Nutrition Macros

What are those numbers and what do they mean?

Whether you’ve recently been assessed with specific tools or measurements, or looking at the results from the main calorie calculator, you’re likely looking at some numbers and not sure what to do with them. Here’s a quick rundown of what those numbers mean and how to use them towards achieving your goal.

RMR
Resting Metabolic Rate is the amount of energy your body requires just for you to stay alive and breathing each day. It’s the bare minimum for you to function. It can change based on your age, weight, height, gender, and it can also change based on what your body is made of like the amount of muscle on your frame.

TEE
Total energy expenditure is the total amount of energy you use every day to not only stay alive and breathing, but to also live the way you live. Your TEE includes your RMR plus all of the activity you are engaged in all throughout the day. This activity can look like deliberate activity like exercise as well as non-exercise related activity like fidgeting, typing, doing laundry, and all of those small movements that make up your day that you don’t even think about.

Calories
This energy that you are putting out, all day and all night into everything you do, is measured in calories. A calorie is just a unit for measuring energy in the human body, and your TEE is showing you the amount of energy measured in calories that makes up your life. While your TEE is the total energy, measured as calories, going out from the human body, the only source of this energy that a human body can take in is in food. Food is the only source of calories, and therefore the only source of energy that a human body can take in.

Macronutrients
We categorize this energy or calories in our foods based on the primary roles they play in the body. Those categories of energy or calories coming from food are called macronutrients and they include protein, carbohydrates, and fats. The foods you eat will be providing you with macronutrients, but in different amounts. You need to have a certain amount of each of these macronutrients each day to keep you functioning at a level you want.

Some foods provide a lot of one macronutrient and little of another, and some provide more nutritional value with those calories than others, some may be really great for your specific health or goal in mind. To learn more about the foods you eat and how they translate to what you put out, check out the nutrition tracking tool and the other resources throughout this app!

Make sure you’re doing these everyday

Staying on track towards a goal you have takes more than just motivation, it takes a plan. Having a plan means you have a focus for the day of what you intend to do, and have already prepared yourself for when unexpected changes come up. How do you get the most out of each day?

What’s your schedule look like today? Are you training today or is it your rest day? Do you work or have any appointments today? Map it all out into a calendar so you can visually see your commitments. Pro tip: find one day a week, like Sunday, to map out your schedule for the week ahead and set intentions for the overall goals this week, and the main priorities. By establishing the priorities ahead of time, it’ll help with making decisions in the moment if anything unplanned comes up so that you know what needs to get done first

Each morning, check back with your weekly schedule including the goals and the main priorities. For today, what do you need to accomplish to stay on track for the rest of the week? Focus on a realistic expectation for the day ahead. Give yourself a list of tasks, however short or long, that are completely manageable for this specific day in your life, and check off each item as it’s completed. Some days you’ll feel focused and productive and other days you may not. Productivity each day is not the goal, but rather working towards what is realistic each day is.

Plan for the unexpected. Establish “escape routes” or backup plans that will allow you to stay on track towards the overall goal for the week in case your time commitment for the day suddenly changes. Pro tip: keep a variety of food items in the house that can quickly make a meal like microwave rice pouches, canned beans, frozen or canned vegetables, packets or cans of tuna, or sardines, or shredded chicken, and frozen uncooked chicken breast or fish. You can throw together a breakfast in less than 90 seconds of oats, chia seeds and/or flaxseeds, protein powder, and a sprinkle of cinnamon that will give you a great combination of high fiber complex carbohydrates, Omega-3 fatty acids, and lean protein, all from shelf-stable products that can travel easily.

Allow yourself to go with the flow. Sometimes we can stick to our schedule and sometimes we have to improvise. Your best way to navigate any situation and still stay on track is to utilize the tools in this app so you can always hit your fitness goal for the day no matter your location, and you can always keep track of what you’re eating to keep in line with what your body needs.

The greatest life hacks to keep you on track

By far, the most difficult part of starting a new plan, whether it’s a new training program, or new nutrition plan, is navigating any disruptions that come up along the way. You’re trying to stay consistent because you have a goal in mind, but what happens when your daily routine gets disrupted? Or you’re traveling? Or your work or home-life is getting busier with more things on your to-do list than you ever imagined?

It can be a challenge to stay on track with a new routine because life seems to break routine all the time. The best way to navigate these changes, adjustments, or disruptions, is to arm yourself with a plan that allows you to adjust on the fly without halting your progress to your goals. Here’s a list of some of the greatest tools and tidbits you can incorporate now so that you have a strong foundation of resiliency for any unknowns that come about.

• Start your day the same way no matter the day of the week. Ease yourself out of sleep and into your day by reflecting on how you feel in this moment, how differently you felt on a previous day, whether good or bad, and focus your intentions on the day ahead of you. Immediately hydrate with at least 16oz of water to replace what your body already lost while you slept, and continue to hydrate as you start moving around to start your day.
• Track everything you can. By keeping track of your training, your nutrition, your sleep, your health metrics, you are building an awareness of everything that goes into your day and also how you respond to it all.  Being able to see the changes you’ve made with how you move, how you feel, how you sleep, and how your health has changed gives you great insight into your overall progress. But even better than that, keeping track of everything you can means you now have a good idea of where you’re at any time, any day, so those unknowns or disruptions in life don’t seem as detrimental to your progress.
• Plan ahead to keep things as simple as possible. The two most stressful situations we could ever find ourselves in is being thrown into something unprepared, and having to handle something extremely complex or time-consuming, because either one feels overwhelming already but then even worse when they are combined. Plan ahead to always have the most simple solutions available at all times. Especially when it comes to eating well, we tend to over-complicate things. Stick with meals that are easy to throw together and that don’t require a ton of ingredients, cooking skills, or time to prepare. Aim for a meal to have one portion of a lean protein, one portion of a starchy carbohydrate, and one portion each of a fruit and a vegetable. Have a variety of fresh, frozen, and shelf-stable items so that you have enough items with variable shelf-life and you’re not limited to only what’s left before you go shopping again. This could look like having fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh dairy and eggs, frozen lean protein foods like frozen uncooked fish and chicken, frozen fruits and vegetables, and shelf-stable items like rice, beans, oats, pasta, canned vegetables, tuna pouches, and protein powder.
• Don’t travel empty-handed. The most common complications with traveling are what to eat, where to eat, and not to mention the cost of eating meals on the run. Arm yourself with enough items that you can ensure some cost-effective meals that will also keep you on track. Travel-friendly items that can be staples in your suitcase include protein powder, tuna packets, oats, microwave rice pouches, pretzels, rice cakes, and items like chia seeds and flaxseed. Protein is by far the most expensive item on any restaurant menu and oftentimes the most difficult to ensure you’re getting enough so having protein powder and tuna packets is a great advantage. Having carbohydrate snacks that are low in fat can help to ensure that you’re taking in the amount of carbohydrates you want for your lean body mass without excess calories you may not want. Bringing specific items like chia seeds and flaxseeds will provide you with a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids to provide an anti-inflammatory effect to balance out the high amounts of pro-inflammatory Omega-6 fatty acids in restaurant foods from the use of cooking oils or dressings.
• End your day the same way no matter the day of the week. It doesn’t matter whether today was phenomenal and exciting or stressful and exhausting, the day served a purpose for you in some way. Ease yourself out of your day and into sleep by reflecting on what you’re most grateful for, and appreciate what you gained from the day itself.

By providing yourself with a solid base of grounding to begin and end each day, tracking everything you can to build that awareness of yourself, and planning ahead with the most simplified solutions to fall back on, you’ll be prepared to handle any changes or disruptions that come your way.