The Everything Macro Diet Meal Prep Cookbook

200 Delicious Recipes for a Flexible Diet That Helps You Lose Weight and Improve Your Health

Lindsay Boyers

• Publisher: Everything
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781507218136
• eBook ISBN: 9781507218143
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Culinary Arts

Stop counting calories and transform your body in no time with these easy, make-ahead macro diet meals everyone will enjoy.

If you’re someone who wants to start making healthy choices and get in control of your diet, you’re not alone. The macro diet offers a specific number of proteins, carbs, and fats to stay under every day based on your goals. Rather than a strict calorie count, which can do more harm than good, this way of eating allows you to enjoy all of your favorite foods—as long as it’s within your macros.

All you need to be successful with this diet is organization and preparation and The Everything Macro Diet Meal Prep Cookbook is here to help. This customizable, sustainable, and most importantly, effective diet will help you reach your weight-loss goals by cooking and eating healthy meals all week long.

What Is the Macro Diet?

The macro diet, often called “If It Fits Your Macros” or “IIFYM,” isn’t one specific diet but rather a set of principles that gives you a template for building out your meals. Instead of focusing on a set number of calories, the macro diet involves tracking your daily intake of macronutrients.

The Benefits of the Macro Diet

A properly balanced macro diet ensures that you’re getting the right nutrition for your goals, whether that be weight loss, improved fitness, or just wanting to feel better, and that you’re not over- or under-eating. This translates to better health and a reduced risk of chronic conditions, like heart disease, diabetes, and even Alzheimer’s disease, down the road. A macro diet also allows more flexibility than other nutrition plans, since there are no strict food rules surrounding what you “can” and “can’t” eat. You’ll uncover more about the benefits of the macro diet and each macronutrient later in this chapter.

A Breakdown of Macronutrients

Before starting a macro diet, it’s helpful to know what macros are and what they do for you. There are three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Most foods contain some combination of all three, although there are foods that contain only one or two. For example, butter is mostly all fat with minuscule amounts of protein, while meat is mostly protein with some fat and zero carbohydrates. The calories in your food come from the macronutrients in that food:

• Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram.
• Protein has 4 calories per gram.
• Fat has 9 calories per gram.

While calories are often described as some obscure measurement that pertains only to weight loss, they’re actually units of energy. In other words, the calories in your food provide you with the energy you need to get through the day and perform basic, but necessary, functions like breathing and keeping your heart beating.

Some people say that it doesn’t matter where your calories come from—that as long as you’re sticking to your calorie numbers, you’ll reach your goals. While that may be true in some ways, there’s lots of science that says if you want to feel (and look) your best, it does matter where calories are coming from—and that’s where the macro diet comes in.

Carbohydrates

The main function of carbohydrates, or “carbs” as they’re often called, is to provide your body with energy. They exist in three main forms—sugars, starches, fibers—that can be further broken down into simple and complex carbohydrates.

You should prioritize complex carbohydrates over simple ones whenever possible. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and thus provide a more sustained source of energy. Simple carbohydrates digest quickly and can provide an instant energy boost, but this is often followed by a crash that leaves you feeling hungry and worn out.

Complex carbohydrates are also often richer in fiber and starches, which have other health benefits. Fiber helps keep your digestion regular and can lower your risk of heart disease, while certain types of starches feed the good bacteria in your gut and help balance your gut microbiome.

question

Which carbs are simple, and which are complex?

Simple carbohydrates are simple sugars that are found in foods like fruits, milk, and dairy products, as well as processed foods and drinks like white bread, candy, baked goods, and sodas. Complex carbohydrates are longer-chain sugars and starches that are found in foods like starchy vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.

Some of the best sources of carbohydrates in a macro diet are:

• Sweet potatoes
• White potatoes
• Brown rice
• Gluten-free rolled oats
• Legumes (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas)
• Whole fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts
• Seeds

Because carbohydrates are such a convenient source of energy, your body always prioritizes using them over fats and proteins. In some ways, this is a good thing. But if you’re constantly overeating carbohydrates, or any of the other macronutrients, it can lead to weight gain. That’s why tracking is important. (More on that later.)

Protein

Protein is often considered the most important macronutrient when following a macro diet. While the ultimate goal in this diet is to nail your numbers every time, protein is a good place to start if you’re new to macros.

Proteins have more functions than either of the other macronutrients. They’re involved in your metabolism, build and repair your body’s tissues, and help maintain proper fluid and pH balance. Proteins also provide the structural framework for all of your cells.

All proteins are made up of amino acids, which are often called the building blocks of life. When you eat protein, your body breaks it down into individual amino acids and then uses those amino acids to rebuild the new proteins you need to carry out daily functions. There are twenty standard amino acids. Nine of them are categorized as essential, and eleven are nonessential. Essential amino acids are those that your body can’t make. The essential part comes from the fact that you must include them in your diet, otherwise your body won’t have access to them. On the other hand, your body can make nonessential amino acids. They’re not less important than essential amino acids; it’s just not as vital to include them in your diet since your body can make what it needs.

fact

Of the three macronutrients, carbohydrates is the only one that’s classified as nonessential. Your body is physically capable of obtaining all of its energy from protein and fat. This is the basis of low-carb and keto diets; once you teach your body how to thrive on fat as an energy source, your need for carbohydrates can lessen.

Proteins are further broken down into complete and incomplete proteins. Complete proteins provide all of the essential amino acids, while incomplete proteins are missing some. When choosing your protein sources, it’s best to fit in complete proteins whenever possible. You can also make a complete protein by eating complementary proteins—two incomplete proteins that each have the essential amino acids the other is missing—throughout the week. Some examples of complementary proteins are lentils and quinoa, rice and beans, and peanut butter and whole-grain bread.

essential

As a general rule, animal-based proteins, like meats and eggs, are complete proteins, whereas plant-based proteins, like beans and legumes, are incomplete proteins. There are some exceptions to this rule, though. For example, nutritional yeast is a complete protein.

Some of the best sources of protein in a macro diet are:

• Lean meats (beef, pork, lamb)
• Poultry (chicken, turkey)
• Seafood (fish, shellfish)
• Eggs
• Grass-fed dairy products
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Legumes (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas)

The protein from complete protein sources, such as lean meat and poultry, is more bioavailable, meaning your body can digest and absorb it better than protein from other sources. That said, it is possible to get adequate protein solely from plant-based foods.

Fat

Fat may be the most misunderstood macronutrient of them all. In the 1990s, many health experts pointed the finger at this macronutrient, suggesting that it was the sole reason for weight gain and many other health problems, including heart disease. But, as it turns out, many of those initial theories were wrong, and science shows that fat is an essential part of a healthy diet. It’s true that fat has more calories per gram than the other two macronutrients, but you’ll reap big rewards when you work it into your diet in a strategic way.

Your body uses fat as a secondary fuel source, and it’s a major storage form of energy in the body. Fat also helps you absorb fat-soluble vitamins, cushions and protects your organs, helps you regulate your body temperature, and supports cell growth. Adding fat to your meals also helps you feel satisfied instead of unfulfilled after eating.

alert

You may have heard people refer to unsaturated fat as “good” and saturated fat as “bad.” This is another oversimplified nutrition philosophy. The effect that saturated fats have on your body depends on the overall nutrient content of the food and your overall diet quality. For example, there are studies that show that consuming full-fat dairy, which is rich in saturated fat, has no negative effect on heart disease risk. Rather than vilifying saturated fat, be mindful of your sources and consuming it as part of a healthy diet.

Just as with proteins, there are essential fatty acids, like omega-3s and omega-6s. Since your body can’t make these types of fats, you have to get them from your diet to feel your best.

Some of the best sources of fat in a macro diet are:

• Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, albacore tuna)
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Grass-fed butter and healthy oils (avocado, olive, sesame)
• Avocado
• Olives
• Grass-fed meats

The recipes in this book capitalize on the benefits of these and other good sources of fat.

How to Calculate Your Macro Goals

Now that you know what macronutrients are and where you can find them, another important piece of the puzzle is learning how to calculate your macro goals and track how many you’re eating. The first step in calculating your macros is figuring out how many calories you need each day. The easiest way to do this is to use a free online calculator. Just search “calorie calculator” online, and you’ll be met with many options that will let you plug in your specifics, from your height and weight, to your fitness goals. Once you have that number, you’ll use it to calculate the grams of each macronutrient. Thankfully, there are online calculators and apps that will do most of this work for you; just search “macronutrient calculator” and/or “macronutrient tracker” and you’ll get a ton of results.

Since the macro diet is adaptable, there aren’t perfect macronutrient ranges that work for everyone, but here is a good starting point that online calculators work from:

• Carbohydrates: 30–40 percent of daily calories
• Protein: 25–35 percent of daily calories
• Fat: 20–30 percent of daily calories

Many people prefer a low-carb approach to macro counting. If you started a macro diet and you’re not seeing the results you want, or if you prefer to limit your carb intake, your macro breakdown should look more like this:

• Carbohydrates: 15–25 percent of daily calories
• Protein: 40–50 percent of daily calories
• Fat: 30–35 percent of daily calories

Figuring out your macronutrient sweet spot may take some t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Macro Diet and Meal Prep 101
• Chapter 2: Breakfast
• Chapter 3: Salads and Bowls
• Chapter 4: Soups, Stews, and Chili
• Chapter 5: Poultry Main Meals
• Chapter 6: Beef and Pork Main Meals
• Chapter 7: Seafood Main Meals
• Chapter 8: Vegetarian and Vegan Main Meals
• Chapter 9: Side Dishes
• Chapter 10: Snacks and Appetizers
• Chapter 11: Sweets and Treats
• Two-Week Meal Plan
• Standard Us/Metric Measurement Conversions
• About the Author
• Index
• Copyright