If you are looking for a revolutionary dietary approach that wouldn’t deprive you of all your favorite foods, then you have landed the perfect place. Flexible Dieting is a new dietary approach, which is a non-restrictive way of dieting which allows you to eat whatever you want staying in the limits pf your macronutrient intake.

Is this method of dieting foolproof? Obviously not! The idea of the non-restrictive dieting may appear to be simple to you, but in reality, it requires a paradigm shift in your lifestyle along with a deep understanding of the nutritional values or else you may go wrong. However, if done right, you would find it amazing for two major reasons. First, the diet plan is easier to follow which allows you to be consistent. Second, you lose the extra fat while you still eat all your favorite foods.

Sounds too good to be true? Let’s give you all the information on macros, flexible dieting, and macro calculation and how to align your macro intake with your weight goals to make it easier for you to understand and start the macro diet.

What Are Macros?

All the foods we eat are composed of the three major macros – carbohydrates, fats, and protein. The flexible dieting frees you from the struggle of calorie counting as well as giving up on a certain macronutrient; instead, it focuses on fulfilling the daily goals for your macros. When done right, the flexible dieting approach doesn’t only make your calorie intake consistent but also allows you to personalize your diet in infinite ways.

The macro calculator helps provide you with the best ratio of each macro that you need to eat. Once you know the ratio, you can then determine the foods and their quantity that you need to intake so that you can lose fat and not muscles while losing the extra weight. The good thing about macro counting is that you don’t have to make any radical paradigm shifts in your diet nor have to deprive yourself. All you have to do is remain in the macro count every day, and you are good to lose the extra fat. The biggest plus of this approach being – tailor the diet according to your taste and lifestyle, keeping in view your macro goals.

Macro Breakdown

Flexible dieting is among the most adaptable and moderate dietary approaches if done right. Once you have set your macro target for daily, you can consume any food you like to meet this goal. Basically, the approach focuses on the importance of macros that you must take from specific sources instead of the calories. You can easily build your diet around these basic sources while indulging in your favorite foods as well whenever necessary.

Protein

Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, which initiate muscle growth as well as recovery in our body. Apart from building muscles, protein is also helpful in making you feel satiated for longer and for these reasons; protein is beneficial in weight management.

Food rich in protein:

• Meats: Chicken, turkey, lean beef, pork.
• Eggs: All types.
• Fish: Salmon, haddock, sardines, trout.
• Legumes: Kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
• Dairy: Milk, cheese, yoghurt, etc.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates or carbs are the macronutrients that are found in foods that are high in sugar and things like grains, starches, etc. Foods like bread, cereals, bagels, flour, pasta, beans, syrup, sugar, soda, potatoes and many more. Carbohydrates can be categorized into good carbs and bad carbs.

Simple Carbs

• These simple carbohydrates have a low or moderate density of calories and are easy to digest.
• Rich in nutrients.
• Doesn’t contain refined grains and sugars.
• Good carbs are low in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium and no trans fats.
• Good carbs are rich in naturally occurring fibre.

Complex Carbs

• The Complex carbs have a high density of calories and hence are difficult to digest.
• These are high in refined sugars and refined grains and low in nutrients and fibre.
• Bad carbs are high in saturated fat, and often high in sodium as well.
• These may also be high in trans fats and cholesterol.

Fats

As afraid as we are f fats, it turns out these fats are essential for our body functioning as they are one of the major sources of energy for the body. There are good fats, and there are bad fats, let’s find out how:

Unsaturated Fats

Monounsaturated and are the good fats that help to lower your cholesterol levels, which means that a diet rich in good fats actually helps to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

Polyunsaturated fats are the essential fatty acids required by the body to function properly. Also, the body is incapable of producing these essential fats on its own, so you need to include them in your diet to help your body function properly. There are two major types of polyunsaturated fats Omega-6 and omega-3.

• Omega-6: The omega-6 fatty acid is commonly found in most of the vegetable oils, other food oils and various nuts. So, the chances of it being missed from the diet are rare.
• Omega-3: On the other hand, omega-3 fatty acids are usually missing from our diets, which cannot be good at all. Omega-3 fatty acids are the real-life food miracle due to their benefits. They are naturally present in fish (also fish oil supplements) in abundance. These amazing fatty acids are good for everything related to the body like building muscle, losing fat, proper functioning of the body and organs and in preventing the diseases.

Saturated Fats

These are the bad fats that convert to solid at room temperature. They tend to increase the risks of hypertension and stroke in the body when used in excess. They also influence the production of testosterone and hormones on the body.

Trans Fats

These are the bad fats that impact heart health negatively alongside other metabolic abnormalities.

Macro Calculation

The best way to creating a calorie deficit for weight loss in a healthy manner is by using Macro counting. When you calculate your macros (macronutrients) and indulge in non-restrictive dieting, which means you can eat all your favourite foods as long as you don’t cross your macro goals. Although you can lose weight by eating the unhealthy foods as well in this case, it is recommended to include healthy foods like vegetables, nuts, fruits, lean meat, etc. in your diet as well so that you don’t only lose weight but also stay fit.

You can use our macro calculator to track your macros and devise your weight management program accordingly by staying fit and healthy as well.

Ways to Include Enough Macros to your Diet

Calories

You will need to find out the calories you need on a daily basis to sustain your physical exertion level. Then you can proceed to calculate the ratio of each nutrient to meet your calorie intake demand.

Macro Ratio

Once you know the calories you need to intake daily, you will need to figure out which macro you wish to include more in your diet. Based on your lifestyle and personal preference, you can opt one from the following approaches:

• High Protein
• High Carb
• Ketogenic
• Low Carb
• Recommended

Once you chose your preferred approach, stick to it for achieving visible results.

Follow up

After choosing your preferred approach, use an app or a calorie calculator to plan out your meal accurately. You must use appropriate measuring tools to calculate the exact amount of calories you are taking.

Each Macro has the following calorie content:

1 gram Carbohydrates = 4 calories

1 gram Protein = 4 calories

1 gram Fat = 9 calories

Track Your Macros

Keep track of your macros by using an app. Measure and record everything you eat. You can take photos of things you eat during the day and measure the macros by the end of the day so that you know what you are putting in your body and whether your macro ratio is being met or not.

Helpful Tips

• Don’t go for crash diets and starving techniques as it doesn’t do any good to your body. Not only does under-eating unbalance your hormones but also affects your ability to lose weight while gaining lean muscle mass.
• Includes foods in your meals that have all the macros in them.
• Consistency is the key to weight management through macros. Don’t put stress on your body by being inconsistent as high and low blood sugar tends to cause hormonal imbalance, sleeplessness, inflammation and much more.