If you’re involved in the fitness world at all, you’ve probably heard of counting your macros by now. Maybe you know what this means or maybe you don’t. I’ll give a quick explanation of what macros are and what ‘counting you macros’ means for those of you who may not be completely sure what it is. If you don’t care about the details or you already know what it is then feel free to skip this next paragraph…
Macros, or macronutrients, are the three main components in our food: protein, carbohydrates (carbs), and fat. Each of those nutrients are broken down and can be used differently by our bodies. Carbs and protein contain 4 calories per gram while fat contains 9 calories per gram. When people are counting their macros, they are measuring/weighing/guestimating the macros in every single thing that they eat or drink. For example, if someone eats half a cup of black beans (0 gram of fat/7 grams of protein/21 grams of carbs), half a cup of brown rice (1 fat/22.5 carbs/2.5 protein), 1 tablespoon of soy sauce (0 fat/1 carb/2 protein), 1 cup of spinach sauteed in half a tablespoon of olive oil (7 fat/1 carbs/1 protein), and glass of water (0 fat/0 carbs/0 protein). That all has about 300 calories or 8 grams of fat (24% of total calories), 45.5 grams of carbs (60% of total calories), and 12.5 grams of protein (16% of total calories). Most of the people that I have come by use the app MyFitnessPal to track their food.
People who count their macros have different goals for each of their macronutrients. The AMDR, Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges, that is scientifically backed and widely accepted in the nutrition industry states that a healthy adult should consume 20-35% fat, 45-65% carbs, and 10-35% protein. (As a little side note: many people follow a low carb diet and/or a high protein diet – I’m not here – today – to debate if this is healthy/right/unhealthy/wrong. What I am going to say is that those diets do not tend to fall into the suggested macronutrient ranges.)
Now for my personal opinion on the concept of counting your macros….
THE GOOD. What is good about doing this? You can learn SO much from counting your macros. You can learn what is in the foods that you typically eat. You can learn how many calories you’re eating per day (if you look at calories in addition to the macro counts). You can learn how your body responds (weight gain, loss, maintenance) to different total caloric intakes or differing amounts of each macro over a period of time. You can learn more about micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) in your food since you’re having to track your food anyway. FYI MyFitnessPal does show some micronutrients, but not anywhere near all of them. You can also have concrete data that can help you learn how and why your weight fluctuates.
THE BAD. This can take a good chunk of time. Whether it’s tracking everything that you cook or everything that might be in your meal that you order when you’re at a restaurant, searching all of the ingredients can be tedious. I noticed this almost immediately when I started a training program that required me to strictly track my macros. Some of the time that I normally spent interacting with my family or friends was suddenly devoted to staring at my phone, looking up all of the foods I was eating. Of course, this one can get better with time and tracking doesn’t take nearly as long after a while, but it still takes up some of that face to face time with friends, family, or even pets. Counting your macros also does NOT take into account what types of food you’re eating. If a Big Mac fits your macros for the day, then that’s great for your macros and all but what about for your body and your overall health? A lot of people who track their macros also follow the concept of ‘flexible dieting’, which is basically eating whatever fits your macros even if that’s somehow a Big Mac every day. Another thing that I’ve noticed with a lot of macro-trackers (is that even a word?) is that they go for the ‘low-calorie’, ‘low-fat’, ‘zero-calorie’, etc foods. Honestly, what do you think is in that shit? If it’s not food, what is it? Chemicals? Artificial coloring? Artificial flavors? Air? You’d have to sit and read the ingredients, which is usually semi-terrifying if you have an idea of what it is you’re reading. BUT not all people who track their macros eat non-clean foods regularly – some people track their foods and eat clean for the most part. And if you’re someone who doesn’t really care about that type of thing then feel free disregard that last point, I’m just stating my opinion on all of this.
Now for THE UGLY – eating disorders and other psychological problems. I’m going to get straight to the point with this one. Tracking your food can become a very unhealthy habit. Add on top of that that a good chunk of women have dealt with some type of body image issue or eating disorder at some point in their life. In addition to the possibility of stirring up some kind of eating disorder through tracking food, people who tend to ruminate or have obsessive thoughts (which is something that can be similar to those who suffer from OCD or other anxiety disorders) can stir up those unhealthy behaviors and thoughts as well. Strictly tracking your food is just asking to relapse into old behaviors or unhealthy thought processes because you’re basically obsessively tracking everything little thing that goes into your mouth. Whether a body image issue or eating disorder stems from a need for control or just a desire to be a certain weight, this type of behavior can cause a serious relapse in those disorders or a different type of eating disorder in a matter of days or weeks depending on the person.
All of this is scary and one of the main reasons why I don’t advocate for tracking your food longer than you have to in order to learn what you need to learn. I can personally say that I’ve struggled with this. I’ve tracked my food for weeks, months, and even years at a time. It’s always been so hard for me to stop tracking because I suddenly feel like I have no idea or control over what I’m eating – I panic and go straight back to tracking before the guilt takes over. I think that it’s an addiction of sorts and it can give us a sense of control, but it’s not a healthy way to “take control”. In my opinion, there’s absolutely no need to track your food longer than to learn about what you’re eating, which I’d say is a month or so max.
I realize that not all women, and men for that matter, struggle with some or all of the down sides that I’ve mentioned above. It works for a whole lot of people and that’s great for them as long as it doesn’t become an ‘unhealthy’ (which is realize is a broad term) habit. For me, personally, I hope to only use it as a short term learning tool or as a check-in for foods that I’m not familiar with. For any clients that I have in the future – if tracking their food is something that they want to do then I will make absolute sure that they know my opinion on it, why my opinion is the way that it is, and make sure to check in with them regularly about how they’re doing with it and, more importantly, how they’re feeling about it.
**Keep in mind that I am not a therapist or psychologist. If you have an eating disorder and your therapist tells you to write down every thing you eat – you do that. All I’m doing is explaining my opinion on this and explaining my personal experience with it. So if you’re similar to me, then great! But if you have a professional in the mental health field telling you otherwise, you do what they’re saying because they know you better than me! Also, the last source that I’ve cited below is against some of what I’ve said here but I think that it is important to put it out there because there is no single right way to do things. Tracking food can help, but please do it under the guidance of an actual professional!
That’s all I’ve got for today folks. Thank you for reading. Have a beautiful day!
Some sources for more information:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211364915300233
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123694294500380
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumination_(psychology) …I know, I know.. wikipedia – but it gives you an idea of what I was referring to
https://eatingdisorder.org/blog/2015/05/food-logs/
[Here is an important excerpt from the last source listed…
“As mentioned earlier it’s not uncommon for individuals to question the benefit of food logs or to experience some resistance to the idea of completing them. A common reaction from patients is that, “writing down everything I eat makes things worse“ or “I don’t like doing food logs because it reminds me of acting on my eating disorder.” As providers, we completely understand that rigidly tracking food and exercise can often be a symptom of the eating disorder. That being said, there is a big difference between keeping a detailed, private food diary and collaborating with a dietitian to complete food logs during treatment. For one, the end goals are very different. If you tracked your food before it was probably to monitor strict adherence to dangerous eating disorder behaviors or dieting techniques. Those logs probably involved weighing, measuring, and counting calories and were done to benefit the distorted rules of the ED [eating disorder], not to honor or nourish your body. Conversely, the goal for food logs in treatment is to monitor weekly goals, help normalize eating behavior and to improve your relationship with food. When doing food logs with a dietitian, there is no good vs. bad, no shaming, no judgement. The role of the dietitian is not to be the food police waiting to condemn you. Rather, their role is that of a supportive detective. To examine the data, to see if there is something that is setting you up for problematic eating behaviors and then provide you with education and ideas to help make improvements going forward.”]
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