Best way to hit proper calories/macros?

[SilverSun]

What do you guys do to ensure you're eating the right amounts of calories and properly hitting your macros (whether for bulking or cutting)? Do you track as you go and at the end of the day stop if you've hit them or cram in some food at the end? Or do you prefer to plan ahead of time?

I'm trying to find a good way to manage this...right now I'm trying to track as I go, but I'm not sure if it'd be easier to plan ahead. I seem to be one of those people who needs structure when working on a goal...

All opinions welcome!

[gwnorth]

Def plan ahead. Having said that breakfast, lunch, snack, & supps tend mostly to be the same Mon-Friday and the only thing that changes for dinner is the source of protein (ie meat). The weekends are little more laissez-faire, but still generally even then I've pre-planned dinner so I have a rough idea of what my macros need to be for the rest of the day.

[SilverSun]

Sounds nice and straight-forward

Do you ever vary your basics at all to get nutritional variety? I guess though if your diet is varied to begin with then it doesn't really matter...

[NatK]

Plan ahead is the best to make sure you get all cals and macros.

[toodlepip]

I'm cutting at the mo so I'm quite into planning and as it's limited, I'm probably over-focussed on food. Weekday breakfasts and lunches are planned the night before, cals tallied etc. Dinners it depends what I feel like. Weekends are less structured.

I like leaving cals for the end of the day so I can have a bit of whatever I fancy if a particular whim strikes. If I'm under in cals I don't always have what I should to meet exact macros if I'm not hungry. Really depends.

[kjake55]

To me, planning is as important a bulk/cut success tool as deloading is to your training. Like everyone else Mon-Fri are pretty much the same and then the weekends get a little bit less pre planned. I cook on Sundays for the week. I'll make 6 qts of salad, at least 5 3-oz chicken breasts, hard boil eggs and pre cook the meat for dinners whenever possible. I throw everything into a planner and do the best I can to hit it all but I'm never anywhere near perfect. It does help though.

[thepowerwithin]

I am not a planner and just wing it as I go and am very successful that way. I don't stick to a meal plan, but my breakfast and lunches don't tend to change much, especially weekdays. I calculate macros/calories after each meal and see what I have left to work with and make the necessary diet tweaks. At the end of the day, whatever I am low on is what I will have.

I use Daily Burn, have tracked for a long time, and have it all my typical foods saved to favorites, so it takes me seconds.