IIFYM or just stick to eating clean? | One Good Question

0:08 Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to One Good Question on Friday episode of fifty percent Facts, where we answer y'all's question. If you want to get involved good company discord dot com, you get early access to dollar drops I like mine community, and also a chance to be featured on the show. So today we have a war boy Wonder and his question is thoughts Oni f y m if it fits your macros or sticking to proper healthy foods during a cut. This question to me feels like almost like a six year flashback. So when I began fitness in whatever two thousand and eight ish, doing all my own research, it was a very strict meal plan world. You're eating talapia or chicken breast, broccoli or asparagus, and you're eating rice or potatoes. Morning is oatmeal and egg whites. And that's just the only way people talked about getting jacked. Twenty ten, twenty eleven, twenty twelve, something started to rumble, and I think it actually was invented in the Bodybuilt dot com forums with some of our friends Matt Ogus, Alberto Nunez, all these guys and kind of the Lane. Yeah, Lane was definitely involved talking about uh if it fits your macros, basically just calculating how you eat and not. Then to make a point, that smaller group would do videos and content showing that they can eat, you know, what would be considered unhealthy food, something

1:38 like a pop tart, and a pop tart almost became the fucking flag for if it fits your macros for a bit exactly because it's like like it was on the diet, no for real, because because it was like the most like a processed thing you think of. Right, it's not a you don't even know what it is, right, it's some kind of flour sugar concoction. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a very basic pastry. Yeah. Yeah, it's like a cookie fake pastry. Yeah, And so it made sense. Or doughnuts were another one that became very popular, basically showing that you could eat these things that were so highly processed and sugar and fat and known to be so bad for you, you could eat them and actually get shredded. And that's just you know, kind of basic science. Now. Then fast forward you know, another five years, twenty sixteen, seventeen eighteen, and the world, I mean, I remember having crossfitters who are very keto, very uh paleo at the time on our podcast, and I would try to describe macros. I would even try to describe them to other hosts we may have had another podcast, and they were just dumbfounded that that just won't work. I'm like, no, like, you can have a cookie, and if we're in these bounds, we're probably going to be alright're like, well, sugar, Sugar's so bad for you, inflammation, all this stuff, right. Yeah. Fast forward twenty fifteen, sixteen, seventeen eighteen, and it seemed like the world kind of got a handle, like okay, we get it. Then maybe twenty seventeen to twenty twenty, it seemed like the real balance started, okay, because then it went overboard, as the pendulum always swings, like all motherfuckers are eating cookies all day and they're just chugging protein shakes and hitting their calories and getting jacked. Like yeah, like hypothetically you can get jacked. But I just literally tweeted it that looking

3:13 fit and being healthy aren't the same, and so obviously some kind of balances there, and that's where, if it fits, your macros really works. And the most basic case is something like fitting ketchup or mayo into a meal. Right old bodybuilding stuff, you can't have anything but mustard and salt and pepper. But allowing yourself to track a little bit of sugar in your ketchup to have with your meat probably is not going to crush you. And even beyond that, you know, besides prep, if you're a pro bodybuilder, you can probably have a cookie on the weekends or a brito from Chipotle. Matdoak Is made Chipotle very popular in that way, making it very trackable. Then again, twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, even to now, I would say that people got a handle of that and the world knows what if it fits your maca crows in. I'm actually surprised how many content creators talk about it. Every single one didn't because back in the day they didn't. They were literally lost on the topic. And I thought, and I still think, the gist is, you know, the eighty twenty law people to bring into everything in life. But the eighty twenty does work pretty good when you're talking about dieting. You know, if we get eighty percent single ingredient ish style foods, what's in a potato, just fucking potato, right. What's in rice? Just rice? What's in chicken?

4:25 Just chicken? What's in broccoli? Right? We get whole foods free, you know, seventy eighty eighty five ninety percent of our meals or what's going into our fat faces, and then the other you know, twenty ten to twenty percent getting stuff in, whether that be condiments I catch up barbecue sauce, whether that be a sugary coffee drink every once in a while, whether that be a full dessert at a birthday party or a piece of pizza or two. And I think the bigger topic at hand really is, and this is something I've said for a long time, is that as strict as your goals are, is as strict as your plan needs to be. So eighty twenty for the majority of people that just want to feel pretty good, be healthy, and look pretty good is probably a great target. If you're trying to be mister Olympia, that might go down to ninety nine to one, you know, or one hundred zero. You can eat cookies has mister Olympia for sure, especially in your off season. But if you're really trying to tap into every single thing. The chances are that you track it accurately just start to go away when it's processed. That's kind of the main goal, right, because we can guesstimate how much sugar and whatever's in this cookie that we're eating, but nothing's perfectly evenly distributed when you're mixing a shit ton of ingredients, where chicken breast is pretty evenly distributed with the macro nutrients involved.

5:38 So I don't even know what the actual question is. It was best it was thoughts on if it fits your macros or versus. I think it's the word that should be there, ye, sticking to a proper healthy foods during and cut. So basically, do you cheat a little bit constantly as long as you're accounting for it in your macros? Or do you just eat clean? Yeah? Because then the third one would be people ate so clean but didn't even track or know what's going on and then have a full binger day. Yeah, they'd have a full cheat day cheat meal, yeah, which I think mentally and physically probably is not the healthiest there. So let's eliminate that one. And I think Jim's right, your question is like or, but it should be like and or and or yeah, And it really comes down from my perspective to what works for you, Like if sticking to your diet means that every once in a while you're having or even the every day or whatever something that you think of as a treat that you're accounting for, yep, then then you know, rock on if that works for you.

6:40 If it doesn't work for you because it causes you to go into eight like a crave spiral about about a particular thing, like you need a whole sleeve of oreos and oreo guilty, you know, things like that. If that, if that's gonna if it's gonna take you in that road, it's gonna take you off the path that you want to be on in terms of your diet, then then don't do that, you know, unless unless you need it to make your life normal every once in a while because you're at a party or whatever and you need to, like you need to have a piece of the birthday cake. You can have the small one and you can just sort of guesstimate because you know, I think that you know, looking at if it fits your macros. These days, the smarter move might be if it fits your calories, which is kind of a throwback as long as you're hitting your protein. Yeah, a lot of studies have agreed with that.

7:32 I think it's again depending on your goals. But let's say we're not competitive athletes here or pro athletes. Our life doesn't depend on it. Carbs and fat are pretty much replaceable with each other. So if you're hitting your calories, you're hitting your protein, you can definitely feed yourself towards whatever goal it is, and you can get really fucking jacked that way and really fucking lean that way. If you're a marathon runner, if you're a pro MMA fighter, NBA, something like that, we probably want to dial in our carbs in fat. Again, that's points erro Zeros are a one percent of the world is dependent on their performances to live, So I agree one percent with Jim. I think, uh, I think there are trigger foods that because that was another trend like if it fits your macro's came about and then people are saying fit this stuff in, and then and then the other world got so obsessed with the mental aspect of dieting and how you can't if you have a single I swear to god, I've read hundreds of Instagram posts and articles this way that if if a singler food bite or look of it triggers an emotion in you, then you gotta eaty, you gotta eating disorder. And I'm just like, wow, you know, I'm human. You know things bring emotion, you know, and that if you can't have one bite of something and let it go, that you have an eating disorder. And I'm like, fuck, man, I think we're all fucked, but I do.

8:52 And then and then it flipped and people have a little bit more average or moderate view on that, and I do believe in that as well, that I think at least you need to be aware of those feelings. And then even for me, I mean there is stuff I just eliminate from my diet. They would say that if you had to eliminate something from your diet to find progress that you have an eating disorder, then maybe I do. I don't know. I'm not a doctor, but I can't have ice cream in my house. I can't have ice cream. I have one bite, I'm having the whole gallon. I go out for ice cream, and then and then I'm gonna find ice cream somewhere. I'm gonna make it or you know, something's gonna be shaking my milk jug until it's ice cream. Like, I'm gonna find a way to do that, like a fucking addict. Because they wouldn't make these arguments with other addictions, right, like right, like, which is just crazy And I'm no addiction specialist by any means, but I've watched a lot of documentaries and I am interested in that world.

9:39 We're like a heroin addict. They always say you're an addict for the rest of your life. Yeah. Right, that's just like common protocol alcoholism. Right. They didn't say you're cured. They didn't say you get over it, So why recovering? So if I'm if I am a food addict, and let's say I have an D hypothetically I've never been diagnosed, and I'm not a doctor here, but hypothetically, then why would I just have to get over it it and be able to do one bite of ice cream? Oh yeah, that's a good question, right, because you would never say, like, oh, Jim, you're an alcoholic, let's teach you how to have one beer. Yeah, Like, no, they go sober. Yeah, because there's something wrong with the human brain that that doesn't work I think that if you are someone who goes through periods of time where you really can't control those kinds of cravings, and then and then periods of time where you can control those kinds of cravings, maybe don't have an eating disorder, maybe have an emotional like roller coaster going on, for sure, and and the and the end result should determine if you need help. Correct, Right, are you unhealthy? Is your money, family, or physical health being harmed by these trends. Let's go find some help. Right, And that's probably the same with substances. Right, you can love fucking beer and it's not affecting your money, your relationships, or your own health. Is it an issue? Maybe not right, and maybe it is, but a long story short, I think it's okay to eliminate some foods for the majority of your life. Like you know, I do better with not eating ice cream because I'm gonna eat a shit ton of it, So I just don't eat

11:09 ice cream but once every quarter. Yeah, but that doesn't translate you to being keto and eating sugar or sell them eating sugar or whatever, because I think that that's for sure that's got its own like problems. Yep. And yeah, the basics of if it it's your macros for me right now, for an example of what we're talking about is, majority of my day, I'm eating some kind of vegetable and a meat, chicken, beef, et cetera. And then right now I go through rotations. Me and Subots were just talking about it off air. I go through rotations of like a dessert, eat type dinner or the type of meat I'm eating. And right now I'm on a Greek yogurt kick don't love Greek yogurt, but I dump it with fruit and I put whip cream on it. Like is whipped cream healthy?

11:52 Is it bodybuilding? Probably not? But like the shit in the can is fucking like one gram of sugar per serving, not a whole lot there, And I'm a lot of air and I'm probably putting a bunch in. I'm definitely not doing a serving. But yeah, it's like it's like halo top and a can. Right So I'm doing you know, berries, healthy, Greek yogurt quote unquote healthy, and then whip cream to make it palatable for me, but again allows me to stay on my plan and my calories for the day. That's probably the good cool whip. Yeah, I touch you that. Yeah. Yeah. The boys. The boys never like maybe it's like a nineties thing or something, but we just always grew up like fruit and cool whip, which is like an easy dessert that wasn't good, you know again, not ice cream, not fucking cake, and even Bart I don't think really had it. And we're we're on one of our trips to Texas I think last year, and we're all going grocery shopping. I was like, oh, and I don't know why. We're on a huge fruit kick. Yeah. Everyone was just slamming fruit that trip. And I go through phases of that too, Like I didn't eat fruit like regularly.

12:48 I'll eat a apple here and there, but like right now, I'm eating shit tons of fruit every day. And we were doing that. I was like, bro, just grab some of this cool whip. It's just life changing. Pineapples and cinnamon, yeah, banging, yeah, just little stuff like that. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not a huge USh McCall it to go to keen in that. That's all right. I can do it, salty, yeah, I can do it. I like it. I think that's it. That's it. So find some balance, find a flow that works for you. Again, I'll say this everywhere and it kind of taps into the last long episode we did. If you look. But if your diet guide nutrition lifting has a name, they're selling you shit, and my nutrition and my lifting style doesn't have a name. There's strategies I do and I teach and I believe in. But yeah, we're not marketing every single fucking step of my life. So check it out.

13:35 Hopefully that helps Good Company. Discore dot Com New episode Wednesday Friday. I'm Almael. We don't find me. Three sp dot coo for all your apparel needs. Check it out and third Street Barbell Stark coming on California. I'll see you all then. I am at MCDI and all the social media. This show is fifty percent facts. Percent is a word and the fifty is just numbers. Fifty percent facts is a Spreaker Prime cod podcast in association with Ieartmedia on the Obscure Celebrity Network. I want to talk to you next week six six