How to "Phone In" Your Diet

Being fit doesn’t happen on accident, especially when it comes to nutrition. If you want to get (and stay) lean year in and year out, you can’t just wake up every morning and “wing it” with your diet and hope you hit your goals.

You need to know what you’re putting into your body in terms of not just whole foods, but macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fat).

I’m not saying you have to track your macros meticulously every day of the year. But you should at least record what you eat every so often, and you should certainly track your macros for a minimum of a few days when entering into a new nutrition plan – like Dieting 101, for example. Tracking initially will establish your starting point for the diet so you know exactly what macros to increase or decrease right off the bat and then to adjust as you progress in the diet.

I know, this may sound a little daunting and overwhelming, especially if you’ve never tracked your food intake before. But it’s really not that hard, thanks to one simple tool that nearly all of us have at our disposal these days... 

A smartphone.

If you have an iPhone or Android, tracking your macros is as simple as finding a good nutrition app and entering your foods into it. I personally use MyFitnessPal, but feel free to choose any other app you like. (I have no affiliation with MyFitnessPal; I just really like the app.)

Using Your App to Hit Your Goals

In the above video, I walk you through how to use MyFitnessPal to easily track your macros. It’s so easy, in fact, that for a lot of foods you can just scan a barcode instead of having to enter it manually.

I personally use the premium service on MyFitnessPal, which I pay for, but you can also use the free version of the app and get the same results. In the video, I show you how to set up your diet based off your macros (not just calories) when using the free service.

I use the example of a 200-pound individual following the macro guidelines in Dieting 101:

• 1.5 grams of protein per pound per day – 300 grams total (1,200 calories*)
• 2 grams of carbs per pound per day (as a starting point) – 400 grams total (1,600 calories*)
• 0.5 gram of fat per pound per day – 100 grams total (1,000 calories*)
• Total daily calories: 3,800.

*Based off the fact that there are 4 calories per gram of protein and carbs, and around 9-10 calories per gram of fat.

Staying Lean with the Foods You Love

The best thing about using an app like MyFitnessPal is that it keeps you aware of where you’re at with your macros throughout the day, showing you how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you have left to hit your daily goals. And why is this helpful? Because it allows you to fit not-so-healthy foods into your diet while still hitting your macros.

I’m talking about foods like a Burger King Double Whopper and beer! Yes, you can eat these foods and still be lean! But again, you can’t do so haphazardly. You need to have the right approach to your diet and the awareness of where your macros currently stand to know what you can get away with, and when. An app like MyFitnessPal will help you do that.

Bottom line: Following the right nutrition plan to meet your goals may not always be easy, but it's pretty simple. You can literally just phone it in!

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