Annoyingly, I am not going to explain this yet and instead, go into an alternate introduction.
Like many, many people, I am very "into" healthy eating. With the health and fitness industry reaching a huge mainstream boom like it's the 80s again, eating organic/paleo/vegan/gluten-free (yes, I know about coeliac's disease, hush, I'm making a point) has never been so popular. Health food stores are in bigger business than ever1 I
Whilst it's always a wonderful thing to make a positive change to your lifestyle, unfortunately it's not always as simple as just throwing away your donuts and waltzing into whole foods and emerging a brand new person. It takes some dedication, and research, to change your lifestyle.
When I started out trying to eat healthily (this was last year,) I found such an abundance of information on the web. So. Much. Information. Of course, and unfortunately, the sad thing is anyone can upload things to the internet, and they don't factor in that people have different goals, body times and different backgrounds.
For instance, I started out seeing that yes, white carbs were bad. Goodbye to pasta and rice. Then even brown pasta wasn't really that good. I reluctantly said goodbye. Everything had to be low-fat of course, don't be silly, the less fat the better! Then came the discovery of "clean eating" and the notion that if you ate ONE chocolate bar you would ruin everything and never have abs but you could also have everything in moderation EXCEPT don't have too much sugar and - you get the picture. Conflicting information gets confusing, and I spent a good year trying very hard to limit my foods to what was deemed "healthy and acceptable," feeling frustrated when I kept eating chocolate and kept snacking on "unclean" foods.
For the most part, I eat pretty healthy, and always have. Following the cacophony of information I'd found online and in books I'd read, I was able to maintain a relatively healthy diet. However, I was eating the right foods, but not necessarily in the right amounts, and for someone who was (and still is) weight training quite hard, it didn't really allow me to perform at optimum level. Furthermore, my "must EAT CLEAN" mentality was beginning to get depressing and I was starting to feel restricted in what I could and could not eat. Even when I applied the "everything in moderation" rule, I still felt guilty having a snack - which is terrible as I am the world's biggest serial snacker. And this is where IIFYM came in to save me.
So what is it?
IIFYM.com has a much, much better description and explanation than I do, but I'll keep it simple here. Essentially, your macronutrients are the nutrients your body needs in large quantities for energy - protein, carbs, and fat. IIFYM operates under the philosophy that as long as you eat the correct percentages and amounts of these, you will be able to maintain/lose/gain weight according to your goals. That sounds super easy doesn't it?
The reason IIFYM (or flexible dieting as it is also known,) is so amazing, is that it's so personalised. You, as the person, are free to adjust and change your macros however you wish in order for your body to function optimally. I've found in the past, when my carbs are too low, I lack energy. Therefore, I can pop them back up and it means my fats are more limited, but I'm functioning a lot better. Super useful.
And I haven't even covered the best part. The reason it's called If It Fits Your Macros, is because you can eat it if it fits your macros. Want two slices of pizza? Fine. Pop it into your fitness tracker and see where that takes you (carbs and fat will go up) Therefore, for the rest of the day, you should watch your carbs and fat and make sure your protein matches. It's like a maths matching game, but one where you can eat cake and feel great. Suddenly, something so simple made sense to me: yes, I knew vaguely in my head that if I had a bar of chocolate, I should eat healthily the rest of the day. But the thought of actually checking my macros (mainly because I had no idea what they were,) just did not occur to me.
That's not to say you can overeat on junk food or binge eat - but, due to it's nature as flexible dieting, it just allows you more freedom in having treats and dealing with events such as going out to restaurants. I no longer panic about eating out, scouring menus to choose the healthiest option. I may look in advance, but just so I can plan the rest of my day. Because of the flexible nature, and because I'm still relatively new to it, I also don't beat myself up about it if my percentages or numbers are off. As long as they're in the correct vicinity, I'm happy, and it's great to have an idea of what I'm putting in my body to fuel it.
Therefore, I've found that even though IIFYM promotes that you can eat what you want and still achieve your goals, I've found it's actually had a positive impact on my snacking and eating, just by making me more mindful of what I'm consuming. But not, like before, in a way where I felt trapped, but it's given me an awesome freedom of choice. Yes, I can go for the high carb and fat option for lunch, but I'll have to have a protein shake later to hit my protein goals. Which is fine.
Of course, going over your goals is the same as overreating on your calories (which makes sense as your macro goals in grams should match up to your calories.) It's all about mindful eating and becoming more informed about what you're putting into your body. You'll find that once you start, you'll start becoming more knowledgable, and you'll pick up quickly knowledge of what foods you need to balance out your fat, or protein. IIFYM.com is a great resource and the best place to start, but loads of healthy food recipe blogs and recipes in general also now post macros - if not, it's super easy to pull out of the nutrition - just look at Fat, Protein & Carbs!
So where to start?
The best thing to do is go to IIFYM.com where they have an online calculator for you to figure out your optimum levels - if you're not sure, 40/40/20 carbs/protein/fat is a good place to start. I usually work at 45/35/20 carbs/protein/fat for mine, just because my body runs so well on carbs, and based on my TDEE (which you can also calculate there,) 35% protein based on my calories and 1g protein per lb I weigh works. It may take some playing around with to get there!
Next, is to pay attention to your macros. Unless you want to write everything down, I would use myfitnesspal, or your tracker of choice. You can enter your goals, including your macros, on here and you'll be able to view your percentages in a neat little pie chart! So useful!
Is it for everyone?
Of course not, nothing is for everyone. This happens to work for me, and it makes and keeps me happy as it's been the first time in a long time I've felt both in control, and at ease of my food. Tracking my food, but not in a neurotic way, somehow makes me feel more relaxed and I feel like I am making more informed decisions about what I'm eating, and feeling better for it.
I also physically feel better - by finally realising I wasn't eating anywhere near enough protein for my activity levels, let alone carbohydrates, I've adjusted them and lowered my fats and I'm working out stronger and better than before. I have tonnes more energy and feel less sluggish as well.
If you have a tendency to get obsessive about numbers and tracking, I would be wary. However, because I don't insist on having my percentages down to the perfect %, I've found it more liberating than just not tracking and constantly stressing about that damn chocolate bar I scarfed down at 8am this morning. Again, knowledge is power and I feel more powerful with it!
What do you think? Would you/do you use IIFYM?
[1] Sales of organic products have increased by 4% https://securepayment.soilassociation.org/page/contribute/organicmarketreport2015
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