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Macro 101: Best Tricks, Tips, & Products of IIFYM/Flexible Dieting (PART I)

7/20/2014

15 Comments

 
Alright guys. Are you ready for this? Brace yo self and grab a helmet because your mind is about to get blown. ;)
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I've been counting macros for a year now and I wish I had known the best tips/tricks from the beginning. That's why I want to do this for YOU!! Because I love you, fellow IIFYM-er!! And I want to make your life easier and happier so you can eat delicious food and never ever feel deprived!! Enjoy!! <3 

STAPLE PRODUCTS:
1. Low Carb Ice Cream/Protein Ice Cream - This is my favorite, obviously. ;) Edy's Slow Churned 1/2 the fat ice cream is ridiculous and you would never know there are only like 3 grams of fat per serving. As I write this, I am currently only at 131 grams of carbs and 26 fats/day (increasing every week!) and I can *easily* fit 2 servings of this into my macros. I eat this lit-ch-rally every single night. If you are on SUPER low carbs, I recommend Arctic Zero ice cream in the Vanilla Maple, Cookies n' Cream, or Chocolate Mint flavor. All of the other flavors pretty much suck in my opinion. Also, you *MUST* heat Arctic Zero in the microwave for at least 10 seconds before eating it or its gross. And be very liberal with walden farms syrup and 0 fat whipped cream. You can also make your own protein ice cream or protein frozen yogurt ("ProFroYo"/"Proyo"). I'll post those recipes ASAP!

2. Walden Farms Products - I don't know if I could live without these babies in my IIFYM arsenal. Yes, they are made with artificial sweeteners so skip #2 if you aren't down with that. That's a whole other conversation/blog post for a different time. For now, I will tell you these 0 calorie, 0 carb, 0 sugar, 0 fat products are life-changing. THEY ARE HIT OR MISS THOUGH. The only products that I can personally recommend are their pancake syrup (IIFYM HOLY GRAIL!!! *MUST HAVE*), chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, strawberry jam spread, marshmallow spread, and thousand island dressing. The ranch dressing I had to throw out because it was disgusting.

3. 0 Calorie Spray Butter - Spray it on egg whites and add a little garlic powder, salt, pepper, and seasonings. Spray it on toast and add some WF strawberry jam. Spray it on protein waffles and protein pancakes. Spray it on 0 calorie miracle noodles and add seasonings. Just spray it. On everything. You're welcome.

4. Baking Products - 
A) Cocoa Powder: I know this sounds random and crazy, but WOAH. Holy fiber source! 2 tbsp of has just 20 calories and 4 grams of fiber. Add it to anything -- mugcakes, protein waffles/pancakes (makes them VERY voluminous), oatmeal, zoats/zeggs, protein shakes… chocolate is your new best friend! 
B) Stevia: I have the BIGGEST sweet tooth ever. I don't know what I'd do without stevia. I pretty much add it to everything - mugcakes, coffee, protein waffles/pancakes, oatmeal, protein shakes, greek yogurt… earrrrrthang.
C) Coconut Flour/Almond Flour: These are GREAT for any kind of baking -- especially for protein waffles, pancakes, brownies, cookies, and mugcakes. If you tend to run out of carbs quicker than fats, I'd suggest using almond flour. If you run out of fats quicker than carbs, use coconut flour! Check out my recipes section and try it out!
D) Sugar Free Pudding Mix: This makes everything taste so much betterrrrrrr. Add it to mugcakes, protein waffles/pancakes, greek yogurt, protein shakes. Trust me. *_*

5. Fat Free Pringles - YUM! 0 grams of fat and only 15 carbs (70 cals) for 15 chips… tastes just like regular pringles! These are always on my grocery list! They are one of my favorite carb sources for sure. When I'm on MyFitnessPal and all I just need to add some carbs to finish off my macros, this is my go-to.

6. Condiments - Reduced Sugar Ketchup, Fat Free Miracle Whip… and buffalo wing hot sauce, sirracha, and regular mustard of course because they are all 0 cal ;) Get em'!

7. International Delight Fat Free & Sugar Free Coffee Creamers - SO GOOD!!! 1 tbsp is only 15 calories. They have tons of flavors, my personal favorites are Caramel Marshmallow and Chocolate Almond Biscotti. They seriously taste like full fat/full sugar creamers. Any brand is great though, as long as it's a flavor you like and low carbs/fats. So go enjoy your guilt free coffee!

8. MIracle Noodles/Shirataki Noodles - THESE ARE A GAME CHANGER!!! Made from the Japanese Konnyaku vegetable, these guys are 0 calories, 0 carbs, 0 fat -- its just straight up fiber and water. AND THEY TASTE AMAZING!!! You MUST prepare it the right way though and it's super easy. They come in a bag filled with water so strain them and rinse them (they smell kinda fishy/weird before they are cooked). Spray a pan with some pam and throw them in and cook for about 2 minutes. I always spray some 0 calorie butter on it and add seasonings. Then you can add any type of sauce, vegetables, and/or meat. Most epic 0 carb pasta ever! They come in rice, angel hair pasta, and fettuccini pasta! Click here to buy on amazon.

9. Zucchini Pasta - Can you tell I'm italian? I LOVE pasta! So here's another low carb pasta option that is one of my favs. It's cheaper than Miracle Noodles and a SUPER high volume food. You do need a spiralizer, but they are cheap and super easy to use (even though they look kinda crazy). Similar to the miracle noodles, just cook them for a few minutes until they are about the consistency of pasta. I love adding pasta sauce, cheese, and grilled chicken to make chicken parmesan OR adding some bragg's liquid aminos (healthier version of soy sauce), PB2, grilled chicken, and lime juice to make a chicken pad thai dish (recipe coming soon!). So good y'all.

10. PB2 - Powdered peanut butter without the calories and fat (45 cals for 2 tbsp)! Add a little water (and stevia if you like it sweet) and you've got peanut butta for dayyyyyyz! I love adding it to pad thai dishes, into oatmeal, on top of protein pancakes/waffles, mugcakes, protein ice cream, and in my greek yogurt *__*!

11. Low Carb Bread/Wraps - For bread, I always buy the Healthy Life brand (35 cal - 1F/5C/2.5P). Flat Out wraps are great for using to make wraps and use as a pizza crust base! I've also heard AMAZING things about P28 Protein Bread. This is next on my list to try!

12. Wheat Puffs - VOLUME FOOD!!! When you are craving cereal but don't have a lot of carbs left, 1 cup of these are 60 cal (13C/0F/3P). Add some almond milk, stevia, and protein powder for a delicious protein cereal!

13. 30 Calorie Almond Milk - GREAT staple product for protein shakes, adding to cereal, protein glaze (almond milk + protein powder), etc. A must have!

14. Nonfat Greek Yogurt - I hate the way this tastes by itself. BUT, it's AMAZING when you add protein powder, cocoa powder, stevia, pb2, etc, and top it with cookies/s'mores goldfish/wheat puffs/sprinkles/whatever fits your macros… 1 cup is 10C/24P/0F… and it's sooooo good. I love making protein frozen yogurt ("PROYO"). I'll post a recipe for that ASAP!

15. Protein Powder - This is a no-brainer but I wanted to share my personal favorites! My absolute favorite protein powder flavors are by Cellucor -- Cinnamon Swirl, Cookies n' Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, FunFetti Cake Batter, Red Velvet Cake Batter, and Molten Chocolate. Next on my list to try is the new S'mores flavor. These are all soooo great as protein shakes and for creating fun recipes!

16. Quest Bars - These ROCK. I mainly love these because of how much FIBER is in one bar. For instance, my favorite bar, the Cookies n' Cream flavor has 180 cal - 7F/22C/21P and get this… ***17g FIBER*** What?! That's almost my whole day worth of fiber! Heck YUS. I usually only eat about 1/4 of a bar at a time and break it into little pieces to use as a topping. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend broiling, toasting, or microwaving these for a little bit before eating a whole bar because they can taste like cardboard if you don't. Adding a little heat makes a world of difference!

That concludes PART 1 of MACRO COUNTING 101! Stay tuned for tons more tricks, tips, and products that will make your life easy and delicious! Much love!

- C
15 Comments
Shawna
7/21/2014 12:39:50 am

Thank you for this great post!!! i just started iifym about 3 weeks ago and this is very informative. i look forward to more posts! thank you!

Reply
Marilou
7/26/2014 04:07:47 am

Nice post!! Where I can find butter spray? Thanks

Reply
Cait
7/28/2014 09:41:37 am

Hey girl! You can find it anywhere! Here's what I typically use:

http://www.icantbelieveitsnotbutter.com/product/detail/129811/i-can-t-believe-it-s-not-butter-original-butter-spray

They usually have it at kroger, walmart, most grocery stores :)!

Reply
Phil
9/4/2014 04:53:16 am

This is a great post, and I've had lots of success with #4, and #9-16. I'm eager to try the shirataki noodles. Are they really legit from a macro standpoint? Seems like a gamechanger to me (if you cook them right).

One thing, the ONLY thing with the Quest Bars is that they use net carbs in their calorie calculation. If you use the carbs, protein, and fats to calculate the calories, you get like ~250 calories per bar. I first noticed the net carb thing with FiberOne cereal. I've been told to use the full carbs and not net out the carbs when calculating macros. Not sure what exactly is the right way to do it; it's probably somewhere in the middle.

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Cait link
9/6/2014 12:30:57 pm

Yes, they are legit from a macro standpoint from what I know! :) I used to eat them a lot when I was super low-carb starting out this experiment. Sooo good!!

That is so interesting about net carbs. I have just logged them like regular carbs and have never had a problem with that or fiber one cereal. I guess it's such a small difference, that it wouldn't impede progress or really have any significant effect unless all you ate was quest bars and fiber one cereal :P!!!

Reply
Haley
3/8/2015 05:12:25 am

Hi Cait! Great post! Quick question.... I recently found out that coconut flours dietary fiber is 93% insoluble so when adding your macros do you count coconut flour as the full carbs listed or do you subtract the insoluble fiber!?

Reply
Ness
8/18/2015 10:25:27 am

Just a heads up--if you're on a cutting diet, be careful with the butter spray. Although it says 0 calories, that accounts for 1 spray, when in reality, there is a bit of fat in each spray, so going trigger happy is going to add up in the long run. I only say this because I myself need to be super anal retentive about counting my macros to a T

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EK
9/30/2015 10:50:27 am

THANK YOU for saying this! Same with all the 0/0/0 foods! If something is less than 5 cals it can be listed as 0 cals, Less than 1g protein/carb/fat magically becomes 0g. So there is nutritional values in these zero foods. Not to mention on spray butter the serving size is 1 spray. I have yet to meet someone who only uses 1 spray.

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Jarid link
1/13/2016 06:30:12 am

Is there a part 2?

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Cait link
1/21/2016 06:46:46 am

There isn't.. yet.. haha! I should get on this huh? I do have a youtube video with a TON more tricks & tips though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5fTI4lSsp0

<3

Reply
Karam
10/26/2016 02:13:53 pm

Hey girl!

Thanks so much for all that you do, I think you're amazing! I saw you make your own version of a chocolate peanut butter cup in one of your videos with just cocoa powder, stevia, PB2, and water. You were mixing it in a cupcake mold and freezing it. Sorry I can't seem to find the video - I'm just wondering if you can give me a quick recipe for that? The ones I find online seem to incorporate a lot of fats with it (i.e. coconut oil) while you seemed to just use cocoa and PB2.

Thanks in advance!

Reply
Calia Battista
2/21/2017 10:31:03 am

Could you post a recipe for the proyo?

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    About Cait:
    I'm a singer/songwriter/fitness enthusiast and self-proclaimed nerd from Nashville, TN. Follow me along my journey to a healthy, balanced life! 


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