Hey there! I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Mine was low key, with a mix of work, relaxing, and spending some time outdoors.

A good mix!

So last week on my blog I gave you a free guide to help estimate your macronutrientsplit; guidelines to help you understand a little better about how much protein, carbohydrate, and dietary fat you should be consuming on a daily basis for body composition, performance, and feeling your best.

In it, I mentioned that very few of my clients actually track macronutrient grams on a consistent, daily basis. For the rest of my clients, each person falls on a different place on a realm of macros-based coaching.

Some of them are now to a place where they barely have to think about their meals at all, but still consume a nutrient-rich, balanced diet that’s helping them reach their goals (the ultimate goal, really.) Others keep track certain meals– and others even more loosely. This isn’t a randomized selection of who gets what type of nutrition coaching, but carefully determined after a detailed consultation and gathering much more information about her. Some clients I would never ever suggest trackingmacronutrient grams, while others it makes more sense.

It all comes down to three things:

1) Personality
2) Preference
3) Situation

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Should you be tracking macronutrients to reach your goals?

In this industry, there are very rarely any absolutes, but I tend to adhere to the following criteria 99% of the time.

• If, before reading my guide or this email, you didn’t know what amacronutrient was – the answer is probably no. There’s another form of coaching for you. (situation)
• If you’ve ever had a prior history of disordered eating or obsessive habits towards calorie counting – the answer is probably no. (situation)
• If you tend to be an obsessive type of person by nature or by habit, the answer is probably no. (personality)
• If the thought of counting or tracking anything having to do with food immediately makes you make a disgusted face, the answer is probably hell no (preference)

There are quite a few people out there who fit into the “probably no” category. In this case, we’d typically go another route- one that is likely still macros-based, but one having to do with portions, guidelines, habit changes, or specific tweaks and changes to your current diet. Again, it all depends on your personality, preference, and situation.

As you might imagine, this leaves a fairly small percentage of people for whom counting macronutrients does work. I do coach several clients who work with specificmacronutrient ranges to hit each day. This is a temporary strategy, but it’s one that works. Knowing what produces results – or what doesn’t – gives us insight into what to modify every couple or few or ongoing weeks.

If you are in a good headspace, and want to start seeing some more aggressive results (usually there is a deadline) and a system in place to reach that goal, then the answer could be yes.

I hope this gives you some insight into what type of nutrition strategies or coaching might be a good idea (or not a good idea) for you. IIFYM (if it fits your macros) is a very popular concept right now – and while it works really great for some, it can lead to burn out, or being too obsessive about food for others.

Have you ever tracked your macronutrient split? I do for a only couple days about 2-3 times a year to make sure I’m where I should be for my goals.

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