[00:00:00] Emily Field: Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I'm your host, Emily Field, a registered dietician that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals.

[00:00:18] Emily Field: We'll cover the basics of macronutrients, how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits. I've helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you've tried macros and it just didn't stick, or you just heard the word macros yesterday, I can't wait to help you too.

[00:00:41] Emily Field: Welcome to episode 10 of the Macros Made Easy podcast. Whether or not you realize it, there are distinct stages of macro tracking from not knowing anything about what macros even mean or why you should track them, to being able to master counting, and then truly finding the flexibility and freedom that comes with confident macro tracking.

[00:01:01] Emily Field: Having a sense of self-awareness about where you fall within these six stages of macro tracking helps with visualizing a path forward. So with commitment, you can go from macro huh to macro master, all while achieving your goals. So in this episode, I will share the six distinct stages that lead from being macro, huh, to becoming a macro master.

[00:01:25] Emily Field: Whether you're a complete novice or already on your macro tracking adventure, this episode will offer valuable insights and guidance to help you achieve your goals. Throughout the episode, I'll offer practical tips and tricks to move from one stage to the next. Macro tracking, much more manageable, enjoyable, and flexible.

[00:01:43] Emily Field: So whether you're just starting or looking to enhance your macro tracking skills, this episode equips you with the knowledge and the motivation to progress confidently on your macro tracking journey, join me and unlock the freedom that comes with becoming a macro master.

[00:02:00] Emily Field: Success with tracking macros starts with actually trusting that your macro targets are right for you as the original macro experts, registered dieticians have years of professional experience to pull from when they provide protein, fat, and carbohydrate goals. No more second guessing those macro numbers or being confused by online calculators.

[00:02:18] Emily Field: With me and my team, it's all about personalization, precision, and proven results. Here's how a custom macro calculation works. After purchasing the service, you'll fill out a detailed health assessment, sharing juicy details about your personal health situation that could influence your nutritional needs.

[00:02:34] Emily Field: You'll have the opportunity to tell us about your health history, typical workout routine, food preferences, what's been working or not working to accomplish your goals. After submission, we will pour over what you've shared and draft your protein, fat, and carbohydrate targets, calorie goals, and bigger picture health recommendations that we think might make a difference for you.

[00:02:53] Emily Field: We'll also tell you exactly how we arrived at your macro target so you understand the why behind the numbers. Then in about seven to 10 business days, you'll get a lengthy email with all of this included, that you can digest and refer to as much as you need. Look, your macro targets are supposed to be as unique as you, so why settle for an impersonal nutrition calculator?

[00:03:13] Emily Field: Purchase a custom macro calculation from me, Emily Field, and my dietician team today. And get personalized to you macro targets that you can trust, ones you can start seeing results with right away. Go to emily field rd.com/cmc or click the link in the show notes of this episode.

[00:03:33] Emily Field: Stage one we call macro, huh? Because if you've literally just heard the word macro in the context of nutrition for the first time, you're probably not sure what macronutrients are or why you would track them. I kind of feel like most of the listeners at this podcast are past the stage, but I wanna review it as.

[00:03:52] Emily Field: That's a confidence boost that you've moved past that first stage. Maybe you've heard of counting macros, flexible dieting, or if it fits your macros, but you can't really differentiate between it and other weight loss methods. Maybe low carb, watching your calories, a meal plan, intermittent fasting, something like that.

[00:04:13] Emily Field: So I want you to know that tracking macros is less of a traditional weight loss tool and more like a skill you learn and apply to achieve any number of goals. Okay? So traditional dieting methods imply that weight loss is the goal, but with macro tracking, you can use it for whatever goal you want. It is goal neutral.

[00:04:34] Emily Field: It is simply a skill that you're learning. So in order to graduate from this stage, you'll need to really understand this difference. I'm sure that any of our other episodes that are earlier in the season could absolutely help you understand what macros are and why you attract them. But let me quickly run through some differences between macro tracking and traditional weight loss methods or dieting approaches so we can get you into stage two right away.

[00:05:00] Emily Field: So when we're talking about traditional weight loss methods or traditional dieting approaches, they tend to have a few things in common. And the first might be that it's pretty calorie centric. The second is that traditional weight loss approaches pretty much revolve around some sort of food restriction.

[00:05:18] Emily Field: And lastly, they have that common theme of pretty limited flexibility, and this comes in all shapes, sizes, flavors, colors, depending on what your. Looking at as far as a dieting approach. So let's run through this real quick. Calorie centric means that those traditional weight loss methods or dieting approaches typically revolve around calorie counting.

[00:05:40] Emily Field: Whether or not you realize it, whether that's a meal plan that you actually know the calories of, or a meal plan, you absolutely don't know the calories of. The attempt is to lower your food intake by limiting the amount of calories that come in your diet, and that will lead to weight loss. Okay? So whether we are trying to eliminate a food group, we are limiting the window of time in which you eat.

[00:06:04] Emily Field: You are only limited to these certain foods. The idea is that we are trying to limit calories, and that is kind of the driving force of those approaches. Most traditional weight loss methods. Put some restrictions on foods, some specific foods that might be carbohydrates, that might be fat, that might be white foods, that might be foods with certain ingredients, things like that.

[00:06:27] Emily Field: So we're going to create we weight loss, and we're going to try to control our weight by removing foods from the diet. Okay, the last tenant is limited flexibility. And this is where we really, uh, I'm trying to differentiate between, again, macro tracking and traditional weight loss methods or traditional dieting attempts that reduce flexibility comes into play.

[00:06:48] Emily Field: When we are eliminating certain food groups, we are allowing only certain foods and disallowing others. We've got green foods and we have red foods, we have yes foods, we have no foods, those kinds of things. So. Traditional methods offer less flexibility in food choices, and that's where we really differentiate from macro tracking.

[00:07:09] Emily Field: Now, as you can imagine, I will share with you the difference between that and tracking macros and why we love tracking macros here in this camp. So tracking macros is macronutrient focused. It can be individualized. There is some flexibility that is inherently found in the approach, and it's much more focused on body composition changes, maybe even athletic performance changes, rather than simply weight loss Tracking macros focuses on monitoring and balancing the intake of macronutrients in the diet, so that's your protein, your fats, your carbohydrates, and the goal is to meet specific macro targets.

[00:07:48] Emily Field: Which lead to a calorie goal, but there's much less emphasis on that calorie goal and more on where those calories come from. I hope you can see that difference too. Tracking macros is much more individualized and can be much more personalized to you, which can allow for better adherence and better consistency to changes in the diet.

[00:08:09] Emily Field: So. We can tailor your macro targets around your unique goals, your body composition, your activity level, and even the way you prefer to eat. And that can't come from a traditional weight loss method or a very weight loss focused dieting approach because it's likely you're gonna get a cookie cutter plan that does not work for you.

[00:08:30] Emily Field: Next. We know that unlike many traditional weight loss methods, macro tracking emphasizes flexibility in food choices. This is kind of one of the tenets of the approach. As long as your macro targets are met, you are welcome to enjoy a variety of foods which can make adherence to the plan much more sustainable.

[00:08:50] Emily Field: There is no yes and no foods. There are no on and no off. You're welcome to meet your macro targets, however you wish. Okay, so that means that you can invite that flexibility, which is probably not available in the other plans, programs, or systems that you've tried in the past. Now, just like I said earlier in the episode, tracking macros is technically goal neutral.

[00:09:14] Emily Field: You can choose to have a goal of weight loss when you track macros, but that doesn't have to be your goal. And when it comes to other traditional weight loss approaches and traditional dieting methods. The sole outcome and the way that you view success is usually weight loss, and that can feel really limiting because there are going to be times where weight loss shouldn't be the focus.

[00:09:35] Emily Field: It cannot be the focus, and so you feel like you're a failure if you're not trending down. Macro tracking lifts all of that, and there are several reasons why you may wanna track macros independent of weight loss. We did a whole episode on that, so check that out. But in general, tracking macros or the people that track macros are much more interested in changing their body composition instead of simply losing weight.

[00:10:00] Emily Field: We are looking to emphasize improvements in body composition by ensuring adequate protein intake and balancing those macros in your diet to support. Muscle retention or muscle maintenance and losing fat, having more muscle on your frame and less fat mass on your frame is much more favorable from a hormone perspective, from a metabolism perspective, from an aging perspective, strength and conditioning, all of that.

[00:10:24] Emily Field: So we are much more focused on body composition changes over here than the simple loss of scale weight. So all of you can graduate from this stage one macro, huh? By understanding this difference, by understanding that traditional weight loss methods often focus on calorie reduction, and they may restrict certain food groups, while macro tracking centers around balancing macronutrient intake and offers much more flexibility in food choices, tracking macros allows for personalized approaches, making it a popular choice for people who are seeking sustainable, effective ways to manage their nutrition and achieve their health goals.

[00:11:08] Emily Field: Let's move into stage two, which we call macro curious. So if you have a general clue of what macro tracking entails or even did a rough calculation of your macro targets, you've probably advanced to macro curious territory. Perhaps you've played around with a tracking app or even downloaded macro targets from a free online calculator, but you haven't quite made a real commitment to yourself to follow through on anything.

[00:11:37] Emily Field: You're probably doing yourself a major disservice as a result, and you're hanging out in macro curious territory. So if you spend some time learning which foods contain, which macronutrients and how to make a balanced meal that contains a sizable portion of each macro, that's how you're gonna slowly graduate to stage three.

[00:11:57] Emily Field: Even if you don't hit your goals, it's important to use your food tracking app consistently to slowly learn more about your typical habits. That's the only way that you're gonna move forward in this stage, is if you play in the sandbox. That's what we call it in my coaching practice. You just gotta. Play in the sandbox and your time in macro curious territory.

[00:12:17] Emily Field: Might be just a few days, could be a few weeks, or it could be a few months. And that's totally up to you. Depending on how committed that you wanna move through this stage and get onto the next, doesn't mean you can't see changes and you can't improve your habits while in this stage. But if you're looking to become a macro master and really advance this skill, you're going to want to try to manipulate your meals with your macros in mind.

[00:12:42] Emily Field: I'm gonna ask you three different questions that are really what are required in order for you to move into stage three. The first question is, do you know what your macronutrient targets are? In other words, have you downloaded a prescription from a calculator? Have you used my DIY macros guide? Did you use MyFitnessPal or Chronometer to find your macro targets?

[00:13:06] Emily Field: Doesn't really matter where you start with this. I know you're probably hyper-focused on which calculator is the best, which formula is gonna give you the best, most accurate prescription, but I just want you to get one. That's it. That's the first step, is just to get one and then just to start playing with your food diary.

[00:13:23] Emily Field: It will all come together later, and you'll start to see some patterns here. The first step is really to just. Secure a macro prescription. So that's that first question. The second question is, do you know which foods are dominantly protein, fat, and carbohydrate? And I would even put one more asterisk on this or a follow-up question.

[00:13:44] Emily Field: Are they the same or can you verify that with your food diary? In other words. Many people think they know which foods are dominantly protein, dominantly fat, and dominantly carbohydrate, but when they actually start tracking their food, they are very surprised to find out that it might not be the way they think.

[00:14:03] Emily Field: A common example is peanut butter. Many people think this is a great source of protein, but until they start tracking their food. They don't realize that there's not really much protein found in peanut butter, and it is primarily a fat containing food. Another one might be whole eggs, and we think that eggs provide us with some protein, and they definitely do.

[00:14:25] Emily Field: But if you were to track that food and see that your omelet with a couple of eggs in there is kind of just providing a measly 12 grams, maybe 15 grams of protein, and there's a. Probably an equal amount of fat contained in that food as well from the yolk. So until you start tracking your food and can verify and start relearning the macro makeup of your favorite foods, there might be a little bit of discrepancy in how you balance those meals out with protein, fat, and carb.

[00:14:56] Emily Field: So again, I said earlier in this. Stage. The big point here is that you're playing in the sandbox. You are practicing tracking your food and you're looking at your food diary in attempt to reeducate yourself about nutrition. So the third question I would ask myself if I'm trying to graduate from this stage and really, truly have mastered this stage is.

[00:15:17] Emily Field: Do you know how to make balanced meals? So if I were to say, I want you to have a hearty serving of protein, fat, and carb in a meal, and you are coming from a background of eating however you want, and now you're trying to move into macro tracking and hit these targets by the end of the day, do you know how to make a balanced meal?

[00:15:36] Emily Field: Do you know how to put together some protein, fat and carbohydrate at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and snacks? That will make it balanced. That provides you with some P, F and C. That might seem like a very simple question, but knowing which foods have protein, fat, and carb, and making a meal with protein, fat, and carb are two very different things.

[00:15:57] Emily Field: I want you to enjoy how you eat. I want you to be able to manipulate your macros in the moment, or I. At the time of mealtime, and this is how you graduate from the stage, is to know how to make a balanced meal that you like. So a meal that has PFNC because you've reeducated yourself about that and you can confidently make some balanced meals.

[00:16:20] Emily Field: You, you don't have to be an expert here, but you can make some balanced meals that can get you through your day. So let's say you do know what your macro targets are, which foods are dominantly protein, fat, and carbohydrate, you have pretty confident there and you're starting to feel a lot better about making balanced meals for your main meals of the day.

[00:16:40] Emily Field: You're probably entering macro annoyed. This is stage three, and stage three is probably the most common place to get stuck with macro tracking because in this stage. You're tracking your food when it's convenient, but you might find yourself making Franken meals. That's what I, I call them, to get close to your target.

[00:17:00] Emily Field: So by the end of the day, you're usually too high or too low with your targets, and you're starting to doubt if it's worth the effort. Okay, so stick with me. This is probably a lot of you, but to move on from this stage, you probably just need a few tips and tricks to make macro tracking easier. You need to learn from the masters and incorporate the best meal planning and logging strategies to reduce the number of times you're failing to hit your targets.

[00:17:27] Emily Field: Now, and I've said this before and I'll say it again. Attempting to hit your macro targets still can progress you forward. You are learning every single day that you track, every single day that you log your food, and even if you hit your targets on two of seven days of the week, you're getting better and better each time.

[00:17:45] Emily Field: So don't discount your effort. I say this is where people get stuck because if they feel like they can perfectly nail their macros on one day, but they can't rinse and repeat it the next, they throw their hands in the air and they just delete the app. They don't track at all, and that's not what we're here to do.

[00:18:02] Emily Field: It is a skill that you're learning and there are going to be days that you're very far off. Even for me, even for somebody who has years of experience, it's very normal to be very far off on a couple of macros every once in a while. So let's talk about some. Tips and tricks and strategies that might make it easier to move through this stage and graduate to stage four.

[00:18:26] Emily Field: So here are some tips to simplify the process. So that's really what you need here. You already know how to make balanced meals. You can probably track most of your days or most of the week, but you're failing to get close to your targets On most days. You're either too high or too low, and it's not even worth it to try to catch up.

[00:18:44] Emily Field: So my very first tip is going to be to find your checkpoint macros. This is a concept that I think I made up, but along with the stages, I hope you guys know that I completely made this up. And this is from a, just a teaching perspective. I think it's really important for clients to know where they're going and for them to be able to identify similarities between themselves in these stages so that we can properly move you forward.

[00:19:09] Emily Field: So just know that this isn't really anywhere else other than my own content, and I love that. Let's talk about the checkpoint macros. This is essentially just a strategy where you are dividing the number of macros that you have. Let's just say your protein targets, and you divide by however many meals you like to have in a day.

[00:19:28] Emily Field: Now, if you do this, you're gonna come up with a much smaller number than your whole day's target, right? And this can oftentimes be so much easier for you to figure out what you need to eat in a meal in order to stay on track with your targets by the end of the day. So let's just say your target for protein is 120 grams.

[00:19:46] Emily Field: That in the beginning, that number means nothing to you. You cannot even fathom how you're gonna hit 120 grams of protein by the end of the day. So what might be easier is if you visualize. 30 grams, you could probably figure out how to make a meal with 30 grams of protein with food that you have right on hand right now.

[00:20:05] Emily Field: So this is what I call the checkpoint macro system, or just kind of an effort to help you balance your meals and feel a lot more confident and move you out of this macro annoyed stage. So checkpoint macros essentially means that you are taking your totals and you're dividing by however many meals you like to have in a day, and you're aiming for those checkpoints along the way.

[00:20:26] Emily Field: So that macro method or strategy is just one trick that I use with my clients to help them get past this macro annoyed stage. By doing so, you're probably going to eliminate the number of times that you are so far off from your totals or your targets by the end of the day, because if you fall short of that checkpoint, you'll have to catch up later.

[00:20:48] Emily Field: Or if you go over a target at that checkpoint, you're gonna have to hold back on that macro later. It's kind of like when we were playing Mario Kart back in the day and you had your little guy and you hit a checkpoint and you knew if you died after that level, you could go back to that checkpoint.

[00:21:06] Emily Field: That's really what I'm thinking about here, that if you hit that flag or that checkpoint by 10:00 AM. You're gonna be well on your way to hitting your targets by 6:00 PM or 8:00 PM whenever you end your eating for that day. If you fall short at 12:00 PM or 1:00 PM that meal, two or three, you're gonna have to catch up a little bit on meal three or meal four.

[00:21:26] Emily Field: The whole goal here is that you're never left in a position where you feel like you have to catch up and you're making Franken meals at the end of the day. And a Franken meal is like something like. 10 ounces of chicken dry because you'd have no fat macros left and you're combining it with popcorn and rice because you're so far off from your targets for carbs as well.

[00:21:47] Emily Field: Like that is not sustainable. That is not a habit I want you to get in. Sure, you might be leftover with macros at the end of the day and you want wanna fix it in some creative ways every once in a while, but that is not gonna be sustainable. So the checkpoint method just really helps you stay on track for the whole day and eliminates.

[00:22:05] Emily Field: That need to catch up later. So again, this is just one strategy that helps my clients move from this macro annoyed stage, and I wanted to share it here. The next tip or strategy that I would recommend if you're kind of stuck in this stage is to pre-plan your meals and pre log your meals. And I know this sounds really simple, but this can often go overlooked if you have 5, 10, 15 minutes at the end of the day.

[00:22:31] Emily Field: You're sitting watching TV with your kids. You're kind of scrolling on your phone. I want you to open your app and I want you to copy and paste typical foods that you have in your week into tomorrow's diary. This can often, even if it's just a skeleton of your day or a skeleton of your meals, really, really help the decision fatigue that can come when you're tracking macros.

[00:22:53] Emily Field: It leaves a lot less chance the next day because you've already kind of mapped it out. So I usually say the night before, if you have a little bit of time, do a little bit of copy and pasting. Maybe you have leftovers from today that you're gonna eat tomorrow. You can simply copy and paste into the next day.

[00:23:10] Emily Field: You can think about what you have, your fridge, your freezer, your pantry. Maybe you're gonna go out to eat, maybe you kind of play around in your diary and pre log as much as you can. You can definitely leave holes, but the more you're able to put in your diary, again, the less decision fatigue you're gonna have the next day, the less you're gonna leave to chance the next day.

[00:23:31] Emily Field: Some clients will do this the morning of over coffee. Kind of thinking about their day, planning out what they need to do, but typically a lot of my clients are doing it the night before, but it's totally up to you. So second. Strategy to help you move out of this stage three macro annoyed stage would be to do some sort of pre-planning again, for most of my clients that the night before it could be the day of, and I encourage you to do as much as you can.

[00:23:58] Emily Field: It doesn't have to be a full day, but what if you just logged the protein sources of all your meals? That typically means that you're, you're gonna have some eggs in the morning, or your overnight oats, or you have your Greek yogurt. There's gonna be some sort of like. Deli sandwich in your future over lunch.

[00:24:14] Emily Field: Maybe you're adding that deli sliced Turkey. Maybe you're not quite sure what you're gonna have for dinner, but that you have ground bison in the freezer and that can come together in a meal tomorrow. So maybe you're logging that at least having that anchor of the protein portions in your day will help you stay on track with that most important macro, the one that people tend to have a lot of trouble hitting and.

[00:24:38] Emily Field: Definitely don't feel like catching up on at the end of the day. I could share so many tips, but I'm gonna leave you with one final tip to move you out of this macro annoyed stage. This is really, again, where people get stuck and they can't make macro tracking a habit that it feels unsustainable. I. It feels like something they wanna give up on easily.

[00:24:57] Emily Field: And that third tip would be to front load your macros at the beginning of the day. I can't stress enough how important it is to think about eating these macros across the whole day and not just in your evening meal. Many of us have gotten in the habit of eating so light in the morning, whether that's from old dieting attempts that are kind of still lingering in the back of our head, maybe we feel like we are too busy in the morning to eat.

[00:25:23] Emily Field: Maybe you have dabbled in intermittent fasting before, whatever it might be. You are likely never to feel your best and to achieve your goals if. You are not eating fairly evenly throughout the day. It makes for a lot more flexibility in your later meals, which may be the ones that you tend to want to be more flexible in.

[00:25:43] Emily Field: You're eating out. You don't quite know your plans. There's a rough skeleton of a meal like in your fridge somewhere, but you don't exactly know how it's gonna come together. Chances are pretty much what you like to have for breakfast. You eat the same like five to seven foods every single day. Same thing for lunch.

[00:26:01] Emily Field: So if you can, I'd love to see you plan your meals with a significant portion of your daily macros. Early on in the day, you should have half of your macros eaten by your second meal. Let's say you have four meals in a day. I. You should have half of them eaten by the second meal, and that might be really, really foreign to a lot of you.

[00:26:21] Emily Field: So try that, especially if you're stuck in this macro annoyed stage. So we've talked about checkpoint macros. We've talked about pre-planning your meals ahead of time, even just a. Skeleton of those meals ahead of time. And we've talked about frontloading your macros in the beginning part of your day to allow for a little bit more flexibility in your later meals and snacks, which is probably when you want that flexibility.

[00:26:44] Emily Field: So if you can do those three things, you are well on your way to graduating into that stage four, which we call macro determined. Hey, let me ask you something. Does this sound familiar? You start tracking macros full of enthusiasm, excited for a no-nonsense, shame-free approach to eating, but then after about a week or so, the sparkle starts to fade.

[00:27:08] Emily Field: You miss your targets doubt, your ability to measure accurately and feel like you'll never see progress because let's face it, tracking can feel overwhelming sometimes, especially when you're not in control of your food. I get it. You're not alone. But here's the thing. Tracking doesn't have to feel this hard.

[00:27:25] Emily Field: Imagine a world where tracking feels easy, quick, and folded into the background of your day. A world where you feel confident in nearly every food situation and start seeing the results you've been working so hard for. This is what I call macro mastery, and it's where we're all trying to go. So if you're ready to find out where you are on the macro journey to macro mastery, take my three minute macro stage quiz.

[00:27:49] Emily Field: You'll discover which stage of tracking you're in, and get a personalized collection of resources designed to help you level up so you move onward and upward with confidence. Don't wait. Head to the link in the show notes to take the quiz now it only takes a few minutes. And it's your first step toward making macro tracking easier, faster, and way more effective.

[00:28:08] Emily Field: Let's get you to that next level.

[00:28:15] Emily Field: So you have passed the annoyed stage and moved into the determined stage when you can eat to your macro targets most of the time, but it still takes a lot of focus and effort to make it happen. You're using a food scale to be more accurate with your tracking. You're eating mostly balanced meals rather than those Franken meals I described earlier.

[00:28:36] Emily Field: People in this stage can usually eat the same meal as the rest of the household with a few macro friendly tweaks, so that's really, really good. In order to move from this stage, I want you to continue to attract to the best of your abilities under any circumstance, because sometimes people get to this macro determined stage and they're like.

[00:28:55] Emily Field: Well, I can do it when I'm at home, but I can't do it when I'm out. So that means at restaurant meals, social events, those buffet style, eats, all of that and tends to be a vortex, and you don't know how to make tracking work. So you're ready to graduate from this stage if you can make some appropriate adjustments to your meals.

[00:29:15] Emily Field: To meet your macro targets by the end of the day, kind of in the moment, okay? Or at least ahead of time. But making adjustments to meals to hit macros requires a flexible approach in some creativity sometimes. So I'm gonna share with you some practical ways to achieve those macro targets and move into the next stage and closer to mastery.

[00:29:35] Emily Field: The first tip is in modifying portions, and that may sound incredibly elementary, but I need to say it because there are a lot of people out there that think that their portion size should be what the serving size says on the back of a package. Serving sizes are. Not your portion. They are made up by the food companies to get the kind of label that they're looking for on the food.

[00:30:03] Emily Field: So modifying your portions is the best way that you can simply adjust the protein, the fat, and the carbohydrate as needed. So that might mean. Eating over the recommended serving size. It's on a food or under that recommended serving size. It's on a food. If you're able to adjust portion sizes of different foods within a meal, higher or lower to meet specific macro targets, you're gonna be very well off in this stage.

[00:30:29] Emily Field: You can also move through this stage a little bit easier if you're open to switching up your protein sources, which also relates to fat and carbohydrate sources as well. So if you need more protein, for example, you might consider swapping the source of protein in your meals. You might, instead of beans and legumes, reach for chicken or.

[00:30:49] Emily Field: If you are used to getting ground beef, you may get ground Turkey, or if you are used to getting regular yogurt, you might opt for Greek yogurt. These are just some examples that you might use to increase the protein in your meal. Certainly, this lends itself to fats and carbs. You can incorporate more healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, olive oil, just to increase that fat intake in a meal, and the same thing goes on the opposite end.

[00:31:15] Emily Field: If you need to reduce that fat content, maybe you're reaching for a fat free version of your favorite dairy products instead of a full fat version of those dairy products. It all depends on where you want to spend your macro budget. Nothing is off the table, and you're more than welcome to eat those whole real nutrient rich foods.

[00:31:35] Emily Field: Or save your fat macros for something else. Something like a treat that's higher in fat, something that is fried, that's higher in fat if you'd like. Same thing for carbohydrates. If you wanna move through this stage, you gotta be able to manipulate those carb sources in the moment. Reaching for higher volume or lower volume carbohydrate sources to increase your ability to hit those macro targets.

[00:32:00] Emily Field: Maybe you're reaching for starchy vegetables and rice and quinoa, whole fruits, things like that when you are more hungry, because those foods will take up more room in your stomach, provide less macro for that volume of food, less carbohydrates, less calories for that volume of food. Or the opposite is true if you find yourself really full, you're eating more calories than you ever have, or you have to catch up on macros, which at the end of the day, which is very normal.

[00:32:28] Emily Field: You're gonna emphasize those low volume carbohydrates, so those are gonna be like your juice or your treat foods, or crackers, chips, tortillas, things like that. Honey jam. They work well here too. The next tip I'll share is just a basic one, but choosing wisely at restaurants. This is where people can kind of get off track with macro tracking.

[00:32:51] Emily Field: They, they can do it at home, but they feel like they can't do it at a restaurant, so they throw their hands in the air and they don't track at all. I recommend that you continue to track because despite what you're eating at the restaurant, even if we're gonna go over or fall short on your macros, it is such a good learning opportunity for you because every single time you track.

[00:33:10] Emily Field: Is an opportunity for you to learn what's in your food a little bit better. And we know that restaurants tend to be higher in calorie and higher in fat and carb macros than they would be in protein for what you would could make at home, for example. So when you're dining out, this is a perfect opportunity to look at the menu items ahead of time and try to align your macro targets with what you want to eat that day.

[00:33:33] Emily Field: Maybe ask for modifications that could suit your needs. And ask questions of the server if you need to. So again, to master this stage and move into the next and really truly embrace that flexibility, I want you to choose wisely at restaurants. I want you to track when you're out of the home, because this is going to teach you a lot.

[00:33:52] Emily Field: I. Next tip is to track as you go. And this again might sound really simple, but there are a lot of people out there that think they can get away with tracking. At the end of the day. They think they're gonna be able to remember a serving size, the portion size, the number of grams and ounces that they had throughout their entire day for every single food they ate.

[00:34:11] Emily Field: And. That is not gonna work. That is, it's very unlikely that that will work for anyone. So please try to t track as you go because monitoring your macros throughout the day helps to make those real time adjustments to subsequent meals and snacks. It also, again, plays into that education piece. There's nothing like getting to the end of the day.

[00:34:35] Emily Field: A, and forgetting what you ate, so not really having an accurate view of what you ate, so you can't even manipulate it. Or B, realizing that you're so far over or so far under your macro targets that it's impossible to make up the difference. Monitoring throughout the day is the best way to go. Tracking as you go is the best way to handle macro tracking.

[00:34:55] Emily Field: Sometimes people get to this stage and think that the only way to advance is to hit their macros perfectly from a very limited. Foods list. They know their favorite foods. They know how to eat when they're at home, and they know if they just rinse and repeat, they can reach their goals. And I can't stress enough that this is not the way that we want to build an eating pattern that is not flexible.

[00:35:19] Emily Field: I. That is not freedom in your eating. So the last tip here is just to remain flexible. Try not to stress if you can't hit your macros perfectly, and in fact, I would encourage you to build some imperfection into your day, whether that be through some foods that were previously considered off limits for you.

[00:35:38] Emily Field: I want you to add them to your day. I want you to pre log them, account for them, just like any other normal healthy food that you would typically have. I want you to track, like I said, through your dining out situations, your social events, things like that. Even well, knowing you might go over your macros because this will show you that over the course of a week, over the course of a month, three months, nine months, a year, that the consistency matters more.

[00:36:05] Emily Field: The habit of actually tracking matters more here. Okay. You'll see all of this come out in the wash if you give it more time. But if you're constantly starting and stopping this habit because you're demanding perfection of yourself, then you're not gonna build the habit. You're not gonna see the results that you think you should be.

[00:36:24] Emily Field: In order to graduate from this stage and move into stage five, there's a few questions you might ask yourself in order to know that you're ready or in order to visualize that you're actually headed towards mastery pretty well, and that would be can you manipulate your meals to be higher or lower in any particular macronutrient to hit your targets?

[00:36:45] Emily Field: So can you manipulate up or down those proteins, fats, and carbs and not really feel a lot of stress about it? You just know what you can do to make up for going over or coming under in a particular meal. Number two would be can you track your macronutrients for an entire day and hit your macro targets within five grams up or down?

[00:37:04] Emily Field: That would demonstrate to me that you've really mastered pre-planning. You're definitely got your grocery shopping down. You got your prep down. You are making really mindful choices in the ways that you eat out, things like that. You've got a lot of habits in place that are leading you to be successful there.

[00:37:20] Emily Field: The third question would be, if you've found that you've missed your mark on macros in any particular meal, can you adjust the contents of your later meal to hit your daily targets? So in other words, if you came under or you went over on something in the earlier part of the day, do you know how to make up for it at the later part of the day without.

[00:37:41] Emily Field: Eating Franken meals without having something crazy like a tablespoon of coconut oil. I don't want you to be doing that. So you'll move into stage five, which we call macro hesitant. If you say things like, I got this. In other words, you can hit your macro targets when you're in control of the food, but you might be less confident about navigating those restaurant eats social events.

[00:38:03] Emily Field: Situations where you're away from home. So when you're in this stage, you're tracking your food. Most of the time you're meal planning around your macros. Maybe you're even pre logging your food on a regular basis, but you might lack some confidence. So you can build confidence in your tracking accuracy by noting things like.

[00:38:21] Emily Field: Body measurements, weight progress, pictures, improvements in strength, stamina, power, things like that. I want you to take an honest assessment of your hunger, your satiety, energy recovery, digestion, sleep quality, because eating to your needs should improve these markers as well. So if you're seeing trends in the direction that you would expect, keep it up.

[00:38:44] Emily Field: You're well on your way to mastery. If you see trends that are not in the direction that you would expect, we may need an adjustment. So I'd say macro hesitant is, is the person that is pretty much got it down. They might doubt their confidence a little bit, but in order to improve that confidence, we're gonna need to track other metrics.

[00:39:04] Emily Field: And that might be, like I said, those quantitative measures that might indicate that you're actually really successful with hitting your macros. They're actually doing what you want them to do. Now you've progressed to a macro master if you are really embracing that flexibility and you feel really confident about it.

[00:39:24] Emily Field: So as a macro master, you are confident in your ability to flex carbohydrates and fats in order to hit your calorie goals when necessary or more convenient. You're also pretty comfortable navigating restaurant eats, social events, outings. You have your language down, how to stick up for what you want, how to ask for what you want.

[00:39:45] Emily Field: You also know how you can eyeball your own food and estimate the macronutrient content fairly accurately. You can also adjust your meals in the moment due to changing circumstances. You don't find yourself getting super bent outta shape if you can't hit your macros on the nose, but you can. Dip in and out of tracking because you can build a meal that looks very much like what you would do if you were tracking.

[00:40:11] Emily Field: You've really internalized those habits and behaviors, that meal planning strategy outside of tracking, you don't need your food diary to justify your choices. You've done all that learning up until this point, and you can confidently close that app and still eat fairly similar. So to be super clear, the macro master is someone that really embraces flexibility.

[00:40:35] Emily Field: They have moved from that place of. I got this question mark. Two, I've got this and being really confident in that they are able to eat fairly close to their macro targets even if they don't have a food tracking app available to them, or when they just don't want to track. I. The goal is never for you to be a lifetime tracker, but rather to use what you've learned through your tracking experience and how you feel when you're well fed to influence how you eat outside of tracking.

[00:41:07] Emily Field: So this person confidently adjusts meals in the moment due to unforeseen circumstances. They are pretty much able to eyeball and estimate macronutrient content. Fairly accurately. They may need a check-in every once in a while. Maybe they track once a week or come back into the fold, as I say, when they have a particular specific goal that they want to achieve, and tracking can help them do that.

[00:41:31] Emily Field: So all in all, this person is feeling confident and excited, which is different from the previous stage, which is more hesitant and uncertain.

[00:41:43] Emily Field: So I'm curious, where do you fall on the stages of macro tracking? I'm curious which stage spoke to you. So if you resonated with one of them, please tag me on Instagram stories so you can share and we can talk through how we might move you to the next stage. Or you can tell me how you're gonna move to the next stage.

[00:42:02] Emily Field: Mastering macro tracking is a journey with distinct stages that lead from curiosity to confidence and flexibility. It's crucial to be self-aware and recognize where you stand in these stages to visualize your progress and set achievable goals. So whether you're just starting or well on your way to becoming a macro master, I hope you've gained valuable insights, tips, and tricks to make macro tracking more manageable and enjoyable from this episode.

[00:42:28] Emily Field: Remember, it's not about. Being perfect every single day, but about practice, which eventually leads to consistency because that's what's really gonna move the needle forward for you. So take what you've learned from this episode and confidently continue your macro tracking journey. And if you need more help with macro tracking, please don't hesitate to seek support and guidance along the way.

[00:42:49] Emily Field: Including resources linked in the show notes, but also on my website as well. If you wanna find me on Instagram and ask me a particular question about how to move to a new stage, don't hesitate to reach out to me there as well. Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the one you're listening to right now to share it on your Instagram stories and tag me @EmilyFieldRd so that more people can find this podcast.

[00:43:18] Emily Field: And learn how to use a macros approach in a stress-free way. If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website at emilyfieldrd.com. Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you on the next episode.