To Track or Not To Track

By Lindsay // The Ketoneer

I think tracking your food can be a useful tool. I used the “My Fitness Pal” app for my first few months of keto. The app has a function where you can see a pie chart breakdown of your macros. I kept reading how I needed to eat 70-75% of my calories from fat, 20-25% of my calories from protein and 5% from carbs. I was like how the heck do I figure that up?

Using The App

There are multiple different apps you can use to track. I tried out a couple and ended up preferring My Fitness Pal (MFP) the most. This is probably the most widely used app. You simply enter what you ate and it gives you a breakdown of the nutrition and macros. You can scan bar codes, search items already in the system, or manually add nutrition info yourself. It has a progress section to track your weight which gives you a line graph breakdown. You can also set your macro goals specific to you. The pie chart breakdown was the biggest factor in helping me understand macro percentages.

Now, I no longer track my food. Even when I was tracking, I did not do it every single day. Sometimes, life gets in the way. You may not always have the time to document every piece of food that goes into your mouth. That is okay. But until I learned my go to foods that fit easily into my macros, I used MFP as a tool to stay on the right path.

Macro Regret

I found there were times that I beat myself up over not hitting “perfect macros” every single day. Don’t drive yourself crazy. Just because you went over your protein or carb goal you set for yourself, does not mean you are a failure. I found that every time I ate chicken wings, I went over my protein goal percentage. And ya know what, I still felt great and was still losing weight. I learned to stop fearing protein as much. Don’t worry about “hitting” your fat goal. I just do not limit my fat. I eat as much as I want and however much makes me feel good. Another thing is MFP does not use “NET Carbs” in the pie chart percentages. So, your carb percentage may always look a little higher due to it is not taking fiber and sugar alcohols into account. Use this app as a learning tool, but don’t let this pie chart run your life or discourage you. It can be a slippery slope to navigate.

Some Ketoneer tips:

Don’t fear fat or salt.

If you are struggling to stick to your macros, put your meal in the app BEFORE you eat. You may be consuming hidden carbs and this could change what you decide to eat.

Try not to snack between meals. Instead, eat enough at each meal to keep you satiated until the next.

If tracking starts to drive you crazy or becomes daunting, STOP and live your life.

Always revert back to the most important rule: Don’t eat sugar, grains, or starch.

Meat, eggs, and REAL butter will never fail you.