Another IIFYM post?

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.

I get the concept, but here is why I think there is so much confusion on MFP about it.

1. It's so over- and mis-used. I'm quite sure that many people who use the term "IIFYM" in their posts do not understand it as you (OP) do. No matter the original intent of the acronym when coined, it now seems to have as many variations as "everything in moderation".
2. Those that do understand it often post answers to those that don't understand it as if they believe they do or should already know everything that is explained in your post.
3. Too much confusing information and misinformation about how macros should be set. It's hard to follow such a plan successfully when your macros are not set for your individual needs.

I get the concept, but here is why I think there is so much confusion on MFP about it.

1. It's so over- and mis-used. I'm quite sure that many people who use the term "IIFYM" in their posts do not understand it as you (OP) do. No matter the original intent of the acronym when coined, it now seems to have as many variations as "everything in moderation".
2. Those that do understand it often post answers to those that don't understand it as if they believe they do or should already know everything that is explained in your post.
3. Too much confusing information and misinformation about how macros should be set. It's hard to follow such a plan successfully when your macros are not set for your individual needs.

So after the multipoint critique, you find the OP helpful and usefull or no...?

At the risk of sounding dumb... I read through the pages & couldn't figure out the answer... but how do you figure out WHAT your macros should be? Is it what MFP originally gives you? Does it change as your body fat % does?

It does not change as your body fat changes. As a general rule, your priorities are as follows: protein: 1 gram per lb of lean body mass, fat .35 to .4 grams per lb of body weight, carbs for the balance. This may vary with your goals but is a decent starting point.

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).

Did some playing around with the recipe calculator

24 oz 93/7 ground beef 1,020 cals, 144g of pro
4 whole foods pretzel rolls 560 cals 12g of pro
2oz of cheddar 240 cals 14g of pro

Total 1,820 cals and 170g of pro

Add in 1.5lbs of broccoli for about another 190 cals and some micros and you'd have 190 cals left over ;P

OWNED! IIFYM Debunked!

At the risk of sounding dumb... I read through the pages & couldn't figure out the answer... but how do you figure out WHAT your macros should be? Is it what MFP originally gives you? Does it change as your body fat % does?

It does not change as your body fat changes. As a general rule, your priorities are as follows: protein: 1 gram per lb of lean body mass, fat .35 to .4 grams per lb of body weight, carbs for the balance. This may vary with your goals but is a decent starting point.

That sounds like too much protein for most people. Bodybuilders may need that much, but the average person does not. If you don't use all that protein it's just going to overtask your kidneys .8 to 1 gram per kg of body weight or 25% of calories is probably safer for most people.