Nutrition requires that you balance three specific macronutrient: protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein is necessary for muscle, training, and recovery. Carbohydrates is necessary for energy for training and other daily activity.
Fats are necessary for the functioning of an hormones and the cells in the body. These three macronutrients is often considered separately. However, they work together in the body for specific purpose.
How to Plan Meals with Protein, Carbs, and Fats
Understanding how these three macronutrients work together will allow you to plan your meal. The chart categorizes food item according to the dominant macronutrient in each food item. This makes it easy for you to see which food items contains which macronutrients.
For instance, chicken breast are in the protein section because it contains alot of protein and very little other macronutrients. Foods like oats is in the carbohydrate section because they contain carbohydrates and provide energy for the body. Foods like avocados and nuts are in the fat section because the calories in these foods come from fats rather than protein and carbohydrates.
Using this chart to create meals that contain foods from each macronutrient category will allow you to easily hit your macronutrient targets. A meal of oats, whey, and fruit will contain carbohydrates and protein, but not a lot of fat. A meal of chicken, rice, and vegetables will contain high amount of protein but controlled amounts of carbohydrates and fats.
A dinner of salmon, sweet potato, and avocado will contain more fat but will also provide protein and carbohydrates. Using this chart allow you to create meals with the macronutrients you need without calculating each food item combination. No food contains only one macronutrient.
All foods contain more than one macronutrient. Foods like salmon contains protein and healthy fats. Both lentils and quinoa contains protein and carbohydrates.
These foods can be used to provide both protein and carbohydrates or to provide fats and protein at the same time. This chart shows the dominant macronutrient in each food with additional notes explaining that other macronutrients is also present in these foods. Many people avoid carbohydrates or fats.
However, avoiding carbohydrates or fats can be harmful to the body. Carbohydrates are the preferred fuel for high-intensity activity. Avoiding carbohydrates can decrease the bodys performance.
Fats are necessary for the production of hormone. Avoiding fats can lead to issue with energy and mood. The chart categorizes the foods according to macronutrients rather than the good or bad qualities of the food.
In order to properly track the macronutrients in your diet, you will have to weigh the raw food and cook batches of these foods. The weights of the raw food will stay the same no matter how you cook the food. However, the weights will change when the food is cooked because of the loss of water in the food when it is cooked.
By cooking large batch of protein and carbohydrates up front, you will save time every day while also being able to stick to your nutritional plan. This chart will help you during meal preparation so that you know which foods will fit into which macronutrient category. The purpose of the chart is not for you to memorize each food and its macronutrients.
However, the chart allows you to quickly make decisions about your diet. For instance, you will remember that food items like chicken breast, tuna, and turkey contains protein. Oats and rice contains carbohydrates.
Foods like avocados, nuts, and olive oil contains fats. These charts will make these macronutrients visible to you so that you dont have to think about these category every time you prepare a meal.
