I recently had a call with a guy where he told me about his previous experience tracking macros. While it worked for him, he found it obsessive, caused him stress, and felt it resembled an “eating disorder”.
I definitely can understand that. Years ago when I first started tracking, I felt the same way. But later I realized it wasn’t tracking itself that was obsessive or disordered. I was the problem.
I was thinking that tracking had to be perfect—that if I was off by 1g I was failing. And then I would beat myself up about it and try to be even stricter. Then it definitely did get obsessive and disordered.
This stuff isn’t an exact science y’all and tracking your food or hitting your macros don’t have to be perfect to work. Consistency is important but perfection is not a requirement to be consistent. It just needs to be good enough and consistent to get the job done. We’ve got to let the “all-or-nothing”, “perfect or fail” mindset go.
If you’re off your targets, ok fine. There’s no need to default to the negative self-talk. You didn’t screw up. Just use that data as feedback to figure out why and see how you can do better next time.
If you can’t figure it out, get some help, like from a coach. Though, if said coach hounds you for perfection or guilt-trips you for not being 100% spot on, it’s time to get a new coach.
Tracking shouldn’t be an obsession or something to stress out about. There’s really no reason to get emotionally attached to it. If that’s happening, we’re totally missing the point.
It’s a tool that provides data that you can use to make better decisions about how you can eat. That’s all it is.
Have you gotten obsessive about tracking? Are you struggling or have you relaxed about it? What helped you? Would love to hear you share your experiences below.
Probably the best salad I ever made. Damn it was bomb!
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