Nutrition

IIFYM Diet Guide: Counting Macros For Weight Loss

medinews Send an email May 7, 2021
170 12 minutes read

"When It Fits Your Macros" (IIFYM) is a nutritional strategy that is about getting a certain number of calories and protein, fat and carbohydrates from any food each day.

When used correctly, IIFYM is the most reliable way to lose weight.

Counting macros for weight loss gives you tremendous flexibility in what you can eat while dieting. Pasta, bread, potatoes, chocolate, cakes, and ice cream are all acceptable options. In fact, it just depends on whether or not you can eat a meal if it suits your macros.

The IIFYM diet is also very easy to set up and follow. All you have to do is Calculate Your Macros For Weight Loss, Count your macros every day and adjust your macronutrient goals based on how your body reacts.

When using the IIFYM diet To lose weight, you also want to get at least 80% of your daily calories from whole, nutritious, minimally processed foods.

This article will tell you what IIFYM is, the pros and cons of counting Macros against calories for weight loss, how to calculate your macros for weight loss, and more.

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What is the IIFYM Diet?

IIFYM is an initialism of if it suits your macros. The only rule with this diet is simple: you can eat what you want as long as it suits your macros (hence the name).

"Macro" is a contraction of MacronutrientThis is a type of nutrient that the body needs in large quantities. The primary macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

IIFYM, also known as Macronutrient based diet, based on a few simple principles:

  1. Your body weight depends entirely on how much you eat, not what you eat. In this way, a calorie from brown rice is no different from a calorie from a brownie.
  2. If you want to improve your body composition (lose fat and / or gain muscle) you need to consume the right amount of calories per day according to your goals and pay attention to where those calories come from in terms of protein, carbohydrates and fat.
  3. When you meet your macro goals (protein, carbohydrate, and fat goals) each day, you will see results regardless of the foods you eat.

In short, IIFYM is a more sophisticated version of the "Calories in, calories out Diet“That makes it more practical for people who want to improve their body composition and not just lose weight.

Just counting calories will help you lose weight, but it won't necessarily help you lose weight fat. In other words, a calorie is a calorie if we just look at body weight, but calories can be very different when we look at it Body composition.

That said, if all you want to do is lose weight, a calorie deficit of any kind will do the job. However, if you want to lose fat and not gain muscle (or even gain muscle), you need to be eating the right amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat.

Special. . .

IIFYM meets all of these criteria and is therefore superior to mere calorie counting, especially for improving your body and fitness.

How to calculate macros for weight loss

There are three steps to counting macros for weight loss: estimate your TDEE, set a daily calorie goal, and turn your calorie goal into macronutrient goals.

Step 1: estimate your TDEE.

To Count the macros for weight lossFirst of all, you need to calculate how many calories you burn every day. This is known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE).

To find this number, use the Legion TDEE calculator.

If you don't want to mess with the calculator and are okay with a less accurate number, you can also get a rough estimate of your TDEE by multiplying your body weight in pounds by 15.

Step 2: Set a daily calorie goal.

To lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn each day (fewer calories than your TDEE).

I recommend that you use a moderate calorie deficit of 20 to 25% (75 to 80% of your TDEE). This is large enough to burn significant amounts of fat without causing extreme hunger, irritability, or lethargy, or significantly affecting your workouts.

For example, my TDEE has around 3,000 calories. So if I want to lose weight, I set my caloric intake to around 2,300 calories per day (3,000 x 0.75).

Step 3: Turn Your Calorie Goal Into Macronutrient Goals.

Finally, you need to "budget" your calories into various amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. When Counting macros for weight loss, you want to . . .

  • Eat 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. If you are very overweight (over 25%) body fat for a man and over 30% body fat for a woman) then lower that to 40% of your total calories per day.
  • Eat 15 to 30% of your total calories from fat. This generally equates to about 0.2-0.4 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day.
  • Get the rest of your calories from carbohydrates. This generally equates to around 30 to 60% of your total calories.

For example, this is what my weight loss macros would look like:

  • I weigh around 190 pounds, so I want to eat around 230 grams of protein per day (190 x 1.2). There are 4 calories in one gram of protein, which means I have to budget 920 calories for protein (230 x 4).
  • I like to get around 20% of my calories from fat while cutting, which is 460 calories (2,300 x 0.2). Since there are 9 calories in every gram of fat, I want to eat around 50 grams of fat per day (460/9).
  • Finally, I have to add up how many calories I allocated protein and fat to see how many I have left for carbohydrates. I allocated 920 calories for protein and 460 calories for fat, which leaves 920 calories for carbohydrates (2,300-1,380). Since there are 4 calories in every gram of carbohydrate, I want to eat 230 grams of carbohydrates per day (920/4).

You will be surprised that I don't recommend it low carbohydrate diet. This is because low carbohydrate diets are not comfortable for most people research shows that as long as protein intake is high, they are no better for fat loss.

You can do all of these calculations in a spreadsheet, but it is tedious and error-prone. Instead, you can use it to calculate your weight loss macros quickly and accurately the Legion Macronutrient Calculator.

Does Macro Counting Work For Weight Loss?

Some people claim that something as simple as counting macros is not for weight loss. The body is far too complex. Hormones, food quality and other factors also play a role and so on and so forth.

However, the reality looks like this:

You won't gain weight if you eat the "wrong" foods, and you won't lose weight for the same reason Eating "clean". You gain weight by overeating and you lose weight by eating less than your body needs to maintain its current weight.

The relationship between the amount of energy you eat and the amount of energy you burn is known as the "energy balance".

The energy balance is incredibly important as it alone determines whether your weight goes up, down, or stays the same.

When you eat fewer calories than you burn, you are in a "negative energy balance" condition, also known as a "calorie deficit" This leads to weight loss. If you eat more calories than you burn, you are in a “positive energy balance” or “calorie excess” state. This leads to. . . you have it . . . Weight gain.

So, research shows that if you want complete control over your body composition, you need to control your caloric intake.

Also, keep in mind that your macronutrient intake (how much protein, carbohydrates, and fat you eat) has a significant impact on your body composition, especially when you're trying to lose weight.

research shows that the biggest mistake most people make when dieting to lose weight is not eating enough protein to maintain and gain muscle mass. Many people also restrict their carbohydrate intake excessively, which with special needs their exercise performance (making it difficult to exercise hard enough to maintain or gain muscle).

When most people just track their calories, they tend to undereat protein, invariably leading to muscle loss and often leading to a "thin fat" look.

Counting macros for weight loss is the best way to avoid this. The bottom line is that counting macros not only works, but it is the best way to maintain and build muscle and optimize your health while trying to lose weight.

5 tips to make IIFYM work

The IIFYM diet is the most effective and sustainable way to lose weight. . . if done right.

However, some people shoot themselves in the foot by abusing the principles of IIFYM to eat as much junk food as possible while sticking to their macros. While this is technically "allowed" on the diet, it is not an optimal way to lose weight, maintain or gain muscle, or stay healthy.

Instead of using IIFYM to add some guilt-free goodies to an otherwise healthy diet, these people use it to eat like a spoiled kid and end up dealing with hunger (junk food isn't very filling), anchoring bad eating habits, and development of nutritional deficiencies.

How to Correctly Count Weight Loss Macros:

Get at least 80% of your daily calories from healthy (minimally processed and nutritious) foods that you really like.

One of the biggest problems people encounter with dieting is getting to a point where they can no longer put up with chicken and steamed vegetables, and a taste of something hearty leads to you All-out binge.

The best way to avoid this is to simply eat healthy foods that you like every day by incorporating them into your diet as desired.

Who said all you have to do is eat chicken? Have a steak too! Do you love pasta Swap out rice and oatmeal a few days a week! Would you like a delicious, high-protein afternoon snack? Skyr with fruits and nuts is my go-to place.

If you want to learn more about healthy eating, check out this article:

How to Eat Healthy and Actually Enjoy It (Really!)

Create a meal plan that you can stick to.

Many people who count weight loss macros simply keep track of their meals on the fly, with no preparation or forethought.

This results in all kinds of time and energy wasted thinking about what to eat next, and often a few headaches (and stomach aches) when you find you have miscalculated and are low on calories to get through the rest of the day in comfort.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend as little time as possible thinking about what I'm going to eat each day. I also want consistent, quick results, so I'm a big believer in creating a meal plan that is followed every day and changed as needed to keep my meals satisfactory.

You can Create a meal plan from scratch, or you can save yourself even more time and hassle by using the free one Legion Meal Planning Tool. With just a few clicks, your calories, macros and even micros are automatically calculated and converted into a 100% custom menu.

Check it out here:

⇨ Legion Meal Planning Tool

Make way for goodies.

As long as the majority of your calories (~ 80%) come from nutritious foods, treats can be enjoyed in moderation (the remaining 20%).

You can also budget for those discretionary calories however you like throughout the week – having a little bit each day or a big treat once or twice a week.

For example, I really like dark chocolate, so I often eat 100 to 200 calories of it every day. Sometimes, however, I save my free calories during the week and drink half a liter of ice on the weekend.

Pizza, cakes, and other desserts can all fit into your diet using the same system.

Make your meal timing work for you.

If the nutritious foods you prefer to eat are high in calories (usually due to high fat content), this is an easy way to take that into account Reduce your eating frequency.

This allows you to increase the size of your meals while meeting your calorie and macro goals.

Contrary to long-standing myths, eating fewer or more meals will not significantly affect your fat loss or muscle gain.

Your metabolism won't slow down if you eat three meals a day versus seven and don't need to eat protein every 2 to 3 hours to avoid muscle wasting.

Hence, you should eat on a schedule that best suits your preferences and lifestyle. As long as you hit your daily macro numbers, it's perfectly fine to do this in four meals instead of eight, or vice versa.

That said, depending on when you eat your meals in relation to your workout, you might want to eat a too Pre-workout and / or a Post workout meal.

Use supplements to hit your macros.

You don't need to take nutritional supplements for the IIFYM diet to work for you. They are completely unnecessary.

Even so, there are a few supplements that make it easier to hit your macros and stay healthy:

  1. Protein powder and bars. Getting all of your protein from whole foods can be impractical at times, which is why nutritional supplements can sometimes be useful. If you want a clean, delicious source of protein, give it a try Whey +. And if you want macro-friendly protein bars that taste like dessert, give it a try Legion protein bars.
  2. Sports multivitamin. While you can get all of the vitamins and minerals you need for a healthy diet, it is still possible that some less common nutrients (like vitamin K2 and selenium) may be missing. If you're looking for a properly-dosed multivitamin that has everything you need and nothing you don't, give it a try triumph.
  3. Fish oil. If you don't eat multiple servings of fatty, omega-3-rich fish every week, it can be difficult to eat adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. If you're looking for a clean, highly potent, natural fish oil supplement, give it a try Triton.
  4. Phoenix fat burner. Counting macros will help you lose fat without supplements, but some safe, natural substances can make the process faster and more enjoyable. If you want to enjoy faster fat burning and less hunger and cravings, give it a try Phoenix.

+ Scientific references

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medinews Send an email May 7, 2021
170 12 minutes read
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