Maybe you're right. I struggle, and have no idea what a macro is....

I should look it up maybe.

General things I try to do are obvious ones. Reduce or eliminate chips/cookies/late night eating... drink more water... less booze... more fish/veggies... less sauces/dips...not too many bread/carby things...and since logging my food, I found I probably needed to reduce red meat/cheese too as I blew a ton of calories there.

Where macros fit into that I don't know.

I was doing both, mostly calories. My son in law left a box of Ritz crackers here and you can have 5 for only 80 calories! I happened to up my calories about the same time so started having them on the side and have noticed my carbs have gone way up (not just from the crackers but they don't help). My oatmeal is surprisingly high in carbs and I'm eating more rice lately too, so we'll see. After my weigh in this weekend I'll have to see if I need to re-adjust things.

I keep an eye on both. For a long time, I was always going over my protein. When I switched to a vegan diet, I struggled to reach my protein but find I am exceeding my fats! I think I am eating more healthy fats, though. I wish the macro would indicate that.

I find tracking my macros to be super helpful. After some experimentation, I've found that I feel best when I hit 45C/25P/30F, so that's where I've set them. 40/30/30 feels even better, but, realistically for me, it's harder to hit those ratios without an awful lot of protein powder in my diet. I eat the same things for breakfast and lunch, with a little variation, pretty much every day. I pre-log that plus what I know we're going to have for dinner. Looking at the macro pie chart then helps me decide what to have as a snack to balance it out by the end of the day.

I always make sure I'm over on fiber, as my body is used to a ton of it and if I only eat the recommended amount, bad things happen GI-wise. I do fine on most of the other micros without trying, thanks to a huge vegetable salad with a little lean meat every day for lunch. The one place I do poorly is sugar. I'm always over, sometimes *way* over. The fact that "sugar" includes lactose from milk and sugars naturally in fruits and grains would already put me over even without sweets, so I just don't worry about it. I've cut my daily sweets from >20 (wonder why I was overweight, LOL) to 2-3 per day. I eat a lot of food, so that represents maybe 10-15% of my total daily calories. I think that fits within the definition of moderation, and I can still stay within my macro target.

One rule I made for myself that has really helped me, without leaving me feeling deprived: Never eat dessert at home, in the middle of the day, alone. I only eat it with a meal (usually dinner), in the company of at least one other person. I tend to eat much less of it, and I need a lot less of it to feel like it's enough.

Alice,
Thanks for clearing up the macro thing for me. I think I finally figured this on out and increasing protein i and lowering carbs is the way to go for my body.
Christine

I pretty much try to count calories. I keep an eye on the other stuff and try not to go way over on carbs/sugars, etc. I could really see how my cravings changed during the holidays. My sugars were really high because of the extra cookies I was nibbling on. As a result, I craved more sugar like you couldn't believe. It was eye-opening to see how eating sugar makes me want to eat a lot more sugar. I never adjusted the settings in MFP. I may just go in and change the percentages as noted in previous posts.

I just discovered the "Get full report" for food. I saw the button on my food diary page, but because the button is the same color as and is near the water entry, I thought it was to get a report on water. LOL:embarassed:

Thanks for the info, I just changed my settings also. I try to keep within my macros that I had set, try to watch my sodium (yesterday was a total bust!). I think the logging has helped so much in seeing just how much was in everything I ate as far as the macros go! Will have to see how this new setting goes :-).

I have just had an eureka moment. I had my macros set at 40c/30p/30f and have never hit them. I honestly never thought of increasing the carb to 45%. Just off to do it.

I watch everything. I really watch my sugar, fat, fiber and sodium. If I start reaching my limit by lunchtime, it changes what I eat for the rest of the day. I also monitor my calcium and my iron, which I have been very under my goal - multi vitamin helped with the iron and adding a bit more low fat dairy helped with the calcium - although not at 100% yet. I'm still playing around my foods to find the best healthy way of eating for me to get the nutrients I need.

This is not at all easy.

The new macros are kicking my butt, now I'm never 'right' in the breakdowns... and I guess its probably what I needed to change to see better progress.

Seems quite hard to keep the carbs down and the protein up.

Will update after a couple more weeks.

I haven't changed my macros, but at the advice of a fellow MFP friend, I increased my protein & decreased my carbs too. At first I had hell getting in enough protein, but I learned quickly that I stayed full longer with the protein than with carbs. I was used to snacking in between meals but since I was full, I found myself skipping snacks & not even realizing it! When I'm really strict with it, I find that I am under on my calorie goal considerably too. Not sure why that is, but it doesn't bother me b/c I am FULL!

Now I'm just waiting for the scale to start moving again. I love the holidays, but they are never kind to my body. I have ZERO willpower to resist all the yummy sweets! :grumble:

I focus on my macros and micros, and have changed the MFP presets.
I focus on high protein, and high fiber

and try for low sodium, and sugar and a reasonable amount of carbs (which are mostly SLOW carbs since I aim for low sugar).

I do both as well.
i try to keep my sugar and carbs under my goal and my protein over.
For sodium, I try to keep it lower, just so I don't have to think about water weight, but since it doesn't really contribute to fat loss, i'm not super concerned with it.