working off the weekend binge. Oh wait, I spent the first 6 months doing that!

IT GOT ME NOWHERE.

I REPEAT.. IT GOT ME NOWHERE.

Here's to taking control of my life and what goes in my mouth. Now I need to research some good sources of fat and protein.