If it fits your macros

What is if it fits your macros?

IIFYM- if it fits your macros is a way of eating that allows you to still eat junk food as long as it fits in with your daily macronutrient allowance. If you don’t know what macros are please visit here

Is IIFYM keto?

There are many ways to do keto and many different protocols that you can do depending on who you follow, but the one thing these protocols have in common is HEALTH.

There are some people out there in the keto world that believe you can indeed eat things from your old diet as long as it fits within your daily macros and these same people seem to think and will tell you that it is keto, but it isn’t.

IIFYM was invented by someone who wanted to have their cake and eat it, someone who wasn’t willing to put in the effort to change their lifestyle to better their health by giving up the old one.  So they kind of settled on an in between.

Should I do IIFYM?

If it fits your macros fits in with people who want to maintain their unhealthy diets and kid themselves that they are in fact eating healthy.

IIFYM is not keto, it promotes unhealthy food choices, continued sugar and junk food addictions, blood sugar highs and lows and absolutely zero of the health benefits that come with following a ketogenic diet.

I’m all for people finding ways to suit them in their weight loss efforts and I tell people all the time find a way that suits you and stick to it, there are many many ways to do keto but IIFYM is not one of them, the whole point of following a keto way of eating is to improve your health.

Some of the things that keto can help with:

• Breaking addictions
• Detoxing your body of toxins
• Repairing and feeding your gut
• Fuels the brain which gives you better cognitive function, memory and clears brain fog
• Rebuilds and strengthens your immune system
• Reverses disease
• Controls blood sugars
• Balance’s hormones,
• Provides essential nutrients, minerals and vitamins

Following an, if it fits your macros way of eating will not provide you with any of these health benefits.

Addictions to junk food

Junk food is addictive there is no doubt about it, there is even research out now that proves it. If you follow an IIFYM way of eating all you are doing is maintaining those unhealthy food addictions with none of the health benefits.

Many people find it extremely hard to give up eating junk food and will try everything they can to keep eating it, once you make the break from eating the junk food and fully embrace a ketogenic lifestyle you will no longer be bound to the junk food.

Your cravings will disappear, your blood sugars will level out and your hunger and satiety hormones will kick in which means you won’t want to eat junk food any more.

Carbs in food

People following IIFYM think that if one food item and another food item have the same amount of carbs then it’s OK to consume it because it fits into their macros.

For example, if one slice of bread contains 10 carbs and a handful of blueberries contain that same amount of 10 carbs then they can swap the blueberries for the bread, well it doesn’t quite work that way I’m afraid.

The ingredients in these two items are completely different, while blueberries are full of vitamins and antioxidants that are beneficial for the body the bread contains wheat and gluten (among other things) which are damaging to the body.

The takeaway message is just because something has the same amount of carbs it doesn’t mean you should eat it, foods that contain vitamins and minerals and antioxidants should not be treated the same as something that damages the body.

Will I be in ketosis if I follow IIFYM?

It is highly unlikely that you will be in ketosis if you are doing IIFYM unless you are keeping your carbs really low, but even then you may get into ketosis but won’t actually become fat adapted (burning fat for fuel) because you are burning sugar as a fuel source.

What is fat adaption?

Fat adaption is a metabolic process the body goes through in order to start burning fat as a fuel, the process happens when you deplete the body of all its glucose and tap into using either stored or dietary fat as a fuel source, the body actually prefers to run on fat but the body finds sugar easier to convert for energy, so if there is sugar available it will always choose to burn that.

How do I know if I’m fat adapted?

• You will have more energy
• Be able to go longer without eating
• Be able to skip meals (intermittent fasting) 
• No longer feel tired in the afternoon
• Better sleep
• No carb cravings

Can I be in ketosis but not fat adapted?

Yes, you can, if you are following a high fat, moderate protein, low carb ketogenic diet you will be in a state of ketosis, but ketosis and fat adaption are 2 completely different things, ketosis means that your body is at a low enough level of carbs that your body starts to produce ketones meaning you are in ketosis but still using sugar as a fuel source, it’s the in-between stages of becoming fat adapted if you like.