IIFYM vs. Clean Eating remains the most polarizing debate in the fitness world. As with most debates, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Very rarely is a topic black and white, good or bad, yes or no. Should you track macros and adjust based on the changes to your body as you progress? Yes. Should nutrient dense, whole foods be the focal point of your diet? Yes. People ask me which diet I believe in, flexible dieting or clean eating. I say… both.
But let’s dive deeper into the “illustration” of flexible dieting as I so eloquently put it in the title of this blog (Sarcasm, I’m about as eloquent as a guy yelling things in Penn Station). Flexible dieting, by most accounts, is a combination of tracking macros and the 80/20 rule. Meaning, 80% of your diet should be nutrient dense whole foods, and 20% is whatever the hell you want it to be. Pizza, ice cream, donuts, candy, and so on. Sounds great in theory, but theory and reality are two completely different things in this situation.
Ever meet someone that can eat just a piece of candy and not want any more? A person who legitimately takes only one or two of your french fries and walks away. Ever meet one of these psychos? My mother is like this. She can have two twizzlers and that’s it. These anomalies are the perfect candidates for a “true” IIFYM protocol. They can follow that 80/20 rule to perfection.
Let’s be honest here. I’m not like that. You’re probably not like that. I don’t want a slice of pizza, I want the whole damn pie. I don’t want a serving of ice cream, I want the whole pint. I truly believe most people are like this. The illustration of flexible dieting doesn’t work for me. I can’t have a little bit of something. I have to eliminate these foods if I want long term success.
The key is consistency, and you can’t be consistent if you’re setting yourself up for failure. Trying to fit a Snickers bar into my macros would be torture. Not because of the adjustments I would have to make, that’s actually quite simple. Moving some things around so I have an extra 10 grams of fat and 30 grams of carbs isn’t a big deal. The torture lies in eating that Snickers and not wanting more. It’s inevitable that a stressful day occurs and I can’t eat just one. It’s inevitable that a week of dieting is derailed because one Snickers became five Snickers, or one Snickers became an extra thousand calories of whatever is in my cabinet.
Sound familiar? Don’t feel bad. We just have to do things differently. We can’t “have our cake and eat it too.” Our carbohydrates come from sweet potatoes and bananas, not trail mix and cereal. Just because your buddy has two donuts post workout doesn’t mean you have do. Do your own thing. Be honest with yourself, don’t be under the impression that you lack self control. Accept the strategy that works for you, don’t worry about anyone else.