Latest / Health Unscripted / Calories, Macros, Micros...OH MY!
Transcript
- 0:06SPEAKER_00: What's up guys?
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
- 0:08SPEAKER_00: Welcome to another episode of Health Unscripted with Dr.
- 0:11SPEAKER_00: Dwyer.
- 0:12SPEAKER_00: I am Dr.
- 0:13SPEAKER_00: Ashley Dwyer, pharmacist turned health coach, turned full-time entrepreneur.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: And this week on Health Unscripted, we're shifting more into the nutrition aspect of, you know, what I love the most.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: And so why not start off with the best intro episode to nutrition, which is calories versus macros versus micros.
- 0:35SPEAKER_00: So I just gave a presentation on this to my BDN clients the other day, and I realized, like, wow, you know, I know this stuff, but it was such a shocker to a lot of them.
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I want to share this with the world, and I need to repurpose this and educate on a higher platform and talk more about it in case I forgot anything the other night.
- 0:54SPEAKER_00: A lot of my clients listen to my podcast, and I'm so, so, so grateful for all of you.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: I love you all so much.
- 1:00SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: So, why am I talking about calories and macros and and micros and what the hell am I talking about?
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: So, we all know like calories in versus calories out, right?
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: Like we we it's called Seco CICO, calories in versus calories out.
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: That is the general weight loss or fat loss definition of like this is how you have to do it.
- 1:20SPEAKER_00: Like your calories out need to equal more than your calories in.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that sounds great.
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: And and calorie deficits are the key to you know substantial weight loss and fat loss.
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: However, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't go into detail about what those calories should look like, what types of foods you should be eating.
- 1:38SPEAKER_00: It's simply just calories in, calories out.
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: So if you've done any, you know, not even research, if you just kind of like dis you know figure it out, like calories aren't created equal.
- 1:50SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 1:50SPEAKER_00: So 1500 calories of cake and you know, fast food does not equal 1500 calories of fruits, vegetables, salad, lean protein.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: You're gonna feel completely different eating both of those, those types of calorie splits, okay?
- 2:08SPEAKER_00: And the goal is to have you feeling amazing, not just being in that calorie deficit.
- 2:13SPEAKER_00: So why do we do calories then?
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: Why do we why do we even focus on calories?
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: So calories are an easy way to get started when it comes to bringing awareness to your nutrition and how much you should actually be ingesting.
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: Calories are a great framework to start out with when you're trying to get on a weight loss journey or even just figure out what's best for you.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: Most of us, we just pick a diet and we're like, okay, cool, keto.
- 2:39SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna eliminate carbs and just eat a bunch of fat.
- 2:42SPEAKER_00: But even then, we're not tracking.
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: You're not tracking, you're not, you're not weighing things out, you're not anything that has to do with how much food you're eating.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: You're just simply not eating a certain food group and loading up on another food group.
- 2:52SPEAKER_00: So keto may work for some, but then you could still be eating in a calorie surplus and gain weight, okay?
- 2:59SPEAKER_00: So you could also choose to do what's another like fad diet?
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're all low carb and low calorie and whatever.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: So the general idea is that you want to make sure you're you're getting the nutrients in.
- 3:14SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 3:15SPEAKER_00: So what we're gonna do with calories is when we when we go into macros, we still need that calorie framework.
- 3:22SPEAKER_00: So when you are deciding like what your goal is going to be and what you're gonna be working towards, you need to first figure out your TDEE, your total daily energy expenditure, how much your body is burning at rest, at motion, like the whole thing, how much you're burning all freaking day.
- 3:40SPEAKER_00: That is what you need to know.
- 3:41SPEAKER_00: So TDEE is compromised of your basal metabolic rate or BMR.
- 3:45SPEAKER_00: That is literally 70% of your TDEE.
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: So you burn the majority of your calories each day by doing nothing.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: Like your what your body does at rest is your BMR, and and that's most of your TDEE.
- 3:59SPEAKER_00: Um, about 20% of that, 10 to 30% sometimes, but we'll just say 20, um, is your exercise.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: So uh exercise induced, you know, thermogenesis, so how much you're burning while exercising.
- 4:11SPEAKER_00: So if as you can see, 20% is a lot less than 70%.
- 4:15SPEAKER_00: So your BMR actually has greater weight when it comes to how many calories you're burning.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: Um, the other components of the TDE are non-exercise activity thermogenesis, so your steps, getting your steps in, fidgeting, how much you're moving throughout the day.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: That's why we always say, like, get those 10,000 steps in, because you, you know, you need to increase that neat.
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: And to be honest with you, it makes a huge difference.
- 4:37SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, the leftover portion is the thermagogenic um thermogenic effect of food.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: So, so how much your body re I can't speak all at all, how much your body is burning while digesting food.
- 4:50SPEAKER_00: Okay, because that that is an energy process, it requires energy.
- 4:53SPEAKER_00: So your body does burn calories doing that.
- 4:56SPEAKER_00: So that makes up the umbrella of TDEE.
- 4:59SPEAKER_00: So you can kind of like use a guide.
- 5:01SPEAKER_00: I like to use TDEE calculator.net sometimes just to get a general overview of what someone's um you know umbrella TDEE looks like.
- 5:11SPEAKER_00: However, then we take into account hormonal, you know, hormone, hormonal changes, um, what their metabolism's like if they've been in a deficit for for a while, if they are in a high stress environment, things like that.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: So it's it's a good place to start.
- 5:26SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 5:26SPEAKER_00: So you take that, you go to that website, you find out your TDEE, and then you decide, do I want to cut?
- 5:33SPEAKER_00: Do I need maintenance or am I bulking?
- 5:35SPEAKER_00: So if you are gonna cut, I would subtract 20% of your TDEE, and then that would be your cutting, you know, calories.
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: Maintenance, you basically stay at the number that it calculates for you, and then bulking, you would multiply that number by 20% and add it to the TDEE to get how much you should be consuming for bulking.
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: So now that's all great and dandy.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: Say for example, my TDEE is 2100.
- 5:59SPEAKER_00: My 20% deficit then is going to be somewhere around 1700 calories.
- 6:03SPEAKER_00: So cool.
- 6:04SPEAKER_00: So as I was saying earlier, 1700 calories of cake does not equal 1700 calories of lettuce and what I would be, how I would be feeling and how my body would be operating versus the two.
- 6:15SPEAKER_00: So that is why we shift into macros.
- 6:17SPEAKER_00: So what are macros?
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: Macros are the building blocks of calories, essentially.
- 6:21SPEAKER_00: It is the components that make up the calories you're consuming.
- 6:25SPEAKER_00: So, for example, um, there's proteins, carbs, and fats.
- 6:29SPEAKER_00: We've all heard of these, they're on nutrition labels.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: Those are what we count when we when we talk about counting macros.
- 6:35SPEAKER_00: One gram of protein equals four calories, one gram of carbs equals four calories, and one gram of fat equals nine calories.
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: So as you can see, fat is pretty dense.
- 6:45SPEAKER_00: It's twice the amount of calories as proteins and fat, or I'm sorry, proteins and carbs.
- 6:50SPEAKER_00: So that's why we need to be mindful of these macro components and of the building blocks.
- 6:54SPEAKER_00: So macros is also not a diet, it's not like some diet fad, you just start tracking macros.
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: Macros is a tool to allow you to get self-awareness of your nutrition, learn how much nutrition a food group has, and kind of like set yourself up to fine-tune your goals.
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: So let's use myself, for example, again.
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: I'm in a deficit of 1700 calories.
- 7:18SPEAKER_00: So, what are those going to be made out of?
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: What are the building blocks gonna look like?
- 7:22SPEAKER_00: Well, when we're in a cut, and I've posted this many times, um, I generally like to follow one gram of protein per pound of body weight up to a certain fat percentage.
- 7:32SPEAKER_00: So for myself, I would use 135 grams of protein as my protein base.
- 7:38SPEAKER_00: For others, you know, if you are above a 30% body fat or, you know, teetering on that line, I would generally drop it down to 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per body weight.
- 7:49SPEAKER_00: I generally don't like to give women uh more than 150 grams of protein per day to hit.
- 7:56SPEAKER_00: It can get pretty hard if you've ever tracked macros.
- 7:59SPEAKER_00: So then um we have our protein split.
- 8:02SPEAKER_00: Then I need fats, right?
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: We need fats for hormones.
- 8:05SPEAKER_00: Why are fats important?
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: I mean, we try to eliminate fats all the time, and I see women coming to me with fat, you know, fat calculations of 35 grams a day, and it just makes me want to like cringe because we actually need fat for brain health and for hormones.
- 8:20SPEAKER_00: So um for myself, I would multiply that that cutting amount of calories, so 1700 by 30 percent, and then I would get my fat calories for the day.
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: I'd divide that by nine, and that would be my my grams of fat.
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: So just for reference, um I'm trying to do it right now on a calculator.
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: So 1700 times 30% is 510 divided by nine is 56.66.
- 8:45SPEAKER_00: I would just round that down to 55 grams of fat.
- 8:48SPEAKER_00: There's my fat.
- 8:49SPEAKER_00: And then the leftover calories I divide by four to get carbohydrates.
- 8:52SPEAKER_00: So that is kind of how you create macros.
- 8:55SPEAKER_00: That's not the point of this episode, but just giving a brief, you know, example of how someone would do that.
- 9:00SPEAKER_00: Um, you can find a clear example if you're a visual person on my Instagram of how to calculate macros at Dr.
- 9:06SPEAKER_00: Dwyer.
- 9:07SPEAKER_00: So we use macros, as I was saying, to create a more balanced approach to target these goals quicker.
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: So if my goal is fat loss and building muscle, then I'm going to want to prioritize protein and making sure I'm getting in that adequate amount every single day.
- 9:21SPEAKER_00: I'm also going to want to make sure I have enough carbs to utilize during my workouts and for muscle recovery.
- 9:26SPEAKER_00: So it's definitely a tool used to heavily focus on body recomposition and fine-tuning your goals.
- 9:35SPEAKER_00: It also allows for flexibility.
- 9:37SPEAKER_00: So sure, you have to weigh and track your food, but you get the option to eat chocolate every day.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: You can include wine in your day.
- 9:44SPEAKER_00: You can go out to dinner and have your favorite food and manipulate and budget these macros to equal, you know, what your day needs without it being a cheat day.
- 9:53SPEAKER_00: Who the hell doesn't want flexibility?
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: Again, if you're one of those people, we're likely not friends.
- 10:00SPEAKER_00: So I love flexibility.
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: If I have to track something for the trade-off of getting to have cookies every single day, I'm doing it.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: Like that is just who I am.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: I will do the small sacrifice because again, what other options do I have?
- 10:15SPEAKER_00: Cutting out cookies completely?
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: No.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: I'd rather I'd rather spend the like second putting it into a log than getting it out of my life completely.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: So in summary, we have calories so far, which is our blanket term, which is our our base layer for starting any type of goal and nutrition awareness.
- 10:33SPEAKER_00: Then we move into those building blocks of calories, which are macronutrients, so proteins, carbs, and fats.
- 10:39SPEAKER_00: So that's what equals up our calorie portion.
- 10:41SPEAKER_00: We can manipulate and change these numbers for our goals, and that's what makes it so fantastic.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: So calories are generally like the energy our body requires, right?
- 10:52SPEAKER_00: So that's that's how we look at it.
- 10:54SPEAKER_00: Like calories, you need this much energy to perform daily.
- 10:58SPEAKER_00: Macros are the nutrition makeup of those calories.
- 11:01SPEAKER_00: So what are you really putting into your body to give it that energy?
- 11:06SPEAKER_00: So we focus heavily on protein.
- 11:09SPEAKER_00: And I know um a lot of my female clients are like, Protein's so hard.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: I don't eat enough protein.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: Why do I need this much protein?
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: And you know, it depends on your goals, obviously, and health conditions and things like that.
- 11:19SPEAKER_00: But protein is the only macronutrient our body does not store.
- 11:23SPEAKER_00: So our body stores carbs and fats later for energy.
- 11:26SPEAKER_00: It does not store protein, is it is excreted every single day, so it must be replenished every single day.
- 11:33SPEAKER_00: So um that's why it's such a like, you know, we we harp on this on this subject all the time.
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: Like, get your protein in, we're focusing on protein.
- 11:42SPEAKER_00: It is because it is not stored.
- 11:44SPEAKER_00: Carbohydrates are obviously our number one energy source for the body.
- 11:47SPEAKER_00: Um, this macro is the one macro that can be heavily manipulated for goals.
- 11:52SPEAKER_00: So, for example, if you are a sedentary person, you don't have much activity, you're nursing an injury, you can't really work out much, we would drop these carbs lower than what we would have if you were an active person.
- 12:03SPEAKER_00: So this can be, you know, on the high end or on the low end, depending on what the goals are.
- 12:07SPEAKER_00: And then fat, as I stated earlier, is super important for hormone health, brain health, a lot of functions in the body absorbing vitamins.
- 12:15SPEAKER_00: This should be, depending on if you're a male or a female, 25 to 35 percent of your daily calories.
- 12:20SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that that amount should come from fat regardless.
- 12:24SPEAKER_00: So no more 20 grams of fat per day, ladies, like your hormones are going to hate you and it's not worth it.
- 12:31SPEAKER_00: So the key here is I said, calories are not created equal, but you know, shocking.
- 12:38SPEAKER_00: Macros are not created equal either.
- 12:41SPEAKER_00: So now I've given you the building blocks and I've I've told you that you can manipulate, right?
- 12:46SPEAKER_00: So let's say that Sally orders pizza and French fries and she can make this fit in her macros somehow, but then, you know, Timmy, I don't know where I'm getting these names, has the same macros but fills them with chicken breast and broccoli and potatoes and and salads and fruit and things like that, and still hits his macros.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: Who is going to get the better results?
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: The one on the pizza and french fries, or the one on the chicken and potatoes and things like that, and the the more nutrient-dense foods.
- 13:18SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, Timmy.
- 13:20SPEAKER_00: You know, they actually might get the same results, but they're not gonna feel the same.
- 13:23SPEAKER_00: And I can guarantee you, Sally's gonna be bloated from eating a lot of salt and and processed foods.
- 13:28SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to feel that way.
- 13:30SPEAKER_00: We want to feel amazing.
- 13:31SPEAKER_00: So that is where we introduce micronutrients.
- 13:34SPEAKER_00: So when I talk about a nutrient-dense diet, nutrient-dense foods, you'll hear me say that a lot.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: That is micronutrient dense foods and micronutrient-dense diet.
- 13:45SPEAKER_00: So, what the hell are micronutrients?
- 13:47SPEAKER_00: I just told you calories and macronutrients.
- 13:49SPEAKER_00: Now I have to focus on micronutrients.
- 13:51SPEAKER_00: This is a lot of info, Ashley.
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is, but you will thank me for it.
- 13:55SPEAKER_00: I promise.
- 13:56SPEAKER_00: Um, micronutrients are simply vitamins and minerals, they stare you in the face every single day on multivitamin.
- 14:03SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if you take a multivitamin every day or on nutrition labels, they are there.
- 14:09SPEAKER_00: So this is just bringing awareness to that section.
- 14:11SPEAKER_00: So micronutrients are vitamins and minerals, they cannot be produced by the body.
- 14:16SPEAKER_00: They have to be eaten in order to be in the body, right?
- 14:20SPEAKER_00: We can't make them.
- 14:21SPEAKER_00: We need to get them from an outside source.
- 14:23SPEAKER_00: So micronutrients are very important for immune function, brain development, growth of tissues.
- 14:29SPEAKER_00: Uh, obviously, they are zero calories because they are like iron, selenium, calcium, things like that.
- 14:37SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna dive into that more in a second.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: So, first we're gonna talk about vitamins.
- 14:42SPEAKER_00: So, why are vitamins super important?
- 14:44SPEAKER_00: And what does our food intake have to do with vitamins?
- 14:47SPEAKER_00: So, there's two types of vitamins, water soluble and fat soluble.
- 14:51SPEAKER_00: So, for those who are cutting down their fat sources every single day, you're gonna have a hard time absorbing the fat-soluble vitamins, which are vitamins A, D, E, and K.
- 15:01SPEAKER_00: All of those are super important for bodily functions and should, I mean, vitamin D is crucial for immune support, immune support as well.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: So, if you're not eating enough fat, it's gonna be really hard to absorb these vitamins.
- 15:13SPEAKER_00: Water soluble vitamins are all of the vitamin Bs and vitamin C, which again we need for energy, immune support, and other functions in the body.
- 15:22SPEAKER_00: So making sure that you're you're getting in these adequate vitamins.
- 15:26SPEAKER_00: Um, something I do like to like to say, you know, I supplement with a vitamin B complex every day, I supplement with vitamin C every day, I also take a vitamin D capsule every single day.
- 15:37SPEAKER_00: And that is because, you know, COVID has been crazy with immune function.
- 15:42SPEAKER_00: So I'm just trying to double it up and create that safety.
- 15:47SPEAKER_00: Um, I also take a, you know, vitamin sink, omega-3s, I can go over all that at the end, but just to highlight that you can get a lot of these vitamins in food sources, but something I'll just touch on really quickly.
- 16:02SPEAKER_00: Food isn't the same that it used to be back in the day.
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: So a water today, sorry, an apple today is not an apple 50 years ago.
- 16:08SPEAKER_00: So the nutrient complex is not the same due to soil depletion, environmental toxins, pesticides, etc.
- 16:14SPEAKER_00: Like pre, you know, fake ripening.
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: Even if we get organic, it's still not the same as it used to be.
- 16:19SPEAKER_00: So I still like to supplement with a vitamin and mineral, you know, a multivitamin or things like that, just to make sure I'm getting it enough, even if I am eating a healthy diet rich in nutrients.
- 16:31SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 16:32SPEAKER_00: So we have vitamins, we have water soluble and fat soluble.
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: Now we talk about minerals.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: So minerals are, you know, sodium, calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, zinc, selenium, all of the little things that maybe we don't really pay attention to, but that are super important in the body.
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: So sodium controls our fluid balance and our kidneys.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: Calcium is important for bone and teeth health.
- 16:55SPEAKER_00: So is phosphorus.
- 16:57SPEAKER_00: Potassium is important for cell function.
- 16:59SPEAKER_00: Magnesium, really, really important for muscle and nerve function.
- 17:02SPEAKER_00: A lot of Americans are deficient in magnesium.
- 17:06SPEAKER_00: So check that out.
- 17:07SPEAKER_00: You can find magnesium in spinach, bananas, brown rice, um, nutrient-tense foods.
- 17:11SPEAKER_00: See, those all sound really good.
- 17:13SPEAKER_00: Iron, a lot of people suffer from anemia.
- 17:16SPEAKER_00: That is important for blood production.
- 17:17SPEAKER_00: So you can get iron from beef, shellfish, even quinoa if you are vegan or vegetarian, lots of iron.
- 17:24SPEAKER_00: Iodine is important for thyroid health, zinc for immune health, obviously.
- 17:28SPEAKER_00: And then we get a lot of fluoride in our water, um, especially down here in Florida.
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: So I think we're overkill on the fluoride mineral, but that is important for teeth, as you know.
- 17:39SPEAKER_00: And then um manganese and selenium, very important for antioxidants and fat carb metabolism.
- 17:45SPEAKER_00: So if you've never had a micronutrient blood panel, I actually just did this and it was fascinating because as someone who eats a lot of, you know, nutrient-dense foods, I was still deficient in certain minerals.
- 17:57SPEAKER_00: And that's because either I am um lactose intolerant or I was taking too much of one supplement and it was like hurting another area.
- 18:06SPEAKER_00: So super interesting stuff.
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to this and you are interested in getting a micronutrient panel, you can totally reach out to me on Instagram at Dr.
- 18:13SPEAKER_00: Dwyer and I can set you up with one and we can do that.
- 18:17SPEAKER_00: So in summation, today we talked about calories, macros, and micros and kind of how they make that difference.
- 18:24SPEAKER_00: So, calories is gonna be your starting place for a simple nutrition plan.
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: Like learning how many calories your body needs and what you're utilizing is super important.
- 18:32SPEAKER_00: Then you want to break that up into the building blocks of macros.
- 18:35SPEAKER_00: So, why we care about macros is because it fine-tunes our goals and gets us in that balance that we need to, you know, not only take care of our hormones, but get enough protein in and have the fuel to do so with carbohydrates.
- 18:50SPEAKER_00: And then micronutrients are making sure that we're really focusing on the quality ingredients we're putting into our body.
- 18:55SPEAKER_00: So we're not expecting our body to run like a Ferrari while we're feeding it Chick-fil-A or a Big Mac.
- 19:01SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're expecting it to do that by eating nutrient-rich foods and making sure to include those at least 80% of the time.
- 19:09SPEAKER_00: So I hope this episode was helpful for you guys.
- 19:11SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited for this weekly podcast still.
- 19:15SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining me.
- 19:17SPEAKER_00: Please download, share, uh, subscribe, all the things, and um looking forward to connecting with all of my listeners.
- 19:25SPEAKER_00: I want to hear more about you guys and where you're listening from.
- 19:28SPEAKER_00: So if you could shoot me a message on Instagram and just say health unscripted or podcast, I'd love to talk to you guys.
- 19:34SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested in starting your own macro plan and you're like, this sounds super interesting, but where do I even start?
- 19:40SPEAKER_00: Again, message me, let's chat.
- 19:43SPEAKER_00: It is not as hard or as complex as it seems, especially if you have the right teacher.
- 19:47SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys, have an amazing weekend, and I'll speak to you next week.