My Experience with IIFYM/Flexible Dieting

I have been exercising/into fitness for 7 years now and food has always been the one thing I have struggled with. I would always 'eat clean' followed by binging. And I'm not talking about eating a block of chocolate and then being satisfied. I'm talking about binging on everything in sight - I would eat a whole 500g block of chocolate in one sitting - yikes!. Even when you are full you don't stop. You can see my post about binge eating back here.

When it came to exercise I would be on track for roughly 8 weeks and as soon as I reached my goal weight I would think okay, now I can eat whatever I want and not exercise. Fast forward 4 weeks later and I would be back to where I started. Then I would start the process all over again. Yes I did this for 7 years. My goal was ALWAYS a number on the scale and it wasn't until I changed that and my relationship with food that I was able to really make it a lifestyle change.

 I have been following IIFYM for 4 months now and I have been consistent the whole time. Why? 1. Because I know exactly what my goals are and this time it is not a number on the scale. 2. I have found a way of eating that allows me to eat anything I want (as long as it fits my macros) and not feel the restriction that comes with eating clean. Don't get me wrong, I still eat clean 80% of the time, but I still enjoy 'bad foods' daily. I finally feel like I truly have balance in my life with food and exercise. And you know what else is great? I haven't had a binge in 4 months. That to me is progress in itself.

Weight Loss vs Fat Loss

It seems everyone these day's is trying to lose weight. There is always a new diet, new workout program or new fat burning supplement promising you that you can have a bikini body in 30 days. But is losing weight the same as losing fat? People seem to use both terms interchangeably and it can get confusing. By the end of this post you’ll understand the difference between weight loss & fat loss, but also which one you should aim for and how.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss. What’s the difference? Let’s start by defining weight loss & fat loss so you know what I mean here.
Weight Loss: You want to lower your body-weight, the weight you see on the scale. The weight of your bones, muscles, organs and body fat.
Fat Loss: You want to lower your body fat, the amount of fat you have on your body, while retaining as much muscle as possible.

IIFYM/Flexible Dieting & Refeeds

 

No doubt by now you have probably heard of the term IIFYM, otherwise known as if it fits your macros. It is becoming extremely popular in the fitness world because of its ability to help you get lean while being able to eat 'bad' or 'off limits' foods. I have been following IIFYM for a few weeks now and I wanted to answer some questions I have had about IIFYM to help you to better understand what it's about, and if it is something you would be interested in trying.

What is IIFYM?

IIFYM or flexible dieting as it is otherwise known is a method of dieting that revolves around meeting daily macronutritional intake targets (protein, carbs & fats) while being able to eat a wide variety of different foods. You plan out your daily meals to provide you with the right amount of calories, protein, carbohydrates and fats that your body needs based on your specific goals (fat loss, maintenance or muscle building). For example, I am currently 'cutting' and losing body fat and my macros look something like this: 135 grams of protein per day 168 grams of carbohydrate per day 56 grams of fat per day (About 1700 calories per day) According to IIFYM, so long as I hit these numbers every day, the foods I eat to get there will not negatively affect my body composition.

Reverse Dieting

See my previous posts on Metabolic Damage and IIFYM.

What is reverse dieting?

Reverse dieting is a very slow increase in calories after extended periods of caloric restriction, essentially you have reached your goal and and want to maintain it. The goal of reverse dieting is to slowly add as many calories as possible (mainly from carbohydrates) without gaining any weight or whilst gaining as little weight as possible. The slow increase of calories allows your body to adapt to the increases each week and prevent any significant fat gain.

Why reverse diet?

If you have been on a calorie restricted diet for a long period of time, especially when combined with excessive cardio, your metabolism will start to slow down and weight loss will become difficult. If you have been dieting on say 1400 calories for a while and have noticed no weight loss so decided to jump back up to maintenance calories (which would likely be around 2000 calories) you would most likely gain a significant amount of body fat.  This is because your metabolism has been somewhat damaged and is therefore sluggish and is not equipped to handle the large increase in calories. Reverse dieting aims to prevent this from happening by maximizing your metabolic capacity so that when you reach the maximum amount of calories you can eat without weight gain, you will start to lose fat far more efficiently.

 

Metabolic Damage

'You should be eating the maximum amount of calories possible and doing the least amount of cardio necessary while still losing fat.'
You start working out and cutting your calories to ensure that you have a calorie deficit. The weight is coming off at a steady pace, then all of a sudden you hit a plateau. No matter what you do the weight won’t budge, so you lower your calories and up your cardio yet again until you are doing 1-2 hours of cardio a day and eating 1200 calories. Then after a while, your weight loss stops. You still haven’t reached your goal, you are frustrated and tired and your metabolism is damaged. Now what?

Many people think that they have to drastically reduce calories and perform lots of cardio in order to lose weight, but could this actually be detrimental to our fat loss efforts? If you someone who has stopped losing weight no matter how much you exercise or cut calories  then you could be suffering from metabolic damage.

IIFYM: How Do I Gain Muscle?

In order to gain muscle you need to eat more calories than what are needed to maintain your current weight. This means you will be in a caloric surplus by around 5-10%. Along with gaining muscle, you will also gain some fat. How much fat you gain will depend on your body. The most common way to approach a bulk (especially from a females perspective) is to lean bulk. Doing a lean bulk allows you to gain muscle while gaining as little fat as possible.

In order to do a lean bulk, you need to work out the calories that are needed for bulking for your body, you can do that here. You want to input all your information into the calculator and select ‘Bulking – Cautious 5%’. I always recommend starting out with 5% to see how your body responds before increasing calories.