mistakes to avoid when eating for strength and muscle growth

[00:00:00] Emily Field: If you’re putting in the work in the gym, tracking your macros, and still not seeing the strength or muscle gains you thought you would listen up. This is episode 50 of the Macros Made Easy podcast, and I’m breaking down the three most common mistakes I see women make when they’re trying to eat for strength and muscle growth.

 

[00:00:17] Emily Field: Here’s the kicker, mistakes one and two are often praised in the health and fitness world, and you might even think you’re doing something right when in reality you’re holding yourself back. Most of my clients don’t realize they’re making these mistakes until we start working together, and when we correct them, that’s when they start seeing real progress.

 

[00:00:35] Emily Field: So, whether you’re brand new to this goal or have been spinning your wheels for a while, I want you to have a clear path forward. I’ll not only call out these sneaky missteps, but I’m gonna give you actionable steps you can take instead so you can start eating in a way that actually supports your strength, performance, and muscle building goals.

 

[00:00:52] Emily Field: Welcome to Macros Made Easy, the podcast that takes the confusion out of tracking macros. I’m your host, Emily Field, a registered [00:01:00] dietician that specializes in a macros approach. In each episode, I help you learn how to eat in a way that supports your health, body composition, and athletic performance goals.

 

[00:01:08] Emily Field: We’ll cover the basics of macronutrients, how to track for various goals, the role of macros in your health, and how to make sustainable changes to your habits. I’ve helped hundreds of people experience more food freedom and flexibility while navigating their nutrition. So whether you’ve tried macros and it just didn’t stick, or you just heard the word macros yesterday, I can’t wait to help you too.

 

[00:01:29] Emily Field: The first one, and you probably guessed it, not eating enough, especially when it comes to calories and protein. This one is huge and hands down, the most common mistake I see. Women come to me wanting to lean out, get stronger or tone up. Here’s the hard truth. You cannot build muscle if you’re undereating.

 

[00:01:49] Emily Field: It’s like asking your body to build a house without providing any bricks or mortar. Yes, protein is important. It gives your body the amino acids it needs to repair and build lean tissue, [00:02:00] but calories, total calories, they’re just as critical, if not more so. If you’re in a constant calorie deficit, your body isn’t thinking, let’s build new muscle.

 

[00:02:09] Emily Field: It’s thinking, let’s survive in that state. It will not prioritize muscle growth, recovery, or performance. And yet this is the exact opposite of what most women believe. They think if they just train harder, eat cleaner, and stay in a slight deficit, they’ll finally see results. But what actually happens, they hit a wall.

 

[00:02:29] Emily Field: Their energy tanks, workouts feel harder. Hunger and cravings skyrocket. Sleep gets worse. Strength gains completely stall out, but I know why this happens. Most women aren’t undereating because they’re lazy or misinformed. They’re undereating because they’ve been taught. That’s what works. We’ve been conditioned to believe that if we wanna lose weight or get leaner, we should just.

 

[00:02:50] Emily Field: Eat less and move more. And that message is everywhere from diet culture to fitness apps to well-meaning personal trainers. So when you hit a plateau, the natural [00:03:00] instinct is to tighten up, eat even less, and hope for better results. But what that actually does, it slows your metabolism, wrecks your recovery, and keeps your body in survival mode, not growth.

 

[00:03:11] Emily Field: So the myth to debunk here is that eating more will make me gain weight. That is what’s resonating in your head. The truth is that eating more can help you lose fat and build muscle. If your body is under fueled, when you’re training hard and not giving your body the raw materials, it needs to build muscle.

 

[00:03:29] Emily Field: It won’t get stronger or leaner, it’ll just burn out. Eating enough isn’t indulgent. It’s required for progress. Let me introduce you to work for it. Wanda. Wanda is the textbook go-getter. She tracks her food. She never misses a workout. She prides herself in being disciplined. But here’s the problem. Her version of being on track means that she’s eating as little as possible, keeping her calories low, just a light dinner.

 

[00:03:56] Emily Field: I burn 1200 calories today. I have to stay in [00:04:00] motion or I’ll gain weight. I never skip a Monday, especially after a big weekend. Wanda didn’t see Undereating as a red flag. She saw it as commitment, but then came the off seasons. The times that she wasn’t training for a race or pushing hard in the gym, everything would unravel.

 

[00:04:16] Emily Field: The cravings would hit hard, she’d spiral into overeating, feeling guilty, and then double down on restriction. She tried to quote, get back on track and E even less, and work out even more. When Wanda came into macros made easy, we flipped the script. Instead of viewing food as something she had to earn, she started to see it as fuel that powers her performance and recovery.

 

[00:04:38] Emily Field: And once she started consistently eating enough, especially prioritizing protein and calories, things completely changed her energy stabilized, her recovery improved, her workouts felt strong and productive. And finally, her body composition started to shift in the way that she wanted. She was no longer running on fumes.

 

[00:04:57] Emily Field: She was building because she was actually and [00:05:00] finally fueled. So my action step to you if you resonate with work for at Wanda is to take a real honest look at your current intake. Are you actually eating enough to support your training and recovery? I. Are you feeling really good in your workouts?

 

[00:05:13] Emily Field: There’s nothing worse than showing up to a workout where you really want to deliver your all, and you just don’t have that extra gear. You feel wilted and slow and you just wonder why you’re quote out of shape. It’s not that you’re out of shape. It’s likely that you’re just under fueled if you’re lifting consistently.

 

[00:05:31] Emily Field: And still hovering around that 1400, 1500 calories a day, or struggling to hit a hundred grams of protein, it’s time for a reality check. So I want you to start with this. Prioritize protein at every meal and snack. Stop skipping meals and gradually increase your calorie intake to match your activity and goals.

 

[00:05:50] Emily Field: Because when you stop underfeeding your body and start giving it what it actually needs, you’ll be amazed at how quickly things start to shift. And if you wanna go deeper into this topic, I highly recommend episode [00:06:00] 25. What I mean when I say when you need to eat more and get lean, I’ll link that in the show notes so you can dig in.

 

[00:06:06] Emily Field: Your progress depends on being fueled, not just being disciplined. Mistake number two is focusing too much on the scale weight instead of body composition. And this one is a mindset trap. I see all the time, especially with women who grew up believing that the only metric that matters is the number on the scale.

 

[00:06:24] Emily Field: Here’s the deal. If your primary goal is to get stronger and build muscle, the scale is not always going to move the way that you expect it to. In fact, it might not move at all, or it might even go up, and that’s not a bad thing. So let’s zoom out and talk about what’s actually happening inside your body when you’re lifting regularly, eating to support your workouts and focusing on building muscle.

 

[00:06:44] Emily Field: You might be gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. And because muscle is denser than fat, not heavier, just more compact, that means your body can be shrinking in size, reshaping itself and getting stronger even while the number on the scale [00:07:00] stays exactly the same or it goes up a bit. This is when I start hearing things like my jeans felt tighter in the thighs.

 

[00:07:07] Emily Field: Am I doing something wrong? I. The scales going up two pounds. Should I change my macros? I feel stronger, but I’m not sure if it’s working because my weight hasn’t changed. Here’s what I want you to hear. This is not failure. This is the process working. When you start lifting and fueling properly, it’s actually normal for your clothes to feel a little different at first.

 

[00:07:28] Emily Field: ’cause your body’s adapting. You’re building lean tissue and that takes up less space, but it also has shape and structure. So yes, your leggings might feel snugger around your quads. Your sports bra might be hugging your lats a little bit more. That’s not a red flag. It’s a reflection of your strength and growth.

 

[00:07:46] Emily Field: And I wanna clear this up too. Muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound, but muscle takes up less space than fat. So if you lose five pounds of fat and gain five pounds of muscle, you might weigh the [00:08:00] same, but you’ll look completely different. You’ll feel stronger, more defined, more confident in your movement and your body.

 

[00:08:06] Emily Field: But if you’re only looking at the scale, you’re gonna miss all of that. But I know that’s easier said than done. I fully understand that. I’ve been working with women for the last 10 years and I fully understand why this happens. The scale is familiar, it’s fast, it’s objective. We’re used to treating that number as the scoreboard for our efforts, and for many women, it’s been the only quote, success metric they’ve tracked for years.

 

[00:08:33] Emily Field: But strength training changes the game. When you’re gaining muscle and losing fat, the scale might hold steady or go up, but your body is changing in the ways the scale can’t capture. Still, because we’re conditioned to see weight loss is the ultimate goal. Anything less can feel like a failure. The myth that the scale is the best way to measure progress needs to be debunked.

 

[00:08:56] Emily Field: The truth is the scale is just one piece of the puzzle, and often the [00:09:00] last and least helpful measure when your goal is to build strength and shift your body composition. Progress shows up in how your clothes fit, how strong you feel, how well you recover, and how consistently you can perform. If you’re only watching the scale, you’re missing the magic, which brings me to misinformed Mary.

 

[00:09:19] Emily Field: Mary came to me after years of intense workouts and restrictive eating. Her trainer had her on 1200 calories a day, very low carb, and doing bootcamp style workouts six days a week. She didn’t have a weight problem. She had a lack of lean muscle problem. She’d say things like, I don’t feel like I look the part for how hard I work out.

 

[00:09:39] Emily Field: I’ve been doing everything right, but the scale hasn’t moved. Should I cut more in every check-in? She was hyper-focused on her weight. So we took a closer look. She was picking the lowest calorie menu option no matter what. She was rarely eating enough protein to support recovery, let alone muscle growth.

 

[00:09:56] Emily Field: She was sore all the time, tired by mid-afternoon and [00:10:00] constantly craving carbs, then blaming herself for having no willpower. But Mary was making progress. She just couldn’t see it through the lens of the scale. Once we started feeling properly, more food, more protein, more rest, everything started to shift.

 

[00:10:14] Emily Field: She gained a few pounds and finally started to see the muscle definition she had been chasing for years. Her recovery improved. Her energy was consistent. Her body looked like it was working as hard as she was. Oh, and her scale weight. Those scale weight, she was so worried about it was up three pounds and we reframed it together.

 

[00:10:34] Emily Field: That wasn’t a setback. That was proof that her body was building. That was progress. Once Mary started measuring progress by her performance in the gym, how her clothes fit and how she felt she was free to finally enjoy the results she was getting instead of constantly second guessing them. This is why I teach clients inside of macros made easy how to measure progress beyond the scale.

 

[00:10:55] Emily Field: Because honestly, weight is just one data point and not even the most useful [00:11:00] one. When your goal is to get lean, strong, and confident Inside the course, I’ll show you how to track changes in body composition, assess strength, performance, and recovery, and monitor biofeedback markers like mood, energy, sleep, digestion, and cravings, because those things matter.

 

[00:11:16] Emily Field: All of these give you far more of an accurate picture of how your body is responding, especially if your goals are to go beyond just shrinking your body. The action step for you here is to stop letting the scale dictate your mood or your motivation. If you’re eating and training to support your goals, shift your focus to what actually matters.

 

[00:11:36] Emily Field: Take monthly progress pictures. Pay attention to how your clothes fit, track your strength and performance in the gym, and check in with your energy recovery and sleep because that’s where the real change shows up, even if the scale doesn’t move. The third mistake I wanna talk about today is inconsistent or unbalanced nutrition.

 

[00:11:55] Emily Field: You’re being too reactive and not proactive. This is a mistake I see [00:12:00] constantly, especially with women who know their goals, have big intentions and are genuinely trying to make it work. It’s the habit of being too reactive with your nutrition instead of proactive. This shows up kind of like this. You skip breakfast because your morning is chaos.

 

[00:12:15] Emily Field: Lunch ends up being a handful of trail mix or a protein bar between meetings. By dinner, you’re ravenous, and after logging everything, you realize you’re short 70 grams of protein and 500 calories. Now you’re standing in the kitchen at 8:00 PM trying to force down a gritty protein shake and gobble together a dinner.

 

[00:12:32] Emily Field: That quote fits. Or maybe your pattern looks more like this. You eat really well on workout days because that’s important to you. But on rest days, you barely eat at all because you think you don’t need as much. And that pattern is called reactive eating. And while it might technically get you closer to your macro goals, by the end of the day, it’s not doing your body any favors.

 

[00:12:54] Emily Field: Why? Because muscle isn’t built in the gym. It’s built during rest. [00:13:00] It’s fueled by consistency, not by cramming protein into one meal or only eating well on lifting days. When you wing it, your body feels it. You’re gonna have poor recovery, stalled progress, low energy cravings that hit you like a freight train at night.

 

[00:13:15] Emily Field: Those are all signs that your intake is inconsistent or imbalanced. Even if your tracker says you hit your macros, and I’m not dumb. I know why this happens. Life is busy. You’ve got a lot going on, and meal planning often falls to the bottom of that list. Plus, if you’ve been following rigid plans in the past, the idea of eating intuitively or flexibly can feel really overwhelming.

 

[00:13:37] Emily Field: So instead of planning ahead, you wing it, eating when you’re hungry, grabbing what’s available, and trying to fix it at the end of the day. But nutrition doesn’t work well on the fly. Your body thrives on consistency and when it’s only getting fueled some days or only some hours of the day, you’re gonna feel the effects.

 

[00:13:55] Emily Field: So the myth that I need to debunk today is I’ll just figure it out [00:14:00] as I go, and the truth is winging it might work short term, but it’s not a strategy for real results. Long term. Being proactive doesn’t mean rigid. It just means giving yourself enough structure to stay consistent, even when life feels chaotic.

 

[00:14:14] Emily Field: Building muscle and managing hunger required planned, balanced meals throughout the day, not reactionary. Catchup tracking. Enter discipline, Dana. Now this one might surprise you, but winging it doesn’t always come from people who lack structure. Sometimes it comes from people who rely too heavily on it.

 

[00:14:35] Emily Field: That was discipline. Dana, to a tee. Dana was the definition of dedication. If her coach gave her a meal plan or a calorie target, she nailed it every single time. But the second something didn’t go according to plan, an impromptu lunch meeting. A family dinner, a missed ingredient, she was thrown off completely.

 

[00:14:54] Emily Field: I thrive with a plan. Without it, I’m off the rails. I brought my own food to the party to stay in [00:15:00] control. I don’t trust myself to improvise. I need rules. Dana didn’t struggle with effort. She struggled with adaptability. She had never learned how to build her own meals or make choices based on what her body needed in real life.

 

[00:15:13] Emily Field: So she ping ponged between perfection and panic. If the day went perfectly, she was on track. If not, it felt like a total failure. Inside macros made easy. Dana learned how to take control in a different way by creating just enough structure to support consistency without the rigidity that made her feel like she was failing all the time.

 

[00:15:33] Emily Field: She started by simply planning her first two meals of the day with protein, carbs, and fiber. That alone was enough to set her up for a smoother day, more balanced energy and way fewer late night macro Tetris moments. Now she doesn’t need a plan to stay consistent. She understands food and knows how to fuel her body no matter what the day throws at her.

 

[00:15:55] Emily Field: So my action step to you if you are resonating with discipline, Dana, is to start by [00:16:00] planning just your first two meals of the day. Focus on a solid source of protein, some carbs for energy, and maybe fiber for fullness. You don’t need to plan every bite, every snack, or every dinner, but giving yourself a little structure early in the day sets the tone for consistency.

 

[00:16:17] Emily Field: If you’re listening right now and thinking, oof, that’s so me. I’d love to hear from you. Send me a DM and let me know which of these mistakes you’re currently working through or which ones you used to make before finding this podcast. Your stories help shape these episodes, and I love knowing what resonates with you most.

 

[00:16:35] Emily Field: So let’s bring this all together. If you’re listening to this episode and wondering whether any of these mistakes are holding you back, there’s. Something to look for. You might be undereating like work for at Wanda. If you’re constantly tired, sore, or craving food, even though you’re quote, doing everything right, you’re training consistently, but you’re not seeing the physical changes you expect.

 

[00:16:56] Emily Field: You track your food but keep your calories low on purpose, [00:17:00] especially on rest days. You find yourself thinking, I need to earn my food. Remember, muscle doesn’t get built without fuel. If your body doesn’t feel safe and supported, it won’t prioritize strength gains. It’ll prioritize survival. You might be this scale obsessed, misinformed Mary.

 

[00:17:17] Emily Field: If you weigh yourself every day and your mood depends on the number you see, you’ve made major progress with strength or inches lost, but you still feel like a failure when the scale hasn’t moved. You dismiss all other wins because you’re chasing weight loss over everything else. Remember, the scale is only one form of measurement when you’re strength training and building muscle, the real magic often happens without dramatic scale drops, and you might be stuck in perfection or panic like discipline, Dana, if you follow plans perfectly, but feel totally lost without one.

 

[00:17:49] Emily Field: You eat really well on some days, but then you feel totally out of control on others. You’re playing macro Tetris at 9:00 PM because you didn’t plan ahead. Remember, consistency [00:18:00] doesn’t come from rigidity. It comes from having enough structure to support you, even when life isn’t perfect, but often relies more heavily on your ability to adapt.

 

[00:18:10] Emily Field: Alright, let’s quickly recap the three mistakes we covered today, and more importantly, what you can actually do about them. Mistake number one was not eating enough, especially calories and protein. Your action step here is to audit your current intake. If you’re lifting consistently and still eating like you’re trying to quote, be good or keep things light, you might be sabotaging your progress.

 

[00:18:32] Emily Field: Ask yourself, am I eating enough to support strength and recovery? If you’re still hanging out around 1200, maybe 1400, 1500 calories a day, or struggling to meet that a hundred grams of protein a day, it’s time for a shift. Try bumping up your calories, gradually prioritize protein at every meal and snack, not just one or two.

 

[00:18:52] Emily Field: You’ll be amazed at what your body can do when it’s actually well fueled, better recovery, better performance, and yes, [00:19:00] eventually a leaner and more muscular physique. Mistake number two was obsessing over the scale. Instead of looking at body composition changes, your action step here is to expand how you measure progress.

 

[00:19:11] Emily Field: Seriously, stop letting the scale have the final word on whether your efforts are working, because the truth is the scale might not move much, especially when you’re building muscle. But that doesn’t mean your body isn’t changing. Take monthly progress pictures. Pay attention to how your clothes fit.

 

[00:19:27] Emily Field: Celebrate strength prs. Track your recovery, energy and sleep. That’s the stuff that tells the real story. You could gain three pounds and still look noticeably leaner, and you’ll be stronger. So the next time you catch yourself spiraling over the scale, ask yourself, what other wins can I acknowledge right now?

 

[00:19:44] Emily Field: And mistake number three, being too reactive with nutrition instead of proactive. Your action step here is to plan just the first two meals of your day. That’s it. You don’t need a full blown spreadsheet. Just stop winging your way through the day and hoping it’ll all come together at [00:20:00] 8:00 PM. Start with breakfast and lunch.

 

[00:20:02] Emily Field: Build them around protein, some carbs for energy and fiber for fullness. A little structure early in the day makes it so much easier to stay consistent, avoid cravings, and hit your macros without stress. The hard truth is that even if your macro targets are perfectly set to support muscle gain, that might not be enough.

 

[00:20:20] Emily Field: You can’t just grab your numbers and run. You have to actually build a rhythm with your food. Take the time to translate those numbers into meals and snacks that work for your lifestyle. Do it often to make it sustainable, because consistency over time is what delivers results. And what these mistakes all have in common is that there’s signs that you’re doing more, but getting less in return, more rules, more restriction, more control, but not enough strategy, fuel or flexibility to actually support your goals.

 

[00:20:51] Emily Field: That’s exactly why I help you shift inside of macros made easy. Alright, before we wrap up, I need to ask you, are you a Mary, a Wanda, or a Dana? Or [00:21:00] maybe a mix of all three? No shame, just curiosity because once you start to understand what’s really holding you back, you can finally move forward in a way that’s sustainable, strategic, and strong.

 

[00:21:10] Emily Field: If one of these people resonated with you today, I’d love to hear from you. Send me a DM and let me know which one hits home, or tag the episode in your stories and tell me I’m a recovering Dana or Wanda Energy over here. And don’t forget to share this episode with a friend who’s stuck in the do more, eat less cycle.

 

[00:21:28] Emily Field: You might be the reason she finally gets unstuck. Alright, let’s bring it home. We’ve covered three of the most common mistakes I see women make when they’re trying to build muscle, change their body composition, or just feel stronger and more confident. Number one, under eating while training hard, hoping for a toned look, but ending up, burnt out, inflamed, and stuck.

 

[00:21:47] Emily Field: Number two, obsessing over the scale and completely missing the real progress happening in strength, energy, or how your clothes fit. And number three, winging it with your nutrition and wondering why recovery is slow. Cravings [00:22:00] are high, and consistency feels impossible. If you saw yourself in Wanda, Mary or Dana, it’s not a flaw.

 

[00:22:07] Emily Field: It’s a signal. A signal that your effort is here, but your strategy needs a shift. Because here’s what I know for sure. You don’t need to train harder or eat less. You don’t need to weigh yourself into motivation. You don’t need to follow a perfect plan to see progress. You need fuel. You need structure without rigidity, and you need a better framework to measure what’s actually working.

 

[00:22:30] Emily Field: Again, that’s exactly what I teach inside macros made easy, and it’s exactly why this podcast exists. So if you are ready to move forward with more confidence and less confusion, go check out the links in the show notes. I’ll drop that deeper episode I mentioned on eating More to get Lean plus info on how to work with me inside of macros made easy.

 

[00:22:48] Emily Field: You’re not broken, you’re just under fueled. So let’s change that. Thanks for being here, and I’ll catch you on the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Macros Made Easy podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, take [00:23:00] a screenshot of the one you’re listening to right now to share it on your Instagram stories and tag me at Emily Field Rd so that more people can find this podcast and learn how to use a macros approach in a stress-free way.

 

[00:23:11] Emily Field: If you love the podcast, head over to iTunes and leave me a rating and a review. Remember, you can always find more free health and nutrition content on Instagram and on my website, www.emilyfieldrd.com. Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you on the next episode.