Is Tracking Macros Worth It When It Feels Too Hard?

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

And I felt so much pain in that, eating the same thing that I was eating with bodybuilding and not allowing myself to incorporate some treats that I was already trying to fit in. It was so painful. It was so hard for me to do. And I almost threw up sometimes eating the foods that I was eating because of, I guess, the emotional attachment that I had to bodybuilding and then eating this food. And due to that pain that I felt, I was like, okay, I've got to figure this out.

What's going on, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode 144.

This episode is going to entail a bunch of different little mini stories that I have recorded while driving in my car. And honestly, you guys, when I am in that state of mind, there are a bunch of awesome, interesting, nuanced stories, topics, things that just come out of my mouth, and that I know can help you along your journey. It's pretty much stories of what I've experienced in my fitness journey, and maybe one, two, or all of them will resonate with you guys. So enjoy this episode.

First and foremost, ladies, that fear that you're going to get too bulky. Maybe this is your first time that you're fully committing to a lifting program, and you're fully committed to following the program to the T, and this is 100% commitment to strength training exercises, right? Maybe you've dabbled in cardio, boot camps, all the things, but now it's solely strength training, and you have a fear of getting bulky.

It's not going to happen. Unless you're doing some abnormal, not natural thing, then sure, you could probably make the process happen a lot faster. But for this being the first time that you're doing it, this is the thing that I always say: it takes a long freaking time to build muscle, first and foremost. A long freaking time. And even if you're a newbie at doing this, and this is the first year of doing it, fully committed, doing strength training exercises, it still will take you a really long time to build the kind of muscle mass that maybe you're imagining in your brain that will make you look super bulky. That's not going to happen. You also don't have the hormone profile that can make things happen that fast and make you bulk up that quickly.

So these are just a few things to remember and keep in your back pocket: don't fear strength training because of something that will honestly take years and years and years to happen. I'm eight years into my journey and I wouldn't even consider myself bulky. I have a lot of muscle mass, but it fits the aesthetic of my body.

So bringing it back to the first years of when I first started my journey, similar to what I had said, I fully committed to the program. I fully committed to strength training and fully committed to doing it the right way. And with that, I noticed the changes happening within the first year. I was also fully committed to a bodybuilding show, so I took things a little bit drastic with the diet and nutrition side of things. But with doing strength training for the first time, yeah, I was able to see results within the first year.

But when you look back at baby Nikkiey and the first year of me doing this, my muscle tone was nowhere near bulky. It was very symmetric to my body. It was a very beautiful type of aesthetic to have. I didn't look anywhere near bulky. And as I continued to develop the muscle tone over the last eight years, it still looks in alignment with the symmetry of my body, the aesthetics of my body.

There's something to be said about social media. I may definitely look bigger on social media, but if you were to see me in person, I definitely don't look like a normal woman, but I have more muscle. So, yeah. But I noticed it within the first year for sure.

I started working out in 2015, so I'm actually in my ninth year. Well, they say breakups make bodybuilders. In 2014, I was engaged and I was trying to do the workout thing and trying to eat right. However, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. I didn't know how I was supposed to be eating. I had no consistent routine that I was following. I would go to the gym on a Monday and a Tuesday, and then I wouldn't go the rest of the week. And then I would eat pizza on the weekends because my ex at the time owned a pizza shop.

So we called off the engagement around the holidays going into 2015. And at the beginning of 2015, I was like, all right, this is my year. This is the year. I'm going to show up for myself. I'm going to put in the work. I'm going to be committed. I'm going to figure it out, because I had no idea how to do any of the things.

This is where I signed up for LA Fitness. And I started doing my own thing for the first three or four months of the new year. I was a New Year's resolution baby. And I had no idea what I was doing. I would find Pinterest workouts, and then I would follow random things that I was seeing online about how to eat right. I remember having to Google what foods consisted of protein because I had no idea at the time.

And then I just started trying to eat healthier. However, at the time, sweets were my downfall. I would have a bag of Smarties, no problem. So basically, I was starting to see a little results, but I was like, you know, I want it faster. I want it quicker. And I started seeing all these people on Instagram that had these amazing bodies, and they were tan and up on stage all glitzed out. Like, what is this?

And then I found out there was bodybuilding. And I started thinking about it. I was like, oh, I could do this. This would be dope. This sounds like a challenge. I don't know what this is. I don't even know how to do it. And so I started talking to my family about it, and I started dreaming about it, which is pretty wild. And I was still working out at the time, right? This is the first four months of the new year.

And I was leaving the gym one day after one of my workout sessions, and the general manager of the LA Fitness was like, are you doing a bikini competition anytime soon? And I was like, no. However, I've been thinking about it. Do you have any details? And he was like, yeah, I know a coach that's local to the area. Let me get you in contact with him. So I was like, cool. He gave me his contact information. I went home and I immediately emailed him, and I was super interested. And he immediately emailed back.

We set a date and time to meet in person, and I met him at his home gym. And I remember this so vividly because this goes back to a question that I get asked all the time about not wanting to look like a man or not wanting to be super bulky. I remember standing in his gym at the time and looking at my physique and being like, yeah, I would love to do this show. But also having in the back of my head that I see people online and they look jacked and they look not normal because of the world of bodybuilding. You see a lot of not normal stuff when it comes to women's physiques. And I was like, I don't want to get too bulky. I don't want to look like a man.

And he was like, yeah, that's not going to happen, because you don't have the hormone profile of a man, which has tons of testosterone. And you're also not going to take any drugs to enhance the muscle growth process. So that's not going to happen. And I was like, cool.

Anyway, coming back, I was there in his gym meeting him. We were talking about all the things about bodybuilding, and I was like, cool, let's go, sign me up. So I signed up with him on the spot. I got my meal plan and my workout program within two days. And I quit everything that I was doing cold turkey and started immediately following the diet plan. And it was fucking wild.

Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And it would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too.

With bodybuilding, you're given literally one meal plan that ties you into five different foods: chicken, tilapia, ground beef, egg whites, oatmeal, and vegetables. Six. Sorry, I forgot the sixth one. Vegetables, and a shit ton of them too. I have very funny stories about vegetables back in the day. And that's literally what I followed from April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. Eight months of eating the same exact thing, with maybe some minor alterations to the quantity of how much I was eating, but never switching out any food items.

Anyway, back to macros. After doing my thing with bodybuilding and being happy with the way that I went about that phase of my life, I was like, there's got to be another way. There has to be another way. The people that I see that have amazing bodies, that are living a healthy life, that are eating the foods that they want, that are smashing burgers, how are they doing that? How are they maintaining this body?

And so I remember talking to my coach at the time about macros, and he was like, fuck macros. And I'm like, okay, I see it now. There's one way, and one way is bodybuilding. You've got to just do it this way and stick to that diet plan. And how I got introduced to macros was obviously just my genuine curiosity sparking: how do people do this? How do they live this way? How do they eat what they want? And how do they maintain this body?

So once I kind of got blocked by that, I started looking at other coaches in the space that would speak about macros. And then I started to work with one, but I was like, this is hard. Macros is like riding a bike for the first time, right? I was so used to doing this one thing that I had to completely train my brain to allow certain things back into my diet. So I signed up with a coach for a little bit, but I was like, you know what, I'm just going to try and figure it out by myself, because I got impatient. Sound like anybody that's listening right now? Maybe you.

I was so set on figuring it out. I wanted to figure out how I could make macros work for me. And I remember when I first started doing this, man, macros is like, you've got to plan. You've got to barcode scan everything. You've got to make it all fit within the numbers that are set for you, right? Like 150 grams of protein, 240 grams of carbs, 55 grams of fats, whatever it may be for you. And you've got to fit all of your food and the quantity into that. I'm like, Jesus.

So I tried to make it a game for myself. I used to call it the game of Tetris, but it's the game of Tetris with macros, because you basically have to get within minus or plus five on your protein, your fat, and your carbs. I remember going around my kitchen barcode scanning all of these different food items and having to put them into MyFitnessPal. And it took me an hour to maybe an hour and a half when I first did this, for the first couple of nights.

And at first I was like, yeah, no, I'm not doing this. I stopped doing it. And then I would try to track as I went throughout my day. So I would have my breakfast, I would track it. I would put my lunch in, I would track it. I would put my snack in, I would track it. And then I would get to the end of the day and I would have like 50 grams of carbs left to eat, 40 grams of protein to eat. And I'm like, macros is hard.

But I was like, you know what? This is how they do it. So if they can figure it out, I can figure it out. From there, I just put my head down. I was like, I don't care if this is hard. I don't care if this sucks. I don't care if this is going to take a lot of time. I don't care if I'm having to spend an hour in the kitchen right now in front of my phone, moving around all the quantities, putting together this whole meal plan inside of MyFitnessPal. I'm going to figure it out.

And so I did. And dude, once I did, it was an immediate, F yeah, man. I got this. I can do this. I had my whole day planned. And I remember the first time I figured this out, because of how long it took, I was like, well, shit, I'm just going to copy this entire day that I just figured out for at least the next seven days. I don't want to think about it. And this actually helped me not think about it and have an open mind of, oh, I could try this food, I could try this food, and I can bring this food in. Then, after seven days of eating the same thing, I was able to start incorporating things because I felt more confident.

So I did that. And over the course of doing this, I've been doing this now since 2017: 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. Okay, so seven years of tracking macronutrients. Now I can track my meals and also semi-mentally track throughout my day, and put all of my food in at 4 p.m. in the afternoon so that I can see where I'm at for the day with what I've already eaten. And it takes me probably a minute and 30 seconds to input now.

So all in all, how did I discover macros? I just took you along that entire journey of how I discovered it. I also covered some common objections that I hear from women not wanting to track macros. I went through it too. I feel your pain. However, it is entirely freaking worth it, because there is so much food freedom that comes with tracking your macros, and also so much skill that comes with tracking your macros, because you get to look at every type of food and understand what it's made of. You also get to see what portions look like. And you also get to incorporate the foods that you enjoy into your plan. So there's my long-winded answer about macros.

Where do you think I would be if I didn't figure this out, didn't track macros, and kept going where I was? And this actually almost happened, because during the learning phase of tracking macros, we always go back to what we know. Sometimes I hear this within our WarriorBabe community: oh, I'm going to go back to this diet because it worked for me, or I'm going to go back to X, Y and Z because I had success with it. And I felt the same thing in the beginning, because I was frustrated with the implementation process of learning and I was getting very impatient. I almost chucked it out the door and was literally trying to bring my bodybuilding diet into MyFitnessPal, only eat my bodybuilding diet, and play around with the macro numbers.

And it was effing miserable, you guys. It was horrible. I felt so much pain in that, eating the same thing that I was eating with bodybuilding and not allowing myself to incorporate some treats that I was already trying to fit in. It was so painful. It was so hard for me to do. And I almost threw up sometimes eating the foods that I was eating because of, I guess, the emotional attachment that I had to bodybuilding and then eating this food. And due to that pain that I felt, I was like, okay, I've got to figure this out.

And if I hadn't figured it out, I would have been stuck in the same hamster wheel cycle of thinking that I have to eat this specific way in order to achieve this specific result. And I'm so happy that I did figure it out, because still to this day, I have the body composition that I've always dreamed of maintaining. And I'm doing it in a way that's way more sustainable and way more realistic for me, thanks to learning macronutrients. So thank freaking God that I went through with it.

Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.