As summer unfolds, it’s the perfect time to reevaluate what fuels our bodies. Whether you’re a seasoned health enthusiast or just beginning your journey toward better eating habits, understanding the roles of macronutrients and how to track your intake can profoundly impact your health and wellness.
In recent posts, we’ve delved into the three macronutrients—carbohydrates, proteins, and fats—and provided guidelines on their ideal proportions in your diet. Now, let’s take that knowledge a step further by exploring practical strategies for tracking your nutrients and adjusting your diet for optimal health.
The Importance of Macronutrients
When it comes to nutrition, macronutrients play a vital role in our overall health. Here’s a quick recap of my recommendations:
- Carbohydrates: Aim for 45-65% of your total calories from carbs.
- Protein: Target 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight daily.
- Fats: Strive for 20-35% of your total calories from healthy fats.
Understanding how these nutrients fit into your daily diet is essential for achieving your health goals.
Track Your Nutrients: A Simple Guide
Figuring out how much of each macronutrient and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) you consume can be an overwhelming process. Sure, you can read nutrition labels and do a little math, but it is cumbersome and complicated to do this for a whole day’s diet, much less every meal every day. Diet advice is usually given on a per-day basis (not per-meal), so we need an easy way to track nutrition per day.
1. Use a Food Log App
I’ve found the best way to examine your diet is to log your food in an app/website that can provide the macronutrients for you. Below are my two favorite free apps. They are fairly easy to use and will provide you with detailed nutrition information:
These apps allow you to log your meals and provide detailed nutritional information, making it easier to see how your daily intake aligns with your goals. Just a few days of logging can give you valuable insights into your eating habits.
2. Focus on a Typical Day
Most people eat relatively the same foods, so if you can log a few days you can get an idea for what a “typical” day looks like for you. For example, I usually eat a bowl of cereal with peanut butter, toast with avocado, or an egg sandwich for breakfast. Most lunches I eat a sandwich, wrap, salad, or leftovers. Dinners have more variations typically but you can easily log some of your go-to dinner meals. Snacks and drinks are often repeated too – don’t forget to log those. Once you have a few days logged, you can get some insight into how many carbohydrates, protein, and fat you consume on a daily basis.
I recommend that everyone do this for a few days. It is tremendously helpful in giving you a better sense for the health of your typical meals. I do NOT recommend that you do this every day of your life. Just give it a try for a few days and see what you learn.
3. Adjust Your Diet Accordingly
Once you have a general idea of your macronutrient intake, you can adjust your diet to any specific health goals you establish for yourself. How do you know what to focus on? Consider any medical diagnoses or wellness goals and think over how food can impact those.
- High Cholesterol: You need to limit your saturated fat. What types of fats are you consuming?
- Prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes: You need to control carbohydrates. How many grams of carbs are you consuming daily?
- Muscle Gain: What does your protein intake look like?
- Weight Loss: What are your current macronutrient trends and what realistic adjustments could be made?
Don’t Obsess About the Numbers
I do not recommend food logs as a long-term diet solution because they are time consuming, it can be challenging to accurately log food, and because people can get too focused on having perfect numbers every day. No one needs to hit their nutrition recommendations perfectly every day – it isn’t realistic and can become emotionally exhausting and unhealthy.
The healthiest and most sustainable approach to managing your diet is to gain a better intuition about foods so you can maintain some general discipline in areas that are most important to your goals, but not to become overly restrictive so that eating is reduced to a formula instead of an experience. That is the essence of the nutrition skills I help my clients develop in a nutshell. I have seen this work time and time again.
So if you are curious what a typical day looks like for you and want to gain a better sense of the nutrient levels of your meals, try logging a couple days in these apps.
Conclusion: A Simple Path to Better Nutrition
Thanks for reading! By tracking your nutrients and understanding macronutrients, you gain a general understanding of the nutrition packed into your daily habits and then adjust accordingly.
Key Takeaways:
- Using food log apps can simplify tracking your intake.
- Gain a better intuition about your diet, then implement some general discipline to bring change.
- Adjust your diet based on your personal health goals.
If you’re interested in personalized support, don’t hesitate to reach out! Email me at kelsey@finessenutrition.net for more information about my one-on-one nutrition program.
For more tips and resources, subscribe to my newsletter and explore additional articles on my website.