Home | Supplements | eBooks | DVDs | Articles | Forum

Click Here for Free Bodybuilding and Fitness Magazine Subscription

___________________________________________

           Truly Huge Fitness Tips
         Presented by TrulyHuge.com                  
___________________________________________

Bodybuilding Recipes

Build muscle and burn fat the natural way!

Use these time tested and great tasting recipes 
to gain mass, increase energy and strength all 
while getting ripped.

Includes complete recipes for meals, snacks, 
deserts, homemade protein bars and ultimate 
protein drink recipes.

Go to The Bodybuilding Cookbook
____________________________________________

     Fitness Tips For 8/24/2016
____________________________________________



Calculating Your Macros for More Muscle
Bodybuilding is, to the amazement of some, as much or more a mental 
pursuit as it is a physical activity. None less than the great Tommy
Kono pointed out that weightlifting is primarily a mental, not a 
physical, element, and that holds true for bodybuilding as well.  
One side of that mental coin is knowing what you are doing. And this
is true across the board, including specific knowledge based 
training and nutrition.

In your diet, you want to know the elements you are putting into 
your body. This translates into tracking your macro nutrient intake.

Your macro nutrients are the basic building blocks of food that are 
essential for your body.  They are essential for the average person, 
and even more important for the bodybuilder. The macros are protein, 
fat and carbs.

All three elements are absolutely necessary for the constant 
functions of the body. The bodybuilder needs all three and diets 
that skimp on any of the macros eventually hamper the action of the
body.

Protein is the prime ingredient for the body and vital for muscle 
growth.  Fat assists in the assimilation of protein and also is part
of the growth process.  Carbohydrates are the prime fuel source for 
training.

For bodybuilding you want to get the right amount of these macros on
a daily basis.
 
Start your calculations with the most vital of the macros – protein.
While a sedentary person requires far less protein than an athlete,
a bodybuilder requires the most of all. That's because the 
bodybuilder is not just trying to maintain the body but to actually 
create gains in the body.  A typical rule of thumb for protein 
intake is a gram of protein per pound of body weight. That's a very
simple calculation.

For all of your macros, it's quite helpful to know the caloric 
amount of each.

    One gram of protein contains 4 calories.

    One gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories.

    One gram of fat contains 9 calories.
    
So fat is more nutrient dense than the other two macros, and you 
need less grams of fat to get a calorie count.

Start with protein intake of 1 gram of protein per pound of body 
weight.  If you weigh 200 pounds, then this means 200 grams of 
protein.  That translates into only 800 calories.  If you are aiming
at getting a third of your calories from protein, then you would be
on a diet of roughly 2400 calories.

For carbs, you also use the 4 calories per gram count.  So if you 
are getting 40 percent of your calories from carbs, and you have a
2,400 calorie diet, then this translates into 960 calories from 
carbs, or 240 grams of carbs.
 
The remainder of your diet is fat.  In this example, that's 27 
percent (protein makes up 33 percent and carbs 40 percent).  So you
would multiply the 2,400 calories by 27 percent for 648 calories.  
And this you divide by 9, not 4, as fat is more calorie dense.  So 
that comes to 72 grams of fat.

From here you can tweak your diet in any manner.  You can boost any
of the macro nutrients, but as you do boost one macro nutrient, 
remember that the others automatically make up a lesser portion of 
the macro pie.


Submit A Fitness Tip
If you have a tip you'd like to share e-mail it to us

Calculating Your Macros for More Muscle

Click Here for a Chance to Win Free Bodybuilding Supplements