It’s not wrong to be highly strict with your keto diet. When on a diet, people tend to count macros and do various measurements. Well, a lot of people who are on the keto journey are doing these things, but would this be beneficial for your diet? Well, the truth is, it’s a bad idea.
Well, in reality, there is a success in measuring things in your diet. Bodybuilders, diabetic people, and weight watchers are all examples of people who are always measuring and counting many things, and at first, it looks like they’ve seen success.
However, talking about the long-term, I’ve never seen them be truly successful. Yes, counting macros and other measurements can be somehow beneficial in the short term, but in the long term, you won’t see success. And this is why it’s a primitive brain or behavioral component.
What Counting Macros Means
Before we continue, what does it mean when you count macros? It is when you count how much fat, carbs, or protein you are taking or consuming. Furthermore, counting macros is also when you measure how much vitamin or fiber you’re getting, measuring your weight on the scale, or measuring the amount of food you’re eating. Well, counting macros is counting all the things that are happening with your body. It’s overwhelming, right?
The Effect of Continuously Counting Macros
Measuring everything that happens in your diet could generate not-so-good results. It increases a stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone that causes you to gain weight, especially around the midsection. You wouldn’t want to get your stress hormones increased, right? We all hate being stressed.
My Advice When it Comes to Counting Macros
As you read on, I’m going to give you some simple systems or simple tricks that you can use to measure. Yes, you can still measure some things but not in a complicated and inconvenient way. If you’re going to be strict with your diet and begin by creating a super strict plan and counting so many things, trust me, it’ll ultimately fail in the end. You’ll get short-term success at first, but not in the long term.
The reason is that there is no perfect plan. There’s no exact measurement for anybody and it doesn’t work productively that way. You have to be able to adjust over time. But if you stick to it once you’ve made your shifts and changes, your body’s going to evolve so you always have to constantly change this thing.
This is why people get so focused and dedicated to watching out for their weight. Most of them are on it for 30 years but yet they never reach their most desired and wanted results, and sadly, some of them aren’t happy with their diet journey.
So, should you be counting macros? Well, according to my vast knowledge when it comes to these things, you shouldn’t count them. But should you be aware of your macros? Absolutely.
Here are some of my simple rules. When you’re just starting your journey, either it is a keto journey or whatever it is, you can track it for the first couple of weeks just to get an idea of what you’re doing. There’s no right or wrong in terms of doing this activity. The main purpose of this is to build up a much clearer plan for reaching your desired results.
In that way, you can see if there are any adjustments and frameworks you still need to make. After that, what you want to do is to learn how to live that way. For example, you can ask yourself, “Can I make two-degree adjustments? Can I eat fewer carbs and live this way?” If you can, then that’s great! You shouldn’t have to count them.
Counting so many things isn’t gonna help you. Someone even asked me, “One day I had 17, and the other day, I had 27. Is that okay?” Well, for me, I really can’t tell if that’s good or bad. Maybe it’s okay, maybe it’s not. However, we know that less is always better, especially carbs.
So is it okay if you count macros? Maybe once a month is fair enough. Once a month, you can check your weight and use a scale, or maybe check out the day of your macros just to provide yourself a clear idea of where you’re at. So my rule is, when you want to measure some things while you’re on your keto journey or whatever journey you’re at, you can measure once a month.
The first couple of weeks, yes, you can do it as it is a good way for you to understand where you’re at. After that, measuring once a month would be enough for you to track your diet. Measuring things more than once every month will make you become obsessive and stressed. I’m sure it won’t work long-term.
Think about the Paleo men or everybody in our ancestors, do you think that they were measuring everything in their diet? No! They were just hoping to get happy with their journey.
This is the golden rule: eat less food, eat less often, eat when you’re hungry, keep your carbs down, eat clean and healthy foods as much as possible, and you’ll stay in a good place. No need to measure complicated things. Just follow these simple rules while on your keto journey as often as you possibly can and make subtle adjustments. The main key to be successful on your keto diet is to relax and enjoy the journey!
To reach long-term results, keep up with us. Keep reading our blogs, watching our YouTube videos and subscribing to our channel, follow our Facebook page and our website. If you keep up with us, you’ll get a plan and you’ll be able to figure it out. You’ll get yourself a system that you can ultimately live your life with without measuring everything that doesn’t work long-term.