Another IIFYM post?
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SideSteel
Posts: 11,068 Member
Since there seems to be post after post of people completely missing the boat on IIFYM I thought I'd make my own attempt at clarifying.
IF IT FITS YOUR MACROS was originally phrased by Erick Stevens over at Bodybuilding.com and it was born as an answer to the continual questioning/debate as to whether or not one could eat a given food item without worrying about whether or not that food item would make you fat.
Example:
"Hey is it okay for me to have these two slices of bread?"
"Dude what would happen if I went to McDonalds for lunch tomorrow?"
The general CONCEPT is that, ONE OF your main objectives in body recomposition is to set up reasonable macronutrients and put your emphasis on hitting these macronutrients by end of day. You should do so by selecting mostly whole and nutrient dense foods for micronutrient sufficiency and general satiety. As a general rule, one who is on IIFYM and doing it correctly will eat roughly 80+% whole foods with a potential discretionary calorie bank of about 20% of total intake.
For example, someone who is practicing IIFYM correctly may have a lot of vegetables, fruit, lean meats, eggs, chicken as the bulk of one day's intake. Then they might decide they'd like to treat themselves with a couple of cookies, or some chips, or whatever the case may be, and they end the day hitting all of their targets, eating a lot of what people would call "clean" foods, but also allowing themselves something they desire as a small portion of their total intake.
Does this mean you have to eat 20% crap? No. It means that it's in your best interest to limit your junk food to roughly 20% as a ceiling. Performance, personal preference, and satiety are all things that are considered and valued and that holds true for IIFYMers as much as it does for everyone else.
There are some catches here and it's unfortunate that people do not understand the concept, so internet arguments erupt non stop.
Generalizing here: your typical bodybuilder will have reasonably high protein intakes. They will usually have fat intakes in the .35-.75g/lb range. Given these macro restrictions (the protein, specifically), the allowed "space" to eat junk food is inherently minimized as is.
As an example, if your macros are: 2200kcal, 175p, 75f, 205c --- Go see how well you are able to hit this eating nothing but cheeseburgers (and I say this because typical internet arguments often degenerate into that nonsense).
Hint: You CANT, and the more junk food you attempt to eat, the more your OTHER food sources have to be pigeon-holed into your remaining macro intakes if you plan on actually HITTING the numbers. If I want to hit my targets and go have a double cheeseburger from Five Guys, I have to REALLY restrict my food selection for the rest of the day to balance that out. As such, I don't do it often because satiety ranks high on my list. But I know that I CAN do it on occasion without having to worry about the effects that the individual meal may have on my body composition.
IIFYM is a great method for teaching people that in the presence of a varied and nutrient rich diet, the inclusion of some discretionary intake isn't going to be harmful provided that the total intake is appropriate.
IF IT FITS YOUR MACROS was originally phrased by Erick Stevens over at Bodybuilding.com and it was born as an answer to the continual questioning/debate as to whether or not one could eat a given food item without worrying about whether or not that food item would make you fat.
Example:
"Hey is it okay for me to have these two slices of bread?"
"Dude what would happen if I went to McDonalds for lunch tomorrow?"
The general CONCEPT is that, ONE OF your main objectives in body recomposition is to set up reasonable macronutrients and put your emphasis on hitting these macronutrients by end of day. You should do so by selecting mostly whole and nutrient dense foods for micronutrient sufficiency and general satiety. As a general rule, one who is on IIFYM and doing it correctly will eat roughly 80+% whole foods with a potential discretionary calorie bank of about 20% of total intake.
For example, someone who is practicing IIFYM correctly may have a lot of vegetables, fruit, lean meats, eggs, chicken as the bulk of one day's intake. Then they might decide they'd like to treat themselves with a couple of cookies, or some chips, or whatever the case may be, and they end the day hitting all of their targets, eating a lot of what people would call "clean" foods, but also allowing themselves something they desire as a small portion of their total intake.
Does this mean you have to eat 20% crap? No. It means that it's in your best interest to limit your junk food to roughly 20% as a ceiling. Performance, personal preference, and satiety are all things that are considered and valued and that holds true for IIFYMers as much as it does for everyone else.
There are some catches here and it's unfortunate that people do not understand the concept, so internet arguments erupt non stop.
Generalizing here: your typical bodybuilder will have reasonably high protein intakes. They will usually have fat intakes in the .35-.75g/lb range. Given these macro restrictions (the protein, specifically), the allowed "space" to eat junk food is inherently minimized as is.
As an example, if your macros are: 2200kcal, 175p, 75f, 205c --- Go see how well you are able to hit this eating nothing but cheeseburgers (and I say this because typical internet arguments often degenerate into that nonsense).
Hint: You CANT, and the more junk food you attempt to eat, the more your OTHER food sources have to be pigeon-holed into your remaining macro intakes if you plan on actually HITTING the numbers. If I want to hit my targets and go have a double cheeseburger from Five Guys, I have to REALLY restrict my food selection for the rest of the day to balance that out. As such, I don't do it often because satiety ranks high on my list. But I know that I CAN do it on occasion without having to worry about the effects that the individual meal may have on my body composition.
IIFYM is a great method for teaching people that in the presence of a varied and nutrient rich diet, the inclusion of some discretionary intake isn't going to be harmful provided that the total intake is appropriate.
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Replies
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and this is why I adore you.0
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Great post as usual.
It is a very important point that people do not seem to get. In order to hit the macros, you cannot just eat donuts all day and therefore there is a self governing mechanism inherently in the concept.
From my perspective, in order to hit my protein target I just cannot eat cr*p all day. Most of my food selection is what will give me most 'bang for my calorie buck' with regard to protein and to micro nutrients.
My thought process when it comes to the composition of my food for the day.
- do I have a good mix of fruits/veggies - check
- do I have a good mix of fats from different sources - check
- do I have enough protein - check
- do I have any calories left - if yes, have a [insert food of choice], of not, then don't.
TL:DR - I agree!
Edited to fix typos cause I am anal that way.0 -
and this is why I adore you.
^^ this0 -
I think most people would naturally end up with good calorie totals and a decent diet if they were forced to eat 35-40% of their calories from protein and 30% at least from carbs. No other dietary restrictions other than you HAVE to hit that macro for protein and carbs. (edited to include carbs because you can eat some crap protein sources on a low/no carb diet).
As the OP points out with that macro in place you have to make so many concessions with your other macros to eat any junk with a high protein macro.
I'm not saying its necessarily the best diet for everyone long term, but you'd have to teach yourself some healthy eating habits (either by really working your macros or making healthy choices).0 -
Ugh!! Why are you constantly spewing common sense?!0
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Great post! Spot on. Something a lot of people get confused with0
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Ugh!! Why are you constantly spewing common sense?!
because he rocks.0 -
Have to say personally I am loving IIFYM its made me more confident with my food.
I'm chef so the eating mostly good is fine and when I'm bad well I make that from scratch too so its all good :-)0 -
Great post0
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I have a friend I want to direct to this article...
As always, great article SS... Thanks for being so knowledgable!!0 -
Ugh!! Why are you constantly spewing common sense?!
because he rocks.
Yes he does!! Also, some people might not know this and this information can help them.
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I get this question a lot too.
80:20 seems to be the best mix.
Thanx for this SS!
Adding it to the list of recommended reading.0 -
Hence my pint of ice cream every night. The rest of my daily diet allows for this. IIFYM for the win!0
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Original Poster; I think I'm in love with your brain.
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Ugh!! Why are you constantly spewing common sense?! SideSteel is THE MAN! 0
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So then, I can just sit around eating fast food cheeseburgers, chips and ice cream all day?
Just kidding!!! Great post and I totally agree. Some of the stuff on those threads make it sound like some of those people just plain lack any common sense.0 -
:drinker:
You explained that so well, much better than I ever could! I wish that everyone could read this!0 -
Excellent post!! Thank you for explaining that. It's what I am already doing and didn't realize there was an actual name for it. Great info.0
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I love that you keep trying to clarify and educate and back people off of the freak-out cliff. I know you've been gone after a few times by people who would rather just follow tips and tricks, but truthfully, your generosity with your knowledge is deeply appreciated by lots of us.0
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