Last time we explained the basics of macros. In Counting Macros and How To Understand Them. I told you in the next article I would go more into depth about how to manipulate macros to your set goals.

In Part One I Gave You Homework, Did You Do It?

I gave you a homework assignment for two weeks to practicing a ratio of

That’s 30% fat, 30% Protein and 40% Carbohydrates.

I hoped you practiced it because, it will be needed for this part of the article. If not go to Counting Macros and How To Understand Them and practice it for two weeks. This article is all about how we manipulate macros, that being rest of this article will not help you until you understand the basics which the previous article will teach you.

So You Have Been Practicing Balancing Your Macros For Two Weeks… Great, Lets Begin

First I need you to answer some questions.

• How has your body responded?
• Have you been dropping or gaining weight? (Most people want to lose weight, but some people want to gain muscle and weight.)
• How has your waist measurement been, had it been going down?

Now that you have been following how much grams of Fat, Carbs and Proteins you take in. How many calories does the average day total up for you? This number is your natural caloric intake. I said this in bold because I want you to write this number down as you will be referring to it later in this article.

Now That You Have Answered Those Questions

If your body has headed towards the direction you like, moving towards your weight goals or the waist has been shrinking. Keep going don’t change anything. Even if it is only a slight change, that means your body is still progressing with that healthy balance.

There is no need to manipulate macros yet, changing stuff will only sabotage you at this point. Save this article for, when your body stop changing with that healthy balance.

You’ve Been Doing The Balance Ratio and Hit A Wall

No need to panic this is normal now we have manipulate macros and I’m going to teach you how.

What is your caloric intake? And how many grams per macro are you getting in with the 30%Fat, 40%Carbohydrates, 30% Protein ratio I gave you?

Write those number down, they are the base for this program. You will refer to them often often.

Below is an example of a base number. It’s important to refer back to the base.

Lets say my caloric intake is 2000 calories and I weight 170lbs. The breakdown would look like this

• Protein 30% = 150g
• Carbohydrates 40% = 200g
• Fat 30% = 66g

How We Cycle Carbohydrates, To Work For Us.

So you hit a sticking point we will drop 10% of your base carbohydrates. In our example above that would mean we cut out 20g of carbohydrates. Leaving our example at a total of 180g of carbohydrates.

If you drop weight the next day keep with this number, if not drop another 10%. Using our above example that would bring you down to 160g now.

Repeat this process for 4 days since you started carb cutting.

Even something as small as losing an ounce in weight counts as weight coming off. This is not about big numbers daily that is unrealistic and unhealthy. Losing small numbers consistently will lead to big numbers off permanently in the future. Think of it as, investing in your health.

Lets say you only had to cut carbs down for two of the four days with our above above example that would mean you cut out 40g of carbohydrates.

Day 5 you will reload half of what you cut out for the four days. In our above example we cut out 40g carbohydrates, we will reintroduce 20g of carbohydrates. That would me we will go from 160g up to 180g of carbohydrates.

Day Five, We Add Carbohydrates Back In

The human body has no concept of wanting to lose bodyfat, in realty our body wants to get fat. Our bodies get fat in case of a sudden food shortage. This would hold true if we still lived in the wilderness and didn’t have fast food around every corner.

We reintroduce carbs on day five so our body don’t adapt to the lose of carbohydrates. As I said we are very efficient at staying fat. Our bodies realize we aren’t getting food so it learns to become more efficient at breaking our food down with less waste. In turn you get fat from eating less.

If you reintroduce carbohydrates on day five the body doesn’t think it’s starving and you can repeat this process. As you can see, you truly have to manipulate macros to counter our bodies desire to retain bodyfat. It isn’t as simple as just taking food away. This is why starvation diets don’t work, besides being completely unhealthy.

What Happens If I Lose After The Reload Without Cutting Out Carbohydrates

So you went four days with continuous weight lose and didn’t have to take out any carbohydrates this round. Well congrats your metabolism is going up, yes you can trick it to growing stronger.

Bring back half the carbohydrates you took out from your base from the previous week. In our example we had 180g at the reload which was 20g off from the based. That would equate to 10g, bring you to 190g of carbohydrates.

I Didn’t Forget About Those That Want To Gain Weight

The process to gain weight is much more simple. You won’t need to manipulate macros. For every week you do not gain weight I want you to increase your calories by 250 but keep the ratio the same and balanced.

In our above example we had 2000 calories

• Protein 30% = 150g
• Carbs 40% = 200g
• Fat 30% = 66g

Next week it will be 2250

• Proteins 30% = 169g
• Carbohydrates 40% = 225g
• Fats 30% = 74g

Let The Waist Be Your Guide

If you seek to get bigger, I want you to measure your waist weekly when you weight in. When it gets to a point that it is too big for your level of comfort it’s time to cut down the bodyfat with the above steps that I have put in place for those seeking to lose weight.

Waist Based On Medical Standards Of Health.

• Men should be below 40 inches
• Females should be below 35 inches

Chances of health issues increase by 50% when a waist is bigger than those numbers. Heart disease, cancer etc. (1) (2)

I say this because just as much as people have an unhealthy obsession with being thin we have as many people that think being big is a good thing. Body shaming is disgusting. Everybody is beautiful in all shapes and sizes but I strongly recommend we keep the waist below those numbers for your own health.

Web-sites Cited

1. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/risk.htm
2. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-definition/abdominal-obesity/