WHY TRACK MACROS?

QUALITY OF WEIGHT LOSS OR WEIGHT GAIN

If you are in a calorie deficit where your body burns more calories than you consume, then you will lose weight. This does not necessarily ensure that all the weight you lose will only come from fat. Your body is made up of lean mass, fat, and water. This means any weight that is lost or gained can come from any of these three. When dropping weight you risk losing muscle, and when gaining weight you risk putting on excessive fat. Not tracking macros puts you at a higher risk for muscle loss and fat gain because you wouldn’t know how many calories you are getting. Consuming the right amount of fat, protein, and carbs will help to ensure that you maintain muscle while losing fat, and limit the increase of body fat when adding muscle.

MORE ENERGY, BETTER MOOD

Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy, so having too little carbs over time can leave you feeling tired and lead to poor workout performance. By properly setting up your macros, you maximize the amount of carbs you are able to consume while efficiently burning fat. If you can eat more food while losing fat, then why not take advantage. Fat is responsible for controlling your hormones, so not having enough may cause an imbalance which can lead to mood swings and other unwanted symptoms. It is common to fall short of your daily fat requirements by only eating “clean” foods which typically contain little to no fat. Consuming insufficient fat and/or carbs over time can cause you to feel extremely miserable. To think losing weight is already a challenge, why make it harder on yourself to reach your goal. 

MACROS ARE LIKE MONEY

Would you rather someone tell you how to spend your money or would you want to spend it the way you want to. You should feel free to buy expensive things as long as you remain within your budget. Your macros are like your daily budget and you can spend it any way you like. By staying within your daily macronutrient requirement, you have the freedom to eat the foods you enjoy without interrupting the progress of your fitness goal. This method may be more sustainable to a normal lifestyle than following a meal plan that is known to limit your food choices. If you happen to travel somewhere that doesn’t have the foods available in your meal plan you may be confused on what you should to eat. Yet someone knowing how many macronutrients they’re allowed will be more flexible to eat different foods in any situation. Any proper meal plan should be structured using a customized set of macronutrients, and then created with specific foods. Why not use the same customized macros and fill them with an unlimited range of foods that you love to eat.

NO TIME WASTED

Another major reason why it’s important to keep track of your macronutrients is to make sure you are not moving too fast or too slow towards your fitness goal. Losing weight too fast can result in muscle loss and low energy, while moving too slow can prolong seeing results in your physique. By tracking your macronutrient intake, you are able to know exactly how much to consume so your weight changes at your desired pace. It is a greater benefit to know your macronutrient intake if your fitness goal has a deadline since it helps ensure that you meet your goal in time. In other words, you are nearly in full control of transforming your physique at the pace you want. Tracking macros is proven to be more effective than the “eating clean” method when attempting to burn fat. What if you are eating “clean” and your weight loss eventually plateaus? Do you just eat “cleaner”? Keeping track of your macronutrients offers more control over your bodyweight and allows you to make accurate adjustments so you can maintain progression towards your goal with little to no time wasted.

FOOD AWARENESS

Understanding macros makes you more aware of your choices in food. Knowing the amount of macronutrients in the food you eat is not only beneficial for short-term progress but for a lifetime. You will be eating food for the rest of your life. Therefore, understanding the amount of calories in the foods you eat will allow you better control over the outcome of your physique. Once you’re able to see your daily intake of calories in comparison to how much your body needs, you will have a better understanding of why your physique looks the way it is. By knowing the amount of calories your body is allowed, you can know how much food will cause a change in your physique rather than guessing.

EASIER THAN YOU THINK

Although accurately tracking your macros each day is ideal, you don’t have to be perfect in order to see significant progress towards your goal. The macronutrient goals for an individual is a calculated estimate of how much you should consume in order to stay on pace towards your goal. If you miss your macros by a few grams a couple days out of the week, you can still see good results. Instead of losing 2 pounds of fat for the week, you might just lose 1.9 pounds of fat. It’s not perfect, but that’s still great progress towards your goal. An individual can often mentally track their macros if they already know the amounts in the food they frequently eat. Tracking macros can also be viewed as a daily puzzle of food. It can actually be fun fitting the different foods you enjoy into your daily macronutrient goals.

OPTIMAL

You can still achieve a great physique without tracking your macros, but it is more like hopeful guessing that can produce sub—optimal results. Tracking macros makes the difference between hoping and ensuring that you achieve your goal in the most efficient and accurate way. The idea is to control the right balance of nutrients so you can maintain healthy progression towards your fitness goal. From the aspects of time, stress, and quality of results, tracking macros is proven to be the most optimal way to better your physique.