Food logging! With a HUGE shoutout to @SparkPeople

So a key part of sticking to my marathon plan involves tracking my calories. I've been asked a few times how I do this and I've promised a blog about it more than once so here it finally is! The first step is to know how many calories you need to be taking in. To figure this out you need:

- your daily calories burned total (I recommend a bodybugg or accurate calorie calculator online to determine your actual burn)

- your goal deficit / day (keep in mind you must burn 3500 calories more than you eat to lose 1 lb. I recommend breaking this up so you burn 500-1000 calories more than you eat each day which will result in a 1-2 lb weight loss each week)

- your nutritional breakdown so you know what percent of your calories should be from carbs, fat, and protein. Carbs and protein are both 4 calories / gram while fat is 9 calories / gram! For the marathon, I am starting off with 65% carbs, 25% protein and 10% fat based on some research I've done focused on marathon training. Your needs will most likely be different...feel free to ask me for some recommendations!

Take this information and feel free to use the spreadsheet at the link below to determine your needs. I have this set up with the information from my marathon training but you can change the dates without hurting anything. The orange boxes direct you to the information you need to provide and the sheet will do the rest from there!

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvSDKxVAXee6dHNLSmhwZDZ6cjFWdW5QVlpQZmQxRGc&hl=en_US

From there you need to use that information. I prefer using SparkPeople which is completely free and easy to use. They will even help you skip the first step by calculating your nutritional needs for you! Because none of us sit at our desks all day, they even have awesome mobile apps and mobile sites that will help you always know how your day is looking from a nutritional standpoint. Below are two images I see on a regular basis from a while back - screen shots of Spark on my phone and computer where you can see I've been tracking my food and was following my targets (even with an unexpected lunch out!). 



The view on my phone as I started tracking my day....note I can also add my fitness information, update my weight tracker and more!

The online view - you have to check out this website...I'm sure you won't believe what tools are available for free! For those of you using WOWY to track Beachbody workouts, I recommend checking out the club level though. It's an easy way to make sure you're following the nutrition recommendations specifically laid out for your program of choice!

If you want to track your intake on a spreadsheet, I've also set up a very basic template here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvSDKxVAXee6dHhQdUp4TXJENEl1NzNSSVNkeF84N1E&hl=en_US&authkey=CK7e6rgI
Again, the orange boxes direct you to the information you'll need to input.

As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. I'd be happy to help you get set up and make sure you're on track. Nutrition is 80% of how you will achieve your fitness goals which is why this is SO VERY important. DO NOT UNDERVALUE the effects of each bite you put in your mouth. Trust me, I've tried to do this without caring about what I ate (mostly because I was lazy and didn't want to put in the little bit of time) and I was not successful! But with the right information and a little preparation, I know you can GET IT!