Should I stop tracking macros?

kalincombs

PAV8888 wrote: »

kalincombs wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

What sources of protein have you tried? You did say vegetarian not vegan. Is yogurt an option?

Yes, I have a yogurt about every day. And I eat eggs as well. Eating beans, lentils, yogurt, peanut butter, walnuts, protein powder/bars, and tons of eggs is how i usually hit my protein goal.

a) Listen to @sardelsa

b) If you can eat yogurt and eggs...

Hello Brunch example!

200 Cal, 36g P, 350g 0% Greek Yogurt (Liberté or Oikos)
70 Cal , 8g P, 100g 0% Yoplait or other flavoured sucralose sweetened yogurt
2 Cal, 0g P, 1g Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa mixed in to balance the sweetness, and 'cause: chocolate.
56 Cal, 5g P, 15g Kellogg's Special K Protein Cereal sprinkled on top of your yogurt

6 Cal, 1g P, 24oz Brewed Filtered Coffee
35 Cal, 2g P, 70g 2% Milk

50 Cal, 4g protein for 170g Broccoli Slaw
23 Cal, 0.5g protein for 55g onions
78 Cal, 17g protein for 162g egg whites
72 Cal, 6g protein for 50g egg

Leaves you almost a full 1g of fat in the form of spray (8 Cal) to hit 600 Cal with 78+g of protein including rounding.

This is great!! Thanks!

kalincombs

sardelsa wrote: »

kalincombs wrote: »

sardelsa wrote: »

kalincombs wrote: »

sardelsa wrote: »

kalincombs wrote: »

Orphia wrote: »

kalincombs wrote: »

Hey guys, I need some advice! So for about 3 weeks now, I have been using MFP to track my macros, but lately I'm starting to consider other methods of healthy eating.

It seems like everyone in the health and nutrition world tracks macros these days, so when I jumped back into healthy eating recently, I figured I'd give it a try. I calculated my numbers on IIFYM and got 111 protein, 56 fat, and 137 carbs. These numbers have proven very difficult to stick to. As a vegetarian, I very rarely can manage to hit my protein goal for the day. When I do, its because I'm forcing myself to incorporate excessive amounts of protein powder and protein bars, which is expensive, unnatural, and just not fun. I often go over on my fat macros as well, because many vegetarian things that are high protein are also high fat, such as avocados and nuts. Day by day, falling short of my goals leaves me frustrated and disappointed. The high amounts of protein also leave my stomach feeling bloated and gross.

As someone who has been very interested in health and fitness my whole life, I have always cared about the foods that I put into my body. I know the choices I am making are healthy, and yet when I plug them into MFP I fall short of my goals and am disappointed nearly every day. So, I ask your advice--should I stop tracking macros (but still count calories) and just continue eating a diet whole, natural, unprocessed foods? I want to lose about 5 more pounds before April and get a bit toned on my legs, butt, and stomach. So is it better for me to just tough it out and continue doing something that always leaves me feeling bad or should I just stop worrying?

Firstly, how tall are you and how much do you weigh? If you're only 5 lbs away from a mid-low BMI, 5 lbs in a month is going to be very hard and AFAIK not fuel any exercise you do and leave you starving.

If that's you, read the thread, "relatively light people trying to get leaner":
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner

Secondly, and I'm not saying the following is you, have you heard of Orthorexia?

It's an unhealthy obsession with clean eating / "healthy eating". Not saying this is you, but here's some info.

https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/orthorexia

WARNING SIGNS & SYMPTOMS OF ORTHOREXIA

• Compulsive checking of ingredient lists and nutritional labels
• An increase in concern about the health of ingredients
• Cutting out an increasing number of food groups (all sugar, all carbs, all dairy, all meat, all animal products)
• An inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods that are deemed ‘healthy’ or ‘pure’
• Unusual interest in the health of what others are eating
• Spending hours per day thinking about what food might be served at upcoming events
• Showing high levels of distress when ‘safe’ or ‘healthy’ foods aren’t available
• Obsessive following of food and ‘healthy lifestyle’ blogs on Twitter and Instagram
• Body image concerns may or may not be present

Just posting this in case you have other traits listed that might mean your food choices impact negatively on your life.

I'm not trying to diagnose you. Only you can know the answer.

I certainly don't think Orthorexia sounds like me, I have always had a pretty healthy relationship with food.

I am 5'7" with GW: approx 123, CW: 132. I know I can't make that happen in a month, but I am trying to make as much progress as I can before then. I have a normal BMI so, yes, progress has been slow. And yes, I've read that article, but thank you for the recommendation!

What are your goals? I just ask because sometimes more weight loss, especially so close to the lower end may not be what will really get you there. If you want more definition and a leaner appearance and you are not close to that right now you may want to consider eating at maintenance and recomping to build some muscle. If you still want to lose a few lbs that is fine, but if you start to get close to your goal and still not happy, the issue will likely be lack of muscle base and no amount of weight loss will help that.

My end goal and biggest motivator is to have my best body ever by spring break. I'm just looking to lose what's left of my love handles, some lower belly, and some thigh fat. I also want to have a bigger, more rounded butt and tone my stomach/legs a bit if possible. That's why 123 is flexible. I've been in the 120s before and that's when I was most confident about my body. That was about 2 years ago, and since then I gained about 18 pounds (I've lost 6 already) and may have grown about an inch so I'm not sure where that leaves me if I'm looking to feel as good as I used to. I'm doing this more for how I look in the mirror than what the scale says, but tracking weight has been a great way to confirm my progress.

Are you following a lifting program?

I would say take the weight loss very slow right now.. and re-evaluate after 5lbs.

I'm not following any program, just testing the waters right now with about 15-30 minutes of bodyweight exercises about 5 times a week.

Ok well based on your goals that you indicated you may want to look into an established program, something like Strong Curves has a focus on the lower body and glutes. Also if you want larger glutes, losing more weight typically will not get you there, but you can shape and define what you already have. I am the same height as you and got down to 121 and still wasn't happy.. I lost all my glutes because I didn't have enough muscle to begin with and I wasn't following proper programming to maintain what little I had. Just something to think about!

I'll certainly look into it!! Thank you!

PAV8888

oopsies: my post should read 200g of 0% sweetened yogurt for the macros given instead of 100g. Started with a lb of yogurt but decided to go up to 550g and make it a tad sweeter and more dilute to support the cocoa powder and cereal better ;-)

But I too suspect that your results will come from strong curves... not more weight loss!