About my diet

[Edoardo Roberto Cagnola]

I've decided to write a topic about my diet so that I can get some feedback and clear some of the doubts that I have.

I've been counting my calories for almost two years now, using the app MyFitnessPal. It's a really simple way to know exactly what macronutrients you're getting on a daily. I eat around 1.6 g/kg of bw of protein, a little less then 1g/kg of bw of fats and the rest of my calories come from carbs. Now, since I maintain at around 3000 kcal, that's quite a fair amount of carbs.

I'm progressively cleaning up my diet trying to stay away from processed foods, added sugars. I'm also experimenting with a dairy free diet (with the exception of one "cheat" pizza every week).

But is counting macros really necessary? I've just come back from my holidays and not a single macro was counted. That doesn't mean that I ate "junk foods" all the time though. I now find that I enjoy eating food more if I don't break it down to numbers. The problem is that when I don't monitor this stuff I end up eating a lot less food (crazy, eh?) and so struggle to maintain my weight, which is my goal at the moment. How do you guys manage your diet without counting macros?

Also, I often see photos from GB people and their diet looks a lot like a paleo. Now to my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong, this is not my field of expertise) paleo is pretty low carb. How can you hit your maintainence calories eating so little carbs? Are you supposed to eat more (healthy) fats?

Sorry about the long and confusing post, but that's what I currently am regarding my nutrition: very confused!

Thanks to anyone who decide to chime in

[Chris Garay]

Hey Edoardo,

 

I recommend you search the forums, as there are a lot of posts about this topic. You mentioned several questions, so I'll try to be brief:

• "Is counting macros really necessary?" - This is a big point of contention with nutritionists. Some say calorie counting is inaccurate and to use more intuitive measures instead. Others argue that what is not measured cannot be managed. I think it depends on the person's disposition and lifestyle habits as well.
• "How do you guys manage your diet without counting macros?" - Hunger, taste, and sourcing good-quality ingredients.
• "...paleo is pretty low carb." - A Paleo-style diet recommends types of foods, not amounts. See next point as well.
• "How can you hit your maintenance calories eating so little carbs?" - For those of us who eat Paleo-ish, are relatively lean, and train a lot, we eat a lot of starches and fruits to include more healthy carbs. Think white rice, sweet potatoes, berries, etc.
• "Are you supposed to eat more (healthy) fats?" - Yes: avocados, fish, coconut products, etc.

Best,

Chris

[Sean Murphey]

Edoardo,

 

can you be a little more specific?

 

Are you just trying to not count macros anymore? or are you trying to change the composition of what you eat?

 

A little more specificity about your goals will help us help you.

[Edoardo Roberto Cagnola]

Thanks Chris, your post was very informative!

@Sean: I don't necessarily want to stop counting macros. I just want to experiment and see if it's really necessary for me. If I find that I find that I get better results counting macro I'll continue to do so, otherwise I'll stop.

As far as the composition of my diet, I'm just trying to clean it up even more and eat mostly whole foods. In the question I've mentioned that I eat a lot of carbs (or should do so) to maintain my weight. Eating all those carbs just from "paleo-style" foods would be pretty difficult, that's why I've asked if a higher fats intake would work.

I know it's a lot to think about, it's just that I've realized how much I don't know about nutrition