A question i was asked today, or rather suggested as a topical piece to turn into a video was…

 

IF CALORIES ARE KING, HOW IMPORTANT ARE MACROS?

 

A great question

 

So to look at it and answer it properly we need to address what both mean

 

Calories being king refers to weight loss and weight gain. ie if calories are low enough, you’ll lose weight, high enough and you’ll gain weight.

In this respect, macronutrients don’t matter. If all we are looking at is weight going up or down, then macronutrients really don’t matter.

 

If weight loss is all you are interested in, then consuming all of your calories from junk food, provided your calories are low enough, will result in weight loss

 

But this might not be the best option

 

If adequate protein intake isn’t met, then weight loss will be a combination of fat loss+muscle loss, rather than mainly fat loss (which is what we want)

 

So, for weight loss, ideally track protein along with calories to limit muscle loss and make sure you still look good after you’ve lost weight

 

As for weight gain, macronutrients, in my opinion are much more important.

Calories are still ling here (if you aren’t eating enough calories you wont gain weight)

But it’s much more important to make sure that you’re eating quality macronutrients to make sure that the weight you gain is muscle and not just fat

 

Too often people want to build muscle and just cram in junk food (calories being king) to gain weight, but all they end up doing is gaining fat instead

 

So

 

For fat loss calories (and protein) are king

 

For muscle gain macronutrients matter

 

PS

There are some very basic principles you can apply to fat loss and muscle gain to make sure you’re getting the best results, so don’t be afraid to get in touch to find out what they are