This will give you a basic idea on how to construct a meal to meet your macro's
. When I originally posted this it was for someone here who's caloric needs were at 1700 , try to make yours add up to 2200 and the 40/40/20 mark, it's a good starting point.
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Now from the list above pick an item from each category that meet the numbers above. For example we are going to do chicken for lunch, that's our protein source so a 4 oz chicken breast is 35 g protein and 5 g fat, your protein needs have been met so now pick a carb source, let's use sweet potatoes, 4 oz of sweet potatoes is 32g carbs and 2 g protein so now your protein and carbs are pretty much covered but crap, that's not enough food for my lunch so you are a little shy on carbs so pick another carb source but NOT a complex carm, pick a fiberous one like 1 cup broccoli which has 4 g protein and 8 g carbs. Some values are over and some are under but as long as the daily totals are close all is good.
Now when you cook you can and should use spices, usually no cal count and other oils sauces whatever but you must consider their calories into the pic. So if you add just 1 tabelspoon of butter on your broccoli you just added 7 g of fat and 100 cals to your meal, now you blew it, and on top of it all it's SATURATED FAT, a killer. One thing about saturated fat, new studies suggest that 1/3 of your fat cals should be saturated fats, it doesn't take much to meet that so be careful .
This is where most people screw up big time, it's just a little butter, or one piece of chocholate or a little bit of popcorn, I bring this up because if you look at the label you posted you will see that the popcorn that you thought wasn't bad screwed everything up, it has 140 cals almost half of what a full meal has, look at the fat and carb content of it. 8 g fat, 18 carbs that's all of your fat intake for a full meal and half the carbs of a full meal and what nutrient value does it have, almost none, it's like putting water in your gas tank. Pretty bad huh, well now check this out, it has 8 G SUGAR , although not a fat on an ingredient label, and by the way, that's a lot of sugar, it will be a fat on your butt after you eat it. Let me ask a question, would you put 8 heaping teaspoons of sugar in your coffee, because that's what is in your popcorn
So many people who try to be accountable and eat right have a good idea of how many cals they eat with their main foods but have no idea how many cals are in those little things and they add up so by the end of the day a little coffee creamer, 1 tsp sugar in the coffee, one lowsy piece of chocolate, a little popcorn and a bit of salad dressing just doubled your calorie intake for the whole day and it's not like it was something useful, it was fat and sugar, ever wonder why your weight hasn't changed in 3-4 years, it's those little thing you thought were ok, THEY ARE NOT OK.
Look at it like buying a car(you can relate to this lol) you have your sticker price all is cool, then they hit you with destination costs, dealer prep, taxes delivery charges whatever the car is your meal the rest is your condiments lol