Counting Macros VERSUS Eating Healthy

You want to be in the best shape of your life!  You also want your routine to be sustainable and to keep the gains you get over time.  There’s a new way of dieting, or I should say non-dieting, called IIFYM.  IIFYM stands for “If It Fits Your Macros.”

The idea is that you count your macros and focus on getting all of your proteins, fats, and calories.  This actually works, because you are simply calorie counting to the extreme.

It’s fun to tease at the idea of eating a PopTart or a Snickers bar and saying, “So what? It fits my macros” but let’s think about how that would work.  Basically, when eating something unhealthy like poptarts or candy, you are taking up space for nutritional calories and macro-nutrients you can get from nice, lean foods.

On all of my fitness tracking apps, they recommend only 80 grams of fat a day.  Imagine eating some fast food on one of your days.  It may fit your macros, but how much fat does it have?  Probably too much.  You’ll end up eating half of your daily macros in one meal.  This leads to making things difficult and you’ll end up having to eat leaner foods throughout the day.

In conclusion, I think IIFYM is a good idea because at first it’s fun to toy with the thought of eating unhealthy and then you realize you can’t.  You realize you can’t eat out much or eat a lot of junk food and still make it fit your macros.  The best thing about IIFYM is that you’ll become more aware of how much of each macro your foods have and of the caloric content.  You’ll wind up knowing what’s leaner and how to eat in moderation.

If It Fits Your Macros and eating healthy aren’t two different choices.  They’re two sides of the same coin.

Have a great day and thanks for reading.  Please subscribe to my website, MAXED OUT MUSCLES! 🙂

Advertisement

Different Weights For Different Dates

Ever right down the dates for certain activities in your fitness adventure? It isn’t a bad idea. You could set a time of week to do high weight, low rep and other times for low weight, high rep. You could set a day each month for maxing out on all of your exercises.

I set specific dates for my goals. Every 5th of the month is picture day to see my results and the 6th is weigh-in/body fat % day.

The goals should help you stay focused, consistent, and punctual. If you like this blog, do me a small favor and subscribe for free updates.

Weak Points In Fitness Life

Today I finally got around to working out one of my weak areas thus far, legs. I say that it’s only weak so far because I’ve never had a chance to extensively train my barbell squat. Finally getting to, squatting 225 seems somewhat easy. However, I know that’s not an extreme amount of weight. I know I’ll get there though, in due time.

Biceps are another weak area of mine. I’ve been curling almost the same weight for months so I’ve finally decided to go the extra yard and try different workouts for the biceps. I feel that it should work. I should be curling a lot and doing chin ups no problem in no time at all.

What are your weak areas? Feel free to post in the comments and let me know how you plan on building up on that. Your weak area can be anything: from certain muscles to cardiovascular health to that mental edge and focus…what do you need to work on?