A Flexible Dieting Lifestyle Can Help You Reach Your Fitness Goals
One of the reasons that we created Intellipan is to make the process easier for those who follow a Flexible Dieting/IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) approach.
What is Flexible Dieting?
Flexible Dieting has gained immense popularity over the years because of its flexible approach to dieting. Do not confuse this with a diet such as Keto, Vegetarianism, etc. It is simply an approach to dieting that states that you will either gain or lose weight by the total amount of calories that you eat per day.
The total amount of calories that you eat daily is factored by the person’s height, weight, lifestyle, body fat percentage, and daily activity levels. This means that the daily caloric needs for each individual will be different. For example, a 120-pound female will have a different caloric requirement to lose weight than a 250-pound male.
Creating a Flexible Dieting Plan
Without getting too deep into the trenches of this, the total daily caloric intake is broken down into protein, fats, and carbohydrates, which is what we refer to “macros.” Have you heard someone say “What are your macros?” If you have, they are simply asking you how many grams of protein, fats, and carbohydrates are you eating per day, which makes up the total amount of calories that you are eating each day.
Calculating Macros for Flexible Dieting
So, how do macros make up your total calories? It’s simple. One gram of protein equals four calories, one gram of carbohydrates equals four calories, and one gram of fat equals nine calories. If that 120-pound female needs to eat 1,700 calories per day, their macro breakdown may look something like: 50 grams of fat, 110 grams of protein, and 202 grams of carbohydrates. This equation will help you find your daily number of calories consumed.
(protein x 4)(carbs x 4)(fats x 9) = total calories per day.
(50x9)(110x4)(202x4) =1,698 total calories per day.
You can use apps such as MyFitnessPal and Carbon Smart Diet Coach to make calculating your macros easy.
Meal Planning for Flexible Dieting
Now that you have your total calories, you need to measure your food/ingredients by using different measuring tools, such as a digital food scale. Digital food scales are key because weighing your food portions is what is going to give you an exact calorie count for the food you’re eating. For example, if you weigh out three ounces of chicken, you are eating about 127 total calories. That is because three ounces of chicken has roughly 3 grams of fat, 25 grams of protein, and no carbohydrates.
Is it starting to make sense? If not, don’t worry - counting macros becomes easier with time. In fact, this is why we created Intellipan – to help make the process of weighing and cooking your food a whole lot easier. With Intellipan, you can weigh and cook on one device, making meal prep simpler and faster.