When you first start counting and tracking calories and macros, you’ll find that it can be quite a daunting task. Logging your food seems simple enough and quick solutions like Myfitnesspal can certainly help but theirs no denying that counting calories can be quite difficult at first.
Therefore, when you finally get the hang of counting your calories, it might be frustrating to find that you are hitting calories but not macros.
If you are hitting calories but not macros then it means some of your food choices might not have favorable macros and might have a low nutrient density which leads to over-consuming on one macro category (typically carbs or fat) whilst under-consuming on another macro category (typically protein).
In this article, I’ll cover food choices that will help you hit both your calorie and macro targets whilst also demonstrating some clear examples for where you might be getting caught out when counting your calories and macros.
As the saying goes:
“Not all calories are created equal”
Table of Contents
Hitting Calories but Not Macros
In recent years, the importance of calorie and macro counting and manipulation has seen people transform their physiques whilst not having to deprive themselves of food through a diet of chicken, rice, and broccoli for building muscle or a salad for losing weight.
These outdated meal plans have given way to flexible dieting, IIFYM, and food manipulation with many nutritionists and online coaches being able to help people get the physique they want while still eating the foods they like.
With apps like Myfitnesspal mentioned earlier, people can even track their own calories and macros now and make adjustments to suit their goals and food preferences. This is all good in theory but when you do everything right, hit your calories, but not macros then the system starts to break down.
The most common reason for someone hitting their calories but not macros will come down to food choices and uncomplimentary macro options.
All foods have different macronutrient splits. There are foods high in protein and low in carbs, foods high in fat with moderate protein and low/zero carbs, and foods that are high in fat, carbs, and protein!
The example above can be tuna (high protein, low carbs), egg (high fat, moderate protein, low/zero carbs), and a takeaway burger (high fat, high carbs, and moderate/high protein).
Finding a balance between your foods is key as the burger option will be high in calories meaning you will hit your daily calorie target but due to the macronutrient split of this option, your macros will have no consistency.
If, however, you opted for more nutrient-dense options which are usually whole food sources (unprocessed foods like meat, fish, vegetables, grains, oils, fruit) then the macro ratios will be much more favorable.
Just to demonstrate this point very simply, a 100g tin of tuna will provide the following nutritional value:
- Protein – 25g
- Fat – 1g
- Carbs – Nil
- Calories – 109kcal
In contract, 100g Mars bar has the following nutritional value:
- Protein – 4.4g
- Fat – 16.7g
- Carbs – 69.3g
- Calories – 448kcal
In this example, both foods have a net weight of 100g but their calories and macro content are so different they are not even comparable.
If someone consumed a lot of chocolate bars throughout the day, they would quickly hit their calorie target but protein would be hugely under-consumed. Tuna might seem like a healthier option but if you only consumed fish, by the time you hit your calorie target you’ll have only consumed protein in terms of macros and have nonexistent fat and carb intake.
Do Calories Matter if You Hit Your Macros
The above example is extreme and I’ve not compared those two foods to say fish is good and chocolate is bad. It’s easy to get hung up on “clean” and “dirty/junk” foods but that isn’t the point here.
Rather, I’m just showing that certain food choices can see you hit calories with ease but hitting your macros is what will always be the difficult part if you are making food choices that don’t align with your goals. Small tweaks to your food choices can quickly see your macros line up better with your overall calorie intake.
I’ve covered recently how many people are counting macros and not losing weight and this usually comes down to the fact their overall calorie intake is too high. Simply counting calories will not ensure you lose weight or hit your macros.
While macros are important for optimal progress, what’s even more important is the energy balance and if you are hitting your calories daily, this is going to contribute to 80% of your results (provided your calorie target is correct).
Is It Better to Hit Your Macros or Calories
Weight loss and weight gain are influenced by two concepts, energy in vs energy out.
If you are consuming more calories than what you are expending in energy each day, you will gain weight. If you are consuming fewer calories than what you expend in energy each day, you will lose weight.
This is why crash diets work, you are forced to consume so few calories that the deficit is significantly below the energy you consume each day which means your body needs to use the stored energy in the form of body fat or muscle tissue.
As a disclaimer, I use Myfitnesspal to track my food, I consume favorable macro quantities and do a lot of the stuff that usually only contributes to 10% of the progress in terms of strength and body composition.
The reason I say that is because calories are typically more important than macros when it comes to body composition. I’ll always recommend the optimal, more sustainable approach to dieting but if you follow a juicing diet for 6 weeks and have nothing more than 1,000kcals per day, you’ll lose weight.
This will have psychological and physiological implications in there future, but in the short-term, you’ll lose weight.
Therefore, focus on total calories first because if you are hitting this number consistently, you’ll see results over time. If you are struggling with your macros then I’d recommend using the following as a guide and then trying to find food choices (that you enjoy) to hit these numbers:
- Protein – 1g per 1lb of body weight (a 200lb individual will consume 200g protein)
- Fat – 0.45g per 1lb of body weight (a 200lb individual will consume 90g fat [200*0.45])
- Carbs – make up from remaining calories
This is a rough guide, you should tweak it for your own goals and certainly make adjustments over time but if you are struggling to hit your macros, they might not be optimal.
Do You Have to Hit Your Macros
As covered above, you don’t need to hit your macros to see progress for most fitness-related goals. Unless you plan on entering a bodybuilding competition, you don’t need to force yourself to hit exact macros every day.
These are fine lines that are used to separate the best of the best in a competitive environment. If you are trying to maintain muscle mass whilst getting to a 5%-8% body fat level, macros are going to be crucial for supporting this.
For the other 99% of the world though, you don’t need to hit macros daily in order to see progress. It’s not that hitting macros isn’t important and you will likely see better progress if you are consuming optimal macronutrient quantities but it’s not essential.
Most of your progress will come from the overall calorie deficit if your goal is weight loss. If you are trying to build muscle then macros are slightly more important as you need to fuel intense resistance training sessions and also recover from them which is significantly more effective when your macros are in check.
If you just want to get in shape though, you certainly don’t have to hit macros.
What Happens if You Don’t Hit Your Macros
If you don’t hit the macros your results will vary. If for example, your macros targets are:
- Protein – 180g
- Fat – 75g
- Carbs – 150g
But instead, you hit the following for the day:
- Protein – 170g
- Fat – 65g
- Carbs – 180g
Then chances are not too much will happen, especially if this is an infrequent occurrence.
If however, your targets were the same but instead your macros for the day are:
- Protein – 100g
- Fat – 100g
- Carbs – 320g
Well, now it’s going to significantly impact you.
Macros are not the most important thing to track, they will keep you moving in the right direction and progressing but fixating on hitting your macros exactly is going to cause you more stress, anxiety and unhappiness than if you fluctuate slightly.
Macros are important, but not to the exact gram for the vast majority of people. As long as you are within a reasonable area and hit your calorie target (this is the thing to focus on the most), then you’ll continue to move forward and see progress.
A few bad days where you don’t hit your macros won’t ruin your progress completely just like a few good days of hitting your macros won’t suddenly improve your physique drastically.
As long as you have more good days than bad and don’t follow a day where you missed your macros with another day of missed macros, you’ll be fine.
Summary
Hitting calories consistently is going to be a factor that sees you progress. Consistency when it comes to body composition will always beat short sprints of effort, burnout, and then a reversal to bad habits.
You might not be hitting macros and if this is the case, you just need to check your food sources and see if you can swap some foods out for similar items that are better aligned with your macro targets.
Not all calories are created equally and regardless of what people want you to believe, eating nutrient-dense foods will look to better results than hitting calories through foods with low nutrient density (empty calories).
Therefore, don’t worry about not hitting your macros every day, focus primarily on total calories, and then make adjustments to your food choices and macros to continually improve and get better results.
What Next
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