Keto diet is one of the best diets for weight loss and health. However, in order to make this diet a success, you need to understand the most important concept: your macros.
Macros stands for macronutrients, the fat, protein, and carbohydrates amount you should eat every day. Knowing your personal macros is to know exactly how much carbs, protein and fats in grams you should eat for your body and goals.
Everyone has a unique set of macros, so you need to find out your personal macros. This is where keto is different from other diets. It’s almost like mathematics. It has formulas to follow. The best way is to use a keto calculator to work out your macros.
Once you get your calories, fats, protein and carbs, your next step is to track it using an app to log the details in. Tracking is required for success. If you want to stay on track, keep tracking! There are many keto diet apps you can use to do this.
Why You Need To Track Your Macros
The first step to a healthy, ketogenic diet is knowing your daily breakdown of macronutrients. Keeping a food diary or using a resourceful app like MyFitnessPal can be useful for understanding portions and intake.
Here are some reasons why logging can work for you:
- Learn how to control your calorie consumption
If you have never tracked before, you may be surprised at how much or how little calories you are consuming. Getting to know the values for each nutrient can lead you to making healthier decisions based on knowing the right nutrition you need.
- Understand your sources of calories
Calories aren’t just about total calories, but about the breakdown of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. By entering your macronutrient breakdown in the goals section of MyFitnessPal, you can set daily ranges to achieve.
- Get a feel for portion control
By learning more about calories in and out, you will also learn more about food nutrients, portion control and what types of foods you can eat in larger portion and the types of food you want to eat sparingly. Overall, you become far more cognizant of portion control.
- Identify situations where you binge
You begin to recognize situations or foods that could trigger binge eating tendencies and elevation of hunger hormones.
- Provides a hard, objective record
When you have a written log, or journal, it provides accountability when you go array on your keto lifestyle and takes the guess work out of the equation. You will know exactly how you are eating and that objective feedback can help inspire change.
- Identify if you have a calorie surplus, or deficit
By having a food journal, you can see the total calories you are eating and how many more, or less calories you need to eat and the relationship between your calories in and out. Consult a dietitian, nutritionist, doctor or fitness professional who can help you determine your specific intake values.
Tips to Stay Within Your Macros Limits
To hit your macros, you need to specifically design your meals and the specific type of foods from the keto food list that you will eat. Otherwise you will find yourself in dilemmas such as meeting your protein requirements but under your fats.
For example, if you tend to eat lean meat, such as chicken breast or beef, you will be more likely to hit your protein goal very quickly as these foods are very high in protein. To avoid such problem, it’s best to eat fatty meat cuts so you can meet both your protein and fat at the same time.
Of course, the most important limit to watch is your carbs. On keto, it’s best to stay under 20g of net carbs per day to remain in ketosis. To achieve this, you need to look out for foods that are high in carbs as well as foods that contain hidden carbs and sugar.
The best source of carbs should come from vegetables, not sugar candy. Therefore, you need to choose your veggies wisely to get enough carbs and fibres at the same time.
Some of the best vegetables are spinach, broccoli, cauliflowers, cabbage, zucchini, etc….
One important tip to notice is that vegetables that grow under the ground tend to have more carbs content than those that grow above the ground. The sweeter the veggies taste, the more sugar content it has. Yes, vegetables have sugar in it. Even it is natural sugar, it still counts towards your daily carbs limit.
If you find yourself not meeting your daily fat amount, some options you can try are taking MCT oil, coconut oil, bullet proof coffee, and fat bombs.
Keto diet is not hard to follow. As soon as you know what you should eat and how much you need to eat, the rest is easy. All you need is to find a keto meal plan to follow and your success is almost guaranteed.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.