Hattie Kanyo Sees “Abs Popping,” Like Never Before (and Qualifies to the Games) After Abandoning Macro Counting for the CBG Approach
Hattie Kanyo admits she was hesitant when her long-time nutrition coach Amanda Jeffrey became a CBG nutrition coach and suggested she abandon macro counting two years ago.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get enough food,” said Kanyo, a 2024 Games rookie.
More than that, Kanyo was fearful that abandoning strict tracking might “spark” up the eating disorder she experienced in the past.
But she trusted Jeffrey, who is not only her nutrition coach but also her close friend, and to Kanyo’s surprise, “the opposite happened.”
After a couple months of adjusting to the CBG blueprint approach to fueling her body, she found herself calmer than ever when it came to her nutrition.
“I find it really easy now. I find it a lot more relaxed, and it’s so much less stressful not tracking,” Kanyo said.
Further, Kanyo said she’s actually a lot more aware of what she’s eating now than when she was counting every macronutrient that was going into her body.
“You’d think tracking would help in that way, but it kind of turns into a mindless thing when you’re just putting it into your app, weighing it, you’re not really looking at the amount, because you’re just throwing it on the scale,” Kanyo said. Ultimately, this meant she wasn’t actually paying attention to portion sizes because she relied on technology to figure it all out for her.
“But now I’m more mindful, where I can go, ‘That’s about the right amount of rice that I need. That’s about the amount of chicken that I need,’” she said.
Best of all, Kanyo finally feels like she can abandon her phone when she eats a meal and rely on a healthier intuitive approach to eating.
“I understand how much food that I need to be eating now. I’m a big advocate of mindset. If you’re just stressed all the time, you’re going to hold onto weight. So if you’re constantly stressed when you’re tracking, even if you’re tracking perfectly, you might not be at the numbers you want,” she said.
She added: “And when I was tracking, I was on my phone too much. I’m already on my phone enough; I don’t need to be on it even more…It’s just too much.”
This makes going out to eat a lot more enjoyable these days, as she can finally just enjoy herself, rather than being hyper focused and stressed out about ordering the right thing to fit her macros.
The Results
Not only have Kanyo’s stress levels decreased since following the CBG approach, she also started seeing big performance and body composition gains.
Last season, she qualified and competed at the Games for the first time, placing 18th overall, and she says that she can see her abs like she never has been able to before.
“I have never seen abs popping on myself like I do now,” she said. And she’s actually eating more than she used to.
“When I was tracking, I think I was trying to be so healthy in a way, but as an athlete you need some sugar, you need some extra calories somehow, and I found it hard to get those extra calories when I was tracking. But now it’s like, if I want a friction cookie, I’m going to have the cookie, because I know that I need it,” she added.
As a result, Kanyo has seen huge performance gains—evidenced by her results in competition last season—and she credits this at least somewhat to her nutrition being much less stressful. At the very least, it consumes less brain space and time that she can now redirect toward her training in the gym.
“When I was tracking, I think I was just so focused on it that my performance wasn’t as high,” she said.
Today, Kanyo is stronger and fitter than ever as she looks toward the 2025 season.
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