Macros/IIFYM

jniece55
jniece55 Posts: 181 Member
edited November 24 in Food and Nutrition
When following macros, is everyone using what MFP recommends? I went on IIFYM calculator and that gave me an amount as well so I was curious what people are using and what is working well?

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    jniece55 wrote: »
    When following macros, is everyone using what MFP recommends? I went on IIFYM calculator and that gave me an amount as well so I was curious what people are using and what is working well?

    Macros are a very individual thing. The IIFYM website is just capitalizing on a concept...there's nothing magical about their defaults...there's nothing magical about MFP's defaults. Given IIFYM gives everyone the same default, I fail to see how it's IIFYM since the "Y" is kind of important...and their default of 1 gram of protein per Lb of body weight is excessive...more than 1 gram per Lb of LBM is just making expensive glucose and not particularly beneficial and IMO, can crowd out a lot of other nutrition.

    Your macros don't really have anything to do with weight management...macro tracking and IIFYM specifically was really born out of the fitness industry. Macros are important for fitness performance, satiety, and body composition and depending on what those macros are comprised of, can lead to a healthier diet overall...but they aren't important for weight management as in not specific macro breakdown is going to default to more or less weight loss.
  • bcradio1
    bcradio1 Posts: 43 Member
    jniece55 wrote: »
    When following macros, is everyone using what MFP recommends? I went on IIFYM calculator and that gave me an amount as well so I was curious what people are using and what is working well?

    No.

    The only 2 things you need to know is that you want to get a minimum of 0.4g of fat and 0.6g of protein per pound of bodyweight each day. These are minimums, so you can have more if you want.

    Fill the rest with whatever you want.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    jniece55 wrote: »
    When following macros, is everyone using what MFP recommends? I went on IIFYM calculator and that gave me an amount as well so I was curious what people are using and what is working well?

    Macros are a very individual thing. The IIFYM website is just capitalizing on a concept...there's nothing magical about their defaults...there's nothing magical about MFP's defaults. Given IIFYM gives everyone the same default, I fail to see how it's IIFYM since the "Y" is kind of important...and their default of 1 gram of protein per Lb of body weight is excessive...more than 1 gram per Lb of LBM is just making expensive glucose and not particularly beneficial and IMO, can crowd out a lot of other nutrition.

    Your macros don't really have anything to do with weight management...macro tracking and IIFYM specifically was really born out of the fitness industry. Macros are important for fitness performance, satiety, and body composition and depending on what those macros are comprised of, can lead to a healthier diet overall...but they aren't important for weight management as in not specific macro breakdown is going to default to more or less weight loss.

    What he said ^^
  • macrologger
    macrologger Posts: 20 Member
    I'm tracking macros too, but went off of the guidelines from Krissy Mae Cagney's "Flexible Dieting", but changed it a little because I was initially set at 150g of protein - I'm now aiming for 120g but still have a hard time hitting that number. I struggle a lot with the nutrition side of things and refuse to do any of those diets/detox thingies where you eliminate certain foods. What everyone above is suggesting good things, but I'm just one who struggles with this aspect.
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