"fitting into macros"

I wanted to gag at "avocado and peanut butter sandwich with some brown rice" :laugh:

No, seriously... the best way to eat is the way you can sustain for the rest of your life. Some people want to dedicate to low body fat levels and fitness competition, in which case you want to eat super clean. Others just want a healthy body weight and to fit into the clothing they like and look decent naked. If that's the case, you can pretty much get there eating whatever as long as it fits your macro targets.

On the topic of macro targets - and I just posted this on another thread - I subscribe to the "protein only" target... I just aim for 1g protein per pound of lean body mass and let my fats and carbs land where they will each day (within my calorie target of course). Some days I eat more fat, some days more protein, other days more carbs, but as long as I have that basic protein target met, I don't care what else I add.

IIFYM is legit. a calorie is a calorie. I wouldnt suggest eating a big mac daily but if it fits your macros and you dont feel like cooking eat it.

It depends on your goals. From a "health perspective" obviously the whole food source would be more suitable as it is more nutritionally dense then the McDonald's burger. From a body composition perspective, if the burger helps you to fit into the macro goals more closely then the burger would make sense.

It depends on your goals. From a "health perspective" obviously the whole food source would be more suitable as it is more nutritionally dense then the McDonald's burger. From a body composition perspective, if the burger helps you to fit into the macro goals more closely then the burger would make sense.

This, but I'd like to add that I like to go over on my fat and protein and stay under on my carbs, so I preplan all my meals so I don't run into a macro (or micro) issue later in the day.

Let's take two meals: a) a fast food meal and b) a home cooked meal.

For the sake of argument they contain exactly the same amount of calories and the same amount of protein, fat and carbs in grammes.

From a body composition point of view, in theory, the effect of both meals could be the same. Your body does not recognise "fast food" nutrients or "home cooked" nutrients. It simply recognises nutrients. Therefore taking this further, again in theory, if you have two diets which are matched in calories and nutrients exactly, then the body composition effects will be no different even if one is made entirely of fast food and one entirely of home cooked food. Obviously in a real world scenario these extremes would be rare and most people would fall somewhere in the middle.

However, there are some obvious points here:

a) the fast food diet would involve eating far less volume of food because it is generally more energy dense which could cause hunger issues
b) it's less likely that the fast food meal would supply the same amount of micro nutrients so would be less healthy
c) it would probably contain more refined carbohydrate and sugar which can prompt over eating (depending on your metabolic issues and psychological preferences) as well as lethargy
d) all of the above could lead to a reduced calorie deficit as your activity levels could fall generally meaning less favourable results long term

All IIFYM is, in reality, is "clean" eating / balanced diet with a certain amount of discretionary calories bolted on which can be used for "junk" (say 10 - 20% of total calories) if you are following a diet favourable for good body composition.

Admittedly some people like to make it appear that it is all about how much ice cream or pop tarts (or whatever fast food totem is considered cool these day) you can cram down their gullets but that is a huge distortion of what actually goes on....

I'd eat the avocado and some almond butter or McDonalds any day! Tastes better and fuels my body better. Just my preference, so no backlash please.

I think Dan from "In Place of a Roadmap" set priorities like this:

Calories
Protein
Fat
Carbs

So first priority is make sure you hit your calorie target, then your protein, etc.

In your example, go with the burger (although unless you're already close to hitting your macros and have a ton of calories left for the day, the burger would be a bad idea. it's going to have fewer macronutrients/calorie than the sandwich & rice). It will also keep you sane in the long run. If I had to eat peanut butter and avocado sandwiches every day I'd derail immediately!

IIFYM FTW!!!

Admittedly some people like to make it appear that it is all about how much ice cream or pop tarts (or whatever fast food totem is considered cool these day) you can cram down their gullets but that is a huge distortion of what actually goes on....

So is it bad that I eat super healthy, or as some would call it "clean", during the day so I can have ice cream and chocolate after dinner?

There is no good or bad. There is what works for you and what doesn't. Keep what works and throw out what doesn't.

Like totally Zen man.

ROFL. Yes! Exactly (& ice cream during fat loss makes me very happy).

The Dude abides.

What's easier and most likely to make you successful?

1. Hitting your calories
1. Hitting your calories and stressing about your macros?

focus on calories.

I actually disagree with this. When I started focusing on my macros, calories became much less stressful.