I know that for the past couple of weeks all I posted were workout recaps. And now I’ve even fallen behind on those. But I have several drafts that I’m still working on, including one that’s been through about 27 revisions already. I promise I’ll get those posted as soon as I’m certain they’re 100% ready!
I wanted to talk about how my eating habits have changed and the results I’ve seen with macro counting. I had been following IIFYM (if it fits your macros). However, even though IIFYM is supposed to allow more flexibility in your diet, I made it way more complicated than it needed to be. So a couple of days ago, I realized I needed a change of pace. Now here I am, writing about my experiences with NOT macro counting and why I decided to stop.
I really don’t mind measuring and logging my food. Yes, it takes a lot of work to prep everything, weigh and portion it out, and wash a billion Tupperware containers. It also takes up a ton of space in my fridge until about mid-week when I’ve made a dent in my meals.
On the plus side, it’s nice not having to worry about lunches and snacks during the work week. All I have to do in the morning is grab some containers from the fridge and walk out the door. My routine had become like second nature. I”d go food shopping on Saturday, wake up on Sunday and spend 1-2 hours on food prep, then log everything in MyFitnessPal for Monday. After that, all I had to do was copy the meals in the tracker from one day to the next. I liked the routine. It also made me feel like I actually knew something about nutrition and it was fun to pretend I was a legit fitness/nutrition professional.
Lately, though, I’ve been pretty obsessive about tracking my food. On days when everything went according to plan and I met all of my macros perfectly, it was great. But if there was a day where, for example, my boss treated us to lunch and I ordered something from a restaurant, I stressed about how to accurately log the meal in MyFitnessPal. How many ounces of turkey came on that wrap – three, four, maybe up to five? What about the dressing – was it two tablespoons, or more or less than that? Did I even need to bother logging the iceberg lettuce and two slices of tomato? There couldn’t be that many calories in either item, right?
And then what if one of my coworkers brought in cookies for the office? What happened when another coworker bought me something from Starbucks, but accidentally ordered a green tea latte when I just wanted a green tea? According to the rules of IIFYM, it should have been no biggie. I could have worked the rest of my meals around it, cutting out another snack or eating less at the next meal. But I stressed over the details, worrying about how I could only afford 10 more grams of fat or 25 more grams of carbs for the entire rest of the day.
It became exhausting.
By the way, I promise I don’t have a disordered relationship with food. I averaged at least 2000 calories a day when I was logging my food. And believe me, my lack of a ripped, muscular physique is proof of how much I love to eat. It was just the constant calorie counting and trying to fit my macros perfectly every single day that made me crazy.
I only stopped macro counting a few days ago, but I’m enjoying it so far. It’s been refreshing to not be tied to MyFitnessPal every time I eat something. I still prep my food for the week and I’m still eating a lot of the same things. I still measure things like oatmeal and peanut butter because it’s easy to go overboard on stuff like that. But eating most of my meals without measuring carbs/proteins/fats in everything has been refreshing. I haven’t noticed any negative effects on my weight by not counting macros anymore. But again, it’s only been a few days. I’m fairly confident, though, that as long as I don’t eat desserts and takeout every day, I’ll easily be able to maintain my current weight for the next few weeks.
I do still want to lean out some more, so I might start counting macros again in the fall after taking a break from it for a few weeks. Maybe after stepping away from it for a little while, I’ll be able to come back to it without getting so crazed.
