!Help with decision please: Which one should I note down Macros per day, per meal or per each meal ?

If you log your food, you get both, right (as long as you strive to select accurate entries from the somewhat iffy total food database here)?

If the chief goal is weight management, then calories are the most important things. But averaging them over a day or few, landing around the goal number, is just fine. MFP may reset at midnight, but our bodies don't.

Most of us want some good health and maybe exercise performance, not just an appropriate body weight, though. For that, overall good nutrition is important. Macros are relevant there, but so are micros, fiber, beneficial phytonutrients, types of fats (saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, omega-3/omega-6 balance), probiotic and prebiotic foods, and who knows what else. It's way too much to dial in all at once.

If the goal is weight management, dial in calories first. Then start improving macros and fiber, if your logging history suggests there are issues. Treat protein and fats as minimums, because parts of those are "essential nutrients" in the sense that our bodies can't manufacture them out of any other intake (as it can with carbs).

Personally, I find that if I make it a point to eat a boatload of varied, colorful veggies and fruits, micros, fiber, and more fall into place without much micromanagement, but YMMV.

The basic idea is that you don't have to perfect any of this all at once, unless diagnosed with some serious diet-relevant deficiency or health condition up front. Also, these things all can be averaged over a day or few, though some nutrients are retained better by the body for balancing-out purposes. Humans are adaptive omnivores. You can chip away at improvement in some priority order over a period of a few weeks, as long as your starting diet isn't full-bore nutso, and do fine. Relax!

In the long run, IMO, it's vital to find a personally-viable, generally pleasant way of eating that we individually find balances being filling, nutritious, tasty, practical, affordable, etc. Dialing in those eating patterns as habits that can run almost on autopilot in the long run will help you both in weight loss and in maintenance, plus health, exercise performance, body composition and all that jazz.

Best wishes!

cinalicikler wrote: »

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My only consideration is for example the midnight snacks. I do not know if I should record such meals or just concentrate on the general daily intake.

Yes you should log food you eat. Over time, you will be able to fine-tune your daily calorie goal. If you eat things and don't log them, you won't be able to do this. You will think you are consuming few calories than you actually are, and you run the risk of resetting your goal to an unhealthy low level.

cinalicikler wrote: »

penguinmama87 wrote: »

I selected daily. Right now my major aim is weight loss, so calories matters most to me for that.

The only macro I ever really concern myself with is protein because I've realized it's tricky for me to hit it if I don't pay attention to it. I don't worry about percentages, just that I hit the number target I've set for myself. I feel satiated and am better able to keep to my calorie goal if I eat sufficient protein and fat.

When I eat really only seems to matter for whether I can stick to my calories or not. I don't shoot for a particular distribution of calories over the day, but over time it does shake out to three roughly equal meals plus a slightly smaller snack (I'm a breastfeeding mom; when my baby is weaned I'll probably drop one of those meals, likely breakfast, not for any reason other than personal preference.)

Thank you for your kind answer and I wish for good health and happiness for your baby and you I also hope to lose weight. My only consideration is for example the midnight snacks. I do not know if I should record such meals or just concentrate on the general daily intake.

I voted for Macros per Meal because with the right combo of protein and fiber (and fat, but I don't have to work at that; it happens naturally for me) I feel full for less calories. So, it's important to me that each meal and snack be on point.

Definitely log midnight snacks for the calories. And consider logging them for the macros as well. I can have a protein bar for a treat and be satisfied for less calories than a traditional treat like cookies or whatever lower protein content food.

cinalicikler wrote: »

COGypsy wrote: »

cinalicikler wrote: »

penguinmama87 wrote: »

I selected daily. Right now my major aim is weight loss, so calories matters most to me for that.

The only macro I ever really concern myself with is protein because I've realized it's tricky for me to hit it if I don't pay attention to it. I don't worry about percentages, just that I hit the number target I've set for myself. I feel satiated and am better able to keep to my calorie goal if I eat sufficient protein and fat.

When I eat really only seems to matter for whether I can stick to my calories or not. I don't shoot for a particular distribution of calories over the day, but over time it does shake out to three roughly equal meals plus a slightly smaller snack (I'm a breastfeeding mom; when my baby is weaned I'll probably drop one of those meals, likely breakfast, not for any reason other than personal preference.)

Thank you for your kind answer and I wish for good health and happiness for your baby and you I also hope to lose weight. My only consideration is for example the midnight snacks. I do not know if I should record such meals or just concentrate on the general daily intake.

Your body will count the calories whether you write them down or not. For me, I need an accurate reporting of everything I ate in a day. That lets me know where I might need to make changes either in my diet or my behavior. Picking and choosing which calories “count” just leaves me wondering why I may not be losing weight as I expect to.

But this just takes too much efort, doesn't it? How do you even manage it? Do you record after each meal? I cannot even find the foods I eat in the my fitness pal.

IME, no. I logged meticulously - every bite, lick, taste, to the best of my ability - during most of a year of weight loss and for some months in maintenance. Since then, I still log most days (for almost 8 years now, in total).

This isn't the right method for everyone, but I'll say this about it:

There's a learning curve with logging. It feels time-consuming and even burdensome at first while learning the ropes, finding good entries for foods and getting them into recent/frequent foods (where they'll show up first on search), learning how to use the MFP meals and recipes functions to best advantage, figuring out the tips that make a food scale the quickest food-measuring method (as well as more accurate), and that sort of thing.

At first, I think it even feels even more time consuming than it actually is, because it takes up quite a bit of mindshare.

Long term, after getting a good handle on how best to use the tools within my preferences and routines, I'd say it takes me way less than 10 minutes most days to log the day. To me, that's a super small price to pay to stay at a healthy weight after around 30 years prior to that of overweight/obesity. I feel so much better every day than I used to!

That first month or so is more annoying, sure, but it's an investment in the long term success. IME, most really major useful things in life take some time to learn. To me, this one is absolutely worth it. Will it be worthwhile to you? I can't say: That's your call.

cinalicikler wrote: »

COGypsy wrote: »

cinalicikler wrote: »

penguinmama87 wrote: »

I selected daily. Right now my major aim is weight loss, so calories matters most to me for that.

The only macro I ever really concern myself with is protein because I've realized it's tricky for me to hit it if I don't pay attention to it. I don't worry about percentages, just that I hit the number target I've set for myself. I feel satiated and am better able to keep to my calorie goal if I eat sufficient protein and fat.

When I eat really only seems to matter for whether I can stick to my calories or not. I don't shoot for a particular distribution of calories over the day, but over time it does shake out to three roughly equal meals plus a slightly smaller snack (I'm a breastfeeding mom; when my baby is weaned I'll probably drop one of those meals, likely breakfast, not for any reason other than personal preference.)

Thank you for your kind answer and I wish for good health and happiness for your baby and you I also hope to lose weight. My only consideration is for example the midnight snacks. I do not know if I should record such meals or just concentrate on the general daily intake.

Your body will count the calories whether you write them down or not. For me, I need an accurate reporting of everything I ate in a day. That lets me know where I might need to make changes either in my diet or my behavior. Picking and choosing which calories “count” just leaves me wondering why I may not be losing weight as I expect to.

But this just takes too much efort, doesn't it? How do you even manage it? Do you record after each meal? I cannot even find the foods I eat in the my fitness pal.

No, not that much effort really.

Some foods can be hard to find in the database. Some have way too many entries, so you have to find the right one. Once you do, it is easy to find next time. You can also save something to "My Foods" so that it always will be available there. Foods you have logged recently are super easy to find. I have several things I eat often enough they're always easy to find. Some seasonal things take a bit more effort if I haven't eaten them in months; I have to find them again. But no, it's maybe 90 seconds per meal.

When I cook, I have a pen and some scratch paper next to my food scale. As I assemble ingredients, I write down what they are. Then while it's cooking on the stove or baking in the oven, I enter them on MFP.

Paying attention to what we eat and how much we eat does take some effort. If I didn't take that effort and just ate what I wanted.... Well, I did that for years. That's why I needed to lose weight. The tools available here on MFP helped me do it. I had to hold myself accountable; nobody else can do that. I log everything - at least an estimate if I can't get a good measurement. It works.

I think I heard someone once say, "Nothing worth doing is easy." I don't know if it is completely true. I do know that the trick to losing weight is very simple; have a lower calorie intake than you expend. But it sure as tiny ocelots ain't easy.

cinalicikler wrote: »

COGypsy wrote: »

cinalicikler wrote: »

penguinmama87 wrote: »

I selected daily. Right now my major aim is weight loss, so calories matters most to me for that.

The only macro I ever really concern myself with is protein because I've realized it's tricky for me to hit it if I don't pay attention to it. I don't worry about percentages, just that I hit the number target I've set for myself. I feel satiated and am better able to keep to my calorie goal if I eat sufficient protein and fat.

When I eat really only seems to matter for whether I can stick to my calories or not. I don't shoot for a particular distribution of calories over the day, but over time it does shake out to three roughly equal meals plus a slightly smaller snack (I'm a breastfeeding mom; when my baby is weaned I'll probably drop one of those meals, likely breakfast, not for any reason other than personal preference.)

Thank you for your kind answer and I wish for good health and happiness for your baby and you I also hope to lose weight. My only consideration is for example the midnight snacks. I do not know if I should record such meals or just concentrate on the general daily intake.

Your body will count the calories whether you write them down or not. For me, I need an accurate reporting of everything I ate in a day. That lets me know where I might need to make changes either in my diet or my behavior. Picking and choosing which calories “count” just leaves me wondering why I may not be losing weight as I expect to.

But this just takes too much efort, doesn't it? How do you even manage it? Do you record after each meal? I cannot even find the foods I eat in the my fitness pal.

Posters above me answered this question well. I just want to make sure you know that once the food is logged, so are its calories and macros.

cinalicikler wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

cinalicikler wrote: »

westrich20940 wrote: »

For me personally, the only extent to which I even really care about my macros is related to feeling satiated.

I really only make sure I have the proper amount of calories. Sure, I try to make sure I have fat/carbs/protein in my meal - but I do not care down to the gram/percentage of my daily calories really for those.

However, I eat two different types of breakfasts on weekends and the one with more protein/fat in it keeps me 'full' for like 2+ additional hours. If being less satiated with a meal would cause one to overeat later in the day (eat in a calorie surplus)....then the macro split matters more. For me, it doesn't lead to me eating more calories in the day, I just change the timing of my meals because I will get hungry earlier than typical.

Overall, the trend over time is what matters, but if you are a person who wants a certain macro split....doing it by meal will ensure the most accuracy.

That is actually an interesting approach I also value the overall trend more but still am a little bit confused regarding to what should I keep track for in the long term and why Do you have any reasoning for your emphasis on the macro split and calories? Do you also keep track of your water drinking trends?

Once you've logged your foods, the calories and macros are there, and you can just look back when you are curious. You could look after every meal and notice how filling or not it was, or check less frequently, for example, if you are struggling, look back and notice you didn't hit your protein goal regularly so make a point of eating more.

This totally make sense! However I just cannot keep the habbit. Do you have any suggestion on keeping up this regularly?

Well .. if it's too hard to work on the habit of logging all y our food ... then simply focus on jotting down what you ate and how much of it in as simple a method as you can stick with ... perhaps in a small pen/pencil and paper notebook, or by snapping a photo of each meal/snack you ate so you have something to remember the meal by to log later. ... The point being this ...
... The true purpose, for me at least, in logging my food is to remember what I ate and how much of it. If I have to keep track of a specific macro or micro nutrient, then knowing how much of that was in the food is important, otherwise it's not so important as keeping a well balanced meal in mind ... and a well balanced meal comes from eating across the realm of food choices and not from just one corner of it.

In the end ... try different approaches and settle on one ... Let the rest fall where they may.