In the first part of this 2 part blog series, titled “How to Maintain Your Gains During Quarantine Through Diet”, we discussed how to determine your maintenance calories, how to determine whether you should be in a caloric deficit or surplus, and how to make sure you are actually eating for those goals. If you have not read this post yet, we’d suggest in your best interest you do! In this blog post, we are going to be going over how to track your calories and macronutrients for success!

Tracking:

Now that we know what to track and why, how do we track? First, there are a few things that are necessary for tracking – a tracking app such as MyFitnessPal, RP Diet, or CarbonDietCoach (MyFitnessPal is free and is my preference) and a food scale (preferably with a zeroing function).

The best way to go about explaining how to track, I believe, is to outline a rough day of eating and the different ways to track different items. This will give you some practical examples to apply to the different things you eat.

2 scoops of protein – Barcode scan, enter number of servings

2 bananas – Search “bananas”, enter quantity

2 packets of Mr. Noodles – Barcode scan, enter number of servings

2 kiwis – Search “kiwi”, enter quantity

Orange juice – Barcode scan, enter number of servings, weight it

Cheese – Break piece off of brick, weigh, barcode scan, enter weight

Rice – Plate on scale, add rice, weigh, Search “rice, white, cooked” or scan barcode (sometimes it only shows dry weight), enter weight

Ground Beef – Plate on scale, weigh cooked, barcode scan or search “ground beef 80/20” or scan barcode, enter weight

Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Milk – Bowl on scale, add cereal and note weight, add milk and note weight, barcode scan each and enter quantity

Each of these items was added in roughly 30 seconds or less. None of it was really planned out. I simply ate as I felt hungry throughout the day. However, throughout the day I do check the macronutrient breakdown page in the app to see how many calories I’ve eaten and how much protein I’ve eaten. Halfway through the day, aim to have eaten roughly 50% of your calories and 50% of your protein so that you aren’t left with a bunch of calories to eat at the end of the day in a surplus or very few left at the end of the day in a deficit.

General Tracking Tips:

1.      Liquids like milk and juice are mostly water, 1kg of water is 1L, and therefore you can weigh your liquids instead of having to measure them in a measuring cup to remove that step entirely.

2.      Measure amounts that are convenient to the serving size on the package or how they are listed in the app. For example, a serving of cinnamon toast crunch is ~30g. So, I will simply add servings that are multiples of that number, removing any fractional calculations (90g = 3 servings vs 70g = 2.33).

3.      Most items are already listed in the app and easy to find. If you are eating out, a simple search will allow you to easily track the items you order. However, if you cannot find the food, there are likely similar options already in the app, use those. Something is better than nothing.

4.      Many vegetables have negligible calories. You’ll notice I didn’t include any vegetables, but I certainly ate them that day. For the most part, I have found it as inconvenient and unnecessary to bother tracking them because they have so few calories. This is of course, with the exception of a few vegetables, such as potatoes, corn, and peas. Giving some of these a search prior to dismissing them entirely might be a good idea just in case.

5.      Most fruits will be listed in the app as small, medium, and large. It is likely that you won’t be consistently eating apples that vary significantly in size and so you can simply measure one time and use that as a standard.

6.      Pasta and rice are almost always listed on packages in their dry weight. It is inconvenient to always measure how much dry weight you pour into a pot. Thankfully, I found online that cooked pasta is between 2.25 and 2.4 times its dry weight once it has been cooked. 2.25 is al dente, whereas 2.4 is slightly more water and cooking time. As long as you are consistent, it shouldn’t matter much.

7.      The app will have chicken thighs, breasts, drumsticks, etc. Same goes for beef. Choose whatever you are cooking to make sure the macronutrients are correct as the fat can vary quite a bit between these. For example, chicken breast has little to no fat, but chicken thighs and drumsticks have a considerable amount of fat.

Deficit Tips:

The main problem you might encounter in a deficit is hunger. Here are some tips to manage any craving you might get. If they are still a problem, consider decreasing the size of the deficit. Being hungry all the time is not sustainable and can lead to falling off of the wagon. Slow progress is better than no/negative progress.

1.      Fat is more calorie dense than carbs or protein. Therefore, if you eat more fat, the volume of food will decrease and you might end up hungrier.

2.      As mentioned above, green, leafy, and colourful vegetables are generally not very calorie dense. Consuming more of these vegetables can help to increase food volume while netting very few calories.

3.      Protein increases satiety (the sensation of fullness). A protein rich meal at the end of the day can mitigate hunger cravings.

4.      Take full advantage of zero/low calorie artificially sweetened drinks like diet pop and flavoured water. Regular water is fine, but also boring. And thankfully, research suggests that aspartame is not harmful at all unless you are consuming 10+ artificially sweetened drinks per day (even this is minor).

Surplus Tips:

I don’t have a naturally big appetite. This is something I have struggled with when trying to gain weight. Here are some tips to manage fullness when in a surplus. These are mostly the inverse of tips for eating in a deficit.

1.      Fat is more calorie dense as mentioned above. Eating more fat during gaining phases can reduce food volume.

2.      I wouldn’t decrease vegetable intake too much as they are critical for health. Instead, aim for vegetables that you digest well and don’t cause much bloating.

3.      Ensure you are on track throughout the day to hit your calories at the end of the day. Pacing yourself can help prevent you from having to cram a whole bunch of food in before bed.

4.      If you aren’t naturally hungry in the morning, try eating something small, this can jump start your hunger and help you to intersperse your calories better throughout the day.

Tracking Inaccuracies:

As mentioned, the goal is to make tracking a habit. This guide will hopefully make that process as easy as possible by removing any steps that are unnecessary in the beginning. With that being said, individuals often run into the issue of gaining too quickly or not losing quickly enough because of inaccurate tracking. Below are some of foods where this issue often arises:

Fats (particularly oils and butters) – A generous table spoon and a legitimate table spoon can be the difference between 100 calories and 200 calories of butter very easily. This is even more true for oils that are often poured instead of measured. Fat is more than twice as dense as carbs and protein. When in doubt, measure your fats and measure them accurately.

Liquids – It is very difficult to eyeball quantities of liquid with accuracy. Remember to use the measuring trick from the tracking tips section.

Sauces/Dressings – Especially high fat dressings like Caesar dressing. These can range from negligible to a very large number of calories. Make sure to look at the nutrition label before dismissing these entirely.

Tracking for Performance:

Tracking in a deficit and for performance can be slightly more complex because numerous small inaccuracies can compound and cause your progress to become stagnant. This is not always the case, but these might be some areas to tighten up if you start to stall.

This is particularly relevant for individuals who compete in sports with weight classes or a sport like bodybuilding where an individual may be trying to get to an extremely low body fat percentage. In bodybuilding specifically, the changes to body composition are resisted by the body as the body fat percentage becomes lower and lower. This is done naturally through alterations in hormones that affect hunger and fat storage and will effectively lower a person’s maintenance calories. As this occurs, an individual will have to eat less and less calories to continue to make progress. During this period of time, tracking accurately will become extremely important as any additional untracked calories can have a negative impact on body composition. During these times, the best course of action is to measure, weigh, and track everything that you’re consuming to ensure the highest degree of accuracy possible.

Finally, individuals in sports with weight classes may want to maintain their weight to remain in a specific weight class. Inaccurate tracking for these individuals can lead to unintended fluctuations in weight and an unintended macronutrient distribution. Macronutrient optimization can become crucial as an athlete becomes more competitive in their sport and wants to eek out every last ounce of performance. Again, these are all strategies that are not necessary for the average fitness enthusiast and especially not someone who is just getting into tracking.

Final Thoughts:

In summary, exercise is only one piece of the equation. Ensuring your diet aligns with your goals can help you to make faster progress, whether that is gaining or losing weight, for general health or for performance. This is especially true during these times when gym access if limited. Furthermore, tracking doesn’t need to be a complicated and arduous process. This is only one way to track and is the way that I have found to be the most effective for myself due to simplicity. In my opinion, it should barely impact your daily life, other than being additive to your efforts in the gym. Finally, practice makes perfect. The more you track, the easier and faster it will become. Hopefully this guide will give you the insight that I wish I had years ago to finally make tracking a consistent habit.

As always,

Stay Strong Ladies and Gentlemen,

Sean (lead author) and David (editor and secondary author)

Smart Fitness