The Most Common Macro Tracking Mistakes Keeping You Stuck

00:00Tracking your macros is hard. It can be uncomfortable to begin with because there's certain things that you need to start implementing into your life that are different from what you're doing right now. But let me remind you that in order to get to where you want to be, you have to do things that are different than what you're doing right now. And I'm not saying that you need to weigh every single thing for the rest of your life. But if you are in active fat loss phase and you're not seeing the results, switching from cups to a food scale and weighing it in terms of grams is often one of the fastest ways to find the discrepancy and why you're not getting the results. that you want to be getting.

00:36What's going on, everyone? Hey, my friends. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikkie Stott. And on these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. Today is episode number 350. And y'all, I'm leaning on this one. Okay, I want to talk to the woman that has been tracking their macros for months or even years, who's consistent, who's logged their food, who does all the things, and they're still not seeing the results that she thought she should be seeing by now.

01:16Because here's what I noticed working with thousands of women. There's a massive difference between tracking and tracking accurately. And most women who think that they're tracking accurately are actually the ones that are just tracking. So I've been hearing like, you know, women, yeah, I've been tracking. I track macros. Yeah, I've been doing this for years. Yeah, I know what I'm doing. But they're not where they want to be.

01:46Or else if they were tracking, they were doing all the things they would be where they want it to be, right? So something isn't aligning with that thought process. So today, what I'm going to do is talk about the most common tracking mistakes that I have seen, including some that are so subtle that you will probably never even catch them on your own. And this could be a reason why like, yeah, I'm tracking. Yeah, I know I'm tracking like and saying those things, but you're not where you want to be. These subtle, small little mistakes could be why you're not where you want to be. I'm specifically going to go through seven of them.

02:16And hopefully by the end of this episode, you're going to know exactly where your data might be off, maybe you tracking where you are just going a little astray and like what exactly to fix so that you can confidently say, yeah, I've been tracking and it shows in the results that you want. All right. So and this is being inspired by actually my team has brought this to me and saying that, yeah, we're talking like a lot of people are saying that we're tracking. And like, we want to be able to identify what is the missing pieces when people say they're tracking, but they're not getting where they want to be.

02:49Okay. I think I said that like five times now. Anyway, before we even get into the mistakes, I just want to set the foundation first, because I think it's important to understand why tracking accurately is such a big deal. Macro tracking, using an app to track, following through, it works when your data is accurate. When your data is off, even if it's slightly off, even consistently in small ways, your body is living in a completely different reality than what your app is telling you.

03:20And you end up then troubleshooting the wrong things. You're adjusting the targets that don't need adjusting. How many of you guys go two weeks following the macros that you're set and you're like, well, nothing's happening. Nothing's changing. So then one, you don't track for an entire week or two, then you try and change your numbers in hopes that that will make a difference. And then when that's not working, you start blaming your metabolism. When the real issue is that maybe you didn't allow the time allotted. There's so many things in those variables and what I just said, variables behind the picture, right?

03:55But maybe in that you just didn't allow enough time for your body to adapt to the numbers before you change it all up. And I know there was women shaking their heads like, yes, that's me. First of all, let me just tell you guys, that was me when I first started my journey for a year straight, maybe even a little bit longer. I would try something. If it didn't give me what I wanted in two weeks, I'd be on to the next thing. I'd be changing something up. So I know how your brains work and period. So an example, let's say you're consistently underestimating your food intake by just like 200 calories a day.

04:27That's not a lot. That could be like this is one of the mistake sauces or a splash of olive oil here and there or a handful of nuts there. A sauce that you didn't log, right? 200 calories a day is 1400 calories over the course of an entire week. That's the equivalent of an entire extra day of eating that your app has no record of. And then you're sitting there wondering why you're not losing weight. Accurate tracking. Let me just say this is not about you being obsessive.

04:59It's about having data that you can actually trust so that when something isn't working, you know what to adjust. If you're just doing this blindly or if you're consistent two weeks, not consistent for one week, consistent another week, half consistent for a week, fully consistent, right? Like if the data is there for you to let you know, hey, yeah, I'm not being like at least 80% consistent. And this is why I'm not getting the results because the data is telling you. But if you were just blindly going about it, or if you're not logging and being true and honest to certain things, then you're not going to know what to adjust.

05:36You guys know I had to do this in another previous episode. When I get passionate about things, I can get really heated and animated. But I just want you guys to win at the end of the day. That's where all this is coming from. Okay, anyway, let's get into mistake number one. Mistake number one is tracking Monday through Thursday. And then you're eyeballing the weekends. This is the most common one that I see and the one that quietly destroys more progress than almost anything else does. You can track beautifully all week long. You're hitting your numbers.

06:06You're logging everything. You feel like on top of it. And then come Friday night, that rolls around and you go out to dinner. Saturday, you have brunch with your friends. You're going to the movies with your family. Sunday, you're relaxed. You're kind of just like you're cooking at home. So you're just like, oh, I'm just going to estimate what I'm eating. And then Monday, you're back at it. Let me just peel back what that looks like in terms of math and data. The math that nobody wants to hear, really, is if you're eating in a 300 calorie deficit or 300 to 500 calorie deficit Monday through Friday or Monday through Thursday,

06:41but then you're going 500 to 1,000 calories over your Friday through Sunday, you're not in a deficit for that entire week. You're actually in a surplus. And your body doesn't care that you tracked for four days out of the week perfectly and beautifully. It only knows what it actually received, which is not being in a deficit. You eating more than what you were intending to eat.

07:12And the weekend, the weekend is not supposed to be a break from your nutrition. Your body is running 24-7, seven days a week. What you eat Saturday absolutely 100% counts. Especially you guys, like let me just like narrow it down. Like I could get into the weeds here. I'm not going to get too into the weeds. But if you are in a cut and you are trying to lose the body fat or the weight and like also simultaneously trying to get to that tone physique with strength training and building muscle, you being as consistent as you possibly can in that phase is so important.

07:46So you tracking Monday through Sunday is so important for you to get ultimately the results on a weekly basis that you want to see that then compound over four to six to eight to 12 to months on end in results. If you're in like maintenance or like focusing on just really putting the time into building the muscle where you need to be in a surplus, this is where like your weekends and this kind of tracking, it can be a little bit more lenient. But for majority of you, you're wanting to be in the other in the phase of fat loss, right?

08:18So like this is important. What you eat Saturday absolutely counts. The fix here isn't, you know, don't lean on me saying it need to be the it's perfection on the weekend. But it's more so you being honest with what you're eating so you can see where you're falling short. And then log it even if it's not pretty. Like again, you don't have to be perfect. I talked about episodes. You don't need to be you don't need to be perfect. You need to be consistent. And this is a form of consistency. Because consistency is you being honest by you logging how, you know, you're going out to brunch.

08:51And then maybe you're going to the movies and you have popcorn. You being honest with it. Even if it's the MyFitnessPal checkmark, you know, approved version. At least it's in MyFitnessPal or in your tracker and you can see the data. Because when you can see the data, you know what you can fix. You know where you fell short. You know that you're going to try and do better next weekend. But if you don't have that inaccurate data is worse than the imperfect data. So that's mistake number one is tracking Monday through Thursday and then eyeballing on the weekends.

09:27You're not actually in a deficit, which what your body needs to be in to lose body fat. You're either maintaining or you're in a surplus. Which rightfully so can live and be in its own fashionable and in its own rightful. You can be in that type of phase in your own journey at some point. But in the means of you wanting to lose body fat, focusing on what I'm talking about being consistent Monday through Sunday is important. Mistake number two is I know there's a majority of women out there that use the free version of MyFitnessPal.

10:02And maybe the free version of apps where it's giving you percentages versus grams. So this one's probably going to surprise a lot of people. If you're using those types of apps and you're seeing your goals as like 40% protein, 30% carbs, 30% fats. Then I just want to encourage you guys to maybe take it a step further and commit a little bit further in your journey to get the paid version. And here's why. Because percentages shift as your calories, as your total calories shift.

10:32So if you're eating 1600 calories on Monday and you're eating 2100 calories on Tuesday. Your 40% protein goal is completely different gram amount on each day. So you have no stable target to actually hit. You're chasing a moving number without even realizing it. Especially if you guys have the exercise calories turned on in MyFitnessPal. Turn that off. Because those calories are ever-changing every single day. When you're focusing on just like, hey, this is my target in terms of protein.

11:04150 grams of protein. 250 grams of carbs. 90 grams of fats. Your grams are fixed. Your grams are consistent. Having that 150 grams of protein, regardless of what else you ate that day, that's set. That's a target. You can actually build your meals around it. You measure your progress against it. You troubleshoot it when you need it, right? If your app is only showing you percentages, then I would recommend you upgrading to the paid version where you can get the set grams base target and focus on that. Or switch to an app that actually gives you those functionally for free.

11:37I think Chronometer does this as well. Does this well. Don't hold me to that because I don't use it. But I know babes have talked about that. But just considering like percentages aren't entirely accurate. I would say they're a good starting point, but they're not going to get you the foot. And I'm going to get to this in another mistake. But that mistake is going to really stay tuned for that one because it's really going to hopefully shift your perspective on when I get to it is, yeah, I'm going to get to it. I just lost my train of thought. But percentages aren't entirely accurate.

12:10Grams are going to give you that consistent fixed number that you need to be focusing on daily. Mistake number three that I see is measuring in cups instead of grams. I know this one probably is going to feel like a lot, but just stay with me for a second. When you're measuring in cups, that is incredibly imprecise. And the variance of that is bigger than you actually think. So a cup of oats can range from like 80 grams to over 100 grams, depending on how packed that cup is and how you scoop it, whether you leveled it off or whether you didn't, whether you just

12:44kind of scooped it and put it in. And so getting that understood in your mind is when if you're just taking a measuring cup, which is what I did the beginning of my journey, and it greatly skewed. I did it with rice. It greatly skewed. Um, my actual grams I was intaking on a daily basis. I used to take a measuring cup and do one cup of rice until I found the importance of how grams actually gives you the more precise, um, portion size.

13:15I don't want this to sound too obsessive. It's more so you guys are gaining the understanding and the knowledge of how you go about, uh, learning this skill set so that you don't have to track for the rest of your life, but you can look at what a hundred grams looks like and be like, okay, yeah, this is enough rice is on my plate, or this is what 40 grams of oats looks like, right? If you take the Quaker oats and you take a half a cup, which is the serving size, um, it breaks it half a cup equals, uh, the serving size, which is, I believe 40 grams, um, on the

13:51Quaker oats and you can't just take a half a cup and take it at face value. That's going to be 40 grams because of the way you either scooped it, packed it, or you leveled it off or not. That's why you want to narrow it down to the grams because that's going to just give you a more precise roundabout, like accurate reading, right? So just think about it that way and think about it too. I know that you're going to need to be scale, like getting a food scale and being able to

14:22weigh this into portion and put this in the portion, but it literally takes 10 seconds to weigh something instead of scooping it into a measuring cup and then putting it into, uh, and then it being, could be inaccurate. Once you build a habit, it just becomes completely automatic. You don't even need to think about it. Again, these are things that like, first of all, let me just say tracking your macros is hard. It can be uncomfortable to begin with because there's certain things that you need to start implementing into your life that are different from what you're doing right now. But let me remind you that in order to get to where you want to be, you have to do things

14:53that are different than what you're doing right now. And I'm not saying that you need to weigh every single thing for the rest of your life. Like I keep wanting to nail that in. But if you are in active fat loss phase and you're not seeing the results, switching from cups to a food scale and weighing it in terms of grams is often one of the fastest ways to find the discrepancy and why you're not getting the results that you're, that you, that you want to be getting. That is almost always tighter. And the results are going to follow when you actually weigh it in terms of grams that rather

15:24than relying on a measuring cup. So start measuring yourself in grams rather than a measuring cups. Get that food scale. Hey, while you're listening, if you're getting value from this episode, take a moment to tap that review button or share this podcast with a friend. It's a small gesture that goes a long way in helping more women find their way to feeling stronger and more confident in their skin. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to support this show. Number four is not logging or paying attention to, and this is a silent killer of macros that

15:58nobody really talks about enough. is the BLT, as I like to call it, the bite, licks, and tastes, and not adding in oil sauces and condiments, right? You log your chicken, you log your rice, you log your veggies, you log anything else that's of a macro-based substance that's big like that, and then you cook everything in a tablespoon of olive oil, you pour over teriyaki sauce, or you finish it with a drizzle of tahini or something like that, but none of that makes it into your app.

16:30Now, I would argue that you're probably losing some of the olive oil with the heat, the nutritional value from that, but the teriyaki sauce, the drizzle of tahini, these things sometimes don't make it into your log for the day. Here's a reality check for you guys. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control.

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17:35Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. Two tablespoons of, well, let's just go into the olive oil. Actually, olive oil or the tahini sauce. Two tablespoons of that could easily be upwards of 200 calories alone.

18:09Those sauces can add up. It's even, you know, when people measure out the peanut butters, like one tablespoon of peanut butter, that, but they just scoop it because it looks like a tablespoon. The actual serving size is actually so much less than that. But people usually eat the tablespoon that they just scooped. And that could be a total added, another added 100 calories on it. So your favorite sauce or your favorite teriyaki or tahini or whatever can easily be another 200, 150 calories depending on what it is.

18:46That adds up so fast. You're easily looking at like an extra 300 calories a day that you're completely invisible. It's completely invisible to your tracking. And those calories are the reason why maybe the deficit or the fat loss phase that you're in isn't working. So the habit fix here is log before you cook, not after. Add these sauces in before you top it off, you know, once the food is done. The friction of logging is, at first, is actually what keeps you so, it's what keeps you honest.

19:17Because you'll see the fat grams stack up and you'll make more intentional choices moving forward. So make sure you're tracking, especially if you're in the fat loss phase, you're tracking your oils, sauces, condiments, things like that. Mistake number five. This can go locking with consistency. And it also is one of my favorite sayings I say to individuals or women is macro hoarding at the end of the day. I always joke that people are going to be on the next, it's going to be the next Netflix documentary.

19:49I don't know that it's a funny joke anymore, but it was back in the day of people macro hoarding at the end of the day. It's a pattern I see constantly. And it does, it's doing real damage. You get to 7 p.m. and you realize you have 80 grams of protein left to hit. So you get like this massive amount of protein in one sitting. Huge great yogurt, protein shake, chicken breast, and so uncomfortable. And within the last two hours a day, just trying to close out your numbers. Here's the problem. You guys macro hoarding like that, your body can only process so much protein at one time for building muscle.

20:23So in the purposes of this example, somewhere in the range of like 30 to 40 to 50 grams per meal, depending on what you read out there. But what you eat beyond that in the protein sense, just gets stored and used later. It's either getting used as energy or it's getting extracted. So the protein that you're trying to cram in the end of the day because you didn't plan your meals ahead of time. I always say plan the night before your meals for the next day so that you're not tracking as you go.

21:00Macro hoarding is a sign that your days aren't structured to support your targets. So you need to either track the night before or get up in the morning and track your meals before you start the day. When you do that, hitting your numbers at the end of the day becomes almost automatic because you've been building toward that already during the day or you're already set up for success the night before. It's doing you a disservice if you are cramming all your food in at the end of the day.

21:31Okay, so set yourself up for success by planning ahead. The next one that I want to dive into, I believe this is number six that I'm on, is not updating your targets as you go, as your body changes. So what I mean by that is women who set their macros six months ago and they haven't touched them since. This is, and this is where I probably would see this, I see this a lot.

22:03Is people get online, they do these macro calculators, they figure out what their macros are and then they start tracking and they've been tracking but they don't change. Or because as your body changes, just your body adapts and your body will adapt to those calories and that macro intake in a short period of time. So you got to continue just like how you change up your workouts every four or six, eight weeks. You also have to change up your macros if you're out of, if you're truly at a plateau. And like I could dive in deeper on this.

22:33You don't need to be changing up your macros every four weeks. They could work for you for eight weeks. They could work for you for 16 weeks, but at some point they're going to need to be adjusted. Your macro targets are not permanent. They were based on your body at a specific point in time, specific weight, specific goal. And as you lose that fat, as your body adapts, as you build muscle, as you, you know, your targets need to be recalculated. And here's why that matters. As you lose weight, your daily total energy expenditure, the number of calories your body burns in a day, that, that will change over time.

23:15Which means that those things need to be updated over time. Women who update, women who never update their targets, they were going, they're going to experience some type of plateau at some point because their approach stopped working, right? Their body got adapted to their macro intake for an X amount of time. So a lot of people will see majority of the progress, right? And I always say, keep using the macros until you have a reason not to.

23:48But to keep this like very broad and not get into the weeds, somebody shouldn't be at the same macros unless you're still actively seeing results. Six months, six months, seven months, eight months in. Guarantee the ride is going to adapt at some point and it's going to need a little bit of a change or an, uh, it being recalculated, essentially. So that's a huge mistake that I see is women not updating their targets as your body adapts and changes.

24:20And as it gets used to the intake that you're eating, um, not throwing it like a, like a curve ball to keep, to find the energy and, and, and the, and the, uh, fat stores to burn, um, from when you're, when you're trying to manipulate the way that you're going about your fat loss. Um, and then this last one I'm going to say, which is mistake number seven is you could be hitting your numbers. You could totally be tracking and being on point with them, but you're not, but not in the food quantity or food quality type of way.

24:54So this one's going to hit a little bit different because this is not about the numbers themselves. It's more about what's behind them. You technically can hit your macro targets, eating protein bars, eating processed snacks, eating fast food, eating packaged meals. The numbers are going to add up, but your body is going to respond very differently to 150 grams of protein from chicken, from eggs, from Greek yogurt, from fish versus 150 grams from protein bars and snacks and processed sources. Whole food protein sources.

25:27Whole food protein sources are more satisfying, more satiating, just better overall. They come with more fiber, more macro, micronutrients. Um, they, they, the, the, the, the compounds that support your hormone health, your digestion, your recovery. Overall, whole foods win the day every single day. Processed foods, like highly processed foods, even, even when they, they're going to hit your macro targets, they tend to drive more cravings because of the artificial things that they're made of or the ingredients that they're made up of.

26:01They don't keep you satisfied and they're going to keep you more inflamed over time. So they give it like this. Macros are a framework. They are not a free pass. Whenever I say you can eat whatever you want, you can't just go out and eat burgers, french fries, and ice cream and hit your macro targets. Yeah, you can hit your targets that way. But you mean the quality of the food and the quality what's filling those numbers matters so much in the, in the way that you're going to see the results that you want.

26:34So you want to aim for like majority of your macros that they're coming from whole, minimally, minimally processed sources. And use bars and protein shakes. Use those as like, they're, they're tools for convenience. I always used to say like have max one shake and one bar or two protein shakes, but don't ever exceed that. Like 80 to 85% of your day should be made of a whole food options.

27:07Okay, so to get a little bit more practical with you guys on this, you have a full picture where tracking can go wrong. There's, here's a quick audit that you can do for yourself. Just over the next seven days, not just on the weekend, on the weekdays, all seven days, track everything. Track every sauce, oil, every splash of cream or every bite that you tasted while cooking. Bites, likes and tastes, BLTs. Use a food scale for anything that does, that isn't a whole food that you can weigh easily. Focus on the gram-based targets in your app, not, not percentages.

27:41Don't use measurement cups, change the scale to grams. Set entries carefully and then use the barcode scanners over, you know, searching things manually inside of an application. That's another one too. Or if you need to, if you're out at restaurants, like use the ones that are verified. Do that for one full week and look at the data honestly. Most women who do this then discover a gap between what they thought they were eating, they've been tracking, and they're doing it all right.

28:15There's a gap in what they're actually, and how they're actually tracking and what they're actually eating. And that gap is usually where the results have been hiding. And again, like I just want to remind you guys that you don't need to do this precisely forever. But doing it for one focus week is just going to recalibrate your eye. It's going to tighten your habits. It's going to help you to be more aware of like, yes, you can be tracking for years, but are you doing it the right way?

28:47Have you fallen into one of these mistakes even though you are a tracker? Or maybe one of these mistakes is going to be an eye opener for you in terms of like, hey, this is where I've been falling short. This is just the data, my friends. And this is the data that you can actually trust, not something you're just guessing or eyeballing or wondering. All right? So I want to leave you guys with this. This knowing. If you've been tracking and not seeing results, this is giving you the ends of what data piece you could be missing.

29:17Your approach isn't wrong, but your data might just need some tightening. And then now you know exactly where to look. And if you fall into all seven of these, just pick two of these mistakes that resonated the most and then fix them this week. That's it. You don't need to overhaul everything else all at once. Just make these small corrections. And then this accurate data is going to create and help you get real results. All right? And this episode helped you guys share it with a friend who's been maybe frustrated with her tracking because I promise she needs to hear it too.

29:49And guys, go get yourselves inside of our free community. The link's in the description below this. Go check it out. Come join us. It's free. You have nothing to lose. Just get yourself inside. You're going to learn all about tracking macros and everything that will help you to uplevel your game in your journey. All right? I love you all. And I'll see you in the next episode. Peace out. Real quick. If this episode resonated with you or gave you the push that you needed, I'd love for you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review. Share the podcast with someone who might need it. And help me keep spreading the word.

30:21Your feedback not only helps the show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so, so much for your support. Thank you. Thank you.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.