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CALORIES: why you SHOULD NOT look at calories while tracking macros.

When using All Macro Tracking apps, at some point, you are going to run into the issue that your calories are not being met, even if you are meeting your macros. It does not matter which food tracking app you use, or how many times you scan a label, but you will keep running into this issue,

The FDA allows food manufactures to round the amount of calories UP OR down, by 20% (or more actually). Example: if a food item has 100 calories, they can round up or down by 20%. So even though that may not seem like a significant difference, the extra 20 calories that are NOT being listed, definitely add up over a course of the day, assuming you eat more than just hat 100 calorie item. But most food manufactures take this EVEN further then that! Most food man factors will deduct the grams of dietary fiber and sugar alcohols from the carbohydrate total, therefore only calculating the calories of the left-over carbs (net carbs). Perfect example: look at one of your favorite protein bars. If it shows it has 180 calories, do the math yourself. Calculate 4 calories per each gram of protein, 4 calories per each gram of carbohydrate, and 9 calories per each gram of fat. So that Quest Bar Label that reads 180 calories but 20g Protein, 9g fat and 23g carbohydrate, really has 253 accurate calories. That is a 73-calorie difference, which is definitely significant as a 73-calorie difference may indeed take you out of calorie deficit! OR my favorite comparison, that "Low Carb" or "KETO" bread, that tells you it only hjas 40 calories, due your work, it doesn't Try it. Calculate it yourself.


If you are following your allocated or recommended MACROS to meet your specific and individual goal, you WILL INDEED meet the proper amount of calories you should be consuming. So rather than looking at calories, look at the macros. If you really want to follow calories, then I suggest you create your own food labels accurately in My Fitness Pal, or any other food tracking app, to manually enter the proper number of macros, which will in turn give you the proper calorie breakdown.


If you are interested learning more, I provide private and group lessons to show you how to do this. You should know, that tracking of this nature with the addition of creating food labels, will indeed require a large amount of time and commitment, and is not needed need for ideal results. What you do need to do, is trust your coach, or trust yourself in the journey, follow macros accurately, consistent and compliantly. And you will see the results you wish to see.


There are even more reasons why calories can indeed be thrown off with tracking apps. More things to consider:

1.find the proper listings that are not only verified, but ACCURATE

2. Double check your labels when you scan the label, in order to see if the scanned product is accurately represented in the app itself

3. Do NOT tracking exercise or steps in your a tracking app, which will indeed change your caloric intake goal

4. Properly track your ALCOHOL consumption, do not use labels for alcohol. See my pot on alcohol for more. 

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