The IIFYM diet is just another term for flexible dieting, but what does it actually entail? The IIFYM diet is a method of dieting that requires you to meet your daily macronutrient requirements. First, what is a macronutrient? A macronutrient or “macro” is the nutritional component of a diet that is required to consume in large amounts so your protein, carbohydrates and fats. Its essentially a form of calorie counting with one gram of protein yielding 4 calories, one gram of carbohydrate also yielding 4 calories and then one gram of fat yielding 9 calories. Then you have your essential vitamins and minerals also known as micronutrients on top such as calcium, zinc, iron and magnesium. You are required to plan your meals based around your “macros” based on your goals, whether it’s to lose fat or build muscle.
Here is an example, an 80kg man wanting to maintain might have a macro breakdown such as, 200g of protein per day, 300g of carbohydrates per day and 80g of fat per day. So in total he would be consuming around 2,700 calories per day. According to the principles of IIFYM as long as those numbers are hit everyday, the foods that are used to get there will not negatively affect body composition. The protein source could come from chicken breast, the carbs could come from potatoes or lollies and the fats could come from olive oil or ice cream, as long as the macros are being hit.
So does this actually work? well yes. In fact anything works if you ‘DO’ it. If we go back to the age old equation of calories in vs calories out plus sure if your body IS working efficiently and your aim is to lose weight you just need to consume less calories than what your body burns. It sounds simple right? If you want to lose weight calculate how many calories your burn, eat 20% less than this so you are in a calorie deficient and you will lose weight. In the short term and provided you haven’t done it too many times before and are female. (Yes our hormones do make us special creatures when it comes to weight loss)
However a calorie is not a calorie when we talk about body composition. The ideal goal is to lose fat without losing too much muscle mass because especially ladies the more muscle mass you have, the more fat you are going to burn when you are resting so we want to preserve as much muscle as we can. You need to ensure you are getting enough protein to preserve muscle. You need to ensure you are getting enough carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores after training and enough fat for hormone production (especially in us females). Technically the protein in a chicken breast and the protein in a McDonalds beef patty have the same amino acids in it but eating McDonalds everyday is definatly not going to give you the same ‘quality’ calorie which in our opinions is the part of this package which is missing, in other words so is the long term health goal of this dieting fad. This leads to the downfall of the IIFYM theory, just because you macros may allow you to eat McDonalds or cheesecake everyday, doesn’t mean it will serve your body well in the long term.
Food is so much more than just a serve of protein, carbs and fats it’s also a source of vitamins and minerals that help us with everyday body functions. A problem with lollies and other and processed foods is they’re deficient in macronutrients. A major benefit of eating “clean” (less processed foods) is it provides your body with an abundance of these nutrients. If you eat too many “junk” foods and too little healthy foods you will develop vitamin and mineral deficiencies that can and will definitely lead to health problems, one of those eventually being weight gain.
The best way to use the principles of IIFYM, or flexible dieting, are as follows:
Get at least 80% of your daily calories from healthy (macronutrient dense) foods that you actually like and don’t be afraid of little indulgences, actually that is one of the strengths of the IIFYM guidelines, women seem to be able to mentally ‘not fall off the rails’ as often by using it. As with every diet theory – things work if you do. If you can see results using this theory (which as I said will work if you do) then slowly add in more sources of quality food and make sure you educate yourself about quality of food sources, so you not only hit your macros but you feel amazing as well.
We personally think everyone is different and we need to listen to our bodies, but if following a set of guidelines get your results and doesn’t harm you, GO FOR IT and commit and you should see results within a few weeks.
What other diets have you tried or do you want to hear about, let us know in the comments below?
If you need help with tailoring a diet to you, don’t hesitate to drop us a line here
Article by Teena Kyriazis and Kate Martin