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Macro tracking is an incredible tool and skill to learn when it comes to optimizing your overall health, physique and performance.
But when it comes down to tracking certain foods (raw vs. cooked anyone???), or ordering foods out, it can be a confusing and frustrating process!
So we thought we would cover 5 of the most commonly asked macro tracking / MyFitnessPal questions to save yourself from some time and frustration.
1) What’s with the green check marks on some of the foods in the MyFitnessPal database?
The green checks next to certain foods mean that they are verified by the USDA. There can be some really sketchy food logs in MFP so if you can, look for the green checks (especially when it comes to whole foods). These tend to be the most accurate.
2) How do I weigh out/track marinades I use on meats?
Simple: weigh out the marinade before you add the meat, then weigh the remaining after you take the meat out to cook (whatever is leftover in the bowl or bag). From there, figure out what was absorbed - ½ of it? ⅓? Then add that amount to your recipe, or divide that into how many servings you are cooking.
3) How do you track foods that you do not cook personally?
If you are going to a friend's house or out to a restaurant where you are having food that you did not personally cook and aren’t 100% sure what’s in it, this is where your eyeballing and guestimmation skills come into play. Guesstimating is a SKILL, and you will get better at it as you continue to track/get to know the macronutrient makeup of a variety of foods.
What we recommend in this scenario is to do a quick google search, or search in MFP for three different options of the food and either find the median of the three, OR the one that looks most realistic based on your knowledge of tracking.
If you're one of our All-Tru clients, feel free to reach out to your Coach and ask them if your guesstimation looks accurate (this is a learning process)!
Let’s take pizza for example. Buffalo chicken pizza is life so we'll go with this. Search for ‘buffalo chicken pizza’ in the app and get this:
Now we see a pretty decent range of calories here so we are looking for the median. However, this also depends on the slice of the pizza, if it’s bigger, we will opt for the 365 calorie one, if smaller, 277cal or maybe even 250cal. This is where your guestimmating comes in, so pick one of the 3 and enjoy it!
With something more along the lines of a mixed meal, let’s say a salad with grilled chicken and veggies, we recommend putting the ingredients in individually, and then using hand portions to estimate the portion sizes. Here’s a hand portion refresher:
Also assume that restaurant food will have more butter or oil than you assume (that’s what makes it so delicious). So we suggest accounting for 1-2tbsp of either depending on how large the meal is.
4) How do you track ALCOHOL?
Do not rely on MFP searches to track alcohol as it will most likely only give you the calories and 0’s for all the macros (having 2g of carbs for a drink is not a selling point).
Alcohol is technically a 4th macronutrient (7 calories per gram) but it isn’t one of the macros we track, therefore we track it as either a carb or a fat source. NOT PROTEIN.
NEVER PROTEIN.
To track alcohol as a carb you divide the total calories by 4 (because 1g of carb equals 4 calories). If we were to use a 100 calorie beverage as an example: 100/4 (carbs have 4 calories per gram) = 25g of carbs. This means you eat 25 less grams of carbs, to fit in a drink.
Let’s say you want to track alcohol as fats (because you want all your carbs- we don’t blame you). To track alcohol as fats using a 100 calorie beverage as an example: 100/9 (fat has 9 calories per gram) = 11 grams of fat. This means you eat 11 less grams of fat, to fit in a drink.
Then just create your own ‘food’ in MFP and name it ‘[drink] [carb/fat]’ so you have it saved for later! Some generic drinks are also already logged like this, so a good hack is to just search ‘wine carb’ and you’ll get options already pre logged macro wise.
5) Do I track food raw? Or cooked?
Our school of thought - unless you are a high level physique or performance athlete, weigh most of your food already cooked. The time and stress it takes to weigh food raw, cook it, and then weigh again is sometimes not worth the effort.
It's important to remember though that when you are tracking your food, there WILL be a significant difference in weighing cooked vs raw food. For example, rice and pasta approximately double in weight when cooked as they retain water. Meats lose water when cooked, and weigh approximately .8 less.
If you are making a recipe from scratch, it’s fairly easy to weigh your foods raw before you cook, but in the other scenarios, we would either use the following formulas, or type in ‘cooked’ before you go to enter your food.
Rices and pastas: uncooked grams or oz. x 2 (56gx2 = 112g cooked)
Meat and poultry: raw grams or oz. x .8 (4ozx.8 = 3.2oz. Cooked
Weighing foods pre-cooked may not be the most accurate means of tracking, but this process isn’t about being perfect - it’s about being CONSISTENT. For example, if you were to log the ‘cooked rice’ above, use this same entry every time you have jasmine rice - rather than searching for a new rice option.
Need help figuring out exactly how much you should be eating for your goals? Want macros that are completely personalized to you and created by our certified coaches? Check out our one time macro consultations here.
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