Decide what you are tracking for
Before you log anything, pick the one thing you want to know. For most people who lift it is protein. If you are not sure, start there. You can always add calories, carbs and fat later, but starting with one number makes the habit much easier to keep.
Protein first, the rest follows
Get your protein target sorted, then let everything else sit within reason. If your protein is on track and you feel good in the gym, you are already doing most of the work. See how much protein you need if you lift for how to pick a number.
Aim for close, not perfect
Being within about 10 percent of your targets on most days is a good result. The label on a packet is rounded, restaurant meals are guesses, and no scale is perfect. Chasing zero grams of difference is where tracking starts to take over.
Look at your week, not your day. If Tuesday was a bit low on protein and Thursday was a bit high, that is fine. Weekly averages tell you far more than one day.
Make logging quick
Most of the effort in tracking is friction. Cut it down:
- Log before you eat, not at the end of the day. It takes 20 seconds and you are not trying to remember what was on your plate.
- Save your regular meals and reuse them. Most people eat the same 10 to 15 meals on repeat.
- Weigh the foods that matter, like rice, oats, meat and oil. Eyeball vegetables, herbs and coffee.
- Scan barcodes where you can and check the numbers look right.
You do not need to weigh every gram forever. A couple of weeks of weighing your staples teaches you what a serve looks like, and then you can estimate.
Eating out and social meals
Log it roughly and move on. Pick the closest match, add a small buffer if the meal looks big, and do not skip the day. A rough entry is better than a blank one because it keeps the habit going.
Or take the night off. Nobody needs to weigh a birthday dinner. One untracked meal does not undo a week.
Take breaks
You do not have to track forever. A common approach is to track properly for two to four weeks, learn what your usual meals look like, then track loosely or only a few days a week. Come back to it when you change your goal or your routine.
If logging food starts to make you anxious, or you feel guilty about eating, stop and talk to a doctor or an accredited practising dietitian. Tracking is a tool. If it is not making things easier, put it down for a while.
A simple weekly routine
Pick a target for protein and a rough calorie range. Log for most of the week. On Sunday, look at the averages and ask one question: is this working for how I feel and how I am training? If yes, change nothing. If not, change one thing, then check again next week.
That is all it needs to be. Tracking is there to give you information, and you are the one who decides what to do with it.
Track it in Apex Coach
Apex Coach keeps your Fuel screen simple: your targets, what you have eaten, and the gap, so you can log fast and get on with your day. It starts with a 7-day free trial, then A$8.99 a month or A$69.99 a year, and it is for people 18 and over.
Get Apex Coach on the App Store