Have your cake and get lean too? Using IIFYM as a fat loss tool.

 My perspective on food has done an absolute backflip since this time last year. I’ve gone from pumping myself with chicken & broccoli in my clean eating crusade to a low carb meat eater who believed fruit was too high in sugar.. I even morphed into a full blown 'Paleo preacher' sipping bone broth and getting excited around kombucha. And even though all of those different methods of eating have taught me a whole lot about what goes into foods and the impact they have on my body, it also made me a bit of a food snob. 

I can call myself a food snob, because I was one- and kinda still am. I freaking love health food stores, chia seeds are the bomb diggity and just quietly I'd totally let Robb Wolf sign my chest if I ever met him.. However through a lot of self-experimentation, I have come to understand that although “clean eating” and Paleo are fantastic approaches that have some brilliant long term health benefits, they are not always a recipe for fat loss. Don't get me wrong here, eating healthy & nourishing foods will usually result in fat loss, providing you have a significant amount of fat to lose, but when you are already fairly lean and are looking to find that cheese grater under a layer of fat- those approaches may only get you so far.

After coming to a bit of a halt on my own fat loss I started to notice a lot of fitness models using a new method to get lean for fitness competitions, an approach called ‘IIFYM, or If It Fits Your Macros’. In their pics id see images of the occasional piece of chocolate, slices of pizza, and foods that I wouldn't even smell for fear of gaining fat.  Believing this was too good to be true, I dove mouth first into the research behind the approach to find out if it was legit and how to make it work for me.

Put very simply IIFYM is a calculated approach to fat loss, it looks at your age, sex, height and weight along with your estimated basal metabolic rate (BMR) & total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) to find out how many calories you need to be eating in order to lose fat and maintain muscle at a steady and safe rate- that wont ruin your metabolism.

 

When using IIFYM your total calorie intake is divided into specific macronutrient amounts, those being Carbs, Fats, Proteins and Fiber- these will vary from individual to individual depending on your age, height, weight and activity levels and also depending on your goals (eg: fat loss, maintenance or bulking). You then take those numbers and use a program such as MyFitnessPal to log everything you eat and ensure those foods come close to matching your macronutrient targets. (Yes, very similar to counting calories- however you focus on the macronutrient numbers rather then overall net calories)

The best part, you can eat WHATEVER you like, as long as they fit those macronutrient targets. So theoretically, you could have ice-cream and pop tarts and wash it all down with a milkshake if fit into your macronutrient targets for the day… (and if it didn’t make all the boys come to the yard)

However, having said that, it is VERY hard to hit all your targets without consuming healthy, foods- so unfortunately its not all Big Macs  and Champagne showers... Plus, I am still a bit of a food weirdo at heart and know that some food make me feel better than others, so I choose healthy whole foods that will be keep me feeling like a boss in the long term- 90% healthy 10% cheeky treat. Hey i'm not gonna lie, there are some serious psychological benefits to allowing yourself the occasional treat.  I know with myself and my clients, as soon as you are ‘not allowed’ to eat something, you instantly want it, and you feel deprived because you cant have it. Some people use IIFYM as an excuse to brag about how much junk they can eat in a day and still get lean, but I use it as a tool to give me a social life. No more broccoli & chicken in a plastic container, no more freaking out when my friends order pizza. If you plan ahead using IIFYM you can still achieve your fatloss goals & enjoy a wide array of foods.

I have trailed IIFYM on myself and with my online clients, with fantastic results. It can be a little tedious as first- and logging everything you eat is time consuming- so keep that in mind before giving it a go. However, it is a great learning tool- many of my clients have commented on how they didn't realize a particular food had so much sugar, or carbs etc. Plus after a while you will get good at calculating your macros without the program.

 

BOOM! So, how can you calculate your macros? Well you can start by opening a myfitnesspal account (this is also an iphone app) & using this online calculator to figure out your numbers, from there you can tweak them depending on your results. You can download this document that will explain how to change your macros within the myfitnesspal program.

Other wise you can contact my good Melbourne based friends at MacroFitwho will deck you out an impressive and detailed plan.

Alternatively you can contact the maddest of all maddogs.. ME.. pick me! If you are interested in online coaching, for fitness or IIFYM please send me an email at melvfitness@live.com.au and ill calculate a plan for you that we can work with over a number of weeks.

For more information on IIFYM this amazing blog post by Jodie that provides links to almost every site that can give you info on it.

Next week ill share how I plan to use IIFYM to fix my metabolism & maybe enter myself in a fitness comp.... maybe ;)

Happy Macro counting!

Mel. xx

*Please note that I am not a dietitian & using this approach may not be appropriate for you. Consult a health care professional prior to undertaking any new dietary programs.

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