IIFYM

IIFYM or if it fits your macros, now you probably know all abut this, or maybe your thinking what are you going on about?

Lets break it down food is made up of macronutrients called fats, carbs and protein, all of them make up the calories in the food you are eating or drinking.

Fats are 9 calories, carbs and proteins are 4 calories.

So your probably sat there thinking so what? well our bodies take in the macronutrients, everybody's break down is different and I will get to that in a minute, but you have probably all heard of don't eat carbs after 6, make sure you only eat x amount of protein. Well truth be told our bodies don't know if its 6pm or 8pm so you can eat carbs after 6, and for protein our bodies only use a certain amount at a time so its best to break up protein and spread it out through the day.

As long as you eat roughly the right amount of macros that are set then you are going to loose weight/gain weight or what ever your goals are, as long as you hit your calories through your macros then you will be fine.

IIFYM makes life easier for you, you can eat cake or ice cream as long as it fits your macros, it means that you don't have to deprive your self any more, if you fancy a bowl of cereal at 9pm have a bowl of cereal as long as it fits your macros..

The downside is everything needs to be weighed to get accurate results, so if you are new to this it will take a little while to get used to it, however you will probably be shocked at portion sizes when you weight things properly as I am sure I am not the only one that over estimates a 30g bowl of cereal, once measured out it really is about two mouthfuls and this will explain how some people cannot lose weight because they are not eating the correct portion sizes.

Once you have been doing it a while you wont need to measure out some foods as you will be able to do it by eye, but it does take time and practise, do make sure you do not get obsessed with it though because it is flexible dieting and it does mean you can be more relaxed and start to enjoy foods again, and if you stress about it not only will it effect your results it will effect your mentality and you will start feeling guilty again.

I want people to enjoy food, it as taken me a long time to enjoy food and realise eating more foods is actually a good thing, you cannot gain muscle if you don't eat foods, and the more muscle you have the more fat you burn. Also carbs are not your enemy, I will do a post on carbs.

Now lets work out your macros, this is a basic calculator and I am no expert so you will need to play around to find what suits you, as some people are more sensitive to carbs and need higher fats whilst others work better lower fat higher carbs, basically give it 2 weeks on the numbers before playing around.

First we need to work out your calories that are needed each day we are going to use the basic formula which is the Mifflin, M.D, St Jeor formula

For females 10xweight (kg) +6.25 x height (cm) -5 x age (y)- 161=REE
males is 10xweight (Kg)x height (cm) -5 x age (y) +5=REE

ill do mine to show you 10x50+6.25 x 157- 5 x 28 - 161 = 1180 basically that's how many calories my body needs if I was to lie in bed and not move for 24 hours

next we need to work out if your sedentary- office job, little walking (REE x 1.2)
light activity- light walking, activity that burns 200-400 a day (REE x 1.375)
mod activity- waitress, on feet for most part of the day (REE x 1.55)
very active - professional sports person, or a manual labourer (REE x 1.725)

Heres mine: 1180 x 1.55 = 1829 so basically if I want to maintain weight I eat this amount, if I want to loose weight I eat less etc.

Now we need to work out proteins, and fats and carbs:

Protein is the fixed number, you either eat .8 to 1g of body weight, if you haven't been eating much protein then start at 0.8 and slowly add protein in overwise you could get stomach problems

so .8xbody weight = RDA of protein or 1g x body weight

For me I do 1g x 109 = 109g protein so that's my protein macro sorted

Now lets look at fats, fats are essential for hormones and brain function and every body takes to fat differently lets look at body structure,

Ectomorph: naturally lean person, about 25% of your diet

Endomorph: naturally heavier person, so more likely to utilize fats from diets, so about 35% of daily diet

Mesomorph: average body type and is inbetween the other two so about 30% of daily diet

Ectomorph = TDEE x .25
Mesomorph = TDEE x.3
Endomorph = TDEE x.3.5

Mine example would be 1829 x .25 = 457/9= 50 g fat

To find carbs its TDEE - protein- fat

1829-436-457= 936/4 (4 g of carbs to calorie) = 234 g of carbs

If you have any questions just ask, or you can go to iifym calculator to get it done for you

Progression

We all beat out self a up and see the negatives, stand in a scale and get disheartened because we have put on weight or maintained.

Pictures say a thousand words and there is no better way to track progression then pictures

Here is my progression from March to May, I have been ill in between those pics, but pic on left I'm tensing and have little muscle pic on right is today I am not flexing but my arms are more toned and a lot bigger.. 

Don't quit keep going even when you feel like you haven't made changes, go back and look at old pics and I'm sure you will all be surprised 

Jamie Eason live fit phase 2

I am on week 2 of phase 2 and I can def feel that I am getting stronger in all my lifts! I'm very pleased with how things are working out, my body fat is slowly lowering but my weight isn't changing much which is what I am aiming for as I don't have weight to loose

I now have little bit of definition in my arms without tensing which is great as I always had very skinny arms 

Ambassador

My hard work has finally paid off I am now ambassador with gym monkee www.gymmonkee.co.uk it's an up and coming clothing brand from the uk

My code for discount is leannefowler15

Measurements

I did my measurements before starting Jamie Eason live fit here they are:

Arm 10in

Waist 27in

Hips 31in

Thighs 20in

Shoulders 39in

Jamie Eason live fit week 2

Ok well I maybe had to skip out on a couple of workouts last week as I came down with a bug, however this week I have done back and biceps and felt so much stronger on my back than I have previously done.. Shoulders still my weak point but I will make them stronger 

Food this week and last week has been very healthy and full of micronutrients 

Meal diary

Here is my food diary for the last few days

Breakfast: 3 egg omelette with bacon medalions tomatoes and spinach

Snack: soya almond yoghurt porridge oats and chia seeds

Lunch: salmon fillet with sweet potato and asparagus

Snack: rice cakes with protein peanut butter

Dinner: wholemeal pasta with tin tomatoes and gammon steak

Pudding: chocolate cake/protein shake 

Jamie Eason live fit

I have decided to do Jamie Eason live fit with a mixture of volume training thrown in, I am really just trying to lean out my legs and keep my workouts mixed out a bit, as a mummy who works it's not always easy to get to the gym so rather than beat my self up or do nothing I fit in homework outs with lighter weights but more reps to feel the burn

Meal plan

I'm normally very good with meal planning but lately I have been terrible and just throwing things together, this week is my last week of normality before partner goes away with work for 2 weeks so I have actually planned my meals:

Left over roast

Gammon steak sweet potato chips and egg

Turkey steak with jacket spud and onions

Turkey schnitzel with mash and veg

Chicken strips veg and chips

Very simple but then as long as you have carbs protein fats and micronutrients with every meal then it really doesn't have to be hard work 

Glutes

Today I did glute workout

Leg extensions 4x12

Leg press 4x12

Squats 4x12

Lunges 4x12

Hack squats 4x12

Glute bridge 4x12

I have been off plan for ages due to being ill for ages so starting a fresh this week