I have been working on losing weight and being healthier for over three years. At first, I was a Weight Watcher and I loved the plan. While it’s not the worst option out there for learning about nutrition, though, I got stuck after about two years and felt that I needed to do something more. So now I am counting macros. This is a great introductory article to what are macros, and things to keep in mind if you’re considering making the switch.

I’m not a professional dietitian or nutritionist, and I’m not affiliated with any brand or company. I may have affiliate links in this article at no cost to you.

Check out the end of the article for my videos “An Intro to Counting Macros”!

And while technically you can count macros to gain weight or to maintain (or even to bulk up more muscle), the emphasis on this article will be counting macros in a calorie deficit.

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So What Are Macros?

The term “macros” is sort of a misnomer – it basically stands for “macronutrients” which are some of the nutrients your body needs to survive. As far as counting macros is concerned, the ones we’re talking about are protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

Essentially with macros, you’re tracking what you eat and minding your calories, but with more specific guidelines. Sort of like having parameters within your parameters.

Why Is It Better to Track Macros?

Why should you track macros instead of just try to be in a calorie deficit?

The basic idea is that if you consume slightly less than you burn (from exercise, during sleep, you know… just from being alive), you’ll lose weight. Right?

So technically you can be in a calorie deficit if you eat only Twinkies every day, as long as you eat less calories than you’re burning. (Check out “Mark Raub Twinkie diet 2010″… it can be done!)

BUT you’ll feel like crap.

And especially if you are an active person either with cardio/HIIT and/or strength workouts, you probably will lose muscle as you lose weight. So you might be getting skinnier, but might not have the toned fit look you were wanting.

So the idea with tracking macros is that you’re in a calorie deficit, yes, but you’re making sure that you’re still hitting a protein goal and not just eating tons of carbs, or too much fat. You’re finding a specific balance to build muscle and lose weight at the same time.

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For example, my macros currently sit at:

  • Protein: 139g
  • Fat: 51g
  • Carbs: 155g
  • Calories: 1635kcal

(We’ll talk more about how we got that in a minute.)

So yes I’m in a calorie deficit, but I also have parameters WITHIN that calorie goal. My muscles will grow because I’m strength training (and feeding my body enough protein), and I’ll be losing body fat because I’m in a deficit.

How Do I Calculate My Macros?

First, you need an app. I’m not affiliated with anyone but I am a paying member of My Fitness Pal. I have also used My Macros Plus, Plate, and Lose It. But you need to make sure that your tracking app allows you to enter macro goals, and not just calories.

Just track what you’ve been eating in there for a few days. This serves two purposes: It lets you get used to tracking what you eat, and it will show you what caloric value you’re currently consuming.

Then you need to figure out what your macros will be. This will take some guesswork, and is actually one of the worst things about macros: finding your magic numbers. You want to make sure you’re able to hit the goals that you want (eg fat loss for me) but you don’t want to starve. So tweaking numbers until you get it just right can take a while.

I suggest that you use Macros Inc to get a basic macros calculation. Note that this doesn’t know anything specific about you, it’s just inputting in some data about you and then punching out some numbers. But it’s a good way to start! An even better way is to cross check that estimate with a trainer and get on the Macros Inc. Facebook group. No affiliation, but they’ve been amazingly helpful and have coaches there too.

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You can also look into an online-only trainer, who can help you with nutrition and workouts without ever meeting you in person! I’ve used one for almost a year and I’m so so happy to have her. Online-only trainers are usually a lot more affordable because they can build your plans at home and then just text/call you to check in.

Other Suggestions About Successful Macro Tracking

I feel confident that these other suggestions will help you be successful in your journey! (Note that you can watch the YouTube video below if you’d rather me talk to you conversationally about macros.)

First, you need to get used to tracking. I mentioned this above, but I’ll say it again: tracking can be a pain in the ass to start. You have to write down everything you eat and drink every day, on top of all the other stuff you have to do. But I promise it’s worth it. I actually try to track everything the night before so I know what to make for breakfast, and I know how much wiggle room I have for snacks or treats. That way nothing catches me by surprise.

I also meal plan our dinners for the week, and you can get those ideas here.

Even if you just track what you’ve been eating pre-diet or pre-macros, that will give you data to work with. And remember, if you don’t have complete and honest data, you’re wasting your time. You need those numbers and those measurements to help you determine if what you’re doing is working. And if you lie or ignore any of it, it makes the data inaccurate and thus unusable. Be an advocate for tracking everything all the time!

Tracking apps include My Fitness Pal (I use the premium version), My Macros +, Plate, or Lose It.

You’ve gotta weigh your food. And it can be time consuming and confusing. Basically the point is that a nutrition label is great and all, but you need to weigh your serving and not just assume that the package is accurate. This is the food scale I use – it’s not expensive and you just need something which can do “grams” as it’s the most specific unit of measurement. I have a video all about measuring food with macros, since you have to measure it before and after. Don’t worry! It gets easier.

I also think you should drink your water and track that. I aim for about a gallon a day of water and tea. I like the Water Minder app because I can customize my favorite mugs and cups in it, and I even use Siri: “Hey Siri, hail hydrate” is my custom one-liner to automatically track my default 16 ounces.

If you don’t have complete and honest data, you’re wasting your time. So respect yourself enough to be thorough and truthful – track, analyze, learn, move on.

Real Simple Mama

If you think that weighing yourself daily is going to make you to do something drastic like starve yourself or overeat, please only weigh yourself once a week. The scale is yet another data point, nothing more. And daily fluctuations can be up to 5-8 pounds! A day! If you think about it, you know that it isn’t really solid fat that you’re seeing jump around so much. It’s water retention, sodium retention, muscles repairing, a menstrual cycle, stress, illness… But if the scale is going to make you obsessive, promise me that you’ll only weigh once a week.

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On the other hand, if you can handle weighing daily (again knowing that there will be tons of movement from day to day), I recommend the Happy Scale app. It takes all of those normal ups-and-downs and plots them out over time so you don’t have to freak out with a little gain here and there. Again, use the data point and learn from it, and move on.

You can see that I go a little crazy with data, but it’s how I learn and customize my journey to be more successful. I got this planner at Dollar Tree and plot out everything from my daily weight, to sleep, to macros eaten that day, my workouts, and any other notes like “Family dinner out” or “Ran a 5k” or “Bad headache all day.” Then I have all my numbers in one place: I can analyze patterns, see where I started to get the results I wanted, and duplicate that.

You should know that counting macros will take some consistency. You really need to track everything at a certain deficit for two weeks before you can tell if they’re “working” the way you want them to. As of this writing, we’re in the beginning of the Covid pandemic so I haven’t been eating my 1635 kcal every day, so I can’t say “these numbers aren’t working for me.” I need to give them a fair chance, and be consistent before I try to adjust anything.

Finally, your macros will not be the same for life. Let’s say that you track consistently for a while and you’re getting the results that you want. Eventually your body is not going to react the same way anymore, your progress will slow or stall (called a plateau). That will inevitably happen! And when it does, you’ll have your data to go back on so that you can see what you need to adjust. Try something new, do it consistently for two weeks, and analyze.

You’ve made it! And I’m so proud of you for starting your journey. I know that this is a ton of information but you got all the way to the end. I have macro-related videos on my YouTube channel for you to look at – the one below is the video version of this article, “An Intro to Counting Macros.” Enjoy, and let me know what you think!