7 MACRO TRACKING TIPS FROM EXPERIENCED NUTRITION COACHES
As nutrition coaches, we use the practice of tracking macros as a temporary tool, meaning that we believe it can be a helpful way to build awareness of our food choices, dig into our behaviors, and create more supportive habits… but it’s not the end all be all! Tracking macros is a temporary tool and we often see clients get hung up on the tracking itself (weighing, logging, which app to use, etc.) rather than honing in on what tracking is telling us (if we’re eating enough protein, our overall caloric intake on weekdays vs. weekends, etc.).
We work within a framework of tracking macros to facilitate sustainable progress and, eventually, move away from tracking completely. However, while tracking, there are some ways we can make it easier on ourselves! In this blog post, we’re sharing our favorite tracking tips as “macro coaches,” experienced trackers, and coaches who help our clients make tracking work for them.
MACRO TRACKING TIPS FROM THE KLN COACHES
KIMBERLY
Log the hardest macronutrient to reach first. If I find that I am not reaching my protein goal consistently, then I log my planned proteins for the day and evaluate if I need to adjust portion sizes or add in additional protein sources. Afterwards I simply fill in the rest of my meals with a carb & fat & fruit/veggie and add in any snacks where it might be needed. This ensures that I have a plan to easily reach my macro goals by the end of the day (no surprises!).
ZACH
I have a simple strategy that helps me stay consistent with tracking my macros: I set a timer for five minutes at the end of each day to log my food. Usually, by the end of those five minutes, I’ve tracked everything. If I haven’t, I give myself permission to stop, or I find the momentum and motivation to finish tracking. This technique can also be used by pre-logging the day before or the morning of. This method is effective because it focuses your attention on tracking and gives the task a clear end point, making it feel more manageable and less daunting.
KATE
Eating out can be part of your life and align with your goals. When logging a meal out, try one of two options. 1) Log the individual components of the meal using volume measurements (i.e. you order steak fajitas and log the steak, veggies, cooking oil, rice, beans, and guac each as cups/tablespoons.) 2) Find a similar meal from a chain restaurant and log your meal as such (i.e. you have a think crust pizza so you log it as California Pizza Kitchen; you have some thick cut steak fries so you log them as Red Robin). These are two different ways to approximate your meal out without getting hung up on the minutiae. If we’re getting hung up on how precise our tracking is when eating out, we’re kind of missing the point! Our focus should be on our food choices, leaning on our habits (prioritizing protein, drinking water), and honoring our fullness cues, not on exactly how many grams of fat were in our meal.
JILDA
Creating/saving meals in your tracking app that you commonly eat (or want to eat more regularly because they work well for your goals) is an underrated feature that helps streamline the tracking process. If you're someone who laments about the time it takes to track, this is the "hack" for you! As a bonus, once a saved meal is added to your day, components of it can be edited. For example, having raspberries in your oatmeal instead of blueberries? Simply delete the latter and log the former without needing to modify the other components.
KENNY
BLTs (bites, licks, and tastes of food) can easily add up to a few extra hundred calories throughout the day. When you're trying to lose fat and your calorie deficit is only a few hundred calories, untracked BLTs can sabotage your efforts. Here's an easy tip to track those BLTs: log a serving or two (depending on how much you ate) of regular potato chips into your tracking app. Potato chips are a general mix of fats and carbs that can reasonably estimate most BLTs. It's much easier to quickly track potato chips than to estimate every BLT you had that day, making it more likely you'll account for those calories and stay in a calorie deficit.
DIANA
Investing in the time to build your personal library of meals and recipes can be super helpful for those who are newer to tracking. I recommend doing this by utilizing the custom features in your tracking app, like creating "foods", "meals", and "recipes". As someone who loves to cook and who meal preps for the week ahead 99% of the time, this is something that has been a game-changer for me. Since I tend to eat a lot of the same meals and snacks and rotate through a handful of recipes, being able to just pull up my custom meals in my tracking app and adjust as needed for that week ahead saves loads of time when I'm pre-tracking my days (or tracking as I go). I also recommend making your recipe creation and/or pre-tracking part of your meal prep routine and then you've already accounted for those couple of extra steps in your planning for the week.
WHITNEY
People always talk about weighing out a serving of peanut butter being the most eye-opening experience, but I think weighing a five ounce pour of wine is up there too. It's really easy to underestimate alcohol intake. Taking a few seconds to put your glass on a scale to measure out your alcohol (whether it's wine or spirits) can help improve your awareness of what a serving of alcohol looks like. As an added bonus: that one small, extra step can give you time to make sure you really are acting in alignment with your goals, and may prevent some mindless consumption.
We have plenty more tracking tips and suggestions up our sleeves, so if you have any questions or need any other support with tracking your macros - be it for fat loss, performance, health, or body composition goals - drop a comment or question below!
We are committed coaches who work with committed clients and love nothing more than helping our clients find a sustainable approach to nutrition that allows them to work towards their goals without white-knuckling their way through yo-yo diets. Learn more about our KLN team here!