Episode 119 - Why busy mamas shouldn’t increase their macros if they workout extra one day

Mama,When Rebekah first started her health and weight loss journey, she knew that to lose weight, she needed to burn more calories than she ate, so she started tracking her calories. She entered all her meals into MyFitnessPal and used another app to track how many calories she burned working out to ensure she was in a deficit.‌According to the apps, anytime she worked out extra, she could eat extra. So whenever she was going to go out for dinner or wanted more dessert, she’d just fit in another workout. It seemed like a great trade-off! However, after months of tracking her food and her workouts, she wasn’t making a lot of progress.‌She was frustrated because she was working out so much, eating so little, and still didn’t look or feel the way she wanted to.‌When Rebekah started working with me, this workout more, eat more ideology, often called calorie or carb cycling, was one of the first changes we made.‌The theory behind calorie cycling is that by occasionally increasing or decreasing your calories or carbs it can speed up weight loss.‌But most of us are doing it wrong! Just like Rebekah, we think we can and should change our daily calorie intake. There’s a place for carb cycling, but this constant adjusting isn’t it. Plus, it doesn’t help with fat loss, so I don’t use it with my clients.‌Instead, I teach my clients to use these tools to burn fat and enjoy their food!Set your calories and macros by your average energy expenditureThe reason that I don’t have my clients changing their calorie intake every day based on how many calories they burn is that it usually doesn’t make enough of a difference to put in the extra work!‌We all burn calories in two ways: actively and passively. Active calorie burns come from workouts, where we’re moving our bodies to purposefully increase calorie burn. Passive calorie burning comes from day-to-day activities like walking, breathing, maintaining body temperature, and even digesting our food.‌Most people place a big emphasis on active calorie burning, but 60-75% of our daily calorie burn comes from the passive things we do!‌This is why I don’t see a big difference in calorie cycling! Unless you’re running a marathon or doing a huge workout, your passive calorie burn stays the same, so you don’t need to adjust your macros or calories to lose body fat.‌Another big reason I don’t recommend calorie cycling is because more often than not it creates an unhealthy relationship with working out.‌When Rebekah was fitting in extra workouts to “be able to” eat out, she was focused on using the gym to “undo” any bad eating. And when you view the gym like that for too long you start to resent it!‌Exercise should be used for your growth! You should work out to build muscle, feel stronger, and feel happier or more energized. (We all know that “exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy and happy people just don’t shoot their husbands,” thanks Elle Woods,)‌Instead, I like to set my clients up to create healthy relationships with food, the gym and themselves!‌When I start working with clients, the first thing I have them do is track a normal week’s worth of eating and exercising. I want to see what kind of calorie deficit or surplus they’re already in.‌Then, I’ll set their macros based on those numbers. This is a really important step that most programs and coaches don’t do because when people start a new program they want to make changes! They’re motivated to cut calories or start working out.‌But after working with hundreds of women, I’ve seen that slow and steady beats a single sprint every single time.‌By starting my Macros Made Easy Mamas where they’re at and making gradual changes they lose more fat and keep the habits they lear