Macros for Beginners

Wednesday, December 21, 2016
There is so much information out there on macros and often times for people just starting out tracking their macros- they can get easily overwhelmed and think that it is not the right fit for them.  I've compiled some helpful tips to help un-complicate tracking macros that I hope will be helpful to you!

1. IT'S NOT AS HARD AS IT SEEMS
and, it gets easier with time. Once you get the hang of it you will see how truly easy it is!It is like a daily puzzle and ends up being fun! Scan foods, search for foods. Add them to your log and MFP adds up all your totals for you!  It does take time to get use to, but that leads me to my next point:

2. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Spend some time familiarizing yourself with myfitnesspal. Practice searching for foods and adding them to your diary. This app will become a best friend, it is so helpful! Spend time learning how to work it and all that it offers.
A good way to begin is to start inputting all of the food that you would normally eat (before you start macros). Pizza? Find and add it! Cookies? Salad? Find them and add them, look at your nutrient tracker, play around and put different meals together. One of the best things about flexible dieting is that you CAN eat pizza if you want it! Just fit it into your day!

3. KEEP YOUR STAPLES STOCKED
Once you get the hang of it, you are going to have a handful of foods that you eat all of the time. You should have a high daily protein goal, so typically the foods you eat the most are going to be high in protein. Some things that I like to have on hand and that seem to be common things most macro counters do:

Fridge: 
-Eggs
-Cooked Chicken
-Cooked Ground Turkey Breast
-String Cheese (unless you are dairy free, of course)
-Fat free reddi whip

Pantry:
-Tuna
-Peanut or Almond Butter
-Oats
-Quest bars
-Dark Chocolate Chips

All of these things can be added to pretty much any recipe you want to make and other than the oats and chocolate are good sources of protein!


4. I CAN'T EAT THAT MUCH PROTEIN!
yes, you can! And you can do it without having chicken breast for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You will be surprised at how much protein you consume without tracking it at all, even a slice of bread has protein in it. To hit a protein number that you are not use to eating, you will have to eat foods that are higher in protein, but there are so many options to fit into your day! Greek yogurt, beef jerky, cottage cheese, eggs (which can be made so many different ways and used in so many different recipes!), cheese, protein bars and there are even some really yummy protein shakes you can have as a snack that will quickly make a dent in your protein numbers, although I like to eat my protein vs drink it!  It will take some adjusting and practice getting use to a high protein diet, but you will quickly get the hang of it!

5. YOU DON'T HAVE TO EAT AN ENTIRE SERVING
Thank you, MFP for making tracking so easy for us! You can change the serving size on your food entry, so let's use pretzels. One serving is about 20 pretzels. You don't have to eat 20, you can have 10, even 2. Just make sure you adjust the serving size when you input this and it will track that one or two or 10 pretzels correctly for you.




6. FITTING FUN FOOD IN
This is my favorite thing to talk with women about, because this is the part of macros dieting that is liberating. That gives you freedom and wiggle room. That relieves stress and pressure from having to follow a strict clean eating routine that is impossible to maintain for life. Because it IS ok to have a slice of pizza and it does not have to prevent you from reaching your goals. 

So, you've done so awesome with your macros this week. You've eaten clean, you feel great. You may even have already weighed and saw the scale or the tape measure go down! But your sister has had this big shopping and lunch date planned for weeks this coming weekend and every year you two go to your favorite pizza place. HELP! WHAT DO YOU DO!?!? 

Plan! First thing in the morning that day, LOG your pizza! Decide what you want to eat there, and log it! I will plan on having two slices of pepperoni pizza. So that is the first thing I put in for the day: 

There! It's in. Now for breakfast, dinner and any snack I want,  I need to work around my pizza.  My carbs and fat are going to be high, so I know that these two other meals need to be leaner and high in protein. So I may choose an egg white and veggie omelette for breakfast, and a large salad for dinner with a double serving of grilled chicken. If I'm hungry before dinner, I'll have some cheese and lunch meat rolled up. I'll play around with my foods in my log until I have hit my numbers and I will enjoy eating pizza with my sister and having ZERO guilt or worry about it! 

LOVE! 


7. TRACK EVERYTHING!
Everything has calories! Even cough drops, and they have 3g of carbs! I learned the hard way when I began. Gum? Mints? Calories. Track them! I am a gum fanatic, I could easily chew a pack a day. Until:


I realized that I was chewing 30 calories and 30 carbs a day. Ice cream has less than 30g of carbs! I'd rather have ice cream!

8. IT SOUNDS LIKE TOO MUCH WORK
When you are starting out, yes! What diet change and lifestyle change is not going to take work getting use to? The beautiful thing about this is that this takes very little time before you master it. I would say 7-12 days before you are able to calculate your macros perfectly and put together a day of food without even thinking about it.

9. COUNT TOTAL CARBS
Not net. Ignore the "net" completely. A carb is a carb whether there is fiber or not, you are intaking the total amount of carbs.

10. HEALTHY DOESN'T MEAN MACRO FRIENDLY, VICE VERSA
For something to be deemed healthy does not mean it has low macronutrients. And for something to be deemed macro friendly, doesn't mean it is healthy.  One of my favorite health bloggers uses the comparison of a banana and a skinny cow ice cream sandwich.
"A banana and a skinny cow hold the same amount of carbs and your body will essentially metabolize them the same. The skinny cow sandwich however is not going to provide you with the vitamins and minerals that the banana will but your body in strict terms of aesthetics will respond the same."

11. HAVE FUN
This isn't your average diet plan of chicken breast and broccoli. There is great freedom in macros, and I encourage my clients to take advantage of that! This is not about deprivation, there can be enjoyment! I like to add whip cream to my coffee, ok, sometimes even a little vanilla ice cream if I have room in my numbers. You can have some chocolate! Peanut butter on my toast, vanilla cupcake goldfish in my yogurt. I am an advocate for an 80/20 lifestyle, 80% clean eating (lean meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, oils) and 20% fun (chocolate and pizza).  The more you PRACTICE and become familiar with MFP, the better you will also become and being able to fit fun things in here and there.



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