This will ruffle a few feathers, so strap yourselves in for a ride.
Reliance on macro counting, long term, is an eating disorder. Physically you can feel and look great; mentally, you are unhealthy. What you call control over your food is a hyper-reliance on numbers to fuel your life. It is the same vein as Orthorexia Nervosa, which is marked as:
Compulsive checking of ingredient lists and nutritional labels
An increase in concern about the health of ingredients
Cutting out an increasing number of food groups (all sugar, all carbs, all dairy, all meat, all animal products)
An inability to eat anything but a narrow group of foods that are deemed 'healthy' or 'pure'
Unusual interest in the health of what others are eating
Spending hours per day thinking about what food might be served at upcoming events
Showing high levels of distress when 'safe' or 'healthy' foods aren't available
Obsessive following of food and 'healthy lifestyle' blogs on Twitter and Instagram
Body image concerns may or may not be present
SOURCE: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/by-eating-disorder/other/orthorexia
Orthorexia is not an official diagnosed eating disorder, just as long term reliance on macro tracking isn't, but the overlap of the mentality behind them both is concerning and incredibly challenging to overcome.
Common phrases I have heard from macro counters are:
"I am happy because my friends invited me over, and they told me they pre-measured the burgers for me."
"I am going out to eat this week; I don't know how I can track my food."
"What do I do when I go on vacation? I won't be able to weigh my food."
These are phrases that tell me a few things.
The first one tells me your obsession is so deep your friends know it and accommodate it. It is very considerate of them, but it also makes me wonder how you express your lifestyle to people.
The second one tells me you have learned nothing about food selection if going to eat is making you stress over tracking food.
The third tells me you are going to have a hard time on vacation when you are forced to dine out daily, can't measure or track food, and don't have a scale to weigh yourself or your food daily.
Some people thrive on long term tracking, but they are the exception rather than the rule. My guess is many of them don't trust their own devices enough to lose the reigns and read their body.
Listening to your body is a learned skill that we lost along the way in a world filled with hyper-palatable food choices. It is easy to overeat when packaged food is designed to make you want more.
Anecdotally, I can eat a large pepperoni pizza in a few blinks. Give me the same calorie amount in whole food items, and I will eat slower, eat less, and not consume indulgently. Processed food's high fat and carb content, combined with excess sodium, allows you to over-eat it beyond your satiety signals.
Well-meaning nutritional coaches will say, "food has no morality," and it doesn't in theory, but there are poor food choices and smart food choices in the context in which they are eaten.
Ultra-processed food should be eaten in moderation; a poor choice used correctly when you remove the gluttony and excess from the equation. The issue is the lack of control people have around hyper-palatable foods like the bag of Doritos, the Cheez-Its box, or the large Minsky's pizza. If we were all capable of moderation, we wouldn't be in the predicament we are nationwide.
The point being is we collectively lost the ability to read our bodies when it comes to food because it has been masked by excessive fat, salt, sugar, and carbs. Knowing how a food makes you feel, enjoying the variety of flavors, and taking the time to prepare it is dulled when you have been conditioned to eat on the fly, order takeout, and sit in front of a TV mindlessly eating from the bag of chips.
Step one in fixing this is recognizing where we failed ourselves.
It is coming to grips with the fact food is not a number, it is not a packaged item meant to fit your macros, it is something that fuels us, sustains us, meant to be enjoyed, and meant to be a part of your life.
This is where some people develop macro fatigue. Are you taught control when numbers reign you in? Are you able to put down the app and know what you need to eat? Are you overly concerned with six-pack abs and less concerned with how you truly feel? Are you held prisoner mentally by the fitness industry and our barrage of perfectly dieted bodies, macro posts, and carefully curated images giving you a false idea of reality?
The answer is yes, many of us are.
Tracking macros are a fantastic tool to learn control, moderation, discipline, and keep you within a certain number of calories. You can learn how much protein you need to eat through using them, the proper proportion of carbs and fats for your needs, and more.
To illustrate my point in the context which everyone can relate to is simple. When you were 16 years old, and your parents were teaching you how to drive, you had your learner's permit, and you weren't allowed to drive alone for a while. Your license also prevented you from driving past a specific time. Even when you passed your driver's test, I am sure some of you had severe restrictions with your car, whether it was yours or the family car. Your parents know how irresponsible kids can be with a deadly vehicle, and acted accordingly.
Macros and the apps which track them are the learner's permit, and many of us are too scared to trust what you learned.
This blog series will attempt to help you lose the restrictions you put on yourself, start to trust what you have learned, and truly be free.
Freedom with food isn't "you can't eat this much, only this much." freedom is knowing what you need, when you need it, knowing what you want, and being self-aware enough to know how much you should have.
This takes time. Prepare for growing pains.