5 Benefits of Tracking Your Macros

By Bryan Kittman | May 13, 2019

Following a diet or having aspirations to lead a healthier lifestyle always starts with the food you eat. One of the biggest trends in dieting right now is counting your macros. Macros are essentially the amounts of the basic macronutrients that are found in your diet: carbs, fats, and protein. Tracking your macros can be a powerful way to achieve a healthier diet. Let’s go over the top benefits of doing so.

It holds you accountable

One thing that many people get down about during dieting is not being held accountable for what you eat. You’d be surprised by the amount of carbs and fats you intake every day once you begin counting your macros. By seeing an exact number of what you eat, it can hold you more accountable to your eating habits.

You will learn much more about your health

One of the coolest aspects of counting your macros is the fact that you will learn a lot about how your diet impacts your health. Counting your macros gives you great insight into the nutritional content of food, and what works with your body while dieting.

It is not restrictive

A macro-counting diet is great for people who don’t want to cut out the foods they love. When counting macros, it breaks down your diet into the simplest terms. If you’re trying to lose weight, all you need to do is calculate your macros, then follow them. Doing so allows you to much more flexible with your diet.

It can be highly satisfying

Counting macros can be a great personal achievement and a powerful motivator for helping you achieve your health goals. Seeing yourself hitting your macros over the course of a week can help give you that confidence and motivation to stick it out with your diet, and can lead you to become a more disciplined person.

You will understand the impact of your eating choices

Serving size is one of the biggest problems encountered when dieting. If you think a ⅓ cup of peanut butter is a reasonable size, you’d be surprised to learn just how many calories it is. Learning just the macros of certain foods will allow you to make better eating decisions, and give you greater insight going forward with future goals.

How to track your macros

The gold standard for macro tracking is using MyFitnessPal. This app features a massive food database with an easy-to-use interface. MyFitnessPal is free on both the App Store and the Google Play store.