I know my macro requirements, but now what?

TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss
TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss Posts: 66 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I apologize if this is a repost, but I'm not sure how to search for this question.

Calculating your macro requirements seems easy enough, but what do I do after that? How do I ensure that I hit number pretty consistently?

For example, if I was pursuing 90g of protein a day. Would I just determine the physical weight of some meat that contains 90g of protein and divide that by 3 for the three main meals that I consistently eat?

Or if that is all mumbo jumbo, how do YOU hit your macros consistently after getting your numbers?

Replies

  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    As I go through the day, I watch my macros and see if I'm falling behind with any particular one and then eat a bit more of that the next time I eat. That leaves me with close to the correct ratio at the end of the day.
  • Protranser
    Protranser Posts: 517 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    As I go through the day, I watch my macros and see if I'm falling behind with any particular one and then eat a bit more of that the next time I eat. That leaves me with close to the correct ratio at the end of the day.

    ^^^^This works for me, as well

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  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited August 2015
    TheLittleGingerDoesWeightLoss wrote: »
    how do YOU hit your macros consistently after getting your numbers?

    You can prelog and then adjust until you get the numbers you are going for.

    I wouldn't bother, personally. What I did was eat a healthy diet and then look at my numbers at the end of the day and to the extent they were off I looked at where they were coming from and the individual meals. For example, low on protein I'd see what I was eating that was high in protein and what the numbers were and increase the portion a bit. Or I'd see that I did well on lunch and dinner and was low on breakfast, so I'd add in something with protein to breakfast (like lowfat dairy).

    Similarly, if I was high on things -- say carbs -- I'd see where they were coming from and cut the portion size a bit.

    Since they add up to 100%, the nice thing is that when high on something you will be low on something else and can just adjust serving sizes sometimes.

    It seems like a lot of work at first, but it's really quite simple and becomes intuitive. I generally hit my macros (or close enough for me) now without thinking about it much. I can easily adjust as I go through the day. Mostly it's a matter of understanding what's in the foods and trial and error.

    You need to log it to figure it out, though, since with something like meat there will be protein and fat, with other foods different mixes.

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