INTRODUCTION
If you follow If It Fit Your Macros (IIFYM) or have ever been around anyone that has done it or doing it. Then you may have noticed something, they don’t believe in bad food, you can eat any food, hit your daily calories/macros and you will hit your goals and be healthy. Food contains calories and as long as those calories add up to your daily intake, then you are good to go!
Now, we do tend to agree. There aren’t any bad foods per se. However (As 70/30 fitness said it, you can read his full interview here) there are good foods and better foods. This can be tough to get your head around but even if you are hitting your macros and daily calories, you might still want to try to eat a bit “healthier”. I hate using this word, but in this article, we are going to try to explain what we mean.
DO YOU NEED TO EAT “HEALTHY”
Now, calories matter. We all know that. Eating a doughnut isn’t the worse thing in the world and if It is in your macros and daily calories you could most likely eat one a few times a week without any downside. Also, You can hit your goals without eating a single fruit or Vegetable. However, there are a few things that eating “healthy” or going towards more “clean” eating can help with.
The first one is any hunger or eating habits/issues. Now, we are not experts on this and are currently working on getting some interviews with experts, but if you have unhealthy eating habits or issues, swapping to if it fits your macros isn’t going to help you. Struggling to stop yourself from eating cake? Well, is setting a calorie limit going to help you stop eating cake? No! The way to fix this is to build some healthy eating habits and fix those issues.
The second reason you might want to think about eating more “healthy” is because of all the benefits that come with it. Can you reach your goals without fruit and Veg? Of course, are there still reasons to eat fruit and veg? 100%. Let’s go over a few of them below!
BENEFITS OF EATING MORE “HEALTHY”
There are a lot of benefits to eating more healthy or to put it better, eat more fruit and veg. We aren’t going to sit here and bang on about nutrients and micros. We are going to talk about points that everyone understands. The first one being an expansion from the above. Better eating habits. Eating more veg will stop you from eating processed and calorie-dense food.
It is a better way to spend your calories. If we take an average glazed doughnut. You are looking at around 200 calories per serving. Now, think about how much veg and fruit you could have for 200 calories? It is going to fill you up, way more. And also keep you fuller for longer. It is a Win, Win! It isn’t hard to get more fruit and veg into your meals. Add in some chopped onion or shredded carrot to your meals, Swap that cookie out for a bowl of fat-free yoghurt and Fruit. You will be saving calories, Thus you can eat more!
The next point is that it can help lead to better eating habits. Know that putting more veg in your meals will keep you fuller will result in you putting more veg into your meals, thus helping your cravings with “unhealthy” foods. We aren’t saying that having the odd brownie or cookie is bad, but knowing where and when to spend your calories is a great skill. If you could skip having the high-calorie pudding you could in stead have another full meal, full of veg.
The last point we want to make is the fruit and veg is amazing at bulking out your meals. It will not only make you fuller longer but also help make your meals cheaper. More food equals less snacking. Bulking out your meals means you will have bigger meals while spending next to nothing on food. Great for Diets on a budget!
DON’T FOCUS ON ONE OR THE OTHER
This is where we would kind of agree. You shouldn’t get too focused on eating as healthy as possible, much the same as you shouldn’t focus on cramming as much rubbish into your diet as possible. You should try to find a balance. Find something that works for you. It is all about balance.
My way to look at it is to have meals with high volume low calories, most of the time, then fit in a few treats around that. These treats I use towards a pre-workout so that the sugars are put to good work. If I go out for a meal will I have a pudding? Of course, do I worry about having this pudding? No! We have a whole post about eating out and Macros, which you can check out here.
CONCLUSION
This blog was hard to write as I had to use the word “health” a few times. At the end of the day it is just about calories, but what we are trying got get across in this article is that there are better ways to spend your calories. Filling out your meals with low calorie, high volume foods will help your diet so much. You calculate your calories, then you can fill these calories out yourself, however you see fit for your lifestyle.
If you need help with Macros and calories we have a whole host of blogs dedicated to helping you with Macro counting, Check them out here
If you want to find out your daily macro and calorie goal you can download our free application here and use our built in Calculator
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.