Like many of us, today’s guest Eve Guzman has done ALL the diets! She had tried everything under the sun! But it wasn’t until she used her background in science to start looking into her weight loss with a different lens. This brought her to something that actually worked for her. MACROS!
On today’s Fit Girl Magic podcast, we dive into what macros are, how they can help you with your weight loss and how to stop abusing them! Ladies, when I tell you this is an amazing episode it really is. I have been waiting so long for this.
Eve has years of experience working with clients to find their perfect macros ratio and she’s sharing all her tips and tricks on today’s show!
Today’s guest, Eve Guzman, is the founder of the Macro Mentorship Program, the unique macro nutrition + business coaching course. Eve turns health coaches and nutritionists into macro experts, increases their re-sign rates, builds their confidence with nutrition coaching, and streamlines their client management systems while scaling their businesses! I just know you are going to find all she has to say so beneficial!
Macro abuse… Let’s start with this.
I have no clue when the whole IIFYM “it fits in your macros” started… Ben and Jerry’s, Snickers.. Well, it If It Fits Into Your Macros… I should have weight loss! It became marketed and recommended on socials and stuff and ran parallel with people wanting to do figure competitions, etc. Macros, therefore, became this vicious cycle of people stuffing their faces with Snickers bar because it fit into their macros, to then aggressively trying to cut macros to save themselves from themselves. This was all simultaneously happening around the same time everybody wanted to be a bikini competitor, everyone did shows to make themselves lose weight… and everyone was eating pop tarts, snickers, and pizza!
But this wasn’t the case for Eve. She was always on a diet until she came across MACROS!
What was it that said, this was going to work for me?
I’ve done all the diets. Some people say that and what does that actually mean?? I’ve done Slim fast, meal replacements, Optifast (Medifast or Octavia), I drank 5 shakes and a little bar, Progresso soup, Special K diet, Weight Watchers, and Lean Cuisine packets, I’ve done everything!!! When I couldn’t stick to the diets, I had to step back and say, “WHY can’t I stick to them?” There was always a meal plan that said to stick to this, so I wasn’t looking at the calories I was eating, I wasn’t looking at the macros I was eating. Either they were too hard, or I was so hungry, and the food was gross.
I thought it was me, a willpower thing. I’m going to be fat forever, victim mentality! What I did instead was I backed up and looked at all of my degrees I had. A Bachelor’s Degree in Pre-Med with a minor in Biochemistry, and a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Laboratory Science. Why am I eating meals out of a packet or box? I have this student loan debt for being a scientist, why can’t I figure this out and create my whole plan!?
I backed away from diets, and meal plans, to replace this sugar-free shit and I made a calorie-based diet for myself that actually put me in a deficit. Macros won’t save you, it’s a calorie deficit that creates weight loss! I can eat clean, eat treats, stay in a deficit and track my calories. I did this for 6 months, and looked at the data further, where are my calories coming from? This is where I found macros before they were a thing. This was not a new diet; this was basic nutrition!!!
I started this from 2013-2014, coached myself on this, and started getting better results. I then realized that I got way wetter results tracking macros vs just calories alone! My body was changing so I then coached my husband right after who became my very first client and he had lost 125 in the first year and a half! That’s how I got to macro tracking, gave up all this other bullshit out there, and got back to science!
I was put into a box, and I needed to break out of it. I finally became in control because I allowed myself to compile the data. People will allow themselves to be thrown into a new box when one thing doesn’t work. You don’t have data because you went into that box and did what the program told you. Did you even know WHY you lost weight? Do you know what to do even to maintain it? Can you look at what you were doing to make changes? That is ALL ABOUT DATA! What gets managed has to get measured at some point first!
3 Things That Can Help With Weight Loss When Focusing On Macros.
First, track your food! I know, we are going to get some eye rolls, but it’s so important. When you track your calories, you can also track your macros. By doing this, you will always have this tool when you need it. There are great apps out there to help with this, and MyFitnessPal is one of them. (It is definitely worth the paid version, especially if you are trying to lose a lot of weight and maintain it.)
Because I learned portion sizes from tracking, and what it is to truly be full, satiated, and eat real foods, I know my hunger cues. I know how to act if I am low carb! I know how I will be If I am working out fasted and going into a meeting, I am going to cuss people out!
I know what my body does because I have the data! So, when I go through long periods of not tracking, I know what to do now, I know how to get through those periods.
Second, you have to tune into your hunger cues. So many of us grew up eating every X amount of hours. Am I hungry or did I train myself to eat now? I had to ask myself, am I truly hungry? How do I feel now or how would I feel an hour from now? Learn the hunger, how full I am, and how long I can go.
And lastly, stop eating around the clock! For many of us, it’s challenging to stop eating by the clock. Many of us thought that being hungry was a death sentence and tanked our metabolism! But hunger is a great thing!! It shows you that your metabolism is working well. To never have hunger is actually the opposite. It is a bad thing. If you are never hungry, this is a sign of an underactive metabolism, a low metabolic rate, and you are not really burning to your full potential each day. So… this usually means that your metabolism is sluggish.
I go through a series with clients with this:
● How hungry are you?
● How full you are?
● How comfortable are you?
● How do you feel on a scale when it feels like it’s been 3 hours, 4 hours, and so on?
● Size that against how much you are eating.
What are macros…?
Alright, so if you are with me this far you may know or not know what macros are.. So let’s break them down!
Macros are macronutrients. These are all of the different components in the foods you want and eat. Whether you have been on a meal plan or calorie tracking or not, everyone is eating macros and we have since day 1! All the food we choose or don’t choose consists of proteins, carbs, fats, or a mixture. A lot of people don’t know they are eating macros all day because they are just focusing on the calories on the back of a package or the marketing on the front. Where we get confused is by the front of the packaging. It says high protein and that can be confusing, especially on a freaking protein bar with only 6 grams of protein and 30grams of carbs.… that is NOT high protein!
Macros help you to better understand and make better choices so you can look for what it’s composed of, not just its calories. Then you can ask yourself, “Is it going to help me get to my goal?” Become aware of eating and decide where those calories are going. Do you want to consume 100 calories of fats or 100 calories of fats, proteins, and carbs?
Maintenance: Let’s say we need X amount of carbs, X of proteins, and X of fats, now is that a set it and forget it? Or as you work your way through the dieting process, fat loss, cut, maintenance phases, are we always making adjustments?
Yes! Always! We can’t stay in just one single phase forever, unless it’s maintenance, but that will always be a floating number. Maintenance is fluid depending on what is going on with you, your activities, metabolism adapting, are you losing weight too quickly.
You are doing initial macros for 2-3 weeks, collecting data then making the call on macros and calories. If you don’t have the data, you won’t know. Some people think you put your macros in a deficit and keep it forever until you hit your goal weight. But that’s not going to be the case.
What are some of the physiological things you work with your clients to get over the eating more for a few months and it will be okay? This is for clients who are coaches and non-coaches. Especially if you’ve been dieting for a long time. It is scary for a coach to say, the deficit is over, let’s raise your calories because people always assume weight gain with a calorie increase. But you are going from a deficit to losing weight, so you are in the calorie and macro range below your maintenance calories. You lose weight because of this. So, if we calculate your maintenance macros at the new weight, what should happen? We should maintain or not really gain weight! That is what is supposed to happen!
Yes, some people gain weight on the reverse, but most of it is water because of the rehydration of the body. As the macros and carbs increase, they are there to hydrate. It’s not really weight, just 2 pounds of this water weight which is not true fat or weight gain.
It takes a lot of walking clients through science and numbers during this. Wouldn’t you want to maintain your weight on a higher-calorie diet?? And not be hangry? I think so!!
What are the things that just keep you sane?
I am completely against 100% clean eating in a deficit. I think people should work on fun stuff for the rest of their life. 80% of what I eat is pretty clean, whole foods, low in preservatives, natural, they come out of an animal and out of the ground unless it is a box of rice. Then, 20% is the fun mental sanity stuff! A piece of chocolate, an Oreo here or there. I am not dieting right now, but if I was it would be the same! You can’t feel like you are giving everything up. And if you practice this in all phases you are in, you don’t always have to feel like you are going into a diet and it’s horrible and setting yourself up for something bad! During those phases, we won’t have it as much, but you still can have it, and by doing this it helps to prevent binging.
You have to know yourself.. What can you have in the house or not? Tortilla chips I CAN’T have in the house because I would just have them all! Know what your trigger foods are and limit them or simply don’t bring them in the house.
Trying on macros for size.
I love this! When we do check-ins with clients, I always want feedback. It’s not always about what the macros were, how close you were, and the weight that was lost. But it’s about, are you feeling like shit? Are you stressed? Is your hunger low? That is showing me your body is going through stress and it may be time to pull the deficit.
We are always looking for energy, hunger, mental capacity to stick with the plan, libido, waking up recovered? So many things to look up and see if the macros are the best fit or is it time to get to another phase. It matters about all of this stuff! So many of us think it’s the food or workout keeping us from the goal, but we don’t look at our external life and we need to do this.
A lot of my listeners are over 40. Do your macros change based on your age? Or do you change it based on the individual person? Age is tied to hormones, perimenopause, or menopause. So, the macros should definitely change! There are going to be changes in macros, the profile approaching carbs and fat, how long a diet should be, how deep the deficit should be, natural supplements, and the type of training you are going to do.
Our progesterone and estrogen are changing, so that is why so many people experience weight gain or fat distribution in different places during this time. When estrogen drops, it changes the way our body is processing carbohydrates, starches, and sugars and can lead to a lot of insulin resistance. It’s not age, it’s the chemical profile of our body. Women in menopause need to boost their fats a little to help. Not low carb, not keto, but they do need help in the area of making it easier to help the levels of estrogen they have not become insulin resistant when you are processing carbs.
Also, the types of workouts you are doing should change. Lifting weights and strength training is a big one and a big game changer for keeping our metabolic rate higher for those who are older!
What is one thing that makes you feel magical?
Traveling!! Being in the water or by the water. As a business owner, when I have time and freedom to do that, I feel so magical! Oh, and warm chocolate chip cookies of course!!!
LINKS
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/kimbarnesjeffersoncoach
Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fitgirlmagic/
Website:
Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fit-girl-magic-healthy-living-for-women-over-40/id1476883661
Cracking The Belly Fat Code:
https://www.fitgirlmagic.com/bfc_masterclasswait/
Macro Nutrition Coaching Certification
https://www.gtransformationacademy.com/mentorshipwaitlist2022
Eve Guzman Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/eve_fitchick/
