Having a hard time with micro, macro balance.

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djd89
djd89 Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am having a hard time with the micro macro balance.. can anyone give me an example of how they go about their journal if they get to the end of the day and they have used all their fats up, or used all their sugars up but still have 500 calories left.. I find myself wanting to preview everything I eat through my journal because no matter how hard I try I am always going over my micros! It drives me crazy! I had no idea there was so much sugar in even healthy raw ingredients. I try my hardest to only eat clean but it seems that I still have this problem.

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  • FredDoyle
    FredDoyle Posts: 2,273 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Firstly, treat protein and fats as minimums to reach, not maximums. Fill the rest with carbs to your liking. I don't worry about sugar. It's just a carb and I track those.
    You should figure out your protein and fat goals first though...
    Your micros like vitamin C and calcium are required daily amounts, so minimums as well. Try to get 100% of those.
  • moto450
    moto450 Posts: 334 Member
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    ultimately the most important thing is to stay within your calorie limit. You are correct that the macros do matter, however, not as much as it does to stay below your calorie limit if you're trying to lose weight.

    that being said I've had a hard time staying within my sugar limit as well until I started finding a few tricks. for example, I Eliminated cereal and milk for breakfast and went to oatmeal. I mix my protein Powder in with it instead of sugar. just doing small things like that during the day made all the difference in the world For me at least. Most evenings I am now well under my sugar goal. those times when I do cut it close is usually do to fruit that I have. But I'm perfectly fine with that.I just try to make sure that the sugar I do get is from good foods, not from serial or other types of foods like that
  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    One thing that might help you is to pre-plan and pre-log your day's meals. That way you don't find yourself way off track by lunchtime. It's like a jigsaw puzzle: play with foods until you find the ones that fit your macros.

    And don't stress about micros unless you have a medical reason to.
  • loulamb7
    loulamb7 Posts: 801 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Focus first on getting your calorie intake right. Over time you can start looking at balancing macros, but don't fret over them now. The balance will usually not be perfect but that's okay. Don't worry about micros unless you have a reason to.
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    Prelogging is a good suggestion. I track fiber instead of sugar and I have a hard time balancing a single day. What seems to happen is that I seesaw--one day the protein will be up and the fat down, so the next day I strive to get enough fat. I don't have any symptoms associated with coming in under those macros, so I guess this approach works.
  • djd89
    djd89 Posts: 6 Member
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    Thank you everyone for the great advice! Good to know that I don't need to stress the micro's as much as I was thinking I needed to in order to lose weight.

    I think my main problem is the fruit sugars so it's also good to know that I don't need to worry so much about those.

    I think pre logging might be a good thing, while I'm getting used to this... nothing is worse than when you eat something and then afterwards log it in only to find your going into tomorrows calories ;)

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