If It Fits Your Macros, Zuzka's Jump rope Workout, New Web-site coming from Bodyrock, and why HITT workouts might not always be best

Have you guys heard of the nutrition lifestyle called - If It Fits Your Macros? (IIFYM). I'm always researching nutrition info as this is my downfall. I LOVE food, thoroughly enjoy eating and have a HUGE appetite. I've tried various diet plans and find them boring, too restrictive, too little calories and too much cooking! I hate cooking unfortunately. www.iifym.com

But this IIFYM's lifestyle sounds intriguing. Basically they provide you with a calorie calculator on their web-site to tell you how many calories you need to stay alive and how many you need to maintain your weight based on your lifestyle. From there, the calculator breaks it down into how many carbs, fat and protein calories you should be eating - to either maintain, lose or gain. It doesn't have a don't eat this or that, but eat lots of this, etc. etc. You eat what you want as long as it fits your macros for your goals and your lifestyle.
The concept is pretty cool. Here is a better description:

The phrase If It Fits Your Macros (often abbreviated to IIFYM) refers to meeting the individual macronutrient needs relevant to one’s goals and then filling the remaining calories with foods of personal preference. Meaning, eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros.

What “eat whatever you want as long as it fits your macros” means is basically, eat right, but don’t get all caught up in the whole ‘clean vs dirty’ food debate that seems to still go on. If you want to eat whole grain bread, oats, brown rice, etc. etc. Then do it. If you want to eat white bread, white rice, and pop tarts, as long as it fits in with your other macronutrients and your goals in terms of caloric intake then it isn’t going to make much of a difference in the long run. It all comes down to personal preference.

IIFYM is achieved by following a structured diet similar to the below:
- 200lb man at 20% body fat wants to lose weight
- Maintenance Calories: 3000
- Calories to cut: 2400 - this is a 20% caloric deficit
- 1.5g protein per lb/LBM: (1.5 * 160) 240g
- 0.45g fat per lb/BW: (200 * 0.45) 90g
- Calories from fats + protein minimums: (240 * 4) + (90 * 9) = 1770
- Calories from reaching minimums taken from calories to cut: (2400 - 1770) 630
- He has 630 kcal left to fill with whatever foods he chooses (pop-tarts, pizza, cake, ice cream) and still lose weight as a result of remaining in a calorie deficit.

There is another website: www.eattoperform.com that takes this concept a step further. They follow the IIFYM's concept, but then target the timing of your macros around your workouts in order to have your body burning the most fat and building the most muscle. This is VERY interesting to me. Their eBook is $15. (Mine is only $2! Hint, hint, Order HERE.) And I am thinking of getting theirs. 

I have bodyrock.tv's Nutrition Guide, I have the one from the 21 day Diet Challenge, and now I want this one! 

Zuzka posted a new FREE workout on her web-site that incorporates the jump rope and body weight exercises. Looks like a really great workout. I may do this one tomorrow - just 1 or 2 rounds, not 3, at the end of my weight training session.

Here is the Jump Rope Workout Circuit breakdown:

1. High knees with Jump Rope - 1 minute

2. Sit up/butt lift x 3 into 3 push up and 1 jump up - repeat 10x

3. One leg jump with a jump rope for 30 seconds on each leg

4. Lean forward lunge into half pistol squat - 12 reps on each leg

5. Scissors with Jump Rope - 1 minute 

6. Burpee with 4 plank leg lifts - 5 sets

Lisa posted on her FB page that bodyrock (or the dailyhiit?) is coming out with a new web-site. Not much more info on when or anything like that, but I like that they keep their web-sites fresh. I think that is important for online businesses. 

I am interested in seeing where this goes. 

I read something the other day that really resonated with me. It states that strength trumps conditioning for body improvements:  http://bretcontreras.com/strength-trumps-conditioning-for-body-improvements/  Now I LOVE HIIT workouts. They are by far my favorite. They are great for helping to burn fat, keep people in shape and to help a lot of people lose weight. 

But after a while progress can come to a halt. The only way to keep getting into better shape is progressive overload. You have to keep changing your workouts to keep changing your body. 

One of the easiest ways to do this is to add more weight. Once you add more weight it is not always possible to keep up with a HIIT pace. You need more time between reps and sets due to the heavier load. 

You can certainly keep using the same weights and try to go faster or fit in more reps, that is an option too. But if I were doing a HIIT workout with weighted jump squats for instance. It calls for 15 reps with 10 lbs. I've gotten better at them, but don't have a heavier weight than 10 lbs for these. So I would try and squat deeper and do the 15 reps in a shorter amount of time. I could also hold a pause at the bottom to make it even harder. 

At some point though in order to keep progressing, you would need more weight. Secondly, you might need more rest as these get harder before moving onto the next exercise, making the workout a little less HIIT-like. 

See where I am going with this? 

Also, HIIT workouts can backfire on some people because they make you SO freaking hungry!!! Now if you are someone like Lisa or Zuzana who has no problem with appetite control, then you're golden. But I know HIIT's make me out of control hungry some days! 

Anyways, I found this woman's story a bit eye opening. http://bretcontreras.com/strength-trumps-conditioning-for-body-improvements/