Tracking Macros vs Counting Calories for Fat Loss

Nikkiey: You, yourself, your excuses are getting in the way of your results. We know macro tracking is a great avenue to go towards getting to your results. So you have to figure out how to make that system work for you and not allow excuses to overplay the system.

What's up, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder and brand personality of WarriorBabe, where 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 episode number eight, all about the real science of fat loss. Today I'm going to share with you three benefits to tracking macros and why they're better than focusing on just calories.

Calories determine your weight loss, guys. Macros are going to determine how firm and toned you're going to look. And the quality of food that you eat is going to determine how you feel. So in this podcast today, I'm going to talk about the real science of fat loss and give you three benefits why paying attention to macronutrients is the best thing you could do to be on the right path to achieving body comp goals, versus just focusing on counting calories, which is like the Stone Age. But also, I get it. It's what marketing used to tell you: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, X, Y, and Z, put it into containers, focus on these calories, yada, yada, yada. But that's the Stone Age. We're going to dive into what the actual truth is that's going to help you gain the body comp goals you have in mind for yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not just about calories in versus calories out. It's about the type of macronutrients that make up those calories you're eating and how they impact your body and your body composition to get optimal results.

So the first one I want to talk about is that macro tracking is a way more accurate way to lose fat and to build muscle. When you focus on just counting calories, like I just said, you will just lose weight. It's the way of any fad diet out there. They'll put you on a low caloric intake and yes, you will lose weight. But losing weight will just leave you looking like a skinnier, fatter version of yourself, because you will have no muscle tone underneath your skin.

I spoke about this in previous episodes, the difference between weight loss and fat loss. When you just focus on losing weight, you're going to lose the weight, but unfortunately the weight you lose will be a little bit of everything. It's going to be fat. It's going to be muscle. It's going to be fluids. Your organs are going to get smaller. It's going to be everything. So you could be 170 pounds and focus on just weight loss, and you will lose all of that, fat, muscle, fluids, organs, and you will become just a skinnier, fatter version of yourself.

But if you want to achieve body composition goals, meaning building muscle, changing the way your body looks and being more toned, you don't want to lose muscle in the process. You want to lose fat. So macro tracking is a way more accurate way to lose fat and to build muscle. It's going to give you way more than just trying to lose weight.

The ultimate goal of successful fat loss is to preserve as much muscle as possible, or even gain some along the way, while at the same time losing as much body fat as possible. So again, one is you're going to be skinny fat. Two is a more athletic, fit figure. Skinny fat: focus just on calories, lose weight, yada yada. Focus on macronutrients: lose body fat, be more athletic and be more toned. You're not going to get more tone and build more muscle by focusing on calories. You'll achieve that when you focus on the macronutrients that make up those overall calories.

So let's say you're on a 2,000-calorie diet, and you're watching how many calories are in each of your meals in order to hit that 2,000 calories. That's just calorie counting. But I want you to focus on: okay, 2,000 calories, what percentage of that is coming from carbs, from fats and from protein? Because macronutrients are the essential building blocks of our body, comprising proteins, carbohydrates and fats. And tracking allows you guys to target these nutrients according to your individual goals and needs. Again, fat loss, weight loss, all the macronutrients are necessary to have in your everyday diet to build muscle and to lose body fat. And it helps ensure that you guys consume the appropriate amounts of each macronutrient for optimal health, fat loss, and most importantly, to see body composition changes.

So number one, macronutrient tracking is just a way more accurate way to lose fat and to build muscle, again, different than weight loss. Counting calories can get you weight loss. But if you're in the goal arena of athletic, fit, muscle, X, Y, and Z, then macronutrient tracking is the way you're going to get there.

Number two: macronutrients provide way more sustained energy levels throughout your day, because they help maintain blood sugar levels and prevent spikes in hunger hormones, which allows you to feel fuller for longer during your day. Another way to say what I just said is that macronutrients provide signals that can help us stay satisfied between meals. So it makes it easier to follow a healthy meal plan without feeling overly hungry or deprived. And the reason you're going to feel fuller for longer, or be satisfied in between meals, is all thanks to the macronutrient king: protein.

Counting calories is just an arbitrary number. Like I just explained, 2,000 calories. Okay, cool. All the meals you're making up in the day are focused on 400 calories, 500 calories. But what are those meals made up of? You wouldn't know how much protein is in something, since you aren't paying attention to that. You're only paying attention to how many calories are in this meal. It could be all carbs and fats with little protein. And protein is king here, especially if your goal is to build more muscle and change your body composition. Appropriate protein intake helps you maintain blood sugar levels, helps prevent hunger spikes and helps you feel fuller for longer.

And it's going to help curb your cravings. If you're having more protein in your day, you are going to notice, and I'm speaking insanely from experience right now, a dramatic decrease in the level of cravings you have for something you want that's bad. When I first started my journey, and I shared this with you guys in episode number one, I had no idea what foods were made up of protein. I Googled that stuff. And I was obsessed with sweets. I still am, but I have way more control over it than it had over me at that point. I had sweets every single day, you guys, no joke, every single day. But as soon as I started incorporating more protein into my everyday nutrition and gave my body that, my cravings subsided dramatically.

So when you're eating the right protein number, the right intake for you, what's recommended, you guys, is 0.8 to 1.0 grams per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 150 pounds, you want to eat 150 grams of protein. It is a game changer, y'all.

Another big thing: when you're just focusing on calories, you consume way more simple carbohydrates without knowing it, because you're focused on an arbitrary calorie number and not on what the calories are made up of. Those simple carbs can cause an insulin spike followed by a crash in energy. Complex carbs, on the other hand, and you would know this by learning more about macronutrients, are a better source of long-term energy, which prevents crashes from happening.

This is why I love macronutrients, because to me, macronutrients are a skill set that can serve you for the rest of your life. When you know what food is made up of, you learn about portion sizes, you learn what's going to fuel your body the right way. Again, you wouldn't know what simple and complex carbs are when you're just focusing on calories. You're just like, oh, this contributes to my overall calorie number for the day.

This woman shared somewhere about this podcast, I forget exactly where it was, that she just had a conversation with her husband about calories and how she doesn't track calories. Her husband wanted to have these Pringles or something like that, and he was like, "Oh, it's just this many calories, though." And she was like, "I don't track calories. Look at how many carbs are in that." And not only that, that is a simple carbohydrate. They are made up of absolute trash, you guys. So following your Pringles, you're going to have an insulin spike followed by a crash in energy. That's why I love macros. You will learn this, you will know this, and you will know what fuels your body the right way.

And to all of these other points as well, on why macronutrients provide more sustained energy throughout the day: they also contain micronutrients that can help boost your metabolism and provide essential vitamins and minerals to fuel your body's processes. So tracking macros instead of counting calories helps provide stable energy levels throughout the day while optimizing fat loss and muscle gain at the same time. All right, so that's number two.

Number three, and the last one for today, is that macro tracking is actually easier than counting calories. Contrary to popular belief, it's true. Macros aren't that hard once you get the hang of them. With macronutrient tracking, you can adjust your macros quickly when needed by simply adding or subtracting from one or two macronutrient sources, rather than having to count every calorie in all of your meals and snacks.

For example, and this is how we teach inside of WarriorBabe, if you are over on your protein intake for the day, all you need to do is go into one of your meals on your tracking device and lower the quantity of protein in one of your meals. So if you have four ounces of chicken in your salad for lunch, all you need to do is change that to two ounces, and that will help you hit your target protein for the day. This makes macro tracking much more flexible for those who have busy schedules or don't have time to count calories every single day.

And for those of you who are like, "Well, macro tracking consists of counting X, Y, and Z every single day too": you plan ahead. Don't let these excuses get the best of you, you guys. Excuses are the ones getting in the way. You're getting in the way. You, yourself, your excuses are getting in the way of your results. We know macro tracking is a great avenue to go towards getting to your results. So you have to figure out how to make that system work for you and not allow excuses to overplay the system.

Hey, hey, real quick. If you want to learn more about macronutrients and understand the methodology of how they can help you achieve your body composition goals of changing the way your body looks, I put together a free 15-minute training where I dive into macronutrients and how you can control your body for the rest of your life with them. That link is in the description below. Click on it after listening to the show today.

If you have a busy schedule and you think macro tracking is time-consuming, make it a priority to plan ahead. Plan in your tracking device, put the meals together by preparing them, and then execute on the next day. That's it. You make the time. You say this and complain about how time-consuming it is, how busy you are. Yes, it may be in the first couple of days you're trying to do this, just like any newly learned skill. But the more you do it over time, the easier and easier it's going to get. It's just like riding a bike.

Macronutrients also provide a better representation of overall diet quality, as they're more inclusive of vitamins and minerals, like I spoke to, your micronutrients that are essential for health, while calories don't really take nutritional value into account at all. Here's what I mean by that. Like I said earlier, calories are an arbitrary number, so you're only focusing on the quantity of a meal. If you're focusing on a 400-calorie meal that goes toward your 2,000-calorie goal for the day, that meal could be slices of pizza, all carbs and fats, like I said, with little protein. There's not really quality there, and your energy will likely be mush afterwards.

Guys, here's a story. When I used to work in the emergency room of the hospital, which I shared with you guys in episode number one when I shared my journey, man, to my nurse friends and my doctor friends, to everybody I worked with, you guys know, if you're a nurse or in a healthcare profession, the break room is a recipe for gaining weight. And not only that, a recipe for your energy to be absolutely shit after you eat the food people bring in there. People brought in donuts, pies, pizza, wings, everything you could possibly imagine. And yes, if you're on a diet and just focusing on calories, that slice of pizza is 400, 500, maybe 600 calories contributing to your 2,000-calorie intake. But it's not really quality.

Guys, I would be eating my meals off to the side, because I had the goal, I was working my systems, and I was thinking about the person I wanted to become. So I'm eating my already pre-packed meals, staying on track, and I was the one with high energy afterwards. Let's go, squad. Running circles around the doctors in the ER. And everybody else is sitting there on the computer doing their notes, logging all their stuff, charting their patients, ready to fall asleep. You see what I mean?

Whereas if you focus on a quality 400-calorie meal, like steak, potatoes and vegetables, that consists of all the macronutrients, protein, carbs, good carbs, and fats, you will notice a dramatic increase in your energy levels. So stop just focusing on, "Oh, cool." It goes back to the Pringles thing: "This only has this many calories in it, bro." It's the shit carbs, simple carbohydrates. They're going to cause insulin spikes. Your energy is going to be absolutely shit about 30 minutes afterwards. And the ingredients in Pringles are what? Corn oil? Shit like that. Come on. Look at the quality. Quality matters.

And with macronutrients and tracking, hell yeah, you can have a burger in there. But I'm saying 80% of your day consists of quality food. Maybe the other 20% is, do you want to have an ice cream sandwich at the end of the night? Do you want to have some chocolate at the end of the night? Absolutely. Because that's how it's going to be sustainable and realistic for you. But don't make 80% of your day shit food and 20% of it healthy. Right?

I know I got a little off topic there with number three, macro tracking is easier than counting calories. But I already spoke to why it's easier, and also how, even though people think counting calories or macros is time-consuming, it's not. You can make it work for you by planning, preparing and executing on it.

Lastly, macronutrient tracking is so much more sustainable in the long term, like I just spoke to, because it allows people to make small changes over time that add up to big results without having to be restrictive with their diet. Calorie counting and just focusing on calories is very restrictive. Whereas with macronutrients, you can make adjustments. You can change your numbers up over time. You can add in more carbohydrates over time. You can add in more X, Y, and Z over time. And you're going to make these small changes in your body composition over time. That's what I say: get obsessed with delayed gratification, you guys.

So there you have it: three benefits of tracking macronutrients instead of counting calories for fat loss and building muscle. Guys, if you're looking to take your fitness game up a notch, I highly recommend you start tracking your macros instead of counting calories. Macronutrient tracking is a much more accurate way to gauge how many nutrients you're eating, and it helps ensure you're getting the right amount of each macronutrient for optimal health and performance. Also make sure you're getting quality food, which is going to help with your energy levels throughout the day. And if you're not sure where to start, make sure to check out the free training I put together about macros and using them to be in control of your body for the rest of your life. That link is in the description below this podcast.

Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I hope you received insane value from this. Don't forget to subscribe and follow the channel. Please leave a review. I would highly appreciate that, and I appreciate you guys tons. All right, I'll see you in the next episode. See ya.

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