So not until recently did I start seeing several posts about this and been getting a lot of emails that asked for me to look into it. So before I get into this I wanted to start off with an analogy that will preface this post. One shoe doesn’t fit all so what might work for one does not mean it will work for you so always take progress pics. It is important that you don’t only rely on the scale because that can be deceiving in several instances just go with body fat percentage and how your clothes are starting to fit. However, one effective method I love to do is to take progress pics (one frontal, one side and one back post) once a week to see if your body is changing and if not usually I make some adjustments around the two week mark.

I can say though if you are hitting a plateau IIFYM could be a good change that can break you out of your rut and get your body started again with changes. After my initial review it helps tremendously with curbing those cheating binges I hear so many people struggle with which most of the time is the biggest reason people quit the clean eating lifestyle because they fell off the wagon.

Envision eating dirty foods but instead only eating that all day you throw in vegetables and healthy protein sources in wouldn’t that be great? Would it change your aesthetics in a positive way? NO IT WILL NOT! but wait……

Now imagine you have a meal plan that consist of high quality food I am talking good proteins, healthy fats, vegetables, fruits and whole foods not processed and then every now and then you threw in a burger. Would this hurt our quest for the aesthetics we want in a bad way? No it will not..Ok so I can already see the eyeballs on some of you,…. intrigued and wanting to know more so let’s dive in…The acronym you are seeing all over Instagram, IIFYM, stands for if it fits your macros and it refers to meeting your individual macro-nutrient needs on a daily basis. See how I used ‘individual’ needs because we are all different and we have different goals.

What this means is that you can eat whatever you want as long as you meet your macros first then with anything left over you can eat whatever as long as it doesn’t go over on your macros. At this point I still didn’t get it so lets dive deeper.

This may be a silly acronym but it was the one that made the light bulb go off for many and they aha moment comes in. We all have three buckets of macro-nutrients we get to fill up every day (remember all of our buckets are different sizes) and those buckets are protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats.

Remember this:

protein = 4 calories per gram

carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram

healthy fat = 9 calories per gram (recall my last post these can sneak up on you in calories quick if you don’t watch it)

Here is an example of a 200lb man:

• In this example, a 200lb man at 20% body fat and goal is to lose weight
• Calories to maintain weight: 3000
• Calories to shred or cut down: 2400 – I am using a 20% caloric deficit
• 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass: (1.5 * 160) 240 grams
• .45 grams of fat per pound per body weight(200 * 0.45) 90 grams
• Now we take the Calories from fats + the calories from protein: (240 * 4) + (90 * 9) = 1770 total calories
• Now subtract calories to meet macros from the calories to shred and you have: (2400 – 1770) 630
• You have 630 calories to fill with WHATEVER foods you choose (pancakes, pizza, frozen yogurt, a burger, etc) and still lose weight as a result of the deficit.

Tip on calorie intake which helps in daily life:

For those that are not looking to make a science out of it just follow these three bullet points and adjust when you notice if your losing or gaining.

1. To maintain, calories are 14-16 calories per pound of body weight
2. To lose fat, subtract 350-500 per day of maintenance
3. To bulk, if your looking to cautiously bulk go with 5% over maintenance and aggressive do 20% over maintenance.

Just always first try to hit the majority of your calories from high quality protein then on good quality whole foods so you can get the nutrients you need. Even doing this you still should be taking a good multivitamin to ensure your daily recommended allowance is being reached.

How to calculate your daily macro needs:

Different for all of you so …….Get your break down here.

 Macro Calculator

 

IIFYM Tips:

• Always target and reach macros required first and from wholefoods 
• Adjust to your preference some prefer 6 meals while some can do with just 3 or 4 a day.
• Timing in IIFYM is not necessary but you won’t find me not sipping on my intra-workout during my gym sesh…

Last important thing I wanted to point out…..

When I said eat whatever you want as long as it fits in your macros means is eat right but don’t freak out and get stressed about is it clean or bad. If you want to eat brown rice, whole grain bread or even pop tarts just follow the guidelines of IIFYM above.

Just don’t fall into that mental trap saying “I am going to get fat I just ate a slice of cake at my brothers wedding,, OMG Amanda!!” If you want it have it and follow the guidelines and put the work in at the gym.

So I am off because it’s smoothie time!! If it fits my macros Im gonna drink that smoooooothie! See ya!!!

Check out Ashley on Instagram one of our customers who is currently on IIFYM and she feels great and she LOOKS GREAT!! ashbelg09

Claudia Carrera

PS. Leave comments this has usually been very controversial and I would love to hear from the fitfam community.