A Diet That Doesn't Feel like a Diet: Counting Macros

YES YES YES, my favorite topic! Hello friends! I wanted to share something that I am super passionate about with you all: Macro Counting! So let's talk about it.

What is Macro Counting?

What is Macro Counting? It's a way to break down calorie goals and split it into focusing on carbs, proteins, and fats instead of overall calories. Counting macros is important to your general health because it helps you understand what you are eating and where it falls into the recommended macronutrient (macros) ranges.

The Macros:

Carbs: Fiber, starches and sugars make up carbohydrates. This is where our body gets energy from! Whole grains, vegetables, fruits, beans and legumes, and dairy products are considered carbs.

Proteins: Protein allows your body to grow, build and repair tissues, and protect your muscle mass! Poultry, eggs, lean meats, fish and seafood, soy products, dairy products, nuts, and beans and legumes are considered protein foods.

Fats: Fat is a source of essential fatty acids, which our body cannot make itself. Fat helps the body absorb vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin E. Olive oil, avocados, nuts and seeds, fatty fishes, dairy products, eggs, and coconut are considered fats.

Anytime someone tells me they are going on a diet, I always ask them if they are counting their macros and 9 times out of 10 they say, "No, just my calories" and I want to scream! Counting macros is super beneficial to your health!

Benefits!!!

1.) It's more effective in losing weight and obtaining health goals rather than just focusing on calorie intake.

2.) It actually focuses on the nutrients of your food and what you are eating and bringing into your body.

3.) It helps you not over consume on individual macros which can impact your health drastically.

PLUS, it doesn't even feel like you are on a diet! That's a win in itself!

Let me give you my own personal testimony especially if you are skeptical as I am a natural skeptic myself.

Backstory:

From the age of 10 I have always done sports. Primarily, running cross country and track. I did this all the way up into college and completed all 4 years of collegiate running. So after 12 years of running, I was done after graduation. My body was exhausted after years of training and strains on my body both mentally and physically, as one can expect. So I stopped running and working out as often as I was and really stopped watching what I was eating and, frankly, drinking. This continued on for another 2 years after and finally the effects started to show. I am about to be vulnerable here so bare with me! From the end of my college career to 2.5 years later, I had gained 44 pounds. My self-confidence had gone WAY down and not only that, I was exhausted all of the time from not taking care of myself. I knew I needed to change something. I also was getting married and really wanted to lose weight for my wedding to feel my most beautiful self!

Taking matters into my own hands...

So I started working out more and running again. I thought doing this would be good enough to lose weight since I would be running 3-5 miles daily and didn't really feel the need to track what I was eating if I was losing a certain amount of calories per day from my workouts. Wrong. I didn't lose a single pound this way, if anything, I was stagnant or gaining some weight. After realizing this way wasn't working, I decided to start a diet by counting my calories. This was MISERABLE. I felt like I couldn't eat anything and felt hungry ALL of the time. By the time dinner came, I was either at my calorie count or over and I felt like I had to eat smaller portions that didn't fill me and didn't give me enough energy to workout. With this, my workouts decreased and so did my energy. Again, still not losing any weight.

I caved

Knowing this way wouldn't work either, I decided to start doing some research on other ways to "diet" or "lose weight". This is where I came across Macro Counting. I am not even going to lie to you. The first time I heard about counting macros was from a person doing weight training for competitions and I felt that that lifestyle doesn't relate to me and there is no reason to count macros if that is not my goal. So for MONTHS, I would ignore any post over "counting macros" and roll my eyes at the thought. Until finally, I decided to read more articles that spoke about the benefits of macro counting and how easy it actually was.

The EASIEST process!

After seeing how simple it was, I literally googled a Macro Calculator to help determine my macro needs for my age, height, weight, and weight-loss goals. Once I figured out how many grams of each macro I needed per day to achieve these goals, I downloaded MyMacros+ with My Workout+ from the app store. Of course you may not need to download these apps but I know me and, frankly, I needed the app to fill out each day to motivate myself to continue on this path rather than just doing it for a week and giving it up. So it definitely helped keep me accountable. MyMacros+ also helped me find the nutrient levels on some foods if they weren't already shown on item by letting me scan the barcode on the item and it would pull it up. If it didn't have a barcode, I could manually input the item and it would give me an estimated guess.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time (not really... But could be!)

Now the set up was only the beginning. The next step was to find some easy macro friendly recipes that were still delicious! I searched "Macro Friendly recipes" on Pinterest and found a ton of yummy recipes! I pinned a couple of those recipes to my Pinterest board if you want to take a look! I also found some great recipes on Tiktok as well. Here is my favorite Tiktoker who has the best macro friendly recipes in my opinion that are also great for meal prepping: Stealth Health Life.

Going back to what I said earlier in regards to feeling like I couldn't eat enough on a regular diet, it was the complete opposite when I started counting my macros. Instead of feeling hungry at the end of the day, I felt so full that it was almost hard for me to hit my macros since I was so stuffed! This is again because I was intaking the correct nutrients that help you feel more full between meals.

Now after finding the meals I wanted to make, it was all smooth sailing from there! Got all my groceries from the store and to help me measure my grams for each meal I bought a food scale from Amazon that was super easy to use and helped me so much with the accuracy! I'll link it here: Nicewell Food Scale.

Results were SHOWING!

On top of counting my macros and making these delicious meals, I was also running and working out still. After 9 months of following macros and sticking to this routine, I was able to lose 30 pounds and keep it off! I felt more confident and had way more energy! And overall, I felt happier and healthier than I have in a couple of years. Now I always recommend this to anyone I know that is starting a diet or wanting to lose weight!

Of course, every person's body is different and some diets may work better for others and that's okay! This is just my personal opinion and my testimony on how it worked for me. I really do hope you try it out if you are wanting to lose weight and feel the typical diet isn't working for you and you need a change. Let me know how it goes for you and if you have any questions! I am by no means an expert on this but I can do my best to help. I will also list some helpful blogs I read that may be of help to you too!

Helpful Blogs

Know Your Macros-Why Macronutrients Are Key to Healthy Eating

What Are Macronutrients? All You Need to Know

Why Counting Macros Will Help You Lose Weight (And The Pitfalls To Avoid)