Folks this isnt going to be the most popular thing to say but I gotta speak up. You may agree or disagree with me here to varying degrees, but I am going to speak through experience over the years with myself, and my clients.
I see so many people struggle with hitting their pro/carbs/fats (macros) that are just eating and logging the food they eat. Sigh….maybe it’s the old school way I learned but what happened to eating X amount of meals a day (however many work for your daily routine) and hitting macros per meal? Do I think there is an advantage for fat loss there? Minimal to none, but that’s not why I think more people should be trying to hit macro’s per MEAL instead of macros per DAY.
When you strive to hit your numbers per meal you will get much closer to your macros per day total than you will just randomly eating food and logging it into myfitnesspal or some other app. I have clients, friends, etc that say “I was under my carb intake today 30 grams” or “I went over my protein today by accident, sorry coach” and I find out they are just eating and logging their food and not trying to hit meals totals I give them. It seems these day’s with flexible dieting that people have abandoned the concept of planning meals out and are just more focused on hitting numbers at the end of the day. The only problem I have with that is when the problem comes up of being “off” your numbers. Especially protein, I mean if you are a guy eating 240 g of protein and you only eat like 15 g at one sitting and then 80 at another your missing out on the point of optimizing protein synthesis from that protein feeding. Balancing your meals with protein at least should be a minimum and there is plenty of data to support that. I give every single client a certain amount of pro/carbs/fats per meal to do 2 things- optimize protein synthesis from their protein at that meal, and to get them more accurately hitting their daily totals instead of trying to figure out how to make them all fit at the end of the day.
I hate to think this way, but it’s almost like people just dont want to plan anything out anymore. If you are a physique athlete, I suggest planning your meals for the day instead of just eating and logging. Sure people will say “but it works for me, I even get contest lean” and that’s fine, but if you are constantly juggling numbers and off that’s not ideal for you. Just plan your meals out for the day or days and put a bit more effort in and make sure your calories and macros are where they should be.
Article provided by John Gorman Fitness and Weightloss Coach
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