• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Marla Deen

Marla Deen

Finding ways to fit it all in each day . . .being fit, being healthy, enjoying BEING each day !

  • Home
  • Blog
    • Blog Archives
  • About Marla-Deen
  • MD Mats
  • Shop
  • Contact Us
  • Videos
    • Video Bundle #1
    • 30 Minute Arm and Abs
  • Login/My Account

Why I am Tracking Macros

November 7, 2017 by Marla-Deen Brooks Leave a Comment

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

I have said for years I am not a fan of diets and do not advocate counting calories.  Neither of these are good for me.  I get obsessed with the whole calorie thing and if I am told that I am on a diet I immediately obsess about food and want to “cheat”.  That’s why I have always advocated a healthy lifestyle gained by eating whole foods,  meaning the majority of the foods should have a mother or be in the closest state to natural as possible.

Of course, this isn’t always realistic, but as long as it is in the 80/20 range I feel that’s a good day!  Recently, though, I have been all over the board and do not feel as if I have been getting the right amount of the right foods or nutrients at the right time.  So, as usual, I use myself as a guinea pig and decide to give the whole macro counting thing a try.  I have been asked about this from clients and since I have never really focused on counting macros could not give any advice or perspective.


I have been doing this for two weeks now, tracking with the My Fitness Pal App, and it is getting easier and I feel as if I am really learning more about my foods and my own needs to feel my best.

So, if you are wondering what I am talking about or what the benefits are, here you go . . .

Macro is short for macronutrient, of which there are three: protein, carbohydrates and fats. All foods are divided up into a combination of these macros, and that’s how the calorie content is made up.  To track macros means tracking the number of grams of protein, carbohydrates, and fats consumed during the day.

I am one of those persons who seems to always fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 pounds on the scale.  I’m  not saying that in a whiny way because I know in the grand scheme of life that’s not much and should not cause me to worry.  I am not stressed about it – it is what it is – but when you are not very tall and your weight goes straight to your middle AND you have reached the 50 year mark, even those 2 pounds can be a little nagging.  So, in order to pay better attention to what I am eating,  what I am not eating,  and how much of the right nutrients I am eating, I am tracking my macros.  

 Honestly, I would like to be a little leaner if I can do that in a healthy, realistic way.  You all know I eat, like to eat and think food is important for lots of reasons, even beyond the fueling the body purpose.  So, I know that even small variations in nutrition intake can mean the difference between dropping a  stubborn pound of fat or staying at a  plateau.
 I want to make sure I am eating enough, but not too much protein.  Folks seem to have gone a bit overboard with protein lately.  It seems to be unnecessarily added to almost everything!  Too much of anything- even if it is a good thing – can be a bad thing.

Generally, I know to shoot for one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.  I know I am like most folks and overestimate the amount of good protein and healthy fat I am getting and underestimate the carbs, good or bad,   and total calories I eat in a day.

I know that I am at an age when things are changing, my metabolism is changing,  my hormones are changing – I mean, is there anything that isn’t changing??    I can’t imagine that paying closer attention to the actual nutrients I am eating will not help some of these symptoms.

This is how Heidi Powell explains it:

Tracking macros basically means consuming a balanced and appropriate ratio of carbs, proteins, and fats every day. An easy ratio to follow is 40% of your calories coming from carbs, 30% of your calories coming from protein, and 30% of your calories coming from fat. To break it down even further, if you need 1500 calories per day, your TOTAL macro intake for the day will be 150g carbs, 113g protein, and 50g fat. But before you start plugging in those numbers, everyone’s breakdown looks a little different according to your needs and goals. We will get there…hang with me.

It’s like working within a budget. How will you “spend” your macros? To give you an example, I love oatmeal for breakfast! Well, I really love gluten-free lemon cake for breakfast, but let’s use oatmeal (my 2nd fave) as the example. Alright…oatmeal alone is mostly just carbs, so I may add some berries (more carbs), some coconut oil for fat, and a scoop of vanilla protein powder. It’s quick, easy, and delish! This meal comes out to be a total of 29g carbs, 14g fat, and 29g protein. That meal gets deducted from my total for the day, and now I have 121g carbs left, 36g fat left, and 84g protein left!

What I am interested in with this method and am seeing is that tracking macros ensures that I am getting the right kind of calories that will go to the right places in my body.  I do not want to fill up on calories, good or bad, that will give me unwanted body fat.  I am going to stay off the scale and focus on what nutrients I am giving my body and how I feel.

This is NOT a restrictive way of eating.  Treats are allowed – or it wouldn’t be worth doing!  The treats simply fit within the macros for the day. I am still a work in progress with this and am finding that the more practice I have the better I am becoming.

If you are interested in taking a look at what your personal macro breakdown would be, simply put your information and goals into a macro calculator

get My Fitness Pal from the App store and you are ready! The free version works just fine for me!
If you are a math person, or someone who likes the play the numbers game, this is for you!  I am not a numbers person or very detail oriented, so I am trying to look at is like a puzzle.  I want to know what my pieces are for each day and try to fill them in as best as I can.  One thing that I have found to be helpful is to actually plan out my meals and snacks the day before, plug them in and see how much room I have to fill or delete.
You will definitely be hearing more about this from me.
Enjoy Your Day!

Filed Under: Fitness, General, Health Tips, Healthy Kitchen, Motivation, My Stories Tagged With: calorie counting, counting macros, diet, dieting, Health, healthy lifestyle, Healthy Living, Heidi Powell, macros, nutrients, nutrition, Wellness

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Subscribe

* = required field

powered by MailChimp!
Privacy Policy

Photographer: Deborah Celecia Wagoner – www.dcw-photo.com

Search

© Copyright 2018-2021 · All Rights Reserved · Website by TecAdvocates

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.