There is a movement out there called the “if it fits your macros” movement, or IIFYM for short. This is essentially the idea that you can eat whatever you want to accomplish the macronutrient goal you have set for yourself, and occasionally ignore other food qualities. I was a big proponent of IIFYM for a long time because in my mind a calorie is a calorie (still essentially is), but as I learn and grow, the profile of foods varies so much in quality and micronutrients that I started to have a change of heart.
A big reason for subscribing to the IIFYM movement was that in order for me to gain any sort of muscle mass, I had to eat around 4,000 calories. Sounds fun for about a week or two, but I promise after the initial gorging, the novelty wares off and it becomes a chore; if this isn’t true for you, then I envy your ability to relentlessly chow down.
So given the fact that I needed to eat 4,000 calories and that I was also a very busy person, I had to eat a lot of fast food. Could I have planned better and made more meals? Sure, but meal prepping for 4,000 calories every day was very hard for me to do and I guess that wasn’t always the highest on my list of priorities.
A pretty well known caveat of the IIFYM movement is that if you eat a lot of fast foods and highly processed foods, that you probably won’t feel as well as if you ate natural and non-processed foods, which is completely true from my experience. Eventually, I got tired of how I felt because of the foods I was eating, knowing that I could help my mood and energy levels by eating foods that were maybe a little more “healthy.”
After listening to a lot of podcasts (quarantine activities are pretty limited y’all), and doing some independent research myself, I have become much more educated about micronutrients and their roles in bodily functions. I am not going to get into the specifics of the science going on related to micronutrients, but the amount of processes that are effected by a lack or surplus of micronutrients is pretty astounding and worth learning about. A few podcasts I have been listening to are Sigma Nutrition and Found My Fitness; both hosts are very knowledgable and tend to be unbiased.
This research has really pushed me to be mindful about what I am putting into my body. I’m no longer on team IIFYM because now I truly believe that food provides more than just a caloric intake, like I was previously treating it, and the detail at which our bodies process vitamins and minerals for an unbelievable amount of uses is staggering. Am I still going to eat pizza? 100%. I love pizza and some other things that are often thought of as “unhealthy,” but I am thankful that I have the means to control the foods I put into my body and I want to take better care of myself. I encourage you to do some research of your own about how foods can effect things like: energy levels, mood, hormone levels, etc… and you might be surprised by what you find!