Weighing in on Counting Calories and Macros: The Definitive Guide to Tracking Your Nutrition

Should I track the foods I eat? Count my calories? My macronutrients? Vitamins and minerals? 

If you were to ask these questions 50 years ago, you'd probably get a strange look and be told something along the lines of "only if you're an obsessive at-home scientist, or under close observation of doctors and nutritionists for the treatment of a serious medical ailment." You see, all of the nutrition information that we see on every packaged food item today is a relatively recent "discovery." While some ancient philosophers and scientists such as Aristotle and Hippocrates had an idea that food was connected to health, the history of nutritional analysis is much more recent. It wasn't until the late 1800s that chemists started to uncover and really understand the compositions of foods, as the time distinguishing five macronutrients that collectively make up our food: carbohydrates, fats, proteins, energy (calories), and water (this differs somewhat from how macronutrients are defined today—we no longer consider water and calories as macronutrients, and we include alcohol as a fourth macronutrient, but carbohydrates, fats, and protein are still the primary macros). Shortly thereafter, in the early 1900s, scientists began to discover more about the essential micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), which many skeptical scientists at the time thought were a load of made up hoo-ha. Flash forward to 1975, and nutritional information about food started to become more readily available in the United States with the USDA's Composition of Foods publication. However, it still wasn't until 1990 that labeling packaged foods with nutrition facts become mandatory in the United States, and not until the early 2000s that you could look up the nutritional information of just about any food online. 

Despite the relative newness of our understanding of nutritional composition of foods, today the simplicity, ease, and accuracy of at-home food tracking is unparalleled. With nothing more than a smartphone (or computer), a little intuition, and a food scale, you can track your calories, macronutrients, and micronutrients with accuracy and ease that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago. So while "should I track my calories/macros/micros?" may have been a ridiculous question 50 years ago, it's a perfectly valid and reasonable question to ask now. 

Why the hell would anyone want to do that?

Some of you may have never considered the prospect of tracking what you eat, and that's fine. As I've written about in previous posts, I think there's more to diet than numbers and statistics and the science behind it—food is not just carbohydrates and fats and kilojoules and antioxidants. It's also an emotional experience, a centerpiece of communal gathering, and a part of personal identity. Focusing in too closely on the numerical nutrient breakdown of everything that touches your lips can rob food of some of its more personal and communal elements. That being said, there are times when tracking your nutrition (at least temporarily) can be a tremendous asset, and can help you reach your goals more efficiently and effectively; and even those who are not working towards a specific goal can benefit from tracking what they eat for a few weeks or months to learn a bit about themselves.

Beyond being a means to reach a health or fitness goal, there are a few significant things happen when you begin tracking your nutrition. First, you start to become more aware of the composition of your food and cognizant of misconceptions that you held about food. Unless you are already an avid food label reader or are keenly interested in diet and fitness, there are probably some nutrition facts that you're relatively clueless about. For example, I was recently discussing some of the ins and outs of a ketogenic diet with a friend, and he mentioned that whole milk would be an easy source of calories while going keto. (If you are unfamiliar, the ketogenic diet, traditionally used to treat epilepsy, is a diet based on eating very low levels of carbohydrates, thereby forcing your body into a state in which it uses fats as the primary energy source and produces ketone bodies as a source of energy for the brain). Given that ketogenic diets are based on consuming very low levels of carbohydrates, I was a bit surprised that he was suggesting milk, which has fairly high levels of sugars, as a good "keto-friendly" food. Turns out, he didn't realize milk had carbs! These kinds of misconceptions and misinformation aren't surprising at all—nutritional education in the general public is rudimentary at best, and most people don't take much of an interest in the nutritional composition of their foods. I myself have had similar misconceptions and misinformation, and have encountered many other people who do as well. However, when you start tracking your nutrition, you will both consciously and subconsciously begin to pick up on information about the composition of common foods: you'll better be able to eyeball about how many calories, how much protein, how much fiber, etc. is in the food you're eating. You'll realize which foods are higher in particular nutrients. You'll know, off the top of your head, about how many calories and carbohydrates are in the banana you're eating, or about how big of a chicken breast has 40g of protein, and so on. Basically, tracking your nutrition gives you a crash-course in nutrition facts of the foods you commonly eat. While I don't believe that you should be walking around with "Terminator-vision" of your food, this baseline understanding of what's in your food, coupled with some degree of understanding about health and human nutrition, can help you make better, more informed decisions.

In addition, you will become aware of how you actually eat (as opposed to how you think you eat). Most people who have never tracked their own nutrition have some considerable misconceptions about their own consumption habits; when you start tracking your nutrition, these misconceptions will quickly make themselves apparent. The skinny guys/gals who claim to "eat a lot" and "just can't seem to put on any muscle" will find out that they aren't actually eating nearly as many calories as they thought. The overweight guys and gals who say they "just can't seem to lose any weight, no matter how good my diet is" will realize that they're eating a pretty hefty caloric surplus and tons of sugars. We humans tend to be pretty good at deluding ourselves into thinking we're acting differently than we actually are. Add general misinformation to the equation, and you're left with some hefty discrepancies between what you think you do and what you really do. Tracking your nutrition, even for a short period of time, serves as a good "check-up" on how close your perception is to reality, and what mistakes you might unthinkingly be making. 

Lastly, you'll begin to notice patterns. Give yourself a few weeks of consistent nutrition tracking and you'll begin to take note of trends in what foods you frequently overeat, the timing of your food intake, and how certain foods affect you. You may notice that you seem to eat more sweet foods in the morning, or that when you eat vegetables with every meal you magically eat fewer total calories that day without thinking about it, or that every time you eat meals with lots of cheese or cream you spend the next morning visiting the toilet rather frequently. There's a reason that "I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast" is a pretty common adage. People tend to be rather inattentive and forgetful about what they eat, and this makes it difficult to connect the dots between your daily nutrition and the condition of your body and mind. Tracking your nutrition makes you more attentive to what you eat, and helps to pull back the veil on patterns that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Counting calories and macros isn't just for crazy bodybuilders or those under close medical supervision. It's something that anyone can do, and that can help you become a more conscious and informed eater. 

So should I track my nutrition?

It depends. I believe there is a lot to be learned from spending a month or two tracking your nutrition, even if you never do it again. However, I also believe that the meticulous, almost obsessive behavior necessary to track all of your food can have a negative effect on one's relationship with food (particularly if you already have a tumultuous relationship with your diet), and this practice should not be done 100% of the time (extreme medical circumstances withstanding), and is not suitable for everyone.

There are four primary situations in which I absolutely recommend that you consider tracking your nutrition:

1. If you are changing dietary habits to lose weight.
2. If you are changing dietary habits to gain weight.
3. If you are addressing a health issue with diet.
4. If you are conducting a self-experiment.

If you are trying to lose weight, tracking your nutrition can be a tremendous asset, particularly if you have attempted weight loss in the past and not had much success. Tracking your calories will ensure that you are remaining in a caloric deficit (which is the primary means for weight loss), and tracking your macro- and micronutrients will ensure an adequate balance and sufficient nutrients for optimal health and function. As I mentioned above, people tend to be pretty oblivious to how much they actually eat, particularly if they've never spent any time tracking their nutrition before. Add to this the fact that when you are eating a caloric deficit, you're more likely to be hungry and unthinkingly grab an extra serving of food or mindlessly chow down on snack foods, and you have a recipe for unsuccessful weight loss. Tracking what you eat will give concrete data, encourage you to be a conscious eater, and allow you to adjust your diet based on whether it's working or not. I will add that weight loss absolutely can be achieved without tracking, and that many people will be better off without worrying about tracking if that works for them. However, tracking your calories and nutrients, even for a short time, can help set you on the path to successful and long-term weight loss. 

On the flip side of the coin, those who are trying to gain weight (presumably muscle) can also benefit tremendously from tracking their nutrition. When eating to gain weight, one must be in a caloric surplus, and many people will set particular daily macronutrient goals (ex: eat 180g of protein per day) as part of their weight gain protocol. Again, we often have a faulty idea of how much we actually eat, and, particularly for the people who have had trouble gaining weight all their life, have always tended to been skinny, and who think they eat lots of food, tracking nutrition can shed some light on what's actually going on and help reach goals quickly and effectively. In addition, manipulating total caloric surplus, macronutrient ratios, and meal timing can help to ensure that weight gain is primarily muscle (not fat). 

In addition to affecting body composition, diet can be tremendously powerful in addressing health issues, be it diabetes, arthritis, or irritable bowel syndrome, and adding objective values and paying close attention to what you consume can be an important part of successfully improving health with diet. When you track your nutrition, you are better able to avoid particular foods, adjust macronutrient ratios, ensure adequate micronutrients, and adjust your diet for optimal outcomes. If you are attempting to address a health issue with diet and not having much success, tracking your nutrition may be a game-changer.

Lastly, if you are conducting any sort of self-experiment (something which I strongly advocate) that involves your nutrition in any way, tracking is a must. I'll give an example. Recently, I undertook a small self-experiment to get down to the root of some intermittent, err, "gastric distress problems" I was having (translation: sometimes I farted a lot). I closely tracked the particular foods I ate, my calories, and my macro- and micronutrients, and I systematically eliminated and reintroduced particular foods (dairy, fructose-rich foods, coconut products, eggs, etc.) and adjusted macronutrient ratios (higher protein, lower protein, etc.). After a few months of tracking, eliminating, and reintroducing, I noticed a pattern: whenever I consumed white potatoes, of all things, my horn tooted a bit more frequently the next day. I eliminated white potatoes for a while and voila, problem solved. I was very happy to have solved this puzzle (as was my wife), and I doubt I would have been able to make the connection without tracking what I ate. 

How to track your nutrition (without going insane).

"Let's see, 2.45" times the coefficient of Italian sandwich..."

So perhaps you've decided that you would like to track what you eat, maybe just for fun, or maybe to help you reach a body composition goal. Do you need any special tools? What should you track? And, perhaps most importantly, how do you do it without wasting all of your free time and driving yourself insane? 
Fortunately, tracking what you eat requires only a few basic things, all of which can be obtained for free or relatively cheap.

1. Discipline - Free, but not necessarily easy to come by. If you're going to do this, really do it with discipline. It really isn't difficult, but it requires consistency and commitment. No room for half-assery—it will just be a waste of your time and effort. 
2. Food scale - $10-15 - If you don't already have one, a food scale is a great kitchen tool, regardless of whether you plan to weigh and track your foods or not. They can be found for very cheap—I have this one, and it has been going strong for 4+ years and only uses a 9v battery; this one gets great reviews on Amazon and is only about $11. There are plenty of very expensive scales out there too, but from what I can find they're no better (for these purposes) than the $10-15 ones, so save your money. You can track your food without a food scale, but using a food scale allows you to be far more accurate and actually simplifies things. Instead of guessing whether the chicken breast you're eating is 150 or 250 calories, or trying to guess how big a "medium" avocado actually is (literally no one knows), you can just weigh it. Simple and accurate. Plus, you can use your food scale for other things like cooking, making bets with friends about the weight of random household items, making coffee the right way, and putting the right amount of postage on your letters. Note, however, that your friends and family will absolutely assume that you're selling drugs, so don't be caught off guard when your weird uncle asks if you can "hook him up with the good stuff."  
3. A nutrition tracking app or website - free (though some have paid features) - there are a billion out there, and all do pretty much the same thing with slight variations in ease-of-use and what exactly it tracks. I use and am a fan of MyFitnessPal—it includes a barcode scanner, plenty of food options, is easy to use, allows you to set calorie and macro goals, and also tracks fiber as well as some primary vitamins and minerals. Experiment with a few and find one that works well for you.
4. Preparation - free, but also hard to "find" (see #1). Tracking your food can suck if you go about it the wrong way. So don't do that. Plan ahead and do it right. Buy some tupperware, learn some cooking basics (if you don't already know how to cook), and practice batch cooking. Tracking your food doesn't need to take any longer than 5-10mins a day if you do it right, but can take a lot longer and be very frustrating if you're not prepared. Cook up a bunch of food on the weekend (this can be as simple as throwing 10lbs of chicken breasts on the grill and steaming a huge batch of broccoli and rice) and measure and partition out your lunches and snacks for the whole week into tupperware containers with a label (I usually just stick a piece of tape on the lid with the contents of that meal: "6 oz chicken, 8 oz sweet potato, 6 oz broccoli"). Set aside what you're going to make for breakfast and pack up your lunch and your snack for work the night before. Planning ahead is the difference between food tracking being a stress-inducing disaster and it being easy and streamlined. 

5.2 oz of delicious

The most important piece of advice I can give for making your food tracking productive and not headache-inducing is to simplify: plan ahead, track only what you need to for your goals, and don't go bonkers over it. Tracking your nutrition can be fascinating, productive, and even a little bit fun if you do it right; or it can make you miserable and lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. Make sure that your tracking endeavors are helping, not harming.

Beyond this, tracking your nutrition is just a matter of execution. However, depending on why you're tracking, there are a few differences in priorities and how you should approach the whole process. For example, in some cases you'll want to focus more on tracking what you eat, whereas in other cases you'll be more concerned with how much you eat without giving as much attention to what. I'll break it down by goals.

1. For general enlightenment and self-improvement...
   Overview: eat as you normally would, track what you eat, pay attention to patterns, look for associations between how you eat and how you feel, energy levels throughout the day, cravings, etc.
   Duration: a few weeks to a few months is generally all that is needed to learn a fair bit about yourself, your habits, and the foods you eat; occasional "re-visits" (every year or so) can also be helpful
   Precision: track most things you eat/drink, including all caloric and vitamin/mineral-rich foods; feel free to not track innocuous foods that contribute very little macro- and micronutrients (hot sauce, romaine lettuce, mustard, etc.); don't need to be too precise with weighing/measuring
   Frequency: feel free to track every day if you want, but generally 4-6 days/week is plenty
   Pay particular attention to: macronutrient balance, micronutrients, specific foods (particularly common "problem foods" such as dairy, legumes, nuts, soy), cravings, meal timing
2. For weight loss...
   Overview: determine your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE - an estimate of the total calories your body uses in a day) using one of the many online calculators, subtract 5-20% (depending on your goals and timeline) from your TDEE and use that as your daily calorie goal, determine macro balance goals, track to ensure you are staying under your calorie limit and staying close to macro goals; adjust as needed if progress stalls (re-assess every 2-3 weeks)
   Duration: for as long as you need to in order to meet your goals, or as long as you need to in order to get into a rhythm and have a good understanding of how much to eat; try tracking for a month or two and then stop tracking: if you start gaining weight or progress stalls soon after you stop tracking, then perhaps you need the hard data of macro/calorie tracking to keep you accountable for the duration of your dieting; if your progress continues, then no need to continue tracking
   Precision: track all foods with substantial calories; in general, all low-calorie foods (lettuce, cucumber, celery, condiments, etc.) can be omitted unless you are focusing on micronutrients as well; aim to be relatively precise with weighing/measuring
   Frequency: 5-7 days/week depending on how you structure your diet (i.e., no need to track if you give yourself a weekly "cheat day" or have a fasted day)
   Pay particular attention to: overall calories consumed, macronutrient balance, higher calorie foods and "sneaky" calories (things like salad dressing, ketchup, etc. that can easily add hundreds of calories, high sugars), foods that you tend to eat a lot of in one sitting
3. For weight gain...
   Overview: determine your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE - an estimate of the total calories your body uses in a day) using one of the many online calculators, add 5-20% (depending on your goals and timeline) to your TDEE and use that as your daily calorie goal, determine macro balance goals, track to ensure you are meeting/exceeding your calorie limit and staying close to macro goals; adjust as needed if progress stalls (re-assess every 2-3 weeks)
   Duration: for as long as you need to in order to meet your goals, or as long as you need to in order to get into a rhythm and have a good understanding of how much to eat; try tracking for a month or two and then stop tracking: if you start losing weight or progress stalls soon after you stop tracking, then perhaps you need the hard data of macro/calorie tracking to keep you accountable for the duration of your dieting; if your progress continues, then no need to continue tracking
   Precision: track all foods with substantial calories; in general, all low-calorie foods (lettuce, cucumber, celery, condiments, etc.) can be omitted unless you are focusing on micronutrients as well; aim to be relatively precise with weighing/measuring
   Frequency: 5-7 days/week depending on how you structure your diet (i.e., no need to track if you give yourself a weekly "cheat day")
   Pay particular attention to: overall calories consumed, macronutrient balance, easy-to-consume and higher calorie foods (these are good to have around if you're trying to gain weight), foods that fill you up much faster
4. For health issues...
   Overview: if doctor- or dietician-ordered, follow their instructions; if self-directed, determine macronutrient, micronutrient, and food-specific goals (ex: eat under 25g sugar daily, avoid all dairy or gluten, eat minimum 50g fiber daily, etc.), track, observe any changes (positive or negative), adjust as needed (note: if you have any sort of serious health issue, always consult with a doctor)
   Duration: for as long as necessary to resolve/address health issue, or as long as necessary to get into enough of a rhythm that you can adhere to your goals without tracking; try tracking for a month or two and then stop tracking: if your health issues resurface or do not improve soon after you stop tracking, then perhaps you need the hard data of tracking to keep you accountable; if your health remains optimal, then no need to continue tracking
   Precision: will depend on what your focus is (macronutrients, micronutrients, specific foods, etc.), but in general, track most things you eat/drink, including all caloric and vitamin/mineral-rich foods, as well as potential "problem foods"; should be relatively precise in weighing and measuring if you are focusing on macros/micros, can rely more on estimating if focus is on particular foods
   Frequency: will depend on what health matter you are addressing, but for most health issues, 7 days/week may be more necessary
   Pay particular attention to: macronutrient balance, micronutrients, specific foods (particularly common "problem foods" such as dairy, legumes, nuts, soy) and food groups that are intentionally being avoided
5. For self-experimentation...
   Overview: determine what element of your diet you would like to experiment with—eliminating particular foods, macronutrient balance, meal timing (ex: eliminate all dairy, eliminate caffeine, eat <50g carbs daily with higher fat, eat >300g carbs daily with lower fat, fast for first 8 hours of day, etc.)—eliminate foods or adjust diet (only do one thing at a time, though!) and track for at least a week, observe/record any changes, reintroduce food or readjust diet, observe/record any changes; wash, rinse, repeat with other food eliminations or dietary adjustments (for more details, see general rules for self-experimentation here)
   Duration: as long as you want, but at least a few weeks is recommended to get ample data and allow your body time to adjust or respond to changes; recommend taking a "break" from tracking at least every couple months
   Precision: will depend on what your focus is (macronutrients, micronutrients, specific foods, etc.); if you are only focused on macros, only track macronutrient-rich foods, if you are only focused on eliminating particular foods, only track what you eat, etc.; should be relatively precise in weighing and measuring if you are focusing on macros/micros, can rely more on estimating if focus is on particular foods
   Frequency: will depend on your focus and structure of your experiment, but 7 days/week will provide most accurate data/results
   Pay particular attention to: will depend on focus of your experiment; generally macronutrient balance, micronutrients, specific foods (particularly foods being eliminated/avoided), food groups that are intentionally being avoided, ingredients that "sneak" into foods (ex: if soy is being avoided, be careful of soy products and byproducts that are in many foods that you would not suspect—chocolate, breads, baked goods, sauces, etc.)

A few final reminders...

Before you embark on any sort of food-tracking endeavor, figure out why you're doing it. This will help you determine, a) whether you should actually be tracking your nutrition, and b) what sort of precision, frequency, and focus you should employ. 

Remember also that you'll never be 100% accurate with your tracking, even if you do weigh and measure everything you eat, and so worrying about every intimate detail will be a waste of time and energy. Nutritional content of food can vary considerably depending on a host of factors that are out of your control (season, moisture content, freshness, diet of the animal, growing conditions, etc.), and food labels can be rather deceiving, with up to 20% inaccuracy allowable on food labels without any punitive repercussions from the FDA. Yes, you should aim to be accurate with your tracking, but not be overly-concerned or obsessive, especially considering how much is out of your control. 

In a similar vein, food should not be stressful. This, I believe, is a universal principle for being human. The only time you should be stressed about food is if you are starving and unable to get any. If you find yourself stressing over being 5% off your macro goals, it's time to change your mindset. The ultimate goal of tracking your nutrition should be to mitigate stress and improve your health, and it absolutely should not cause stress nor negatively affect your health. If you find yourself getting stressed about food when you start tracking, then nutrition tracking might not be the best tool for you. It's important to find a balance and not lose sight of the ultimate goal (self-improvement). 

As I mentioned above, though anyone can benefit from tracking their nutrition, it is not something that everyone should do. If you have struggled with an eating disorder before, and you are just now establishing a healthy and enjoyable relationship with food, tracking your calories may be the last thing you want to do. On the other hand, if you are struggling with an eating disorder, tracking your calories may be the exact thing that will help hold you accountable for your choices and help you establish a lasting healthy relationship with food. You have to know yourself and consider what methods typically work or do not work for you. 

Anyone else salivating?

Do you have any experiences with tracking your nutrition? Share in the comments!

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