There are many ways that we can track what we eat. Is there a right way and a wrong way? Nope! Is there a way that will work best for you? Absolutely! Will your method of tracking your food change over time? Probably!
Based on our education, experience, lifestyle, food preferences and goals, everyone will opt to use different ways of counting for different reasons.
In this resource, I'd like to go over 2 of my favorite ways of tracking food. A Beginner's Way being Hand Portions, and an Advanced Way being Macro Counting.
Hand Portions
Using our hands to measure our food, we can eat consistently. Although calorie intake may vary slightly between protein, carb and fat sources, if we are eating whole, nutritious, clean foods, we are able to easily create a diet plan around hand portions.
Hand portions are simply that - using your hands to measure portion sizes.
As I am sure you have noticed, everyone's hands vary in size. However, because this method is about creating consistency, it doesn't matter how big your hands are, it just matters that you always use your hands to measure your food. As your goals change, whether you are trying to gain or lose weight, manipulate body fat, gain muscle, etc., you can simply adjust how many portions you are eating per meal, per day.
How to do it
One serving of protein will be equivalent to the palm of your hand.
One serving of carbs will be equivalent to one cupped hand.
And one serving of fat will be equivalent to the size of your thumb.
One serving of vegetables will be the size of your fist.
Choose a starting point based on your current eating habits and lifestyle and begin tracking.
Example : Begin with 4 meals / day. At each meal, consume one serving of protein, one serving of carbs, one serving of fat and one serving of vegetables.
As you monitor your body and your weight on a weekly basis, you can add or take away servings to achieve your goals.
If you are not familiar with healthy sources of Protein, Carbs and Fat, please reach out to us for more resources.
Macro Counting
Macro counting is a more advanced method of tracking your intake by which you track every gram of protein, carb and fat ingested. This method is used by athletes and competitors to quickly and effectively manipulate their body composition, to enhance endurance and achieve optimal physical performance. It is also used by everyday people to lose weight and gain muscle. Given, however, the amount of patience, time and effort that macro counting entails, this method is often difficult for people with less nutritional education, with limited time, or with a lifestyle that doesn’t allow for such in-depth meal planning.
There are 2 popular forms of Macro Counting:
1. If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM)
2. Macro Counting - using “clean foods” from a pre-made meal plan
IIFYM
IIFYM is a more flexible approach wherein a set number of Protein, Carbs and Fats are consumed in a day. How these numbers are achieved is up to the individual. For example, if the individual had a goal of 300g of carbs per day, it wouldn’t matter if he got those carbs from sugar candies or from sweet potatoes, as long as he hit 300g of carbs – no more and no less. Of course, sweet potato is the healthier option in this case and there is research to show the benefits of eating nutrient dense food rather than candy, but the whole point of IIFYM is to allow flexibility in dieting and to allow room for different sorts of foods while still holding yourself accountable to limited intake.
To keep track of macros using this method, people often utilize apps such as MyFitness Pal with which you can scan package barcodes to accurately track all calories consumed. With the app, you can create daily goals, a macro split, and pre-made recipes.
“Clean” Macro Counting
Because candy, chocolate, ice cream and cake aren’t nutritious regardless of how little you eat, a “Clean” Macro Counting approach is unarguably the ideal approach for any individual capable of such dietary restriction.
With a clean eating approach to macro counting, individuals will choose from a list (often memorized) of “clean” options of protein, carbs and fats. These lists will include pre-portioned amounts of chicken, fish, rice, sweet potato, oils, peanut butter, etc. that contain the amount of protein/carbs/fats required per meal. It sounds overwhelming, but once you eat your personalized portions repeatedly, it does become quite easy.
The benefits of Clean Eating are obvious. It is also important, however, to consider balance, lifestyle and mental health when choosing this approach. A restrictive diet, even with generous portion sizes, is often difficult for anyone to adhere to long-term and often has detrimental effects. Binge eating, orthorexia and other mental health disorders are often the result of such diets.
So! Before jumping into a diet plan, make sure it is the right one for you. Manipulating weight and body composition really is as simple as monitoring intake and does NOT require the most current fad diet and the most complicated plan. It just all about consistency and monitoring portion sizes. It is about eating until you are content and not until you are full.