How To Look Your Best While Still Eating What You Love

[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]Note From Jeremy:

Below is a great guest that will get you thinking differently about the way you eat. I’ve been getting a lot of comments recently about you guys having a hard time with your style because you’re a little overweight.

Losing weight is one of the fastest and most dramatic effects you can have on your style.

Read the following carefully, and enjoy![/box]

I’ll cut to the chase here: dieting sucks.

Or at least conventional dieting does…

You know what I’m talking about, right?

Those diets that don’t ever let you eat the foods that you actually enjoy eating, and make each day seem like a constant test of your fortitude.

And, really, sheer willpower will only take you so far. Eventually, you’ll fall of the diet wagon, since nothing that feels so consistently unpleasant will ever be sustainable in the long run.

We’re all only human, after all – and endlessly depriving yourself of food you love quickly starts to feel like you’re depriving yourself of life.

But, at the same time, you want to have a nice body and look good in clothes that fit you properly.

The reality is that it’s much more difficult to look stylish when you’re overweight or lacking the right amount of muscle tone to properly frame your body in clothing.

In contrast, when you are in great shape, clothes tend to fit you as they were designed to fit – instead of bunching up in all the wrong places, looking awkward, or requiring alterations.

So, if you care about style and looking your best, you need to make sure that your diet is in order too.

The bad fit disease is very real. And if you’re overweight, it’s hard to get the proper fit.

Which then begs an obvious question…

Does dieting have to be unpleasant?

If a little voice in your head answers with a resounding ‘yes’, then don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Most people believe that dieting and suffering go together like peas and carrots – as if it were somehow firmly set in stone that building a lean, muscular body and enjoying food aren’t compatible.

Let me tell you right now that it doesn’t have to be like that.

Dieting should not feel like an insurmountable challenge; and if it does feel that way – or did when you tried dieting before – you can rest assured that there absolutely is nothing wrong with you…

You’re just doing dieting wrong.

Yes, you can eat the foods you love, drink alcohol, be social, and enjoy life – while still cutting fat, building muscle, and looking your absolute best.

Let me show you how.

The Myth Of Eating Clean

When you think of dieting, what sort of foods come to mind?

If you’re like most guys, images of so-called ‘clean’ foods probably start swimming in your head.

Chicken breast, broccoli, almonds, quinoa, etc.

Does that get your taste buds tingling in anticipation?

Probably not, right?

Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned to think that you need to eat these ‘clean’ foods to get lean.

This means consistently choosing these ‘good’ foods over ‘bad’ ones if you want to add muscle and lose fat.

So, you think, oatmeal for breakfast, salad for lunch, and chicken breast with broccoli for dinner.

Wow, exciting huh?

And imagine only eating foods like that day in and day out for months, while you’re trying to lose some weight.

What a boring way to live!

And, really, it’s no wonder that dietary compliance is so low, with so many guys needlessly forcing these unpalatable diets upon themselves.

But fear not, because I am about to tell you something that will make you never see dieting in the same way again:

Eating so-called ‘clean’ foods will make absolutely no difference to how much weight you’ll gain or lose.

Instead, your weight is entirely determined by your body’s energy balance; that is, how many calories you are taking in compared to how many your body is burning.

So you’re saying that junk food is healthy?

Now before I go on, I want to be clear that I’m not advocating that you should eat nothing but junk food in your efforts to lose weight.

While this can be effective (check out this nutrition professor who ate nothing but Twinkies for 10 weeks and lost 27 pounds), it is by no means healthy.

I repeat, it is unhealthy to eat nothing but McDonald’s and Cinnabon all day, even if you can lose weight doing it!

You will be lacking vital micronutrients if you do this (vitamins and minerals), in addition to having an absolutely terrible macronutrient balance.

Macronutrients, for those of you that don’t know, are simply proteins, carbohydrates and fats. All of the calories that you consume are composed of a combination of these macronutrients (in addition to alcohol, which isn’t considered a macronutrient).

So, while your scale weight is determined by the number of calories you eat compared to how many calories your body burns for energy, the specific composition of your body – including how much muscle you have – is determined by the quantity and ratios of macronutrients that you eat.

A New Approach To Dieting

This new macronutrient-based approach to dieting has become commonly known as IIFYM.

This stands for ‘If It Fits Your Macros’, and was fittingly popularized by the website iifym.com.

Basically, the crux of this dietary principle is simple: you can eat whatever you want as long as it fits into your appropriate macronutrient allotments each day.

• Does this mean you can eat burgers and fries? Yes it does.
• How about pizza? Yes, you can eat that too.
• What about ice cream? Sure, you can have some every night for dessert.

But here’s the catch…

You can eat these foods, but you can’t constantly pig out on them – otherwise you will get fat.

Also, you have to keep an eye on the balance of carbs, proteins, and fats that you are taking in.

If you consume all fats and carbs – even within the correct caloric limits – your weight itself won’t be negatively impacted, but you will find it very difficult to put on and maintain muscle mass.

But as long as you are following these basic principles, you can literally throw away the notion of ‘clean’ foods, and finally stop forcing yourself to eat things you don’t like.

How To Get Started With IIFYM

If you are interested in following a dietary approach like this – one that doesn’t deprive you of your favorite foods or make you feel guilty every time you eat them – then you have several options.

1) The Do-It-Yourself Approach

If you are the kind of person that is happy to spend some time researching things, then you can definitely put together your own diet plan based on these principles.

To help with this, you can visit the IIFYM website, where they have a calculator that lets you figure out the macronutrients you should be eating, based on your specific goals.

You can check out the calculator here.

2) Personal Trainer/Nutritionist

If you’d rather not figure out the details yourself, then you can opt to hire a personal trainer and/or nutritionist to help you compose a diet plan that makes sense for you.

Just let them know that you are looking to follow a IIFYM-style diet, and they should know what you mean.

If they don’t know what you mean, that likely means that they don’t stay up-to-date with contemporary dietary practices, and you should find someone else instead.

In terms of cost, expect to pay at least $300 for a nutritionist to create such a plan for you.

3) Get Some Online Help

If neither of these 2 options sounds like a good fit for you, then our team at Lean Muscle Project will be happy to create a custom IIFYM diet just for you.

We offer affordable, one-time customized diet plans based on your specific requirements, in addition to online personal training services.

If you would like more information about either of these, I invite you to check out our website here to learn more.

Find A Diet That You Love

When I’m training my clients, I always stress finding a dietary approach that feels natural and sustainable for them.

Otherwise, in my experience, people simply won’t stick to it, and will just end up feeling discouraged.

Remember, you should view any dietary adjustment through the lens of your lifestyle as a whole.

If pasta is your favorite food, then a low-carb diet may be tough for you to tolerate long-term.

Do you love going out and drinking on the weekends? Then you need a diet that allows for a certain level of drinking – not one that completely forbids it.

I strongly believe that you can have your cake and eat it, diet-wise – you just have to follow a sensible plan, eat to your macros, and be able to make adjustments when necessary.

And do you want to know the best part about following an IIFYM diet?

Well, the next time you’re having that big burger and fries meal that you’ve been craving, you won’t feel bad about it. Not even a little bit.

It won’t even be a cheat meal; it’ll be part of your diet.

Did you enjoy this article? Have any questions? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!