Macros vs Calories: Why Protein, Carbs and Fats Matter

Nikkiey: Real quick, if you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand that methodology and how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today.

Nutrition is one of the hardest things for people to grasp and understand. It is also one of the most important things in order to facilitate the type of results that you want to see with your body. I say nutrition is king, exercise is queen, all of the time. You cannot outwork a bad diet.

What is going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to episode 101.

Guys, we are back. Maybe this is the first episode that you're tuning into. But for those of you that listened to all of the 100 other episodes, there was a little bit of a break after releasing that 100th episode. I honestly just needed to be revived and also have the time and energy to dive back into recording the podcast. So it was a nice break. However, I am back, and I am excited to be back.

In the interim, in these three, four weeks that I paused the podcast, we've still held top 20. We were holding top 10 for a while, but we're still holding top 20 podcasts in the United States within fitness. So, man, guys, I love you. I appreciate you so much. I appreciate the love that you give this podcast.

This will be the last thing I say before we dive into the episode, but I received so many DMs: "I miss the podcast. I love the podcast. When is it coming back?" So, guys, I feel that love. And we are back. We have a lot of dope episodes lined up for you, a lot of cool guests that are going to be coming on the podcast. So I'm back, and we're back with even more to bring to you. More positive impact, more tips, more tricks, all of the things that will help you, I hope, along your journey.

And remember, anything that you learn from this podcast, please put it into action. Okay? Nothing that you want to accomplish within the results that you're seeking is going to happen unless you have action behind it. Right? You can listen to this podcast until you're blue in the ear. You can listen to all the tips, tricks and motivation that I give you. But without the action, you're never going to reach the results and the goals that you want. All right? Cool.

So with that being said, let's dive into today's podcast. Today's podcast is going to be all about macros. All about macros, baby. I mean, macros are where this podcast's original name came from. So let's just dive into all things macros.

This was inspired by Maverick. If you don't know who Maverick is, he's my Doberman, an almost three-year-old puppy. I take him to the dog park every single afternoon. And when I'm there, I always somehow get on the topic of nutrition and fitness, talking to the women that are there. The women are so sweet. They're like 45 to 50 to 55 years old. So I'm a little bit younger. But with that group of women, I'm like, damn, this is who I speak to on a daily basis. So cool, let's rock and roll on all the things that you have questions about.

Whenever I bring up the fact that WarriorBabe is a macronutrient-based company, the response the women have is, "I have no idea what macronutrients are." I'm like, yeah, I know. I get that. I hear that all the time. So I just want to bring more awareness to what macronutrients are in this podcast today. I want to touch on, if you are a beginner in macronutrients, where do you even start? How do you incorporate that kind of concept into your everyday routine? So we're diving into macros with you here today, okay?

What I first want to talk about and dive into is calories versus macronutrients. I've talked about this in an earlier podcast. There's a big difference. When you're aiming to have a goal in a day, a lot of women used to focus on, "I just need to hit a calorie number," right? A lot of women used to just focus on counting calories. "I eat 1,800 calories. I eat 2,000 calories in a day." A lot of women that I speak to don't even know what they're eating in a day. And typically, once I bring awareness with the first step, which I'll talk about in a minute, of how to start incorporating this stuff into your everyday routine, women are eating 1,000 calories, 1,100 calories.

So calories are a big thing, right? A lot of people know what calories are. They make up each food item that you eat. However, when you break down what those calories are made up of, that's where you get down to the macronutrients, right? Every single food item that you have contains calories, whether it's 200 calories, 450 calories, 800 calories, 100 calories. That is the overarching energy, right? Calories are a unit of energy. So it's the overall energy of what's in that food.

And then when you dive a little bit further, the macronutrients make up those calories. So if you look at the food label, you see total fat, total carbs, total protein, and those make up the overall calorie count of that food item. Whether it be pizza, eggs, a salad, a turkey club, a bagel, whatever it is that you're eating on a daily basis, the calories are what you see big and bold on the nutrition label, but then that breaks down into: this food item is made up of fats, carbs and protein. And that's what macronutrients are. Total fats, total carbs, total protein.

So let's say you see the calorie number is 200. And dude, I am not the best at quick math. So let's say you have five grams of fat, you have 20 grams of carbs, you have eight grams of protein. That's not going to equate to 200 calories, but just stick with me here.

Total fats are nine calories per gram. So there are five grams of fat inside of whatever food item it is. Times that by nine, and then you get 40. I'm so bad at quick math, but you get what I'm saying, right? I think that's actually 45. Forty-five, that's how many calories are coming from fat in that food item, okay?

And then you do that for carbs. I used 20 grams of carbs in the food item as an example. You times that by four, because there are four calories per gram of carbs. So you times 20 by four, and then 80 calories are coming from carbohydrates in that food item.

And then with the protein, I'm trying to get ahead of my math here so that I feel confident, but I'm just telling you, for the sake of this podcast and me spitballing this, I am so bad. So please don't hold me to the quick math. For the protein, I used eight grams, right? Protein is also four calories per gram. So you times eight by four, and that's 32 calories in that food item coming from protein.

Okay, so you see how we're diving just a little bit deeper past the calorie thing. In an earlier podcast, I shared why tracking macronutrients is a little bit more of an accurate measure of the food that you're eating than calories. Because when you're just focusing on, "I'm going to eat 1,800 calories in a day or 2,000 calories in a day," those calories could be made up of little protein, majority carbs and moderate fats, right? And then you're wondering why you could be holding on to water weight the next day. And that's probably because you had a little bit more carbs than you should have in the day, right? This is very micro. But if you're doing that over a consistent period of time, you could be holding on to tons of water weight, not necessarily fat, and it's just because you're eating a shit ton of carbs, right?

So when you dial it down to macronutrients, you're setting a target of: X amount of my calories are coming from protein, X amount of my calories are coming from carbs, X amount of my calories are coming from fats. And so it's a little bit more of a balanced equation for your body to receive ultimate results when you're honing in and dialing in a bit more on macronutrients, right?

The main thing that I see when people are just focusing on calories is they're not getting enough protein. A lot of women that I speak to, when they're first joining WarriorBabe, their protein numbers are almost zero. And they try and focus on getting protein bars, and they only have like eight grams of protein, when you need to be eating your body weight in protein. When you're just focusing on calories and putting together meals, the majority of people know how to eat carbs and fats. But getting lean protein in, when it's just the protein source and it's not coming with carbs and fats, is actually pretty hard for people to do. And you also have to put time and effort into it, because you have to prep and cook those proteins ahead of time if you want to be dialed in a little bit there, right?

So just to touch a little bit more on calories and macros: when you focus on just calories and eating less than you burn throughout the day, then yes, you are definitely going to lose weight. But the quality of you reaching any specific goal that you have in mind for yourself, whether it's building more muscle, getting more lean, showing more lean definition and having the tone pop out, will suffer if you're just paying attention to calories and not dialing in the macronutrients, right?

A lot of women that I speak to want to be toned. They want to build more muscle. They want to have an athletic figure. However, they're focusing on a 2,000-calorie diet that is mainly made up of carbs and fats and not enough protein, when protein is the king of macronutrients to build more muscle and to preserve lean muscle as you're decreasing body fat. So that's what I mean: if you want that goal but you're not paying attention to how much protein you're eating, or the macronutrients behind the meals that you're having, then that goal is going to suffer. And it's going to take you a longer time to get to that goal if you're not dialing it in a little bit more.

And you don't have to dial in all three macronutrients at the start. I'm going to explain that in a second. But you still need to understand the calories that you're eating and the macros that you're consuming, right? One is just the overarching, "This is all of the food I had in a day." And with the macros, you're diving in a bit deeper and focusing on how many calories are coming from protein, how many calories are coming from carbs, how many calories are coming from fats.

I've talked about this in earlier podcasts, early, early podcasts: the difference between weight loss and fat loss. You can totally achieve weight loss by just focusing on calories. However, the majority of women that I speak to, and you that listen to this podcast, want more muscle, more tone, more definition. You need to dial it in and take it to that next level, like I've spoken about in an earlier podcast too, by tracking macronutrients.

And I don't want to send a daunting vibe of, "Oh my God, now I need to get off this podcast and learn what macronutrients are," or, "I need to start tracking my protein, fats and carbs. Where do I even start?" I'm going to get there in a second. Like I said a second ago, you don't need to be tracking all three of those macronutrients. You can just focus on one of them, and that's protein. I'm going to share more on that in a second. Okay.

Another thing with calories and macros is understanding that food is your fuel. Okay? To operate effectively and efficiently, your body needs the proper amount of good fuel to reach its maximum potential. Earlier I mentioned how a shit ton of different things can make up calories, right? The quality of the food that's helping you reach that calorie number may suffer when you're just focused on a certain number. Whereas when you're focusing on, "I need to eat good quality food," like good sources of protein, not artificial, and wholesome carbohydrates, not just tons of simple carbs, and healthy fats, not just shit fats, you're going to operate your body better.

Think of your body as a machine. Okay? And the food you put into it is like the gas, like the 87, 89, 91, 93, the supreme or the basic. Okay? Macronutrients help you get to the more supreme level of food, because you're focused on the quality of the food that you're eating and not just trying to hit a number like calories. That's why I love macronutrients: it helps you focus on a different level of the food that you're eating on a regular basis. Okay?

Your body needs each macronutrient. Your body needs the precise amount of energy from each macronutrient in order to fuel the optimal results that you want, in order to fuel the workouts, in order to repair muscle damage, in order to get stronger, in order to shed body fat. Okay?

So if you want to reach ultimate success... like I said earlier, if you just want to lose weight, you can totally just focus on calories. Calories will do that, but it's not enough to attain the goals that the majority of you, I know, want. And that's where counting macros comes in, because counting macros is going to help you decrease body fat. It's going to help you preserve, meaning hold on to, muscle, right? When people just lose weight, they lose everything. They lose the fat, they lose the water, the organ sizes get smaller, and they lose muscle. However, if you want to decrease body fat and you eat by macronutrients, protein will help you preserve that lean muscle mass, meaning hold on to that lean muscle mass, as you're decreasing body fat around the muscle. That is how you get more defined, that's how you get more toned, that's how you show more muscle. Okay?

And it's also going to help you build muscle, and macronutrients will help you have way more freaking energy because of the quality of the food sources. All right.

Now, with that being said, I want to dive into IIFYM, "if it fits your macros," which you've probably heard of. Okay, you can have your cookie and still lose fat, as long as it fits your macros. However, I need to emphasize that it's not just, "If it fits your macros, I can eat whatever the fuck I want," meaning you can have cookies all day long, popcorn all day long, chips all day long and margaritas, because it fits into your macros. No.

80% to 85% of your food should be wholesome, quality whole foods. Meaning chicken, vegetables, brown rice, salmon, egg whites, seitan if you're vegan, legumes, right? All wholesome foods that you're buying from around the outside of the grocery store, not in the aisles, okay? And then 10 to 15% can be like, cool, you want to have chocolate at night like I do? I have four pieces every single night. Sweet, it fits into my macros. You want a cookie one night? Sweet, it fits into your macros, right?

I need to emphasize that because there are a lot of people that preach "if it fits your macros," and they literally allow burgers and pizza and all this stuff. That stuff's chill and cool, but it's 10 to 15% of your day, okay? And that's what really helps you not lose your mind, right? You don't have to be restrictive. You don't have to cut out things that you love. You don't have to get rid of the items that you enjoy, as long as you have control and discipline so that you're not eating them all of the time, all throughout your day. All right? That's where this process can be really enjoyable. You have to build that discipline for yourself, okay?

So when I talk to these women at the dog park, they're like, "What are macronutrients?" What they are, as I already touched on lightly, is protein, fats and carbs. But what I really want to dive into for the sake of this podcast is each one and why they are so important. Mainly because there are things out there that eliminate one of the key macronutrients, and you know what that is: carbohydrates. Carbohydrates get this daunting, life-ending, enemy vibe. However, if your goal is to build muscle, decrease body fat, achieve an athletic figure, and have fuel and stamina for the performance of your workouts, you need carbohydrates. That's at the micro level. At the macro level, for a sustainable lifestyle that keeps every single macronutrient in, where you can enjoy these macronutrients all throughout your life and you don't have to worry about dieting ever again, you need to keep carbohydrates in, okay?

Sorry to rant, but I remember being at a conference in 2018, and I was sitting next to this woman who was overweight. We got to talking about what my occupation is, and we got to talking about what her occupation is. I talked about fitness, I talked about health, I talked about working out, I talked about eating right. And she's like, "Oh yeah, I just started keto a couple days ago." And I was like, "Oh cool, how long have you been in ketosis?" And she's like, "Oh, well, I had carbs last night."

I'm like, see, this thing. And that probably leads into the deeper, "I'm a failure, I can't do this, I'm defeated," blah blah blah. I didn't get to that level with her, but I can only imagine that this has happened to so many people that start keto, and then all of a sudden, a week later, they're having drinks and margaritas with their friends and they're like, "Damn, I can't stick to actually doing something." You can't stick to it because it's not realistic. I just need to say that. And you shouldn't be beating yourself up over something that is not realistic and will not help you maintain healthy habits for a sustainable period of time.

So I want to spend a little bit of time talking about each macronutrient, right? I shared earlier that macronutrients are protein, fats and carbs, but why are they important for you and how do they benefit you? That's what I want to touch on here for a little bit. And stay with me, because at the end I'm going to briefly touch on ways that you can start incorporating this type of concept into your everyday routine. You don't have to dive full in and be like, "Oh my God, tomorrow I need to track all my protein, fats and carbs." There's a stepping stone to this process for yourself, okay? Especially if you're a beginner.

First and foremost, the benefits of protein. At a macro level, protein is so important for your body. I call the macronutrient protein the macronutrient god, the king of the macronutrients, because it's the building block of the body. It is so important for the structure, the maintaining and the repairing of your muscle tissue, your cartilage, your skin, your organs, your bone, so many important structures of the overall body. And it also helps build a very, very strong immune system.

Now that's at a macro level, right? At a micro level, for your goals of building muscle, decreasing body fat, having more definition and showing more muscle tone, protein is so important because it builds and preserves lean muscle mass, and it helps you feel fuller longer, so you can eliminate cravings throughout the day and wanting to eat your face off at the end of the night. And it also keeps your glucose, aka your energy or blood sugar levels, neutralized throughout the day.

Touching on how it diminishes food cravings: it helps your blood sugar levels stay at bay rather than spiking periodically throughout the day. A lot of people that just eat carbohydrates and snack on things all day are constantly spiking their blood sugar levels. And when you're constantly spiking your blood sugar levels, that's where all of these cravings come from, right? So when you have those consistent spikes throughout the day because you're not prioritizing protein, you'll feel very hungry at the end of the day. Or maybe you have a meal that has carbs and fats, but you'll still feel hungry afterwards.

So two things here. Protein helps diminish food cravings: if you have protein all throughout your day, the drop in the likelihood of you having cravings at the end of the day is huge. And when you're having protein all throughout your day, you're feeling fuller longer. So you get done with a meal and you're feeling satisfied, not feeling like, "Oh my God, I'm still hungry," right? So protein really helps in that aspect.

And then, more importantly, or maybe equally important: when you are working out in the gym, I always say you're breaking down muscle, and then in the 24 to 48 hours after a workout, you're building the muscle, right? Depending on what you eat. If you are eating the right amount of protein for what your body needs, typically it's your body weight. Or if you're cutting calories a little bit and decreasing body fat, you want a little bit more protein to hold on to the muscle, so your body doesn't tap into the muscle mass for energy. It goes to other sources for energy, like your body fat, to burn away, right?

So outside the gym, in those 24 to 48 hours, making sure that you're eating enough protein is so important, because it starts the repair process of the muscles that you've just broken down, but it's also helping you, as you're maybe in a little bit of a deficit, hold on to muscle mass, so your body doesn't tap into it for energy.

I could go way deeper, but I just want you to understand the benefits of the macronutrients and why they're so important, both at a macro level and a micro level, toward the goals of building more muscle and having more muscle on your body.

Hey guys, I love so much that you're listening to this podcast. If you ever want the video version of this, which usually has more effects and all that good stuff, for those of you who are visual learners, check out the WarriorBabe YouTube channel, if that's what you like. Either way, keep enjoying the show.

So with all that being said, that sums up the macronutrient protein. Now I want to dive into the macronutrient carbohydrates. I like to refer to this macronutrient as the macronutrient of fuel.

At a macro level, carbohydrates not only provide your body with fuel, they provide your brain with fuel and energy. They fuel your heart, they fuel your kidneys, they fuel your muscles, they fuel your central nervous system. They provide energy and regulation of the glucose in your body, which is your primary energy source. They are just so extremely important for the overall fuel of your entire body at a macro level, from the big organs down to the cells. This macronutrient should never be eliminated, for this sole purpose, okay? Just think about that: energy to the brain, energy to the heart, energy to the kidneys, energy to these organs and, overall, the cells of your body.

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So carbs are a huge macronutrient. That's on a macro level. Diving down to the micro level, why they're important to the goals that you want to accomplish in terms of building more muscle, decreasing body fat, being more toned, showing more definition, all that jazz: for a second here, I want to focus on three things you can experience if you do not have carbohydrates. You can experience fogginess, you can experience forgetfulness, and you can experience fatigue.

So with carbohydrates, in those three things, the main thing is energy, okay? They provide the ultimate fuel that you need, from your day-to-day activities down to the performance of your workouts and how you're showing up in those workouts. Are you fueled or are you not fueled? Do you have energy or do you not have energy? Did you miss carbs? Then you're not going to have energy. Do you have carbs? You're going to have energy. Did you miss carbs? You're probably going to be a little bit weaker in your workouts. Do you have carbs? You're probably going to be a hell of a lot stronger in the performance of your workouts, right? So micro, macro: energy, fuel, you being focused, you being at the performance level that you want to be at, especially to build muscle. Those are all so important when it comes to you having carbohydrates in your body, okay? That's the main thing, right?

What I want to dive into secondly here, on why carbs are so important, is that protein needs carbohydrates to work. Okay, stay with me here, because I may get a little bit sciencey. I'm trying to stay super, super high level, but in order for you to understand this and apply it, I need to break it down like this. Protein needs carbohydrates to work.

Starving your body of carbohydrates during and after intense exercise will likely cause your body to use protein as an energy source. And in severe cases of having low carbohydrates for prolonged periods of time, this may even result in the breakdown of hard-earned muscle to be used to fuel your workouts, right? So starving your body of carbohydrates, meaning if you're doing keto, if you're doing intermittent fasting and working out fasted, during and after long periods of intense exercise, is going to cause your body to use protein as an energy source. That means your body taps into hard-earned muscle, because muscle is active tissue, to provide fuel throughout your workouts and give you energy pre- and post-workout, right?

If you're not giving your body the fuel that it needs, it's going to go find fuel elsewhere. So the protein that's meant to be used to build muscle, to repair muscle, to preserve muscle, is instead being used and absorbed by the body for energy, because you're not giving the body the energy source that it wants and needs.

Now some of you are like, "Well, your body could tap into fat." Sure, it totally could tap into fat. But you do not want it to tap into protein, because then it's basically counteracting what you want done in terms of results, and what protein does for the body, from the macro level of the building blocks of cartilage, bones, muscles and tissue down to building and repairing muscle. Protein needs carbohydrates to work, right?

So you need carbohydrates so that protein works efficiently and effectively. That's basically what I'm trying to explain with that statement. If you don't have carbohydrates, your body's going to go after protein for energy, when protein shouldn't be utilized for energy. Protein can be way more effectively utilized in other aspects of the body, repair, building, X, Y and Z, and it shouldn't be used for that, right? So you want to make sure that you have carbohydrates in the mix, so that your protein can just do its job the way it wants to do its job, and it doesn't need to do the job of both protein and carbohydrates. You get what I'm saying, right? I told you to stay with me, so I hope you did.

All right. Another thing carbohydrates are very important for is that they restore energy. So they not only give you fuel, they also restore fuel. When you train hard, you reduce your blood sugar levels considerably, right? When you go in and you're working out, your body's going after carbohydrates as an energy source to fuel your performance. And when you're pushing hard and training hard, your blood sugar levels are dropping.

So eating carbohydrates straight after a training session provides your body with that insulin spike, and that insulin spike puts your body in an anabolic, muscle-building state. If you do not get that right afterwards, then you're going to enter a catabolic state, which is a muscle breakdown state. That goes back to what I just talked about, trying not to get too sciencey here with you: what happens when you don't have carbohydrates. And that's why post-workout is so important from the muscle-building aspect. Like I said, in the 24 to 48 hours after you work out, you're building the muscle. You're working to give your body the results that you want by what you eat.

So it's so important to follow up with a post-workout protein shake with a banana or something like that. I'm not going to dive into simple and complex carbohydrates, because that can be found in another episode of the podcast, which is actually a very beneficial episode. I highly recommend you search through the pods and look for that one, because you'll know exactly what to be eating pre- and post-workout.

But that's why carbohydrates are so important: they're restoring the depletion of what you just did during your workout, and they're providing the body with the energy that it needs for the rest of the day, but also providing the muscles what they need in order to be repaired and grow, all the things that you want to experience with the results you want to have, right?

Okay, so that's a little bit about carbohydrates. Let's dive into a little bit about fats. I'm probably going to keep this one a little bit short, because fats are... they're important, they are so important, but in the world of building muscle... you know what, I shouldn't even say that. They are so important. They're a huge, important factor for your hormones. And when your hormones are optimally functioning in a good capacity, in a strong capacity, then building muscle is going to be easier for you.

So, a high-level view on fats: they're extremely important for your overall health. They insulate us, they protect us, they protect our organs, they act as messengers, they help proteins do their jobs, they start chemical reactions that help control growth, immune function, reproduction and other aspects of basic metabolism. They're also very important for your hormones. That's why, as you've heard me say in previous podcasts, when women are going through menopause and experiencing all of these shifts in their hormones, I will always place them on higher fat macros, so that the fats can do the job of aiding with that support while this transition is happening.

The micro level of fats, in our world of building muscle, is that fats produce muscle strength when training, because they support hormone balance and recovery from training. With fats included in your everyday nutrition, especially in a cutting phase, or cutting your calories, and I've talked about all the different phases in other podcasts as well, fats can elevate natural growth hormones, which inhibit muscle breakdown and promote muscle gains, right?

So fats are very important. I don't want to take away from what I said earlier: they are important, especially with respect to hormones and the act of making everything a little bit stronger with hormone balance and recovery from training.

More benefits of fats at a higher level: once you give your body more of what it wants, it learns to use this fuel more effectively, right? A lot of people worry that fats are going to make you fat. That is not true. Fats are not going to make you fat. If your diet isn't rich in healthy fats, many of the good-for-you vitamins and minerals that you're taking in via the other macronutrients will pass right through your system. In other words, eating fat will help your food become more nutritious, which will help your body perform at its highest level.

Fats enrich everything. That's how I like to look at it, and it's actually a really good way of looking at it. They enrich your body, they enrich your hormones, they enrich the muscle-building process, they enrich growth hormone, all of the things, okay? And they help proteins do their job and they support carbohydrates. That's why I love the trio of the three macronutrients and making sure that you get a nice balance of the three, because they all serve a purpose together. They all work together, and sometimes one can't work effectively if it doesn't have another one, right?

And one more thing to touch on with fats: they're extremely supportive to your joints, okay? Overall, it's just a supportive, enriching macronutrient for the body.

But back to hormone balance: women cannot have proper hormonal balance without adequate amounts of fats, right? Healthy fat is the raw material that we need to produce and maintain proper hormone function. A lot of people have tried low-fat diets, or limiting their fats, and I can tell you from personal experience, when I did this in bodybuilding, a lot of my internal systems shut down. I started to lose hair. My nails got way, way too fragile. I wasn't able to poop one time. I shared that in a previous podcast as well. And all of that right there is hormones, and balancing the hormones, and making sure your hormones are strong so that they can facilitate other things.

And I know I mentioned earlier that protein helps do these things, but because I wasn't getting my body enough fats, protein couldn't do its job. So they're all so important. They're all so intertwined. I hope you stayed with me there. I got a little sciencey. But at a high level, like I just said, they all need to work together in order to perform the job they're responsible for doing internally for your body. At a macro level, and at a micro level in terms of the goals that you want to accomplish, all three macronutrients are so very important.

So now one thing that I want to touch on: "Okay, cool, Nikkiey. I learned what macronutrients are: protein, fats and carbs. I understand that from a calorie level, these three things make up the calorie number. And when I have a balanced approach to these macronutrients on a day-to-day basis, then I'm more in line with the goals that I want to accomplish: decreasing body fat, building more muscle, having more muscle definition, showing a more athletic figure." Right, okay. So where do you start if you're a beginner? Because as I mentioned, you don't need to dive in and track all three of these macronutrients. I don't expect you to go cold turkey tomorrow and go, "Okay, I need to download this app and start tracking my macronutrients." I don't expect you to do that.

This is the way that we approach it with every single woman that comes into WarriorBabe. You get an onboarding call with one of our coaches. On that onboarding call, you discuss where you're at and your level of understanding of nutrition. And I will tell you that the majority of the women that come to us, first of all, have no idea what macronutrients are. Second of all, have no idea what they're eating or how much they're eating in a day. And third of all, have no idea what types of foods make up the macronutrients, right? People don't know where to find proteins. "What is a carbohydrate? What does this food consist of?" Right? And I guarantee that's probably the majority of you listening to this podcast.

So once we have that initial understanding... nutrition is one of the hardest things for people to grasp and understand. It is also one of the most important things in order to facilitate the type of results that you want to see with your body, right? I say nutrition is king, exercise is queen, all of the time. You cannot outwork a bad diet. You cannot go into the gym and expect to see incredible results if you're eating like shit.

So, okay, we have this awareness, right? I see this human on the other end of the computer. We do an onboarding call through Zoom, and I see this human is at this level of understanding, where this person does not know anything about macronutrients. Following that, I personally as a coach, or our coaches on the team, need to understand what this person is eating. Because if we were to give you 1,500 calories after a week of being with us, but you're only eating one meal a day, that may shock your metabolism, and you may gain weight by doing that, because your body is only used to eating once a day. A lot of people do that. They skip breakfast, they wait all the way until the end of the day, they're starving, and they have a massive dinner that will probably only equate to 1,000 or 1,100 calories.

So what we have our clients do in the first week of being with us is track inside of MyFitnessPal, or keep a food diary or food log of some sort, letting us know the habits that they have right now. We don't ask them to eat differently. We don't ask them to choose different foods. We just want to gain a general understanding of how you are eating right now, right? So we have the client either track or write down a food diary, "Meal one, meal two, meal three, this is what I ate," and then they hand that in to the coach.

When we get that, we have a better understanding of where this person is at, because we can kind of tally out, ballpark, this is the calorie input this person is eating on a regular basis. It's usually very low, and we know as coaches that you need to be eating to fuel certain processes. So from there, we have a better understanding, and this is where we're going to start.

The first macronutrient we always focus on, because 90% of the time people are not eating enough protein, is protein. You could skip these first two steps and try this yourself. Or if you want some help, you can check out warriorbabe.com. It's in the description below. You can apply for the program to see if you're a good fit. But if you want to skip ahead and try it yourself, just go and start eating more protein. That's the only thing I would ask you to do.

I would personally have our clients try to at least hit a target number of protein in a day, not even worrying about the fats and the carbs. The fats and the carbs do not matter at this point. What protein are you eating on a daily basis? Make sure you're hitting a target number, whether it be a little less than your body weight, at your body weight, or a little bit more than your body weight. I don't care. You just need to get protein in, because you're not doing that right now. If there's one supportive habit that we can shift, it's making sure that you're getting enough protein on a regular basis.

So it's basically this three-step thing, right? Then they start focusing on protein, and it's an absolute game changer. All of the positive effects, the positive changes, the positive experiences that follow eating more protein are huge. I see this in about 90% of our clients. They're feeling better, looking better, sleeping better, feeling stronger, having fewer cravings, feeling more satiated throughout the day. And right there, that's an immediate change, okay? So that's something you can definitely expect to see just by eating more protein.

Protein comes from chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, egg whites, whole eggs, yogurt, Greek yogurt. There are protein powders, there are protein bars, but those are artificial, so you want to make sure that 80% of your day is coming from wholesome foods. Legumes, beans, there's seitan if you're vegan, there's fish, salmon, tilapia, cod. There are so many sources of protein. What I did at the beginning of my journey, when I didn't have a coach, is I just Googled, "What are protein sources and where can I find them?" Okay?

So if you want to do this by yourself, these are the things I would recommend. That's the stepping stone I'm talking about, right? First, becoming aware that you want to make the change, okay? Second, understanding exactly where you are at. So becoming aware of what you are eating over a week's worth of time, not trying to change any habits, being honest and real with yourself. And then from there: "Okay, I'm clearly not getting enough protein in my day-to-day. I need to figure out how to get more protein in my day-to-day. That's the only thing I want to start targeting of the three macronutrients: more protein." So you start eating more protein, and you go and do that.

And then once you get a grip on that and instill that new habit, then we can start phasing in carbs and fats. But I always say to all of the new clients, or our coaches say to new clients, until we get this down with eating more protein, carbs and fats may not come for a while. You've got to do the work. I, myself, our coaches, aren't going to physically show up at your house and shove protein down your throat. You've got to do the work. You've got to eat the protein, okay? And then we can start phasing in fats and carbs. But until you do that... we're looking at four, five weeks of your body adjusting to the protein.

And that's why I like to say this is the front end, the start of WarriorBabe. This is hard, point blank. I'm not selling you a false promise. I'm not selling you a quick fix. I want you to have better habits than what you have right now, so that you can experience the results that you want, and not only experience them right now, but be able to sustain them for the long term, okay?

So, for the sake of this entire podcast, you guys, I rambled a little bit throughout, but I'm so happy to be back with you. I'm so happy to be jamming on the podcast again. We talked about what macros are. We dove into the three of them and why they're beneficial at a macro level for the overall system of the body, from the organs to the cells, down to the micro level of: this is the goal you want to accomplish, and this is why each of these macronutrients is so important for that particular goal. We talked at the beginning a little bit about calories and macronutrients and the difference between them. And at the end, this three-step system, this stepping-stone system, to help you start phasing into the world of macronutrients.

It doesn't have to be daunting. It doesn't have to feel overwhelming. It doesn't have to feel like a lot of time. You may experience those feelings come up, or those excuses come up, like, "I don't want to do this," "This takes too much," "This is too hard," or "I don't know where to start." Of course it is. You've never done it before. You've never put this much focus on eating right, so of course it's going to be different. It's going to be hard. It's going to take you a little bit of time. Accept it. If you want to feel better, look better and be healthier, then be willing to put in this type of work.

All right, love you guys. I will see you in the next episode. Peace out.

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