It’s been 3 weeks since I began tracking my calorie and macronutrient intake with MyFitnessPal, so I thought I would share my progress and insights so far (part of keeping myself accountable!).

View my personalized nutrition tracking spreadsheet here – Feel free to copy+paste the format for your own use!

I theorized that logging my meals would inherently discourage me from snacking, and I was partially correct. I’ve still had some days where I overindulge and don’t exercise, but significantly less now that I know I’ll be woefully typing those numbers into my spreadsheet the next day.

I made one edit to my spreadsheet and decided to start adding up my total weekly calories, to better judge my progress from week to week. Since fat loss is a long-term mission, a week-to-week progress report is probably going to have more valuable information than just the daily calorie levels. That’s why I track weekly averages and totals inline with my daily columns.

Overall, since I started tracking, I’ve been able to lower my total weekly calorie intake by about 1400-2000 per week. Turns out I had been eating at least an entire extra day’s worth of calories every week! Wow. Why eat 8 days’ worth of food in just 7 days? That seems insane, especially in the context of weight loss. And yet our snacking doesn’t always feel excessive while we’re doing it. When you put it that way, counting calories really starts to make sense.

Reality checks are hard to come by. Most personal change starts with you and you alone; waiting for some milestone life event to happen before you start work on yourself is futile. That thing you’re waiting for may never happen, but in waiting for it, you may miss out on a whole slew of other opportunities to feel great about yourself.

What’s it gonna take to get you from Point A (where you are now) to Point B (where you want to be)? If it’s something as easy as counting your calories (every day, every meal, no cheating), then I really encourage you to start doing so. I have honestly made little effort besides tracking my calories and have already been able to mitigate a lot of lazy behaviors that were making me feel in a rut.

You don’t have to be spot-on in your nutrition tracking. Guesswork is fine as long as you are seriously contemplating and estimating the portions of food you have, and tracking 100% of snacks. It helps if you can track your calories burned by exercise too, but it’s not entirely necessary if you can lock down a great diet and workout somewhat regularly.

As for losing pounds, I’m mostly trying to disconnect from that mentality as weight is not a true reflection of fitness. Of course I have a goal, but my BMI is normal and I’m mainly looking to majorly tone up some key areas – however many pounds I lose in the process are an added bonus. Hoping that none of my readers impose negativity on themselves based on the number they see on the scale!