Do you remember the game Monopoly? I loved playing with my family when I was young and every so often, I get my kids to play even now! The thing about Monopoly is, everyone starts at go, you earn money as you go, the more money you get the easier ‘life’ becomes, and each turn around the board, every time you play, you get better and better at it.

Eventually, you’re the player that always wins.

Same goes with macros.

Here’s how the game of Macro Monopoly works:

Start – Assess calorie intake by tracking food in an appt o see where intake is before setting a fat loss goal. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. This phrase will help you determine how much to eat and when to start the diet. Everyone starts out in the same way, everyone has their own set money (starting stats), and a common goal…but each person will have their own journey to get there.

Deficit – This is where the fat loss starts, and you create a deficit goal with macros for 2-4 months’ worth of weight loss. This phase requires accurate food weighing and tracking. The more precise you are with weighing, counting, and tracking (including BLT’s – bites, licks, and tastes) the more successful you will be at dropping weight and prepping for the next phase. Kind of like buying a couple of ‘cheap’ properties in order to later add hotels and increase rent revenue.

Reverse Diet – Here you will take a break and upregulate your metabolism after being in a prolonged deficit. We reverse calories up slowly to build our metabolism while attempting to maintain weight loss. Many people skip this step but if you do you will NOT get out of jail for free.

Maintenance - This is when we eat at our TDEE so we can build muscle, balance hormones, and take a break from dieting. There should be no scale change during this time and the body gets an opportunity to be in balance. Kind of like when it’s someone else’s turn and you get a chance to stop and count your money.

Intuitive Macros – This phase occurs after gaining the skill of knowing macros by eyeing portions and knowing how much intuitively eat each day. This phase allows you to be more flexible, stop relying on the scale, and even have fun with your macros. This is when you know which properties to buy and which to avoid. You dominate the board and win your results.

The more times around the board you go in Monopoly, the more success you have because you’ve become a seasoned expert. The same goes for macros.

But you’ve got to start from the beginning and learn your way up. If you don’t measure, don’t reverse diet, and insist on staying in a deficit for.ev.er. you will never win at this game.

Learn the ‘rules’, follow the pattern, observe your results, and in due time you’ll earn your easy and win the game of macros!