Well, ISTR that they were talking in terms of meals not days. Thus an extra helping of carbs the meal or two before and after a key workout.
They have never specified how many extra carbs so it seems to be an area for each person to navigate on their own and figure out.
MFP personally, used it for a long time and have a lot of my meals/recipes saved. There’s probably better options.
I think that’s a good point, which is why I gave both options. I wasn’t hedging my bet, I don’t remember whether Kyle has mentioned that on the podcast episode. (It was packed with information, so I didn’t pay attention to this point specifically. But Matt Baer mentioned the importance of “pre-loading” on last week’s episode.)
I’ve never been on the “logging food is easy” train. It’s a PITA having to enter and weigh every ingredient of every meal and snack. Especially when eating leftovers where things are already mixed together, or when just grabbing a handful or bite of anything. Sure, you can create “recipes” so everything is pre-entered, but that assumes the mix is identical every time, which it never is, and if you’re just guessing at weights and portions, I don’t really see the point of logging.
I don’t think you have to be that exact. I’ve been using the Lose It app over the years. I find that it seems to work well enough and you get a lot of functionality with just the free version.
I only weigh stuff every now and then just to calibrate my eyeballs. Like, how many ounces of chicken is that? Once you know what it looks like, then you can just eyeball it. Sometimes I put stuff in a measuring cup just to make sure I know what an exact serving looks like.
I’ve been wondering how well the ‘take a picture of your plate’ apps work… I read that you can even have chatgpt look at the picture and analyze it for you. (haven’t tried it)
I seem to be able to go for months at a time, happily tracking and then I lose interest and fall off the wagon. 
Yeah, I don’t see the point in logging if you’re eyeballing. YMMV of course.
I might eyeball individual portions to enter into the app but tracking tends to keep me on track for the day/week otherwise I’ll just eat whatever based on mood.
Cronometer, free version, moved from MFP. Quite happy with it.
Nah, it’s not that hard to get a good estimate..
My wife made a ground turkey enchilada thing in the crock pot the other day and everything was mixed together. I know quinoa, ground turkey, and black beans are around 1.2 calories per gram. The peppers and other vegetables are about .2 calories per gram and the enchilada sauce is .4 calories per gram (she still had the jar). By looking I can estimate it’s about 80% the more calorie dense stuff, giving me just over 1.0 calories per gram. I ate around 850g, so if my 80% is off by 10% one way or the other then my calories are off by about 75. Not a big deal for the biggest meal of the day.
I try to be a little conservative with my estimates and if I’m ravenous in the evening I’ll eat an extra apple or something. I know pretty well what it feels like to eat at maintenance, a ~500 cal deficit, and a huge deficit that’s unsustainable.
True that the mix of leftovers or whatever won’t be the same every time, but on average the difference will balance out and your estimate won’t be biased.
Given that the alternative is basically just guessing, measuring what you can and estimating what you can’t measure exactly works pretty well.
But the whole point is trying to manage your daily calorie intake to lose weight. If you’re just guessing, you could be off by a ton, and why waste your time logging. I see other people say that if they don’t have to log it they’ll eat the whole pizza or gallon of ice cream, and I understand that use, but that’s not really the point of this topic. It’s how to extremely accurately measure your macros and calories, which guessing doesn’t even come close to doing.
I don’t think you have to be super accurate. Kyle’s recommendations are a range anyway. Coming up with a daily calorie allotment is a guesstimate/calculation.
The practical way to handle this is to track and then if you are not losing weight, you cut back on the daily calorie allotment. Hopefully, your tracking doesn’t get worse and worse.
That’s awesome. Congratulations!
I mostly agree with this part. I just don’t think you need to listen to podcasts, do a bunch of math, and use an app to track macros to do it. We’re basically back to “just pay attention to what you put in your mouth, eat healthy food, and eat less of it until you lose weight”.
I disagree with that last part. I think it’s hard to know if one ate 2700 or 3200 calories in a day without some sort of tracking whether that is an app or writing it down on paper.
Which is what I’ve been trying to say about guessing
Right. We’re not dealing with three balanced meals with x palm fulls of veg, meat, fruit, and grains.
The good news is that Pbase doesn’t have to use any calorie or macro counting method if it’s too complicated for him, but to me it always seems like his concern about all the minutae is what makes it so complicated. I have to worry about whether that’s .7 or .8 tbsp of butter I put on that potato if I’m going to use an app, or alternatively I can just use my (broken) hunger signals and look at my plate to decide if I’m eating too much. That’s quite the juxtaposition.
Making my own food, and sticking to lots of whole foods and dishes with low ingredient counts make tracking a lot easier. Probably half the meals I enter every week are meals I just copy (the whole meal with 2 clicks) from another day, and tweak the portion after weighing/measuring.
It’s estimating, not guessing. Big difference.
I use Cronometer and it has been great for tracking. I try and follow the macro guidelines as best as I can for protein and fats and I fluctuate the carbs more depending upon activity level. I weigh most things and estimate things like sauces etc. If I’m over on my estimates one day then I am as likely to be a little under another which should balance out over the course of a week. I then calibrate my caloric intake off of regular weigh ins under as close to the same conditions as possible. Worrying about being over or under by a bit here or there would make the whole endeavor impossible. Even the tools for measuring have a margin of error. I think it I try and measure and estimate the same way and do weekly weigh ins that tracking now becomes a useful practice.
I think measuring & logging works in 2 scenarios:
This whole eyeballing might work for people who actually don’t even need to diet, i.e., they don’t have any overeating issues. I dare to say that close to everyone else will heavily underestimate the amount of food he eats.
So what’s left from here?
I’m going to give it a proper go. In my 50s now and can confirm it’s not getting easier.
Sometimes I hear Kyle give different targets/ranges for protein and fat, but the latest ones I’m using are 1.7g protein and 1.3g fat per kg (+/- 0.1g/kg).
I am tracking with MFP since consistent tracking seems to work well for moving my weight down. Just vibe eating doesn’t seem to work.
Getting the protein takes a little focus. I use a protein powder in my morning smoothie, and sometimes a scoop with water in the evening. Then targeting good portions of meat at lunch and dinner.
Getting the fat is downright difficult. The goal of 1.3g per target kg is 117g for me. It’s a real paradigm shift. With the heart disease in my family, I was into the low fat world view for some time. But if he’s saying those fat grams are important for hormone turnover, that perks my ears up as a masters athlete.
Things I wouldn’t necessarily think fit in an athlete’s diet that actually do… Double cheeseburger (with a veggie side). Big scoop of guacamole on my burrito bowl. Handful of almonds, peanut butter, olive oil shots 
One of the practical takeaways from this podcast was him describing what meals to focus on the additional carbs to support training - the two meals ahead of the big effort. Then if you fueled properly you shouldn’t feel too depleted afterwards. You can back off the carbs (if you aren’t repeating a hard effort the next day) and the shelves will restock with carbs just fine.
Also getting raw veggies with every meal, cooked veggies with most meals, reaching for lower glycemic carb sources.
Don’t forget to get good sleep and keep life stress under control.