Counting

[Talo]

Who hear counts their calories on a daily basics ? I use to for years , but not anymore and I know that it does make a differenc in the out come. I am starting a diet soon so I will be starting to write down everything I eat .
Also what do you feel would be more beneficial to do . Count the total calories or count the individual macro ( protein / carb / fat ) ? Does this depend on what type of diet your doing ?

I'm thinking about just hitting set goals in the protein / fat category

Do you find hitting a set goal such as 300g of protein or 500g of carbs easier to do than say 3000 cals ?

I'm just wondering a few things and how others go about it.

[razorsedge]

I usually set it up with say 6-7 meals per day with the basics I like to use starting with proteins, then carbs and let fats come as they come. For eg,


Meal 1: 2 whole O3 eggs, 8 egg whites (add a carb like ezekiel bread, oatmeal etc)

Meal 2: 6-8 oz chicken...add a carb

Meal 3: shake with 50 protein with cup oatmeal in it

and so on

I shoot for around min 50/50 protein / Carbs and then build or adjust from there and seems to work out pretty good if ur shooting for 300-350 of each per day will put you in the range of 2400-2800 cals without the fats...100 gm fat on top of this takes you to 3300-3700 and go from there adding or deleting dependent on ur goals.

I never add calories up til I have my other targets achieved especially pro / carb and it seems in the end if I get all my targets, the cal just works out nicely

I guess this would be the keep it simple concept but I'm sure there are more guys with some good ideas...

[Talo]

The way I have always done it in the past was calorie total . I've never worried about hitting X amount of protein , fat or carbs in thinking that once X calories are hit so is everything else.

I will prob stick to doing it that way since it's the way I find easier to deal with. I am a low carb guy while dieting having my carbs come only from fruit and veg and timed based with the fruit ( early moring and in my shakes ) .

I just wanted to see if others found counting grams of protein and carbs and hitting that total worked better , but I guess a guy should just do what works :)

The hardest part is just building that habit back up in writting and weighing .

[nisser]

I just know what my meals are calorie-wise by n and just put them together (ex. tuna with oatmeal and nuts is x calories, etc..). Then I just guestimate the rest depending on which meals I've had and how much over I want to be and add fruit, nuts, shakes, milk to make up the difference.

[JacktheThriller]

just do a few weeks of measuring and totalling, you should know what 6 oz of beef feels like just by eye no need to keep scaling if you continue to lose weight

[Delt King]

As i do for all my clients and myself is design a meal plan considering the macros and total calories then you know exectly what to eat day to day meal to meal. I have equalized substitutions chicken for fish or rice for potatoe etc but mainly keep it the same. except the cheat or refeed meals.

Boring but it works. and makes grocery shopping easier too.

[ironwill]

Im getting good at reading my body....For prep, its very much set in stone....BUT off season, i eat my proteins, and fats, in fairly high amnts, the rest is carbs, depending on my daily workload which varies a lot. Protein is always consistent, so are fats, my carbs are dynamic......In gym trng is consistent, but my job cardio varies immensely...
No way i could do same thing day in, and day out....I personally dont think i could eat the same thing day after day and grow...

[baza]

I do it for every meal, but pretty much every meal is really easy.
At the very least, I suggest doing it for a week, including measuring cups, weighing, etc. You'd be surprised how far your guesstimations are off.

[Andre Gregoire]

I find it much easier to write out a diet and follow it 90% of the time.

I just swap stuff around as I want it, you just need to be familiar with substitutions.

For example, I might have chicken, brown rice, olive oil, broccoli for lunch and the next day I might have a large potato instead of the rice and steak instead of the chicken and oil.

[edit: I just saw DK's post and I do pretty much the same thing as he does]

[Dryvrgrl]

As i do for all my clients and myself is design a meal plan considering the macros and total calories then you know exectly what to eat day to day meal to meal. I have equalized substitutions chicken for fish or rice for potatoe etc but mainly keep it the same. except the cheat or refeed meals.

Boring but it works. and makes grocery shopping easier too.

ITS ALOT OF FOOD!!!!

Delt King is doing my diet.. its the same as how I trained before.. exact same thing every day... I totally LOVE it! well i dont love the millions of pounds of food i am eating.. but I love eating the same thing every day!.. Makes cheats so much more fun! plus.. you eat at the same time.. you pee at the same time... No surprises.. nice organised and efficient!.. the German in me likes efficiency! lol