'If It Fits Your Macros'

In the last few weeks I have covered the three areas that most commonly challenge us when it comes to good nutrition. These three areas are, eating habits, discipline in what and how much we eat and our unique nutritional requirements.

So far I have outlined the positive impact of eating a high percentage of whole raw foods in your diet. I have also reviewed the advantages of getting back to our Paleolithic roots and eat the same foods as our ancient ancestors. This week I want to review a fairly recent approach to nutrition that is based on our macronutrient requirements.

What are macronutrients? Macronutrients are nutrients we consume in large enough amounts for our body to sustain itself with healthy growth and development. The primary sources of macronutrients are made up of protein, carbohydrates and fats. Macronutrients provide enough calories for the body to perform at peak levels during our daily activity.

All three of the above mentioned areas start with eating habits built around these macronutrients we eat. Recently, I was looking into a nutrition program called "If It Fits Your Macros" or IIFYM. This is not so much a diet program as it is a method of eating what you want in the proper combination that gives your body what it needs to function at peak performance.

The program "If It Fits Your Macros" or IIFYM was started by a group of competitive bodybuilders and had its beginnings as a way to eat less bland and tasteless foods during preparation for competition. One interesting aspect to IIFYM is that it's custom to individuals to meeting your macronutrient needs as they pertain to your specific fitness or activity goals. Once you have fulfilled your key macronutrient requirements, which are based on activity levels, you can theoretically consume your remaining calories with foods you like to eat. Meaning, eat whatever you want as long as you have fulfilled your required protein, carbohydrate and fat needs.

Eating whatever you want as long as you get your required macronutrients sounds pretty good. One of the downsides to this is it becomes another calorie counting method which has never proven to be a solid approach to a good nutrition plan. On the other hand it allows you to blend whole healthy foods with not so healthy foods. This at least gives you the benefit of getting the macronutrients portion of your diet from whole healthy foods.

For some people IIFYM could be an effective way to maintain a nutrition plan that meets their body's nutritional needs and they can continue to eat poor food choices. At this point we need to remember that calories are not created equal and IIFYM does not restrict the balance of your daily caloric intake to healthy foods. Perhaps aspects of IIFYM have a solid basis as an effective nutrition regimen, but overall it is not going to work for everyone. Clearly bodybuilders have made it work for them and a number of pro-sports teams have adopted forms of IIFYM to enhance the performance of the athletes.

First the real power of a great nutrition program is a blend in the areas I covered in my last few columns. Eating a high percentage of whole raw foods, which are made up from foods humans evolved eating over the last few thousand years. Then making sure those ancient food sources have the correct balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats to meet your macronutrient needs becomes a key piece of the plan.

Tailoring nutrition to suit your individual preferences will give you the most success with weight loss, energy levels and sticking with a nutrition plan. Timing when you eat, what you eat and how much you eat consistently is another big factor for success.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that your food and lifestyle choices will affect your overall health and fitness. Blending three strong programs, raw and primal foods coupled with a great macronutrient will counter the pitfalls of poor nutrition.

Next week I will touch on using fasting as the final component to pull together a very effective overall lifestyle change to nutrition management.

Judd Jones is a director for the Hagadone Corporation.