What Are the Four Phases of Macro Counting?
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Did you know there are four phases of macro counting? Most people don’t know this. Most people download a macro counting app, eat in a serious caloric deficit, and think those are the macros they ALWAYS need be eating.
But here’s the thing: You need to eat different macros based on your goals. The macros will change depending on what you are trying to achieve. The macros need to lose fat will not be the same macros you need to gain muscle. Plus, living in a caloric deficit is one of the worst things you could do for your metabolism.
That’s why in this episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast, I breakdown the four different phases of macro counting to help you understand WHY utilizing these four phases are so important for building the body you want in a healthy way. I explain a little bit in this episode why living in a caloric deficit instead healthy to help you understand why the body fat loss phase is not a phase you should live in.
If you’re ready to start macro counting, get instant access to my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy:
www.macrocountingmadesimple.com
If you loved this episode, be sure to check out…
Episode 18: What happens When You don’t Eat Enough
Episode 46: Why You Should Consider a Reverse Diet (The Only Diet I Support!)
If you want more from me, be sure to check out…
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another podcast. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. Consider this everything that you need to know about macro counting. If you've ever been curious about macro counting, this is going to be kind of like the school of overview of macro counting. I know for me, when I first heard about it, I disregarded it because I was so confused and overwhelmed and I immediately wrote it off because I am not good at math whatsoever, never have been.
And I was like there's no way that you're going to find me actually counting my macros, counting numbers, like there's no way that I can do this and do this effectively and I just don't think that it's going to work. But here I am almost 10 years later and I can tell you that macro counting has single handedly transformed my life. It is one of the most beneficial tools that I have used on my health and fitness journey and in particular, in my nutrition and has really just empowered and educated me.
And that's two things that I really needed in order for me to feel confident around food, and most importantly, to create a sustainable lifestyle. So what are the four phases of macro counting? A lot of people don't actually know this. They might have downloaded MyFitnessPal or whatever macro counting app that they've heard to use, and maybe they've even gotten their macros calculated, but they don't know the different phases and they don't know that there's actually multiple phases in macro counting.
Macro counting itself is not a diet. This is a tool to help you really be intentional in your nutrition and to be very specific because macro counting is not a cookie cutter diet. It is completely custom to you and to your body and to your goals and to where you're at. So here's the thing. You have to eat different macros based on your goals.
The macros will change depending on what goals you're trying to achieve and so the macros needed to lose fat will not be the same macros needed to gain muscle, will not be the same macros to be at maintenance mode. So that is kind of the whole point of this podcast. I just kind of want to go through all of those phases. And I know a lot of women, they constantly live in this caloric deficit, they're constantly in this body fat loss phase.
They can never get out of it and it's because most likely they're following a fat diet, which is leading them to it not being enjoyable. And when it's not enjoyable, it's not sustainable. And so they find themselves in these toxic cycles of restricting carbs or completely cutting out carbs or going on a very low calorie diet and then not finding that to be sustainable. And so they're gaining the weight back plus more, and then they're constantly finding themselves going back into that cycle again. So this is why it is so important to educate yourself.
And honestly, I have said this in prior podcast, but be a student of life. If there's one piece of advice that I could tell you is to constantly be learning. You have never learned everything. And even that's one thing that I've learned even being in a specific industry, being in the health and fitness industry for almost a decade now, there is still so much that I have not learned. And just taking that posture of becoming a student and really humbling yourself and saying, okay, what is it that I need to learn and how can this benefit me? Because it can really, truly only benefit you when you have the knowledge and expertise.
So that's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to break down the four different phases of macro counting and kind of help you understand why utilizing these four phases is so important for building the body that you want in a healthy way. And I'm also going to explain a little bit why living in a caloric deficit is not healthy and help you understand why the body fat loss phase is not the only phase that you should be living in.
But before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share this review comes from Bella Blue. She gave a five star view and said, "Thank you for having the courage. I think about food all the time and about if other people are noticing if I look skinnier or if I need to be skinnier in order to be loved or liked and there has not been one other podcast I have listened to that I can relate more to on this topic.
I am so grateful you have had the courage to start this podcast and share your story because it is so similar to the way that I think, and it's helping me actually live my life and be happier and authentic because knowing that you have gone through what you've gone through, it makes it feel possible for me to love myself as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You have no idea how liberating and free I feel knowing that you have had similar thoughts to me and that you can love yourself now. Thank you. Also thank you for including God in your podcast and bringing people to Christ. You will definitely be blessed for that."
Wow, this review literally so much, so much amen. Like yes and amen. Thank you so much for just taking the time to send over this review. Honestly, these reviews are what keep us going and just show us how this podcast is impacting you. And that's the whole point of this podcast. I want to share words that I wish I would've learned when I was in college and when I was even younger than college.
And also when you are actually speaking on something, you're actually learning it yourself. And so I never want you to think that I have achieved X, Y, and Z. I am constantly on this journey alongside of you. And that's the beauty of this, is that we can go hand in hand and we can be in this journey together. So thank you, Bella Blue. I really, really appreciate your review. If you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, it really does help us out.
We are so grateful for impacting over a million women with this podcast. Having over a million women download it on apple podcast is mind blowing and so, so, so incredible. And we just are so excited for the future. We can't wait to see and hear how many more other lives are being impacted from this podcast. So thank you in advance. If you haven't already left a rating and review or maybe you have, but it's been a while, all you have to do is go to Apple Podcasts, click that rating and review section on the bottom.
It takes less than 25 seconds, but it really does help us out. So thank you in advance if you do that. Let's dive into today's episode. But before I kind of go into the different phases of macro counting, I wanted to point something out extremely important. When you are either getting into this lifestyle for the first time, or maybe you are planning on coming back to it, before you kind of figure out what phase to be in when it comes to macro counting, I want you to do one thing.
And this is one thing that I always recommend people do especially if you're just starting out. I want you to track what you have been eating for one week judgment free with no goal in minds. Literally do what you've been doing with zero judgment. And this is really important because you've got to be honest with where you are coming into this journey.
And this is why when you work with us, we have you fill out an extensive questionnaire form because we want to know exactly where you're at because we can't prescribe something if we don't know where you're at and what your goals are at, and that's why this journey is so customized to each person, is because it meets you where you're at. And that's the beauty of all these different phases, is that there is a phase for every certain point in your journey and I'm going to walk you through those things.
But at the end of the week, then once you have tracked a week judgment free with no goal in mind, then you can figure out your maintenance calories and macros. If you don't know how to do that, I have a free ebook that teaches you step by step how to figure this out. You can go to juliealedbetter.com/freeebook. I will put that link in the show notes so that you can easily go click on that and download that ebook.
And then once you have figured out your maintenance calories and macros, this will actually help you to determine which phase you'll enter based on where you are currently at. So for example, if you're eating less than 1400 calories, so once you track what you're eating and you find out that you're eating less than 1400 calories, I do suggest that you start with a reverse diet if you were eating more than your maintenance calorie.
So you have tracked what you've been eating for one week judgment free, and then you figure out what your maintenance calories are, and you're eating more than that, and your goal is to lose body fat, then I suggest you going into a body fat loss phase. And in that case, in that free ebook that I just mentioned, there is a section on the calculating your macros, that is an additional step, and that is the body fat loss phase. So definitely go into that.
If you are eating more than maintenance and your goal is body fat loss, you can go into a body fat loss phase. However, if you're wanting to build muscle and you really don't have a body fat loss phase goal in mind, then I recommend you look into going into a caloric surplus. And this is a great way to build muscle. And like I said, I mean, once you go through a caloric surplus, then you can figure out, okay, now my next phase is X, Y, and Z and that's the beautiful thing about these phases.
So now that I've talked about the importance of starting out properly, let's dive into the different phases of macro counting. It's really important that you know that these phases are completely personal to you. I am going to share them in a specific order, but this is not the order that you need to follow. Let me repeat that again. Even though I'm talking about these different four phases of macro counting, these are not the phases that you need to follow. You need to figure out which phase to start with.
And when I explain each one, this will hopefully give you a better understanding of, okay, this is the phase that I need to go into based on where I'm at and what my goals are. So the four different phases of macro counting, the maintenance phase, the body fat loss phase, the muscle building phase and the reverse diet phase. So all four phases are going to work together in order to help you build the body that you want.
Number one, the first phase that I'm going to go into, again, these are not in order, this is just me going through the different phases. The first phase of macro counting that I want to talk about is the maintenance phase. So you can kind of think of this phase as your home base. This is the phase that you're going to kind of start at and kind of measure. Like I mentioned earlier, you want to get okay, what are my maintenance calories and then kind of figure out from there what your goal is.
And this is how macro counting actually allows you to maintain the body that you want long term. It makes it extremely manageable to maintain long term once you figure out what your maintenance phase is. When you decide to finish either the body fat loss phase or the reverse diet phase, and you want to maintain your body composition, this is when you would either enter into a maintenance phase, which will actually help you maintain the body that you have right now or it can be something that you can go to before you kind of change phases again.
So whether that's you staying in maintenance phase for two months or three months or six months or a year, totally dependent again, based on where you're at and what your goals are. If you stay in maintenance longer, just make sure that you are updating your calculations based on kind of where you are at every few months. So again, just I personally like to stay in maintenance phase for the majority of the year.
Honestly now I'm in maintenance phase and there might be some weeks in the summertime or for something specific that I might go into a slight caloric deficit, which is a body fat loss phase and then I will reverse diet back to my maintenance phase depending on how severe in a caloric deficit I've gone, which honestly, I've done this long enough now. I've gone through four full reverse diets.
I've literally lived in maintenance for I would say the better part of two or three years with the exception of a few slight body fat loss phases that I've gone through. And so I have gotten to a place now with my metabolism being in a very healthy place where I can basically maintain my weight on around 21 to 2200 calories a day. And so I stay in that for the majority of the year just simply because it's sustainable for me.
I especially know in the summertime I want to feel lean, I want to feel strong, but I also know that I'm going to be around family, I'm going to be traveling a lot more. And so for me, it's just really sustainable to stay in this phase. So that is kind of just the basics in and outs of the maintenance phase. The second phase and most well known phase that I want to share about macro counting is the body fat loss phase.
So during a body fat loss phase, you're going to need to eat less than you burn, right? So fewer calories in versus more calories out in order to lose a body fat. So entering this phase requires a lot of time and patience. And I want to share that because we live in a very Amazon Prime world and we want results like yesterday, right?
But the reality is if you want it to be sustainable and you want this journey to have longevity to it, you cannot just go from eating what you are now to then cutting a bunch of calories because that's just not going to be sustainable long term, and it's not going to be enjoyable and you will drastically slow your metabolism down, and it could honestly cause long term damage to your metabolism.
So I want you to think of entering into this phase as a journey, because it will take you some time to get to your body fat loss goal from your maintenance phase, right? So when you start out, typically we will start you out in a 15% caloric deficit. That's very, very standard, which will allow you plenty of time to slowly increase your caloric deficit up to a maximum anywhere from 25 to 28% for the majority of the public throughout your body fat loss phase without the risk of slowing down your metabolism or damaging that, right?
One thing that I want to share that I feel like a lot of coaches don't talk about because it's not sexy honestly is that the body fat loss phase can be difficult because success in a healthy and sustainable way requires a lot of time, consistency and patience. I cannot say that enough. You have to remember that this takes time. It is a long term strategy in terms of you reaching your goals and overall having a healthier relationship with food.
And so just remember that if you decide to take your time and slowly decrease your calories, you're not going to give your body a reason to shut down because you're not placing your body in any danger. And so that's really important on this journey, is that you are remembering that this is a lifestyle. This is not a quick fix.
However, if you do, and this is so many of us, we have this story I'm sure is that when we decide to cut our calories very drastically, our body shuts down which forces the metabolism to adapt to the current caloric intake and conserve energy. And this will likely lead you to hit a plateau sooner and it will force you to eat even less than you were eating, making it hard for you to follow because it's simply not sustainable like I mentioned earlier.
This is when I would recommend you utilize the reverse diet phase which I will discuss later in this episode. But an important question that we need to answer is how do we know when to stop your body fat loss phase? So when you're in a caloric deficit, you're signaling your body to burn fat. Depending on the length of time, the amount of body fat that you like to burn, eventually you will hit a plateau in which the metabolism adapts to the current caloric intake and starts doing everything it can to stop you from losing more body fat.
So a common mistake that people do is that they continue to push their bodies further and further and further into a fat loss phase resulting in their bodies pushing back against their efforts by not responding to the current caloric intake, AKA, their metabolism has adapted to it. So when they continue pushing harder and dropping their caloric intake, it can slow progress and it decreases their metabolism's ability to handle calories.
This happens because of what we call a set point. So similar to a thermostat system, our bodies use this set point when it comes to the amount of body weight versus the body fat levels. So whenever and whatever numbers each individual body is set to, that's what the body strives to maintain. And when this happens, you'll want to reverse diet your way back to maintenance calories which you'll need to recalculate your macros based on your new body composition and also based on where you're currently at.
So kind of confusing. I know it can feel kind of overwhelming, but this is a podcast that I want you to bookmark because likely you probably have a phase that you're interested in or based on your goals and where you're at you're like, "Yes, this is a phase that I need to be in," and so you're only listening to that section so that you can really learn and identify like, "Okay, this is all that I need to know about this phase."
And that's one thing that I just want to encourage you kind of a side note that when you go into this, I don't need you to know about all these phases, the ins and outs for everything. I learn best when I go through something and so I don't want you to feel like you have to learn everything all at once. So definitely bookmark this podcast and then you can go back and listen to each section depending on where you're at. But the third phase of macro counting is the muscle building phase.
So most people want to be toned, they want to have a stronger body, they start resistance training and counting macros to achieve this, which is great, but when they start counting their macros, they likely enter into a body fat loss. And this is because most people think that there's only one phase of macro counting. Like when they hear the word macro counting, they think macro counting equals body fat loss. And that's because so many people are in that phase they go into that phase.
And I think it just has to do with the mindset of culture, right? We feel like we always have the last 5 or 10 or 15 pounds to lose and so we just think macro counting only equates to body fat loss when that's not the case because you cannot build muscle in a caloric deficit. It's very, very difficult. Let me put it this way. It's very, very difficult to build muscle in a caloric deficit.
If you are in a caloric deficit and you're trying to build more muscle like a substantial amount of muscle, it's going to be way harder than it needs to be and you'll likely struggle to see the results that you want. You need to be in a caloric surplus if you want to build the muscle successfully and know being in a caloric surplus if done correctly will not lead to excessive body fat, and it will not make you bulky.
Now I do have to kind of put this disclaimer that when you're in a muscle building phase, your goal is not body fat loss, right? Your goal is to build muscle. So sometimes in order to build the muscle that you want, there will be some fat that comes along with it. And that's again, the beautiful thing about these different phases of macro counting, is that when you look at this long term, you're building this muscle for life, right?
This is not just like I'm going to build this muscle and then immediately when I go into a body fat loss phase, I'm going to lose all the muscle. No, that's not how it works, right? So when you're building this muscle, this is muscle, it's going to be with you for the rest of your life. So just remember that, that there is longevity to this and it's really important that you focus on your goal.
So when you're in the muscle building phase, you are focusing on building muscle. Of course, you can definitely still make sure that you are being active outside and you're increasing your knee and all of those things. But just remember when you are in a caloric surplus, you are eating more than what your body is burning. So just remember that you are going to have a lot more calories and macros to work with, and it can be a glorious thing I'm telling you.
It can be an amazing, amazing time when you were building muscle and you were eating all of the food and you're being very intentional about it, right? So another thing that I kind of wanted to know about the caloric surplus is I think oftentimes people think, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be eating 5,000 calories a day or some ridiculous amount in a caloric surplus." And that's not the case, right?
You're likely going to be eating 300, 500, maybe 700 calories more than your maintenance phase which really doesn't sound so scary. So just remember that. And again, once you're done in that muscle building phase, you're not going to go straight into maintenance. You're going to reverse your way back to maintenance and then figure out what your goal is from there.
Again, remember your maintenance is kind of your home base, and that's going to constantly be changing if you just came out of a muscle building phase and then you slowly reverse back to your maintenance, your maintenance is going to be a new maintenance based on your body composition. So just remember that.
And I typically recommend that when people are slowly reverse dieting back to maintenance from a caloric surplus, they kind of stay in that maintenance mode for four weeks, six weeks, and then they kind of figure out, okay, now what do I want to do from here? What is my next goal? Do I want to stay at maintenance? Am I good right now or do I want to lose a little bit of body fat that I gained during my muscle building phase? So again, it's totally up to you.
This is going to be completely custom to you. And I have seen people be in a caloric surplus in a muscle building phase for anywhere from two to six months depending on your goals. Sometimes I've seen people say I'm going all in and I'm going to be in a muscle building phase for the next year. And I'm really going to be intentional about building my muscle and being in a chloric surplus.
So again, totally up to you, totally up to your goals, but this is the beautiful thing about macro counting, is that it's completely adjustable to you. And this is why it's a tool, it is not a diet. The last phase of macro counting that I want to talk to you about is the reverse dieting phase. So I've talked about this previously in this episode, I've also talked about it on other episodes which I will mention later in this episode which one you can go and listen to.
But when people think that they have a slow metabolism, it's likely because they're under eating, which can lead to their metabolism not functioning at its best. And most people believe it's because of genetics when in reality, it's our culture's obsession with fad diets and food restrictions. So the best way to approach your metabolism is to focus on increasing your metabolic capacity through reverse dieting.
So this is so cool you guys. This is one thing that I was mind blown when I first got into kind of learning more about nutrition and really being intentional about nutrition, is that our metabolism is adaptable, which means that it can adapt to a very low amount of calories, AKA under nourishing your body, and then thus going into starvation mode for lack of a better term, or it can adapt in the sense of, oh, we're going to start increasing our metabolic capacity, we're going to start increasing our ability to use this food so that we're not just storing it as fat, which is amazing, so, so cool.
So what is reverse dieting? Essentially reverse dieting is a slow methodical approach to increasing your metabolic capacity which takes anywhere from three, six, I've also seen people reverse diet six months I would say is probably the max that I've seen people reverse diet kind of depending on how well your body responds to it. But the idea behind reverse dieting is to gradually strengthen your metabolism's efficiency so that you can consume a higher caloric intake without making drastic changes to your body composition, AKA unwanted weight gain, which means essentially that you'll be able to eat more without gaining fat.
And this is something that if you would've told me even 5, 6, 7 years ago that I would be able to maintain my weight on 21, 2200 calories a day, I would be like, "There's absolutely no way what source to resist. Like what magic are you talking about? Because I've never heard of it." But it's amazing. I am walking proof that reverse diets work. They work, and it's a great way to increase your metabolic capacity.
So who would want to enter into a reverse diet? So if someone has been eating anywhere from 1400 calories, 1200 calories a day for years, when in reality their body needs 1800 or more, that is someone that would be a perfect candidate for a reverse diet. So based on this example, someone's been eating 1200 calories a day for years, but their body needs around 1800, a proper reverse diet would typically take anywhere from three to six months depending on how each individual responds.
So if you're wanting to take a deeper dive into reverse dieting, I do a whole episode. Like if you want to go deep and you're like, "Man, this reverse dieting thing sounds like something I definitely want to look into, I want to hear and learn more about," go to episode 46 why you should consider a reverse diet, the only diet I support. I go super deep into that episode. I will link it in the show notes below, but I'm telling you guys reverse dieting is a game changer.
It does take patience. It does take you being consistent. It does take you trusting the process. I will tell you when I did my first couple reverse diets, there were weeks where I was like, "Man, this is not working, I just want to quit, I want to give up." But man, I am so incredibly grateful that I didn't because the investment in our health is something that will stay with us forever.
And that's the beautiful thing about investing in your nutrition, investing in your health, investing in you, is that you're the one that's going to live in this shell, you're the one that's going to live in this body. And so make sure that you are honoring it, make sure you are nourishing it, make sure you're educating yourself so that you can feel empowered around food.
So there you have it. Those are kind of the four phases of macro counting. If you are ready to kind of learn about these four phases, phase in phase out of them and you want more information about my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy, this academy is the most comprehensive approach in the simplest form. And I say that because we don't skim back on giving you all of the knowledge and all of the information, but we do it in a way that's very simple for you to understand because I understand that you're not a nutritionist.
I understand that you're not a scientist, that you likely have maybe never heard of certain words. And I know for me, just like math was not my forte in school, neither was science and so I get feeling intimidated. And so we wanted to make an academy for you that really just teaches you everything that you need to know so that you can feel empowered around it, and in a way that you can understand that's not so, whoa, what are these words? Right?
So essentially we give you macro counting in layman's terms, but we don't scale back by any means on giving you the nitty gritty. For example, when you sign up for this academy, we take you through an extensive questionnaire form which will then allow us to calculate your macros for you and then we show you step by step how we do it because we don't want to hold that back from you.
We don't want you to feel like you have to rely on a coach for the rest of your life or that it's a secretive thing that only you should, or that only coaches know so that you continue to pay us more and more and more. No, no, no, no, no. We want to make sure that we teach you, we educate you, we empower you about every single thing that you need to know to be successful in your journey.
So if you want to learn more, you can head over to macrocountingmadesimple.com. That's macrocountingmadesimple.com. I will link it in the show notes that you can easily go listen. Now again, I'm also going to link an episode that I think you should listen to. If you're someone who chronically lives in a caloric deficit like maybe when I was talking about the body fat loss phase and constantly being in that toxic cycle of thinking that you need to eat less and less and less, I want you to fully understand the dangers of this and understand why it's important for you to potentially consider a reverse diet ASAP.
So again, if you are ready for a reverse diet and you want to learn more about our online academy, I will link that in the show notes. If you want to learn more about just kind of what happens when you don't eat enough, you can tune into episode 18. I have also linked that in the show notes as well. I hope that this podcast episode was helpful for you, was informative for you. Again, these are things that I wish I would've learned.
When I first started, I was Googling for hours and hours and watching tons of YouTube videos. And so if I would've had something simple like this that just kind of broke it down, it would've been so much more beneficial for me and would've helped me so much. So I hope that it helps you, I hope that it saves you time, it saves you energy and it kind of makes macro counting a little less intimidating. It kind of just breaks it down for you.
Again, definitely bookmark this podcast because you're going to want to go back to it depending on what phase you're in so that you can learn more about that phase. And again, like I said, I just personally learn better when I'm going through something myself. So bookmark this episode if you have a friend or a coworker or a sister or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from learning about the four phases of macro counting, maybe they are completely new to macro counting, or maybe they think that macro counting is a diet and they were not aware that there's so many different phases of macro counting enabling you to kind of look at macro counting as a tool instead, send this their way.
You can copy the link and send it to them in a text message. You can also screenshot this, post it up on your Instagram story, your Facebook story, whatever social media platform you prefer. Be sure to tag me, Embrace Your Real as well as Julie A. Ledbetter. We love, love, love connecting with you guys. That is all that I have for today's episode. Again, thanks for tuning in. I love you so much and I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the ground, be sure to do so, Julie A. Ledbetter, yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post workout, real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me, it means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.