MACROS 101

So, what do we think? It's scary, I have to admit, but things need to be shaken up around here. Need to get off this plateau and get lean, make this body a hot box and shed some winter weight. The top definition to understand for me was from Urban Dictionary.

IIFYM

The phrase If It Fits Your Macros (often abbreviated to IIFYM) refers to meeting the individual macronutrient needs relevant to one’s goals and then filling the remaining calories with foods of personal preference. Meaning, eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros.

What “eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros” means is basically, eat right, but don’t get all caught up in the whole ‘clean vs dirty’ food debate that seems to still go on. If you want to eat whole grain bread, oats, brown rice, etc. etc. Then do it. If you want to eat white bread, white rice, and pop tarts, as long as it fits in with your other macronutrients and your goals in terms of caloric intake then it isn’t going to make much of a difference in the long run. It all comes down to personal preference.

For me, this would be my macronutrient calculator:

Broken down below is if I were to have 3 meals a day:

Or, 4 meals a day, which is more likely:

This is another calculation from here

This would be a typical day of food for Heidi Powell. She says, "For instance, due to my goals, existing body type, workout routine, and wanting to put on some serious muscle mass, my coach has me eating 55% carbs, 25% protein, and 20% fat every other day, then 68% carbs, 20% protein, and 12% fat the other days. These ratios help me add lean muscle mass to my frame while keeping my body fat low!"

So basically, its different for each person and will need to be tweaked here and there. 

I love her and her husbands book and this works well in combination for carb cycling. "This is just a more DETAILED way to focus on your overall composition and goals. On high carb days, your macro goals may be set to 200g carbs, 120g protein, and 39g of fat, but on your low carb days, maybe you get 125g carbs, 120g protein, and 60g fat. Again, these numbers are just examples, but in short, carb cycling (like in Extreme Transformation) and macro tracking actually work synergistically for maximum results!"

Although this looks crazy and so much food, think I'm going to give it a try. We'll see...