Importance of micronutrients

Tracking macros makes a huge difference when it comes to hitting goals, bettering health and learning to intuitively eat, but it’s only part of the story.

Micronutrients (which are vitamins and minerals like B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, calcium, iron, etc) need to also be considered because they have so many important functions. They act as co-enzymes and co-factors in metabolic processes (fat oxidation, muscle growth, hormone signaling, etc) and are important for gut health, disease prevention, sleep/wake cycle function, immune response, energy production, cell health and nutrient transport, among countless other things.

I’ve had many clients hit their macro goals daily, weekly, even monthly and not see much progress simply because they weren’t paying attention to the foods with which they were filling their macros.

Remember, a food that doesn’t give you many micronutrients isn’t “bad,” it’s simply a food that doesn’t provide your body with vitamins and minerals. If you decide to have food without micros, you just have to balance them out with foods that do.

This is another reason tracking can be so helpful for intuitive eating down the road. During your tracking journey, pay attention to the foods you like to eat that are giving you vitamins and minerals and continue to eat those foods for the rest of your life, regardless of tracking in an app.