Protein, carbs, fat, vitamins, minerals. Know what each one does — and you'll know exactly how to eat for your goal.
Every food you eat is made of nutrients. They split into two groups: macronutrients — the big ones your body needs in large amounts for energy — and micronutrients — the small ones needed in tiny amounts to keep everything working properly.
Get the macros wrong and you don't hit your goals. Get the micros wrong and your health slowly breaks down. Both matter.
Every calorie you eat comes from one of these branches. Tap a branch to open it. Tap any sub-type to see which foods belong there — and what they actually do.
Complete protein — contains all 9 essential amino acids. Most bioavailable form.
Complete protein — high in leucine, the amino acid that triggers muscle building most. Whey is fast-digesting. Casein is slow.
Incomplete protein — most lack 1–2 essential amino acids. Combine sources to cover all 9. Need ~10% more total protein vs animal sources.
✓ Quinoa = one of few complete plant proteins.
Incomplete protein — missing tryptophan, so it doesn't count toward your muscle-building targets. Not a protein source. Used specifically for joint health, skin, tendons, and gut lining. Popular supplement trend — valid use case, just don't confuse it with real protein.
Slow digestion — long chains of sugar. Steady blood sugar. Best for most meals, most situations.
Simple carbs — single or double sugar molecules. Fast to digest. Fast blood sugar spike. Context determines if they're useful or harmful.
Lactose is the sugar in dairy. People who are lactose intolerant lack the enzyme (lactase) to break it down — so it ferments in the gut instead, causing bloating and gas.
Fructose goes straight to the liver. At high doses (fruit juice, soda, corn syrup) it converts to fat. In whole fruit, fiber slows it down — no problem.
2–3 kcal/g — partially digested. Low blood sugar impact. You'll find these on labels of "sugar-free" and keto products. They're not fake sweeteners — they're real carbs, just processed differently.
⚠ Overconsumption = GI distress. Bloating, gas, diarrhea. This is why protein bars with maltitol wreck some people's stomachs. Erythritol is the gentlest — mostly excreted unchanged in urine.
Xylitol is toxic to dogs. Keep it away from them.
Indigestible carb — slows digestion, feeds gut bacteria, keeps you full. Soluble fiber dissolves in water and forms a gel. Insoluble fiber moves waste through. Both matter.
Anti-inflammatory. Essential — your body can't make it. Reduces inflammation, supports brain, heart, and joint health. Most people are chronically deficient. Prioritize these.
Pro-inflammatory in excess. Also essential, but modern diets are overloaded with Ω-6 from seed oils. Ideal Ω-6 to Ω-3 ratio is 4:1. Most people eat 15:1 or worse. This imbalance drives chronic inflammation.
Not evil — just overconsumed. Cut seed oils, eat more fatty fish. Ratio fixed.
Non-essential — your body makes it on its own. But eating it from food still helps. Reduces bad cholesterol. Anti-inflammatory. Monounsaturated fats.
Science is unsettled. Real-world experience: eating meat and animal fat daily for years causes no harm. Don't fear it. Avoid the hysteria.
Dietary cholesterol ≠ blood cholesterol. Your liver produces ~80% of your blood cholesterol regardless of what you eat. For most people, eating cholesterol-rich foods has minimal effect on blood cholesterol levels. Don't avoid eggs.
Avoid completely. Damages the cardiovascular system. No safe level. Check labels for "partially hydrogenated oil" — that's trans fat hiding behind a name.
Alcohol provides 7 kcal/g — more than protein or carbs, less than fat. But it is not a macronutrient. Your body doesn't need it. It's a toxin your liver prioritizes breaking down above everything else. While it's being processed, fat burning stops completely. Every gram of alcohol you drink puts fat loss on hold until it's gone.
~150 kcal / standard pint. Alcohol + carbs (from barley/malt). High volume, easy to overconsume. "Beer belly" is a real thing — liquid carbs that spike insulin and pair with a liver that's already busy processing alcohol.
~120–130 kcal / glass (150ml). Alcohol + small amounts of sugar. Red wine has polyphenols (resveratrol) — but the dose in a glass is too small to matter. The alcohol still costs you. Don't use it as a health food.
~65 kcal / 30ml shot. Pure alcohol, no carbs. The lowest-calorie option if you drink. Mixers are the problem — cola, juice, tonic add carbs and spike insulin on top of the alcohol hit.
Best mixer: sparkling water. Worst mixer: juice or regular soda.
~90–100 kcal. Lowest calorie alcohol option. Minimal carbs. Still alcohol — liver still pauses fat burning. Not a free pass, just a smaller hit compared to beer or cocktails.
Food enters your mouth. Follow it — from bite to energy, from muscle fuel to stored fat. Every step is a decision your body makes based on what you ate and what you're doing.
Protein is in every part of your body — muscles, bones, skin, hair, blood. It's made from 22 amino acids. Nine of them are essential — your body can't make them, so you have to eat them. The other 13 your body can produce on its own.
This is why protein quality matters. Animal proteins (meat, eggs, fish, dairy) contain all 9 essential amino acids. Most plant proteins don't. Not a problem if you plan carefully — a big problem if you don't.
Eating in a deficit without enough protein means you lose muscle, not just fat. You end up lighter but softer. That's not the goal.
This is based on lean bodyweight only. Fat tissue doesn't need protein. Muscle does. You only need enough protein to fuel what's actually there — your muscles, not your fat.
Going lower than 1.6g? You risk losing muscle. Going higher than 2.2g? You're wasting money and calories. For most people, this range is all you need. Hit it. Adjust carbs and fat around it. Done.
A person weighs 100 kg with 30% body fat.
Not 200g. Not 220g. 112–154g. That's it. The number feels smaller than expected — because most people think they're bigger than they are.
Here's the truth: you are much smaller than you think. You don't have as much muscle as you think. For some people, this is eye-opening. Most people massively overestimate how much protein they need.
Protein is critical. But you probably don't need as much as the fitness industry tells you. Hit your range. Stay consistent. Then dial in your carbs and fat — and you're set.
You can also get fat from eating too much protein. Excess calories store as fat — regardless of the source. Protein isn't magic. It's just the most useful macronutrient when used right.
| LEAN MASS | LOWER END 1.6g / kg · bulking |
UPPER END 2.2g / kg · lean / cutting |
|---|---|---|
| 50 kg | 80g / day | 110g / day |
| 60 kg | 96g / day | 132g / day |
| 70 kg | 112g / day | 154g / day |
| 80 kg | 128g / day | 176g / day |
| 90 kg | 144g / day | 198g / day |
Based on lean bodyweight · Formula: lean mass × 1.6 (low) to × 2.2 (high)
Don't know your lean mass? Estimate it: subtract your body fat from total weight. At 80kg with 15% body fat — that's 68kg of lean mass. Use that number.
Carbs are your body's primary fuel source. The type of carb matters — but so does when you eat it and what you do after. This is where most people get it wrong.
Whole grains, oats, sweet potato, brown rice, legumes, vegetables. These digest slowly — steady energy, no spike, no crash. Good in almost any situation. Most forgiving carb you can eat. Hard to go wrong with these.
White bread, fruit, energy gels, sugary drinks, candy. These digest fast — quick energy spike. Not automatically bad — but they need to be burned immediately. Eat them before you move, not before you sit.
Simple carbs eaten before training = fuel. Simple carbs eaten on the couch = fat storage.
Ever wonder why professional athletes use energy gels during races? Those are almost pure sugar — simple carbs. But athletes burn through them immediately during intense exercise. The carb isn't the problem. What you do after eating it is.
When you eat carbs, your body breaks them down into glucose — blood sugar. That triggers insulin to move the sugar into your cells for energy or storage. Consistently spiking blood sugar with simple carbs while sedentary, over years, leads to insulin resistance and eventually Type 2 diabetes.
Carbs are not the enemy. Eating the wrong carb at the wrong time — repeatedly — is.
Fat has the most calories per gram — 9 vs 4 for protein and carbs. That scared people for decades. But dietary fat is not the problem. Excess calories are the problem. Fat is essential for hormone production, brain function, vitamin absorption, and cell structure.
Olive oil, avocado, nuts, fatty fish (salmon, mackerel), eggs, butter. These support your heart, brain, and hormone health.
Red meat, eggs, butter, full-fat dairy. The research on saturated fat has gone back and forth for decades — and the honest answer is the science is not settled. From real-world experience, eating red meat every single day, at every meal, over many years shows no negative effects. If anything, having some form of meat on your plate daily is one of the healthiest things you can do. Don't fear it.
Processed snacks, fried fast food, margarine, anything with "partially hydrogenated oil" on the label. These actively damage your cardiovascular system.
The real culprit isn't fat. It's sugar converting into fat inside your liver. More on that in the Sugar chapter.
Fat is the raw material for sex hormones. Testosterone. Estrogen. Cortisol. All built from cholesterol. No fat. No hormones. It's that simple.
Most people know fat matters. Few know exactly how much they actually need. Here's the number.
| BODYWEIGHT | MINIMUM 0.5g / kg |
OPTIMAL 1–1.5g / kg |
|---|---|---|
| 60 kg | 30g / day | 60–90g / day |
| 70 kg | 35g / day | 70–105g / day |
| 80 kg | 40g / day | 80–120g / day |
| 90 kg | 45g / day | 90–135g / day |
| 100 kg | 50g / day | 100–150g / day |
| 110 kg | 55g / day | 110–165g / day |
Formula: minimum = weight × 0.5 | optimal = weight × 1.0 to 1.5
Got a lot of weight to lose? Use your target bodyweight — not your current weight. Calculating off 120kg when your goal is 80kg will inflate your numbers. Same rule as protein: base it on where you're going, not where you are.
Stay above 20% of total daily calories from fat. Drop below that and hormone production slows down.
What breaks when fat goes too low:
Testosterone is synthesized directly from cholesterol. Cut fat too low and free testosterone drops. Low energy, poor recovery, low libido, weaker muscle gains.
Too little fat and estrogen production falls. Periods become irregular or stop. Fertility drops. Bone density decreases. This is common in female athletes who under-eat fat.
These vitamins are fat-soluble. No fat in your meal = they pass straight through you. You can eat all the right foods and still be deficient if you removed the fat.
Fatty meat · Eggs · Butter · Olive oil · Avocado · Full-fat dairy. These are not optional extras. They are the building blocks your body runs on.
Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals. Your body needs them in tiny amounts — but without them, things break down. Energy drops. Immunity weakens. Bones thin. Hormones go off. Most people don't notice a deficiency until it's already causing damage.
There are two types of vitamins based on how your body stores them:
Your body can't store these. Whatever you don't use gets flushed out in urine. You need to replenish them every day through food. The good news — it's very hard to overdose on them.
These get stored in body fat and liver. That means they build up over time. Great for consistency — but it also means you can overdose if you take too much through supplements.
Daily reference values for adults · Tap a row to see the full function
| Vitamin | Daily Amount | Best Food Sources | Key Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| B1 Thiamine | 1.1 mg | Peas, bananas, whole grain bread, walnuts, pork | Energy metabolism, nervous system, heart function |
| B2 Riboflavin | 1.4 mg | Milk, yogurt, eggs, mushrooms | Energy production, red blood cells, skin & vision health |
| B3 Niacin | 16 mg | Meat, fish, eggs, wheat flour | Energy metabolism, nervous system, skin & mucous membranes |
| B5 Pantothenic | 6 mg | Chicken, beef, eggs, mushrooms | Energy metabolism, steroid hormone synthesis, vitamin D production |
| B6 Pyridoxine | 1.4 mg | Meat, poultry, peanuts, soy, bananas | Protein metabolism, red blood cells, immune function, hormone regulation |
| B7 Biotin | 50 µg | Wide variety of foods in small amounts | Energy metabolism, nervous system, hair & skin health |
| B9 Folic Acid | 200 µg | Green veg (broccoli, spinach), chickpeas, lentils | Cell division, amino acid synthesis, blood formation, crucial in pregnancy |
| B12 Cobalamin | 2.5 µg | Meat, fish, milk, cheese, eggs | Energy metabolism, nervous system, red blood cells — must supplement if vegan |
| C Ascorbic Acid | 80 mg | Citrus fruits, peppers, blackcurrants | Immune function, collagen production, antioxidant, iron absorption |
Stored in body fat & liver. Build up over time — possible to overdose through supplements.
| Vitamin | Daily Amount | Best Food Sources | Key Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Retinol | 800 µg | Cheese, eggs, fatty fish, milk | Iron metabolism, skin & mucous membranes, immune function, normal vision, cell differentiation |
| D Cholecalciferol | 10 µg | Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel), red meat, egg yolks | Calcium & phosphorus absorption, bone & teeth maintenance, muscle function, immune function, anti-inflammatory |
| E Tocopherol | 12 mg | Plant oils (sunflower, olive), nuts & seeds, wheat germ | Protects DNA, proteins and lipids from oxidative damage |
| K1 & K2 Phylloquinone / MK7 | 75 µg (K1) · 90–120 µg (K2) | K1: green leafy veg (broccoli) · K2: cheese, eggs, liver, butter | Blood clotting, bone maintenance — K2 directs calcium to bones and away from arteries |
Essential for muscle function, bone health, nerve signalling and blood pressure control.
| Mineral | Daily Amount | Best Food Sources | Key Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calcium Ca | 800 mg | Dairy, green leafy veg (kale, spinach) | Blood clotting, energy metabolism, muscle & neurotransmission, digestive enzymes, bone & teeth maintenance |
| Phosphorus P | 700 mg | Red meat, poultry, dairy, fish | Energy metabolism, cell membrane function, bone & teeth maintenance |
| Magnesium Mg | 375 mg | Spinach, walnuts, whole grain bread | Reduces fatigue, electrolyte balance, energy metabolism, neurotransmission, muscle contraction including heart, protein synthesis, bone & teeth maintenance |
| Potassium K | 2000 mg | Bananas, broccoli, parsnips, beans, legumes, nuts & seeds | Muscle & neurological function, blood pressure regulation |
Needed in tiny amounts — but critical for muscle health, nervous system and cell repair.
| Mineral | Daily Amount | Best Food Sources | Key Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Fe | 14 mg | Red meat, beans (kidney, chickpeas), nuts, dried fruit | Cognitive function, energy metabolism, red blood cells & hemoglobin, oxygen transport, immune function, reduces fatigue |
| Manganese Mn | 2 mg | Bread, walnuts, green veg, peas | Energy metabolism, bone formation, connective tissue, fatty acid metabolism |
| Copper Cu | 1 mg | Nuts, shellfish | Connective tissue, energy metabolism, nervous system, skin & hair pigmentation, iron transport, immune function, DNA protection |
| Zinc Zn | 10 mg | Meat, shellfish, dairy products | DNA synthesis, cognitive function, fertility & reproduction, testosterone maintenance, protein synthesis, bone & skin health, immune function |
| Iodine I | 150 µg | Seafood, shellfish | Cognitive & neurological function, energy metabolism, skin health, thyroid function & hormone production |
| Selenium Se | 55 µg | Brazil nuts, fish, meat, eggs | Spermatogenesis, hair & nail health, immune function, thyroid function, DNA protection from oxidative damage |
Most common worldwide. Causes fatigue, weakness, poor focus. Especially common in women and vegetarians.
Most people are deficient and don't know it. Affects sleep, muscle function, blood sugar, and stress response.
Almost everyone who lives in low-sunlight climates is deficient. Affects immunity, mood, bone density, and testosterone.
Critical for thyroid function. Low iodine slows your metabolism and causes weight gain.
Almost exclusively found in animal products. Vegans and vegetarians must supplement — no exceptions.
Food is always the best source of micronutrients. Supplements are a backup — not a replacement for real food.
Most supplements are marketing. A few are genuinely useful — either because modern food is depleted in them, or because the amounts you need are hard to get from food alone. Here are the ones that actually matter.
Fix your food first. Then use supplements to fill the gaps — not to replace meals. A supplement can't out-work a bad diet. But the right ones, on top of good food, make a real difference.