Tracking My Macros

(Realhope18) #1

Hello… Im finding that tracking every ounce of food, shredded cheese, or drop of heavy creamto be a nightmare.
For me going Keto is the last stop, I have tried everything and so far this feels right.
I love learning all about what I was doing to my body pre-keto…
but as I was saying, i think it’s def bringing out my OCD. I feel like the heavy cream I use daily at work just gets poured and I’m not measuring…how important is this? And the shreds of :cheese: cheese, etc! I guess this is just the part I don’t care for.

#2

Well, how long have you been at this? I have pretty much done what is called ‘lazy keto’ - I eyeball things and that’s about it. I have lost almost 60 lbs eyeballing! So, you need patience and you need some way of measuring success.

First job is to reduce your carbs to 20, the rest is eating to satiety. If you feel full, don’t add cream. If you feel full, don’t eat. If you are hungry, eat.

(Realhope18) #3

I’ve only been doing for a month…
:pray: You are so right! I drive myself crazy. I have had such bad relationships with food, and I’m obsessed with losing this weight… so I need not complicate matters and just eat till I’m satiated…

(Pete A) #4

I log everything and it’s “by eye” but I see it as only an approximation. It’s apples to apples and has been key to my Keto-success.

I find my Fitday app has also had different numbers for certain foods so I’m trying to defer to the actual food labels…

But, yes if you’re tracking you ought to log what you ingest i.e. your heavy cream example.

(Rob) #5

Exactly - this. To me it’s the right balance. Log everything but learn to estimate well. It you are in the US, learn what a tablespoon of stuff looks like, use the packets things come in to help you estimate - e.g. 1/8th of the Philadephia brick is 1oz is 1/2 inch slice. Once you know what a cup of cabbage looks like, 8oz of steak, etc. your logging will be ‘good enough’.

If you eat the same foods across a week or 2 then your app should make them more readily available to input. LoseIt puts it in My Foods and suggests the common things I have at each meal so logging has become super easy.

There it is… not quite so lazy keto.

(Cheryl Meyers) #6

Given that most labels have calorie listings that are only estimates at best, and that the body doesn’t know what a “calorie” is, you don’t have to worry about exact measurements when tracking. Read up on why what kind of foods you eat matters more than the number of calories here: https://peterattiamd.com/do-calories-matter/
Don’t stress yourself out–that will just raise your insulin! kcko!

(Karl) #7

The quick answer is “probably not as important as you think”.

I still track what I eat for different reasons. It helps me to know I’m not eating too much. There’s an anti-calorie counting thing to a degree within the keto community, and I get it - it’s a pain in the ass. But for me and MY ocd, I’d rather know.

I find that for me it’s better that I DO know if I’m overeating or not versus having to guess and wonder later on if I overdid something.

(Realhope18) #8

Thank you…:blush::pray::wink:

(Brandy Fischbach) #9

I think it’s important to count macros the first few weeks just to get a sense of what has carbs and what doesn’t and then you can get a little lazy with it. I did notice that I was either stalling or gaining weight with just counting carbs so I started counting fat again. I ended up losing more weight after I realized I wasn’t eating enough fat.