One of the biggest dieting phases (or crazes?) in recent years is counting macros. Myfitnesspal alongside other apps has introduced macro tracking to the masses and opened up the door for “flexible dieting”.
I’m sure you’ve seen the Instagram/FB posts, YouTube videos, and even ads where people claim you can get the body you want by eating the foods you want, all you have to do is count your macros.
What isn’t advertised is how bodybuilders and fitness models have been tracking macros since the 1960s but you didn’t see them eating pizza and ice cream in order to get onto the covers of magazines or competitive stages!
With that said, is counting macros a waste of time then?
Counting macros is not a waste of time if your physique and performance are your careers, in this instance it’s essential. For most people though, counting macros takes up too much time and mental capacity for marginal progress and instead, the focus should be on counting calories.
In this article, I’ll cover who should and also who shouldn’t count macros and outline the benefits as well as the drawbacks of this approach.
Table of Contents
Is Counting Macros a Waste of Time
Macros, short for macronutrients, are the major nutrients needed for most biological functions and consist of protein, fat, and carbohydrates. From a health and fitness standpoint, manipulating these macronutrients will help you achieve certain body composition and athletic performance results.
Maybe you’ve been counting macros but not losing weight or you feel that the time effort you are putting into tracking your macros is not giving you the results you expected and unfortunately, this is a very common theme.
Counting macros is not something that is essential and while I won’t go as far as saying it’s a waste of time (yet), it certainly shouldn’t be your main focus as progressing in the gym and hitting your calorie targets are the things that will produce the greatest results.
Firstly, I do need to make the point that I’m typically in favor of counting macros for peak performance and results but understand that not everyone wants to reach their genetic potential.
While being aware of your macros can certainly help you to make progress, the most progress you can make will come from sticking to a weightlifting/cardio plan and hitting your overall calorie targets every day. When it comes to dieting, macros typically make up the micro results.
Is Counting Calories a Waste of Time
Just on a quick side note, I don’t want anyone to get confused between calories and macros. Counting calories is not a waste of time and is something that you will need to do in order to see progress.
Your overall calorie intake is what will contribute to 80-90% of your progress and counting macros is simply something that allows individuals to go that bit further.
Whether it be tracking the weight you lift to build muscle, how much you weigh each morning, the steps you take each day, and the calories that you consume, tracking is going to give you a very clear picture of where you are currently and the changes you need to make in order to progress.
If you know you need to consume a 300 calorie deficit to lose weight and this target is set at 2,000 calories per day, you need to track this number to ensure you are hitting it daily. If you don’t track it and decide to get a vanilla iced latte before work, that’s your 300 calorie deficit wiped out for the day and you may not even know!
Counting calories is one of the most important things you can do when it comes to body composition so do not get it confused with macros. I’d go as far as saying it’s close to essential if you want to see progress.
The people that can get away without counting calories are those that have been through body transformations in the past, have a good idea of what their meals/food choices contain (from previous years of counting calories), and are generally in tune with their body.
The Drawbacks of Counting Macros
For most people, there are a surprising number of drawbacks when it comes to counting calories that you might not be aware of. It’s not the simple “flexible” approach that it’s made out to be and you’d be best keeping some of the following points in mind:
1. Time Commitment
By far the biggest drawback for counting macros is the time commitment it takes to constantly track everything that you put into your mouth, in detail. I’ve mentioned the importance of tracking overall calorie intake but just keeping tabs on this is relatively time-consuming.
It takes a minute to make a note after each meal and while apps like Myfitnesspal help, you still need to do a significant amount of logging when it comes to counting macros.
If you are trying to follow a flexible approach, you can easily spend 5-10 minutes just trying to decide how you can fit the donut into your daily intake and what you’ll need to remove or replace as a result.
There’s a lot of willpower and mental fatigue that comes with tracking macros which usually makes it more difficult to stick to. A set meal plan may seem boring but it frees up so much time and mental capacity that makes it easier for people to adhere to.
When you stick to something, that’s when you see results and most people just don’t have the time to count every macronutrient that they consume.
2. Macros are not Food
When you get too focused on counting macros, it can become easy to forget that macros are not food. What I mean by this is that you don’t eat macros and often people will use them as an excuse to eat something they crave rather than a healthy option.
You might hear statements like a carb is still a carb regardless of the source and while this may be true to an extent, it neglects all of the micronutrients and even the type of macronutrients that influence and affect your physique.
A chocolate bar, for example, might have the same number of carbs as a boiled sweet potato or bowl of oatmeal (we’ll call it 100g) but that carb is very different. The carbs from refined sugars are fast-absorbing carbs that have a high GI (glycemic index) score which is how quickly the carb enters your bloodstream and spikes insulin.
I don’t want to get too technical but constant spikes in insulin from high GI foods usually lead to weight gain. A sweet potato when boiled goes from a high to medium GI food which means it’s absorbed at a different rate into the bloodstream than a fast-absorbing chocolate bar or donut.
I’m not saying either option is good or bad; a high GI carb is good to consume during and after a workout to replace glycogen stores in the muscles whereas a lower GI carb is good pre-workout to give a more sustained release of energy.
Most people though will not be thinking of these seemingly minute details that have a much larger impact. An egg, for example, is a complete protein meaning it has a full amino acid profile that your body needs but getting the same 25g of protein from a pizza will again not be the same in terms of how your body absorbs it and the micronutrients you get from it.
While you should never label food as “good/bad” or “clean/junk”, it’s still important to consume foods that are nutrient-dense and known to be a more healthy option. Just because someone is hitting their macros does not mean that the diet is optimal or even healthy.
You should always consider food as food first before considering macros as something grown is always going to be a more beneficial option than the processed and refined option despite what the “macros” say.
3. Flexibility
When counting macros to the exact gram, it can be very difficult to offer flexibility with your diet and food choices. Now I know the popular “If It Fits Your Macros” (IIFYM) approach is designed to allow flexibility with food choices but this isn’t realistic for most people.
If you want a burger but psychologically see how it will impact your macros for the day, this can be a stressful decision for a lot of people to make. While counting macros is designed to offer flexibility in food choices as a result of knowing what you are eating, it usually causes the opposite.
Being laser-focused on your macros can make it more difficult to make adjustments unless fitness/weightloss/building muscle is your career or passion. Most people don’t have the mental capacity or desire to constantly shuffle around their meals in order to fit other food choices in.
This usually means people get too meticulous about their macros and won’t eat a specific food because it will put them 5g over their carb macros for the day. In the grand scheme of things, 5g makes little difference to most people and this is why there is less flexibility when counting macros despite the assumption that you have more.
Is Counting Your Macros Worth It
Now that I’ve gone through some of the drawbacks of counting macros and covered it in more detail, you might be wondering whether or not counting your macros is even worth it?
The answer of course is that it depends. If you want to strive for an elite level in terms of your physique, which means incredibly lean, incredibly muscular, or incredibly athletic, counting macros is not only worth it, it’s essential!
If however, you are in the 99.9% of the population that just wants to be a better version of yourself and get to a relatively good level of fitness or body composition, then counting macros is not going to be worth it and will likely cause you more stress, anxiety, and frustration as a result.
This is similar to ‘Person A’ who wants to get stronger and build muscle. Person A spends weeks researching the best routine, the optimal diet, and the essential supplements needed to achieve this.
Person B, however, goes to the gym consistently 4x per week, focuses on getting stronger each session, and then eats enough to recover and grow while getting enough rest.
After 1 year, Person A has constantly changed his routine, experimented with every supplement on the market, and changed his diet on a weekly basis only to find he’s had very little progress.
Person B has followed a similar routine all year but added 100lbs to most of his top exercises, he consistently ate enough to recover and fuel growth and without worrying about the minor aspects, managed to build 25lbs of lean muscle mass.
If you are consistent with your calorie intake and it’s in line with your goals, this will contribute to around 80% of your progress. Focusing on the macros is a minute detail that distracts from the overall goal of calorie intake and for this reason, counting macros is likely not worth it for most.
Final Thoughts
For most people, counting macros could be considered a waste of time as it will distract you from making more important and beneficial choices that will really have a noticeable impact on your physique.
As long as you track your overall calories, the macros will matter much less unless your goal is an elite standard (maximum muscle growth, shredded 8% body fat physique, or competitive athletic performance).
Of course, counting macros can be beneficial for people as well but it’s something you’d need to test yourself. I do this to ensure I hit my protein target daily to recover from weight training sessions but if I’m more flexible with my fat/carb intake.
Therefore, you can’t say counting macros is a waste of time as it can be beneficial but for most people, look to consume foods that will help your progress and not nutrients because honestly, very few people eat because they want to consume macros!
What Next
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