The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

154. Flexibility with Macros: 5 Options to Help You Design Your Week & Stay Consistent on Your Fitness Journey

• Kristy Castillo

Share episode

The topic of macros is something I get asked about a LOT. I know it can feel complex and overwhelming; the nutrition piece pretty much always takes longer to get a handle on, compared to workouts. 



Thankfully, you don’t *need* to try and achieve perfection with your macros every single day. You don’t *need* to live a life that feels monotonous or boring, and leads you to you dreading the entire process!  



In today’s episode, I’m sharing 5 different ways you can design your week and your macros, in a way that works for YOU. Since working with many clients (and on my own journey), I’ve found that going off of weekly macros averages vs. daily can better assess overall progress, and really lead to positive, long-term results. 



Yes, it does take time to get into a ‘groove’ with your macros, but again, perfection is NEVER required.



Whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or you’ve been doing this awhile, I hope this episode shows you that flexibility with macros IS possible, and you can do this from a place of abundance - no restriction required! 



If you need more personalized support with all of this, I’d love to support you with my 1:1 Coaching. It’s time to find confidence with macros, and make this an enjoyable part of your fitness journey - FOR GOOD!!

 


In this episode, we cover:

  • Why it can be challenging to get a handle on your macros/nutrition
  • Understanding that macros aren’t something you need to hit *perfectly* every day
  • Looking at weekly macros averages to better assess progress
  • 5 different options for distributing 11,900 calories throughout the week
  • Adjusting your calories (as needed) based on YOUR schedule


Links/Resources:

Send me a text with episode ideas or just to say hi!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed. What's up? Welcome to today's episode.

Speaker 2:

We are going to be talking about macros. Today, I know this is one of the most popular. One of the topics that I speak about on this podcast that you guys really, really like. I get a lot of questions about and this is something that I obviously work with my either Fit Club or one-on-one clients on is macros. I talk a lot about how, on social media and with my clients anyway, that it's easier to get down the workout piece. It's easier, especially if you have a plan right. People I get clients on my app and my ladies are like, yeah, I'm starting to get it. I've been really consistent with three workouts a week. I'm gonna bump up to four workouts a week. Things are going really well.

Speaker 2:

I'm still struggling with my macros and I've come to find that that's completely normal and so validating that, normalizing that for them and saying, yeah, let's just focus on getting really consistent with your water, maybe even your steps, and definitely your workouts, so that you feel some momentum, you see some changes in your body, you feel changes in your body and then we will get started on being more consistent and understanding macros. And so I want to start out with that and say that I don't ever expect anyone to be perfect with macros. I'm not perfect with macros myself and I never really plan to be honestly. So I want to make it very clear that macros nutrition in general. Honestly, when I say macros, I think I'm more so meaning like nutrition. It's hard to get a handle on your nutrition, especially because it's not something that's talked about in a way that is healthy, in a way that kind of leads to the strong, not skinny, concept right. Usually it's like we need to eat less or cut calories or cut carbs, or it's kind of done in a negative way, and macros are not that way. They're not for me, they're not for my clients, and so I want to just preface this episode with that. So, knowing that when you get started on a program, it's okay to not hit your macros right off the bat, it's okay to struggle with that, and it's okay if it's easier for you to get your workouts in line and for you to be more consistent with workouts, it's just easier. So if you're kind of like, yeah, I got everything down except for these macros, except for this nutrition thing, you are not alone.

Speaker 2:

Another thing I want to start off talking about is macros are something that are misunderstood, and I have a lot of previous conversations here on the podcast and I have a lot of previous conversations here on the podcast about macros, so I'm not going to get into it a ton right now, but I do want to preface by saying that macros are never meant. The way that I teach them anyway, and the way that I believe is a healthy relationship with macros, a healthy relationship with food, a healthy relationship with this mentality, this fitness situation. Macros and I would never teach them this way. Like I said, I don't think macros are designed to be something that you have to hit perfectly every single day. They are not something that have to be perfect. When a lot of my clients get started with macros, they think they're failing. I'm not hitting my calories. I'm not, you know, every single day. I'm not hitting my protein every day. I'm going over my carbs every day. I'm going a little over my fats every day, whatever it is, and it takes a while to get the hang of it. It's not something that you're just going to get a macro count from a coach and you know, bye, be on your way. Like it's not. That's not how it works. So it is a little tricky and it takes some time, just like anything else, to get the hang of.

Speaker 2:

But when I first started with macros, I thought I had to be perfect. I thought it had to be absolutely perfect. I had to track perfectly, I had to measure perfectly, everything had to be perfect. Every single day I would have a certain amount for myself. I think I started around like 1450 for my calories and I thought I had to hit 1450 calories and whatever my carbs were, whatever my protein was, whatever my fats were, I had to hit those every single day, perfect, to see results or to see the results that I wanted. And that's simply not true. So I tried that for a while and I kept falling off and falling off, and falling off. And I have clients now in Fit Club that are like, yeah, I make it to like the middle of the week, I'm still can't hit these macros perfectly and I'm falling off. And so I want to talk in this episode about different ways that you can create a design for your week and your macros and your lifestyle that'll work for you. And so we're going to talk about weekly macro averages, weekly calorie averages and different ways that I have talked through with my clients if needed. I don't do this with every single client, because not every client needs this, but this is a way to make this work for you. So I've talked about this in previous episodes too. Your weekly average matters most, so you don't have to be perfect every single day.

Speaker 2:

Another way to look at it is well, let me back up. I would have clients come to me saying you know, I'm one-on-one clients, I'm checking in with them. How was your week? Or how are your two weeks, however long it's been since we chatted how are you doing? I would get their take and then I have information as well, because I can go into the app, I can see their macro logs, I can see their foods, I can see calorie averages and they'll tell me well, I did OK, I didn't do perfect, and they gave me their take and I'm like well, what I averaged out your week. So I added all seven days together and I divided it out by seven and you're actually right on target. So you actually did a really good job this week and probably you enjoyed a couple you know get togethers. You probably listened to your body a little bit more. So there's a lot of other wins that we could talk about too.

Speaker 2:

In this particular situation. It's not just about hitting your macros perfectly every single day and living this life. That's boring and you know we end up dreading this entire process. It's not about that. So I started averaging out a lot of clients' macros and I was finding myself doing that a lot. They were saying they kind of did okay during the week. They didn't hit macros every single day, but their weight stayed the same or they saw the results. So they're kind of trying to. You know how did I see progress? But I didn't hit my macros perfectly. They're kind of trying to put that together in their heads and I was over and over and over saying, well, when I average it out, you actually did really well, you actually did pretty spot on, because your body doesn't know it's Monday, your body doesn't know it's a 24-hour time period.

Speaker 2:

So if we look at the weekly average, so weigh every single day. If you want to get on the scale for information, track your macros every single day for information. You have to do all the things. Just do them every single day. Why not? You brush your teeth every day, right? You brush your hair, you do your hair a little bit. You put a little makeup on, like, you get your shit together a little bit every single day.

Speaker 2:

So why not track your food? Why not drink your water? Why not track your mac? Like, why not do these things every single day? It just needs to be. It's not optional, right. We have to do it every single day. It's part of our life now. So go ahead and weigh yourself, and weigh your food, and get your workout in, and go for a walk and do all these things, but make the weekly average matter the most. So if you think you didn't hit your macros perfectly, who cares? Average it out. And over the course of that week, if you averaged out. Well, awesome, if your weight went up two pounds one day and then down another pound the next day and down another pound the next day, so that it averages out and your goal is to stay the same, perfect. If you're maintaining, that's great, right. You can have these fluctuations in your calories. You can have these fluctuations on the scale. It doesn't have to be perfect, and one way that I've really found for myself to do this is by having these weekly averages. So I put together five different options that I want to walk through, and these are ones that I've probably done myself over time.

Speaker 2:

I've experimented with different ways to kind of make my weeks different, you know, depending on where I'm at in life, depending on where, if we're going on a vacation, depending on what I have going on on the weekend. So these things came about very naturally. It wasn't like oh, I think I'll divide it out this, this and this. It was like well, I have a whole weekend of activities coming up, you know, friday, saturday and Sunday, I don't know, it's my birthday, so I'm gonna, whatever eat a little crazy. So say, I'm gonna maybe overeat by like three 400 calories every single day this weekend. So I'm going to divide that out through Monday through Thursday and kind of under eat so that I can, you know, like average it out on purpose. And I put together five different options so I want to talk through them.

Speaker 2:

On this episode. You can definitely go back and kind of take notes and think about which ones will work for you. I will also have graphics on social media that will be breaking these down for you so you can kind of look at them visually and then, if you're a one-on-one client, we can walk through this on my calls that I'm gonna be doing soon consult calls, we can talk through these things. I'll have it all kind of planned out because I think this is something that could really really help you to plan out your week and to not feel so restricted when you are counting macros, because that's the whole breaking point of macros is to not feel so restricted, to feed your body exactly what you should be feeding it, but not being so perfect, unless you're trying to get on a stage as a bodybuilder and you have very, very, very specific physique goals. I'm talking very specific.

Speaker 2:

There's no reason why going a little crazy a couple days a week, chilling out a couple days a week, there's no reason why the a little crazy couple days a week, chilling out a couple days a week. There's no reason why the weekly average doesn't matter and, yeah, you're gonna see on social media that you can't, you know, fuck around on the weekends, basically, and that's true. But there is a way to do it Responsibly right and to kind of stay Within reason, because that just has not worked for me. Now, if you're like no, mentally I cannot, I cannot do what you're saying after you hear these options, that's fine. Then stick with the first option I'm going to give you which is perfect amount every single day and go with that. But throughout your life, remember this episode and think, okay, this might be a time where I'm going to pull this and see if it's going to work for me.

Speaker 2:

So I am using a weekly goal for these breakdowns. So the weekly calorie goal is 11,900 calories. This breaks down into 1,700 calories a day. So for the options that I'm going to be talking about, this is the example. It's a 1,700 calorie a day, 11,900 calories a week. So if I'm giving you macros and we're just talking about calories here, the macro breakdown you can divide out and play with yourself. That's totally fine. So if you come to me and I'm saying, okay, 1,700 calories in this example is what we need to be doing, and then macro breakdown from there, of course, but if your calories are 1,700, that's your daily goal, is what I want for you. What I'm really saying is, if we 1,700 times seven days a week equals 11,900 calories, we have 11,900 calories to work with for the entire week. And if that's our goal is to kind of get a handle on macros and to really understand what's going on here, it's okay to say, okay, this is the amount that we have to work with almost 12 000 calories and seven days. So what do we want this to look like? The first option is a daily, an even daily intake 1700 calories per day and if that makes the most sense for you to get your staple foods to stay on track, to really practice that consistency, I do recommend starting there and being pretty close to that. But 1,700 calories a day times seven days a week equals 11,900 calories. So that's kind of the first thing that everybody thinks of. Right, when we think of macros and the breakdown, we think this is my macros, this is my calorie target every single day, day after day after day. But really what that adds up to is that 11,900 calories, which overall matters too.

Speaker 2:

Option two is lower weekdays and higher weekends, and I kind of averaged this out to go Monday through Friday 1,500 calories, which is still quite a bit of food. Saturday we can go really high with a 2,450 calorie day. Sunday we can really back in a little bit with 1,950. So 1,950 calories and then we would be back to the 1,500 calories on Monday. So this is a Monday through Friday 1,500. Saturday 1,450. Sorry, 2,450. Sunday 1,950. So we have a really high fun, go out and have a couple drinks, have a couple pieces of pizza I love pizza, that's always my go-to and then we reel it in a little bit on Sunday and then back down on Monday. I like that because it's a mentality of, okay, I'm still getting enough food Monday through Friday, but I'm looking forward to the weekend. But I also have a goal. I also am not going over 2450 on Saturday. I'm not going over 1950 on Sunday, because I gave myself enough. There's no reason I need to go over that right. So lower week days, higher weekends, is option number two.

Speaker 2:

Option number three is a gradual increase toward the weekend, which I kind of like. This as well. It's so I have of like this as well. So I have this broken up into Monday Tuesday are $1,400. Wednesday $1,500. Thursday $1,600. See what we're doing here. We're gradually increasing. Friday $1,800. Saturday $2,500. Again, another fun day Saturday. Sunday $ 1,700. So we're reeling back in and then Monday back to that 1,400. Tuesday 1,400. So this is a gradual increase which I kind of also like.

Speaker 2:

I've done this at different points in my life too, just to again experiment. This was habitual for me, honestly, because I would fuck up on the weekends with, like my beach body days, so I would do so badly. Quote unquote. I thought anyway on the weekends that Monday and Tuesday I would basically be like, oh, I'm back on my diet and then by Wednesday I was like I'm freaking starving. By Thursday I had already quit. So I like that Monday and Tuesday are kind of like a little detox mentality where it's like, okay, I had a great weekend, probably kind of feel like shit from the pizza and drinks. Let's be real. Sunday reeling it back in Monday, back Mentally, we are back, we're back to 1,400.

Speaker 2:

We're dialing in for two days and then we increase, and then we increase, we increase again. We have a fun day Saturday, right. So if you are someone who's in college and you have things to do on the weekends and you're like I do want to go out and live my life, this is a really good way to do that. And 1,800 calories on a Friday honestly is nice too. It's not just that we're like hanging out on Saturdays. That's not the only day that we have a little fun right. On Friday, maybe we like to live a little Saturday. We like to live a lot Sunday. We like to live a little right. So this is a good option as far as a gradual increase.

Speaker 2:

And then I think that Monday mentality of like okay, it's Monday, I'm back down to low calorie, but it's with a purpose, I had a fun weekend, I don't really feel restricted, this is my plan. Something, too, about having a plan whether it's high calorie, low calorie it's like giving yourself an allowance, it's like giving myself permission to eat a little bit less and eat a little bit more. I love that. So option number four is very low weekdays and higher weekends. So if you are someone who this would almost fall into the category of like strict weekdays Monday through Friday, if you're someone who's like, okay, monday through Friday, I'm pretty good. And then Saturday and Sunday, it's balls to the wall and I'm losing my mind and I'm going crazy eating everything in sight. Again, as long as your calories fall within a weekly average, you're good.

Speaker 2:

If you have a little bit of self-control, a little bit of like you have a cutoff line on Saturday and Sunday, that's kind of nice, because I used to live this way, where it was like Monday through Friday was on a meal plan, I was weighing everything, I had a food list, I was very, very strict and structured, and then Saturday and Sunday it was like a free-for-all. It was like, well, I'm going out with my kids and we're having ice cream and we're having pizza and we're having hot dogs and we're and it was like I lost control and I felt like that was a bad thing. In this example, if this is something that works for you, where you're like no, I can be really controlled on Monday through Friday and then, yeah, I want to live a lot on the weekends, just keep it in check. I feel like this could be dangerous, but I wanna throw it out there for you. And if this is somewhere that you wanna start, even if you're like no, this is how I live my life right now, I'm already like very strict Monday through Friday, and then on the weekends I'm living lavish, right, eating whatever I want, track it and see where you're at, because, yes, if you're going way too far and you're not reeling yourself back in all the way in, then, yeah, you're overeating and it could go too far. So in this example, I have Monday through Friday at 1400 calories pretty low for some people and then Saturday would be 2750. That's a lot. And then Sunday 2050. So I think that's awesome, and when I say that's a lot, if you think as a woman, if you hear that number, you're like I'm allowed to eat 2,700 calories in a day. What I mean, that's a lot To a lot of people that's a lot of calories, but honestly, you're probably eating it anyway and you're not tracking it, you don't know any better. So we think, oh my gosh, that's a lot. But if you're like, okay, well, the Super Bowl just happened, right, let's say you kind of just ate normal during the day, thinking you weren't going to a party, and then you got invited to a party and then you go to the party in the evening, so then you're really overeating, right, you've probably consumed that many calories on tortilla chips and guac and all the dips and all the little appetizers. I know I can. If it's finger food I am out of control.

Speaker 2:

So if that makes sense for you to try very low weekdays and higher weekends, as long as you reel yourself back in and your total is 11,900 calories for the week, you're good. And then option five is a higher start and an end and lower midweek. So a higher calorie beginning of the week, a higher calorie at the end of the week and lower midweek. I kind of like this too. It's different. Again, this can work for someone. I have nurses who are like I work different shifts, I have different. Sometimes I'm awake for you know way, way too many hours. We have to average it.

Speaker 2:

So if you work different hours, if you work different days, like this could really this could really make sense for you and also to kind of carry your days over and have the middle of the week, because what's really going on? Honestly, wednesday and Thursday like Tuesday, wednesday, thursday what's really going on? Not much. So I had Monday at 1900 calories, tuesday at 1400, wednesday 1300, thursday 1300. But this is kind of nice because it's like you're gearing up to really kind of have some higher calorie days. Also, it's kind of it feels good sometimes to eat a little bit less, right?

Speaker 2:

The only thing with this is your macros. Like how do you break down a 1300 calorie day and still hit protein Can be a little tricky, but anyways, monday 1900. Tuesday,400. Wednesday, thursday, 1,300. Friday, 1,500. Saturday 2,500. Sunday 2,000. And then back to Monday with 1,900. So you're higher Monday and then Saturday. Sunday Friday is a little bit higher. So it makes the beginning and the end of your week higher calorie and lower in the middle.

Speaker 2:

The only thing with that is, I feel like and this is true for all of these days, but like these 1300 calorie days to 2500, that's a really big gap in what are you doing with your macros, and that's the other thing. So, as I kind of wrap up the calorie portion of this, there's five options there that I listed, and I listed them all out. Like I said, that'll all be on social media, so follow me at on Fuck your Fitness podcast on Instagram. It'll be posted there and I'll share it, obviously, to Krista Castillo Fit page. Follow me everywhere.

Speaker 2:

But these options provide a different balance between consistency and flexibility and weekend indulgence, and we are going to have weekend indulgence. I don't want to live a life where, on the weekends, I can't live a little. To be honest, I'm home more. It's less structured. I am going to be tempted with food more. So why fight myself on that and say no, I only get 1700 calories every single day. It is what it is. That's not how I personally want to be, not to mention think about these options too.

Speaker 2:

How are you, naturally, if you're someone who doesn't work out maybe Tuesday, wednesday, thursday and you only work out. I have a client right now. She works out like sometimes Thursday, and she always works out Friday, saturday, sundays, three days a week. She's going to need more calories to fuel those workouts. So she doesn't need as much food technically, obviously, to fuel workouts on days she's not working out. That doesn't mean that she doesn't need enough calories overall. She does need a certain amount of calories weekly.

Speaker 2:

But when you are working out and you're maybe walking more, you're doing more cardio you're going to need more food. On those days. You're going to be hungrier some days after certain workouts You're going to be not hungry some days If you're just working. You have a big project coming up, you haven't hit your steps, you've been sitting all day. You're not going to be as hungry. That's me today. By the way, it's three o'clock.

Speaker 2:

I've eaten one thing I have my protein, my premier protein waffles, and two little-ish handfuls of Cadbury mini eggs, because it is the season and I have them. So I'm gonna eat them, but I'm gonna log all that and it's fine, and I'm gonna have protein shake when I go upstairs, but I'm just I'm not that hungry today and so I'm starting off a little wonky. So some of these options work better for me, because after the weekends I do kind of feel like blah because I ate different food items than I normally would, and that's fine. So Monday and Tuesday I'm kind of like. I don't work out Mondays. So you can definitely base this on your life.

Speaker 2:

Think about it. Some days you're hungrier than others, and so why not not have to force yourself to either not eat as much on days you're? If you're like I'm freaking starving, but I already ate my 1700 calories, well, that sucks. If that's your limit, right. And then on other days of the week you're like I'm not hungry at all and I still have 300 calories left. Well, why not just save those for later on in the week, right? So definitely think about these options, see what works best for you and then divide it. The same thing is true for macros. Yes, consistency is definitely best.

Speaker 2:

So you wanna hit a higher amount of protein every day, but you're gonna have to average it out. On a 1,300-calorie day, your protein might look a little different than it does on a 2,500-calorie day, and that's okay. Again, average it out. What does that look like for you? What looks realistic for your protein intake? Maybe you eat so much protein Monday, tuesday, wednesday and maybe a little bit less. Like over-protein 40 grams each one of those days Cool. Then you can kind of under-eat the other days, right? So average it all out, make it make sense. There's no right or wrong when it comes to your macros. As far as averaging them out, yes, you need a certain amount and yes, that should be a weekly average, but there's no right or wrong to how you want to do this. So I hope that was really helpful.

Speaker 2:

I always want to talk about macros from a place of like, abundance, like. I want you to be able to see this as like more. I'm getting more flexibility, more strength, more control, more happiness, more food freedom right, not restrictive and I think this is just another way to do that. So if you need help, hopefully you can kind of listen to yourself and take the judgment out of it. Take these options, look through them and think what works best for my life. Again, you can pick literally any one of these options or you can create another one for yourself.

Speaker 2:

It's going to take some time to average it out. Figure out your days, use a calculator, get really nitty gritty, because this is the foundational stuff that's going to help you. If you need some help and guidance with this, join my one-on-one coaching. You can go to christykistiocom and click on workout app and then click on one-on-one coaching. I will help figure out your macros. I'll help you figure out this part of it and then I will walk along with you to make sure that this works and you'll understand it long-term throughout our time together.

Speaker 2:

If you just want these calculated and kind of to talk through it, I'm going to be opening my coaching calls, just like my one-time experience call, and I don't have a name for it at the time I'm recording this, but those are going to be very, very soon. They're going to be probably a 90-minute call. I think that's a really good time amount and then you'll have some extra add-ons that you can have me in your back pocket for a couple of weeks to kind of navigate through this, or we can just do the call. We can get all this laid out. I'll leave you with some notes and create a PDF for you to take afterwards.

Speaker 2:

I'm still wrapping up the details of this package, but this would be something we can talk about together as far as your macros and your workouts and which days make sense for you to work out, therefore, which days make sense for you to work out, therefore, which days make sense for you to eat more, and exactly what that looks like, so that you can make this work for you and your lifestyle and be so confident in your decision that you really just take off and this fitness journey becomes so much more enjoyable for you. So I hope that you enjoyed this episode. Please, please, please, leave a review and a rating on Apple and leave a rating on Spotify and anywhere else that you listen. I would love that you can also text me. The link is in the show notes. Say hello, follow me at Christy Castillo Fit and Unfuck, your Fitness podcast on Instagram and I will talk to you in the next episode. Bye on Instagram, and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Bye, thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at ChristyCastilloFit. I will see you next time.