I Don’t Actually Track My Macros — Here’s What I Do Instead

I feel like there are two extremes when people talk about tracking macros. You've got the serious bodybuilder, powerlifter or competitive athlete weighing everything that goes onto their plate, scanning packets and knowing exactly how many grams of protein, carbs and fat they've eaten. Then you've got the other extreme where they don't care, eat whatever they fancy and don't really think about what's in it.

I sit somewhere in the middle, and for me that kind of works.

I Used to Think It Had to Be Chicken, Rice and Broccoli

When I first started training all those years ago, I did what I thought you were supposed to do: chicken, rice and broccoli. Then chicken, rice and broccoli again. If I wanted to make things exciting, I'd change the seasoning on the chicken. Living dangerously.

Don't get me wrong, put chicken, rice and broccoli in front of me now and I'll still scoff it down, but as time has gone on I've realised I don't particularly want to eat like that every single day. I also don't want to go completely the other way and eat whatever I want without thinking about it. For me, the golden spot is somewhere between the two.

What My Day Actually Looks Like

My day normally starts around 6:50 or 7 in the morning. I crawl out of bed and go through the usual morning rituals: shower, anti-wrinkle cream, brush my teeth, get dressed, look in the mirror and repeat, you've got this. Hahaha.

Food isn't really part of that routine. I normally walk the dog first and then head to the gym, and I don't eat before my morning training session. That's not me saying everyone should train fasted or that training without food has some magical advantage. It's simply what I've settled into and what works for me.

The morning session normally finishes around 10 and naturally, after being awake for a few hours, walking the dog and training, I'm starting to get hungry. This is where I've learned something about myself though: I have a tendency to overeat.

Instead of starting eating as soon as I finish training and potentially spending the entire day eating, I hang fire, usually until around 2pm. By that point I'm properly hungry.

My First Meal Is Usually Big and Protein Heavy

My first proper meal will normally be something like a large chicken breast, sweet potato or normal potato and some vegetables. Broccoli, sweetcorn, cabbage — whatever I've got really. Anything that adds some colour to the plate. I'll usually wash that down with a protein shake.

At this point I'm full, but unfortunately I'm also a fairly big lad and apparently my stomach likes reminding me of that because the fullness doesn't always last particularly long. I'm always hungry.

This is where I think food choices start to matter. Not because a chocolate bar is evil or because crisps suddenly destroy your diet, but because when you're hungry several times throughout the day all those little choices can start adding up. Instead of automatically grabbing a chocolate bar — or four — I might have an apple, some pork puffs or a piece of meat I've already cooked. Nothing particularly exciting, I'm just making a slightly better decision. If you're looking for practical ideas rather than pretending snacks don't exist, I've also put together a guide to healthy high-protein snacks for people who train.

Then Comes Meal Number Two

Later I'll normally have another meal. I'm actually not always particularly hungry at this point, but I love salmon so that might be salmon with some boiled spinach and kale.

Here's a completely unrelated but important piece of information: put kale in the oven until it goes crispy and add some salt. Amazing.

Then I'll have some water and eventually head back to the gym. My second session is generally the heavier lifting session, so bigger numbers, more time in the gym and conveniently less time standing in the kitchen wondering what I can eat.

After that session I might have some more pork puffs, and sometimes this is where I'll have some sweets or even a chocolate bar. Yes, a chocolate bar. I'm not trying to create a diet where eating one means I've somehow failed.

Then Comes the Horrible Part: Waiting Again

After training I wait, and sometimes that wait feels like forever. Someone once told me hunger is not your enemy, and that's stuck with me.

That doesn't mean I think you should deliberately starve yourself or ignore genuine hunger. For me, it simply means I've learned that feeling hungry doesn't mean I immediately need to start throwing food into my mouth.

Eventually I'll have another proper meal, and by this point I've already got a rough idea of what I've eaten during the day. This is also where I realised something while trying to write this article.

I Don't Actually Track My Macros

This was originally supposed to be an article explaining how I track my macros. The slight problem is... I don't. Not properly anyway.

I don't weigh every chicken breast, I don't have scales sitting next to every meal and I don't scan every single thing I eat into an app. What I actually do is know roughly what I'm eating.

I've eaten these foods for years. I know chicken is protein heavy, I know what I'm getting from my protein shake because it's written on the packet and I know roughly what I'm getting from salmon, tuna and the other foods I regularly eat.

If I've had chicken, salmon and a protein shake during the day, I can roughly work out where I'm sitting without knowing whether I've consumed exactly 137.4 grams of protein. Then my final meal can fill in some of the gaps. Tuna pasta is a favourite — no mayo, just vinegar — or if I've got some chicken left over, I'll cook some white rice and have that.

I'm not tracking numbers with perfect accuracy. I'm tracking decisions.

There is an important difference here though. If you've never tracked your food before, actually doing it for a while can be really useful because it teaches you what's actually in the food you're eating. Something you thought was relatively low in calories might surprise you, and over time you start learning roughly how much protein, carbohydrate and fat is in the foods you regularly eat.

Part of the reason I can estimate things now is simply because I've been doing this for years. I've spent enough time looking at food, nutrition labels and protein amounts that I've built up a rough idea of what I'm eating.

So I'm not saying don't track your macros. If anything, learning to track them can teach you enough about food that eventually you might not need to obsess over every gram. The amount of precision you need should depend on what you're actually trying to achieve. For a wider look at the difference between being technically on-plan and actually eating well, read Is Your Diet Actually Healthy?

How Much Protein Do I Actually Aim For?

Protein recommendations are another reason I've stopped obsessing over finding a perfect number. I've read different recommendations over the years: around 1.5 grams per kilogram, around 1.6, around 2, and sometimes higher depending on the person's goals and circumstances.

There isn't one magical number that suddenly switches muscle growth on. For exercising people, commonly cited evidence-based recommendations generally fall somewhere around 1.4–2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, although individual requirements can vary. I've gone into the evidence and practical side in more detail in Protein for Muscle Growth: How Much Do You Really Need?

Personally, I know my fat-free mass is around 88kg and I generally try to get somewhere around 150–200 grams of protein per day. That's my range. I'm not saying someone reading this should immediately start eating 200 grams of protein.

I've simply settled somewhere that I'm comfortable with: enough protein that I'm confident I'm supporting my training, but not so much that I feel like I'm scanning chicken breasts for a living.

I Still Eat Chocolate. I Still Have Takeaways.

This is probably the biggest thing I've learned about my own diet. I don't want food to become something I'm scared of. If I'm having a takeaway, I'm having a takeaway and I'll enjoy it. If I want cookie dough, sometimes I'll eat cookie dough.

The problem isn't one meal. It's when all those little things that don't seem particularly significant start piling on top of each other. Chocolate here, takeaway there, a few drinks, some snacks, another takeaway, another dessert. Individually none of them looks particularly dramatic, but collectively they can completely change how much you're eating.

If I've had a particularly indulgent day or weekend, I don't punish myself for it. I simply bring things back under control afterwards.

I Also Pay Attention to How I Feel

Food isn't just numbers to me. I pay attention to how I'm performing and feeling as well. If I'm feeling particularly flat around training, I'll look at what I've been eating and may increase my carbohydrate intake. White rice and potatoes are two foods I use regularly.

If I'm struggling with hunger, I'll look at the overall composition and amount of my meals rather than immediately assuming I need to suffer through it. Vegetables are something I try to keep in simply because I feel better when my diet contains a decent variety of them.

Listening to your body isn't a replacement for understanding calories or nutrition. Your body isn't a calorie calculator, but I think hunger, energy, training performance and how you generally feel are still useful pieces of information.

Would I Eat Like This If I Was Competing?

Probably not. If I was preparing to step on a bodybuilding stage, making weight for a competition or chasing a very specific body-composition target, I'd want considerably more precision. I'd calculate my intake properly, weigh food, monitor my body weight and measurements and adjust things based on actual data because in that situation small differences matter.

But that's not what I'm currently trying to do, and most people walking into a normal gym aren't preparing to stand on a bodybuilding stage either. Some want to lose a bit of weight, some want to look bigger, some want to look leaner, some want to get stronger and some simply want to look in the mirror and feel more confident.

I don't think achieving those things necessarily requires food to take over your entire life.

Somewhere in the Middle

That's where I've eventually ended up. Not chicken, rice and broccoli seven days a week, but not eating absolutely anything without thinking about it either. Somewhere in the middle.

I prioritise protein, eat vegetables and keep an eye on carbohydrates, adjusting them around what I'm doing. I delay my first meal because I've found that helps me control how much I eat throughout the day. I know roughly what I'm eating without needing every number to be perfect, and sometimes I eat chocolate.

After all these years of training and experimenting with different ways of eating, that's probably the best description of my diet I've got: be conscious of what you're eating without allowing food to control your life.

For me, that's enough structure to keep progressing while still actually enjoying being a normal human being.

And apparently that's how I track my macros — by not actually tracking my macros.