Also known as the Flexible Diet, Macro Count or IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros). I have been using the IIFYM diet for over 5 years now and I use it to prepare for IFBB Pro Men's Physique competitions.
In my entire bodybuilding career, I have been able to compete in over 25 competitions. Competing without frustration is very difficult, and thanks to the flexible diet, it has allowed me to experience another approach to dieting and even to obtain my IFBB Pro card. Yes, because to get it in the USA, I had to compete more than 12 times in less than a year to get the Grail and win 6 overalls (all categories winner). But 1 year on a classic calorie restricted diet is almost impossible to keep it up over time without frustration.
In this article I will explain everything and add my personal experience and feelings.
What is the IIFYM diet?
The IIFYM diet was invented around 2005 on an American bodybuilding forum. This expression "If it fits in your macros" has been taken up by people who have made it a new approach in the world of nutrition.
The principle of a diet is to reach a certain number of calories in the day that you will have calculated beforehand with a ratio of proteins, carbohydrates and lipids well determined according to each person, the level of activity and the objective (weight loss, mass gain or maintenance).
With the flexible diet, you must therefore eat in controlled quantities in order to reach these 3 main macronutrients while having the possibility to vary your food as much as possible.
For example, if you love Oreos and can't live without them, then it's okay to include two in your diet at the end of each day as long as they fit into your meal plan. As long as you don't exceed the amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein you are allowed in a day (and you eat enough fiber), you can eat them without any problem. This will mean recalculating your macros by incorporating your 2 Oreos into your diet.
Be careful!
Now it is obvious that if you only ate Oreos and protein shakes all day, you could indeed reach your macros but you would not reach the required amount of fiber for the day and you would therefore be extremely hungry, which will inevitably lead to snacking and exceeding the calories for the day. Moreover, I would like to remind you that the nutritional quality of foods are not the same. When you eat, depending on your goal, whether in mass gain or dry, you need quality food. And unfortunately, Oreos are not one of them. (I'm talking about Oreos to illustrate your pet peeve)
Know that whole, unprocessed food is digested more slowly and makes you feel full.
It is therefore recommended to eat 80% of the time of "clean" unprocessed food and the remaining 20% what you want.
What is clean eating?
What we call clean are foods that are not or only slightly processed such as fruits, fresh vegetables and even all dried vegetables such as lentils or white beans, fish and meat, some cereals, oatmeal, rice, quinoa, sweet potatoes, etc...
As far as processed foods are concerned, this includes ready-made meals, jars or cans and all foods to which sugar, salt, preservatives, additives, oils or other colorings have been added....
In this list are all the foods like nuggets, soups, frozen pizzas, etc.... In the end, these products are often less expensive but also less healthy since their nutritional quality is not in line with our objectives.
If for example you like soup, make it yourself, so you can control the ingredients and no industrial products will be added to your preparation.
The main reason I love this approach is that I can eat what I like without feeling guilty. Most of the time as a bodybuilder, we eat pretty clean. That's not to say that I don't like pizza, but every once in a while I indulge myself like everyone else. No one can sustain themselves over the long term by eating only "Clean" 24/7. It is absolutely not possible.
What I'm trying to convey here is that there is not only one way to reach the goals we have set for ourselves and that the flexible diet allows us to achieve them and to keep them in the long term. Without doing anything.
Plan your cheat meals
We live in a society that says that pizza, cake and ice cream are bad for our health, it makes us feel guilty for eating these awful things and forces us to start drastic diets because we have abused them.
How many times have you been to a party or something and felt guilty once you've eaten more than you should and thought, "I'm going to have to eliminate this at the gym tomorrow by adding an hour of cardio" or "I'm going to have to eat nothing but salads the next few days to make up for everything I ate"?
Or, you buy a package of Oreos, eat the whole package and feel terrible afterwards (mentally and physically).
But if instead you plan to eat two Oreos every night, or choose to eat 1 slice of your favorite pizza every Saturday night with 2 scoops of your favorite ice cream and the rest of the week you eat healthy, it won't negatively impact your progress and most importantly you will keep your diet over time.
Plan these " cheat meal " so that they fit into your macros. And the rest of the week or day, eat healthy unprocessed food to stay within your macros. Once you have counted the calories you need with the breakdown of the macros (proteins, carbs and fats) then it is just a matter of organization. And what is organization at the beginning will become a habit over time.
My experience as a competitor
The worst thing I struggled with in the past before I knew the flexible diet approach was the downward spiral.
Indeed, after each competition for which I deprived myself for at least 3 months, I had then an unbalanced eating behaviour.
I would eat everything I had deprived myself of during my months of preparation and then feel disgusted. As soon as I started to eat a piece of cake or an ice cream, I would say to myself: "the rest of the day is wasted so fuck it..." and I would continue to eat and do it again the next day and so on with the guilt that goes with it. Once my goal was reached, I didn't have the strength to stop myself just because I had deprived myself. Which is to say that the result is the same as the yo-yo diets.
But now, when I have a meal with friends, or want to treat myself, I stay reasonable, eat a couple of slices of pizza every now and then, a burger or some Ben & Jerry's ice cream for example and enjoy eating without guilt. No more food imbalance with the IIFYM diet. Allowing yourself a cheat meal once a week and eating a cupcake or two without any other excesses does not frustrate you.
One strategy I like to implement:
It's taking 200 calories off my maintenance or dry calories if I'm preparing for a competition each day of the week and saving them for my Saturday night when I want to indulge or have a meal with friends.
200 x 6 = 1200 Calories
That's 2 slices of pizza and 2 scoops of ice cream from ben and jerry. You can do your own math.
How to calculate my macros with the IIFYM diet
I enter what I ate into my app MyFitnessPal so I can adjust my food for the rest of the day. If I go a little over, I readjust the next day to stay within my macros.
Furthermore, what I like about this approach to nutrition is that it adapts to all different types of diets! Paleo? No worries about counting macros. Gluten free? Vegetarian? Organic? You can still count the macronutrients.
I'm not going to tell you that I never go off the rails, or that I never occasionally "cheat" without counting my macros, but that's human and over 20 years of experience has led me to believe that this is basically the best way we should be eating.
Counting macros may not be for everyone, it takes time and discipline. The first few weeks can be a pain trying to get the right foods in place, weighing and measuring everything. But eventually, it gets easier and you will eventually learn to know the portions and quantities without even measuring. And as I said before, if you keep doing it, it becomes a habit.
Today I can look at a food and give you a very good idea of its current macro profile.
You will need some accessories to get started:
- A food scale
- The calorie counting application and macros : My Fitness PalCalorie King, Bodyspace are all very popular.
-Measuring cups / spoons
The bad reputation of this diet
Many people think that the flexible diet or the iifym diet was invented to make excuses and eat anything and everything but this is totally false.
If we try to understand how this diet works, we realize that this is not the case and that, on the contrary, it leads us to be more rigorous.
Conclusion
It is a way of functioning that leads you to be more flexible in your choice of food. On the other hand, it requires a certain rigor, because for example eating 2 Oreos is a temptation to eat the whole box.
Finally, I remind you that whatever the method used or the diet followed, to lose weight you must be in a caloric deficit.
If you are interested in this flexible diet or IFFYM approach, I strongly recommend following a food plan personalized with a program adapted to your metabolism, morphology and level of activity made by a professional.
Some online calculators are pretty aggressive and I don't agree with all of them. But I think that the calorie calculator and macros that I have set up is pretty close to reality.
Thank you for reading this article, and the most important thing to remember is that no matter how you approach nutrition, the most important thing is that it makes you happy and that you get the results you want in the long run without frustration or guilt.
Also read this article:
10 tips for not going hungry when dieting
How do I shop for bodybuilding?
When and why adopt the cheat meal in bodybuilding?
