Macros Made Simple

Want a body that looks strong, feels steady, and doesn’t crumble the moment life gets busy? This episode is your practical guide to tracking macros without obsession. We flip the script on “eat less” culture and show you how to use data to eat enough of the right things—so you keep muscle, support hormones, and lose fat in a way that actually lasts.

We break down the roles of protein, fats, and carbs in plain English and explain why protein is your insurance policy against muscle loss and a sluggish metabolism. You’ll learn how to set smart macro targets, why coming in way under backfires, and how to avoid the yo-yo cycle that leaves you hungrier, weaker, and more frustrated. We also get real about appetite suppressants and crash strategies that drop the scale fast but quietly strip hard-earned muscle.

Then we move to the system: prelog your day, build a simple food library, and plan your week the way you plan your calendar. Start with family dinners, add repeatable breakfasts and snacks, and adjust lunches to land your numbers. We share stress-proof tactics for nights out, travel days, and surprise schedule changes—budget calories ahead, scan menus early, pack protein, and let the plan carry you when willpower is low. The result is less decision fatigue, fewer cravings, and steady progress you can maintain through holidays, events, and real life.

If you’ve ever opened the fridge at 6 p.m., felt overwhelmed, and hit the “forget it” button, this is the reset you need. Track to ensure enough, not punish yourself. Build muscle, guard hormones, and keep your metabolism responsive with a few minutes of planning and a lot less stress. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a saner plan, and leave a quick review to tell us what you’ll prelog first.

Transcript

Why Tracking Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:02

All right, guys, I want to speak about tracking macros um math fitness power. I mean, I've done many videos on this. Um, so I don't want to go into too much detail because there is there is that available, whether it's um on the YouTube or on one of the podcasts we've done previously. But just start with a little small recap, and then I want to kind of talk to you about me and how I approach my tracking and my eating, and maybe it can kind of help you inspire you in some way to kind of like follow that because obviously I've done this for many, many years, and I I don't spend too much time within my fitness power. I kind of just do it in a small period of time and then I kind of set for the day, and um I don't need to keep like going back or spending loads and loads of time because sometimes it can feel like we spent the whole day on my fitness power, but it shouldn't need to feel like that. And if it does feel like that, we're gonna kind of fix that right now.

Macros Explained Clearly

SPEAKER_00 1:02

So, firstly, why do we need to track? We need to track because we need the data, essentially. And that's as easy, that's the easiest way to put it. People can call it obsessive, it's not. If you look at any business model, it's built off data. If you look at the way you run your car, it's built off data, it's built how much petrole you got in your car. If you look at how you live your life with your kids, it is organized, it is done, you track milk, you track all these things. That's just life. You need that data to know that you are, you know, we don't always have to be like, oh, I'm tracking my food to be avoiding calories. But it can be like, you know, I track food with pregnant women to for them to understand that you're getting enough food. If you look at it like that, rather than like, oh, I'm tracking to make sure I'm under, or I'm tracking to make sure I'm on a diet, or I'm avoiding this. Well, no, let's just look at it like we're tracking because we want to make sure we're getting enough of each macro. And I think that is the key thing. If you want a long, healthy life and you want to live a good life and feel healthy and feel feel amazing, like, you know, there's either track your food and be healthy and have a great body, or be really unhealthy, get ill and track your medicine, you know, you're gonna be tracking something. What one one or the other. But tracking is something that we want to make sure that we're getting enough of each nutrient. As a woman, not myself, but as a woman, especially for your hormones, is making sure that you are ticking certain boxes that you can live a life without the ups and downs, without the heavy PMS, without, you know, menopause being a difficult ride, you know. Well, or a harder, a harder ride, isn't it? Isn't more way of putting it because it's you know, it can sometimes be difficult no matter what. What are we tracking? We're tracking macros essentially. It looks like we're tracking calories, but we're tracking macros because calories are made up of macros. Without getting too sciencey, um uh a gram of protein has four calories, a gram of carb has four calories, a gram of fat has nine calories. So that's why you know you have a bag of nuts and you're like, oh my god, I only had this amount. So yeah, you had a small, you know, small amount of grams, but the the calories per gram is quite higher fat. Um, and then you do have a fourth macro, which is alcohol, which we don't track um and don't touch because we're on a program. Um, but it that is that is the actual the fourth macro um in the macros of calories. So when you're thinking about calories, you can't be like, hey, I'm just following a calorie diet. You can't eat calories without eating macros because calories are made up of the macros. So why do we need to why are macros so important and

Calories Versus Sustainable Fat Loss

SPEAKER_00 3:44

calories not? You'll see a lot of weight loss is calories in, calories out. And to a certain degree, it is. But there's a difference with weight loss um and being in shape, and it's a difference between sustainable weight loss and fast weight loss. So you'll see things like azempic, Monjaro, um, other kind of peptides that are helping along with appetite suppressant. And if used correctly, can be great tools for some people. But most of the time they're you know, bringing your appetite down to a level where your calories are really low. And what the data shows with that is yeah, you can drop your calories to 800 calories and you'll lose a shit ton of weight. But 30% of that weight loss for most people on them pens is muscle. And why is that damaging for women? Because you're already using losing muscle on a on a monthly basis as you get over the age of 35 or 30, is it? So adding that 30% drop, you know, if you lose 10 kilos on Manjaro, great, but three kilos of muscle that you know how long it takes for a woman to build three kilos of muscle and build, you know, build that healthy muscle that helps with metabolism, helps with hormones, helps with longevity. You know, we can now see that the amount of muscle you have on your body is a has a direct correlation to like how healthy your life is going to be later on. So taking that amount of muscle off with a low calorie diet is not what we want because less muscle is a slower metabolism, less strength in the legs, walking upstairs later on, you know, it's just not good overall. And also, the muscle is what makes the body look a certain way. So we can be so obsessed sometimes with weight loss, weight loss, weight loss where people just track calories and want to go low calories. But one, it's not sustainable, and two, it's not the kind of weight loss that you want. We want to lose the body fat and keep as much of that muscle, that healthy muscle that is amazing for our body, uh, as much as possible while losing weight. Because then what happens is we can say the metabolism is staying strong, you're staying healthy, your hormones are going to be good, but also your longevity is you know, that's your really pension when it comes to health. It's yeah, all that muscle that you have in your body. So then how does that relate to macros? Well, the way we keep that muscle is with strength training and with protein. Now, we need to hit a certain threshold of that protein for it to be beneficial for us to keep muscle. So then we can go, okay, we can lower the calories and

Protecting Muscle And Metabolism

SPEAKER_00 6:10

be in a deficit, but we've got enough protein that's going to keep muscle. Therefore, we're good as we're losing its only body fat, it's only the unhealthy stuff that we're kind of losing. So protein is the key macro that we want to concentrate on. And it is the only macro that you can eat and isn't digested and stored as fat. It is in some cases, but not in this case. When other calories are just when other macros are just not there, it will be digested and stored as fat because it's the only macro. But when we have got carbs and fats there, it is very rare that protein is digested and put as fat. So therefore, if we can take 40% of our calories away from a macro that is not used or stored as fat, we know that we can eat, um, we can feel full, we can get all these benefits from protein, but also we're getting calories in without the storage, without that, you know. Oh, I went over today and you know, put too much on and now I've got stored energy, which stored energy is fat. So why can't we eat protein on its own? Because carbs and fats serve a purpose as well. Fats is what's going to help your hormones. That it look at, you know, look at fats as the hormonal base. Um, and also fats will slow down the digestion of food around the body. So we need a certain level of fats, and women need just a little bit higher than you know, a low-fat diet, because low-fat diet can cause issues with them hormones later on in life. So we need a good level of fats. Now, that level of fats depends on the body, but it's normally around about 40 to 50, where we can kind of be like that normally stays. We don't really touch that too much. And then where do carbohydrates come in? Well, the body runs off energy, like a car runs off petrol. So we need a level of carbohydrates to get up in the morning, to think, to work, to do normal jobs, to train. So we need a certain level of energy. Now, if we burn that energy, if that energy comes in, let's say we take 500 calories of carbohydrates, we burn it, we lose it, we use it, and we're sweet, we stay the same. If we eat more than what we burn, then essentially what happens is that energy is stored. It's the body goes, okay, we've got a bit too much of this. Let's put it down at the arse or let's put it around the belly button to store it for later. Um and if we ever need it, we'll go back and get it. And when does it need it? Is when we're in a calorie deficit, when it doesn't have enough energy for the day, the body will go, okay, we need more energy. Where can we get it? Well, I've put a bit on that arse last week, so let's go take it from there. And that's how fat loss works, essentially. So that carbohydrate is the gauge that we kind of go up and down on. So it's key that we track all these macros because they all play a key part in our body. So what we want to do is we want to hit the threshold of each one of these macros as close as possible without going over. And that is the key to weight loss. What we don't want to do is go, okay, we've got these macros, which is 150 protein, 150 carbs, 50 fats, for example. What we don't want to do is come really under them because then we're in too much of a deficit. And yes, the body will go for the fat and other places, but it will go, we don't have enough protein. Okay, where are we getting protein from? Let's take it from that muscle in the legs. Okay, great. Fats, what's going on over there? We ain't got enough fats. Okay, let's let the hormones are going all over the place. Okay, what's happening? Let's maybe hold on to weight, let's cause hair to fall out, let's cause the mood to swing. It will do all this mad shit. So it makes it very difficult for you to maintain a calorie deficit for long periods of time. Because we want the body, especially the woman's body, we want it in the most comfortable state while trying to lose weight,

Protein First, Then Fats And Carbs

SPEAKER_00 9:57

or the most comfortable state while trying to gain weight, whatever your goal is, or being pregnant, for example. We want it in a comfortable state. So we have to have these markers to hit to keep it in a comfortable state. Because if it becomes uncomfortable, stuff happens that doesn't make you feel good. And when you don't feel good, normally what happens is you go eat some bad shit because that is the quickest thing to make you feel better. So then macros are super, super important. It's super important that we don't take it for granted and go, let's just come under because I'm in a weight loss. Like it doesn't matter. I can go under, I can go under. It's not about being under, it's about getting as close to the target as possible, sometimes a little bit over, sometimes a little bit under. That's just general error. But we're trying to get as close to that target as possible to make sure that we're giving the body enough of each that the body's in a really nice space and it will do whatever we want it to do. Also, what I'm doing, which you may not know, is I'm making you lose weight now, but I'm also thinking about the future. I'm also thinking about where is Sarah going to be in January or summer next year. Now, I can make you lose weight really quickly by dropping calories and dropping this muscle off quickly. And we can go from someone can go from 80 kilos to 70 kilos quite quickly. But in my mind, what I'm thinking about, okay, let's what happens when she gets to 70 kilos and we put in some food again? Well, the metabolism is going to be slower because we drop the calories so low. Um, the muscle mass is gonna be lower because we we didn't eat enough protein. So her metabolism is gonna be really slow then. So anything we put in over the amount of calories that we've used to lose the weight, that weight loss is gonna go on. Like a sponge, if you get a really dry sponge and you put it in water, what happens? It will soak up the most water. Yeah? It will soak it up really quickly. And that's what happens to the body if you lose weight too quickly. So I'm trying to get you, that's why I'm always going slow, steady, slow, steady, because I'm trying to let that weight just slowly drop off, drop off, drop off to keep your body in a relaxed state. So when it does have a minced pie and a hot chocolate, it doesn't act like a sponge and suck it up. Some of you are in a real rush. I want to lose a kilo a week, I want to lose two kilos a week. It's like, okay, well, go, go for it. But what's gonna happen? You're gonna go out for a big meal, and that kilo's gonna come back on quicker than you thought it did. And what happens then? When you yo-yo diet, which is crash diet, low calories, back up, which a lot of people have done in the past, it's like try and lose weight quick, go back up, try and lose weight quick. Every time you come up, what you'll normally happen, you'll come up a little bit more. And then what happens is it makes it harder for your body to go down again. The body resists it a little bit more. And then you try and crash diet again, you go back up. So over time, yes, you'll hit some low points throughout the year, but each high point you come out will be a bit higher, be a bit higher, be a bit higher. And that's what happens when you go to your diet. So, crash dieting is just gonna really mess things up. So, the way to not crash diet is track your food. Now, that's the science behind why we need to track, which took a lot longer than that, but it would be, but let's let's carry on. So, what is the best way to track it? Because it can be a bit of an arsache sometimes. Now, when you first start tracking, if you're new to MyFitnessPal or NutriCheck or whatever you use to track your food, the hardest thing is going to be getting all

Hitting Macro Targets Without Undereating

SPEAKER_00 13:18

that information into the tracker. So, first thing we need to set the goals, which is I've set that for you. You put that into your MyFitnessPal. I need this of protein, carbs, and fats. Then we need to get in the bread that we have, the eggs that we have, the chicken that we have, the list that we have. That needs to be scanned and inputted. The best way to do it is scan the pack and input the amount of grams that you have. Once you've done that over a period of time, maybe one or two weeks, what's going to happen is you're going to have a library of food that you've eaten. So therefore, you can just pick it. You don't have to scan it again. You can just say, I had chicken. Oh, that's the same chicken I had. I don't think I scan anything unless it's new. Um, because you can just put input it and set your days up anywhere you want because you've already used their meals. And what you'll find over even more time, you'll probably recycle a few different meals, but nothing would be that adventurous out of that. Let's if you look at breakfast, for example, you're either having a yogurt bowl, eggs, protein smoothie, maybe some toast with cottage cheese every now and again. But even if you're going out for breakfast, it's eggs and something. So realistically, we can, you know, you can say it's hard to track breakfast, but it's not because once you tracked one kind of breakfast, it's going to be in your My Fitness Power for you to just build and play. Lunchtime, again, you'll probably recycle a few different meals: sandwich, chicken and rice, whatever, fish and rice, again, it'll be recycled. So over time, you know, all the data. I can go to my fitness panel and plan my whole day without scanning everything because the data's in there. But in the beginning, it's difficult because you've got to get that data in there, and it can be it can be a little bit of a ballake. Now, once you start to get that data in there, the best thing you can do with tracking your food, going into your diet, is time in your week. Now, this is one thing that I do that works so fucking well. I'm a busy man because I'm mentoring 110 women. Um, I don't really have the time or the privilege to be sitting here thinking, what am I gonna eat? Um, what am I what am I having today? Do I have it in my fridge, for example? Give me one second, I can hear my dog jumping or something. Sorry, she's probably just eating my whole dinner off the side, which is fantastic. Um planning, yeah. So the the the I don't have the privilege of like being able to think what I want to eat at certain times. So the best thing I do is I just plan my week out. Like I plan my diary of work, whatever. And I've got a family and I can plan it with my family. It's very, very, very, very simple. The key is what meals am I having with my family? Um, and that's normally

Avoiding Yo-Yo Dieting

SPEAKER_00 16:21

the evening meal. So that is set out for the week. I do a cardo shop with all the meals in. Last night was cod and rice. Tonight is a chicken soup. Um, tomorrow will be salmon and rice. Thursday will be, I think, chicken noodles again. It's all panned out throughout the week. Then, because I know their meals, I can work backwards from that. My snack is always the same. It's a yogurt bowl or a protein bar. Every day. My breakfast is exactly the same every day. Yeah, Luna's just ate it's chicken sweep. Um, my breakfast is um the same every day. It is a bagel and a protein shake. Um, and I have two dates before I go to the gym. And then lunchtime, I'll either have a chicken sandwich, a chicken pizza, or chicken and rice. That is my week. Just set out. I write all that into my fitness pal or I write it on a piece of paper so I know what I'm eating. And then each evening, I'll go into my fitness pal and I'll be like, okay, morning, I'm having my dates, which I've already tracked, so they're already in there. Then I have my bagel and my protein shape is already in there. Then I have my chicken and rice, it's already in there. Then I have my yogurt um in the afternoon with berries in there. Then I'm having, was having chicken soup in there. Now, I'll then look at my macros and go, okay, where's that leave me? I'm over on my carbs, I'm under on my protein, and my fats are bang on. Okay, let me go back and adjust. Let me take a bit of the bread off at lunch for my chicken sandwich. Well, chicken pizza. Let me take a bit of that off. Okay, that sorted my carbs out. I'm a bit low on protein. Maybe I need to add an extra half a scoop of protein to my smoothie in the morning. Let me add that in. So then I've worked out where my macros are gonna land. So now there's no error. I just follow the plan I make the day before. My macros are here, slam dung, body feels great, weight is being lost because I'm doing the work. Easy. Now, where some people will go wrong is they'll go, okay, what do I want this morning for breakfast? Um, maybe I'll get eggs. Okay, let me go look in the fridge. Ah, I've only got one egg. Okay, fuck. Can't have eggs. So, oh fuck it. I can't have no time for this. Let me have some toast. I'll have toast and think about that. Then you have toast. And then later on, you think, what should I have now? Maybe I'll have a chicken sandwich. Oh no, I had toast for breakfast. And then you track it as you go, and then you get to about five o'clock and you go, let me look at my macros or let me put it all in now in my My Fitness pal. And then you look back and you go, Fuck, I've eaten way too many carbs. My protein's at like 30 grams. I've got dinner tonight. What am I gonna have that's gonna get me 100 grams of protein? Nothing. Nothing. And how are you gonna get them carbs down when you've already eaten? Eating them. You can't. So today's fucked. Yeah? And then what they'll do, they'll try that same thing again. And they'll think that they need

Getting Started In MyFitnessPal

SPEAKER_00 19:18

to be better at guessing where they are. It's like, no, put it in before, know where you're gonna be at, and then what you can do is you can adapt before you eat it. If you're eating and then tracking, you've got no chance unless you just hit it on the bullseye by being very lucky. So you've got to be you've got to be planning above um where you're gonna be. Now, if you're planning the week and you go, oh, but Thursday night I'm out, okay, that's fine. Saturday night, we're at a Christmas market, okay, that's fine. Then you can put it in and go, okay, well, I'm out on Thursday night, so what I'm gonna have is I'm gonna have a light breakfast, light lunch, light a snack, and then I'll use that for like 800 calories because I know it's gonna be a heavy one. It's planned. What you don't do is get Thursday and go, shit, I'm out tonight. Oh god, what should I have? Maybe I just maybe I don't eat, or maybe I just have the day off. Making decisions on the day doesn't happen. Same with the that's why I mapped out the whole of November, December, knowing if it's a green or red day, understanding what's coming. It's so key in this game. It's like you work out, you know what's coming. Planning your food is just taking one decision away that is just done. Some of you have kids and you're going out for the day. You plan every bloody meal because you can't take the chance that your kids are gonna eat in wagamamas and they're gonna find something that they like. No, you're packing their snacks, you're packing their food, you're making sure that kid's got some food to not. The day's over, mate. So we're putting that much emphasis into planning for our kids. We've just got to do the same for ourselves. What I'm going out all day today. Okay, what am I eating today? It's not like I'm gonna find it. No, you'll never find the protein. You'll never find the right thing that's gonna suit your macros. Understand where you're gonna be tomorrow. Understand what you're gonna eat. Thursday, I'm going to Lapland. So we're leaving here at six in the morning. Lapland, I don't know what food is gonna be there. So what am I doing? Six in the morning, I'll have my breakfast. I'll then take a smoothie with me so I know I've got another little meal later on. I'll then probably pack a sandwich. Or I decide that's a day off and I deal with the consequences. I won't be because I'm on a diet. So I'll be packing my food for Lapland. I'll know what I'm eating before then. And if I go there and there's something great that I can eat, fuck it, I'll sacrifice a sandwich and took it in a bin and eat, eat what I'm gonna eat there. But I know what I'm gonna have before. So then when I'm going out, I feel in a comfortable position. If I'm going to a restaurant, I know that menu before I've hit the restaurant. If I'm on a diet, if not, I'm just being relaxed and eat what I want. But if I'm trying to get results before I go to the restaurant, I will look what I'm gonna eat, and it would be like, there's a chicken in this there. Okay, let me put that in my fitness palette, or let me put it in my chat GPT to see what the calories come out. And I'm planning the whole week. So the room for error becomes less and less and less and less. And then when you get busy, it doesn't matter. You've already tracked. So I'm too busy. Okay, well, great. Your through's already organized, fantastic. I'm stressed, okay. Well,

Weekly Meal Planning That Works

SPEAKER_00 22:30

sit down and have a cup of tea and think about why you're stressed. But just eat what's in your pan. If you're stressed and you don't know what you're eating for dinner, what's gonna happen? You can't be asked to think about chicken, rice, and veg. You're in straight into the pizza place because it's the easiest thing you do and you're stressed, you don't want to make decisions. You think fuck it, you've hit the fuck it button. But if it's planned, if you I can't have a pizza tomorrow night, even if I'm pissed off, because my dinner's in that fridge, I've already paid from that from bloody accardo. So I can't, I'm not gonna sacrifice that other pizza as well. That pizza could be double. I'm the lose the body organic meat that my wife persists on bloody buying, you know, like it's all it no matter what happens in my day, it's already sorted for me. I don't have to recalibrate because I the way I feel, or something that's happened, or the baby didn't go to sleep on time. Okay, well, perfect. Well, at least you know what you're having for dinner, you don't have to worry about trying to figure out that as soon as you come down. Planning is the key. It is the key to success when it comes to tracking your food with and my fitness pattern. Putting your food in before, seeing where your protein is at, seeing where your carbs are at, and seeing where your um fats are at is the key for success. So as you're going, especially into this next little period of some potential weight gain or potential maintenance, the green days, make sure they're panned. Plan it, plan it, plan it. If you're going out, make sure it's planned. If it's an amber day, make sure the day's planned beforehand. If it's a red day, yeah, forget about it. But if it's a green day, it needs someone, you know, if you want to have a good tip or and a good skill under your belt, if someone says, What are you eating on Thursday night? You should have an answer for it. Because then you're in control of your food and you're in control of your diet, and then you're in a very, very, very good place, and that's where you want to be. So quick and easy. Explain why we need to track. Explain what your macro, what your macros mean, and explain how to get the macros in there and how important all that is. Not for being under, not for making sure we're under our calories, but making sure your body has enough. And that is the key. What you do and why you track is to make sure your body has got enough of each so you can live a long, healthy lifestyle with happy hormones, with good muscle, and feeling fucking good all year round. That is the reason we track. Don't take it for granted because there isn't another way that makes you feel better. I promise you. Some people would be like, I can't be asked to track. And I'll be like, okay, what have you eaten this week? Well, Thursday I didn't know, so I had a prep sandwich, and then I was bored, so I had a nando's, and I didn't eat on Wednesday. And how'd you feel? Like shit. Okay, great, let's start tracking. Understand, like just mapping it out. You don't have to be on my fitness path all day. And my last point if you feel like you don't have time to track, go into your screen time, look at your Instagram or your social media tab. See how long you was on that. If it's more than 10 minutes a day, you've got what more than enough time to track. Your priorities are just sitting in a different place. Alright.

Prelogging Days To Remove Guesswork

SPEAKER_00 26:00

That's it for me.