You say Macros Macros Macros. I hear Marsha Marsha Marsha.
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it boils down to this... lots of people try to adhere to dietary intakes based on food phobias.
the clean eaters say... OMG, you can't eat anything processed!
the paleo eaters say... OMG, you can't eat anything our ancient ancestors couldn't have eaten!
the sugar shamers say... OMG, you can't eat high fructose corn syrup!
the vegans say... OMG, you can't eat anything with a face! (although some vegans are that way for ethical reasons, which is a different matter)
the raw food nutters say... OMG, you can't eat anything that needs to be cooked!
etc.
etc..
etc...
they all believe (mistakenly) that so long as they choose foods based on whichever dietary phobias they subscribe to, they'll magically meet their body's nutritional needs and they don't even have to think about macros and micros.
IIFYM is different. instead of focusing on what you eat and ignoring what's in it... IIFYM'ers instead say that what you eat really doesn't matter so long as you pay attention to what's in it and make sure you meet your macro- and micro-nutritional needs each day.
to the unsophisticated person, this may sound like a diet of steak and poptarts, but it's really not. because you can't meet your micronutrients needs with a diet of steak and poptarts (and especially not primarily steak and poptarts!), you have to eat lots of the foods that are allowable on those other diets as well. such as carrots and apples and rice and beans and etc. however, once you've had enough of those foods to meet your macro- and micro-nutrients needs for the day, then there's nothing wrong with eating a poptart if you have 200 calories left and you want a poptart.
now you can do IIFYM as well as one of those other dietary schemes, such being a vegetarian, but that just means you're doing IIFYM with some voluntary food restrictions of your own personal preference. that just means you have to be a little more careful in how you choose your foods to meet all of your macro- and micro-nutritional needs. you can do IIFYM in conjunction with almost every other dietary scheme so long as it allows you enough leeway with your food choices to get the nutrition you must get.
that's the difference. you are focusing on the nutrition with IIFYM and not so much on which foods are "good" or "bad" (hint, there is no such thing as "bad" food so long as it doesn't make you sick... your body derives nutritional benefit from anything it can digest). it's also a much better mindset because you don't end up browbeating yourself for eating any forbidden foods, because there are no forbidden foods.
now, getting back to the steak and poptart cliche... there are some IIFYM'ers whose diets may appear to be mostly that. however, those folks most likely are very active and/or power lifters and/or bodybuilders and when you eat 4000 or more calories per day, it's easy to meet your macro- and micro-nutritional goals in the first couple thousand calories and the rest of their calories are entirely discretionary. so they can eat quite a bit of food solely based on how much they like the taste of it.
Are you trying to say that I am unsophisticated? Lol. Just kidding. Two thumbs up. I think you did a good job explaining what I was missing about IIFYM.0 -
I'm just in to tell Achyra that her new profile pic is hawt.0
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I'm going to reset my macro goals to the uber popular 40/30/30 ratio and try to eat more meat. I'm not talking about a "steak and pop tarts" version of IIFYM that disregards micros. I'm still pro-vegetables. My hope is that the emphasis on protein and fat will help to further reduce my carb cravings. Beans in quantity have ghastly gaseous results, and I eat nuts already, but I find calorie for calorie meat keeps me fuller longer. So more meat. A goal of 50-55% carbs seems fine for me, except that I'm still exceeding it too frequently. When my carbs creep up I find myself fighting "the munchies" and the urge to go wild. Hopefully a 40/30/30 will help. I'd be happy with a range between those numbers.
Jump in. Tell me why you think I am right, wrong or somewhat confused, or what your experience has been. And yes, a cat was mentioned, so gifs are appropriate.
I think your only confusion is that IIFYM means you can forgo planning your micronutrients. Most people I see on here promoting IIFYM also pay attention to their micronutrients. The reason you keep hearing so much about eating "junk" food is because you can. It is typically fats and carbs and can easily be fit into somebody's macros for the day. This doesn't mean that the person eating a poptart everyday for breakfast isn't loading up on veggies with dinner or even eating a lot of fruits and veggies throughout the week. The biggest confusion I see on these boards about IIFYM is people thinking that you can literally eat whatever you want WHENEVER you want and as much as you want. The thing about IIFYM is that you can PLAN any food you want into your day and fit it into the macros for that day. Maybe you can't fit a whole chocolate cake into today, but you can most certainly fit some amount of chocolate cake into today.
The reason meat keeps you fuller longer is because protein and fat have satiating effects on the body. They are intended to make you feel satisfied. Carbs are intended for energy and if there isn't a lot of fiber with them, they tend not to keep you feeling full.
And as for your kitty, look into Wysong Epigen 90. Cats are carnivores and most commercial cat foods are mostly corn filler or some other carb filler. Cats should have a diet that is at least 90% actual meat.
I'm still here reading! I appreciate the information or entertainment.
To the cat topic first, thanks to you and others who have provided information. We had been feeding him Fancy Feast and at first glance the veterinarian prescribed canned food has a lower % protein! I'm going to have to spend some time looking at all of this. I cooked steak and chicken for him last night and this morning but I read that I either need to do it right by grinding up bones too or stick to the vet's cat food.
Back to the IIFYM debate. On second thought, I'll post my thoughts separately on that topic shortly.
it boils down to this... lots of people try to adhere to dietary intakes based on food phobias.
the clean eaters say... OMG, you can't eat anything processed!
the paleo eaters say... OMG, you can't eat anything our ancient ancestors couldn't have eaten!
the sugar shamers say... OMG, you can't eat high fructose corn syrup!
the vegans say... OMG, you can't eat anything with a face! (although some vegans are that way for ethical reasons, which is a different matter)
the raw food nutters say... OMG, you can't eat anything that needs to be cooked!
etc.
etc..
etc...
they all believe (mistakenly) that so long as they choose foods based on whichever dietary phobias they subscribe to, they'll magically meet their body's nutritional needs and they don't even have to think about macros and micros.
IIFYM is different. instead of focusing on what you eat and ignoring what's in it... IIFYM'ers instead say that what you eat really doesn't matter so long as you pay attention to what's in it and make sure you meet your macro- and micro-nutritional needs each day.
to the unsophisticated person, this may sound like a diet of steak and poptarts, but it's really not. because you can't meet your micronutrients needs with a diet of steak and poptarts (and especially not primarily steak and poptarts!), you have to eat lots of the foods that are allowable on those other diets as well. such as carrots and apples and rice and beans and etc. however, once you've had enough of those foods to meet your macro- and micro-nutrients needs for the day, then there's nothing wrong with eating a poptart if you have 200 calories left and you want a poptart.
now you can do IIFYM as well as one of those other dietary schemes, such being a vegetarian, but that just means you're doing IIFYM with some voluntary food restrictions of your own personal preference. that just means you have to be a little more careful in how you choose your foods to meet all of your macro- and micro-nutritional needs. you can do IIFYM in conjunction with almost every other dietary scheme so long as it allows you enough leeway with your food choices to get the nutrition you must get.
that's the difference. you are focusing on the nutrition with IIFYM and not so much on which foods are "good" or "bad" (hint, there is no such thing as "bad" food so long as it doesn't make you sick... your body derives nutritional benefit from anything it can digest). it's also a much better mindset because you don't end up browbeating yourself for eating any forbidden foods, because there are no forbidden foods.
now, getting back to the steak and poptart cliche... there are some IIFYM'ers whose diets may appear to be mostly that. however, those folks most likely are very active and/or power lifters and/or bodybuilders and when you eat 4000 or more calories per day, it's easy to meet your macro- and micro-nutritional goals in the first couple thousand calories and the rest of their calories are entirely discretionary. so they can eat quite a bit of food solely based on how much they like the taste of it.
:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:0 -
Well now I'm too ashamed to eat my steak and pop-tart sandwich.
hmmmm....
is that a pop tart sandwiched between two steaks?
or a steak sandwiched between two poptarts?
:huh:
experiments shall be performed!
A steak between pop-tarts of course! What am I, some kind of freak?
Pssh...pop-tart between steaks...0 -
I seem to get enough iron from poultry, eggs, and chocolate...'Micros aren't worth tracking because being deficient in important micros isn't as common as people seem to think' OR 'Meeting ones macros usually involves meeting ones micros by default so there's no reason to be hung up on them' or something like that?
Meeting one's micros isn't as easy as meeting macros.
Providing that I eat a few servings of veggies per day, I easily hit most of my micros.
Iron can be tough though.0 -
I seem to get enough iron from poultry, eggs, and chocolate...'Micros aren't worth tracking because being deficient in important micros isn't as common as people seem to think' OR 'Meeting ones macros usually involves meeting ones micros by default so there's no reason to be hung up on them' or something like that?
Meeting one's micros isn't as easy as meeting macros.
Providing that I eat a few servings of veggies per day, I easily hit most of my micros.
Iron can be tough though.
Yup, I can't say I even pay attention to iron, but I know I get more than enough, the local blood bank loves me, they want a double RBC donation every damn time! Don't know, sounds like time for a steak and poptart double down to me, or you can be all boring and healthy and just do more leafy greens. But honestly, there's some evidence iron deficiencies (or lack thereof) may be one of those things that is influenced by genetics, but I haven't read up on it much.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080413161038.htm0 -
it boils down to this... lots of people try to adhere to dietary intakes based on food phobias.
the clean eaters say... OMG, you can't eat anything processed!
the paleo eaters say... OMG, you can't eat anything our ancient ancestors couldn't have eaten!
the sugar shamers say... OMG, you can't eat high fructose corn syrup!
the vegans say... OMG, you can't eat anything with a face! (although some vegans are that way for ethical reasons, which is a different matter)
the raw food nutters say... OMG, you can't eat anything that needs to be cooked!
etc.
etc..
etc...
they all believe (mistakenly) that so long as they choose foods based on whichever dietary phobias they subscribe to, they'll magically meet their body's nutritional needs and they don't even have to think about macros and micros.
IIFYM isdifferent. instead of focusing on what you eat and ignoring what's in it... IIFYM'ers instead say that what you eat really doesn't matter so long as you pay attention to what's in it and make sure you meet your macro- and micro-nutritional needs each day.
to the unsophisticated person, this may sound like a diet of steak and poptarts, but it's really not. because you can't meet your micronutrients needs with a diet of steak and poptarts (and especially not primarily steak and poptarts!), you have to eat lots of the foods that are allowable on those other diets as well. such as carrots and apples and rice and beans and etc. however, once you've had enough of those foods to meet your macro- and micro-nutrients needs for the day, then there's nothing wrong with eating a poptart if you have 200 calories left and you want a poptart.
now you can do IIFYM as well as one of those other dietary schemes, such being a vegetarian, but that just means you're doing IIFYM with some voluntary food restrictions of your own personal preference. that just means you have to be a little more careful in how you choose your foods to meet all of your macro- and micro-nutritional needs. you can do IIFYM in conjunction with almost every other dietary scheme so long as it allows you enough leeway with your food choices to get the nutrition you must get.
that's the difference. you are focusing on the nutrition with IIFYM and not so much on which foods are "good" or "bad" (hint, there is no such thing as "bad" food so long as it doesn't make you sick... your body derives nutritional benefit from anything it can digest). it's also a much better mindset because you don't end up browbeating yourself for eating any forbidden foods, because there are no forbidden foods.
now, getting back to the steak and poptart cliche... there are some IIFYM'ers whose diets may appear to be mostly that. however, those folks most likely are very active and/or power lifters and/or bodybuilders and when you eat 4000 or more calories per day, it's easy to meet your macro- and micro-nutritional goals in the first couple thousand calories and the rest of their calories are entirely discretionary. so they can eat quite a bit of food solely based on how much they like the taste of it.
All I read was IIFYM = steak and pop tarts.
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Tagging for later0
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By the way, do not supplement iron unless you have a test-validated deficiency - the effects of too much iron are awful and may lead to degenerative arthritis, liver or heart damage, late onset diabetes, impotence, skin lesions, neuro damage, etc.0
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I'm just in to tell Achyra that her new profile pic is hawt.
:blushing:
Cookies do a body good.0 -
I have two cats, a 16 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old (found him and his brothers under our shed).
My older cat has spent his whole life eating Friskies canned food and Purina dry and Hill's Science diet hairball control. He drank a TON of water always and threw up hairballs fairly frequently (less so on the HS food). I never thought that the food I was giving him wasn't good for him. Younger cat was following the same diet. After younger cat got neutered (which I know can slow down their metabolism) he started getting fat. Like he weighed 16 freaking pounds at one year and when he sat down, he was shaped like a light bulb. I started researching the food they were eating and low and behold, the dry food was packing on the lbs because it has too many carbs for them. Cats don't need that many, they need protein and fats. Even though he was getting a grain-free dry, he was still getting fat. I weaned him down to almost no dry, the older cat gets no dry at all. Younger cat is down over 3 lbs and looks good. I changed their food to a brand called Purrfect Bistro (it used to be called Before Grain). Merrick is the manufacturer, it's all USA made, grain free, high protein. The only time the older cat pukes now is when he wants food and I'm not fast enough getting it and he chews up a plastic bag. Cats!
I found this website which helped tremendously with the food/nutrition stuff: http://catinfo.org/
Here's a link for Purrfect Bistro (Petco sells it, as does PetValu). http://www.merrickpetcare.com/helpful-tools/merrick-purrfect-bistro/
Just one more bit of info ... my older cat got really sick last fall. No idea what was wrong with him, he stopped eating, stopped drinking. Two vet trips, two subQ fluids, anti-nausea med shots plus more to give him at home. He just wouldn't eat. A tip I read when this happens is to buy stage 1 baby food ... it's pure beef, chicken, ham. I got him to lick some off my finger, worked him up in volume, slowly mixed some of his food in, got him eating his food again, all over the course of a week or so. Just throwing that out there in case anyone encounters something similar with their cat. They can't go long w/out food or water or they will die.0 -
I have two cats, a 16 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old (found him and his brothers under our shed).
My older cat has spent his whole life eating Friskies canned food and Purina dry and Hill's Science diet hairball control. He drank a TON of water always and threw up hairballs fairly frequently (less so on the HS food). I never thought that the food I was giving him wasn't good for him. Younger cat was following the same diet. After younger cat got neutered (which I know can slow down their metabolism) he started getting fat. Like he weighed 16 freaking pounds at one year and when he sat down, he was shaped like a light bulb. I started researching the food they were eating and low and behold, the dry food was packing on the lbs because it has too many carbs for them. Cats don't need that many, they need protein and fats. Even though he was getting a grain-free dry, he was still getting fat. I weaned him down to almost no dry, the older cat gets no dry at all. Younger cat is down over 3 lbs and looks good. I changed their food to a brand called Purrfect Bistro (it used to be called Before Grain). Merrick is the manufacturer, it's all USA made, grain free, high protein. The only time the older cat pukes now is when he wants food and I'm not fast enough getting it and he chews up a plastic bag. Cats!
I found this website which helped tremendously with the food/nutrition stuff: http://catinfo.org/
Here's a link for Purrfect Bistro (Petco sells it, as does PetValu). http://www.merrickpetcare.com/helpful-tools/merrick-purrfect-bistro/
Just one more bit of info ... my older cat got really sick last fall. No idea what was wrong with him, he stopped eating, stopped drinking. Two vet trips, two subQ fluids, anti-nausea med shots plus more to give him at home. He just wouldn't eat. A tip I read when this happens is to buy stage 1 baby food ... it's pure beef, chicken, ham. I got him to lick some off my finger, worked him up in volume, slowly mixed some of his food in, got him eating his food again, all over the course of a week or so. Just throwing that out there in case anyone encounters something similar with their cat. They can't go long w/out food or water or they will die.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Baby food jars of meat is a brilliant idea! I pitched the dry food and have just been cooking meat for him, but I'm also looking at canned foods so thanks for the link.0 -
I have two cats, a 16 yr old and a 1 1/2 yr old (found him and his brothers under our shed).
My older cat has spent his whole life eating Friskies canned food and Purina dry and Hill's Science diet hairball control. He drank a TON of water always and threw up hairballs fairly frequently (less so on the HS food). I never thought that the food I was giving him wasn't good for him. Younger cat was following the same diet. After younger cat got neutered (which I know can slow down their metabolism) he started getting fat. Like he weighed 16 freaking pounds at one year and when he sat down, he was shaped like a light bulb. I started researching the food they were eating and low and behold, the dry food was packing on the lbs because it has too many carbs for them. Cats don't need that many, they need protein and fats. Even though he was getting a grain-free dry, he was still getting fat. I weaned him down to almost no dry, the older cat gets no dry at all. Younger cat is down over 3 lbs and looks good. I changed their food to a brand called Purrfect Bistro (it used to be called Before Grain). Merrick is the manufacturer, it's all USA made, grain free, high protein. The only time the older cat pukes now is when he wants food and I'm not fast enough getting it and he chews up a plastic bag. Cats!
I found this website which helped tremendously with the food/nutrition stuff: http://catinfo.org/
Here's a link for Purrfect Bistro (Petco sells it, as does PetValu). http://www.merrickpetcare.com/helpful-tools/merrick-purrfect-bistro/
Just one more bit of info ... my older cat got really sick last fall. No idea what was wrong with him, he stopped eating, stopped drinking. Two vet trips, two subQ fluids, anti-nausea med shots plus more to give him at home. He just wouldn't eat. A tip I read when this happens is to buy stage 1 baby food ... it's pure beef, chicken, ham. I got him to lick some off my finger, worked him up in volume, slowly mixed some of his food in, got him eating his food again, all over the course of a week or so. Just throwing that out there in case anyone encounters something similar with their cat. They can't go long w/out food or water or they will die.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Baby food jars of meat is a brilliant idea! I pitched the dry food and have just been cooking meat for him, but I'm also looking at canned foods so thanks for the link.
The baby food tip is the best tip I've read. My cat was hungry -- he would go over to his food but whatever was wrong with him, he just wouldn't eat. He had been throwing up for two days prior to not eating. I couldn't even get him to eat people tuna, turkey, chicken ... nothing. I was doubtful the baby food would work, but it did. Def worth a try if your cat gets ill like mine did.
At first I was in sticker shock because the price of the better food is twice (or more) the price of the canned food they sell in the grocery store. Read the labels ...it costs more but the ingredients are so much better. Pet food stores weren't always around like they are now and the cats I had growing up, we always fed them Purina. I feel dumb not reading the labels until recently as I've had pets all my life. The better food is worth the money, imo. They other thing is that my older cat was always, always scratching. He had scabs under his chin and behind his ears forever, a good amount of dander, and he shed all the time. After switching his food his scratching completely stopped, his scabs healed, dander almost non-existent, much less shedding. I give them a supplement called The Missing Link added into their food http://www.petco.com/product/10201/The-Missing-Link-Ultimate-Feline-Formula-Food-Supplement.aspx. Although my younger cat seems to have developed a mild asthma condition and I'm experimenting to see if it's the supplement, as he seems to show symptoms on days he gets the supplement. I give the younger cat vitamins too (older cat refuses to eat them). I also have two dogs and have them on a good dry plus some good canned mixed in with one of their meals and they also get The Missing Link for dogs plus vitamins.0 -
I don't understand what this has to do with IIFYM.
Then maybe I am STILL missing everything about IIFYM.
FIFY0 -
That is the first thing I thought of when seeing the title of this thread.0 -
I agree with some of your points. I saw a dietitian and she put me on 50C/25F/25P - i think she is just bucking the trend - lol. Anyways it works for me...... and for whatever reason i can't hear someone talk about IIFYM without Poptarts getting brought into the conversation which I don't understand because Poptarts and the famous McGangbangs, that people keep posting in the facebook group, have anything to do with the intent of IIFYM. Sure its ok to have a few of the everyday foods but i really believe it was meant to be about cleaning eating made everyday. Anyways I'm sure someone will quote me about how wrong I am - which I like because i like the attention. Go ahead and eat your poptarts but make sure it fits your macros. p.s. i don't know the macros for a cat - i would need to know its weight, BF and age (in people years) and then i could fix all of its weight issues.0
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Sad coincidence. Alice passed away today.0
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I agree with some of your points. I saw a dietitian and she put me on 50C/25F/25P - i think she is just bucking the trend - lol. Anyways it works for me...... and for whatever reason i can't hear someone talk about IIFYM without Poptarts getting brought into the conversation which I don't understand because Poptarts and the famous McGangbangs, that people keep posting in the facebook group, have anything to do with the intent of IIFYM. Sure its ok to have a few of the everyday foods but i really believe it was meant to be about cleaning eating made everyday. Anyways I'm sure someone will quote me about how wrong I am - which I like because i like the attention. Go ahead and eat your poptarts but make sure it fits your macros. p.s. i don't know the macros for a cat - i would need to know its weight, BF and age (in people years) and then i could fix all of its weight issues.
There, I've quoted you. I like the way 50% carbs FEEL (less heavy), so if carb cravings weren't an issue i'd be aiming for similar ratios. 0 -
Sad coincidence. Alice passed away today.
It was yesterday.0
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