Vegans Overlooking Diet

You’re vegan, huh? No meat at all. Wow.

Interesting… so, how do you know if you get enough protein?

Here it is — the standard almost scripted inquiry that vegans likely encounter, day in and day out around water coolers across the country.

Non-vegans learn of their preferences on animal consumption and this tired but well-meaning interview process begins. Cue the eye-roll.

Typically, the question is followed up with a reasonable response in the form of an assurance such as Lots of beans. or Soy.

Seeds, nuts, quinoa, and a variety of protein powders such as hemp, rice, and pea, are all other ideal options which vegans reach for to supplement their protein intake.

Which certainly answers the question, “What do you eat for protein?”. However, it doesn’t answer the question, “How do you know if you are getting enough protein?”

Looking for an easy way to dial in your diet; click here to use the IIFYM macro calculator to find out your individual macros.

Crunching Numbers

There is only one way to know if you are getting enough protein (or carbs or fats, for that matter) and the answer is actually consistent for everyone, not just for vegans.

The only way to know if you are getting enough protein is:

1. To know how much you need.

and

2. To track it.

Let’s start with number two. Tracking is pretty easy to figure out.

Especially for those vegans who primarily get their protein source out of a package. Turn the package around, scan the nutritional data and voilà, the amount of protein per serving is right there in black and white.

Go low-tech and jot it down on a piece of paper or go high-tech and punch it into an app. Done.

But number one, on the other hand, could be a bit more of a complicated question to answer.

Remove the complication, let us help you build your Macro Blueprint.

The short answer is it depends on many factors.

The long answer is:

It depends on…

– Gender
– Age
– Height and Weight
– Activity Level
– Whether you want to lose fat, build muscle, or maintain your current body makeup

Figuring out the answer to ‘it depends on’ can have you arousing brain neurons that have been asleep since 11th-grade math class.

(“Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?”)

What’s more, the answers to these questions change over time as new circumstances arise.

This only further complicates an already complicated conundrum.

If right about now you’re wishing that someone has come up with a nifty calculator in the same vein as those mortgage-rate number cruncher things, you’re down to two wishes.

There is such a thing, and the best part is- it’s free.

As a bonus, you’ll find out your carb and fat requirements as well.

Which brings up another point.

Vegans tend to get too many carbs and too much fat to meet their optimal fuel requirements. This is where IIFYM coaches can step in and guide you through the process.

Zeroing in on the Basics

Ironically, when viewing things from a sheer macronutrient perspective, the vegan diet plan closely resembles the stats on the Standard American Diet program, (you know, pizza, burgers, nuggets, lattes, etc.), which accounts for far too much carb and fat intake and not nearly enough protein.

The quality of food may be on the opposite ends of the spectrum, but when comparing apples to apples, or in this case macronutrient to macronutrient, they are essentially the same.

So organic, non-GMO, animal cruelty-free, high-fiber, additive-free, chemical-free, all-natural, local, homegrown, leafy-green, fresh, high in micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, etc… these are all concepts which point to the utmost standards in the human consumption of food and which are typically valued by followers of the vegan diet lifestyle.

Which is a good thing…No, it’s a great thing.

However, all of these considerations more often than not, overlook the most fundamental consideration which our bodies require. They miss the mark in determining the correct amount of macronutrients (which refers to the basic nutrients: proteins, fats, and carbs) required for an individual person.

Each person needs a particular amount of these macronutrients in order to function pro

Vroom-Vroom

Consider this: a standard gas powered vehicle needs fuel to drive. While there are several different levels of quality of gasoline to choose from at the fill-up station, there is no getting around it, the device needs fuel.
And, it also needs oil.

And water.

Keep your body fueled properly while dieting, let us put together your Macro Blueprint.

It may not need as much oil or water as it does, compared to fuel, but it just won’t function without all three being available.

Further, let’s say the fuel, oil and water are provided, just in the wrong amounts. Well, it may certainly roll on down the road, but it isn’t functioning properly and certainly not optimally. The damage is likely being done to the vehicle.

Same with us. We need all three macros in certain amounts.

Vegans Diet Plan and IIFYM

The vegan diet plan and If It Fits Your Macros [IIFYM] not only complement each other, it is actually critical for vegans to work IIF YM into their routine if they are looking to achieve peak performance.

“Am I going to have to track stuff?”, you ask.

Well, yes.</p

There is some effort involved. You’ll have to pay attention and be aware.

But for vegans, this should really be a non-issue. As a rule, vegans tend to have the admirable quality of going through life with their eyes open.

Here are some points to consider:

-Each person has a specific target of macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fats) to meet in order to achieve optimal health. [1]

-IIFYM provides an easy-to-use and free tool in the form of a calculator which determines individual macronutrient needs (based on age, gender, height, weight, activity levels and physical goals)

Many vegans are challenged with the prospect of sufficient protein supplementation in their regular diets. Many vegans account for an overabundance of fats and carbs in their regular diet plan.

Combining the vegan lifestyle together with the IIFYM tracking method serves as a convenient solution for vegans to meet the challenge of fulfilling their daily macronutrient needs.

Are you ready to get started?

Click here to use the IIFYM calculator and to find out your individual macronutrient requirements.

Bonus Tracks

Enjoy the following recipes that were developed for vegans who are looking to increase their protein consumption on a regular basis.
They are lightening quick to put together and were designed to be made in bulk and stored in the fridge or freezer in order to be on hand for quick access to fully prepared nutritionally correct nourishment. They were also created with versatility, frugality, and portability in mind.On-the-go fit foodies, rejoice.

Is An Exercise Routine Necessary to Lose Fat?

 

There’s been a lot of discussions recently in the community about this, and the plain answer is; No. You don’t need an exercise routine.

Although voluntary activity such as cardio and/or a resistance training has health benefits and raises your energy expenditure, it’s not needed to lose fat.

Diet First, Exercise Routine Second

When you gain fat (unwanted weight), the main reason is your diet. The same goes for when you’re looking to lose fat, your diet should be the main driver to do so.

“Whatever your activity level looks like, our coaches can tailor a diet plan for you.”

You can create a calorie deficit counting macros with your current energy output sans exercise.

With that said, we are proponents of an active lifestyle and an exercise routine due to its multitude of health benefits.

 

Originally posted 2019-02-14 19:54:27.

“Everyone is different”: The Lazy Person’s Excuse for Dieting and Exercising but Not Losing Weight

 

How many of you at one time or another gave an excuse as to why you weren’t making progress with your fat loss diet? I couldn’t tell you how many times I heard people say “everyone is different, Matt.” While I agree, that excuse doesn’t hold up when it comes to your health and fat loss diet.

For starters, it all begins with how many calories you take in each day. If you aren’t sure what that number should be, check out the IIFYM macro calculator and it will get you all squared away so you can mark that initial piece off of your checklist.

*It should be noted that we at IIFYM.com, as well as the author, would advise you to consult with your doctor before engaging in any new nutrition or exercise program, including the ones found here on IIFYM.com.

You need to begin with A before you proceed to B

When it comes to a fat loss diet, you can exercise until you’re blue in the face, but if you are eating junk all the time, you’ll never reach your fat loss diet goals.

The nice aspect of an IIFYM diet plan, it allows you some flexibility so you aren’t consuming chicken and brown rice or tilapia with asparagus at every meal like some of these “gurus” out there are recommending.

That’s no way to live your life and you aren’t going to be able to maintain that lifestyle long-term.

For that reason, IIFYM has put together some amazing programs that you should definitely check out if you are interested in reaching your fat loss diet goals quickly and without losing your sanity.

 

Another great resource you can find over on IIFYM.com is all the free content up for grabs. I might be biased since I write for them, but there’s a ton of great content over there ranging from a wide array of topics from IIFYM articles, to exercise, supplementation, and many other topics to help you reach your fat loss diet goals.

Utilize the free content on IIFYM and not only will you learn something new, but you’ll get a better understanding of some topics that can help you through your health and fitness journey.

Macro Tracking For a Fat Loss Diet

In my opinion, a great place to start is through tracking your calories and macronutrients. In order to do this, I highly recommend a tracking app or website such Macrotracker.com or MyFitnessPal. This app allows you to track all of your meals in a nice, easy to read format, right on your phone (which if you’re like me, never leaves your side).

It will give you the breakdown of how many calories you ate, where you are with your macros for the day and how many you have left, as well as a diary where you can record your weight to check your fat loss diet progress.

Macrotracker and MyFitnessPal put everything in a nice graph to show you a visual. You can also change your macros around to suit the nutrition plan you are following whether it’s an IIFYM plan, Paleo plan, Ketogenic plan, etc.

If you wished to get a little more information out of the app, there’s also an option to upgrade to a paid version as well—however, for most people, you can get away with using the free version for all of your fat loss needs and tracking purposes.

Excuses are for the complacent and unwilling

When we see that our fat loss diet has stalled, we seem to be quick to put the blame everyone else other than on ourselves. Many times, we become complacent either with our diet or our exercise program and this, in turn, starts pumping the breaks when it comes to a fat loss diet. The fact of the matter is, you can’t out-train a poor diet.

The “everyone is different” excuse is completely played out. That’s like saying “I’m just big boned.” No, you aren’t, you’re just lazy. Some people just need some tough love in order to stick to their fat loss diet plan.

You don’t need to deprive yourself of many of the items you enjoy in order to attain fat loss.

You might be able to convince other people with your excuses as to why your fat loss diet progress has come to a halt, but it’s extremely difficult to pull one over on a true professional in the industry.

Exercise can be tiresome and demanding, but your diet shouldn’t be. Have one of our coaches build your easy to follow  Macro Blueprint.

 

You must WANT to better yourself and your health

Complacency breeds failure. When it comes down to your health, no one should want it more than you do. If you are exercising and following a fat loss diet such as the IIFYM Macro Blueprint, you are setting yourself up for success.

But, you need to WANT to be improving your health and overall wellness. No one wants to get ill and sick at a young age and potentially lose their battle when they could have taken some preventative measures to bypass all the pain and suffering.

These illnesses don’t just affect the individual either. Rather, they affect everyone around them as well from their friends to family.

Too many people say it’s difficult to adhere to a program, yet many of them haven’t tried a flexible dieting lifestyle. You don’t need to deprive yourself of many of the items you enjoy in order to attain fat loss. When it comes down to it, flexible dieting is about the numbers.

Even clients who have found this difficult at first, love how seamlessly it melds into their current diet plan.

Follow the Numbers and Find Success In Your Fat Loss Diet

Are you hitting your numbers? Do your macros for the day align with your plan or are you over/under? You won’t know unless you write down what you’re eating, the serving size, and macros (or simply use the MyFitnessPal app I mentioned earlier).

I can’t stress the importance of this enough. You can’t tell me that you don’t know why your fat loss stopped when I ask you how many calories you’re eating each day and the answer is “I don’t know.”

 

When you get a common cold, you pay attention to the medicine dosage you need to take and when you can take your next dose, right? Why is that? Because you want to make sure you beat this cold by following the directions in order to do so.

It’s the same concept with a fat loss diet. There’s a plan in place for you to achieve success if you follow it, you win—if you don’t follow it, you lose. It’s pretty cut and dry.

How to progress to ensure success?

 

Let’s assume you have your nutrition plan in place (like a Macro Blueprint), and you are exercising regularly. All of a sudden you see the scale not move for a week. Then the next week you notice again no change. You simply hit a plateau.

This doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong, or that you should throw in the towel, it simply means you need to make some adjustments. Don’t turn this into an excuse of why you decided to fall off the wagon and stop exercising while consuming everything in your pantry each night while parked in front of the television.

Breakthrough your fat loss diet plateau

There’s a simple fix to breaking through that plateau—actually, two different fixes you can choose from. If you enjoy cardio, simply increase the amount of cardio you were doing. For instance, if you were doing 15 minutes of cardio, bump it up to 30. Or if you were doing 30, bump it up to 45 minutes.

On the flip side, if you hate every second of your cardio sessions during a fat loss diet, then adjust your caloric intake. A good place to start would be to eliminate 500 calories from your diet every day. At the end of the week (seven days), this would have saved you 3,500 calories—essentially, one pound of weight.

If you want something bad enough, you’ll make it happen. You simply need to make it a priority.

If cardio isn’t your thing, you could always increase the intensity in the weight room. Rather than taking a 45-60 second rest between all of your sets, cut it shorter to 30 or less. This will keep your heart rate elevated and in turn, allow you to burn more calories.

You could also do quick bouts of cardio between your sets if you wanted. To do so, you could use a battle rope for 30 seconds between your sets, or do some type of calisthenics to keep your heart rate elevated.

Understanding is Vital

These concepts truly aren’t hard, but for many, they just aren’t educated on these types of concepts, so while many of them come as common sense to many of us, learning biochemistry could be extremely hard for us, yet easy for chemists.

We need to have an understanding and not put people down for not understanding the different methods to use. That’s why I feel the content here on IIFYM is a great resource, especially when you are trying to achieve fat loss.

They also provide a ton of free resources for their clients that don’t require extra purchases.

The take-home box and message

 

To tie all of this together so you can hit your fat loss diet goals, you need to stop making excuses and start having some accountability for yourself. On your IIFYM plan, you have the ability to eat meals away from home without dreading your next weigh in.

Your fat loss diet can continue even though you don’t eat at home and are enjoying yourself at a nice restaurant.

It should be noted, that just about every meal you eat at a restaurant is around double the normal portion size. So if fat loss is your goal, we at IIFYM recommend getting a take-home or to-go box immediately after getting your meal and then splitting everything in half so you basically have another meal to enjoy another day.

If you want something bad enough, you’ll make it happen. You simply need to make it a priority. If taking charge of your life and health is important to you, then you’ll find the time each day to be active and exercise as well as eating a sensible whole food diet. Fat loss does not happen overnight.

Be Patient With Your Fat Loss Diet

So, don’t expect to wake up looking like a fitness model after hitting the gym for a few days and cleaning up your nutrition. A fat loss diet takes time and your body will even want to fight you a little and resist any type of change. But, you need to stick with it and the results will soon follow.

I hope you found this IIFYM article on performing a fat loss diet plan helpful. If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out to the IIFYM staff and they would be glad to help you choose the perfect fat loss diet plan for you such as their Macro Blueprint.

It doesn’t just end with nutrition, they also have a bunch of exercise programs you can follow as well. Turn your excuses into motivation and get after it. Before you know it, people will start asking what you’ve been doing because you’re looking fantastic. Keep pushing forward.

 

Originally posted 2019-01-28 22:41:15.

Do You Have to “Suffer” While Dieting?

 

Why is it that when it comes to dieting, everybody automatically thinks they have to suffer and deprive themselves of everything in life? Why is it that people think they can’t have the foods they love and crave in moderation? Why does the word “dieting” have to be portrayed as suffering? (To end that right now, use our macro calculator.)

We really don’t have a clear-cut answer to this, but we feel a big part has to do with the personality of people feeling like they need to suffer as much as possible on a diet to say they did everything in their power to try and accomplish their goal, even if they didn’t accomplish it entirely.

It’s almost like a sneaky excuse to why one didn’t accomplish their goal 100% of the way. Whether it’s losing a few pounds to look good on the beach, dropping some fat for a photo shoot, or dieting down to low body fat levels for a contest, it just seems that people need to endure some sort of agony when it comes to dieting.

We don’t believe in making people suffer when it comes to diets or we would never encourage people to suffer just for the sake of suffering. We believe in suffering for an outcome or for optimization. This is a huge problem, people being intimidated by dieting and they automatically get the assumption that dieting is going to be painful and that they are going to have to suffer so much to where it’s intolerable.

It’s funny how people think this way because there are kids and families in third world countries out there that are suffering from starvation and we want to be scared of going on a diet because we think we are going to have to suffer so mightily?

 

There are a lot of people at fault for this, such as:

•  The internet
•  Magazines
•  Cheesy infomercials
•  So-called ‘nutrition experts’ aka gurus and Broscientists,
•  Gym know it all’s

The list can go on for days.

We know this because we were victims once to all of this nonsense when it came to dieting.

We tried the following:

• A low carb cookie cutter diet out of a magazine 5 years ago and lost almost all the muscle we put on over the winter
• We tried eating a so-called “clean” diet where it consisted of all the traditional bodybuilding foods (lean proteins, sweet potatoes, brown rice, vegetables, etc) and that drove us crazy because we were kicking ourselves in the ass every time we ate something non-traditional aka dirty.
• We then tried eating basically anything we wanted and that went south of the border because we put on excess fat and couldn’t get lean enough without sacrificing muscle loss when it came to dieting down for summer.

 

So we were intimidated and manipulated too by the word “dieting” because we thought it solely consisted of eating nothing but “clean” foods and we felt we had to suffer on these strict diets, but we found a middle ground after 5 years of self-experimentation and trial and error. That middle ground being you can still have the foods you like and enjoy, so long as you are hitting your macronutrient numbers and total fiber number. We talked about this in great detail in our blog “Why count your macronutrients.” 

We know everyone won’t agree with us on this, but we feel that it is so essential to count your macros because you can have all the foods you like and you don’t have to suffer by eating traditional dieting foods day in and day out.

Some of the following reasons why we’re such huge proponents of counting macros are:

• It teaches you discipline
• Allows you to eat the foods you like while still dieting
• It allows you to experiment with recipes that contain healthy ingredients
• It gives you less of a tendency to go out and cheat
• You will be amazed at how much you learn from tracking your food
• You will learn a lot about nutrition and what your body responds well to

Basically, cookie cutter diets out of books, magazines, and websites will eventually be a recipe for disaster. Who the hell wants to eat the same thing every single day? For more info on why cookie cutters just don’t work, see our video here.

Now please don’t get us wrong here, we don’t recommend going out and eating pizza or cheeseburgers and fries to hit your macros, we still believe in whole and minimally refined foods will build quality muscle and you can see that here on our video “Macronutrient recommendations.”

You can still include the foods you like into your diet, as long as you hit your macro and fiber numbers and the reason being that the muscle only sees amino acids, carbs, lipids, and some short-chain fatty acid fermentation from fiber. The muscle doesn’t see specific types of foods. So, as long as you’re hitting your protein, carbs, fat and fiber numbers, everything else will become secondary.

We had a couple of our clients eating baked lays and low-fat popcorn for their carbohydrate source after their workouts along with a protein shake. This is perfectly fine to have as long as you are hitting your post-workout macro numbers and your fiber number at the end of the day.

Obviously, popcorn has like 4 times the amount of fiber content than baked lays, but it’s okay to have baked lays for your carb source as long as you are in the range of your target fiber number at the end of the day.

Evidently, someone that eats baked lays for all their carb sources in their meals will not hit their fiber number, so they would be hurting themselves there unless they got it through fiber supplementation.

 

Conclusion

Choosing a mix of lower glycemic carbs for your meals which are higher in fiber along with other non-traditional foods is perfectly fine in our opinions and it’s a happy medium. So, our point being, normally people would freak out if you told them they could eat popcorn, baked lays, or even low-fat ice cream in moderation on a diet and that’s because of all the BS out there and because it’s looked at as a non-traditional style of dieting and because people tend to overeat.

There are times where we have our clients make healthy burritos (shredded chicken, low-fat cheese, black beans, and whole wheat tortillas) or breakfast sandwiches (eggs, low-fat cheese, turkey bacon, and Ezekiel bread) and it’s perfectly fine because they hit all their macronutrient numbers at each meal.

Another thing people really have to understand and consider is that plenty of people get results in spite of what they do, not because what they do is optimal.

It’s important to recognize that everybody has different methods when it comes to dieting and it’s important to not look down on anyone, especially if they are trying to make a change in their health and life.

We’re not saying our method is the only one out there and it’s certainly not for everybody. But we’ve seen, experienced experimented, been mentored, and done a lot of trial and error to lead us to be huge advocates to counting our macros daily and it’s been a very efficient method for us and our clients to be able to diet without suffering and sustain a long-term flexible diet.

Take home message is to find a dieting method that works for you and that you will be consistent with day in and day out, week after week, month after month, and year after year. Dietary programs need to be tailored to you based on your body type, activity levels, current metabolism, metabolic/hormonal variances, psychological factors, cultural influence, food preferences, and more.

So don’t fall for BS mainstream fad diets or cookie cutter diets from your local Gurus. You don’t have to fear dieting anymore or suffer from only traditional foods. Just make sure to do your homework beforehand, be patient, and always keep in mind that if a diet sounds too good to be true and promises to deliver quick results, then it’s probably BS.

 

Originally posted 2019-01-29 22:14:21.

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