Prescriptive vs Descriptive

The first time I read about IIFYM, I was blown away.

For those of you who haven't encountered it, If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) is a flexible approach to dieting.  What makes it stand out is that it is descriptive instead of prescriptive.

Prescriptive vs Descriptive

A prescriptive diet is one that tells you exactly what to eat, and when.  Every meal and mealtime is defined and tracked.  It tells you exactly what to do in order to reach your goal.

A descriptive diet tells you none of this stuff.  It just says that, when your day is done, you should have eaten approximately this much protein and this many calories.  In its simplest incarnation, all you track is protein and total calories.  It tells you which direction your goal lays in, and lets you figure out the best way to get there.

It's tempting to think that the prescriptive diet is best.

It's easy to imagine a team of Russian scientists looking at one of their athletes and designing the optimum diet and training schedule for that athlete. Every micro- and macro-nutrient is perfectly suited for that athlete, and ideal for their situation. . .

. . . but you don't have Russian scientists designing your diet for you--you're looking at a generic diet on Reddit.

. . . And you don't have the ability to be perfectly adherent to your diet--you have a holiday weekend coming up and will probably spend at least 8 hours on Saturday drunk and surrounded by food.  How do you adapt to that?

. . . and it takes a lot of time to track every bit of food.  Even if you enjoy tracking your food (lol) you still need to correctly enter all of your servings and weights.

So those are the three drawbacks of a prescribed system:

1. Not optimized (and difficult to optimize).

2. Inflexibility.

3. Tracking is time-intensive.

The Human Forklift Project

I want the Human Forklift Project to take the same approach towards lifting.

When I look at the huge glut of programs and jargon on the internet, I see the same artificial complexity that was crushing my soul before I found IIFYM.

The Human Forklift Project is a descriptive approach to lifting.  It's about teaching you how to write a program, instead of giving you a specific program to follow.

Here is what I hope to teach:

1. Principles of good programming.

        The basics of building an effective program that will make you stronger/bigger.

        Importantly, how to be flexible when writing your programs.  You'll adapt.

2. Variables worth controlling.

        These are the variables that will predict your long-term success as a lifter.

        Other variables do not need to be tracked.

3. Habit formation.

        How to make it fun.

4. Optimization.

        Lastly, how to tailor your programs to yourself.

        As you become more advanced, your programs will need to become more specific.