It’s not just about hitting your macros

Your macros can be perfect and you can still feel like garbage. The ingredients in your food matter more than most people want to admit.

Hitting your macro targets is important, but it's not the whole picture. The quality of what you're eating — the actual ingredients — matters more than most people realise, and it's often the missing variable when someone is doing everything "right" on paper but not getting the results they're after.

Poor quality, heavily processed foods consumed daily can negatively affect your energy, mood, sleep, digestion, and body composition — even when the protein, carbohydrate, and fat numbers look fine. Your macros can be perfectly dialled in and you can still feel sluggish, bloated, and stuck, because macros don't tell you anything about what those foods are actually doing inside your body.

A Real Example: Wrap vs. Wrap

Take two wholemeal wraps sitting next to each other on the same supermarket shelf.

1. Helga's Wholemeal Wrap: Wholemeal wheat flour, water, vegetable fat, humectant (422), fermented wheat flour, vegetable emulsifiers (471, 481), wheat gluten, raising agents (500, 450, 341), iodised salt, acidity regulator (297), soy flour, stabiliser (412/guar gum), vitamins (thiamin, folic acid).

2. MEB Wholemeal Wrap: Wheat flour, water, wheat fibre, iodised sea salt, vitamins (thiamin, folate).

Same macro category. Very different ingredient lists. Here's what's worth knowing about the Helga's ingredients:

• Vegetable fat (seed oils) Refined vegetable and seed oils are high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. When consumed in excess relative to omega-3s — which is common in a diet heavy in processed foods — this imbalance is associated with increased systemic inflammation and metabolic disruption (Simopoulos, 2002). These oils are also highly susceptible to oxidation, which creates harmful byproducts. They're worth avoiding where possible, and they have no place in something as simple as a wrap.

• Soy flour Soy is high in phytic acid, an anti-nutrient that binds to minerals including iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium, reducing how much you actually absorb from your food (Hurrell & Egli, 2010). It also contains phytoestrogens — plant compounds that interact with oestrogen receptors in the body. The clinical significance depends on overall intake, but regular consumption of multiple soy-containing processed products adds up, and it's a reasonable ingredient to limit, particularly for women focused on hormonal health.

• Guar gum (stabiliser 412) A common thickener and stabiliser found in processed foods. While well-tolerated by many, guar gum is a known trigger for bloating, cramping, and digestive discomfort — particularly in people with sensitive guts or IBS (Rao et al., 2015). Again, no place in a wrap with four-ingredient alternatives available.

The MEB wrap contains simple, minimal ingredients. Unless you have a wheat intolerance, there's nothing in it that's going to work against you — and it's the one I'd choose. Most wraps with an ingredient list like Helga's — especially the low carb versions! — taste so artificial, with a plastic-like texture. There are better options out there. Look for simple ingredients like wheat flour, water, sea salt, and added vitamins, or for a tortilla, corn or maize, water, sea salt.

The Practical Takeaway

If you want to lose body fat and function at your best, start reading ingredient labels — not just nutrition panels. When comparing similar products, choose the one with fewer ingredients and nothing you can't identify. Then pay attention to how your digestion, energy, mood, sleep, and body composition respond over time.

This isn't about being perfect or eliminating every processed food from your diet. It's about understanding that food quality and food quantity both matter, and optimising both is what gets you results that actually stick. Understanding how much to eat is only half the equation — what you eat matters just as much.

When you're ready to build a nutrition plan that balances both macros AND food quality, tailored to your body recomposition goals, let's work together.

About the Author

Amy Thompson is an ISSN Certified Sports Nutritionist and Recomp Certified Coach with 14+ years of coaching experience. She's competed at the national level in powerlifting and bodybuilding, mentored by leading body recomposition coaches. She brings science-backed, efficient methods to help thousands of clients build muscle, lose fat, and transform their bodies. She specialises in creating sustainable, individualised approaches that work with your life, not against it.

References

1. Hurrell R, Egli I. Iron bioavailability and dietary reference values. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2010;91(5):1461S–1467S. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20200263/

2. Rao SSC, Yu S, Fedewa A. Systematic review: dietary fibre and FODMAP-restricted diet in the management of constipation and irritable bowel syndrome. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2015;41(12):1256–1270. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25903636/

3. Simopoulos AP. The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids. Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. 2002;56(8):365–379. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12442909/