Hi DaisyDawn - I saw your mention elsewhere that you found tracking stressful (I do too), and worried that the P:E approach might bring that stress back.

What has worked better for me is to design meal patterns (somewhat loosely) using somewhat simple rules that get me into the ballpark of the macros I am trying to hit. Then I make minor adjustments over time if I need to.

For example, lean meats tend to provide somewhere around 7g of protein per ounce cooked weight (raw weight is closer to 6g per ounce). 1 egg is about equivalent to 1oz meat weighed raw. If I want to aim for 120g protein, I plan to eat about 17 ounces meat weighed cooked (or 20 ounces weighed raw).

Since I cook most of what I eat, I use the raw weight grams per ounce estimate - I just use the weight marked on the raw meat packages and divide into roughly equal portions. In my 120g example, that works out to 20oz raw weight, which I tend to think of as about 1 pound of raw meat plus 4 eggs. It isn’t perfect - if you eat a mostly skinless chicken breast or steamed white fish you will end up a bit higher protein than if you eat mostly 80% ground beef, but if you eat a mixture of super lean vs. less lean, it gets you in the ballpark. You can look at the average protein per ounce of the meats you prefer to eat and use that as your estimate.

From the total goal, I create a meal pattern that appeals to me. For example, if 120g (20oz) is my target, I know I can get close to that eating 4 eggs for breakfast and cooking 1/2 of a 1 pound package of meat for lunch and again for dinner. If I think I need to dial up protein and dial down fats, I just emphasize leaner cuts over fattier cuts in the mix. I don’t need to change portion sizes to hit a perfect macro target. I find this less stressful than precise tracking.

I do something similar with servings of added fat. I do a plan once to see how many teaspoons of oil/fat, or thumb-size servings of fatty foods like avocado, olives, nuts, seeds, cheese, dark chocolate that I could have while staying under my fat gram goal, and design a standard meal pattern that stays under that. For a fat budget of about 35g fat (which is as low as I ever go), I can’t get away with any added fat - my typical protein choices hit that fat target. If I want a more generous 50g budget for fat, I can add 2 teaspoons oil/butter per meal (or 1 thumb-sized serving of fatty whole foods per meal).

I don’t count the carbs in low carb veggies, but I would plan for other carbs in a similar way.

I find this type of meal planning way less stressful than trying to track as I eat.

Hope that helps!