The ketogenic diet has become one of the most popular forms of weight loss in recent years. However, you’ll need to number crunch your personal macros in order to get the most out of it.
For those who are unfamiliar with this process, it’s not as complicated as it might sound. Let’s explore what you need to know in order to reach your weight loss goals.
Table of Contents
Understand the Ratio for This Type of Diet
First and foremost, you need to understand the ratio that this diet requires. For those who are unfamiliar, it consists of the following:
- 25% of your calories will come from protein
- 70% of your calories will come from fat
- 5% of your calories will come from carbs
The low level of carbs you consume on a regular basis will promote ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body burns more fat for energy instead of sugars.
Determine Your Overall Calorie Needs
The number of calories you need to consume each day will be based on your level of activity. It will also be determined by your age and gender.
In general, younger individuals and males burn more calories on a regular basis. Those who engage in a high level of physical activity each week (such as athletes) will also need much more than the average person.
You can check out this resource to use a keto calculator to determine your needs.
Calculate Your Carb Needs
As you might guess, this is the most important part of figuring out your macros.
In general, it’s highly recommended that you consume between 20 to 50g of carbs per day depending on your caloric needs.
Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to calculate how many carbs you should consume on a daily basis. As previously mentioned, approximately 5% of your calories will come from carbohydrates.
Someone who eats 2000 cal per day would have 100 cal come from carbs. Each gram of carbs consists of roughly 4 calories. So, 100 cal from carbohydrates would be approximately 25g of carbs.
Determine How Much Protein You Should Consume
Protein is much easier to calculate. It will mainly depend on your body weight and your personal goals.
If you wish to maintain body weight and aren’t worried about building muscle, you should eat approximately 0.6g of protein per pound of body weight each day.
If you wish to gain muscle or are very active, it’s recommended you bump this number up to 1.1g per pound of body weight.
Calculate How Much Fat You Need
Finally, you’ll need to calculate how much fat you should consume each day. In order to figure out this number, you’ll need to take a couple of extra steps.
First, take the total calories you should consume from carbs each day. Then, do the same with your protein amount. You can calculate this by multiplying your total number of grams of daily protein by four.
Afterward, add your number of calories for both protein and carbs together. Subtract this number from the total number of calories you need to eat each day.
Divide the amount that remains by 9 to calculate how many grams of fat you need each day.
Understanding How to Number Crunch Your Keto Diet Might Seem Complicated
However, it’s not nearly as complex as it may seem at first. The above guide will help ensure that you can number crunch your macros effectively and are able to calculate your ideal ratios for your nutrition needs.
Want to learn more useful info that can help you out in the future? Be sure to check out the rest of our blog.
