Diary of a Habyt babe PT. 5
By Kate Holland - a Habyt member
I'm the first person to admit that I'm terrible with numbers. On more than one occasion, I've given someone the incorrect phone number because I failed to write down all the digits. When I realized that my Habyt journey would involve counting macros, my interest was stalled at the word "counting." My general rule is that if I can't count it on my fingers, it's out of my league. In the third grade, I would fake a stomachache before my afternoon math class so I didn't have to learn division. The psychosomatic result is that I know get real stomach pains whenever I'm forced to do math.
I also incorrectly assumed that any counting associated with food would involve calories. I've always considered calories to be arbitrary, like someone just made up a bunch of numbers and put them on food to drive everyone nuts for funsies. Please don't try to explain the scientific definition of a calorie to me, because unless a "unit of energy" is something I can use to give Toad a speed boost Super Mario Cart, I am not interested. Christina, and all of the The Habyt coaches, are great at breaking down the science of food into digestible pieces (get it?). As a testament to what I've learned so far, I'm going to attempt regurgitate what ThinHabit has taught me about macro counting and flex dieting.
The term "macros" stands for macronutrients. Macronutrients include carbohydrates, fat, and protein. I like to think of these as the super-nutrients, because they quite literally give you power. Each performs a different function, and the The Habyt coaches will help you determine how much of each macro you need to eat based on your goals. The role of your Habyt coach is pretty crucial. Figuring out how much of each macro you need to consume can be complicated and depends on a whole slew of factors. Let them come up with the numbers. Here's my extremely generalized understanding of what each macro does:
Carbohydrates - Your body uses carbs for energy. Carbs are found in grains, fruits, and vegetables. There are good carbs and bad carbs. In my experience, bad/simple carbs(basic sugars found in fruit and processed sugars found in Twinkies) tend to be everything delicious, and good/complex carbs (whole grains and starchy veggies) tend to be everything unappetizing.
Fat- Apparently, fat does more than just make it hard to put on your skinny jeans. Your body needs fat to live. Fat assists in things like hormone regulation and brain function. Fat also makes you feel satiated, so you don't get hangry and punch people.
Protein - Protein helps your body build and repair muscle. This is the body's building blocks. Without protein, your foundation is cracked and it's going to be a nightmare renovation.
Here's the key difference between counting macros and counting calories: macro dieting focuses on quality instead of quantity. I'm going to put this in terms of shopping, because that is something my simple brain can understand. If you only have a few hundred bucks to spend on clothing, you can purchase 2 or 3 high quantity items or you can go to Forever21 and buy a bunch of crap. Everyone knows that investing in key pieces is the better route, because these pieces will last longer and you'll be able to built a killer wardrobe. The same logic applies to calories and macros. If you have a strict calorie limit to stick to, you can be eating garbage and not getting the nutrients you need. Loading up on low-calorie snack bars and fat-free frozen meals might keep your calorie count low, but you won't be eating anything of value to your body.
Counting macros is like maximizing your budget to make sure you get the best items at the best prices. You have a certain budget for carbs, fat, and protein (except we're working with grams not dollars). You get to choose how you want to spend this budget. By making healthy food choices, you get much more bang for your buck. The best part is that you can even splurge on a brownie, it just means you'll have to budget carefully for the rest of the day. And let's face it, sometimes the brownie is just worth it.
Two different tools have helped me demystify macro counting. The first one is MyFitnessPal. MFP makes it super easy to track the food you eat and determine macro counts. You can input your specific macro goals, and then see how the food you plan to eat tallies up. The key word here is plan. The golden rule is to put the food in MFP before you put it in your mouth. You want to determine the food's worth before you eat it. This takes some premeditation, but it will help you get the most value out of your macros! The second useful resource is my Habyt coach. Sometimes, you just need someone to explain things in person. Consider the coaches your macro tutors. Your Habyt coach is an amazing resource and huge benefit of the program. You can ask them questions such as, "If I have no carbs left, what can I eat that's just fat and protein?" or "Will I die if I go over my allotted grams of protein for the day?" Dieting can be scary and confusing, but you are not in this alone. You have MyFitnessPal (my new bff), a coach, an amazing support group of other Habyt members. Take it from me, failing third grade math doesn't mean you have to fail at dieting.