So, you want to eat healthier and, like many of us, are looking for the easiest and most effective plan – a method that you can stick with long-term. There is so much overwhelming and sometimes even confusing information online now that it’s difficult to know where to start.

Consider Your Goals

What are your fitness or nutrition goals? Are you looking to lose fat, build muscle, have more energy? Perhaps you want to control issues like cholesterol, blood sugar or cravings. Proper nutrition can help with all of it, but we have to know how.

Consider Your Lifestyle

What is your daily routine like? Are you sedimentary, stuck in an office chair during your workday? Are you active, getting daily exercise? How much time can you carve out of your day or week to dedicate to it? Your lifestyle and health goals do determine the best path to better health.

What Do I Need To Do?

The truth is that there just is no quick-fix way to get healthy. No pill or yo-yo diet will do the trick long-term. It takes attention, dedication and work. There’s just no other way to say it, but the good news is, it doesn’t have to be unbearable or feel unreachable. Getting healthy is a lifestyle change and what works for one may not necessarily work best for another. We each have to find the best method in order to sustain it. Exercise is always imperative to good health, but you can’t work off a bad diet so good nutrition needs to be the other part of getting healthy.

The Importance of Food Tracking

No one loves the idea of measuring, weighing and tracking what we eat but it is important to do in this journey and it doesn’t have to be hard. Most of us don’t realize just how much we put into our bodies each day, and especially how what’s in it affects our bodies. A small slice of pizza or handful of potato chips doesn’t seem like much until you see what it consists of.

What Are Calories and Macros?

Simply put, calories are the overall energy that we get from the food we eat. Macros break down what exactly is in those calories (protein, carbs and fat). We’ve all heard that cutting calories is a great way to lose weight and yes, that is true, but keep in mind that losing weight and losing fat aren’t the same thing. Weight can be water and even muscle loss so, while a caloric deficit does work, knowing your personal health goals may require counting macros, as well.

Why Tracking Macros Is Important

Calories, as I mentioned, are the general amount of energy we get from food, but what is in those calories makes a huge difference. Isn’t it better to eat a salad than cake? They’re both calories but vary greatly in both nutritional value and density. Our bodies require a certain amount of protein, fat and carbs (yes, I said fat and carbs) – good carbs for energy, and these are broken down into percentages in our food and drinks. Eating higher percentages of protein will keep you feeling fuller longer and is recommended over smaller percentages of fats and carbs, but the three combined will make up 100% of your macro total each day. For example, a good equation might be 50% protein, 30% fat and 20% carbs in a day of calorie intake. If I eat a thin slice of cake, I have just gone far over my fat and carb intake but, if I eat an entire meal of something like salmon and asparagus, I have likely stayed within the macros I have set. Let’s also consider the density of the foods we eat. That small piece of cake lies heavy in the bottom of the stomach and requires much more to feel full while a small bowl of lettuce fills the stomach and therefore, less is required to feel full. Less calories, better calories.

How Do I Track My Food Intake?

There are several tracking apps, like Macros or My Fitness Pal, that making tracking calories and macros easy. By putting in your weight goals and lifestyle and simply logging in everything you eat and drink in a day, along with your exercise, the app will keep track of both and, at the end of each day, you will see how many calories you have eaten and burned, in addition to the percentages of macros that were in those foods. Seeing the amount of fats and carbs we put into our bodies makes all the difference in controlling things like sugar intake, energy levels and weight.

The Bottom Line

• Drop the scale – Are your clothes fitting better/looser?
• Eating too little is the same as eating too much – eat the RIGHT foods for your body by tracking what you put in it
• Eat more protein – eating more protein increases metabolism, which helps to burn fat
• Stay consistent and be patient – getting healthy is a lifestyle change that doesn’t happen overnight