Why I'm Abandoning the "If It Fits Your Macros" Movement

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! 

8 Things I Learned in 8 Days of Quarantine

It’s been just a little over a week since I’ve been following the directive to “self-quarantine,” and I’ve learned a lot this week… the good, the bad, and the obvious:

1.) I gained 5 lbs in 2 days

This is one of those obvious points, but I think it’s important people know how big of an effect a decrease in steps really makes. I had a really busy life before the quarantine and with teaching, lifting, and lacrosse practice, I was taking around 22,000 steps a day. When the quarantine hit, it coincided with my spring break, so I took two days to relax and be lazy and probably only hit 2,000 steps a day. My diet did not change that drastically, and sure, there could be other factors involved, but some of that weight 100% came from my decrease in steps.

2. Being creative with getting my workouts has been a lot of fun.

Since my workouts are tailored towards hypertrophy and I always go to the gym, I’ve been using the same equipment and doing many of the same movements for a long time. Consistency and getting better at movements in the gym is all a part of the process, but it can be bland when I sit back and look at what I’ve been doing. Now that I no longer have gym access, I’ve had to use resistance bands and some home weights to create a workout that meets my goals. The entire process has been challenging, but a lot of fun to come up with creative movements to get my workouts in!

3. It’s been a lot easier for my mind to go to a negative place than a positive one.

Now that my routine has crashed and burned, and the things I love to do I’m no longer able to do, I find my mind naturally wanting to be negative instead of positive. I noticed this very quickly becoming an issue for quality of life, so I’ve had to actively practice a positive mindset and make the best of the situation that we are in. I miss coaching and I miss being in the gym, but I had to learn that I can still reach my goals and have a positive impact given this unfortunate situation.

4. I have so many things I have been laying off…

During this time I’ve also realized how little time I’ve been spending on some of my hobbies. I used to love playing guitar and love music, but that has taken a back seat in life given how busy I was. It has been a lot of fun to pick up an old hobby, and spend some quality time with my guitar. Think about what hobbies you have been neglecting, and think about picking them back up!

5. Any movement is productive movement during this time.

You know that garage that needs to be cleaned and organized that you’ve been putting off? Time to clean it! Seriously though, any of those projects around the house or your spring cleaning that you’ve been waiting for the right time to do? Now is the time. Get yourself moving around and your body moving in different ways instead of moving from the couch, to the kitchen, and back (guilty) all day.

6. Slowing down in the mornings has been amazing.

I’m generally not a morning person, but since I no longer have to rush to get ready and get to work, I’ve been able to spend some time in the morning getting focused and preparing mentally for my day. This is something a lot of people have already built a habit of, and I will definitely carry this into my life post-quarantine. There is nothing quite like taking the morning slow, taking care of yourself, and really focusing up for the day ahead. I should have listened to all of you morning-person truthers!

7. Adjusting Expectations is Important

My previous plan has clearly been disrupted, and so have my goals (probably). I still have a goal to get to around <10% body fat by July 4. That plan had a lot of important data built in to the decision making, and getting solid workouts in consistently was a big part of that plan. Now, the goal doesn’t necessarily have to change for me, but surely the route I am taking to reach that goal has been shifted, so it seems fair to slightly adjust expectations on the goal itself so that you aren’t completely disappointed by things you cannot control!

8. Having A Support Team is Essential

Andrew and I are pretty good about keeping each other accountable, and during this time we’ve been pretty luck to have the accountability we do. Workouts are getting done. Muscle groups are not getting ignored. Nutrition has been on point. The things we can control during this time might be a little bit more challenging as it seems easier to be a little lazy, but having a support system is one thing you can add as an extra push to achieve your goals. If you feel like you don’t have any support, go ahead and contact us and check out our content on social media! We will continue to try and provide good information and support to all.

What are some of the things that you have learned since being quarantined??

"Can I Go Out to Eat?"

Everyone has such different schedules and has a different relationship with food in regards to being healthy, eating out, and cooking at home. There is no one size fits all approach when talking about diets and how to implement nutrition into your daily routine, but we think it’s important to understand what you are getting yourself into, nutritionally, when you eat out.

After diligently tracking food for well over a year now, I’ve come to realize that almost every entree a restaurant provides has an excess of fat, even the “healthy” or “low calorie” options. Now, no matter if your goal is one of fat loss, or lean mass gain, fat levels are generally recommended to be low or moderate. Most people are just generally unaware of the amount of fat content in the entree’s they order when eating out, or have never really cared or thought to look up the foods they might order at the restaurant, but our hope here is that you at least become aware of what you’re ordering!

I grew up in a family where my dad loved to cook and would cook when he had the time, but there were many seasons growing up where both of my parents were busy at work and my siblings and I had sports and activities we had to get to, so we ate out frequently. Since one’s upbringing has an impact on the decisions they make as they get older, I integrated a similar ratio of cooking to eating out when I got to college.

More recently, now that I’ve started trying to live a healthier lifestyle, I’ve cut back on eating out as much as possible. Don’t get me wrong, there is almost always an option that won’t be too detrimental to your goals at every restaurant, but the options are few and generally not as tasty as all of those other items on the menu that are begging to be eaten. My self-control can be inconsistent at times, so now I just try to limit the amount of times I eat out, or at least try to have a plan before I arrive at a restaurant. I know the last sentence can sound silly, or that I’m being really picky, but nutrition has such a huge impact on your fitness and lifestyle goals that I tend to take it very seriously.

I recently went to a restaurant with my family that we would go to all the time when I was growing up. It’s a small regional chain that is a bar and grill type of setting where they have a wide variety of entree options. So a few weeks ago my family decided we were going to head there for dinner. Now that I check the nutrition facts before I eat at a restaurant, I hopped online to check them out, and to my surprise almost every entree had a minimum of 40-50 grams of fat. My mind was blown. I would venture to say the average fat content per entree was around 60 grams of fat. I would eat some meals at this place and consume god-awful amounts of calories and grams of fat, and I had no idea. Some of those entrees were even entrees you might think were “healthy.” I don’t bring this up to scare anyone, but I think this anecdote is relevant for those that have started tracking nutrition themselves.

Hopefully that knowledge is enough for you to at least think more about what you are eating when you go out, but I wanted to leave you with some recommendations for how to approach eating out.

Option 1: Never eat out. Obviously this option is very restrictive, impractical, and probably not very realistic for most people. However, if you commit to this, you will always be in control of what you are consuming, and you can easily figure out the composition of the macronutrients in your food.

Option 2: Eating out when necessary or to be social. This option is probably the most optimal option for most people out there. The idea here is that you cook and prep as many of your meals as you can, but then eat out when you run out of time due to an unexpected project at work, or when you have three kids trying to make it to three different practices in one evening. Life happens, and we have to be realistic! We are also social creatures, and so no one wants to be the lame one not spending time with friends and family just because they are going out to eat. The best advice for this option is to plan ahead of time and try to find something healthier to eat at the restaurant.

Option 3: Eat out whenever you want. This option would definitely not be recommended, but it is the least restrictive yet also the least optimal for nutrition goals. If you take this approach, there is little work in cooking and food prep that needs to be done, but I guarantee you will miss your nutrition targets again and again if you take this approach.

Again, everyone’s lifestyle is different, but in general we think option 2 is the best to fit most people’s needs. We also recommend that if you do eat out, try and limit the times you eat at fast food establishments versus an actual restaurant because often times the fast food quality is a step down from a restaurant.

Cheers,

Josh