Before I became pregnant with Samuel, I was following a quasi-prep lifestyle. What does that mean? I never had any intention of becoming a fitness competitor, but I wanted to see what my body could do. What would happen if I really started to track everything I ate? How would my workouts improve? What would I learn? I say I was on quasi-prep because I was following a set fitness regimen (focused, scheduled workouts) and I was tracking my daily macros (protein, carbs, and fats). I had never really tracked what I ate before, and I was excited to learn more about foods and how they were affecting my body.
When I first started logging my macros, I was blown away at how my protein consumption was way below where it should be for my body weight. I realized in order to reach my goals I would need to adjust what I was eating each meal. An orange by itself was no longer a snack. I was beginning to learn that to fuel my body properly, I needed the right balance of protein, carbs, and fats with each meal, including snacks.
As I learned and tracked and tracked and learned, I saw my body changing before my eyes. My energy was better. My workouts improved. I wasn’t ever hungry, because I wasn’t feeding my body in response to hunger, I was feeding it to keep it fueled. I was eating more than I ever had, but I was leaner than I ever had been and gained more muscle than I ever had in my life. That was due to consistent dedication to my workouts, but had even more to do with the nutrition I was getting.
You may think that macro tracking is something you’d be interested in trying, but that it sounds too time consuming. At first, it does take a little time commitment, but it gets easier and easier the more you do it. After a little time had passed, I was able to eyeball foods and know what the macro content would be, and if that food would meet my goals. But how did I get started? Wasn’t it overwhelming looking up the macro content for every single food I consumed? Enter MyFitnessPal, an amazing app that does all the work for you. I will give a short run down of how to use it below, but first, what about pregnancy? How do you adjust macros accordingly?
Having the knowledge base I did regarding macros and the lifestyle of eating 5-6 small meals a day helped tremendously in my first trimester when I was battling morning sickness. I ate even when I didn’t feel hungry (I was pretty much always sick and never hungry) because I knew I needed to to fuel my body. I knew I would only feel worse if I didn’t eat. I also knew that even though my brain was telling me I wanted carbs, if I only consumed carbs I would also feel worse. I focused on maintaining good balance in my macros even when protein or fat was the last thing I wanted. And as a result I was able to maintain my energy and stamina during a time that I otherwise would have been constantly laying on the couch. Now, don’t get me wrong. I definitely did my fair share of resting! But I can say with certainty that the nutritional lifestyle I had developed really helped me move through those early weeks. Once I hit about 16 weeks, my energy returned, and I was able to exercise more. And I was able to eat more (not more often, but I was able to consume more calories with each meal, and also eat more variety). Now, at 30 weeks, I am still counting macros; not as stringently as I was pre-pregnancy, but I am carefully watching what I put in my body and making sure I am getting proper nutrition (for myself and Samuel).
So how do I know how many grams of fat, carbs, and protein I need on a daily basis? How do I ensure I’m consuming enough calories? As I mentioned above, MyFitnessPal does all the work for me. So how does it work?
1. Getting Started. First, download the ap and create an account. When you log in, you can enter your current weight, and your goal weight. This will help the ap calculate how many calories you need to consume daily. At 30 weeks, I am currently 154 lbs. My goal is to maintain my weight as it naturally increases, so I set my goal weight to also be 154 lbs (see picture below). I will adjust this as needed.
2. Macros. Now it’s time to set your macro goals. On the home page, select “More” and then “Goals.” Make sure “Show Carbs, Protein and Fat By Meal” is set to ON (see first picture below). Then, click on “Calorie, Carbs, Protein, and Fat Goals.” Here’s where you can adjust your macros (see second picture below). Pre-pregnancy, I was consuming about .75 g of protein per pound of body weight. That was a good amount for my activity level. I am still very active this pregnancy, so that goal has not changed. Based on my research, in pregnancy, you should be getting 50-60% of your calories from carbs, 20-25% from protein, and 25-35% from fat (you should consume more fat when pregnant).
**It is important to note that I am NOT a nutritionist NOR am I a professional trainer. I am only sharing what I have learned via research, personal experience, and talking with others.**
3. Logging Food. From the homepage, click on the blue plus sign icon OR the diary icon at the bottom (see picture 1 below). You can now enter your foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (I add my morning snack into the breakfast section and my afternoon snack into the lunch section). You can manually enter the stats under “My Foods”/”Create a Food” or you can search for a food and it will pull up entries that others have created. The ap also saves any food that you log for quick look-up, so if you have a go-to breakfast, you can just click, click, and done. The great thing about this is that you can plan your days in advance. If you really want to make sure you stick to your goals, and don’t have to make food decisions on the fly, you could plan your meals a day in advance, or even for the week. 
And that’s it! It’s really so so convenient and easy! I hope you’ve gained something from this post, and I hope you’ve found it helpful. I welcome any comments or questions you have! Oh, and see below for a starter list for some healthy go-to proteins, carbs, and fats to have on hand in your fridge and pantry! Happy macro counting, everyone!
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