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

What is the latest fat loss craze known as 5:2 diet? The 5:2 diet is where on five days of the week you eat whatever you like sticking to the recommended calorie intake for either male (2500 cals) or female (2000 cals). Ideally on the other two days of the week you limit yourself to 500 calories a day if you are a female or 600 calories a day if you are a male, theory behind this is that it sends your body into a fast. Or some people are eating whatever they want for 5 days then nothing (or just a small dinner) for the other 2 days.

The 5:2 diet is really just a fancy name for intermittent fasting. It works especially with people who are very unhealthy or when they have more than 10-20 kgs overweight. Its basically eating with your instincts as you shouldn’t feel hungry the next day after eating too much the previous day. Right?

Fasting is seen as an effective way to lose fat because by cutting down on your calorie intake intermittently, rather  than all at once, your body goes into repair mode instead of starvation mode, PLUS it is busy digesting food you’ve  just eaten right? This repair mode causes the body to restore damaged cells, which causes the body to use more  energy; whereas starvation mode causes your body to grow and store fat cells.

With that being said lets go through the pros and cons of this diet and you can decide if it’s right for you (I have to  say here you won’t know until you try it, but it shouldn’t give you the right to binge eat for 5 days then eat nothing for  2 days. The 5:2 diet will help you:

1. Burn fat: Because there is evidence that intermittent fasting helps promote more fat loss than muscle loss.

2. Boost your mood: Fasting may help improve the mood in adults. People who have participated in intermittent fasting have found they sleep better, have higher energy and concentration and a greater sense of overall well-being. (It’s called giving your digestion a break)

3. Repair your body: We all naturally produce a growth hormone called IGF-1

and while it’s great at keeping the body on the go, in later life it can also speed up the aging and the onset of age-related diseases. When we fast, IGF-1 production is inhibited, and our bodies go into ‘repair’ mode, giving cells time to rebuild themselves more effectively.

Now time for the cons; looking at this from a psychological perspective, when individuals have restrictive diet it can cause them to think about food more and more. This can lead to binging (especially for females) which can be caused from either being hungry or hormonal fluctuations like blood sugar levels going up and down. Now you have to ask yourself if the 5:2 diet is for you, on one hand you might just be sitting at a computer all day and have a low energy demands but on the other hand you could be a busy mum with three kids that goes to the gym everyday. High chances that if you are cutting your calories when you have a high energy demand you will be left feeling tired and not to mention you will be battling extreme hunger and cravings (just take it easy on the low calorie days if that’s the case). And get to know yourself if you find calorie restricting leads you to binge eat at the end of the night and you feel bad as you were unable to control yourself.

What we’d suggest is that you fast over the night for 3 days per week especially for females we’ve noticed this seems easy for us girls, for example eat your last meal at 5/6pm and then fast until 8am the next day, leaving around 13 hours without food, giving you all the benefits of fasting.

With any diet, no matter how positive the results are reported to be, it’s important to make sure it is sustainable long term and, most importantly, do no damage to your body and you should be able to maintain your energy levels after a few weeks.

More diet reviews coming soon. What else would you like to hear about? Please comment below.

Plus to see more about my take on ‘why I believe the calorie theory is incomplete’ click here.

For help on choosing the right diet for you click here to contact us.

Article written by Teena Kyriazis and Kate Martin