Why I stopped tracking macros during pregnancy

When I got pregnant, I was very happy with the shape I was in. I was in a pre-marathon taper, had been pretty consistent with my strength training, and my nutrition was solid. I was rocking' around 125 lbs and less than 20% body fat-- which is pretty daggum small for me! I used to hover more around 140-145 and 25% body fat. I think being a trainer in a gym helped me to be more consistent with practicing what I preached.

I tracked macros on MyFitnessPal pretty religiously, and I changed my ratios to 40-30-30 upon getting pregnant. I told myself I was tracking mostly to be sure I was eating enough since I was still running. After all, I needed to focus on replenishing those calories burned since my goals were not to lose weight or body fat. I tracked almost every day through maybe March or so, but I started to notice being more and more okay with not getting enough calories. On run days, I was secretly relishing the deficits. My mindset about pregnancy nutrition got pretty disordered without me noticing at first. I was still focusing on nutrients, getting plenty of protein, calcium, vitamin C-rich foods when I took my prenatal, but I had a huge focus on not gaining too much baby weight. After gaining 5+ pounds in the first trimester and realizing I really didn't even need any extra that early, I allowed myself to backtrack a little and became a stickler in the second trimester. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't doing anything "unhealthy." I was still gaining weight at a healthy rate, but red flags went off in my head.

I realized if I couldn't relax during pregnancy about weight gain-- especially gradual and healthy weight gain-- then I was certainly dooming myself for the postpartum journey. That was going to be tough enough, and I didn't need to spend the nine months leading up to it stressing about what I'd need to do for it to come off. So I dropped my macro tracking cold turkey. I don't need MyFitnessPal to know what my body needs, whether pregnant or not, but I think it can be a helpful tool for folks who aren't always mindful eaters. That is certainly me sometimes. Quitting tracking actually helped me to be more intuitive, more intentional than before. Sure, I don't know that I'm getting 1200 mg of calcium exactly or over 100g of protein, but I know that my weight gain has been gradual and consistent and much more enjoyable than if I were still counting. I know that my blood sugar has stayed super stable, and I have learned to listen more to my body in these last few months than the few years of working on my nutrition leading up to pregnancy. I've got a pretty good idea of what my postpartum nutrition and fitness plan will be, but I'm finally at peace with knowing my intuition will also guide me.