What are Macros? What should they be set at?

  Calculate Your Macros

Video Transcript

Well, hey, guys. It's John DeHart, your keto sensei, Nutriketo. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about macros, and I always get a little bit tickled when somebody sends us something and I ask them what is their macros? And they're like, "What are macros?" And I'm like, "Woo, we've got some work to do in the keto world, that's for sure."

So what are macros? Pretty simple. Macros are macro-nutrients, as opposed to micro-nutrients, which would be your vitamins and minerals. Macros are fat, protein, and carbohydrates, and in the keto world, we eat those in a very specific ratio. So at Nutriketo, pretty much we subscribe to, or at least our starting point is what I would consider to be therapeutic macros, right? Which, if you read about the ketogenic diet, most of the time, when they're talking about therapeutic keto, you're looking at 80% of your calories coming from fat, 15% coming from protein, and 5% coming from carbohydrate.

And let me just say this, that 5% doesn't change for carbohydrates, right? You want to keep it at 5% or less. And typically, you know, 20 grams or less is what the measure is. But some of you, especially some of you women, you know, 40, 50, 60 years old struggling to get into ketosis, you may need to drop those to under, from 20 grams to 15 grams, maybe 10 grams of carbohydrates. It just depends.

Also, I think it's really important, guys, to understand, keto is not one-size-fits-all. And so while we stick to the classic, or at least start with the classic 80-15-5, 80% of your calories coming from fat, 15 again from protein, and 5 or less from carbohydrate, that can change up a little bit, depending on your keto goals. And so it is perfectly acceptable to be 70 percent fat and 25 percent protein. Maybe 65 and 30 percent protein. I start to get a little queasy if we go beyond that, just because I think high loads of protein aren't necessarily good for you. I think it's hard on the body.

But, again, it depends on your keto goals. Keto is not one-size-fits-all. So know your macros. Use our macro calculator or one from another reputable company to determine, what are your macros? What are the macros for you, based on your goals? And guys, I just want to throw a little word of caution out there.

You know, for the last three-four years, I mean, I've been at the ketogenic diet since November 2014, so coming up on 5 years now. You see a lot of stuff out there with recipe books and, you know, they basically, in the Internet marketing world, they would call that a lead magnet. So typically they're giving away certain recipes. Sometimes they're selling them. But I'm going to caution you guys around those recipes, and here's why. I've looked at some of these, and I've realized the vast majority of you guys are doing keto to lose weight, and I look at some of these recipes, and I can flat tell you, you're never going to lose weight using it.

Why? Because some of them have fat grams, this is for a meal, 150 grams of fat, guys. I'm just telling you, flat-out, look. There's nothing wrong with being really, really high fat, high, high fat, early on in your ketogenic diet. One, to become keto-adapted, right? To where your body actually is burning ketones for energy as opposed to sugar and glucose, right? It's converting body fat, or it's using fat, to convert to ketones for energy. Now here's the thing with your body. It doesn't care where that fat comes from. So if you're bringing in so much external fat, i.e. a meal that has 160 grams of fat in it, your body never has to turn to its own energy reserves, i.e. your body fat, to satisfy the energy needs. So it won't, right?

So it's great to be super high-fat as you're keto adapting, and we actually recommend that, like not really keeping track your first week or two, but guys, after that, you really do need to start pulling back those fat calories that you're consuming in order to force your body to start burning its own body fat. And so, and one more thing about this, I know this video's a little bit longer, but do not be fooled in those first week or two weeks, if you're eating a ton of fat and you're seeing that scale plummet, right? Because here's the thing.

Some of that's going to be body fat, where you're actually, you know, starting to lean out, but guys, a lot of that's going to be inflammation and water. Right? When you move to a keto diet, it is definitely a non-inflammatory diet, and so your body's going to start dumping and as you start to transition into becoming a fat-burner, your body's going to dump the glycogen out of the muscles, as well.

So you're going to lose water, so that scale may be moving. Don't be fooled by that to think that you're going to be able to continue to eat that many fat grams and continue to lose weight, guys. I'm just, I'm throwing out a word of caution to you. You know, it may work for the first week, the first two weeks, maybe the first three weeks, but you're going to plateau, and you're going to plateau hard, and the problem with plateaus is, guys, it tends to discourage all of us. Right? Nobody likes that.

One more tip. If your scale does plateau, when you start this journey, make sure to take measurements with a tape measure, right? Take pictures ahead of time, as well. Because the scale may not be moving all the time, but if you're doing a well-formulated ketogenic diet, you're burning fat. Your body is transforming, and so check that waistline. Check your pants. Check your clothing. And look at those pictures, because you're going to see a new you. So with that, John DeHart.

Hey, if you've got any questions, check us out at Nutriketo.com. John DeHart, your keto sensei, Nutriketo. We'll talk to you soon.