Is a carb a carb? Does it matter where we get our macronutrients? Or is all that matters the amount of macronutrients we attain by the end of the day?
This is something I’ve wanted to touch up on for a while now, simply because of all this IIFYM talk that has been going around lately. [IIFYM = If It Fits Your Macros]
Now just to make things clear, IIFYM is NOT a diet. IIFYM is a term used to ensure that you are fitting your foods into your diet properly. This term was created years ago by a bodybuilding.com writer named Eric Stevens along with Alan Aragon and the only reason for creating this term was to answer people’s repetitive questions a bit quicker.
What was happening was that people, specifically competitors, were going onto the nutrition archive forum and asking questions such as, “Can I have bananas on a cut?” “Can I have granola on a cut?” “Can I have a pear instead of an apple on a cut?”…. And it just kept going.
So instead of being a broken record and repeating the same explanation every single time, he started just keeping it simple and saying “If It Fits Your Macros”. Which later brought on the abbreviation of IIFYM.
Although after a while, people got carried away and have now brought it to what it has become now with people eating candy and Oreo’s on a daily basis because they “fit it into their macros”.
The truth about fitting shitty junk food into your diet is simple, in moderation it is ok and it should be fit into your macros. This is also how cheat meals work best, when they can be adjusted into macronutrients ranges so that you can stay at a healthy balance.
[I apologize, but I love fitness memes… ]
This does not mean you can just eat whatever you want! People forget about micronutrients, digestion, insulin and other hormonal factors that are affected positively from good whole foods. This is why I prefer to stick with a smaller food group of clean sources and when I do stray away to give myself a break, I make it fit into my macros still.
Now, back to the main question… Is a carb a carb? Do types of macronutrients matter? Or is it simply the intake amount for the day.
The answer for this is somewhat frustrating and always the same in the fitness and health industry… “It depends”.
The reason it depends is on a few things like who you are, where you’re at and what your goal is.
So first things first if you are sedentary or very INACTIVE, then no a carb is most definitely not a carb. Being sedentary or having a very low activity level insists that your body doesn’t need an adequate amount of carbs in the first place. Knowing this, we should probably choose a low GI clean carb source because it will have less of an effect on our insulin, will have better digestion and ultimately is less likely to be stored as fat.
Now for those of you, who are VERY active, train regularly and main focus is on attaining good body composition, then yes a carb is a carb. But what you must understand is you cannot get carried away with this like the typical IIFYM dieters.
What I mean by this is that just because a carb is a carb doesn’t mean your main source of carbs should be pop tarts, wonder bread and starbursts. We need to remember that we should still be getting whole food sources in the majority of the time to ensure that we are getting an adequate source of fiber and micronutrients.
But the good thing about this is that you can be a bit more lenient with your diet. If you decide to go out for lunch with friends one day you don’t need to be afraid to have something off your main food list, just be sure to fit it in your macros. Also on that random day you do feel like eating a pop tart, fit it in your macros and you will be ok.
The best approach towards this is to stick to your diet 100% and have one day a week where you can cheat a little bit. This doesn’t mean to go ape shit at an all you can eat buffet, it means you get ONE meal on ONE day to have a little treat. The trick is to fit it into your macros.
No if you’re looking for general fat loss or maintenance, then just take out items of your day to make sure it fits. But if muscle gain and strength is your main goal, I would suggest dropping fats and proteins a bit throughout your day and making this meal carb dominant. This could be as big as doubling or tripling your carbs for that day, but you would need to drop protein and fats 10-20% to ensure you don’t over load calorie intake for your day and spill over.
The carb up has great effects on the hormones leptin, ghrelin and insulin and can also act as a great recovery component to give you a boost in your workouts to come. This is called a refeed day, but that is a whole entire new article to completely cover the details on this subject. I do have a video on my YouTube channel and also an article on Metabolic Damage/Reverse Dieting coming out on bodybuilding.com very soon.
Now the big question I’m going to get is, “How do I figure out my macro’s?!”
Well since I know I will get that question, I’m just going to answer it on here as simply as I can. BUT, you do need to remember that every person and situation is different and will need to be adjusted as time goes by to ensure progress is coming along properly.
These calorie and macro guidelines vary depending on how well the metabolism is working and your hormones are functioning. They also are based off of your food coming from whole/clean sources; this is not a caloric intake from junk!
With that being said, here are my general calorie intake guidelines based on your activity levels and your goals.
| ACTIVITY LEVEL | Lose Weight/Fat | Maintain Weight | Gain Weight |
| Sedentary
(No to Minimal Training) |
Body Weight
(lbs) x10-12 |
Body Weight
(lbs) x12-14 |
Body Weight
(lbs) x16-18 |
| Moderate Activity
(Train 3-4x per week) |
Body Weight
(lbs) x12-14 |
Body Weight
(lbs) x14-16 |
Body Weight
(lbs) x18-20 |
| Very Active
(Train 5-7x per week) |
Body Weight
(lbs) x14-16 |
Body Weight
(lbs) x16-18 |
Body Weight
(lbs) x20-22 |
And here are my macronutrient recommendations.
|
Body Type
|
%Protein | %Carbohydrates | %Fat |
| Ectomorph
(Naturally thin, skinnier limbs, and harder to gain weight) |
25% | 55% | 20% |
| Mesomorph
(Naturally muscular, athletic, or average sized) |
30% | 40% | 30% |
| Endomorph
(Naturally broad, thick, or bigger sized) |
35% |
25% |
40% |
Now that I have broken these down for you, you are able to attain a good baseline to start your diet. But that wont always lead to absolute results, remember real results take time and altering over that time to make a difference.
This is why I HIGHLY suggest a coach who knows their nutrition like the back of their hand [Like me ;)].
A coach can give you this limit along with your training and along the way manipulate and adjust your macros and calories to ensure constant improvement. Because at the end of the day we are all different, you may be a endomorph just like all the rest of the endomorphs using the 35/25/40 split, but your metabolism, hormones, performance, sleep, stress and all the other lifestyle factors are different and those things have a HUGE effect on fat loss and results.
My goal with this was to answer the carb question, give you a FREE calculation to get you started on the right track and open your eyes to the results nutrition can bring you if you dial it in.
For inquiries on nutritional coaching and to witness the results I have given many clients simply through nutrition plans, please contact me at [email protected] and I would be happy to work with you.
