When I first started keto I had a mental block when it came to tracking macros. My entire life before keto had been focused around the almighty calorie, and the thought of tracking macros brought up some pretty wicked PTSD!
The early days of my keto journey was ‘lazy keto’ and looking back on it now, I realize that I was not actually doing keto at all.
🔹 Why is it important to actually track our macros?
- It’s very hard to get fat adapted without tracking macros
- It’s super easy to eat too many carbs if we don’t track
- With not tracking our mentality tends to be ‘everything is free’
👉 Need help learning how to track macros? Guide 12
🔹 Things I wish I had known before I started Tracking my Macros
This is not a life sentence
You don’t have to track macros every single day or think of it as a forever thing. Thinking that the only way keto works is by meticulously tracking your macros is like saying you can never have a donut for the rest of your life. Thinking like this puts the mental block up and we think ‘oh forget it, I can’t be perfect, why bother?’
A better way
Think of macro tracking as your workhorse. The 80% of your 80/20 keto lifestyle. Tracking will give you the results you’re looking for, will lower your hunger, get you fat adapted and you will be able to know with certainty what is or isn’t working (because you have data). When you’re on vacay etc... enjoy lazy keto! You know what’s high in carbs and what a well rounded keto diet looks like. You probably won’t get the same results but you’ll give yourself a mental break... and isn’t that part of a great vacation?
Not sticking to the 70 fat, 25% protein and 5% carb high fat traditional keto model
I started off with lazy keto when I began my keto journey. When I finally wrapped my mind around actually tracking, I had heard of all kinds of info out there about high protein keto and lower fat keto. I figured I had been doing keto so long, I could jump right into these other ways of doing keto. WRONGO!
A better way
If you haven’t been tracking, the odds are very very good that you are not fat adapted. Why is this important? Because without being fat adapted you will be hungry (☹ ugh!!) and your body will not be used to using your fat as fuel. These are our ultimate goals here. So follow the 70/25/5 high fat traditional keto model for 4-6 weeks (read Keto 101 in Guide 2)... then change it up if you want (ps. If you’re rocking it DON’T change it)!!!
It’s not that complicated
I had this idea in my mind that tracking macros was complicated. It’s actually super easy! It’s just tracking our fat, protein and carbs using a macro tracking app on our phone or computer. When they are in balance and we are eating the proper amounts of each, we are not hungry (or hangry!) and we have an amazing feeling of satiety. If binge eating is a problem for you, that will go away when you track your macros because your blood sugar will not spike up.
A better way
I have all the info you need in Guide 12 if you need it and we have a 7 Day Macro Tracking Challenge in this group once a month, so we can all do it together! So many people who have never done it before say ‘wow, that was so much easier than I thought and I lost so much more weight this week!’
👉 How do you feel about tracking your macros? 👇
💗 Leta
~ Intentionally Bare
