Do you pay much attention to individual macros beyond calories and maybe carbs?
lessismoreohio
Posts: 910 Member
Wow. I started to look closely at my macros. In the past week, I've done good with staying below my calorie and carb limit, but I see my sodium intake is (way) too high. Must work on that.
Do you pay much attention to individual macros beyond calories and maybe carbs?
Do you pay much attention to individual macros beyond calories and maybe carbs?
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Replies
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Carbs, Protein, and fats. Other than that, no.0
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I try to make sure I hit or exceed my protein, fiber, and fat goals. I don't pay attention to carbs (they'll fall into place if I'm hitting my calorie target). I try to watch my micros, too, but not as carefully.0
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to an extent...when I logged I viewed my macros as a general guideline for eating a well balanced diet but I never tried to be bang on with them or anything.
for what it's worth, you macros are carbs/protein/fat. sodium is a micro...i also watched sodium because I'm hypertensive...basically eat more whole foods and less processed foods.0 -
Macros are carbs, protein and fat. I try to reach my protein goal and don't worry about the other two as I have no problem eating plenty of fats and carbs :-)
I don't believe sodium is usually a big deal unless you have high blood pressure. There are general recommendations, but if it's not something you need to worry about for medical reasons I wouldn't bother thinking about it.
I watch calcium and keep an eye on my iron bc it's usually low. But mostly I worry about calories. As long as I'm near goal I don't overly stress about the rest, for now.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »to an extent...when I logged I viewed my macros as a general guideline for eating a well balanced diet but I never tried to be bang on with them or anything.
for what it's worth, you macros are carbs/protein/fat. sodium is a micro...i also watched sodium because I'm hypertensive...basically eat more whole foods and less processed foods.
Thank you for educating me; I'm still learning:)0 -
I watch my protein because I want to keep as much muscle as I can while I lose weight. And I watch fat and fiber because I like pooping regularly.0
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Other than calories I look at fat, protein and iron because I'm anaemic so I'm trying to get more iron in my diet so I can get off iron tablets.0
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Protein and fat I watch to make sure I get enough. Carbs are irrelevant to me.0
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lessismoreohio wrote: »Wow. I started to look closely at my macros. In the past week, I've done good with staying below my calorie and carb limit, but I see my sodium intake is (way) too high. Must work on that.
Do you pay much attention to individual macros beyond calories and maybe carbs?
You are asking about nutrients in general, not just macros, right?
I actually pay the least attention to carbs. I focus on staying below my calories, hitting a particular level of protein, hitting my fiber goals, and that's really all I specifically monitor, although I look at sugar and sat fat and potassium sometimes. If I were ever that low on fat I'd watch to make sure I got a minimum, but I tend to hit within my preferred fat range without trying, and if protein and fat are on target and calories are, carbs are as well. (Basically I let my amounts of carbs and fat fluctuate some day to day though they tend to average out at about the same place.)
I do care about overall micronutrients, but deal with that through food choice, as I'd drive myself crazy trying to do it through logging and the entries don't cover everything and I think there's more to health and balance than just hitting specific numbers.0 -
I pay attention to calories and protein to be sure I am getting enough. I kind of eyeball my fat to be sure I am getting enough but don't worry about going over. My carbs land where ever they land.
Lately I am paying a bit more attention to sodium. We recently switched from eating out a lot to eating out infrequently so I am interested in seeing how the reduction in sodium intake affects me.
Other than that, I don't pay attention to any other micros, vitamins, etc.0 -
I really have to pay attention to my macros. Carbs and fiber determine how much insulin I need to take, while fat and protein help me determine when I need to take my mealtime insulin (Do I need to take my insulin a half hour before eating? Do I need to administer a wave bolus? Etc.).0
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Protein, fat, carbs, fiber, and iron. I watch my Vit C and calcium targets as well, in the Nutrition view.0
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flitterfoot wrote: »Other than calories I look at fat, protein and iron because I'm anaemic so I'm trying to get more iron in my diet so I can get off iron tablets.
I'm anemic and take Iron Bisglycinate - no side effects except increased iron levels!
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I pay attention to calories only. I'm too lazy to pay attention to anything else. I keep telling myself that now that I've been on MFP for a year, I should have the hang of it and should be paying more attention but....nah. Calories have been working for me.0
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diannethegeek wrote: »I try to make sure I hit or exceed my protein, fiber, and fat goals. I don't pay attention to carbs (they'll fall into place if I'm hitting my calorie target). I try to watch my micros, too, but not as carefully.
This^
Protein and fat are the macros I focus on. I've always had decent fiber....carbs are whatever.0 -
Obviously I'm out of the norm but why wouldn't you look at it and try to hit those goals as well? I'm 45 years old now and I've noticed things in life eventually catch up to you. So as I reduced my calories I started noticing I was falling short in other vitamins and nutrients. So I started taking a One A Day multi-vitamin. I try and eat foods that help me reach my potassium or fiber goals. Again I ask...why wouldn't you make those a priority as well? Aren't we trying to be healthier individuals as well as lose weight?0
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Carbs and protein are pretty much it - fat comes on it's own.
As far as the micros such as salt - as long as you don't have a medical condition or any of the percursors to a medical condition just ignore it.0 -
I had blood work done and found out that one liver test was off (can be caused by too little protein in the diet) and sodium was too high. I had only paid attention to calories on MFP before this but when I went back and checked macros/micros for 6 months, I saw that I really was consistently too low on protein and much too high on sodium. So I watch these now.0
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lessismoreohio wrote: »Wow. I started to look closely at my macros. In the past week, I've done good with staying below my calorie and carb limit, but I see my sodium intake is (way) too high. Must work on that.
Do you pay much attention to individual macros beyond calories and maybe carbs?
I look at calories first then protein and fiber to make sure I am getting enough. I might look at fat intake but I don't stress about going over a bit.
I do look at my sodium intake. I try to keep from going too far over sodium because I personally feel better that way. If I go over by 500 I still feel okay. If I go over by 1,000+ I start to feel less okay.
I rarely look at carbs or sugar. I don't have a medical issue that requires me to monitor or limit those things but generally I am close to the goal without trying. If you are meeting your other goals I imagine it just works out.0 -
I don't believe sodium is usually a big deal unless you have high blood pressure. There are general recommendations, but if it's not something you need to worry about for medical reasons I wouldn't bother thinking about it.
About 1 in 3 adults has high blood pressure and the percentage increases with age. You can be fine in your 20s and 30s and then develop hypertension in your 40s. Worse, high blood pressure is generally asymptomatic: you can have it and not know it. Almost half of all people with hypertension do not have it under control, often because they don't know they have it. It's a disease that wears down your body slowly and as such is an aggravating factor in many other diseases.
So technically, yes, most people don't have to watch their sodium today but they may have to in the future and that future could be as soon as tomorrow. And because 1 in 3 is a pretty sizable chunk of the population, I would recommend anyone asking about sodium to first find out if they have recently had their blood pressure checked, preferably not when they are sick.0 -
I always watch and pay attention because I do want a balanced diet. I tend to eat a higher fat diet, which works really well in my body (HDL 71, LDL101) However, I do watch sodium and potassium daily. They have an inverse relationship and when sodium is in excess it drives down potassium levels. Since I workout and want my cardiovascular system pumping efficiently, I values these heart electrolytes. We need about 3x more potassium than sodium and most people are out of proportion. Plus too much sodium makes me feel bloated and tired.
As far as Macros, they tend to take care of themselves when you're eating a good variety of foods, funny how that works. I'm not the girl who eats 1000 cals of ice cream and hits the "finish diary" button and feels good about being under my calories for the day lol. I love making sure I'm fueling my body for health and fitness.0 -
It seems to be human nature to be reactive instead of proactive.0
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Fiber is the only thing I pay a lot of attention to. I have sugar, fat, protein and maybe something else on my diary because you have to have something there, but fiber is what I pay attention to. And protein somewhat, but only incidentally.0
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Obviously I'm out of the norm but why wouldn't you look at it and try to hit those goals as well? I'm 45 years old now and I've noticed things in life eventually catch up to you. So as I reduced my calories I started noticing I was falling short in other vitamins and nutrients. So I started taking a One A Day multi-vitamin. I try and eat foods that help me reach my potassium or fiber goals. Again I ask...why wouldn't you make those a priority as well? Aren't we trying to be healthier individuals as well as lose weight?
MFP isn't a good tool to figure out if you are getting enough, say, iron, because not all entries include iron, and for me it would be tons of work to make sure that information was in the entries for all the foods I eat, and simply not worth the trouble. Besides, I am not convinced we have quantified all the reasons that there are various health benefits from certain foods.
So I think it is a better approach--for me--to not drive myself crazy flipping around to see all my nutrients each day but simply to focus on including lots of, and a variety of, nutrient-dense foods.
I don't think this means I'm not making nutrients a priority. (I have watched potassium and find that when I am able to use the entries that include it only I end up well over, so I've stopped worrying about it. I always show low on iron, but I think this must be because of the entries, because I know how I eat and I also know my tests have always been fine on iron--and really on everything else to date.) I tried taking a multi-vitamin but it upset my stomach and I think my diet is sufficient, so I decided to supplement only D. (I've thought of adding fish oil, but I eat a lot of fish.)
People have different approaches to all this.0 -
I tend to monitor protein and fat mainly. I do try to check my weekly nutrition counts as well, to see how I did overall on the macro and micro's. But for daily monitoring, protein and fat are my main concerns.0
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Obviously I'm out of the norm but why wouldn't you look at it and try to hit those goals as well? I'm 45 years old now and I've noticed things in life eventually catch up to you. So as I reduced my calories I started noticing I was falling short in other vitamins and nutrients. So I started taking a One A Day multi-vitamin. I try and eat foods that help me reach my potassium or fiber goals. Again I ask...why wouldn't you make those a priority as well? Aren't we trying to be healthier individuals as well as lose weight?
I trust the blood work at my regular check-ups to let me know if I have a nutrient deficiency. I'm 51 now and so far no deficiencies without taking supplements.0 -
peter56765 wrote: »I don't believe sodium is usually a big deal unless you have high blood pressure. There are general recommendations, but if it's not something you need to worry about for medical reasons I wouldn't bother thinking about it.
About 1 in 3 adults has high blood pressure and the percentage increases with age. You can be fine in your 20s and 30s and then develop hypertension in your 40s. Worse, high blood pressure is generally asymptomatic: you can have it and not know it. Almost half of all people with hypertension do not have it under control, often because they don't know they have it. It's a disease that wears down your body slowly and as such is an aggravating factor in many other diseases.
So technically, yes, most people don't have to watch their sodium today but they may have to in the future and that future could be as soon as tomorrow. And because 1 in 3 is a pretty sizable chunk of the population, I would recommend anyone asking about sodium to first find out if they have recently had their blood pressure checked, preferably not when they are sick.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with this. I've watched my sodium for decades now.0 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »Obviously I'm out of the norm but why wouldn't you look at it and try to hit those goals as well? I'm 45 years old now and I've noticed things in life eventually catch up to you. So as I reduced my calories I started noticing I was falling short in other vitamins and nutrients. So I started taking a One A Day multi-vitamin. I try and eat foods that help me reach my potassium or fiber goals. Again I ask...why wouldn't you make those a priority as well? Aren't we trying to be healthier individuals as well as lose weight?
I trust the blood work at my regular check-ups to let me know if I have a nutrient deficiency. I'm 51 now and so far no deficiencies without taking supplements.
I'm with the VA and their standard test does not include iron and D - I have to request it.
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I have realised that apart from fat, protein and carbs there is no correct data in most of the entries so I don't bother anymore. I usually look at the numbers but so far I know that I usually don't have enough protein, could have more carbs and should have less fat. oh well...0
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