Do You Even Need To Track Your Macros?

Restricting caloric intake is the main driver of fat loss, no matter what the newest diet fad wants you to believe. This goal can be achieved with two very different but not mutually exclusive approaches. Here is how they work.

Calorie Tracking

Tracking your calories and/or macros gives you precise information about what you are actually eating. It makes weighing everything you put into your mouth necessary, which is a little annoying, but you will get used to it in no time. For many people this is extremely revealing: they just don’t know how much they are actually eating and how many calories their meals have until they have tried tracking at least once in their life (revelations like “OMG, I didn’t know avocados are THAT fat” are bound to happen). Once you have a good understanding how a typical meal looks like for you, you can experiment with ad libitum dieting.

It is can be helpful for everyone who struggles with losing weight while at the same time feels that he is always “on diet” without seeing any results. The same is true for people who struggle to gain weight and have the the feeling the eat enough: by tracking their food intake they often realize that they are barely maintaining their weight with the current intake. Tracking can teach you a lot about food but may also trigger some OC attitude especially if you are on the perfectionist side of life and want to hit every single macro by -/+1g. Some people get very fatigued of tracking soon and start buying and eating exactly the same stuff without any kind of variety, which on the long run is also contra-productive for your health. Especially having a very strict calorie and macro target can also detach you from your hunger and satiety feelings: something you have to learn for a bodybuilding prep but could be harmful for someone just looking for a healthy relationship with food. As a rule of thumb: calorie tracking is a good tool but not meant for lifelong healthy eating behavior.

Ad Libitum Diet

Ad libitum (Latin: at one’s pleasure) means that you don’t have to track your macros and always eat until you are full. You achieve your caloric deficit by limiting the types of food you are eating by a rule set. This could look something like that: I switch from fattier protein sources to leaner ones, e.g from full fat diary to non-fat dairy and from starchy veggies like potatoes to lower calorie ones like cucumber, broccoli, spinach and tomatoes; on training days I add an additional protein serving and a bit more carbs before the intensive leg session. As you can see this type of dieting trades the freedom of not having to track with restricting the type of food.

In our experience ad libitum suits a lot of people but you have to work on your awareness and mindfulness on what you put in your mouth. This means reflecting about your hunger and satiety feelings: is it really hunger? Or I am just bored and craving for some high palatable comforting snack? You need to have an approximate idea of the caloric density and macro composition of food and drinks too, especially if you have a fat loss goal. A regular eating pattern (if possible), is also helpful in this context. A good start for everyone would be to have one portion of protein and two portions of fruit and/or veggies to every of the three-four meals a day with a small splash of the fat source of your choice.

If you come from calorie tracking and want to transition to a more intuitive approach but feel very insecure, you can also mix and match both approaches. But I would also seek some support too. You shouldn’t be afraid of eating.

On the long run, ad libitum (or intuitive) eating is probably the way to go and calorie tracking rather restricted to a limited time frame for specific goals.

Have you ever tried to track your macros? What’s your experience with it? Let me know in the comment section below.

If you struggle with keeping your macros in check, maybe it’s time to seek out professional help 😉!