USING YOUR FOOD SCALE

Food scales might differ, but I imagine they all function PRETTY MUCH the same way. I’m not certain because I’ve only owned one, so I’m going to share how I use mine. I’m sure you’ll figure out the rest. :) I got my scale from Walmart; click here for details.

HOW TO WEIGH FOOD IN OUNCES (OZ.)

1. Turn the scale on (HA!)
2. Place your food on the scale and wait for it to settle on a value
3. Voila! You have your food in ounces.

HOW TO WEIGH YOUR FOOD IN GRAMS (g)

1. Turn the scale on
2. Press the far left button (UNIT) until the display reads “0g”
3. Place your food on the scale and wait for it to settle on a value

HOW TO WEIGH MULTIPLE FOODS ON ONE PLATE

1. Place your plate, or container, on the scale
2. Turn the scale on
3. Place FOOD 1 on the scale and wait for it to settle on a value
4. To reset the scale without moving anything on it, press the middle button (Z/T) to “TARE”. Wait for it to read “0”.
5. Place FOOD 2 on the scale and wait for it to settle on a value
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed.

TIPS:

• Remember that containers weigh something! Sometimes when I want to know how much something in a tupperware weighs, I’ll put an identical empty tupperware on the scale FIRST, then tare it (Z/T). I’ll take that container off and place the tupperware with my food in it on the scale. There I have the weight of the food only.
• Remember that certain foods have peels and skins that you don’t eat– these weigh something too! For example, I love avocado, but I don’t eat the peel or the pit. I have to be sure I don’t weigh those pieces. I like to eat them whole, so often times, I’ll weigh the entire avocado, eat it, and weigh the peel and pit afterwards. Simple subtraction will get me the weight of the part I ate.
• Know the weight limit of your scale. Mine is 11 lbs. Don’t break your scale!

USING MY FITNESS PAL: THE BASICS FOR COUNTING MACROS

So you have your macro numbers now, how the hell do we put all this information in MFP (My Fitness Pal)?! MFP is utilized a little bit differently when tracking your macros- I’m going to make it way simpler.

SETTING UP MY FITNESS PAL

Set up your profile

1. Open the app and select “More” located at the bottom right
2. Select “My Profile”
3. Select “Edit Profile” located just under the space where your picture will go
4. Enter in all of your information

Set your goals:

1. Open the app and select “More” located at the bottom right
2. Select “Goals”
3. Enter your weights, weekly goal, and activity level. This information isn’t necessary, but go ahead and enter it anyway just to have something in there.
4. Enter your Nutrition Goals: You already have your total calories. After entering this number in, click on one of the % and it will pull up options for carbs, proteins, and fats. It looks like a slot machine.
5. I have selected your numbers to be MFP friendly, so scroll to a % in each column that matches your personal macro number. It should equal 100%.
6. You do not need to enter in your fitness goals. This is just extra information that isn’t necessary.

USING MY FITNESS PAL

Entering in food:

1. Open the app and select “Diary” located at the bottom of the main screen
2. Select “Add Food” in the meal you just consumed (e.g., Breakfast, Lunch, etc). From here there are different ways to add food.
   • Search for a food: Type in the food you ate and select “search”. This will pull up a variety of different versions of the food you are trying to find. It’s helpful to search for the brand of food you ate. Double check the macro values in it to be sure it’s appropriate and correct. Sometimes, a food will exist, but when you look at its values, there might be nothing there. Just double check.
   • Scan the food’s barcode: Select the barcode icon at the bottom of your screen. Scan the barcode of your food!
3. Enter in the number of servings consumed- you may have to do a little math.
4. There is a way to enter in entire recipes (for when you cook/bake). I will post about this later.

Enter your weight:

1. Open the app and select “Progress” located at the bottom of the main screen
2. Select the “+” icon at the top right
3. Enter in your weight. I did this daily when I first started, you may find this helpful. DO NOT weigh yourself everyday if you know you will get upset at the number for not changing. This is a process and will take time!

TRACKING YOUR MACROS:

1. Open the app and select “Diary”.
2. Select the “Nutrition” button at the bottom of your screen. This will display a pie graph of how balanced (or unbalanced) your macros are so far. This is good to look at just to see how well portioned your meals are.
3. Select the small list icon located next to the small pie chart icon near the top right. This will display the exact numbers of all of your macros (and micros, but don’t worry). Take a look at Total Fat, Total Carbohydrates, and Protein ONLY. Don’t worry about the other stuff yet. Remember, this is called IIFYM- if it fits your MACROS, so the other numbers (micronutrients) can be left alone. We can go over these in another post.
4. As you add food into MFP throughout the day, your macros will be added for you. Check here to see where you are throughout your day and plan accordingly!

MISC. INFORMATION and TIPS

• Adding Exercise: DON’T. Don’t add in your exercise. Doing so will add calories to your total and throw you off your macro count. All we care about is hitting our macro numbers.
• Weight Change: When you lose/gain weight and enter this information in regularly, MFP may try and change your total calories for you. For example, if you have entered in that you would like to maintain your weight of 150 lbs and slowly lose 5 lbs and enter in this data, MFP will allot you MORE calories in an attempt to help you maintain your weight. This is thoughtful, but not what we want. Be sure MFP is still giving you the same amount of calories and macros every day.

Last words of advice: Play around with this app and familiarize yourself with the different features. I gave you the BASICS in how we are going to use this app, but there is so much it can do. There is also more than one way to do what I have explained, so tinker around with it!

CALCULATING YOUR MACROS

There are a few different calculators out there on the inter webs and I encourage you to use more than 1 calculator so you can see the difference between some of them. I’m not sure why some of them are so different, but it definitely proves my point in that flexible dieting is completely experimental at first. It’s totally trial and error.

I used a calculator found in a book that I read on flexible dieting (Flexible Dieting: A Guide to Macros & Eating for Life by Krissy Mae Cagney, and she just released a new book: Flexible Dieting 2.0 which is even better) but ended up adjusting it just a little bit based on a few different factors. Here are the calculations I did the first time around (feel free to skip this part if it looks overwhelming; we can talk individually):

Step 1: Establishing Maintenance Calories

(Body Weight) x (Calorie Multiplier) = Maintenance Calories

Example: 135 lbs. x 14 = 1890 calories

So 1890 calories are the amount of calories needed for me to maintain my weight (according to the book, the way I understand it).

Step 2: Determine Your Goals

Fat Loss: Subtract a few hundred calories, add HIIT (high intensity interval training)

Bulking/Muscle Gain: Add 500-700, omit all cardio (more about this for us functional fitness exercisers, don’t worry)

Call it a 6th sense, but I KNOW 1890 calories is not enough for me, so I just rounded my number to 2000 calories to maintain my current weight. This was my goal so I didn’t really complete Step 2. For you, this may be different.We will talk more about your personal numbers one-to-one and what might be best.

Step 3: Determine Your Macros

Protein for Fat Loss: 1.0g per lb. of (lean body mass – total body weight)

Example: 1.0g x 135lbs = 135g Protein

Protein for Gain: 1.0g per lb of (total body weight – goal body weight)

Example: 1.0g x 140lbs = 140g Protein

Carbohydrates: 1.0-1.5g per lb of lean body mass

Use lower end for fat loss (1.0g) or higher end for gain (1.5g)

Example: 1.0g x 116lbs = 116g Carbohydrates

Fat: Total Calories – (Protein Calories + Carb Calories) = Fat Calories

Example: 2000 – (540+464) = 996 Fat Calories

Fat Calories divided by 9 = g Fat 

Example: 996 divided by 9 = 111g Fat

I imagine some heads are spinning- mine was. But that’s why we are going to go over this one-on-one. I’ll be able to show you how I got each value and why I think maybe we might have to adjust some of your numbers. Based on this calculator, here are my macros:

Flexible Dieting: A Guide to Macros:

Protein: 135g

Carbohydrate: 116g

Fat: 111g

After seeing these numbers, I checked out other calculators…

Healthy Eater: 

Protein: 135

Carbohydrate: 286g

Fat: 62g

IIFYM:

Protein: 108g

Carbohydrate: 270.5g

Fat: 54g

You can see how different these values can be across different calculators. Each of these calculators used different formulas for different reasons, so you can imagine how confused I was when I first started. What you need to know: DON’T GET OVERWHELMED. I ALREADY DID THAT FOR YOU. Bear in mind that whatever values you end up using is a STARTING POINT. You are going from a NOT structured way of eating to a STRUCTURED way of eating, so no matter what you do, you will see a change (unless you miraculously calculated your EXACT maintenance calories). After establishing your macro values and trying it out for a couple of weeks, you will see a change- if it’s a change you like, then we’ll keep doing the same thing. If it’s a change you don’t like, we will adjust. Simple!

What I do now is use My Fitness Pal’s % feature, which makes things a bit easier for me. After entering in the total amount of calories, I select the % of each macro I would like to achieve every day. I start with protein and then adjust the others. I can show you how to do this.

Well, I hope I didn’t lose anyone from this blog post, but I do think it’s important to understand exactly where your numbers are coming from and why. For those of you on the current cycle of flexible dieters with me, feel free to email me! I imagine you have questions!

WHAT'S THE CATCH?

Seriously, right? Ice Cream? Chips? Cookies? Chocolate? Pizza? YES! But let me explain a little bit more…

CATCH #1: Flexible dieting doesn’t mean being able to binge every day.

Just because you’re making your macros fit, doesn’t mean you’re setting your body up for optimal performance… I learned this the hard way.

Previous to flexible dieting, I was eating a high protein, high fat, low carb diet. This meant eggs, bacon, steak, etc. So when I began flexible dieting, I was shocked to see my allotment of carbohydrates- it was huge! I could eat almost ANYTHING! The world was my oyster and I said, “Let’s eat a crap ton of cup-o-noodles!” Well you can probably imagine that I quickly ran out of carbs and a decent amount of fat, so if I ate all this in the morning, the rest of my day is pretty much ruined. I’d be stuck eating boiled chicken breasts and slamming protein shakes… not fun. Did it fit my macros? Sure. But was it a good choice? HELL NO.

You still want to make healthy choices, which will be another blog post, but this is something to keep in mind as you begin the follow a flexible diet.

CATCH #2: Progress is the result of consistency and time.

Six months ago, I had decided that my training routine needed something different nutrition wise. I was in the gym at least five days a week for two to three hours at a time and felt…fluffy (if you will). Not fat, not skinny, but not really lean either. Energy levels were okay at best, but I thought I was supposed to be tired all the time since I was training so much. Food wise, I was liberal with my proteins and fats, extremely conservative with my carbs, but never really worried about how much I was eating. I read someone else’s blog about flexible dieting and it was intriguing enough to try. And hey, if it helped me in the gym AND leaned me out, sweet! So over the next six months, I began to follow a flexible diet.

The first few weeks were a bit tough- measuring and weighing everything was tedious, calculating and constantly checking My Fitness Pal was annoying, and I wasn’t sure if I was seeing results yet. After about 4 weeks, I had dropped 6 lbs. I went from 136 lbs to 130 lbs, which is actually way too much weight to lose for what I want. My energy levels were low too. So from here, I adjusted and I increased my macros. It took a few times of adjusting over the next few months, but now, I sit at a more comfortable weight of 133 lbs and I’m happy with the way I look.

What I’m saying is… it takes time! It took me 6 months to get to where I am with flexible dieting and for some of you, it may take longer than 6 months to get to where you want to be. It’s a huge trial and error process, but once you find a good set of macro numbers that suit you well, you will see results. It may take some adjusting, and even after you find your numbers, you may adjust again, but in the end, flexible dieting is a great way to empirically figure out how much you should eat. We all come from different backgrounds of how we eat, how we move, how we work out, etc… so as you embark on this journey, be patient and trust the process! Be consistent and let time do it’s thang :)