The 3 Things I Learned By Counting Paleo Macros

After years of eating paleo, I spent 4 weeks weighing and measuring my food, counting my macros while eating paleo, and saw incredible results. These are the top three things I learned from my experience.

Paleo macros. Not a combination of words you automatically put together, is it? Me either. Until I tried it.

I've been eating paleo, or some version thereof, since 2014. I've been strict, and lax, and 80/20, and Whole30. (I've made LOTS of Whole30 friendly recipes - you can find them here!)

So when we held a month long nutrition challenge at the gym I own, I decided to dive in - for 30 days, I was going to count, weigh and measure every single thing I ate.

And I'm here to tell you - if paleo works, paleo macros really works. Here's what I learned.

1. You don't know what you don't know.

This is probably the biggest one. Even if you think you eat healthy, even if you eat paleo ALL the time, or you've done a Whole30 twelve times over, there's still more for you to know. There was for me.

It's easy to get stuck. Stuck in what you think you know, or what you perceive to be the case in a certain situation. And most of the time, you're probably wrong.

I know I am, and this situation was no different.

I've come a long way - from a girl who didn't eat vegetables and consumed sugary cereals (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, and Corn Pops were at the top of the list) to eating mixed greens and baked salmon for lunch.

We've been eating paleo/mostly paleo for years now. (Probably around 5, if we're counting.) We've done more Whole30's than I can count. We eat mostly by Whole30 guidelines even when we're not on a round because it's what we know and what we now enjoy as our everyday food choices.

But there is always something more to learn.

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” – Ronald E. Osborn

It was frustrating at first. I felt completely out of my element. I knew how to eat paleo, but paleo macros? I had to weigh and measure every single thing that I ate.

Every. Single. Thing.

You can't guess at this part, because trust me, you don't know. I didn't.

You don't know what ¼ oz of hazelnuts looks like unless you weigh them. You don't know how to make a of salad 2 cups of spinach and 2 cups of mixed greens topped with 3.5 oz of salmon, 1 cup of cooked brussel sprouts, ¼ of an avocado and 1 ½ teaspoons of balsamic vinegar UNLESS YOU MEASURE IT.

I didn't know my portion sizes were way off, because I'd never paid attention to them. I just ate a whole salmon filet on top of mixed greens drizzled with some olive oil and balsamic and called it good.

But I was doing a lot of things wrong: not eating frequently enough (every 2-3 hours), not getting the right amount of carbs/proteins/fats at each meal and snack (snacks are chicken, broccoli, hazelnuts, and coconut water, not an RxBar), and not holding myself accountable for a lot of the things I was randomly eating throughout the day (random pit stop at Starbucks, anyone?).

By eating straight from the meal plan, I knew what to eat, when to eat it, and how much of it to eat. The measuring was tedious at first, but I didn't have to come up with any meal ideas.

And after awhile, I started being able to eyeball my portion sizes without the scale and the measuring spoons.

You don't know what you don't know - true. But you can learn it.

2. Paleo works. Paleo macros REALLY works.

When we first started paleo years ago, we had amazing results. In about 3 months, Brandan lost 20 pounds, and while I didn't lose any weight, I lost 3 pants sizes - my body composition changed, and changed fast.

And there we stayed. We've fluctuated over the years - there's seasons to everyone's eating habits over time, and we're no different.

When I was pregnant, I didn't stick to paleo eating because I wanted to make sure my baby was getting exposed to every kind of food he possibly could to prevent any allergies or reactions later on in life.

I ate mostly paleo but made sure I incorporated lots of other things too. Not junk food and soda, but grains, beans, dairy, etc.

There have been times where we've been stricter with ourselves, and times when we've relaxed on vacation in Hawaii and had iced coffees and Mai Tai's every day for 2 weeks.

But for me, I know paleo is what makes me feel best from the inside out, leaves me with the most energy for my day, and doesn't give me that sluggish feeling, which is why I stick with it.

All that being said, my weight and shape have not really changed all that much since we got our first results from going paleo all those years ago, with the exception of being pregnant.

Until now.

With our nutrition coaching plan, we start with biometrics. What do you weigh? What's your body fat percentage? What's your BMI? What is your goal? Do you want to lose weight? Decrease body fat? Increase lean muscle?

Then we calculate how many calories you need a day in order to work towards that goal. Once we have a calorie number, we break it down into the macros. Remember, the KINDS of calories you're eating matters!

Once we've got a count for the carbs, proteins, and fats you'll need, we create a meal plan, and the meal plan will get you to those specific numbers each day.

I was on a "decrease body fat" goal, with the right macro settings for my activity level.

I lost 11.8 pounds in 4 weeks.

No, that is not a typo. I leaned out so fast, it's like my body had just been sitting there waiting for me to figure out this is what it needed. Once I did, it was like, "Finally! Thank you. Here we go!"

I'm smaller right now than I've ever been in my entire life. Literally, my whole life.

Will it last? I don't know. I can't weigh and measure my food forever. But I do know I felt better, slept better, and saw bigger changes than I have in a long time.

I don't tell you this to brag, by any means. I feel weird even just writing it down. But if you are out there looking for answers, looking for help, and I don't tell you what you can do to get help, then I'm doing you a disservice.

And why would you believe me if I just told you to do it? By telling you my experience, and sharing my results, you know it's coming from a real person who has been there, not someone who is just trying to sell you a fad diet with shakes for meals and weight loss powders and a variety of colored containers for your food.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. - Tony Robbins

Just like with anything in life, things get stale. We go stagnant. You have to mix things up, change what you're doing, to get different results.

3. What goes on the inside affects the outside.

Did you know your skin is actually your largest organ?

We don't really tend to think of our skin as an "organ." It's just the thing that keeps our body parts and internal organs from falling out...right?

Right. But when I say "internal organs," doesn't that make you wonder about "external" organs? Well, you've got one, and it's your skin.

I've had problem skin since I was in high school. That's over 20 years of bad skin. And when you're 38, and you have cystic acne all over your jawline and neck, it's embarrassing.

We're talking the kind of cystic acne that is so deep it hurts to wash your face. Not joking.

The story of my skin is one for another post, but after troubleshooting a million ways to Sunday, I went to see a doctor who focuses on a holistic approach. She did a full bloodwork panel, and all the things I thought were causing my acne that I had previously been diagnosed with were no longer the issues.

So, I started at the root of it all - food. Nutrition and supplements, additional bloodwork, test and retest. After working with her for 2 months, I saw a marked improvement, but I was still breaking out.

Enter the Food Matters Nutrition Challenge at HCCF. I never ask my members or athletes to do something that I won't do myself, so into the Nutrition Challenge I went.

I put myself on a Paleo plan in our meal planning app, adjusted my macros to 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat, and started eating.

And eating, and eating.

Do you know how many vegetables you actually have to eat to reach that many carbs in a day? Well, it's a lot. My plate of brussel sprouts often looked like this:

A week or two in and I noticed something had started to happen - I wasn't getting any NEW acne. The ones I had were still there because they were so deep, but they were healing. And no new ones were coming in.

Could it be? I kept going. By week 4, most of what had been there was completely healed, and there was nothing new coming in.

So. Even after paleo, even after clean eating and supplements and trying what I thought was everything I could do -

macro counting worked.

Getting the balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats at each meal, and eating every 2-3 hours to regulate my blood sugar levels - worked.

We've only been done with the challenge a week. I've mostly stuck to the same eating habits, but I've allowed myself a few items that were "off," and I've paid for it. I started breaking out again almost immediately.

Do I think I can stick with macro counting and eating at home every meal for the rest of my life? No. But I've learned now what affects me, what affects my body, and what affects my skin.

And knowing that is the start to fixing it. Once you figure out the cause, you can also figure out the effect.

If you've tried fad diet after fad diet, if you feel like you've stalled out in your progress, if you feel like you need a change and you just don't know what to do next - try counting your paleo macros. I feel confident that you'll be amazed at the results.

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