Do you count calories, and/or carbs, fat, and protein?

Calories most important of all.

Within that, I thry to hit around 100g carbs, 100g protein, and let the fat fall where it might. I track fat and sugar, even though I'm almost always over, but I want to make sure they're not going sky high!

Before joining this site, I was on weight watchers, which paid no attention to calories, but to fat, carbs, protein and fiber. This past week on MFP, I lost 1.2 pounds (which is pretty decent and healthy), but I'm just making sure I'm doing this right. Do you guys focus more on just calories, or do you also count in carbs, fat, and protein in what you eat per day? Thanks!

This is more of a side note, but if you're counting fat, carbs, and protein, you are essentially counting calories.

1g pro = 4kcal
1g cho = 4kcal
1g fat = 9kcal


I think it would be in your best interest to track these and additionally it requires no additional work on your part because MFP will automatically do this for you.

BBL

I just count the calories but try to get as clean and healthy as possible.

I concentrate more on the carbs, protein and fats then the calories but just make sure I'm within my calorie limit. I try to choose my carbs, protein and fats wisely and pick whole grain carbs, lean proteins and healthy fats.

Keep carbs to under 50g a day, eat real food and rest will work itself out.

Carbs, fat, and protein ARE calories. So yes.

CRAP! I just had a huge write-up explaining my PoV. Damn you, F5 button!

Ok, lets try this again:

I use my BMR and TDEE - X kcal to determine how much I should be eating. From there, I figure out an appropriate macro I should be consuming every day. I then ignore the calories and just try to eat the macro. I feel WHAT you eat will make a bigger difference than HOW MUCH you eat.

Yes, I know, once you've broken the food down into it's simplest form, and your body can then use it, a calorie is a calorie, regardless of where it came from. How many calories you eat ultimately determines how much weight you gain/lose. Theoretically, you could eat pure lard and/or white sugar, and as long as you're under your calorie goal, you'll lose weight. However, without the macro and micro nutrients, you'll probably die trying that.

The difference between every calorie is what your body has to do in order to break it down into it's simplest form. Simple carbs, complex carbs, protein and fat all break down at different speeds. You'll have a different effect from each one. Also, protein is the only product your body can use to repair muscles (important for after working out), and fat is the only product that your body will actually store in fat cells (correct me if I'm wrong). Simple carbs will give you a quick boost of energy, and spike your insulin (not always a bad thing) and complex carbs will give you a decent amount of energy over a longer period of time.

Then there's all your micro nutrients that you should be trying to eat as well... If you eat mostly fruit, veggies, nuts, and lean meats, you'll do a lot better than if you are frozen pizzas, candy, chips, pop, and other junk foods, even if you meet your calorie needs.

If you eat your macro, you will meet how many calories you should be consuming.

Just calories.

My macros are set at 60% carbs and 20% fat and protein. Due to IR/PCOS/hypoglycemia, I care about the type of carbs I eat but not really how much of them I eat.

I'm doing 1800 calories per day, but I'm also managing my macros. So right now, I'm aiming for 20% Fat, 30% Carbs, and 50% Protein. That comes out to about 40g of fat, 135g of carbs, and 225g of protein per day.