Community » Get Advice » Diet and Nutrition » How do you find the nutrition balance?????

I have been working desperately to to make all those happy little green checks appear on my nutrients but it seems that is almost impossible...lol First, I noticed I didn't get anywhere near enough calcuim so I started taking a calcium supplement. Next, I got to a point where I could not lose and was told I was not eating enough calories so I bumped that up. Then, my carbs went over. This week I'm obsessing over all the sodium I take in a day. Not to mention I never have enough protein. Does anyone have any hits on how to make all my little sections green and still see a reduction on the scale?????

It's a lot easier to hit all your goal values when you cook from scratch and/or eat whole, unprocessed foods. Since I have been doing that I have been able to stop taking vitamins b/c I am usually well over on all my essential vitamins and minerals from just my diet. Protein was the hardest for me to figure out - I don't know what % or grams you're trying to hit but I'm trying to hit around 135g a day and around 30% of total calories, which is a lot - especially since I'm a vegetarian!! I found it really helpful to plan out my day of meals ahead of time and play around with what I could eat to get to my target macro and micro nutrient levels - I'd just keep switching things out until the numbers were right...then I'd eat those planned meals the next day. After a few days of doing that I figured out what combinations I needed to eat to hit my levels and now I don't have to plan ahead. I don't hit it all every day (protein especially varies) - but it averages out...as long as you are w/in 90% that's good.