Have you ever wondered if your daily meal plan should be the same as mine?

I mean, seriously?  Or if you should be eating the same thing as Brenda in sales....or 🔥 hot Marcus 🔥  in Accounting....or JACKED Darius who is in the gym twice a day?  What about what should your teenager be eating, who is on the track team versus the football team?

Hi friend!  Dr. Kelly here, everybody's favorite pelvic physio on the internet.  In an earlier blog post, we learned how to calculate our target number of daily calories (or showed you how your coach or trainer might have arrived at your "target number"). I also gave you an online fillable form to find your target number if you don't have a coach.  In this post, we're going to learn what percentage of those calories should come from carbs, protein and fats, depending on how active we are.  Cool, huh?!?!  I know, you're welcome!!

I hope you are as excited as I am.  So hold onto your butts, people, because this is ABSOLUTELY information that we ALL wish we would have known sooner.  

What The Heck Are Macros and Micros? 

Macros = Big Nutrients

Macros (short for macronutrients) are the LARGER nutrients your body needs in to give you energy and help you grow, repair, and function.

There are THREE PRIMARY Macronutrients: Carbs, Proteins and Fats.

You NEED ALL THREE TO FUNCTION PROPERLY.  No Skipskies.

1. Carbohydrates (Carbs, because it's easier to say, and type) 
• Carbs are your body's MAIN energy source
• Found in a lot of places, but especially fruits, grains and beans!
• There are 4 calories per gram of Carbohydrate (Morris, et al, 2025)
• Of these, FIBER is VERY important for your colon health AND POOP!!   But be careful if you have SIBO, or Irritable Bowels...as your tolerance to fiber will vary greatly (so no, Veronica, you're not crazy that fiber makes you feel terrible).
• As your body’s MAIN energy source, your need for carbs will INCREASE, the more active you are.
2. Proteins 
• Help build and repair muscles, tissues, and skin!
• Protein helps you feel full
• There are 4 calories per gram of Protein (Morris, et al, 2025)
• Protein is VERY important if you are building muscle, building strength, or taking a GLP-1 antagonist (the Diabetes or weight loss shots).
3. Fats
• Fat plays a role in helping you absorb vitamins from pills or food, keeps your brain happy, AND supports hormonal function!!
• There are 9 calories per gram of fat (Morris, et al, 2025)
• If you are highly active, you may see the “percent” of your total daily calories from fat go down, because you are getting more calories from carbs, in order to fuel your awesome adventures.
• Fat is a way that your AMAZING body stores "extra calories" that you didn't need JUST NOW, in order to have them available to you for extra energy in the future.  like an extra gas tank for emergencies.  If you have "stubborn fat that just won't go away" and you are fueling adequately, hydrating adequately and exercising :) :) --your body might be sensing an emergency and not letting the fat burn FOR A REASON...so it's worth looking into why the body is not burning that off :) 

Your body needs ALL THREE MACRONUTRIENTS—no skipping!

Micronutrients = Small-but-Mighty Nutrients

Micronutrients (Micros for short) are vitamins and minerals. You only need a little of them, but they do HUGE things, like:

• Boost your immune system
• Build your baby’s bones and brain
• Help your muscles contract (hello heart and blood vessels :) 
• Keep your brain, kidneys and liver functioning normally

Examples: Iron, calcium, folate, vitamin D, choline, magnesium, etc.

We can do an entire blog on Micros, with a favorite Nutritionist, in the near future (I love many, but especially Lindsay Jones of Wyadho Integrative Wellness), so for today, I am going to focus on Macros.  

Macro Needs Change Depending on How Active We Are

For the general population (all you elite athletes will have your own protocols, this is for those just getting started), or trying to answer their middle school and high schoolers questions, or trying to decide if they are going to buy the same protein powder as 🔥 Hot Marcus🔥 from Accounting or JACKED Darius who goes to the gym 2x a day (answer, probably not, but if it makes you happy...maybe? 🤷)  But unless you are working out as much as them, you FOR SURE won't need as much of it as they use.  

Back on track....for the general population, I'm going to:

• FIRST give you a chart, breaking down macro percentages for sedentary, moderately active and highly active populations.
• SECOND, I am going to break it down into word form for you, and help you decide how active you are.
• THIRD, I am going to give you a sample breakdown of Macros per day, for a sedentary, moderately active, and very active, 150# female, so you can see the breakdown in real life!  (and in a future post, I'll even give you a meal plan!!  WOOT!!!)

Let's get to it:

🧮 This chart tells us what percentage of our daily calories should come from Macros (carbohydrates, proteins and fats), based on how active we are

🧠 TL;DR (Too Long;Didn’t Read, for us Non-Gen-Z’ers Out There):

(My Middle School Kids have a newfound interest in my website and social media, ever since I accidentally used audio that was supposed to be about "FAILS" on a post about something I loved...they thought that was hilarious, and now offer me "advice"...and adding a TL;DR to my Blog was one of their suggestions...I said I'd try it for 2 months...this is the 3rd blog and I'm not sure it's going to last to see a 4th...so if you LOVE it, please comment on it, or it might go away at the next blog!!!)

The more you move, the more carbs and protein you need.
The less you move, the more your body prefers fat for fuel.
The goal isn’t to cut macros—it’s to balance them based on how you live.

And remember, these macro ranges aren’t made up—they’re based on expert guidelines from the USDA, ACSM, and sports nutrition researchers. Your activity level helps guide which end of the range makes the most sense for your body and your goals.

How do I know “how active” I am?  

There’s actually solid scholarly evidence that connects daily step counts as well as minutes spent exercising per week to general activity levels like sedentary, moderately active, and very active. This can be super helpful in helping us quantify our activity level with something like our “daily steps” on our smart watch or phone!

📚 GEEK OUT!! Tudor-Locke Step Index

The most widely cited classification comes from Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke, a researcher who published a framework that’s been used in multiple peer-reviewed studies (e.g., in Sports Medicine and International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity).

Here’s how she breaks it down:

How Many Steps Per Day Place YOU in What Category:

• <5,000 steps/day = sedentary
• ~7,000–9,000 steps/day = moderately active
• 10,000+ steps/day = very active

These step ranges are general but well-supported in the literature, and they map surprisingly well to Mifflin-St Jeor calorie activity levels.

What if you (GASP?) DON'T Count Your Steps?  
(👋 Hi, It's Me!)

For people who don’t track steps, there’s strong scholarly consensus (especially from ACSM, CDC, and WHO) that uses minutes of physical activity per week to define movement categories like sedentary, moderately active, and very active. Here’s how movement is generally classified using time spent exercising (which means moving so that your heart rate and breathing rate INCREASE for a period of time)—this comes from a combination of ACSM guidelines and large cohort studies (full cites at end, obvi):

Summary of Activity Level, Based on Minutes of Movement Most Days

If you’re doing 30 minutes a day, most days, you’re probably moderately active.
If you’re exercising over 45–60 minutes most days, or working a very physical job, you’re likely very active.

Cool, Now the Final Step: Translating Grams of Macros Into Calories per Day, or Vice Versa: How Do You Figure out WHAT YOU NEED TO EAT?!?!?

🍽️ FUN FOOD FACT: “1 gram of food ≠ 1 gram of protein?”

1g protein = 4 cal, 1g carb = 4 cal, 1g fat = 9 cal, 1g alcohol = 7 cal

Here's How I Explain it to my clients:

Just because a piece of food weighs 1 gram doesn't mean it has 1 gram of protein, carbs, or fat. Why? Because food is made of lots of stuff—not just nutrients. That 1 gram might include:

• Water
• Fiber (which we can’t digest)
• Vitamins & minerals (which don’t give us calories)
• Or even air (like in popcorn or whipped cream!)

So when we talk about "grams of protein" or "grams of carbs", we’re talking about the actual nutrient content—notthe weight of the food on your plate.

Example Time:

🐔 Let’s say you eat a slice of chicken that weighs 100 grams. 

• This is a piece of chicken that would fit in the palm of an average size adult, and would weigh about 3.5 ounces. 
• The fact that the chicken weighs 100 grams, doesn’t mean it has 100 grams of protein.
• It might only have around 30 grams of protein—because the rest is water, connective tissue, and other stuff.
• So that piece of chicken, with 30 grams of protein, has 4 calories per gram of protein, has 120 calories from protein in it. 

🍞 Same goes for bread:

• A slice might weigh 40 grams
• But it may only have 20 grams of carbs, plus some fiber, protein, and water
• And that 20 grams of carbs, since 1 gram of carbs has 4 calories in it, has 80 calories from Carbs in it.  

So Let's Say, You are a 150# Woman. Here's your Estimated Caloric Need Per Day, BROKE DOWN INTO MACROS FOR YOU, based on Activity Levels 

You're welcome :). I appreciate you, as well. 

Take Home Message:

Phew!  Nutrition is such a powerful (and often wildly misunderstood) topic.  I know this blog post was VERY thick in the information, but I strongly feel that it is a perfect place for you to start.  If you enjoyed this, or learned something, please share it with 1-2 friends, and also try to teach your friends or family something new at the dinner table tonight.  And if you have questions, let me know at [email protected], as I’m constantly working on improving my information delivery :) 

Digest through this for a day or two, then when you’re ready, come back for those sample meal plan ideas! And remember, the Pelvic Floored VIP e-newsletter is BACK in OPERATION, BABY!!   It offers regular FREE awesome pelvic tips & tricks, as well as lets you know when new blog posts drop, so you don't miss topics that are important to you.  And if you're into Nutrition, Dr. Kelly’s Treasure Chest is getting a Glow up with a new Module ALL ABOUT Nutrition, so if you’re lucky, you can snag it at the old monthly price before it’s new glow-up price!!! Social Media and the e-newsletter will keep you posted on when that Glow-Up will occur, so that's another reason to stay in the know :)

Thanks for being here!  I really appreciate you!!
XOXO Dr. Kelly

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📝 Evidence!  It’s True, You Can Look It Up!!

Number of Calories Per Gram of Macro

Morris AL, Mohiuddin SS. Biochemistry, Nutrients. [Updated 2023 May 1]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554545/

Step Count Associated with Activity Level

• Tudor-Locke C, Bassett DR Jr. How many steps/day are enough? Sports Med. 2004;34(1):1-8. doi:10.2165/00007256-200434010-00001

Movement Associations with Activity Level

• ACSM Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription
• 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (CDC/Dept of Health)
• WHO Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health

📚 References for Macro Recommendations by Activity Level

1. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services / USDA
   Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025
• Carbohydrates: 45–65% of total daily calories
• Protein: 10–35%
• Fat: 20–35%
  Link to full report (PDF)
2. American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
   ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription
• Adjusts macro needs based on physical activity level
• Protein needs increase with exercise intensity and muscle-building goals
• Recommends shifting carb intake higher in endurance athletes
  (Find ACSM resources here)
3. International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN)
   Position Stand: Diet and Body Composition
• Protein: 1.2–2.0 g/kg/day depending on activity and goals
• Emphasizes carbs for glycogen replenishment in moderate-to-high training loads
  Peer-reviewed article (JISSN, 2017)
4. World Health Organization (WHO)
   Healthy Diet Fact Sheet
• Reinforces macronutrient ranges for global public health
• Offers general targets similar to USDA/ACSM for adults