I get asked this question all of the time many people actually

find their way to my website through an article that I was featured on on

livestrong.com a while back where I decided to actually use macro counting

to reverse diet myself and also including heavy lifting increased my

muscle mass while staying really lean it was a self experiment it was really fun

and it was one of the things that I just did because I felt like why not it might

be fun and so I get asked all the time because a lot of women will come to me

and say well it looks like what you teach in your courses and with your

clients it's more like intuitive eating so how does macro counting fit in and

it's a really really good question so today I want to share with you some

of the top questions to ask yourself and some of the pros and the cons related to

macro counting versus intuitive eating so you can ultimately discern which is

the best for you so let's dive in first for those of you who do not know what

macro counting is it's basically tracking your protein, carbs, and fat in

grams every single day so this is kind of like calorie counting but you're

counting the actual macros instead this is not a new concept it's actually been

around for a really long time it's actually just a trend that's sort of

coming back into play you may have heard of things like iifym which is if it fits

your macros or maybe flexible dieting it's kind of popular right now in the

bodybuilding world intuitive eating is something that is not a new concept

either and basically what this is is listening to your body and listening to

your hunger signals and discerning what it means when you eat certain

things and what you need to eat and how your body responds to things and

ultimately being able to eventually maintain your ideal body weight and

optimal health through listening from the guidance from within now there

are experts that back both that support either with research and even case

studies tons and tons of case studies so I mean it's clear that there is no one

right answer across the board you can argue either way so today I just want to

throw some of the pros and the cons of each that I have found on my own journey

both using them myself and with my clients so number one both offer

flexibility in their own way macro counting offers the flexibility of

being able to plan out your meals for the day based on your macros your

protein, carbs, and fat those are the goals that you want to hit every single

day and you'll have your plan set at the beginning of the day and then you can

choose those foods whatever foods you want

according to just based on hitting your macros so as long as you hit your macros

then you're good the downside of this is that a lot of times people will get

carried away and they'll end up eating a lot of packaged foods and they think

well I can eat cookies and cake and pop-tarts or whatever else as long as I

hit my macros then I'm good right and the answer is no you're not you need to

make sure that you are actually getting in those micronutrients that you get

from Whole Foods lots of veggies, fruits, things like that

because ultimately your body needs those things to thrive to have energy to sleep

well to have a good immune system it's very important that you are getting in

those micronutrients with intuitive eating it's actually the exact opposite

of macro counting so you can eat whatever you want whenever you want and

you have the complete freedom to choose in the moment what feels best now the

downside of this is that for some people this level of freedom can be way way too

much for them to be able to handle especially if in the past they were used

to counting calories counting macros even binge eating things like that it's

it's like a pendulum and I actually describe it like this we have two

different sides we have structure on one end and then we have freedom on the

other and the structure would be restrictive

eating being very strict with what you're eating being very planned out and

then freedom is on the other side and that's where you basically have no rules

you just eat whatever you want and it's very intuitive this is very structured

this is very masculine this is very feminine in really like leaning back and

trusting and so for some people to swing if they were very strict to swing all

the way to the other ends and be very free with intuitive eating it can be too

much they freaked out and then they feel like they have to go all the way back to

the very controlled restrictive way of eating and it can also lead to binges

and all kinds of things and so this is where you have to check in with yourself

if you know that that level of freedom is going to be way too much for you

would be like going from A to Z overnight then you have to know yourself

and you have to know that that ultimately is not going to serve you

very well and it's not going to lead to you achieving and then sustaining your

goals so number two is that both offer an opportunity to learn about your body

with macro counting you get to learn what works best for you in terms of

protein, carbs, and fat you get to look at what is actually in the foods that

you're eating you're looking at the packages you're looking at the

ingredients you're looking at how much sugar and how much fiber all of these

different things that go into the foods that we eat but a lot of times we really

just don't pay any attention to so macro counting can be the next logical step

for you if you have never really thought about the foods that you eat and what

kind of protein carbs and fats are in the various food options macro counting

also can help you to put together balanced meals so again you'll be able

to see how much protein is in this how much fat is in this how much carbs is in

this and you might even be really surprised about the different foods that

you eat on a regular basis so you might then be able to swap things out and plug

in other foods that lead to more balanced meals which then lead to more

satiety more balance blood sugar so you feel

less of both highs and lows with your energy throughout the day so it can

actually be a really great learning tool with intuitive eating you have the

opportunity to start listening to your body so much in life we are told and

taught to outsource you know to someone that is more of an expertise than we are

and when it comes to your own body who know you best right so when you practice

intuitive eating you're really giving yourself that permission to start paying

attention to start really listening to what your body is asking for to start

feeling into what foods work best for you and leave you feeling most satisfied

now with intuitive eating it's almost like you're giving yourself permission

to clear some space to experiment and it is not an overnight process so please do

not expect yourself to receive results overnight it will take some time but I

promise the more that you practice this tuning in the more you're going to feel

in control no matter what I call this mastering your inner expert number three

is that both offer you the opportunity to feel in control or on the flip side

out of control and here's what I mean both of them are simply a tool it's

almost like we're wearing a tool belt and we have all of these different

things to choose from based on where we're at in our own unique journey

either of them can help to support getting you to your goals but you have

to make sure that you're using whatever tools you choose to use from an

empowered mindset rather than from a disempowered mindset and when I say

disempowered mainly what I'm saying is that if you are using each of these

tools because you're scared or because you think you need this in order to

achieve your goals and it comes from a very lack base place you're probably not

going to get to your goals but if you use some from a mindset of

self-discovery self-love and even from this mindset of curiosity or like what

if almost like I did when I when I played around with macro counting then

that's going to set you up for success on so many levels beyond just the

structure part but also on an emotional level too because you're excited

versus fear-based and that's a whole another conversation for another video

and I talked about that a lot on my website but how do you feel about

whatever you're doing makes a huge huge difference another thing to pay

attention to with this idea of control versus being out of control

is neither one of them is a license to check out and and I see this time and

time again with both of them where people will say macro counting is the

answer I have to count macros it's it's what freed me from binge eating but then

those same people month or a year down the road will then say you know what I

realize now that I basically just replaced one addiction with another and

I became obsessed with counting macros and I was I was a prisoner to my scale

my food scale I was a prisoner to getting online and planning out my food

every single day and I wouldn't go out certain restaurants if I didn't know

what the macros were going to be in different foods and it becomes a very

fear based type of a thing you know where you feel like you need to have

control meanwhile you don't really do anything else in your life and to me

that does not feel like freedom or fun or any of the other feelings that I want

to feel on a daily basis in my life now with intuitive eating it can be very

much the same where you start practicing this new way of eating and showing up

and you say oh my gosh this is the answer this is my magic pill but then

you end up flying way off the wagon way more towards freedom than what you

actually feel comfortable with and you might gain weight you might get to this

place where you feel like oh my gosh I I don't even know what I'm doing anymore

you know is this the right thing and you start to question things and again you

feel like oh my gosh I'm just stuck in another diet type of a thing this is not

the answer now I need to go find the answer and here's one caveat there and I

just want to mention on both of these points so with the macro counting and

getting super obsessed and with intuitive eating and getting you know

way way way free and feeling like you have no sort of structure or guidelines

and you're just kind of flying by the seizure

and maybe you're eating cookies all day because that's what you feel like your

body is telling you to do I just want you guys to know that in either case

it's not wrong to be in that place you are taking the next logical step for you

in your own unique journey and I know I've said that a lot but I'm going to

keep saying it your journey is unique and only you get to define what what

that path looks like because only you know what it is that you want to

experience in your life so each of these different situations or experiences

although it may seem really bad or it may feel really uncomfortable in the

moment it actually is often the next logical step for you in discerning what

it is that you actually want we know what we want most when we've experienced

what we don't want I'm sure that you have had that before I know I have many

times in my life so like I mentioned if you've been restricting and you're way

over here on this very structure of rigid side of the pendulum you've been

restricting for a really long time maybe if you've been eating eight hundred

calories a thousand calories and you know that you want to start eating more

and you know that you need to start taking better care of yourself maybe

macro counting is the next logical step for you in this pendulum so maybe you

know here is structure here's freedom maybe you're right here and that's where

macro counting is and that for you is balance right now you know it would not

feel comfortable for you to go from eight hundred calories a day to eating

cookies and ice cream and all kinds of food all day every day you're going to

feel like a crazy person you know that's a A to Z so what's the next logical step

for you that might be macro counting and what I say is this like every step

is a bridge to the next to the next to the next step where you're at where you

are today where you might have been yesterday is not where you're going to

be forever that's just where you are right now and a lot of times people will

ask me our diets bad you know is Weight Watchers bad and I'll tell them no

because a lot of times that really is the first logical step the first step

for people in discovering what optimal health looks like for them and we have

to have these experiences that help us to discern and discover what

it is that we really want for ourselves when it comes to intuitive eating

I've had some women say that oh my gosh this is this is my Savior this is what I

needed I needed to listen to my body I needed to get into my body but then

later on they'll say but I haven't lost the weight yet what do I do like I still

want to lose the weight and one of the things I tell my clients is weight loss