Most people wouldn’t mind losing a few inches here and there, but what if you could do that and eat ANYTHING you wanted at the same time?
In today’s day and age, the public are constantly being fed news about the latest super foods, diets and foods to stay away from.
Fad dieting has yet again resurfaced, with many people looking to their favourite celebrity for inspiration when it comes to wanting to shed a few pounds. One such dieting trend that has gained in popularity over the recent years is the flexible dieting method: If It Fits Your Macros.
If It Fits Your Macros or IIFYM has been used by many different people with a variety of different goals, ranging from losing weight to gaining muscle mass. It follows the principle of being allowed to eat any type of food, so long as the calorific content is controlled and counted, to make it fit your macros. The macros being referred to are the macronutrients, protein, fats and carbohydrates. However, this particular dieting technique keeps its principles simple. It does not specify what types of food to eat in order to fulfil the daily macronutrient quota. Rather it instructs followers of the diet to eat whatever foods they want, so long as they’re getting the right amounts of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
In effect, what this diet is claiming, is that the protein from a cheeseburger is the same as the protein from a skinless piece of chicken breast, or that the carbohydrates from a bowl of rice are the same as those from a packet of biscuits.
This form of calorific and macronutrient control, although it can cause individuals to lose weight, is not in fact a healthy way to do so and in terms of building muscle, it is definitely not the way to go.
Most forms of calorie-controlled diets can have weight loss effects, so long as the individual is burning more calories throughout the day then they are consuming. Muscle building on the other hand requires an entirely different approach. Being fit, healthy, training and eating to build size and muscle requires controlled dedication; not the IIFYM concept of eating anything and everything.
Body composition and a healthy body are two entirely different things and the IIFYM way of dieting isn’t supposed to be a cop-out, but it’s very easy to see why many people perceive it that way.
When it comes to any form of dieting, the key is self-control, so by following the IIFYM diet, weight loss can be achieved, but health is another matter.
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