Your toned body figure depends on the distribution of macronutrients on your plate of food

Let's not beat around the bush, although exercise, daily physical activity, restful sleep and managing your stress are key, the way you distribute macronutrients, i.e. protein, carbohydrates and fats on your plate, is the key to giving your body the shape it looks.

Today we are going to focus on how to find your personalized maintenance caloric intake. That is, your daily caloric expenditure and from there you can set your goal: whether it is to lose weight, gain muscle mass, lose fat, or gain weight, for example.

  

Why know your total daily energy expenditure or TDEE?

In principle, you require a minimum caloric expenditure or basal metabolic rate, which basically refers to the maintenance calories to live, what your body needs to have the strength to get up, breathe, your heart to beat, your cognitive function to perform properly and more. Total energy expenditure or TDEE is the sum of your minimum caloric expenditure plus the extra caloric expenditure or that your body generates through other activities and that varies with age, sex, level of physical activity, diet and other factors.

 

Total daily energy expenditure ( TDEE) corresponds to

= Basal metabolic rate + The thermic effect of daily non-exercise physical activity (NEAT) + The thermic effect of exercise (TEA) + Thermic effect of food consumed (TEF).

Your basal metabolic rate, or BMR, is an estimate of how many calories your body burns each day through normal functions, but does not include daily physical activity or exercise.

While your BMR will remain relatively constant from day to day, the total amount of calories you burn each day, or your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is definitely going to vary based on your lifestyle. The two main lifestyle factors that affect your TDEE are diet and exercise. These result in calories being burned through processes called the thermic effect of food (TEF) and thermic effect of activity (TEA).

TEA is relevant because it takes into account the calories burned during exercise, and is generally what people refer to when they talk about “burning calories.” As you might expect, this can have a very significant impact on a person’s TDEE, as endurance athletes can sometimes burn more than twice as many calories when they are training compared to the time they spend stationary during the day.

TEA, on the other hand, refers to deliberate exercise (running, swimming, weight lifting, etc.) separated from the calories you burn through movement throughout the day (standing, climbing stairs, etc.).

Now, what is known in English as NEAT or the thermic effect of your daily activities that are not deliberate exercise, such as doing housework, grocery shopping, walking your pet, are activities that would fall into this category. The non-exercise thermic effect of activity (NEAT) has been shown to have significant effects on health, metabolism, and potentially longevity. 

NEAT has demonstrated metabolic benefits, for example, a study in rats showed that low- to moderate-intensity activities associated with NEAT produced greater lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity compared to intense, but not sustained, exercise. Greater LPL activity is associated with improved lipid metabolism and reduced cardiovascular risk.

These activities are often more sustainable in the long term than structured exercise programs, which may lead to greater adherence and cumulative health benefits over time. ( study )

Existing evidence strongly suggests that increased thermogenesis during non-exercise activities can contribute to a healthier lifestyle and potentially a longer life expectancy. So, keep this in mind because doing housework or washing your car yourself can benefit you more than you think.

TEF, or Diet-Induced Thermogenesis (DIT), is used in light of the fact that your body must expend energy to digest the food you eat, and that the amount of energy that must be expended to digest that food depends on the food itself. For example, on average, it takes more energy to digest protein than it does for fat or carbohydrates, with 20-30% of the calories consumed as protein being used to digest it, compared to 5-15% for fat and carbohydrates.

In this sense, the percentages and distribution of macros make a difference in terms of the caloric expenditure of your body according to the energy it has available.

 

The difference between counting calories and tracking macros

Both are valid techniques for keeping track of your daily caloric intake. Counting calories can help you lose or maintain your current body weight but not necessarily the exact proportion of macronutrients.

Whether you want to make changes to your body shape (such as losing fat), or you are an athlete (increase strength) or just a recreational athlete (increase muscle mass), tracking macronutrients allows you to adjust your diet to your performance and body composition goals.

My interest is not to overwhelm you with formulas or internet apps to determine the number of calories you should consume per day. However, these apps provide you with some basic criteria that help you determine how much of each macronutrient should be on your plate if you want to maintain your current weight, lose fat, gain muscle, or need to gain weight.

This information that I am about to share with you will at least give you the freedom to organize how you want to eat and, most importantly, see results.

You no longer have to fall for fad diets that tell you to eliminate one food or another. When you know how much of each macronutrient you should eat, based on your established goals, you no longer feel like you have to sacrifice or feel left out because other people are eating everything while you are not. Therefore, keeping track of how much of each macronutrient is in each of your meals is the key to achieving the goals you set for yourself in terms of your body shape, as well as energy and daily performance.

Macronutrient tracking apps are very accessible, but I don't know if they have a Spanish option. There is one called Prospre : Meal Planner that could help you calculate your macronutrients.

There are several formulas for performing the calculation. The three most common formulas are Harris-Benedict, Mifflin-St. Jeor, and Katch-McArdle. For each of the formulas below,

BMR is the basal metabolic rate in calories (kcal),
m is the body mass in kg,
h is the height in cm,
a is the age in years,
BF% is the percentage of body fat.

 

Physical Activity Factor (FAF)

Because TEF (food) has less of an impact than TEA (deliberate activity and exercise), and because TEF is much more complex to estimate accurately, formulas for calculating TDEE often combine these values ​​into a single number called the physical activity factor. This physical activity factor is determined by estimating a person's physical activity level, and choosing the corresponding value from a table of known values. The FAF (physical activity factor) is then multiplied by the BMR to determine TDEE. This factor ranges from 1.1 to 2.0 for the vast majority of people.

This is the method used in the calculator on these platforms and can provide an approximation of the TDEE which is, in principle, sufficient, especially if you are learning to use these applications.

 

Caloric surplus or deficit would be the KEY

In short, to lose weight, your caloric intake must be less than your TDEE. Conversely, if you want to gain weight, you must eat more calories than your TDEE. The difference between the calories you consume and your TDEE will determine how quickly your weight changes.

Your goal will be to guide you to vary your caloric intake in relation to your TDEE.

If your goal is to lose weight, try to make the weight loss sustainable, meaning that the weight loss is not rapid because that is just an indicator that you are putting your body under a lot of stress, so let the process be gradual.  This allows you to control that the weight lost is fat and not muscle.  It is also important to take into account that there are no nutrient imbalances.  Half a kilo (500 g) of weight loss per week is usually an acceptable goal and within healthy parameters.

What would then be the ideal caloric increase to gain weight?

If you want to gain mostly muscle and not fat, this should also be done gradually. For moderate weight gain, half a kilo (500 gr) per week would be a reasonable goal.

How to translate your weight goals into calories?

This depends on several factors, such as your activity level, type of work, what foods predominate on your plate, etc.  However, a common approach is to convert the muscle or body fat you want to lose or gain into calories, and then target that amount for a caloric surplus or deficit.

To make things easier for you, if you want to lose weight and/or body fat, this would correspond to reducing your TDEE by approximately 500 calories, to do so gradually, without falling into a deficit of any important nutrients and, above all, so that you can monitor your progress.   This way you can adjust your calories as needed, depending on how quickly or slowly you lose or gain weight.

For the opposite case, that is, to increase muscle mass, you will still need to gain a little weight and, therefore, fat.  However, this also depends largely on your physical activity and the percentages of each nutrient during your daily caloric intake.  Here, the same applies to gradually increasing your daily intake by 500 calories to see how your body reacts.

 

What would then be the appropriate proportion of macronutrients?

Once you've set your calorie goal (which is what these apps are for), the next step is to decide how to distribute the macronutrients on your plate to get those calories consumed.

Let's start by understanding that proteins contain 4 calories per gram. Carbohydrates also contain 4 calories per gram. While fats provide 9 calories per gram consumed. So, at the end of the day, this is the math in your daily caloric intake and whose proportions will be reflected first on your plate and then in the shapes of your body.

Note: Although alcohol is not a macronutrient, you should know that it provides 7 calories per gram so you can take this into account in your calorie count.

Examples of calories in some typical alcoholic beverages:

• 1 small glass of alcohol (vodka or gin) with diet lemonade = 80 calories
• 1 glass of wine, 5 oz (about 150 ml) = 120 calories
• Beer, 12 oz (about 355 ml) - 180-200 calories

 

Now you know that all your foods are classified into these three groups of macronutrients:

In principle, protein includes animal protein, as well as free amino acids (isolated in pills), dairy products (low in fat), vegetable proteins (which are not complete proteins because they are usually deficient in one or more amino acids and which often must be supplemented with another food that turns it into a complete protein).

Carbohydrates refer primarily to all vegetables, greens, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds, as well as products prepared from them.

Healthy fats include olive oil, dairy products such as certain aged cheeses such as Parmesan or Pecorino.  Eggs, salmon, tuna and other sources of omega-3 fats found in fish and certain nuts, in particular.

In the next article, I will explain to you, through updated studies, how much protein and what types are best absorbed and make your body function more efficiently.