The IIFYM Experiment: Meal Calculator and First Week Results

Over the last six months I upped my calories in order to add some muscle and I let myself get heavier than I’ve been in 20 years — 162 lbs.  Now it’s time to get back into my regular pants (and my swimsuit).

For about 10 years I’ve been either low carb, slow carb or paleo (with a Saturday free-for-all cheat day).  Normally I would just drop my carbs to <20/day and add some HIIT workouts to the mix.  But after listening to The Art of Manliness podcast #401 I decided to try eating a balanced diet per IIFYM (“If it fits your macros”).  FYI, macros refers to macro-nutrients — protein, carbs and fat.  Supposedly this way of eating helps you cut fat while retaining muscle mass.

After one week on the plan I’ve noticed the following:

• I’m less hungry.  Contrary to the popular wisdom, this meal plan satisfies me more than the low-carb one.
• I have more energy before, during and after training sessions.
• I’m losing fat without sacrificing muscle and without adding extra training.  Basically the same regimen, maybe a jot less because I’m no longer running 4 or 5 days/week to get ready for that mud run.
• The math on this is impossible (chart below).  Nobody can add 3.2 lbs of muscle in one week, so clearly my single-point body fat calipers are only approximate.  Still, I think it’s safe to say that most of my weight loss was in fat.  Here are the digits:
  

  Date	Body Fat %	Muscle Weight (lbs)	Fat Weight (lbs)	Total Body Weight (lbs)
  5/17/2018	22.80%	123.1	36.4	159.5
  5/10/2018	26.00%	119.9	42.1	162
  Change:	-3.2%	3.2	-5.7	-2.5

Most people use My Fitness Pal to track their macros, but I don’t have the time or patience to enter food minutia into a an app.

If you want try my method, use this IIFYM Daily Meal Plan Creator Spreadsheet that I made to print out a few meal plans (it contains the entire 2016 USDA macro nutrient database).  Then just cycle through the various daily plans as needed.

Pro tip:Cook all breakfasts and lunches on Sundays and eat the same thing every day for those two meals — that way the only thing you have to think about are dinner and snacks.  

Here’s what I looked like back in 2014 when my wife took pictures for the Calisthenics Codex book – pretty much just thin and nondescript at 11% body fat.  Four years and plenty of weightlifting later, I’m going spend 90 days getting lean and see how I look and where I end up this time.