Is It Okay To Weigh Foods When Counting Marcos?

So, you are not too sure you can keep doing this? Weighing foods isn't something that everyone is comfortable doing. It's not a matter of getting out of your comfort zone, it could be a matter of "that's not a healthy thing for me" to do, and if it will take you down a road you have no business going down again."

I am not at all saying that weighing food is bad. I'm just saying it may end badly, or leads to eating disorder.

I will explain further if anyone needs to know, but is it possible to still count macros without weighing my foods? 

Unfortunately, no. If you don't know the weight of what you are eating then you won't know how many calories you are consuming. It is somehow confusing to why it makes some people uncomfortable. I understand most people dealt with eating disorders before and they know that if they start weighing things and putting a ton of thought and energy into it, it will become an obsession again. And they just don't want to do it again. Weighing food and tracking to a high level of detail into it can create or resurrect disordered eating for people. Based on previous questions online online on this topic, it sounds like most people has a history with that and know themselves well enough to set their boundaries.

I promise you that your mental health and ED recovery is far more important than weighing your food. If you feel weighing food and restriction will become triggering then absolutely do whatever you think it’s going to help you continue to stay strong and work towards your goal . Start by not weighing and make small adjustments from there. Some people struggle with binge eating and certain triggers send them in to an absolute downwards spiral. Remember you’re striving for healthier habits, not perfection.

Yes it’s possible not to weigh, but you’ll have to probably eat a structured diet like 3 meals and no snacks and possibly eat a bit less calories overall to account for the margin of error on the food labels. However, things can be way off but it’s the only way we can measure. Not weighing foods is like buying gas but without a meter on the pump. You might know how much the tank holds, but you’d never know what you needed to fill it.  Some people don’t weigh, but are seeing results so.... maybe they are doing it wrong. They track macros mostly to ensure they are eating adequate protein, for their overall goals, not looking to lose weight. People are there for so many different reasons and blanket statements like ''you have to weigh all of your food'' just isn't true for everyone. You can go by the macros listed on labels and using MFP, customizing as needed.

You can also go by eyeing and counting macros. However, most people can't get the same results others would get from weighing. For some people, food tracking has ALWAYS led them back down the eating disorder road, without fail. You eventually eat something that you don’t want to track, and may start experiencing "unhealthy food relationship and mindset".

What helps the most with that is weight training and knowing that you need to fuel your body with protein to to not undo all your hard work in the gym. I wouldn’t recommend doing something you know will trigger you, but it is still possible to work through it and build a healthier mindset. You may find yourself eating REALLY repetitively throughout the week. That way you really only spend one day thinking about calories/macros and the rest of the week is almost automatic. Have you tried Intermittent Fasting at all? If you haven't, I recommend you try. I’m not sold on all the health benefits people claim it has, bUT it is an excellent tool for creating a calorie deficit WITHOUT tracking your food. You just create a small window of time when you allow yourself to eat. Less time to eat = less calories (in theory).  it's helpful to cut down on the mindless snacking. You can fast from 7pm until 11:30am.

Trust me, I don't see why you shouldn't do serving sizes, however just know that it's not gonna be as accurate. Like I said before, don't expect perfection at all. Maybe on one of your good days you could weigh out some of your favorite foods/foods you eat regularly just so that you have an idea of how to estimate your portion sizes going forward? just remember counting macros or not, you're still beautiful. For someone who eats a variety of foods, and don’t have an off button, counting calories and weighing foods can be a good idea.

The exact reason why most people haven’t started Macros, is because they are too afraid to go down a dark path. However, counting macros shouldn't be just a challenge, but a game to try and hit your targets. Need to turn it into something positive. 

If you are just recovering from anorexic, you should consider only weighing super calorie dense foods - the rest you eyeball and not trying to compete, because counting macros can get you into disordered for a while, so that may be a matter of taking things slowly or considering whether there are better lifestyles for you. Sometimes you completely become obsessed with tracking everything that enters your mouth and it’s terrible and that can lead you led you backwards.

The best advice is you may need to weigh your food for a week just to get an idea of portion sizes if you don't already, and then can eyeball it from there. Focus mainly on the high protein foods, next on the high volume foods, and you'll be fine. You can pick a day once every three weeks or so to weigh you food and make sure you're on track to hit your protein and not overeating. Otherwise, just focus on your workouts, enjoying your food and life.

If you have extreme obsession with counting calories, you can fix this by only weighing what’s needed, only make sure you are eating enough and maybe a few other things here or there. Weighing everything can be crazy and stressful. Thing-can work for some but be hyper focusing to others! For example, you can skip weighing veggies or other truly healthy things. Chicken breast, steak, rice, and oats. Foods like that you regulate. Vegetables don’t have to be restrict or measure in any way. You have to do what’s best for you.

Honestly, you don't need to be obsessing over the measurements and tracking. Your mind can play a trick on you.  So, you have to do what works best for you. I completely understand your concerns, given that alot of young people had once have an eating disorder from calorie counting, taking diet pills (hydroxycut) and literally starving themselves. You can keep it on without weighing anything, just training really hard and eating super clean and not drinking more than a couple glasses of wine a week, so it definitely can be done without weighing foods etc. That being said, it’s definitely not for everyone though.

You can track without weighing everything. It will be less accurate but you should see some results if you eat mindfully. Whatever works for you is what is best.

It is very important that you take care of yourself and being protective of your emotional health. It shows a great deal of emotional maturity and a connection to yourself, and (IMO) that is more valuable than weighing food - rather it can trigger an ED for some especially if they’re in recovery. They go back struggling with eating disorders and mental illnesses like OCD, and it can become a very slippery slope. You can absolutely do this without weighing. It will take a more intuitive and honest approach with yourself, but clearly you can show up in that way.

It is very challenging weighing food when counting calories, especially If you cook and make up your own recipes, and then portion it. Unless you weigh everything, divide perfectly, and track, it won’t work for you - you think? Sometimes your enjoyment of food is a little freedom. But now, you have to do what they say and have super regimented meals to not weigh and that would make you sad. It could do more harm than good mentally. You can’t eat anything without thinking how many calories are in it, you can’t even eat lettuce without weighing it. if anyone wants to try it out i’d say talk to your doctor first.

If you’re comfortable with maybe a little weighing, you could take one day to get and weigh out a bunch of the foods you regularly consume, plus pictures of what the amounts look like, and then you could eyeball based on that instead of having to measure and calculate every time you eat. Use your hand to measure food portions. Palm size for protein, fist for vegetables, palm for carbs and thumb for fats. 

For you to get a better idea of sizes, I do suggest doing it and taking lots of pictures. That could work. You can take photos when you weigh stuff and then add it in MyFitnessPal later. You can actually repeat meals so often, it gets so much easier once you have the foods you eat a lot in. I also have some fitness friends who swear by the hand rule, and use it for their clients. It maybe a good starting point for you! Food is always the hardest part! I attached an example of what I mean.

https://www.mtsac.edu/wellness/pdf/nutrition/portion_control_infographic.pdf

It is good to know that weighing food while counting calories doesn't guarantee weight loss. A healthy way to this is to never be too obsessed or over think about the quantity of food you are eating and just live life. I think some people can get better results from focusing more on what they SHOULD be eating, rather than what they should NOT be eating. The part that causes weight loss is the calorie deficit. The deficit is created by eating habits, and logging and Weighing are tools that can assist but lets not pretend that these are mandatory for everyone.

We track calories to build food awareness and to use it as a tool to help us attempt to eat a reduced calorie diet (to create a deficit) to lose weight. When weighing your food, you can try a food scale. It helps you log the correct quantity to reduce the degree of error. And so it's true to say "a food scale can increase logging accuracy". But it's false to say "you can't succeed without a food scale" and I'd take it a large step further to say it's also false to say "you can't succeed without logging your calories". Start out slow and don’t push yourself, you have to feel ready. Here's an article about it too.

Forget calorie counting: Try this calorie control guide for men and women | Precision Nutrition

precisionnutrition.com

Look there’s no rule. You either get into an intentional calorie deficit or an accidental one. The measured approach isn’t for everyone. You loosely “count calories” as in you log your food, but estimate the portions, estimate the amount of calories in it, and track, making sure you workout 2x a day for 30 minutes (cardio or lifting and a yoga workout) and drink enough water. Basically, you should loosely track so you can maintain a healthy relationship with food and myself and avoid falling into binge & purge habits while still working towards your fat loss goals.

Well, it definitely could be worth looking into the beachbody program! You can just do the food aspects and  a little of the workouts. If you did still love to count macros and weigh, there are containers for that, but different it’s by amount of items or what fits in a container and how many you can have each day. They're the portion control containers? Like Beachbody uses.

The same containers beachbody sells are available at Walmart. Based on your age, height and weight, it should come with a book to tell you how many of each container to consume per day. It’s a great system.

I would highly suggest doing the containers through beach body (the fixate containers are kind of like counting macros without weighing maybe try that). I have heard a lot of great reviews and ratings from them, they’re also on Amazon and less expensive.

Perfect Portions Portion Control Containers - Walmart.com

walmart.com

If you are really struggling with weighing, you can try these containers, there is no weighing, just putting what fits into each container and eating the contents through the day. Definitely more manageable and less anxiety than weighing every single thing that goes into our mouths. Give it a shot. If it doesn't work out then try something else.

I’d strongly urge seeing a registered dietitian that specializes in working with people with EDs. Also, there is a really good book called Healthy Habits For Lifelong Weight Loss by Georgie Fear, who is a registered dietitian. This book that talk more about counting WITHOUT all the weighing.

If you are experiencing a rough time with Anorexia, you can consider going for a therapy. if you can, maybe resort to a nutritionist and make sure it's one that takes into account any history of disordered eating. You can both come up with ways to help you figure out proper food combinations without the need to measure foods. I personally do not trust the BB "nutrition" plans since they are more of the same cookie cutter stuff and still either have to measure or count calories. 

Weighing food is pretty critical for this to work, I believe, otherwise you are guessing what something weighs and this will be inaccurate for you to track. This method may not work for you and I know posting this was not easy. I hope you know this blog supports whatever decision you make towards a healthy relationship with food. You can decide to try Noom which used CBT to change your relationship with food. It's really a great program. If you have hEDS and MCAS, your doctor may not recommend Marcos, because it is not always the best for those conditions. They can however approved Noom and your body will respond positively.

Maybe find someone close who does meal prep. They can do the macros for you and all you have to do is manually put them in. If that is an option. And honestly, you may be able to give them your macros and they can just do your meals and you don’t have to log. And that takes from being to close to it. So talking to people through the whole process is just as important as hitting your macros accurately. It’s one step at a time, just try to stay in the positive possibilities instead of the defeated past. There are no macro police if that’s what your are afraid of. If you think weighing food is not healthy for your relationship with food then just don’t do it. If you still wanted to do macros I would recommend just glancing over the nutrition label and trying to get a rough feel for the macros you’re eating every day. If that is also too much you could take it a step farther and just guess. Example: if I eat a doughnut now (carb+fat but mostly carb) I should eat a protein meal after. It’s not ideal but it’s better than nothing.

Track for a few days just for awareness of portion sizes and then use that awareness moving forward. Try something new where you track for the first week of each month, just as a kind of awareness reset, without having to get too caught up in obsessing over every gram. It’s a good way to maintain some checks and balances without getting too extreme either way.

When using this method, you can go through Ultimate Portion Fix with Autumn Calabrese. Basically you find out what eating bracket you are in based on your height, weight and goals. Then it gives you a certain number of containers to eat during the day in any way/combination you want. Very effective. For instance, the yellow container is carbs, the red container is protein, green is veggies, purple is fruit. Maybe orange is oils/fats or something.

You can get the containers online, however i see so many on Amazon. They all not the same, which is why I recommend you get yours from which ever program you followed. I have seen most people actually getting theirs through BeachBody. I think for me one is not better than the other. It is just a matter of having a backup plan when I get bored. So I switch back and forth. 

However, a lifestyle change can go a long way helping you with counting. Learning nutrition is how it's done. Macro adjustments are pretty necessary of you do any gym work. Consistency is key, and you can't be consistent if you don't track. We don't get overweight by tracking. It's the lack of tracking or accountability that allows us to so easily let ourselves go. However, that being said you may not get overweight by tracking but you might starve yourself instead. Or stop eating completely. Or eat and throw it all up. Or cut yourself because you ate. Or didn't eat.

There is a huge differences between logging and tracking. Logging is just keeping a diary of everything you eat without weighing and calculating macros. Macro counting to me is just more so actually recording what you eat. What you do with that information from there is up to you. Ideally it gives us a chance to map out what our body needs, what’s just extra, and a healthy guide to getting where we want to be while being happy and satisfied. Hitting our macros (not going under to lose weight quicker, or binge) should cause us to feel satisfied, as we’re getting our body what it needs in all nutritional departments. 

You can download the FatSecret app and search already imported foods from other people. It may not be 100% accurate but I figure it’s damn near close. If the food isn’t already in the app, then you scan the barcode of whatever you're eating. Honestly,  just give a rough estimate. So for me, I recommend looking at serving sizes vs. weighing. Also, try to focus on hitting your protein goals (always a challenge) and moderating carbs based on your macros. You go by the basic American Diabetes Association carbs counts as a general guide, knowing you can have about 2 servings of carbs per meal. More easier for to have a visual and go from there vs. weighing. Less accurate, but better for my mental health. 

https://professional.diabetes.org/sites/professional.diabetes.org/files/media/All_About_Carbohydrate_Counting.pdf

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