AGGIORNATO DA FRANZISKA SPRITZLER, RD, CDE, il 5 agosto 2024
Sia che tu stia seguendo la dieta chetogenica o che tu stia appena iniziando a conoscerla, probabilmente hai sentito il termine "monitoraggio dei macronutrienti" o "conteggio dei macronutrienti". Ma cosa significa esattamente tenere traccia o contare le macro?
The term “macros” is short for “macronutrients,” which are the three major nutrients in our diet: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. (By contrast, vitamins and minerals are micronutrients.)
In recent years, tracking macros has gained popularity, thanks in part to the keto diet. Why? Because the keto diet is based on eating large amounts of good fats, eating moderate amounts of protein, and drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake so that your body burns fat for energy instead of glucose.
But along with eating more fat and fewer carbs, it’s also about consuming the diritto amounts of each macro based on your goal to lose fat or even maintain your weight.
Maybe your main goal is to lose body fat and maintain or gain muscle. Or perhaps you have certain health goals, like reversing diabetes, maintaining a healthy weight, or using ketosis as adjunct therapeutic treatment for a medical condition.
Either way, this is where “macros” come in.
Come calcolare le macro
La quantità ottimale di macronutrienti è diversa per ogni persona, in base a età, altezza, peso/composizione corporea, livello di attività, percentuali di grasso corporeo (diverso dal BMI) e obiettivi di peso.
Come fai a sapere quali dovrebbero essere i tuoi macro ottimali? Il modo più semplice per determinare gli importi corretti è utilizzare un calcolatore macro come Calcolatrice MyMojoMacros. Just input the requested information (such as your current weight, age, gender, et cetera) and it will calculate the breakdown of calories, protein, carbs, and fat needed for you to lose, gain, or maintain your weight, depending on the health goals you set. (Expect a calorie deficit if you want to lose weight.)
Regardless of the number of calories recommended, the general consensus within the keto community is that “net carbs “(see below) should be limited to about 20 or less grams per day to sustain ketosis, unless you’re an athlete, in which case you can up your net carbs a bit.
Note: Factors such as age, gender, family and personal medical history, and genetics influence how your body responds to specific macronutrient amounts. For this reason, we recommend you discuss your intended diet with a medical provider or registered dietitian who knows your health history, understands the ketogenic diet, and can help you make choices that are best for you.
Come tenere traccia dei tuoi macro
Una volta che conosci i tuoi macronutrienti, dovresti contarli (tracciarli) per avere le migliori possibilità di ottenere e mantenere il tuo corpo in uno stato chetogenico.
This means keeping a tally of the total calories, fat, protein, and “net carbs” for everything you eat and drink each day to ensure you don’t surpass your daily goals.
Yes, it’s a bit of work, especially if you want to lose weight and make sure your eating habits support ketosis. You’ll need to read nutrition labels, ideally focus on whole foods, monitor portion sizes, and perhaps use a food scale and macros tracking app to make sure your calculations are precise (more on this below). And, yes, everyone gets off track now and then. But don’t be discouraged––it’s all part of the journey! And after a while, it really does become second nature.
We know from experience that it’s easy to fool yourself into thinking you’re eating within your macros when you’re actually exceeding them. We also know that once you start keeping track and eating to your macros, you’ll find you’re less hungry over time, have more stable blood sugar levels, and achieve far better overall success. Plus, it’s kind of fun, and definitely empowering, to see cool charts and graphs of your daily food intake.
Puoi monitorare manualmente l'assunzione giornaliera di macronutrienti o calcolare i totali utilizzando un'app, ad esempio Cronometro, MyFitnessPal, o Gestore carboidrati (vedi la nostra recensione sulle app cheto qui) o un analizzatore di ricette online come quello su Felice Forks (NOTE: If you purchase the Pacchetto promozionale Keto-Mojo, you’ll receive a 20% discount off the Cronometer Gold subscription).
Cosa sono i carboidrati netti?
Simply put, “net carbs” are the total grams of carbohydrates in any given food minus its grams of fiber and the sugar alcohol erythritol. Here’s the basic formula:
Carboidrati netti = carboidrati totali – fibre – alcoli zuccherini (se applicabile).
Se non hai familiarità con gli alcoli zuccherini, ti raccontiamo tutto su di loro qui.
Ecco un esempio del calcolo dei carboidrati netti, utilizzando un avocado medio, che, per inciso, non contiene alcoli di zucchero:
A medium avocado contains 17.1 grams of total carbs and 13.5 grams of fiber. So, to get its net carbs, you subtract the fiber (13.5 grams) from the total carbs (17.1 grams), which leaves you with 3.6 grams of net carbs (i.e., 17.1 grams carbs – 13.5 grams fiber = 3.6 grams net carbs for 1 medium avocado). Talk about a reason to enjoy guacamole!
You can read more about the difference between total carbs and net carbs qui.
What Now?
Now that you know about calculating macros, you have the power to set your daily intake of macros to manage your body weight, achieve and maintain ketosis, and begin or continue your journey to achieving better health and well-being.
