Understanding IIFYM (if it fits your macros)

[JOSEF RAKICH]

WHAT DOES IIFYM MEAN?

IIFYM (if it fits your macros) means you can eat ANYTHING you want as long as it fits into your daily calorie requirements and daily macronutrient split of protein, carbohydrates and fats. So basically what I'm saying is if you eat oats and brown rice compared to white bread and sugar donuts for you choice of carbohydratess it will have no difference at all on improving body composition. (as long as calorie intake is equal and macronutrient targets are met) Eating donuts won't automatically make you get fat. Gaining body fat is all about excess calories not the types of foods that you consume.

There is no such thins as "good" and "bad" foods, or "clean" and "dirty' foods" (unless you are talking about health wise). There is no list of foods your not allowed to eat to reach your body composition goals. Don't think you have to give up pizza or McDonald's just because you want to lose some weight. General body composition is about calorie and macronutrient control, hitting your macronutrient targets and calorie requirements however and whenever you want with ANY foods of your personal preference.

EXAMPLE:

500 calories, 40g protein, 40g carbohydrates and 20g fats derived from chicken breast, brown rice and olive oil.

Is equal to:

500 calories, 40g protein, 40g carbohydrates and 20g fats derived from a peperoni pizza!

Now lets say for example your daily macronutrient targets were:

Protein = 250g

Carbohydrates = 310g

Fats = 85g

And you hit these numbers through eating pizza, ice cream, mayonnaise and drinking coke. That's perfectly fine, it doesn't matter and won't make any difference on body composition.

BUT DONT GET TOO CARIED AWAY LOL

Now I'm not saying that you should go out right now and slam back 2 whole pizzas and a can of coke just because it fits your daily macros. You should still base your diet around good healthy nutritious foods! (like I always do!) however if you want to eat that cream donut or double scoop ice cream because you have been "craving it" and it fits your daily macros, then you can eat that donut or double scoop ice cream and it won't effect your body composition at all. Food choices are irrelevant! - Meeting your daily macros and calorie requirements is what equals results!

IIFYM is not a diet, it's not a lifestyle - Its just a philosophy thats intended to make your life easier.

IIFYM does not mean you can eat however much of whatever you want. It means you can maintain your sanity by eating like a regular human being from time to time. Just use common sense and keep it all in moderation, you should always base your diet mostly around good healthy nutritious foods (which the IIFYM principle still applies to). This will help you get in your micronutrients such as fiber, omega's vitamins and minerals!

- If you didn't know macros is just an abbreviation for the word macronutrients. (protein, carbohydrates, fats)

[KouRon]

5 star thread, should be stickied!

Good explanation bro!

[layarph]

Sticky this sh****t!

Seriously, we need somewhere to direct noobs rather than repeatedly explaining that you can eat pretty much any "no-go" foods, and that it doesn't mean eat as much as you like and it doesn't mean you can eat nothing but the "no-go" foods.

I think this does that quite well.

It also informs the "experts" and stops them spouting their misunderstanding that IIFYM is about eating only McDonalds.

[Providence94]

WHAT DOES IIFYM MEAN?

IIFYM (if it fits your macros) means you can eat ANYTHING you want as long as it fits into your daily calorie requirements and daily macronutrient split of protein, carbohydrates and fats. So basically what I'm saying is if you eat oats and brown rice compared to white bread and sugar donuts for you choice of carbohydratess it will have no difference at all on improving body composition. (as long as calorie intake is equal and macronutrient targets are met) Eating donuts won't automatically make you get fat. Gaining body fat is all about excess calories not the types of foods that you consume.

There is no such thins as "good" and "bad" foods, or "clean" and "dirty' foods" (unless you are talking about health wise). There is no list of foods your not allowed to eat to reach your body composition goals. Don't think you have to give up pizza or McDonald's just because you want to lose some weight. General body composition is about calorie and macronutrient control, hitting your macronutrient targets and calorie requirements however and whenever you want with ANY foods of your personal preference.

EXAMPLE:

500 calories, 40g protein, 40g carbohydrates and 20g fats derived from chicken breast, brown rice and olive oil.

Is equal to:

500 calories, 40g protein, 40g carbohydrates and 20g fats derived from a peperoni pizza!

Now lets say for example your daily macronutrient targets were:

Protein = 250g

Carbohydrates = 310g

Fats = 85g

And you hit these numbers through eating pizza, ice cream, mayonnaise and drinking coke. That's perfectly fine, it doesn't matter and won't make any difference on body composition.

BUT DONT GET TOO CARIED AWAY LOL

Now I'm not saying that you should go out right now and slam back 2 whole pizzas and a can of coke just because it fits your daily macros. You should still base your diet around good healthy nutritious foods! (like I always do!) however if you want to eat that cream donut or double scoop ice cream because you have been "craving it" and it fits your daily macros, then you can eat that donut or double scoop ice cream and it won't effect your body composition at all. Food choices are irrelevant! - Meeting your daily macros and calorie requirements is what equals results!

IIFYM is not a diet, it's not a lifestyle - Its just a philosophy thats intended to make your life easier.

IIFYM does not mean you can eat however much of whatever you want. It means you can maintain your sanity by eating like a regular human being from time to time. Just use common sense and keep it all in moderation, you should always base your diet mostly around good healthy nutritious foods (which the IIFYM principle still applies to). This will help you get in your micronutrients such as fiber, omega's vitamins and minerals!

- If you didn't know macros is just an abbreviation for the word macronutrients. (protein, carbohydrates, fats)

Thanks boss. That clarified many answers that I had in my head. Just to ask one more question, it also means there is no "cheat meal" right? Since logically IIFYM is already cheating a lil day by day?

[weknow24]

Great summary!

Also, the more calories you have, the more processed/"unhealthy"/bad food you can fit in. For instance, I was clean bulking on 3500 calories. Generally, I could hit my MIN macros with 2500-3000 "clean" calories, which meant I had 500-1000 (depending on the day) calories of macros to eat whatever I wanted. Just like you said, I would eat a donut, ice cream, some slices of pizza etc with the remaining calories.

However, now I'm cutting and reducing calories more and more as I get leaner. Compare the 3500 calories on a clean bulk to 2200 calories on a cut. Hitting MIN macros on 2200 is much more difficult than hitting MIN macros on 3500 which means that my sources of macro must me much cleaner. The more processed sources of food I go for, the harder it is to hit my macros. I can still fit junk into my diet, but in much smaller amounts and only go through the effort when I really crave it.

On another note, in theory eating pizza, coke, donuts and hitting MIN macros works, but in reality, when you calculate the macros for pizza, coke and donuts you realise that it is practically impossible to hit your macros properly with those foods. As a result, you can't binge on this s**t all day. However, you can make SOME of it fit your macros if your diet is GENERALLY provided by clean unprocessed foods.

Finally, consuming sufficient micro-nutrients through "natural" sources of macronutrients, such as fruit, veggies, etc will undoubtedly increase the efficient functioning of your immune system and inherently effect performance in the gym. So it's always important not to completely avoid these foods.

[weknow24]

Thanks boss. That clarified many answers that I had in my head. Just to ask one more question, it also means there is no "cheat meal" right? Since logically IIFYM is already cheating a lil day by day?

Yes it means there is no "cheat" meal. "Cheat", for me, is when I disregard calories and don't even try to estimate it within my macros (within reason of course, otherwise it would become a binge). Eat till I am satisfied is the way I put it.

However, I only cheat 3-4 times a year after discovering IIFYM.

[layarph]

On another note, in theory eating pizza, coke, donuts and hitting MIN macros works, but in reality, when you calculate the macros for pizza, coke and donuts you realise that it is practically impossible to hit your macros properly with those foods. As a result, you can't binge on this s**t all day. However, you can make SOME of it fit your macros if your diet is GENERALLY provided by clean unprocessed foods.

^^^ This is key for me. And this is why I don't try and tell people what they can eat when abiding to the IIFYM principle/s, because they figure this part out for themselves very quickly.

Once they go away, even if they're so excited about eating any sh*t they want, they always realise, "actually, I need to get in some more fibrous, "clean" foods because leaving them out is making me hungry a lot of the time. So maybe I should eat some chicken breast, sweet potato and veggies for lunch next time, then I can have some ice cream for dessert" etc etc ... once they play around with this for a week or so, they find a perfect balance to keeping their life sane ... at least that's how it worked for me anyway.

[RubenOlivares]

What is often missing (as with most things) is context; people try to isolate specific foods and classify them as 'clean' or 'dirty', which you can't do. The diet needs to be assessed as a whole, with one's macronutrient & micronutrient requirements relative to their goals in mind. You should be able to look at foods actually describe them for what they really are; "This is high in protein"/"This is high in whatever vitamin" as opposed to trying to throw around arbitrary food lists of what you can and can't eat.

[JasonDB]

Sticky material.

[Verint]

Very strong explanation. Right to the point and informative, should be a sticky

[SayMilesAway]

That post should just replace the entire nutrition section.

[Jhuth13]

Great overview, repped

[stillNatural]

This can't work if you are natural, the glcemic index and stuff like that cannot be over looked srs post

[KouRon]

This can't work if you are natural, the glcemic index and stuff like that cannot be over looked srs post

lold.

[layarph]

This can't work if you are natural, the glcemic index and stuff like that cannot be over looked srs post

Glycemic index is irrelevant to weight gain / loss & body composition; only need to worry if diabetic. Mail the MODs and see if they can create a "Diabetics" sub. forum, so there is somewhere to discuss where GI actually has some relevance.

[ClownToucher]

This is an IIFYM post I'm down with. Now let's just sticky this and link to it instead of getting those 8 page IIFYM nazi rants every other thread.

[stillNatural]

Glycemic index is irrelevant to weight gain / loss; only need to worry if diabetic. Mail the MODs and see if they can create a "Diabetics" sub. forum, so there is somewhere to discuss where GI actually has some relevance.

How is this possible always been told to eat brown rice over white etc etc

[layarph]

How is this possible always been told to eat brown rice over white etc etc

You've been told wrong. Your body only reads cals & macros.

Look at it like this

Food 1: 20g protein (80 cals), 50g carbs (200 cals), 10g fat (90 cals)
Food 2: 20g protein (80 cals), 50g carbs (200 cals), 10g fat (90 cals)

These are real meals/foods that I consume. One is from McDonalds, and one is home made "healthy" foods (with carbs from low GI source).
Can you tell me which one is which?

[PumpingFreak]

How is this possible always been told to eat brown rice over white etc etc

brb unlimted brown rice and chicken will not make me fat... -.-

[stillNatural]

You've been told wrong. Your body only reads cals & macros.

Look at it like this

Food 1: 20g protein (80 cals), 50g carbs (200 cals), 10g fat (90 cals)
Food 2: 20g protein (80 cals), 50g carbs (200 cals), 10g fat (90 cals)

These are real meals/foods that I consume. One is from McDonalds, and one is home made "healthy" foods (with carbs from low GI source).
Can you tell me which one is which?

It all looks GD on paper but real life application I'm not sure, wouldn't it be less nutritious since its Mac Donald's srs post

[layarph]

See who can get leaner

You've already been beaten by OP.

[layarph]

It all looks GD on paper but real life application I'm not sure, wouldn't it be less nutritious since its Mac Donald's srs post

There's a big difference between how "healthy" a food is, and it's physiological effect on your body composition. Please re-read the OP to understand what IIFYM is.

[stillNatural]

Do u IF as well Josef?

[stillNatural]

There's a big difference between how "healthy" a food is, and it's physiological effect on your body composition. Please re-read the OP to understand what IIFYM is.

I c now thanks, how do u calculate Mac Donald's macros?

[PumpingFreak]

I c now thanks, how do u calculate Mac Donald's macros?

http://www.mcdonaldsmenu.info/nutrition/

[dukend]

You've already been beaten by OP.

Lol'd. And many many other posters here.

[stillNatural]

Lol'd. And many many other posters here.

Why mate

[layarph]

So is clean eating a lie created by supplement company's?? I always get paranoid eating things like bread and toast

There are many things which suppement companies lie about to sell their products.

But I think "clean" eating has been brought on by a multitude of things, including companies trying to sell you "healthy" supplements. But mostly, clean eating (in my opinion) has really come from a complete and naive misunderstanding of data of the studies available or very poorly executed studies in the first place.

There is also the "burger versus the salad" scenario; you look at a burger and call it unhealthy immediately, due to the natural thought process driven into us as a society through (mostly) media. But you take apart a burger and what do you have? meat, veggies / salad, and bread. Exactly the same thing as a salad with croutons.
It is this reason why the term "clean" should never be used! It is completely based on perception, and more than that, usually a misconception.

"Clean" eating is good, because you get the necessary micronutrients. But is "clean" eating necessary all the time to remain healthy and get a great physique? F*ck no... just most of the time.

[RichInMuscle]

WHAT DOES IIFYM MEAN?

IIFYM does not mean you can eat however much of whatever you want. It means you can maintain your sanity by eating like a regular human being from time to time. Just use common sense and keep it all in moderation, you should always base your diet mostly around good healthy nutritious foods (which the IIFYM principle still applies to). This will help you get in your micronutrients such as fiber, omega's vitamins and minerals!

Quoted for importance. Good thread though.

[brotatorcuff]

Clear and easy to understand..
Definitely worth a sticky, if people can't wrap their head around it there's no helping them.