Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Anyone doing this? You set protein, fat and carb goals per day. Food is tracked in an app on your phone. The game is to hit the macro goals each day. Once compliant, adjust goals up or down based upon desired weight.

I'm finding it amusing so far. The app I found tracks some compliance stats, effectively gamifying eating.

When you burn your macro budget early in the day, you enter poverty macros. People get very creative while in poverty.

It seems like an approach that would appeal to the ERE crowd.

Yep, I use the IIFYM calculator to determine my macros, and then I plug those numbers into my MyFitnessPal.com account. I've definitely seen results since I started counting macros in addition to strength training.

I respond very different to different forms of carbohydrates. With a regimen of say 150g carbohydrates per day, if I get it all from bread and sugar, I won't respond well to it. Much better when most of it comes from non-starchy vegetables with a small amount of fruit. It's similar with fats. I respond much better with more Omega-3 than Omega-6, and a little more unsaturated than saturated.

I kind of do what vroom does. I have some very specific goals I'm trying to attain and I operate better on lower carbs and higher fats and protein. Though, I'm not militant about it. Just making sure I get >90% of my carbs from vegetables and fruits is enough to enhance me losing fat and increase my muscle building.

90% of carbs from fruits and vegetables is committed. I'm bummed when I can only fit one cupcake into the day.

I'm bringing down my carbs and leaning out a little right now. I imagine I'll have to move towards mostly high quality foods as I progress, to prevent hunger from getting bad.

I'm interested to see how things go when building back up to maintenance. Historically, that is what I find challenging. It's easy to eat a little or a lot. Walking around always wanting just a little more food, and knowing that is what a steady weight feels like, gets old.

So far my energy is high and it's easy to stay on track. That's usually the way with something new.

It has been a strong reminder of just how much free food is present at the office. Getting in an extra 1-2k of junk calories is trivial when the meeting lunch is a taco buffet chased by brownies, cookies and cake. There is so much food.

I track this stuff in FitDay, but I bought it years ago, so I have no idea what the program is like now. I use the PC version.

You might try limiting the type of carbs over two-week periods to see which work better for you. I try and keep my carbs low, but different carbs affect me very differently. I can't do wheat at all (celiac), I do best with citrus and berries compared with other fruits, I struggle with corn and white potatoes, I'm awful with brown rice and oats, and I'm fine with a cup of white rice a day. Strange, but helpful to know.

Scott 2 wrote:90% of carbs from fruits and vegetables is committed. I'm bummed when I can only fit one cupcake into the day.

I have never liked sweets all that much, so cupcakes, etc. aren't an issue for me. I do like bread/cereal/pasta/rice, but found that even high quality whole grains don't fill me up enough compared to the amount of calories I'm getting from them. Plus, grains are a very low nutrient food, even whole grains aren't that loaded.

Scott 2 wrote:I imagine I'll have to move towards mostly high quality foods as I progress, to prevent hunger from getting bad.

There was a study done with poor obese malnourished people concerning quality food. They created a bar called the Chori bar, with high quality carbs, fats, vitamins, etc. They then asked the people to eat two of these bars a day. The people ended up losing weight and improving blood markers without purposefully doing anything else. The theory being that no amount of low quality food will fulfill your body's needs, so you end up eating a ton to try and get the nutrients your body needs. Of course, you never get these nutrients eating white bread, hot dogs, french fries, coke, etc., so you eat way more calories than you need.

jennypenny wrote:I track this stuff in FitDay, but I bought it years ago, so I have no idea what the program is like now. I use the PC version.

I use MyFitnessPal on my smartphone. It's free and has a very extensive listing of foods. Overall, it's solid considering it's free. It does a have a premium mode, but I don't see how anyone would need that unless they are an elite level athlete trying to squeeze every ounce of performance out of their bodies.