148. Making Sense of Macros: How to ‘Budget’ Your Macros and Stop Dieting for Good

Not necessarily I shouldn't say that I was going to say not necessarily the exact how to , of course , like how to enter the food into the apps and things like that but I am getting new clients right now .

Of course , it's the beginning of the year , you know new year , new me , new Year's resolutions , all the things and this is a very busy time for personal trainers and in my world , of course , this is busy time of year . So I'm getting a lot of new clients right now , which is amazing . And what I am noticing is when I go to talk to them about workouts .

It's really simple , especially if you're joining Fit Club , you're in my app and the workouts are there and you push play and it's a really quick rundown of how the workouts work and how the app works .

The biggest piece of the puzzle when people are joining me or whether it's just anyone's health and fitness journey , the biggest piece of the puzzle is always macros , because that's what I'm teaching .

That's , when you join the app , I give you a macro count , a macro target , and obviously I've talked about that on the podcast before and macros are a big part of what have healed my relationship with food , have given me the body that I want , have given me .

Macros have helped me in so many different ways and I don't want to get into all of that in this episode . So if you are interested in hearing more about my journey with macros , please go back and search through previous episodes about macros , because I talk about that .

But really macros have helped me to understand food and what it does for my body and its role in my body , and it's really helped me so , so , so much to get away from the negative mindset that I used to have around food and all the things that kind of come with that . It's a very deep concept when we really dive into it .

But right now I have a lot of clients joining and , like I said , they're saying I've never counted macros before . I don't understand how to count macros , I'm new to macros and so I want to explain them in a way that I wish somebody would explain to me maybe the first time , because it makes so much sense . So let's dive in .

I hate to say this is kind of going to be all over the place . That's kind of how I roll and that's kind of what I do . I really want to deep dive and I really want to .

You know , if something pops into my head , I'm going to veer for my notes a little bit and kind of make it make sense , because I find the more that I explain to my clients and make it applicable , the more they understand . I'm excited . Let's dive in . I hope this is really , really helpful .

This concept came to me , honestly , as I was trying to sleep last night and I don't know even what I was thinking probably about . What am I going to record tomorrow ? And , yeah , I think this concept of just you know , what are my clients struggling with ?

What am I hearing a lot of right now , this is what I'm hearing a lot of and what I really want to get across to all of you , especially if you are kind of far into this journey of macros . Maybe this is the way you haven't really thought about it , but this is a way that really helped me .

So I tried I think it was about eight times to track macros , to figure out macros . What the hell are they ? What's going on ? Why do I need that Like ? How do I do this ? It seemed really confusing , and so the first thing I want to start with is you are consuming macros with everything that you eat . You're doing it anyway . So macros are not a diet .

This is not . Yes , you can use macros to lose weight . You can use macros to lose fat . Like this is obviously macro tracking , macro counting . However , you know there's different ways people talk about it . Obviously , counting and tracking are two different things . But it's not a diet . It's not like oh , I tried .

I hear that a lot Like oh , I tried macro tracking to lose weight and that didn't work for me . Well , that makes my brain go a little crazy , because that's not it at all . Right , macros , it's not a diet .

So I don't want you to think of it like Weight Watchers or like keto , where Weight Watchers is kind of like I feel like it's designed for weight loss . It's like when you think of a diet , a diet , it's to lose weight . That's what we think about , but your diet is just what you consume for food .

But macros the term macros macro is short for macronutrients . Macronutrients are carbs , fats and proteins . That's a macronutrient and those carbs , fats and proteins have a certain amount of calories in each one of those . They're not the same , but those calories add up to your overall calories .

So whatever you're consuming in a day , it equals calories and the breakdown of those calories are macros . So you can change the amount of calories . You can change the amount of macros , the amount of protein , the amount of fats , the amount of carbs that you're consuming to reach your goal of body recomposition or fat loss .

To reach your goal of body recomposition or fat loss , whatever your physical goal is , macros can help you get there , but it's not a diet , okay . So whether you are counting macros or tracking macros or doing fucking anything with macros , you're consuming them . You've been consuming macros your whole life .

So this is why I love it so much and this is why I think that everyone should understand macros , because you're eating food . We all eat food every single day , so why not understand that ? And then you won't really ever have to diet . You can just change the amount of macros , the amount of calories that you're consuming , to fit your needs .

Does that make sense ? The amount of calories that you're consuming to fit your needs , does that make sense ? For me , that's like oh my God , duh right . So if you quote , unquote , tried macros and they didn't work for you , it's because your macros , you were eating too much food or something wasn't right .

It's not that the macros didn't work for you or tracking them didn't work for you . You're eating them regardless . So if you're eating a low amount of carbs , then you're eating a low carb diet . It's not a thing , it's not a diet . So you are consuming macros . That's the first thing I want to note .

You are consuming macros , whether you're counting them or not . So that's the first thing that I really wanna say is like you really should understand this and really try to understand it . No one said that to me the first time .

It was just like you should be eating 1,900 calories and you should be eating this amount of protein , this amount of fats , this amount of carbs . So I tried it didn't know what the hell I was doing or why , tried again , tried again , it again , and once I figured it out , it made so much sense to me and I was able to make it work for me .

And this is how . So I like to think of macro counting as money . I like to associate it with money , which I've done in podcast episodes in the past . But to go back before I start getting into the money part , macros is a way of thinking about food as energy . So you're not thinking of macros as a diet , you're thinking of macros as energy .

Food is energy , calories are energy . It's like how many macros can I eat ? Not , what kind of diet is this and what can I cut out ? Right ? So I want you to think of this is your energy .

This is the amount of food that you get to give your body energy , to run your body effectively , to have energy to carry out your chores and your tasks for the day , right ? So , like I was saying , I like to think of macros like money .

Little backstory here my husband and I we lost our house to home foreclosure when my son was he's 16 now and I think he was like one at the time , maybe not even . So we lost our home to foreclosure and we really had to learn how to budget . So we did Dave Ramsey's programs , we did the debt snowball , we did all the things .

I don't even really follow much about Dave Ramsey anymore , but if you're familiar with Dave Ramsey and the debt snowball and the EveryDollar app if that's even still a thing shout out because that really got us out of debt . We ended up saving a bunch of money .

We ended up paying off all of our debts except for our home , and it was a lot of work , a lot of work , a shit ton of work . But it taught me a lot about control , dedication , all the types of things , right , consistency , budgeting and just like I had to budget my money , I now budget my macros .

And I don't budget my money so that I can necessarily I mean , I do so that I can necessarily have more , but I learned to budget my money so that I could spend my money more wisely . I only get a certain amount of money each month , my husband and I .

You either get paid weekly , biweekly , whatever , but monthly is when all your bills are due , so it's like you look at money as a month whole . So I think of it like money . So macro counting is like money . You are spending money . Just like you're consuming macros , whether you count them or not .

You're getting paid from an employer and then you're going out and spending money on things . Whether you track that or pay attention to that or not , you will run out of money . So it's the same thing with your macros . You have a certain amount that you get each month for your money , right , weekly , biweekly , but monthly overall .

Whenever you get paid , you have a certain amount to work with . You have to know how much you have incoming to be able to know how much you can spend . Like the first thing that you need to do is know how much money you have . In terms of macros , you have to know how much you can intake , which would be the overall calculation .

So you're either spending too much money or you're spending a little less than you make , and then you have some to save . Just like macros . You're consuming calories regardless . You're either consuming too many calories for your body to spend , and then you're gaining fat and you're overweight , or you're not maybe consuming enough , and so you're malnourished .

You know you have a little extra to spend . Or you're doing it correctly you're in a deficit and then you're losing fat , but you have to count how much you have to begin with . This would be your overall calculation . So somebody you trust should be calculating your macros for you .

Or if you're doing it online , then you know , based on your age , height , weight , certain amount of things that you input , you get a certain amount of calories to spend every single day . This calorie amount , like I'm saying , is broken down into a certain amount of macros , certain amount of protein , a certain amount of fats and a certain amount of carbs .

So that is what macro counting is . So when you come to me and say I'm new to macro counting , I don't know what that means . That's what it means . It means that you are consuming these things anyway . You need to start counting them to know how much you have . Now I'm sure you've heard you can lose weight without macro tracking .

You can lose weight without counting calories . You can lose weight without doing blah , blah , blah , blah . You can , you absolutely can lose weight without doing blah , blah , blah , blah . You can , you absolutely can . It's kind of a throwing shit at the wall and hoping it sticks situation .

And it's still not knowing your body , which is why I have a really hard time with quick fixes , these shots , all this shit coming out . That's not really teaching you anything .

You still don't know what you're putting in your body and why and how much , and without that , if you don't know how much money you're getting , how much money you're spending , you're always gonna be broke .

If you don't understand macros and you don't understand your body and the food that you're intaking to nourish it , you're always gonna be a little confused on why you look the way you look , why you feel the way you feel . So I do think it's absolutely necessary to do this if you want to look and feel a certain way . So that's macro counting .

It's just counting the amount that you have incoming and have outgoing . How do you do that ? You have to track it right . You have to write it down . So you track macros , just like you track money . We used to track our money using the EveryDollar app , like I said , by Dave Ramsey .

Track money we used to track our money using the EveryDollar app , like I said , by Dave Ramsey . So we learned that we were spending way more money than what we had coming in . I don't know what we were thinking . This was a long time ago so I don't remember , but I was working as a hairstylist . I don't remember what my husband was doing at the time .

We had two little kids . We were just spending and spending and spending on credit card and everything was on credit and eventually it was like well , now we can't afford our home . So that smacked us right in the face and we were faced with , obviously , home foreclosure , which we went ahead and did , but we didn't blame the system or anything .

We were like that's our fault , we need to learn how to keep this from happening again .

So we started tracking on this app and what we would do is Well , first we actually started getting cash we ended up cashing his check and I was paid cash from doing hair and then we would literally go to the bank and deposit a certain amount to pay our bills , and then the rest I would keep in cash in a safe , but that's the way we learned to do it .

And then , after we felt confident in that and felt like we could control the money even if it was out of our hands , like we needed to see it physically first , which is maybe like you're measuring , you're weighing your food . That would be kind of similar to that . You need to see it right , to associate it with a number or an amount .

So , once we felt comfortable with using the app and not physically seeing it leave my hands , we would then track how much money we made into this app and then every expense that we made we would put into this app to see where our money went . So again , this looks like you get paid a certain amount .

Your spouse , your significant other , whoever is in contributing right Gets paid a certain amount . That's your overall kind of calorie goal , that's your overall money goal .

And then if you go spend a certain amount on groceries , or if you go to the gas station , you get gas , but you also bought a piece of pizza and you bought an energy drink and then you had to pay $5 to get into your kid's basketball game and then you had to pay $5 to get into your kid's basketball game and then you had to pay $8 at the concession

stand and then you had to order something on Amazon and then something else was on sale . So you bought something else on Amazon and then you had to pay . There's all of these things right , and if you're not tracking them , the money goes freaking quick . Just like that macro tracking is . You can set up your kind of daily budget right . With your macros .

You get a certain amount of calories , protein , fats and carbs and then you can enter . I'm going to have for me looks like my overnight protein oats , literally overnightoatscom or whatever it is . I don't make my own overnight oats , I get them online . So I'm going to maybe enter that as my breakfast .

I'm going to enter my Oikos Greek yogurt and my new Heath toffee bar bits and my chocolate chips . That's my snack . I'm going to log a salad for lunch . I'm going to log my protein bar , my protein shake . I'm going to log that . I'm going to have some salmon and rice for dinner .

I'm going to also have a half of a piece of pizza that my son doesn't finish from his pizza . I'm also going to have a Yasso bars . So I'm just thinking of random foods I have in my house . So I'm going to track all of those things because I can think to myself okay , I think I did pretty good today .

You know I eat this , this and this and this and this . I think I did pretty good . Like that's pretty healthy . I didn't have any Oreos . I didn't have any Cadbury mini eggs , I didn't have three pieces of pizza . I didn't have six cookie , whatever . It is right , but I don't know how much I actually spent .

So there's a difference between eating healthy , quote , unquote , not eating a lot , or maybe I ate too much . Whatever you're thinking , it may or may not match up to if I track it in the app and be like needed a little more protein , because I don't think any of . I don't think what I mentioned right there .

I don't think that would get me to my protein goal . But I could say like , right , that's not an unhealthy amount of food and that's not unhealthy foods . But when you're thinking of macro tracking , you're trying to hit a certain amount . It's not a diet , it's not like what's the least amount I can have . It's like what do I need to fuel my body ?

I actually need more protein and maybe a little less carbs and maybe a little more fats . So you don't know until you track that . I love using MyFitnessPal . Quite honestly . I have had clients of mine use the Lose it app . I like that . I've had clients use the MyNet Diary . I have a client using that right now actually , and I really like that as well .

I personally always use MyFitnessPal . I probably would use my app if I didn't have to log in as the coach on the coach side of things . But I use my fitness pal and I use the paid version . I am able to scan UPC codes , so I can just scan the code on something and it logs it right in the app .

I can actually voice it now and say I had overnight oats brand strawberries and cream oatmeal with a tablespoon of coconut whipped cream . Whatever brand it is , I can say it right into the app now and it will log it for me . So it's really really simple to do that and it doesn't take a lot of time . It's not overwhelming .

After you do it a couple of times , right , just like anything else that's new . Of course , it's going to take a little while , but that's macro tracking and that's macro counting and that's what macros are , so they're not scary . It's not a diet . It's not something to look at as restrictive . You actually get a certain amount of calories to spend .

If you want more calories to spend , if , based on your age , height , weight goals , movement level , workouts , all the things if you get a certain amount and you're tracking , you're like I am starving after eating this what you need to do is very slowly reverse diet , which means increase your calories very , very slowly .

If that causes you to gain weight , then we need to go back down , or you need to increase your workouts . You need to take more steps . You need to do a little bit more activity to be able to offset the amount of calories that you're spending .

So if you are at a very low calorie amount and you're like , yeah , I need more , right , just like having a job where you're like I'm spending too much money , I need more money incoming to cover my bills . That's what was happening to us when we didn't have enough money . We were spending more money and we needed to either make more money or spend less .

That's exactly what macros are . Okay , so you can use an app to track , you can calculate yourself to get your overall budget , or you can have someone do that for you . But when you start to count and when you start to track , that's when you truly start to understand what macros are and how they work for you , not against you .

You also start to see okay , I'm eating X amount of calories and I'm feeling really good and my body's changing and I'm losing fat or I'm gaining muscle . If you want to gain more muscle , then obviously your workouts need to be in accordance with that , but we're mostly talking about macros on this episode .

Then you need to eat more food , more protein , more carbs , because your body needs more fuel to be able to repair the muscle that you break down in your workouts . If you're not feeding your body enough fuel you cannot gain . You don't have enough .

It's like , if you want to save money savings account , you want to save for a vacation , but you're not bringing in enough money , or your job isn't paying you as much as you need or you're spending too much .

You want to save for a vacation , but you're not bringing in enough money , or your job isn't paying you as much as you need or you're spending too much . You have to figure out how to get more . You have to have more , and that's what calorie surplus would be . You would want to eat more calories to build muscle .

If you want to lose weight , lose fat , right , then you have to save more and not eat that much . So you'd have to eat less . You need to spend less . So that's exactly what that looks like , and you can change your macros to lose fat , to gain muscle , depending on any physical goal that you have .

Yes , your workouts and your movement , your outgoing , your expenditure , your outgoing calories need to be changed to match or to balance , not gram for gram , not match or perfectly , but they do have to balance each other . So you can change your macro amount , your calorie amount , based on your goals . But it's not a diet .

It's not something that you do for a little while only to lose weight , right , you change the tracking , you change the amount so that you can lose weight , but then after that , you still have to maintain . That's the problem with normal quote , unquote diets , I guess , or popular diets .

You cut carbs to lose weight , you do keto to lose weight , you do Weight Watchers to lose weight . Well , what do you plan on doing when you need to maintain After you've lost that weight ? What are you going to do ? You're still eating macros . You still need to count them .

You still need to figure it out , right , what's your goal and then what's your macros to match that . So this is exactly what I mean when I say we're going to count macros . We're going to track macros , or what are macros ? This is exactly what they are , and I think this is such important information .

Just like I just said , a lot of women and right now I only coach women , so I'm saying women , and I'm sure I know this goes for men too A lot of people , a lot of women coming to me , do not understand their bodies .

They don't understand calorie burn with cardio and calorie burn with lifting weights , and calorie burn increases with the amount of muscle you have on your body . The more muscle you have on your body , the more calories you're burning at rest all the time time . Most women don't understand macros .

They don't understand that they're consuming a certain amount of calories . We know that . We're like well , duh , everything I eat has calories . I understand that , but you're not counting them . You don't know how many you should be having . You don't know how many you are having , and so it's just a free-for-all .

Like I said , you're just throwing shit at the wall , hoping it sticks . This way , you know your calorie target . You know exactly what you should be having . You also track , so you know what you are having in terms of macros . And then you're like oh , that's why I'm not hitting my goals .

This is why , when I have a client come to me , I do ask them to track every single thing they're eating , for a couple weeks at least , because I cannot help . That would be like you coming to me saying I need to save more money . I'm broke all the time .

I need to save more money , but I don't know how much money I make and I don't know how much money I spend . So help me save money . No one can do that . If you're not telling them how much money you have or how much money you spend , where the fuck is your money ? Then I don't know If you're coming to me saying I need help losing weight .

I don't know how to do it , but I don't want to track macros . Yes , I can help you get habits in place . I can help you do a lot of things , a lot of things , and a lot of that would work . But I'm not willing to help someone throw shit at the wall and hope it sticks . You can do that on your own .

What I'm helping you do is to figure out all the pieces . We're going to put workouts together for you . We're going to figure out where your steps need to be . We're going to figure out water . We're going to figure out all the things and we're going to figure out this is the allowed macros calories , the amount of calories and energy that you need a day .

This is what you get , babe . This is what you get , and it's a pretty good amount . Let me just tell you it's exciting and we need to figure out how to spend it . This is what you get . Where are we going to put it ? What are we going to do with it . What kind of foods are we going to eat and how is this going to get you to your goals ?

How does this help you ? How does protein help your body ? Builds muscle , makes you feel satiated . Protein does so many things for your body . You need it so much . What do carbs do for your body ? It's your main energy source . What do fats do for your body ? They protect your organs . You need all of these things . They're so , so , so important .

And without me knowing your goal , like your target , your age , height , weight , sex , how busy you are , how many steps you take , like without your stats , I don't know you as a person . So I'm talking to you on the phone and I don't have any information on you . I can't help you .

So I need all of that information , along with how many calories are you intaking and what's the breakdown . Are they fats ? Are they carbs ? Are they carbs ? Are they proteins ? Is it enough , is it too much ? What is it ?

Because I need to be able to explain that to you and help you so that , going forward , you understand , you understand , you have the knowledge for yourself that , my friends , is the piece . That's the piece . I'm not willing to just give you a quick fix and send you on your way . I want you to understand this that way .

Like I said before , I want you to want to work with me forever and I want you to stay on my app and do my fit clubs forever , and I want you to be a part of my world and be on my Instagram forever and be my friend , but I don't want you to have to need me forever .

I want for you to understand this and understand your body , to understand who you are and understand all these things so well for yourself that you understand yourself , because what a freaking blessing to be able to understand our bodies and understand ourselves . That is so underrated , and that's what macro tracking has done for me .

I know it seems kind of silly , like the gym saved me or macros saved me . Did they save me physically ? I don't yeah , probably actually , but macro tracking allows you to have such a better relationship with food because you're literally having , you're consuming , macros .

Either way , you need to understand them and I just can't explain to you how empowering that is . So I hope that breakdown really , really helped you to understand . I know this was a very simple kind of silly , maybe topic , but I cannot wait to hear your feedback on it , because I think it just changes things .

Instead of thinking I don't want to spend my money , I don't want to spend my macros , I'm scared to eat this much , whatever , it's just like it's money , so you can spend it on a vacation or you can spend it on a purse , or you can save it . It's macros . You can spend it on Oreos . Sometimes you can spend it on McDonald's .

Sometimes you can spend it on chicken . You can spend it on broccoli . It'll go a lot further if you have chicken and broccoli , right , and it's better for you , but sure you get to have the other things too . So it's really allowing you to have a better relationship with food because you're understanding it . It's not just a diet , it's not limited .

It stops that limiting belief a little bit with food and then that goes into other areas of your life . But I hope this is really helpful . I'm super excited to hear your feedback . Like I said , please share this everywhere that you can because this is really important information . I hear a lot that I have helped people to understand macros with this podcast .

I get a lot of messages saying Christy , you helped me understand macros . You said things in a way that I finally understand , and I think this is even breaking it down even more . So please share this with anyone who is stuck dieting , is stuck in a mentality of low fat , low carbs .

I know you think of someone if I say someone who's always talking about a diet , someone who's always talking about eating too much on the weekends and falling off track and all of that , and understanding diets , diets , diets . Whoever comes to your mind when you think of diet , diet , diet , please send this to them , and just not even to .

I don't want to push you out of yes , I want you to get out of a diet mentality , but I'm not going to push you out of that . I want you to just understand macros , quite frankly , because the more you hear about them , the more you will naturally be like , yes , that is exactly what I need . That's exactly what I need to stop falling off .

So I hope this was so helpful for you and I cannot wait to talk to you next week .