Help with IIFYM, please!

inspirezme

I've read so many enthusiastic posts about IIFYM, but I seem to have a mental block when it comes to figuring out a plan for myself. So I am hoping one of you awesome MFP members can help a girl out! I'm 5'8, approx. 165lbs and hoping to lose about 20-25lbs. I have mild PCOS, so one thing I know is that I need to keep a fairly tight reign on my carbs. I've just started training for a half marathon in the spring, so I anticipate I'll be running 3-5 miles/3-4 times per week (not counting a weekend long run). Can someone point me in a good direction?? TIA!!

jacksonpt

What exactly do you need help with? Macro recommendations? Food options?

Recommended macros will usually involve a range, somewhere between minimum and ideal based on your goals. It's not always as black and white as people, websites, formulas, etc. suggest. Speaking very generally, people should be aiming for -

fat: .25-.5g per lb of total body weight
carbs: 1-3g per lb of total body weight
protein: .75-1.5g per lb of lean body mass

Where you fall within those ranges should be dictated by things like personal preference, sustainability, performance, and goals. With PCOS, you'll probably want to be on the lower end of the carb scale, but marathon training will, at some point, benefit from more carbs. You may have to feel that one out for yourself. Admittedly, I don't know enough about PCOS to offer any meaningful advice there.

Food choices are really up to you. Once you get your macros set, eat foods you enjoy that fit within your calorie and macro goals. Ideally you'd want to keep an overall healthy and balanced diet, but that too is really up to you.

inspirezme

Thanks! I think one of my first questions involves the number of calories and grams of carbs...they both seem a bit high to me. Perhaps I have read too much over the years on the plethora of popular diets, but when I do the calculations on the IIFYM.com site, it suggests 1618 calories a day and 215g carb/101g protein/40g fat (based on my **rough** estimated body fat of 32%).

jacksonpt

That sounds like a reasonable starting point. Some trial and error is usually part of getting started, but that sounds like a good place to start. You could easily back down carbs and increase fats a bit if you wanted to, but nothing there jumps out at me as wrong or ridiculous.

cityruss

1618 is fine for fat loss at present.
Use the ratios in the post above.
Tinker to suit your own compliance and training needs.

You may find you need to increase calories and carbs the further you get in to marathon training, I have no specific advise regarding PCOS, but you know your body and your condition, use that knowledge to tinker about with your ratios.

I find IIFYM/flexible dieting a very intuitive way of eating with a lot of self involvement and personal choice involved, it's literally a case of setting macros, monitoring, tinkering, monitoring, tinkering, and so on, until you find something that suits, then monitoring and changing when required.

inspirezme

Thanks for the input, guys.

Nony_Mouse

Hiya, PCOS girl here. Some have no issues with carbs, it seems to be very individual. So you may want to just start with the amount above, see how it goes and reduce if necessary. I can get away with moderate carbs, around 100g a day, others find they need to go much lower.