Flexible Dieting Secrets: Eat What You Love and Crush Your Fitness Goals!

Flexible dieting is more than just a diet; it's a lifestyle. It empowers you to take control of your eating habits, offering freedom from restrictive meal plans and food limitations. This scientifically supported approach allows you to enjoy any food while still reaching your health and fitness goals. With expert tips and insights gained from working with over 35,000 clients, this guide will help you navigate the world of flexible dieting, avoid common pitfalls, and achieve lasting success.

What is Flexible Dieting?

Flexible dieting is a dietary approach that allows you to meet your calorie and macronutrient needs while eating the foods you enjoy. Unlike most diets, flexible dieting does not restrict certain foods or food groups and does not label foods as "good" or "bad". Instead, it focuses on monitoring your macronutrient intake, also known as "counting macros," to reach your health goal, be it to lose weight, gain weight, improve performance, improve body composition, or other.

Think of flexible dieting as a budget for your food intake. Just as your financial health depends on how much money you earn and how you spend it, your health goals depend on your calorie and macro targets. The objective is to stay within your budget and use it to support your body's basic needs and overall health by making nutrient-dense food choices before indulging in empty calories.

While there's room for all foods in a flexible diet-healthy and "junk"-it's best to consume primarily nutrient-dense foods. This ensures you get adequate protein, carbohydrates, fat, fiber, and micronutrients to support your goals and overall health.

Macros 101: Understanding the Building Blocks of Your Diet

To effectively follow a flexible diet, it's essential to understand the basics of calories and macronutrients.

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What Are Calories?

A calorie is a unit of energy. The calorie content of a food describes how much energy your body can get from consuming it. Though other factors are involved, weight loss or gain ultimately comes down to how many calories you consume. When you eat more calories than your body can use, the extra energy is stored as body fat. When you need more energy than you are getting from what you eat, your body burns body fat for fuel.

Calories are typically written as kcal, Cal, or Calories (with a capital C). This is because calories as we see them listed in food products are actually kilocalories - 1,000's of calories. In order to prevent a lot of zeros on your food labels, kcal or Cal is commonly used. Resting energy expenditure accounts for more than 60-70% of an individual’s total daily calories burned.

What Are Macros?

All foods are made up of one or a combination of three macronutrients, or macros: protein, carbohydrates, and fat. The macronutrient content of a food determines its caloric value. Carbohydrates and protein both have 4 calories per gram, and fat contains 9 calories per gram. Calories don’t exist outside of these macros (excluding alcohol, which contains 7 calories per gram). Each macro has a different use in your body. By tracking how much of each you consume, you can impact many things such as body composition (fat vs muscle mass), energy level, and even your mood. No single macro is responsible for fat gain or loss (you gain fat by eating more calories than you burn).

Protein: Found in nearly all body tissues, protein is essential for life. Consuming adequate protein is vital for achieving your desired physique. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and while your body can manufacture most, nine essential amino acids must come from your diet.
Carbohydrates: While not essential, carbs are useful as a source of energy. Many carb sources, such as fruits and vegetables, are nutrient-dense, containing vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber, all crucial for optimal health.
Fats: Unlike carbs, fats are essential for bodily function. Adequate intake of dietary fats is important for proper hormone function, proper absorption of certain vitamins, the production of cholesterol (vital for health), and also as a source of energy for certain activities such as distance running and other low to medium intensity cardiovascular activities. There are several types of dietary fat, including trans, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated (includes omega-3 and 6). Trans fats are harmful and generally should be completely avoided. Saturated fats may have some negative health effects if consumed in excess, but they need not be completed avoided and even have benefits such as the production of testosterone.

Why Tracking Macros Matters

Tracking macros, rather than just calories, offers several benefits. Keeping protein high enough ensures that you will retain as much lean mass as possible during a dieting phase, and that you will adequately repair and build muscle in a gaining phase. Adequate levels of dietary fats is important for general health. Eating the right amount of carbs allows you to maximize efforts in the gym, and keeps you feeling energized. In summary, tracking macros rather than just calories has several benefits.

Calculating Macros: Tailoring Your Diet to Your Goals

While there is no single "correct" set of macronutrients for any given individual, there is a range of each macronutrient that is optimal for a particular goal. A dieter looking to shed significant weight may want to go with a lower carbohydrate range, while an athlete may want to opt for a higher carbohydrate range.

Determining Calorie Needs

First, appropriate calories are calculated. Generally speaking, 10-12x your bodyweight in pounds is an appropriate range for calories to lose weight, 13-15x body weight is where most would maintain, and 16x or greater is for gaining weight/muscle. Less active individuals would be towards the lower end, and more active towards the higher end of those values or higher. Very overweight/obese individuals will likely be even lower than the stated ranges.

Macro Ratios

Protein: For optimal body composition, adequate protein is required. The amount needed for this (retaining and/or building muscle) is much higher than the minimum amount needed for basic health and avoiding deficiency. The generally agreed upon amount for protein intake for improving body composition is a range, from .8g-1.5g per lb of total body weight. Less is needed in a calorie surplus, while more is needed (for muscle retention) in a calorie deficit.
Fats: There is a minimum amount of dietary fat needed for optimal health, but there isn’t enough research in this area for an absolute amount to be known. Most experts agree that a bare minimum amount of dietary fat is around .25-.3g per lb of body weight, or 15-20% of your total calories. More fat in your diet is based on preference. Remember that the more fat you choose to have in your diet, the fewer carbs you can then have within your calorie allotment.
Carbs: It is important that your diet contains enough carbs to fuel your activity level. Sedentary individuals need fewer carbs, while those exercising hard need more. When carbs are too low, you may feel tired and sluggish, and exercise/athletic performance will suffer. This translates to fewer calories burned and less stimulus to muscles during workouts, which can be counterproductive to weight loss goals. Fiber is a subset of carbs, and it’s important to get an adequate amount for optimal digestive health. Fibrous foods also help with satiety, keeping you feeling full. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends approximately 14 grams of fiber for every 1000 calories consumed. Sugar is another subset of carbs and doesn’t need to be tracked separately.

Weighing and Measuring Foods: Accuracy is Key

Without weighing, it is impossible to really know how much of a given food you are eating. People are notoriously bad at eyeballing or estimating how much food they are consuming. Even measuring foods with cups can be very inaccurate, because there is so much variability with how tightly packed and how full one might fill the measuring cup.

Tools for Success

The good news is that you can find a good food scale for $15-$25. Amazon, Target and Walmart are good places to find them. Look for a digital scale that measures in grams (grams are a smaller unit of measurement than ounces, and so it is a more precise way of weighing).

The Process

The basic idea is that you weigh the food item so that you know the quantity you are eating. Then, you use a calorie/macro tracking app like Macro Sync to log the amount you ate of each food. The app then counts the macros and calorie content of that amount of food for you. If you don’t want to use an app, you can use something like an Excel spreadsheet, or even just pen and paper.

The Importance of Precision

Even packaged foods need to be weighed for 100% accuracy. For example, the label on your loaf of bread might state that one slice of bread is 30g. You weigh yours, and its actually 41g. If you would have logged it as 1 slice without weighing, you would have been underestimating how much you ate. It might seem like a tiny detail, but those slight differences happening with everything you eat, day after day can add up to a large discrepancy between what you log and what you actually consume. This can make it frustrating when progress isn’t happening, and you feel you are “doing everything right”.

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Liquids: Weight vs Volume

A substance’s weight is a measurement of its mass, while volume is a measure of how much space the substance takes up. Grams, ounces, pounds, tons are units of weight/mass. Fluid ounces (not the same as ounces!), milliliters, tablespoons, cups, gallons are units of volume. In general, solid items should be weighed, and liquids should be measured. While some scales do have a fluid ounce and/or milliliter setting, mass only equals volume when measuring water (1 oz = 1 fl oz), so it will be inaccurate to weigh liquids other than water even using fl oz or ml settings on a scale. Use measuring spoons and cups for liquids.

Weighing Dry Goods

Packaged foods all have nutrition labels, and the nutritional information/macros on that label is always for how the food comes to you in the package. Food manufacturers pay to have a lab analyze the nutritional content of the food in the state that it is sold to you. Therefore, the weight stated on the label of dry goods like pasta, rice, oats, grains etc., is for the uncooked product. You should weigh these items dry in order to have the macros on the package be accurate.

Weighing Meat

Meat is most accurately weighed and logged in its uncooked state. When you cook meat, water (and a small amount of fat) is cooked off, but the amount will vary depending on the method of cooking (baking vs crockpot vs a skillet etc.), and to what temperature you cook the meat. A rare steak will retain more water than a well done steak, for example, yet both are technically “cooked”. The USDA has a database of essentially every cut of meat, fish, and poultry and the raw macros for each. When you purchase meat at the store and there is a label on it, that label is for the raw product. So to use those macros when tracking, you must weigh it raw.

The USDA database also has cooked macros for most cuts of meat and fish. You can us these if you feel it is more convenient to weigh your meat after cooking, but remember that it will not be as accurate as raw because your method of cooking and level of doneness may vary from what was done to the cooked meat tested by the lab. Some meat products, such as bacon, specify that the macros on the label are for the cooked product, so of course you should weigh it cooked.

Whether you weigh raw or cooked, the most important thing is consistency. Try and do it the same way, every time for best results and to limit the variability in your tracking.

Tracking Recipes and Large Batches of Foods

Very few people only ever cook for themselves in single-serve amounts. Therefore, it is important to know how to accurately track food when you cook it in large batches, or when you have lots of ingredients mixed together in a recipe.

For Recipes:

There is a recipe builder function as part of most calorie/macro tracking apps. It’s easiest to use this function for creating a recipe.

Weigh all ingredients dry/raw as you add them to the recipe, logging them in the correct quantity to the recipe in your tracking app. The recipe function might ask you to enter how many servings up front - put in an arbitrary number of servings as you will edit this after cooking.
Cook the food.
After cooking, you want to weigh the final product. Edit your recipe and change number of servings to the weight in grams of your final product (minus the weight of the container if applicable). For example: if you made chili, and it weighs 3456g (not including the container weight) you would edit your recipe to state it is for 3456 servings. To log what you eat, weigh out whatever portion you want to eat and log that amount as the number of servings. For example: if you dish up 345g of your chili into a bowl, log as 345 servings of your recipe. Essentially, 1g = 1 serving when done this way.

For Batch Cooking of Dry Goods or Meat:

Weigh the total amount of meat or dry goods uncooked.
Cook it.
Determine how many servings you want the food to make, and divide the total cooked weight by that number. For example if you want 600g of cooked rice to be 6 equal servings, divide the rice into 6 100g servings.
Then log as that same fraction of the raw weight. Continuing the 600g cooked rice example - if you ate 100g of cooked rice, that was 1/6 of the total 600g of cooked rice. If the total dry weight of the rice was 200g, you ate 1/6 of 200g or 33.3g of dry rice (200 divided by 6). You would log as 33.3g dry rice if you ate 200g of cooked rice in this example.

Choosing a Tracking App: Macro Sync

There are many different tracking apps and methods as previously mentioned. Macros Sync is our recommended app due to ease of use. The first thing to note is that Macro Sync should be used to track your food intake and macros. Calculate your macronutrient goals using our Macro calculator, and then use the app to track your eating to hit those macros. Macro Sync is our free food-tracking app that does it all. It’s simple and easy to use with access to premium features such as the barcode scanner with over 1.5 million verified food entries for easy tracking, recipe builder, and customized goal setting.

Finding Foods

To log what you eat (using Macro Sync), click the ‘My Foods’ icon at the bottom of the screen and then tap “Search for Food”.

You can search for a food by typing in the search bar, or you can click the “Barcode Scanner” option (for packaged foods with a bar code). Always compare what you find to the macros on the package of your food, or to the USDA nutrient database. Editing any entry (barcode or database item) is very simple.

Creating Your Own Entry

If you come across a food that cannot be found, or if you can’t find an accurate entry for a food you can create your own entry. Complete the fields and tap ‘Save and Add to Diary’ to log your meal, or tap ‘Save to My Foods’ if you would like to save to use at a later date.

Setting the Serving Size & Number of Servings

As previously stated, you need to weigh (or measure if liquid) what you are eating in…

Benefits of Flexible Dieting

Here is a list of the some of pros of flexible dieting.

Easy to follow: Although it does require tracking, a flexible diet is easy to follow because there are so few rules, no “off-limit foods”, or complicated meal plans to adhere to. You can make food choices based on personal preference, track them, and get on with your day.
Provides more freedom: While most diets require specific food restrictions, flexible dieting allows for a lot of food freedom as it allows the dieter to eat anything they want as long as they hit their calorie and macro targets. In doing so, flexible dieting can help to promote a healthy relationship with food by demonstrating that all foods can be included in a healthy diet, even if your goal is to lose weight, which has been shown help to prevent binge eating .
Focuses on macronutrients: Unlike other diets, especially weight loss diets, flexible dieting focuses on calorie intake and macronutrient intake. While calories are king for weight loss, macronutrients play a vital role in energy levels, satiety, digestion, body composition, and overall health. For example, consuming adequate carbohydrates is essential for performance goals, adequate fiber is essential for gut health, and adequate protein is essential for building and maintaining muscle mass and promoting satiety.
Can be very educational: If you’ve never tracked your food, it can be a very educational and enlightening experience. Not only can you learn more about the calorie content and macronutrient breakdown of your food choices, but you can learn more about portion sizes, how much to eat for your personal goals, and how the food you eat makes you feel. The sheer act of tracking foods and portions creates a level of awareness that can help create healthy eating habits you can maintain for the long term.
Promotes sustainability: The number one reason diets fail is because they are unrealistic for the long term. Research has repeatedly shown that any diet that restricts calories will support weight loss, however, research has shown that people who follow diets with greater flexibility have greater long-term success. While many diets are easy to follow for a couple of weeks or months, they often overly restrict foods or specific food groups, which makes them difficult and unpleasant to stick to over time. Fortunately, the flexible dieting approach begins with an “all foods fit” mentality, which tends to increase overall adherence.

Drawbacks of Flexible Dieting

Here is a list of some of the cons of flexible dieting.

Does not ensure food quality: While flexible dieting emphasizes macronutrients, it does not emphasize micronutrients. For this reason, dieters can hit their macro targets without choosing high-quality protein, healthy fats, and fiber-rich carbohydrates. While healthy food choices are encouraged, they are ultimately left to the dieter to decide.
Requires consistent effort: Tracking, weighing, and measuring foods can be very time-consuming, especially if you are new to it. To accurately track macros and caloric intake, you must weigh or measure everything you eat and drink. While using apps can help to make this easier, and even be enjoyable for analytical people, it can feel anything but flexible for some.
Requires nutrition knowledge: Although the process of flexible dieting can be educational, it also requires a basic level of nutrition knowledge. Unlike other diets with black-and-white rules, flexible dieting requires a basic understanding of calories, macronutrients, and hand portion sizes, as well as how to adapt your calorie needs and macro targets as you progress or if your goal changes.
May promote unhealthy habits: Flexible dieting can be slippery for some people. If you’ve ever struggled with disordered eating, the level of attention to food and tracking required in a flexible diet may be a trigger. While not encouraged, intense food restriction has been linked to eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, which can all lead to major health problems.

How To Create a Flexible Dieting Plan

Here are the steps to create a personalized flexible diet plan.

Calculate Your Calorie Needs: The first step for creating a flexible dieting plan is to determine your total daily calorie needs. Your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is the estimated total number of calories your body expends per day and takes into account your resting energy expenditure (REE) and non-resting energy expenditure (NREE). Resting energy expenditure accounts for more than 60-70% of an individual’s total daily calories burned. Your REE is the number of calories you burn at rest and is also known as your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Your NREE is the number of calories you burn digesting food, performing basic daily activities, exercising, and is made up of the energy expended by the body’s thermic effect of food (TEF), non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), and exercise activity thermogenesis (EAT). To gain weight and/or build muscle, you need to eat more calories than your TDEE to create a calorie surplus. You can calculate your TDEE by using the Mifflin-St Jeor equation or by using an online calorie calculator, such as tdeecalculator.net. It’s important to note that this calorie calculation is an estimate and may need to be increased or decreased based on results and real-time feedback. For example, if you have a goal of weight loss and have been tracking consistently for several weeks but are not losing weight, you can decrease your calorie target to increase the size of your calorie deficit.
Calculate Your Macros: Once you’ve calculated your calorie needs for your goal, the next step is to determine your macro breakdown. Calories are made up of macronutrients, protein, carbohydrates, and fat. When we consume food and drinks we are consuming macronutrients and the macronutrient composition of your food and drinks determines their calorie content. Proteins: 10-35% of total daily calories
Track Your Food: Once you’ve determined your total daily calorie needs and the best macronutrient breakdown to reach your goals, you can start tracking your food. There are many ways to track your food, but the most popular method is to use one of the many food-tracking apps on the market, such as MyFitnessPal, My Macros, or Carbon Diet. To accurately track food, you will need to weigh and/or measure all of the foods you eat, track them in your chosen app, and meet your daily calorie and macro targets.

How Flexible Dieting Works for Different Goals

Unlike many other diet approaches, flexible dieting can support nutrition goals beyond weight loss. Calorie and macro targets can be adjusted to support everything from marathon training to pregnancy to general health.

Depending on the person’s specific goal, calorie intake can be increased or decreased and macro targets can be adjusted to provide more or less protein, carbohydrates, and fat to ensure the individual is consuming the most optimal ratios for their personal goal. To support general health, the calorie target can be designed to meet daily energy expenditure, and the macro targets can be divided in a balanced manner that suits personal preference while maintaining ranges that support optimal health.

Tips for Flexible Dieting

Prioritize whole foods: Aim to consume 80-90% of your calories from high-quality foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, lentils, dairy products, meat, poultry, and seafood. This will help to ensure you are prioritizing micronutrient intake while meeting your calorie and macronutrient targets. Be sure to read food labels and refer to the ingredients list to ensure you are focusing on minimally processed foods.
Focus on protein: If you find hitting your macro targets difficult, at least, focus on your protein intake. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient and will help to make you feel fuller and more satisfied, especially if you are in a calorie deficit. Look for ways to increase your protein intake at meals so you never miss your protein target.
Track your fiber: While fiber is not one of the primary macronutrients, tracking your fiber intake is highly beneficial for overall health, gut health, and satiety signals. Include high-fiber foods, such as beans, lentils, fruits, and vegetables, to ensure you are consuming adequate fiber within your calorie and macro targets.
Plan ahead: Planning your meals in your app the day before or in the morning can help reduce stress around decision-making and make hitting your targets much easier. If you wait until the end of the day to log your food, you may be left with a less-than-ideal number of calories and balance of macros to make a meal. If you know you’ll be visiting a restaurant, look up the menu beforehand, log your meal choice, and build your other meals for the day around it.
Treat yourself: The point of flexible dieting is to be flexible. While you want to prioritize healthy food choices overall, because there are no “off-limit” foods, you can (and should) enjoy your favorite foods. Once you’ve prioritized whole foods, enjoy the 10-20% of your remaining calories to eat the foods you love and celebrate life.
Don’t neglect activity: While flexible dieting is all about what you consume, don’t forget that how you spend your time is important.

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