How to Track Your Food

1. 1Download a food tracking app. We recommend MacrosFirst — it's simple and built for macro tracking. If you already have a tracking app you love, feel free to use that!
2. 2Create your account in the app. You can skip any goal-setting wizards for now — all you need to do is log food.
3. 3Familiarize yourself with the app's search feature. Try searching for a food you eat often (like "chicken breast" or "oatmeal") to see how it works.

Macronutrients (or "macros" for short) are the three main nutrients your body uses for energy: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Together, they make up every calorie you eat in a day.

Here's the simple math:

• 1 gram of protein = 4 calories
• 1 gram of carbs = 4 calories
• 1 gram of fat = 9 calories

Calories are what change how much you weigh. Macros are what change how you look! Two women can eat the same number of calories and look completely different — it all depends on how those calories are split between protein, carbs, and fat.

That's why we track all four numbers. Here's a quick rundown of each:

Protein — Builds and repairs muscle. Found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy, beans, and protein powder. This is the one most women under-eat.

Carbohydrates — Your body's preferred energy source. Found in grains, fruits, vegetables, bread, pasta, and rice.

Fat — Supports hormones, brain health, and absorbing vitamins. Found in oils, nuts, avocado, butter, and cheese.

Calories — The total energy from all three macros combined. Your tracking app will calculate this automatically when you log your food.

Weigh your food in grams whenever you can! A food scale is the single biggest accuracy boost you can give yourself — eyeballing portions can throw off your calorie count by hundreds without you realizing it. (More on this in Tips for Accuracy below.)

1. 1Log each meal as you eat it. Open the app, search for what you're eating, and select the correct portion size. This is much easier than trying to remember everything at the end of the day.
2. 2Use the barcode scanner. Most apps let you scan the barcode on packaged foods to instantly pull up the nutrition info. This is the fastest way to log.
3. 3Estimate when you need to. Eating out or at a friend's house? Search for something similar in the app. A rough estimate is better than not logging at all.
4. 4Check your daily totals. At the end of the day, look at your total protein, carbs, and fat. These are the three numbers you'll enter into Coach Yourself Strong.

Log as you go. Don't wait until the end of the day. It's easy to forget a snack or underestimate a portion when you try to recall everything at once.

Don't forget cooking oils and sauces. A tablespoon of olive oil adds about 120 calories and 14g of fat. Sauces, dressings, and butter add up quickly.

Use a food scale. Weighing your food is by far the most accurate way to track, and it makes a bigger difference than you'd think — eyeballing portions can be off by hundreds of calories (hello, peanut butter!). If you don't have one, here's the one I recommend.

Log everything, even the small stuff. That handful of almonds, the creamer in your coffee, the cheese you snacked on while making dinner — it all counts.

Don't change how you eat. This is the most important tip. Your AI coach will use what you normally eat to recommend your phase — not what you think you should eat. Eat exactly as you usually would.

Here's what to do for the next 7 days:

1. 1Eat normally. Don't try to "eat clean" or cut calories. Your AI coach needs your real baseline.
2. 2Log everything you eat and drink (except water) in your tracking app.
3. 3At the end of each day, come back here and enter your daily totals into your tracking dashboard.
4. 4After 7 days, your averages will be calculated automatically and you'll be ready to take the Phase Quiz!