STEP 2: SEARCH FOR THE FOODS YOU’RE EATING If you’re not sure where to start, try MyFitnessPal Plans, which are tailored to various nutrition goals, such as eating a higher-protein diet, and can help ease the transition to eating healthier. as well as which foods you’ll use to make up those calories and/or macros. Once you know how much to eat, you can determine how you want to split that up throughout the day - whether in three meals, five meals, etc. The more you log, the better able you are to create healthy habits to improve your health long term. It helps you be more mindful of what and how much you’re consuming and how it affects your body. The good news is, tracking consistently is proven to help you reach your goals. In its guidance for the food industry, the USDA sets a plus or minus buffer of 20%, meaning it’s acceptable for calorie counts to be over- or underestimated by 20%. It’s worth noting calorie and macro counts aren’t always totally accurate on food labels.

Whether you count calories, macros or both, tracking your food helps you learn about how you eat and helps you become more consistent with recognizing portion sizes. In fact, research shows keeping a food diary is one of the most effective weight-loss strategies.

Without recording your food intake, it can be easy to overeat and often takes longer to reach your goals. One of the main reasons tracking is so useful is people aren’t great at remembering or estimating what and how much they’ve eaten, research finds.

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