Sustainable lifestyle, iifym (If it fits your macros)

thespringbuck

I've replied to a few posts this morning and thought it would be easier to just write one myself, in the hope it gets others started on the right track to a sustainable lifestyle, because diets don't last.

2 keys to success, find someone to do this with (my wife and I work together and it's important at the start), number 2 is IIFYM (If it fits your macros). The first point is obvious really, working together when you start helps with motivation, you keep each other going so try buddy up or find friends here you can work with.

IIFYM then essentially allows you to eat what you like, provided however it fits your macro nutrient splits, that's carbs, protein and essential fats. Before you can start anything tho, you need to know how many calories to eat, ie what size fuel tank do you have, if you think of a car that needs to do a 500 mile journey, how many litres of fuel does it need to get there? Your body is the same, it does a journey every day and you need to give it the right amount of fuel to reach the destination each day, so use the TDEE calculator on the IIFYM.com website to find out how many calories you need to eat, this takes into account excercise, so no need to input excercise into myfitnesspal.

If this sounds interesting and you want to know more, just shout, happy to help, because my wife for years didn't want to accept that she actually needed to eat more to see results, until recently she finally agreed to let me work out what she needed to eat in terms of number of calories because she was seeing no results and staying static while working so hard at the gym.

So I put her calories up from 1400 to 1900 with a 40/40/20 macro nutrient split, and the results were instant and she loves that eats the volume of food she does now, which is exciting food, not at all boring (protein bars and dark chocolate all in there!) and she is seeing great results physically. She only wishes she hadn't have wasted years and years eating so little thinking that's how she was going to cut body fat.

Anyway, hope it makes sense and hopefully this is interesting enough to some to put your hand up and ask some questions about what to do next, I love doing this lifestyle and so many people will get it wrong starting a diet or trying to use this app (frustrating family members have tried and failed because they didn't want to hear what I had to say), so just shout if you want help

RonRoff

I've just used the calculator but i don't understand what it would mean for my total settings in MFP.

My BMR is: 2170
My TDEE is: 2984

This seems right if i want to "stay" at my current levels.

I want to maximize burning fat, while preserving muscles and even increasing muscles. Im doing this with both Jiu Jitsu as StrongLift 5x5 training.

What would you suggest about this? As MFP suggests 1880 excluding sporting. I dont understand what macro's i need to use either.

thespringbuck

Ok that's good, what you need to do now is apply a 15% calorie deficit so u should be eating 2537 to cut body fat at a steady rate without your body realising, you're 'starving' it, you aren't in reality, but it's enough of a deficit to cut body fat without sacrificing much lean body mass. If u do find you loose more muscle than u would like (this didn't apply in my case) you can run a calorie surplus for a number of months, applying +15% to pick up more muscle, then reverse and go into a calorie deficit again for a number of months, and so you go, rinse and repeat.

Regarding your calories, run with 2537 for a week and review the results , 20% would be the absolute max deficit to apply before it has a negative effect on something called leptin, you can google that and find out more about what it is.

For macro nutrients, a 40/40/20 is what I've found is the ideal split, so that's 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% essential fats. In your MFP profile, you can set this and override the auto split MFP applies.

If u don't already have protein powder, you'll need to buy a whey protein to easily achieve your 40% protein requirement, eating that volume of protein in actual food just isn't possible.

Start with breakfast and input what you eat, check the nutrient split, then do snacks, lunch and dinner checking and adjusting as needed after each meal to achieve your 40/40/20. Don't stress if you don't get it exact, some days you will and some days you might have 25% fat and less protein and carbs, but to ensure its sustainable, you want allow yourself a varied diet that's enjoyable so be as strict as you need to be without it becoming tedious and boring. Also, the more you do this the easier it becomes, so don't think it'll always be difficult, new things tend to be.

If you want some examples of a typical day looks like for me let me know and I'll post my meals.

RonRoff

Thanks!

I've set my goal to 2500 round (OCD?!) and setup the macros to 40/40/20. I'm stopping with entering my fitness data in MFP.

Getting this many proteines will indeed be very hardcore but i'll see too it that i get to this amount, this week somewhere i'll see if i can find myself a jar of whey to add up to it, today i only managed to eat half of the proteines but this wasnt a typical day for me, as i was away from home up till quite late in the evening.

I was already wondering why i was hitting the predefined proteine amount so easily, even while i was doing sports and entering that, its just a very very low amount.

Lets see if i can get some results, ill measure everything and weigh everything next week again, just did all the measurements!

Thanks, and i'll most definitely take a look at your logs to see what kind of meals you are eating.

countrylove12

@thespringbuck‌ I noticed your post and was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me a little. I've posted before about the differences between weight watchers and my fitness pal. I thought that with my fitness pal I was eating the "wrong" foods (I was staying within my macros for the most part) and so I went back to weight watchers. However, this morning I had 18g of almonds (plain) and it "cost" me 3 points (daily allowance of 26 points). I feel like maybe foods that are good for you cost you more points on weight watchers. There is a stress at WW to eat fat free foods and processed foods...some wouldn't say that but that's been my interpretation...for instance, a cup of skim milk is 2 points which has been noted as being like sugar water, while whole milk is 4 points. (just wanted to give you an idea incase you aren't familiar with weight watchers)
The more important reason I was posting to you was because I was wondering about "If it fits your macros." I have a fitbit and it's hooked up to my fitness pal and it shows what I burn throughout the day and says I can essentially eat more to make up for it. It automatically adds more macros for me to eat for the day. Is this okay to do? Does If it fits your macros still work eating back calories you burned for the day?
I'm new to all of this and have been trying to lose weight for years (clearly doing it wrong)...you seem knowledgeable and I was just hoping for a little help understanding. Thanks so much!

MzDontStop

Hello and Help
My goal is to gain muscle and loose fat. According to Scooby's Workshop I will now do
5 meals daily, with macros of 45/35/20. Currently my weight is 174 with a BMR 1504 TDEE 2332.

Hello I am new here and have read a few post and FAQ's. I need help understanding my hunger craving yesterday. Yesterday I tried to follow the MFP calorie goal of 1600 but ate beyond that- it was 1967! I kept feeling hungry so I ate more and exercised for a total of 3 hours. 1 hour of body weight calisthenics; 1 hour of dance aerobic class; and 1 hour cardio on Precore & treadmill for a total of 3 hours. Why was I so hungry constantly? I also took a BPI Roxy Lean Theromhypergenic at 7am which used to suppress my appetite. Does anyone know why I constantly felt hungry?
Today I decided to try intermittent fasting (IF) again- meaning that I will alternate high calorie/protein/carb day with low calorie/carb days. 18 months ago I went from 174 down to 152 and gain the weight back due to a knee injury and a surgery 3 months ago.
You can take a look at my dairy and send me a private message.
Thank you