WHICH NUTRITIONAL METHOD IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
Whether your goals include changing your body composition (gaining muscle, losing fat), feeling better (more energy, better sleep, sharper focus), or becoming healthier (less health issues, lower risk for disease, healthy gut), finding some sort of structure and method to your nutritional intake and habits is imperative.
While I am a huge proponent of tracking macros, I understand that it’s not necessarily the best fit for everyone. So let’s take a deeper look into macros (so maybe you can jump on board) but let’s also look at other methods that you can implement.
Before we jump into the different methods, let’s go over some dieting basics, specifically in regards to fat loss.
No matter what method you decide is right for you, remember that:
1) In order to lose fat, you must be in a caloric deficit.
A caloric, or energy, deficit is achieved by reducing calories consumed and/or increasing calories expended, causing you to be in a negative energy balance.
2) 80-90% of your diet should come from whole, or minimally-processed, food sources.
Don’t overthink it. Whole food options include items such as animal products (poultry, beef, fish, shellfish, eggs, dairy), vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, seeds.
Eating a variety of these foods will provide you a wide-range of nutrients as well as help keep you satisfied.
3) 10-20% of your diet should come from enjoyable foods.
This is where the processed options come into play. Complete restriction is not the answer. Including these foods in moderation are going to help you retain your sanity and make this a lifestyle, rather than a quick fad diet that you couldn’t adhere to long-term.
4) You can't out train a “bad” diet.
I don’t love labeling foods or diets as “good” vs. “bad”, however the overall idea here is the key. If you are serious about changing your body and/or health, you must put effort into both training and nutrition.
METHOD 1: Tracking Macronutrients
Tracking macronutrients, or “tracking your macros” refers to the act of counting and managing how many grams of carbohydrates, protein, and fat you consume per day.
These three nutrients all contain calories, or energy, in which we require to live.
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
So by tracking macros, you are automatically counting calories.
I would probably classify this method as the most complex of the five listed here, but at the same time, it’s the most beneficial.
There is an initial learning curve, as there is with anything, but the benefits you gain from the process far outweigh the initial time and effort invested.
The three main benefits of tracking are:
1) Education
Tracking your food allows you to:
Become educated on what foods and combinations will optimally fuel your body and help you work towards your goals.
Become aware of what macronutrients make up different foods, such as whole eggs are a combination of fats and protein, whereas egg whites are a pure protein source.
Learn true portion sizes, so you can usually successfully eat and maintain results.
2) Flexibility
While we should always prioritize high-quality foods, tracking macros allows for the flexibility of treats, snacks, and social outings. If you are a routine person like myself, the majority of your days of input may look similar. However, if you are someone who has a lot of variety in meals, eating out, gatherings, and so on, you can still reach your goals as long as you are within your macro allotment each day.
3) Proper & Strategic Adjustments
When you track your intake, you know exactly what you’re eating, therefore you can make exact adjustments. This is not a guessing game or one of estimations. It’s one that you have complete control over!
CONSIDERATIONS:
It can be tedious
Notice that I did not say it’s time consuming. The initial phase, about 1-4 weeks can be slightly time consuming because you are starting from blank slate and need to enter the foods, drinks, and condiments you regularly consume, but once these are in, you can enter meals in a matter of seconds. However, I will admit that it can be tedious, especially depending on your preferences and eating habits. The more complex your meals are (ingredients, sauces, oils) the more inputs you will need to measure and figure out.
Commitment + Consistency
Like anything, if you want results to come out of this process, you must be committed and consistent. This means even on the days you don’t want to track or you don’t want to follow your macros, you need to suck it up and get it done. One day every once in a while not tracking or not hitting your macros is A-OKAY...but doing that multiple days per week, each week, adds up.
So - if you are seeking results that come with education and a complete understanding of the process, this method could be for you. If you have no idea of how to calculate or adjust macronutrients, I highly suggest finding a coach you trust. They not only will do the tricky stuff for you, but they will hold you accountable and guide you along the way. If you want to learn more about my coaching services, fill out this form and we can chat!
Advanced Method: Intuitive Eating
Once you have tracked macros for a substantial period of time (at least 6-12 months), and you’ve reached your physical goals and now want to take a step back and enter a maintenance phase, you can consider shifting to an intuitive eating approach.
The formal definition of intuitive eating is “a person who makes food choices without experiencing guilt or an ethical dilemma, honors hunger, respects fullness and enjoys the pleasure of eating”.
Tracking allows you to earn the right to intuitively eat.
Like mentioned above, when you track you:
Become educated on what foods and combinations will optimally fuel your body and help you work towards your goals.
Become aware of macronutrients profiles of many different foods.
Learn true portion sizes.
Benefits of shifting to intuitive eating include:
Becoming more in-tune with your body - allowing hunger cues to control your eating habits.
Helping disconnect food from being seen as a numerical value.
So, if you:
Are feeling burnt out
Have a lot of other life situations occurring currently and tracking is just going to pack on stress
Reached your goals and feel knowledgeable on how to fuel your body without logging each thing into an app
then intuitive eating could be your method.
Could you intuitively eat for the rest of your life? Sure - if you want to.
Or more likely, at some point, you will come up with new goals, which can be best achieved through tracking.
So now you can understand how these two can alternate back and forth.
Simplified Method: Calories and Protein
If you are interested in tracking macros, but are slightly overwhelmed or confused by the entire process… you should hire a coach! This will cut down on the frustration and time spent doing trial and error.
But another option would be to begin with two of the most important aspects. Remember at the beginning of this post when I said the first thing you must remember is that to lose fat, you must be in a caloric deficit.
It’s difficult to know if you are in a deficit if you aren’t tracking your intake. So step one is to focus on tracking overall caloric intake, as well as protein.
Protein helps you build and maintain muscle, which in turn boosts your metabolism. Protein is also the most satiating macronutrient, meaning it fills you up and keeps you fuller longer.
To simplify things, multiply your current body weight by 0.8-1.1. This number is the total number of grams of protein you will eat per day.
For example, Jamie is 145 pounds.
145 x 0.9 = 130 grams of protein per day
This is a method I will use with my clients to help ease them into macronutrients and the tracking process. Eventually we will buckle down on the specifics of fats and carbs, but as long as they are staying within their calorie limit and hitting their protein, these other two macros (carbs & fats) tend to naturally even out.
Preferred Alternative: The Handful Diet
Your hand is proportionate to your body, so it’s automatically a customized tool. This method is very visual and convenient since it does not require other tools such as measuring cups, scales, or technology. General guidelines for women are as follows:
1 palm of protein
1 fist of vegetables
1 cupped hand of carbohydrates
1 thumb of fats
Implementing these rules for 4 meals per day.
Like all other methods, you still prioritize 80-90% nutrient dense foods. This also still requires commitment, consistency, and eventually some adjustments. The values listed above are baseline targets.
Un-preferred Alternative: Traditional Meal Plan
Traditional meal plans are specific prescriptions.
Eat this exact thing, in this exact amount, at this exact time.
For example:
Breakfast: 7:00AM
2 eggs, scrambled or fried in 1 tsp oil
1 cup vegetables
1 piece of whole grain toast
1 cup coffee, black
1 cup water
Snack #1: 10:00AM
1 scoop whey protein
8 ounces low-fat milk
1 medium piece fruit
And so on...
Initially, many think “That sounds great! I don’t have to waste time thinking & planning. I can finally get around all of this confusion I have with nutrition…”
Unfortunately, there are some cons to this method:
No education: Yes you may learn how to fuel your body...but it’s only in one way. What happens when you’re sick of eggs or you run out?
Most meal plans are created to help one reach a short-term goal. So they may help you get to that goal of losing a few pounds, but what do you do once you’ve gotten there...you can’t eat this exact meal plan forever?!
No flexibility: You are either ON the meal plan, or you’re OFF the meal plan. Want to go out on a dinner date and have a glass of wine? Not on the meal plan.
Lack of nutrient variety: If you’re eating the exact same thing day in and day out, not only is that boring, but that’s not allowing you to get optimal nutrient variety.
Life happens: We aren’t always prepared with the exact food made nor can we always adhere to the specific schedule.
So now that you have all of these methods in mind, where do you start?!
I highly recommend at least taking 7-10 days to track your intake.
Download MyFitnessPal right now!
Set up your account, but ignore the macro targets it generates and simply focus on logging the food you’re consuming this and next week.
Think about this process like a GPS. We might know the destination we want to end up at (point B aka your goal) but we can not get there if we can’t input your current location (point A).
In this case, point A is your maintenance. Once we determine that (through these 7-10 days of tracking) we can begin to map out a specific plan that will get you to point B (aka reach your goals).
If you spend 7-10 days tracking and then are hesitant to commit to one of the methods or are overwhelmed, hop on a call with us and I will walk you through it!
There is a method out there that will work for you and help you reach your goals. All of the ones listed here will allow you to gain control and provide you with a baseline to then make adjustments from.