It seems like dieting has always been about counting. Whether it be calories or Weight Watcher’s points, you’re always adding up meals and trying to keep from going over a certain threshold. The problem with counting calories is that it only tells you a little bit about the food you’re eating which is how much caloric energy your body gets out of that meal, and not how many nutrients you’re getting. Lately, the focus of dieting is shifting away from the amount of food you eat and more towards the composition.
The macronutrient profile is the ratio of the three macronutrients in your food. What are the three macronutrients? They’re the first few numbers on a food label: protein, dietary fat and carbohydrates. Dietary fat covers saturated fats and poly/mono unsaturated fats while carbohydrates encompass stuff like fiber and sugar. Instead of just trying to keep your calories down, the goal is to focus on the “macronutrient split”, or the percentages of calories from each macronutrient per meal. The math is simple enough, fats have 9 calories per gram while carbohydrates and protein have 4 calories per gram. Don’t worry about hard numbers, just keep a general idea of what macronutrients you want to be getting for that particular meal. After a workout I might grab the pesto chicken sandwich since it’s high on protein and carbs without much fat.
We post the macronutrient information on our menus and our nutricate receipts to make things even simpler. We still list the calories since it’s still a good indicator of how much food you should be eating, but with the macronutrient information you can take a quick glance at the menu and determine which meal is right at that time, whether you’re grabbing lunch on your way back to the office or you’re planning to go trail running that afternoon. So when you have the time, research and find out which macronutrient profiles are best for your lifestyle. Then head on over and enjoy the salads, flatbreads and sandwiches that fit into that profile.
