Counting your macronutrients is an essential part of losing or gaining weight, and like anything else in life you need to make sure you have the best tools to do it correctly.
Eyeballing your food won’t cut it if you’re chasing a specific goal—you need to measure it out to the gram (literally).
To find out how to track your macros, first read our handy beginner’s guide. When you’re done, come back to this page to find out what items you’ll need to make sure you’re not overloading or missing out on carbs, fats, and protein.
When you get your food scale, measure one 14g serving of peanut butter and compare it to the amount you get using a tablespoon. You’ll be shocked (and sad) at the difference. In a lot of cases, the spoon method is double what you should be eating.
That means you’re most likely taking in an extra 140 calories and 14 grams of fat worth of peanut butter. That adds up fast!
Food scales are also really cheap and most measure in grams, ounces, and pounds.
One key to tracking your progress is to weigh yourself daily, or at least once per week. This allows you to pay attention to how your intake is affecting your body. Again, this is a cheap buy. Whichever scale you buy is the only one you should weigh yourself on, as other scales can add or subtract a few pounds.
Bodyweight isn’t the only indicator of progress. Whether you’re looking to gain muscle or lose body fat, sometimes the scale can be deceiving. For example, you may not lose any pounds on the scale, but if you measure your waist and are down a half-inch or an inch, you know you’re losing fat while maintaining muscle.
The same goes for gaining weight. Ideally, you want the scale to go up and your waist to stay the same.
You can also use it to measure your arms, chest, and thighs to see if your gaining muscle in those areas, too.
This shouldn’t be a hard sell. Part of your success hinges on your ability to prepare meals ahead of time. Investing in tupperware ensures you can portion your meals out.
Prepping your meals doesn’t have to a be a chore. One solution is to dump 4-5 pounds of chicken into a slow cooker or instant pot, cover it all with chicken broth, and set it on low while you’re at work. By the time you get home, it’s all done and ready to be shredded. In the end, and with little effort, you have pounds of pre-shredded chicken that can be use in variety of ways—paired with rice, rolled up in a burrito, tossed in a salad. A lot of folks turn to Instant Pots since they’re more versatile and can be used to slow cook but also steam, saute, and cook rice.
