Whether your goal is to lift heavy, bulk up, slim down, or maintain, you are going to need to be very strict with your diet. By strict I don't mean eating salmon and brown rice for the rest of your life. I mean you need to know what you are putting in your body... As far as my diet goes, I follow Flexible Dieting, otherwise known as If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM). IIFYM is a way of eating that focuses on your macros (protein, carbohydrates, and fat). After discovering exactly what your macros are, you essentially eat foods that fit into your daily intake requirement. For example, if your macros are 152g carbs, 114g protein, and 51g fat, you need to eat foods that will equal 152g carbs, 114g protein, and 51g fat at the end of the day. This can easily be done in an app such as My Fitness Pal. For example purposes, I threw some things that I would eat in a normal day without thinking about macros into my fitness pal just to see how accurate it would be and I missed the mark by a lot. I struggle with eating enough protein so I added in 3 eggs, a black bean burger, and tuna and came out over by 6g. I normally eat too many carbs so I tried to figure that in, and was left 30g short. The fat was close to accurate, so that's a win. However, basically what my point is is that guess-timating is hard, and unless you physically track what you are eating, it is very likely that you will screw it up. There's nothing crappier than not seeing results from the hard work you're putting in at the gym because you aren't eating the right foods. What You Need to Start1. Your Macros: Step one is figuring out which macro combination is going to give you your desired outcome. There's this long equation that you can do to figure it out, but that takes math and who wants that? Not me. Click HERE to get to the website that will do it all for you. Plug in your information and it will spit out your macros for you. Not the most accurate thing in the world, but unless you have your muscle mass, body fat percentage, enough money for a coach, or the patience to figure it out yourself, it'll work just fine (it's been working great for me)! **Remember to adjust your macros every 5 pounds or so when your weight starts to move. 2. A Food Scale: Food Scales are the easiest way to accurately determine how much food you are eating. You can estimate, but chances are you're going to be off a little, and with weight loss/weight gain, every little bit counts. If your daily caloric expenditure is 10 calories less than your caloric intake, you will gain weight. They are especially helpful when measuring liquids, or when you're adding a lot of different fruit to smoothies. You can get one off Amazon for $10-20. 3. A Meal Tracker: Like I said before, I use the My Fitness Pal app on my phone to keep track of my macros, but you can use any meal diary you want. I like My Fitness Pal because there are a lot of foods saved in their database, which means quick and easy adds. You can also scan the bar-code of your prepackaged food and all the nutrition information will pop up, so all you have to do is adjust how many servings you ate. Easy-peasy. You can also use Macrotracker if you're into more of an online experience. 4. Patience: Just like any other diet/exercise you will try, you will not see results overnight. I was working with a friend last month who wanted to give IIFYM a try. She figured out her macros, put a new workout plan into action, and was determined to lose weight. After a week she texted me and said she had gained weight. *GASP!* I know, scary, right? Wrong. Your body is confused, you're throwing a lot of new things its way and it needs a hot minute to adjust and figure out what the hell is going on. The weight she gained wasn't fat, it was water retention from her newly worked muscles. Sore muscles hold water, and will make the scale number go up. Another week goes by, she sticks to her macros and her new workouts and I get a text saying she is 5 pounds down. It's not magic. It's persistence. Understand that IIFYM is a science. If you do it right, there's no way you can fail. Have questions? Don't be afraid to shoot me an email at [email protected] or direct message me on Instagram: @kelliemalonefit!
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