How Much Should You Eat in a Day? Count Your Food Portions & Macros | Joanna Soh

[00:00] 30-minute workouts, 20-minute recipes, 10-minute mindfulness. Ready to become? Get feel on the App Store or Google Play. Hey guys, it's Joanna here. Let's talk about

[00:12] calculating your food portion and macros. Everybody's body composition is different. Hence, my daily food portion and macros will never be the same as yours or another person.

[00:24] Let's first understand what exactly are macros. Macro nutrients provide energy in the form of calories and make up the three major components of food, carbohydrates, protein

[00:37] and fat. Our bodies use carbs first, followed by fats and then protein as a fuel source, consuming the right balance of macronutrients can significantly impact your results, whether

[00:51] it's fat loss, muscle gain or weight maintenance. What I want you to do right now is grab a calculator as well as a pen and paper because we're going to figure out how many calories you need

[01:05] in a day as well as your macronutrients break down. Let's first figure out your calorie needs based on your body composition and lifestyle. We need to determine two things. You're resting

[01:18] energy expenditure or REE, which is the total calories a person burns at rest. That means doing absolutely nothing. Second, total daily energy expenditure or TDE. The total calories

[01:34] you burn in a day including the body's internal and external activities. Here are the REE formulas for both men and women. Mine will be 10 multiplied by 50 kilos, 6.25 multiplied

[01:52] by 159 centimeters and 5 multiplied by 29 years old. Once you have the numbers, let's calculate your REE, which is 500 plus 993.75 minus 145 minus 161, which gives me a total of 1187.75.

[02:18] Now let's move on and calculate your total daily energy expenditure. The formula for this is to take your REE multiplied by your activity level. Now let's determine your physical activity.

[02:32] Sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, very active or extra active. I'm going with moderately active, so my TDE is 1187.75 multiplied by 1.55. And that gives me a total calories of 11841.01.

[02:55] For this video, let's just go with 118 calories in a day. Calories can either be added or subtracted from your total expenditure in order to achieve different goals. For example, if your goal is weight loss,

[03:12] then you should consume fewer calories than you expand. You may want to reduce between 300 to 400 calories daily. If you want to gain muscle mass or increase your weight, then you need to increase your total calories.

[03:25] Decide your macronutrients breakdown. Depending on what diet you're following or your goals, your macros will be different. For example, if you're following a balanced diet, then the macros will be

[03:38] 40% cups, 30% protein and 30% fat. If your goal is to lose excess body fat and have better blood sugar control, you may do better on 30% cups, 40% protein and 30% fat. If you are currently on a keto diet,

[03:56] then the ratio would favor fat more with fewer cups. For an endurance athlete, they will need a higher cup intake. Hence macros ratios vary depending on your dietary preference, fitness goals and activities.

[04:11] How to calculate your macros? Once you've decided your ratio, let's learn to calculate your macros. For this video, I'm going with a healthy balanced diet, which is 40% cups, 30% protein and 30% fat.

[04:27] Now, let's decide how many meals you intend to have in a day. I'm going with three main meals and two snacks. Let's start with cups. Cups include sugars, starches and fibers. They are your grains, beans, lentils, vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

[04:46] Cups provide 4 calories per gram. The optimum intake is 3 grams of cups per 1 kilo of your body weight. If you are on a low-cap diet or if you're looking to lose weight, then you can go with 2 grams.

[05:00] So, 40% out of 1,800 of total calories in a day equals to 720 calories of cups per day. Hence, the total grams of cup allowance is 720 divided by 4, which means 180 grams of cups.

[05:19] You want to keep your main meal to about 70% of your total daily intake and the remaining 30% for your snacks. Hence, 70% from 180 grams equals 126 grams. Now, let's divide that by 3 meals.

[05:37] That means 42 grams of cups per meal. The remaining 30% from 180 grams equals 54 grams of cups divided by 2 snacks that gives you 27 grams of cups per snack.

[05:53] This is just to give you an idea of the cup content in some common foods. So, a main meal portion can consist of half a cup of rice, half a cup of broccoli, half a cup of carrots and half a cup of adamame.

[06:08] That will equate to 36.5 grams of cups. And a snack can be one banana. Let's move on to protein. Similar to cups, protein provides 4 calories per gram.

[06:21] Examples of protein-rich foods include eggs, meat, poultry, fish, soy, beans and lentils. The optimum intake is between 1.5 to 3 grams per 1 kilo of your body weight.

[06:36] Now, this calculation depends on your lifestyle and also your training intensity. So, 30% out of 1,800 calories equals to 540 calories per day.

[06:49] So, the total grams of protein allowance will be 540 divided by 4 calories. That gives me 135 grams of protein. Now, let's first look at your main meals.

[07:03] So, let's take 70% from 135 grams of protein. That means you have 94.5 grams divided by 3 meals giving you 31.5 grams of protein per meal.

[07:17] And the remaining 30% out of 135 grams of protein equals to 40.5 grams divided by 2 snacks. That gives you 20.25 grams of protein per snack.

[07:31] These are the protein content for some of the common foods. For example, my main meal can be 120 grams of salmon and half a cup of adamame,

[07:43] which equals to 32.5 grams of protein. And my snack can be a protein shake. Finally, fats. Fats have the most calories of all micronutrients providing a total of 9 calories per gram.

[07:59] Fats are found in foods such as oils, butter, avocado, nut and seeds, meat, fatty fish and dairy products. The optimum intake is 1 gram per 1 kilo of your body weight.

[08:13] If you're on a low fat diet, then it will be 0.5 grams. And high fat would be between 2 grams up to 2.5 grams. Fat will be the remaining 30% from 1,800 calories.

[08:27] That gives me 540 calories of fat per day. So my total fat allowance equals 540 grams divided by 9 calories. That means 60 grams per day.

[08:41] Let's assume that you do not include any fat into your snacks. So let's take 100% from 60 grams of fat, divided by 3 meals. That gives you 20 grams of fat per meal.

[08:54] For example, my main meal can be fat from 120 grams of salmon and quarter of an avocado. And that equals to 23 grams of fat. My macronutrients breakdown in a day will be 180 grams of cups, 135 grams of protein and 60 grams of fat.

[09:15] And that gives me a total of 1,800 calories. You don't have to be extremely precise with the macronutrient count for each meal, because some meals may be bigger than the others. But in to hit your total macros and calories from all your meals in a day.

[09:32] Remember, not all calories are equal. Consume more good calories and you will be healthier, have more energy and achieve your fitness goals quicker. If your diet is filled with bad calories, then it will hinder your weight loss goal.

[09:48] And you will feel sluggish. Should we obsess over counting calories or macros? No, it should not stress you out. I believe that we should learn to count our macros to increase our awareness of the quality and amount of food we consume in a day.

[10:05] As a result, this will encourage us to choose healthier, nutrient dense food to achieve our personal fitness goals. Let me know what are your macronutrients breakdown in the comments below and your total calories in a day.

[10:20] If you find this video to be extremely useful, then give this video a thumbs up, share this video and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Do also check out my other fitness videos on my channel. On the best.