Is Counting Macros Obsessive?
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I see so many people bashing macro counting on Instagram, referring to it as a fad diet, obsessive, and contributing to "diet culture".
Here's the truth: Macro Counting can be used in both a positive and negative way. Which way are you using it in?
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I chat with you about signs to look for if you’re using macro counting in an obsessive way. Plus, I also chat with you about how macro counting can help break obsessive behavior and heal your relationship with food.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Free E-Book: www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook
Macro Counting Made Simple: www.macrocountingmadesimple.com
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get in and let's go.
Hello and welcome back. I am so grateful that you are here spending some time with me today. I see so many people bashing macro counting on Instagram, referring to it as a fad diet. So in this episode of Embrace Your Real, I want to clear the air around the negative stigma that macro counting can hold. And I want to chat with you about how macro counting can be obsessive and signs to look for it, if you're using macro counting in a negative way. But I also want to chat with you about how macro counting can actually help break obsessive behavior and help you create a healthier relationship with food. But before I dive in, I had to share this super sweet review. It comes from Spleti389. She says, "The best. Love this podcast so much. I've been following Julie on Instagram for a while and finally gave the podcast a listen. It's so refreshing to hear her authentic advice. I look forward to each new episode."
Thank you so much for the review. If you haven't already rated and reviewed the podcast, be sure to scooch over to Apple Podcasts. First, click that subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And also you can scroll down, leave a rating and review. It really does help the growth of this podcast. I appreciate you in advance for doing so.
So let's dive into today's episode. I've talked a lot about why I love macro counting. For me, and for so many women I've worked with, macro counting has helped break obsessive behaviors, not contributed to them. For so long, I was afraid of fat because I thought it would make me fat. I was afraid of carbs because I was told that they were bad and I was afraid of protein because I believed that it would make me bulky. So what did that leave me to do?
Eat as little as possible. Back in my college days, even eating 1,200 calories freaked me out because I believed that eating in general would make me fat. And then when it came to what foods I was eating, I believed that the only way to eat was to eat healthy foods. And anything that didn't fall in that category would make me fat or it was bad for me. And I was so obsessed about only eating "healthy foods" that it would give me so much anxiety when I would eat something unhealthy. I would go and punish myself with exercise and let the guilt totally consume my mind. It sounds awful, right? It really was. But truly thanks to macro counting, I was able to break free from those obsessive behaviors.
Once I started counting macros, it broke my good versus bad food mentality. It broke my belief that I needed eat as little as possible. It truly taught me how to nourish my body with what it needs. It showed me I can without feeling guilty or feeling like I need to punish myself for what I ate, especially when going out to eat. It helped me not fall back into the swing of fad dieting. It really helped to get me educated about the food I was eating so that I could have more confidence in choosing foods to nourish my body. It gave me a lot more energy. It gave me freedom around food, especially allowing me to eat foods that I love whenever I wanted them. It helped me stop food from controlling me and my life. And it was super easy to incorporate and make a longterm lifestyle. Now I don't know about you, but none of that to me, sounds obsessive. All of those things are really good things.
So if you want to learn more about macro counting, actually have a whole entire blog post that you can check it out. I will easily go link that in the show notes below. I do agree though, that macro counting can become obsessive or it can be used in an unhealthy way. So I just want to bring those signs to light so that we can all become aware as to whether or not you are using macro counting productively.
Number one. You are tracking the wrong macros. Now macro counting is super helpful when you're tracking the right macros for your body. If you're obsessing though, over tracking macros that aren't even for what your body needs, then it's going to be hindering you from your health, your progress and your relationship with food, not helping it. So if you are counting macros, don't just pull the numbers out of thin air, don't copy and paste somebody else's macros that you found on YouTube or Instagram, and don't calculate your macros off of eating as little as possible.
You have to figure out what macros are for your body specific and custom to where you are at. It's not hard to do. I've actually created a free ebook that can teach you how to calculate your maintenance macros. And I've also created a macro counting made simple online academy that makes macro counting simple. It also includes your specific and personalized custom macro calculation. So we personally calculate your macros and we also teach you how to calculate them based on where you're at, your age, your weight, your goals, your height, your activity level, all of those things are so many factors that go into it. And then we teach you how we calculated them so that you don't have to rely on me or a coach for the rest of your life, but you can feel empowered to do so. I will go ahead and link both the free ebook, which is just on my website, www.juliealedbetter.com/freeebook. And I will also link the macro counting made simple online academy in the show notes so that you can easily go check those two things out.
Number two. You beat yourself up for going over your macros. Now micro counting is not something that should make you feel worse about your eating choices. And most importantly, it shouldn't make you feel worse about yourself. As I always say, consistent imperfect action is so much more effective than perfect inconsistent action. So in this case, consistently tracking your macros, even if it isn't perfect will bring you so much better results than trying to track your macros 100% perfectly once a week. You aren't going to hate your macros perfectly every single day and that is more than okay. The fact that you are even tracking them at all is amazing in and of itself. So don't be hard on yourself.
For some of you, you're probably going over your macros way less than you would if you weren't even counting them at all. So keep that in mind. Perfection in macro counting is not the goal. Consistency is. And just remember that. I have talked about this before, and I say it a lot inside my groups, but when you first start counting macros, or if you just get back to it after not counting them for a while, I have found that it just takes some time for you to remind yourself of some high protein snacks, lower carb snacks, not saying that you need to eat lower carbs. But just finding those meals and snacks that are higher in protein or higher in carbs and lower in fats or whatever it is. Macro counting, think that as like a puzzle piece, and it's not always going to be 000 at the end of the day.
And so you have to let that part of maybe obsessiveness or perfection, you have to let that go. Because at the end of the day, like I said, perfection is not the goal in macro counting. Consistency is. And your body just needs to be properly fueled. And I always say, celebrate hitting your macros within 10 to 20 grams at first with protein, carbs and fats. And then over time, as you get more and more consistent with it, and you really start hitting your macros within 10 to 20 grams, then try and bump it down, try and do between 5 to 15 grams and see how that feels. I love to tell people to have some sort of food diary so that you can correlate you counting your macros and hitting them within 10 to 20 grams.
How are you feeling? How are your energy levels? What are the results that you're seeing in the gym, both inside your workouts and outside of your workouts? And correlate that because the food that we eat or don't eat is so correlated with the energy that we have, the results that we see. And a lot of us don't even realize that, especially those who might have never been aware of the food that they're consuming, or even the food, the amounts of protein, carbs, and fats that your body needs. So just keep that in mind. At the end of the day, perfection is not the goal. Consistency is.
Number three. You feel like you can't have one untracked meal. If you are skipping out on experiences because not knowing the macros in the foods stresses you out, then you need to reconsider your approach to macro counting. Macro counting is supposed to make your life more enjoyable, not cause you to miss out on the greatest joys of your life. Remember one untracked meal is not going to ruin your progress. Just how on the flip side, eating one salad isn't going to make you "healthier". When counting macros, it's important to sometimes choose memories over macros. Since we aren't using macro counting as a diet, we're using it as a lifestyle, we need to figure out how to incorporate it into our lives longterm. Let's be real. It's impossible to think that for the rest of our lives, we won't have one untagged meal. That's insane. If you count your macros consistently, it is okay to sometimes live your life without counting them. Plus macro counting is supposed to give you freedom and confidence in all of those situations, not stress you out and make you skip out on them altogether.
So if you are finding yourself stressed, I want you to ask yourself and really try to look within and see what is triggering you to stress out. And just remember that the more you educate yourself about food and the more you correlate, how you are feeling with what you're fueling your body with, you'll feel more and more competent in situations. I know I've done a ton of podcasts last holiday season, just encouraging you to enjoy the moment, enjoy the holiday season without feeling stressed out and use all of the tools that you have in your toolbox from macro counting to help you in those social situations, whether that be a vacation, whether it be a celebration, whatever it is that you find yourself at, it could be a summer barbecue, it could be a graduation party, a birthday party, an anniversary. Whatever it is, try to really remember all of the tools that you are learning in terms of what you've learned from macro counting and implement those into mindful eating around social situations.
Number four. You're using it as a diet, not a tool. If you're using macro counting as an excuse to continue to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors, you need to reconsider what you're doing and why you're doing it. Macro counting should not be an excuse for you to eat as little as possible or for you to not eat your favorite foods. It should be a tool that empowers you to eat exactly what your body needs while still enjoying the foods that you love. And I know that that's going to take time. I know for me, especially when I first started counting macros and I used to think like cereal was going to make me fat. I couldn't have it. Or I would have foods that would trigger me to overeat. I told myself, okay, I have to face this food. So I'm not just going to avoid this food for the rest of my life, because if I do that, then I'm just always going to kind of hide it under the rug and it's going to come out at some point.
So for me, I started ... Just an example. I started with getting like the single serving cereals at the food store. So like the cups of cereal, instead of buying the entire box, I bought the single serve and I would learn how to fit that into my macros. And I would do that time and time again. Or with cheese, cheese was a big one. I was so scared of like buying a block of cheese because I was so terrified of specific foods. So I decided, okay, I'm just going to get like the string cheeses first. I'm going to get the single serving of cheeses so that I can learn how to fit into my macros. And over time, I always say this, when you deprive yourself of something, it will cause you to want it more. But if you allow yourself a food in moderation, you'll learn, I actually feel satiated with just a moderate amount of this food. And you're learning how to properly fit it into your macros, into your daily intake, it allows you the opportunity to reach your macros.
And that's how you can over time, start to fit your actual favorite foods in moderation into your daily intake. So I just want to remind you, it's not all going to happen at once. Really take it food by food, and I would buy the single serving cereals. I think I did that for about four weeks before I felt really confident in the fact that okay, if I buy a box and I'm just going to eat a serving at a time, I'm going to fit a serving of that into my macros. And I know that that's going to make me feel fully satiated. And as a result, I succeeded and I was able to buy the box of cereal and go through it at a normal rate instead of just completely being triggered and overeating and completely throwing everything out the window.
So I just want to encourage you. It's a process. Just like anything new that you do, it's going to take time, give yourself grace, have patience, but be determined to really allow this to help you change your mindset in terms of viewing foods as good or bad, and allowing yourself foods in moderation and seeing how closely that correlates with overall, how you feel in your life, energy-wise, feeling fulfilled in your life, feeling like you're able to eat your favorite foods and still see results.
I hope that this episode has showed you how macro counting can be used in a productive way, but also help you become aware if you're using it in an unproductive way. If you're using it productively, congratulations, I am so proud of you for healing your relationship with food. It is a huge accomplishment. And even if you're just on your first few steps of this journey, I want you to know that you are doing amazing and you have a community of women that are here for you, I'm here for you, and I know thousands of other women who I have personally been able to come alongside of in this journey are cheering for you.
If you are though realizing that you're using it unproductively, I first want to suggest if you haven't already to get your customized macros calculated for you personally. If you're realizing that you're doing it unproductively, I first want you to identify which of the ones that maybe I mentioned in this podcast, are you doing or finding yourself doing? And how can you overcome that? Is that something that you are able to make some small tweaks and that will easily help you start counting macros productively, or is this lifestyle something that just is too obsessive for you right now? I will always say that macro counting is not for every single person. I will never say that everybody has to do macro counting in order to see results.
But what I can say is that there's so many different types of ways to count macros. So you can for sure count protein, carbs and fats. If you just want to get kind of an eyeball and you find yourself becoming too obsessed with every single number, I always recommend, if you know how many calories your body needs in order to function optimally and still based on your goals and where you're at, then focus on eating the amount of overall calories in the day. And then the only other macro that I want you to focus on reaching is your protein goal, and then let your carbs and fats kind of be interchangeable and see how that goes. I know for some people that works great. For other people, they still find themselves not having the energy because maybe they're eating way too many fats and not enough carbs or vice versa.
So, overall, I think it's really just about self-awareness and asking yourself, okay, what can I do longterm? Again, be sure to download my free ebook so you can calculate your maintenance macros if you haven't already. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below. And if you want to go more in depth with macro counting and get them personally calculated by us, and we customize them specifically for you, you can check out my macro counting made simple online academy. Both of those are linked in the show notes. If you want to learn more, just about the benefits of macro counting, you can also check out my blog posts that I have on my blog. And I will also go ahead and link that in the show notes. That just dives a lot more deeper in to this topic.
I hope that you found this episode helpful. I hope that maybe it opened your eyes to macro counting and kind of just seeing, okay that makes more sense of how macro counting can be used productively and how it can be used unproductively instead of just hearing macro counting is a fad diet and avoid it at all costs. I am the type of person that always likes to see what somebody is saying, see where they're coming from and kind of dive deeper and kind of dive deeper, which allows me to form my own opinion. So I hope that that did that with you today. I would love to hear your aha moments so be sure to screenshot this, post it up on your story, tag me Julie A Ledbetter. If you have a girlfriend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this episode, I just ask that you share it out. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. Again, I appreciate you guys so incredibly much, and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
All right sister, that's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the Gram, be sure to do so, Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an A in middle for that daily, post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me, it means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.