When it comes to obtaining your fitness goals there are two main factors at play, your training and your diet. The training, which people tend to enjoy more, comprises about 20-25% of what it takes for you to get to your goal. The diet, the part that seems to feel more like work, takes up the other 75-80% of what it takes. When starting out training is a little bit simpler, anyone can go to a gym and use the machines that have instructions on how to use them. However, when it comes to diet it can be difficult for people to know where to start. Most people know the obvious foods to avoid like pizza and candy, Andrew and I would call this ‘eating like an asshole’. I am going to give you the most basic guide to follow for the most basic diet that is out there.

Gummy worms are not bad but they should not replace the spaghetti you would have for dinner, plus they don’t taste good in marinara sauce.

One of the most simplistic diets out there is IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros). One quick disclaimer then we will get to the good stuff. There are a lot of people out there that will abuse this phrase, they will be eating a bunch of crap food but justify it by saying “Well it fits my macros so down the hatch we go!”. This diet is not an excuse to eat whatever you want. If you would consider yourself to be well into your fitness journey and have a good base knowledge of nutrition you should not be following an IIFYM plan. But for those of you that just want to get started monitoring your nutrition IIFYM is a great starting point.

First off what in the world is a macronutrient? Wow what a great question and a curious mind you have. There are micronutrients and macronutrients. Micronutrients are nutrients that you do not need a lot of but are still important i.e. calcium, potassium, zinc, magnesium etc. Macronutrients are nutrients that your body needs a lot of to stay alive, which is important to your health. The three macronutrients are: fats, carbs and protein. These nutrients are where your calories come from and are the focus of the IIFYM diet plan.

One of the main benefits of IIFYM is that it allows for some wiggle room in your diet, which is great when you are in the beginner stages of focusing on nutrition. A lot of people start so rigid with their diet but have not built up the discipline yet to be as strict as they want. When this sort of person breaks their diet they mentally break down as well because they told themselves they would be 100% committed right from the start. However, if you go into a diet not necessarily focusing on the foods but rather the macros of that food then there is more potential for you to stick to it. IIFYM allows you to enjoy that burger and fries, milkshake, chips, cereal or whatever tickles your fancy and still have it be in your diet. However, a lot of the foods I just mentioned are going to lack the micronutrients that your body still needs. This is why it is important to not eat like an asshole.

Here is a small breakdown of the macros and their caloric properties. Fat, which has the most caloric density, will give you 9 calories/1g, Carbohydrates will give you 4 calories/1g, most people eat too many of these bad boys, and last but not least there is protein which will also give you 4 calories/1g. These numbers are important because they are what you will base your total caloric intake off of. Have you ever seen the picture where there is a triangle and at each point is a different part of life? One point says sleep, one says productivity and the third one says social life. You’re only allowed to have two at a time. Your macros are kind of the same. You can only pick two but here’s the rule; one of them has to be protein. You can’t have them all in great quantities; your body will either want to run primarily on carbs or fats but not both. If you have all three you will also have a caloric intake that is far greater than you need. If you are someone who is overweight, track your food for a week and I bet you will find that you have high fats and carbs but low protein.

Now the question you are just dying to get an answer for, how many grams of each should I have? Each person will be different but there is a super simple and easy plan to start with. For protein and carbs I would recommend starting with 1g/ lb. of body weight, for fat have 1g/ .5 lb. of body weight. This is a very basic way to start but keep consistent with it and see what happens and adjust from there. We can use me for an example; I weigh 175 lb.’s. (Most of it’s in my booty) so I would have my proteins and carbs at 175g and my fats at about 85g. Now I have been experimenting long enough that I know how to manipulate them based on what workout I am doing for the day or if it is a rest day. Now with these macros it would bring my caloric intake to 2,165. Currently I am trying to gain weight so I would intake 2,165 calories for a week or so and see if I gain weight. If I gain about 1 lb. in a week or so than I am on the right track and I won’t change anything. If I lost weight I would add more protein in general and more carbs on my leg day.

Now do not get confused, this does not mean that my body is burning 2,165 calories everyday, but it is giving me at least one less variable to worry about when it comes to my diet, we now know my caloric intake. After this you will start tracking your body weight and body composition. Weigh yourself every other day and see what happens. If you lose weight then you know that you are burning more calories than putting in, if you gain weight it means you are consuming more calories than you are burning. Depending on your goal you can make adjustments to add extra calories or take some away.

Again, with this diet you can still have lots of room for your favorite foods and enjoy going out to eat with friends, as long as you are mindful of what macros your food has. When my life gets busy and I feel like I am falling a part on my diet I will revert back to IIFYM because being on a program is better than no program. Once you conquer IIFYM I would suggest going a little deeper into cleaning up your diet a little bit. It can be something small like replacing your deep fried chicken with chicken you cook yourself and season it so it doesn’t taste like a dog toy.

If you are wondering how many carbs, protein or fats a food has there is a super easy and convenient way to find out, it’s called google.

TLDR: Macronutrients are fats (9 calories/ 1g), carbs (4 calories/ 1g) and proteins(4 calories/ 1g). You can pick two of these but one of them has to be protein. For a beginner start with 1g/ 1 lb. of body weight for protein and carbs and 1g/ .5 lb. of body weight for fats and see where your weight goes. IIFYM is a good starting point for your diet but should not be the end all be all for your nutrition.

Cam is Andrew’s better half and co-host of the greatest podcast ever conceived, the Fired Up Podcast. He loves to make fitness enjoyable and trick people into falling in love with it. He is a lover of all weights that are heavy and all meats that are smoked.

A Quick Guide to Macro Nutrients

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