Advice: which nutrients should I track?

isitsororo

Hello there, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me some advice on which nutrients I should be tracking. My diary is open. I'm thinking of dropping sodium because I'm not having any difficulty staying under. I was tracking sugar for a while and that could make me go in the red, but I'm really not concerned about, say, the sugar in onions, I was just interested in the refined sugars, so I dropped the sugar category. What do you think I should add? Should I keep sodium on there?

Additional info:
I'm not sure if this qualifies as bloat or not, but every day it seems I start out with my abdomen roughly level with my hip bones and end the day with my abdomen protruding a couple of inches (if I don't suck in). Not sure if this is related to nutrition or not, I'm also on my period right now.

I just started taking iron, calcium, and a general vitamin, so I should be okay for those categories.

As for my calorie count today, I have some snacking ahead of me that I haven't logged yet, pay it no attention.

And obviously I'm keeping fat, carb, and protein.

Thanks, feel free to ask me anything.

CrazyCatLadylovescats

It depends on what style of diet you are doing. I am doing Primal/Paleo, and really look at carbs staying low, but I could care less about fat, except trans fat (which as I have been making all my food has been at 0 every day.) I try to make the bulk of my food vegetables, followed by meat and dairy. Fat makes me full, so if I keep my calorie count where I want it, I am fine with it.

If you are doing Weight Watchers or such you should read up on what their guidelines recommend and go from there.

isitsororo

I don't have a diet style or program, just general good eating, minimizing junk/highly processed foods.

I already have fat, carb, and protein on there, I'm wondering what else I should have.

schondell

Fat, carb, protein, sugar and then fibre

Knowing how much sugar you take in is important because it gets converted to fat in the body, so trying to keep it within limits is important. If you want to keep carbs low, focus on NET carbs, which is "total carbs - fibre = net carbs"