Episode 75- Macro Tracking: The Pros, Cons, and How to Make It Work for You
Episode 75 Show Notes
In this episode, I dive into the love-hate relationship many fitness enthusiasts have with macro tracking. Whether you're new to tracking macronutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats) or a seasoned pro, this episode covers the benefits, challenges, and practical tips to help you decide if this method is right for you.
From potential pitfalls like food obsession and the learning curve, to the incredible benefits of personalized nutrition and enhanced performance, we break it all down. Plus, I share how to simplify the process and tools I recommend for making macro tracking more manageable.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
What is Macro Tracking?
Cons of Macro Tracking
Pros of Macro Tracking:
Tips to Simplify Macro Tracking using apps like Faster Way and Chronometer
Links & Resources Mentioned:
If you’ve ever wondered whether macro tracking is worth the effort, this episode is for you! Tune in to learn how it can be a game-changer for your health and fitness journey—or decide if it’s not the best fit for your lifestyle.
Let’s Connect! I share tons of fitness tips and more behind the scenes on my social accounts.
Website
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Tiffany Wickes (00:01.674)
Macro tracking is a love hate relationship amongst every fitness person in the world. So let's just dive into the pros and cons of macro tracking, shall we? All right, macro tracking or macronutrient tracking, that is monitoring your intake of three primary macronutrients. So carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. It is very popular.
in both a negative and positive way, a method of achieving a very specific fitness goal, weight loss goal, health goal, so on and so forth. So here are the pros and cons, in my opinion, of tracking. So we'll start with the bad news first. That's not even really bad news. All right, so the cons, all right, this is what I hear from people, is that it takes too long. Meal planning, you've got to track every meal.
it's ingredients, it's, you know, the exact macronutrient content, can take up a lot of time, especially if you're preparing food from scratch and you're not just scanning a barcode on the back of a box, it can take time. However, stand by, and I will tell you how to make this way simpler. All right. You're, you, you will be constantly logging in everything you eat if you're tracking, specifically, and if people have a very busy schedule, it can be a little exhausting.
All right, the next thing is it can lead to a little bit of a tracking obsession or food obsession. And if you are a person who already struggles with an eating disorder or something, I would be very cautious with tracking. can create some freedom and I'll go over that later. But for right now you can overtrack, which means you are constantly tracking every single lick, every single bite, and it can create a disordered relationship with food.
and cause some anxiety over having the perfect macro balance. It can also create some unnecessary stress. So the pressure to hit every macro exactly can be overwhelming and a bit ridiculous. When I coach, we have a range that I like you to fall in between. That way, nobody has to get neurotic about hitting those macros exactly.
Tiffany Wickes (02:21.058)
All right, when you're tracking, oftentimes you can be inaccurate in tracking and can, after a weekly average, you can be way over in a particular macro and not make the progress you're wanting in the gym. So if you're estimating portions, it's easy to misestimate if you're not skilled and experienced like years and years and years of looking at a certain serving of chicken breast and knowing like, that's five ounces. You could throw it on the scale, boom, it would be five ounces. So the exact macro content of food
if you're estimating can definitely to inaccuracies. So processed food labels is another inaccuracy in tracking because it can be very vague. can be misleading and can really affect the reliability of what you're tracking. All right. So for the beginners, I've already had a client say like, this is too much. Don't want to do it. And I'm like, yeah, I know. And I messaged her back was like, Hey, you're brand new to this. Okay. There's a learning.
curve here to macro tracking. And the process can appear to be overwhelming and confusing at first, but once you understand how to balance macros and how each one affects your body, it really makes tracking so much simpler because you're not having to put the brain power forward to figure out what exactly to put together, right? In the beginning, most people are having to make up or like, my gosh, I ate all my fat in the first half of the day. Like, what do I do for dinner?
And you guys, this just comes with time and learning. So you have to give yourself grace and some patience. So most people use an app or a tool to track, which in and of itself will have a little bit of a learning curve to it is learning how to use the app. And speaking of app, I coach from an app. We'll go over that later. But the two apps that I use are the Fasterways app and I use Chronometer as an app. What I love about Chronometer is that it does track micronutrients.
And our app with the faster way doesn't. However, we have an incredibly varied diet, which I'm going to go into the next set of information is we have such a varied diet that micronutrient intake is not a problem. However, if you are not using a curated app like the faster way, then typically people are very limited.
Tiffany Wickes (04:42.466)
focus on micronutrients. So they ignore vitamins and minerals and all they're focusing on is the three major macros. So when you will only focus on those, you will be inevitably neglecting micronutrient, vitamin, mineral values that are essential for your overall health. So oftentimes that will lead to an unbalanced diet, which is another con is that you're not going to be focusing on fiber, minerals, vitamins. You're just looking at proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. So you can't do that.
Also, your app in any capacity, if you're tracking completely on your own, like with Chronometer, they don't have a meal plan with that app. It doesn't account for food quality, okay? You want quality over quantity. You can technically hit your macros with processed low quality foods, but that's not going to align with a nutrient dense diet, all right? So macro tracking doesn't address the food quality.
or the long-term effects of eating an unhealthy diet. Our app absolutely does because although there is a few instances of bacon on our app, it's like once a week maybe, the rest of the food density is spot on. All right, so here are the pros and I'm not sure if you notice, I will give you both sides of it, but I am definitely a pro macro tracker because of all these reasons. So first off,
it's going to improve your awareness. All You will likely make better food choices when you're more mindful of what it is you're eating. If you're like, I've got this Snickers bar and you like zing that thing up and you're like, shoot, that's got like 30 grams of fat. I mean, I don't actually know how many it has. haven't looked it up cause I can't even tell you the last time I ate a Snickers bar. but you would be like, maybe I don't want this right now, especially if you have goals. Okay.
you are much more likely to pick nutrient-dense foods because you're focusing on the macro and micronutrient values, you will prioritize that density over high sugar options. So another pro is, especially with our app, is that you get a personalized nutrition. Like it's mostly personalized. We have a whole foods option and then we have a vegetarian option and you can change the amounts on it. You can sub.
Tiffany Wickes (06:58.712)
foods out, if you're like, never have I ever, will I ever consume quinoa, then you can use something else in its place. Or if they have a meal scheduled that you don't absolutely love, you can get into the folder and push the suggest button and it'll pop up with another meal that is similar in its macro and micro distribution and we'll suggest that. So our app is amazing.
it does have a customized diet option for you. And it is also flexible. So that's another pro of using our app specifically for your nutritional needs. Macro tracking also supports your performance goals. right. So muscle, muscle, G-U-S, muscle growth and fat loss. And that's primarily what we do over here at The Faster Way, in addition to preventing over and under eating, right? Because think of it like a household budget.
If you were to have your home and judging by the nationwide debt, which is massive of consumers, the American consumers on average are well over $10,000 in consumer debt. So maybe you don't even know that you should have a budget for your home, but this is a budget for your nutrition. Okay. And if you're not a home budgeter, then you're probably going to be a nutrition budgeter, which would also lend to the fact that we have such a ridiculously high.
Obesity rate. All right, let's go back to the subject. Muscle growth and fat loss. So if you're tracking your macros, it helps ensure that you're getting enough protein for muscle growth and recovery, enough carbohydrates for energy and performance and to grow those big muscles. And it will prevent under eating, which mothers are notorious for under eating. And yes, you can gain fat from under eating. So macro tracking is going to help you avoid those nutritional deficiencies.
or excessive calorie intake and help you stay on track with your fat loss goals. Another benefit is the enhanced understanding of nutrition. All right, I can't tell you how many clients have said, I don't know where to get this extra fat from, or what do I eat to get more carbohydrates? And like, I am not judging, I am not hating at all. I am here to educate, that's why I'm a coach. I'm here to help people understand just how valuable food is in their diet.
Tiffany Wickes (09:19.592)
And with this educational component, having a coach there to help walk you through this, over time, you'll gain a deeper understanding of what food composition is and how do different foods impact your body. And you will definitely learn to have better control over your diet. You can fine tune your eating habits, manage your cravings, and prevent over or under eating by understanding your own body's nutritional needs and what your personal fitness and health goals are. All right. Another...
thing I think is amazing with it is accountability, right? You can track your progress. And I've said this a hundred times, whatever you're not tracking, you can't evaluate, therefore you can't change. regular tracking of your intake can help you stay accountable to your health and fitness goals. right. It's very clear data when you measure what you eat, you stay on target with your macros, then it makes it easier to adjust.
wherever that may, like if you're in a building cycle and you are adding more carbohydrates to your diet, because muscles love carbohydrates to build big, then when it's time to cut back, you can peel off a couple hundred calories and you know exactly where you're taking that off from, right? So instead of having some garlic bread with your pasta at night, perhaps if you're going to start on a cut cycle, you're going to just ditch the garlic bread, keep the pasta, keep the protein and move on with your life. I love macro tracking.
Okay, it can be highly effective for people that are looking for more structure. And it does create more flexibility in managing their nutrition and achieving your fitness goals. However, it does require some time, it requires some effort and requires discipline. And it might not be everybody's jam. So if you are a person prone to developing unhealthy relationships with food, this might not be for you. All right, if you...
this in a balanced way with an emphasis on quality nutrition and fueling your body, it can be so helpful. I personally have found it helps me from under eating because I will run all day long and not eat. And I would drink my nutrition all day long, but I will go and go and go and not eat. So it pulled me out of an under eating cycle and made it
Tiffany Wickes (11:39.744)
more accessible, I would say, to keeping track of what my goals were. So there you have it. If you are somebody who wants to take the dive into learning more about macro tracking and you need that extra bit of accountability, the faster way, that is the way to go 100%. If you are a skilled macro tracker, I'm not sure which app you're using, but Chronometer is my next runner up of favorite app to use for tracking.
Man, it's fast, it's accurate. Like I said, it has the micronutrients on there. So that's pretty hot. You can put your own food in with the Fasterways app. However, it is built to really cater toward the beginner. And then the more advanced people can just take it and run with it. And they also have photo logging available. This AI is just changing the game when it comes to macro logging.
No lie, you guys, you take a picture of your food. It can even be a combination food. Okay. I took a picture of my zucchini boats the other night. So it was zucchini, hollowed out the middle of it, put ground turkey in there. had green bell peppers. It had a little bit of cheese. I think there was some tomatoes on there. I took a picture of it and it was like, doodoo doodoo, thinking, thinking, loading with these little fruits and vegetables flying around the screen. I was like, that's cute. And boom, it popped up.
Half a zucchini, boom, macros, four ounces of turkey, and it was four ounces of turkey. Boom, green bell peppers. I was mind blown. I was like, how did it do this? The magic. just mind blowing. That is gonna change the game for people when they're like, I don't wanna log all this in individually. Boom, they take a picture of it somehow in...
It evaluates everything and spits it out accurately. I'm telling you, I'm right there with you. I can't even believe what I'm seeing, but it's happening. So I do believe it. I experienced it. So there you have it. I will put the link to learn more about coaching in the show notes. And I will also put the link to chronometer in there. And if you have any other questions, hit me up on the socials, visit my website, www.tiffanywickes.com and we will chat soon friends. Stay strong.