Whats up guys, I thought it would bring up this topic and my thoughts on IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) vs Clean Eating. I am not against either of these types of eating but I am more favourable when it comes to clean eating. Now if you don’t know what IIFYM is its flexible dieting, meaning as long as you stay under your calories you can pretty much eat what foods you want as you are still in a calorie deficit. So because you are burning more calories than you are consuming you will still drop body weight and fat. I can see the appeal to this I mean losing weight and eating sugary food? Why not right? But think of it like this, you are eating less calories than you’ve been consuming which got you to the stage where you are thinking 'I really need to lose weight’. I guarantee you don’t have heaps of energy from consuming this food already, now you will be eating less of it than usual so you will have even less energy. So you are now eating less calories which = less energy and you are following IIFYM which = eating majority processed food. How do you think your energy levels are now going to be? A lot lower than before. I always refer to the car analogy, if you fill your car with crap fuel it doesn’t last long, where as if you fill it with good fuel its lasts longer.
Since I started eating clean and healthy foods, my energy levels are better, my performance is better, my skin, my sleep, my focus, the list just goes on and on. Answer this question the last time you ate a Mcdonalds, a pizza or a whole tub of ben and jerry’s did you feel focused and ready, or lazy and slightly sleepy? Now compare that to the last time you ate something healthy such as rice, chicken and vegetables of some sorts? I can sit here and hand on heart say 1000000% I am so much more focussed and perform better after the chicken, rice and vegetables. Now don’t get me wrong I LOVE pizza and ice cream as much as the next person, but I love my results and how I feel so much more. Its funny I know for me and a few of my clients have started eating cleanly then gone back to Mcdonalds as a treat and you can taste how processed it is. Burger King is a different story though that still tastes great :D, but again I consumed this on the weekend as a cheat meal. I was shattered after and fell asleep as soon as I sat down at home, it was only the middle of the day.
Say your 20lbs over weight and your looking to get down to your ideal weight, following IIFYM isn’t going to give you the optimal results to get there. For example you have a holiday coming up in 12 weeks time, personally I found clean eating will get you better and faster results. Once you are at your ideal weight then you can look at changing your diet to IIFYM, your will be at your ideal weight so now you can be a bit more flexible to maintain it. I mean really what is 12 weeks of hard work on your health, appearance and confidence, nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I would potentially start on following a IIFYM diet if you are used to eating processed foods, as trying to eat clean straight away will be tough. However the quicker you get into clean eating the better results and over all health. I Started clean eating about 4-5 years ago and have never looked back, sure certain times of the year I will be a little bit more flexible but only 2-3 times per week. But once I do my energy levels and physique will slowly start to change and not in a good way, then when summer is coming up I get back into eating more cleanly and results soon follow.
I find a lot of trainers do take a IIFYM diet with their clients now a days due to its appealing nature but I got into the health and fitness career to promote a healthy lifestyle not to promote and eat what you like but still get results lifestyle. I am fully aware that this does not appeal to everyone and if it doesn’t thats fine, no one way is there a correct way. At the end of the day you need to do what works for you and by no means do I push this style of eating on to anyone and some of my clients follow a IIFYM style eating, but I definitely will promote it because its so good for you are your health.
Call me weird but I think there is so much more to life than trying to enjoy every single meal you have. Instead of focussing on getting happiness from food why not try get happiness from other aspects of life. This will make eating clean so much easier to stick to, as soon as you dissociate happiness linked with everything you put in your mouth the easier things become.
Thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed it :)
Eat smart :)