I tried going IIFYM today - here are my results

NonnyMary

Hmm , for those of you who can do it, props to you.

I cant.

Strange but im fighting it because of what it means to me. Like what i said above. I think i still have a food addiction I dont mean to go all psycho-babble on you, but i think thats it. I cant indulge in treats a lot becuse i cant stay within my MFP macros

how do you all do it??? How do you all who enjoy ice cream and pizza do it without going over your portions?

this is ironic because I indulged a little bit, I must have eaten a ton of food to get myself to where i am today If i didn't record that on MFP i would be wondering why i didnt' eat much but still had a lot of calories.

anyway it was just an experiment today. i dont plan to do this all the time.. but i might still have a little slice of pizza next weekend.

Can you tell me how i can enjoy such things without messing me up like today?

Cadori

Find the fat and protein needs for your fitness and weightloss goals.

Hit your protein, hit your fat, if you have leftover calories...THEN use those calories as discretionary.

You seemed to just eat with abandon thinking that fits IIFYM.

Cranquistador

most people who do IIFYM change their percentages and are not using the assigned MFP percentages for macros (which are notoriously low in protein)

BeachIron

IIFYM is for people who have got their diet and training regime in strict order. It is for people who have jumped the first few hurdles and are trying to find a way to allow themselves to step back a bit. It's not for you. that's cool. No worries.

thesupremeforce

So, you basically ate a bunch of random food and then claimed it proves something about IIFYM? That doesn't make any sense. The point is it to hit your macros, not to "just eat stuff."

DavPul

You didn't even hit your macros, you went over in everything. IIFYM should be about 80% "clean" foods and 20% for treats.

Yes i did go over.. on purpose, for the couple of reasons I mentioned,, (No worry, it will undo itself in a couple days.

then it didn't fit your macros so you actually didn't do IIFYM so your totally unbiased, extremely scientific, one whole day experiment basically didn't even exist as what you at did not fit your macros

NonnyMary

IIFYM is for people who have got their diet and training regime in strict order. It is for people who have jumped the first few hurdles and are trying to find a way to allow themselves to step back a bit. It's not for you. that's cool. No worries.

aha!! i thought so.

I have been seeing a trend in the people who encourage others to do IIFYM. it seems those with the 6 pack abs and 1600 posts can do that. You may have hit the nail on the head

Cadori

Hmm , for those of you who can do it, props to you.

I cant.

But you can. Yesterday you did a better job. You hit protein, got close on fat, were almost spot on with calories and still got in chocolate and cupcakes. That's pretty close to IIFYM.

You might want to look at your fat and protein goals though as they both seem low.

Achrya

This is a page from my diary, which shows IIFYM done 'properly)

My protein goal is 114g (I hit 116) and my fat is 51g (I hit 53g). I did this with nutrient dense food, and then finished up my day/calories with some cookies and ice cream.

You can't just shove whatever you want into your mouth and call it IIFYM.

NonnyMary

You didn't even hit your macros, you went over in everything. IIFYM should be about 80% "clean" foods and 20% for treats.

Yes i did go over.. on purpose, for the couple of reasons I mentioned,, (No worry, it will undo itself in a couple days.

then it didn't fit your macros so you actually didn't do IIFYM so your totally unbiased, extremely scientific, one whole day experiment basically didn't even exist as what you at did not fit your macros

I realized too that I cant give myself too much leeeway and i need to back to what I was already doing all week which really was ok. (ok i admit, I was starving at 3:00 today and there was a plate of desserts and i grabbed that .. i didn't take time to have fruit on hand.)

NonnyMary

This is a page from my diary, which shows IIFYM done 'properly)

My protein goal is 114g (I hit 116) and my fat is 51g (I hit 58g). I did this with nutrient dense food, and then finished up my day/calories with some cookies and ice cream.

You can't just shove whatever you want into your mouth and call it IIFYM.

thank you - and thats a lot of food actually

NonnyMary

So, you basically ate a bunch of random food and then claimed it proves something about IIFYM? That doesn't make any sense. The point is it to hit your macros, not to "just eat stuff."

yeah i dont quite understand IIFYM , well except for the people here who have explained it.. im still learning

Factory_Reset

most people who do IIFYM change their percentages and are not using the assigned MFP percentages for macros (which are notoriously low in protein)

QFT

Cadori

OMG OMG oooh ouch ouch

The brownie alone has so much sugar plus the coca cola!!! It's a killer .

All I need is a shopping cart full of pop tarts , brownies , sodas . I can eat all I want and hit my macros.
I am on the highway to nowhere.

~sigh~

DavPul

You didn't even hit your macros, you went over in everything. IIFYM should be about 80% "clean" foods and 20% for treats.

Yes i did go over.. on purpose, for the couple of reasons I mentioned,, (No worry, it will undo itself in a couple days.

then it didn't fit your macros so you actually didn't do IIFYM so your totally unbiased, extremely scientific, one whole day experiment basically didn't even exist as what you at did not fit your macros

I realized too that I cant give myself too much leeeway and i need to back to what I was already doing all week which really was ok. (ok i admit, I was starving at 3:00 today and there was a plate of desserts and i grabbed that .. i didn't take time to have fruit on hand.)

you didn't give yourself "leeway". you PURPOSELY went over. there's a difference in there somewhere, no?

NVM. i wish you the best in all your fitness goals and sincerely hope you find a method to adhere to that you don't purposely scuttle.

Achrya

This is a page from my diary, which shows IIFYM done 'properly)

My protein goal is 114g (I hit 116) and my fat is 51g (I hit 58g). I did this with nutrient dense food, and then finished up my day/calories with some cookies and ice cream.

You can't just shove whatever you want into your mouth and call it IIFYM.

thank you - and thats a lot of food actually

Yeahhhh, My diary is a really intense game of 'How much can I fit today without screwing up my macros/going too far over.'

Answer is usually: A lot of food.

I know people think that those who follow a IIFYM eating style just eat whatever all the time but, in general, a lot of thought and planned and nutrient dense food goes into it.

PikaKnight

IIFYM is for people who have got their diet and training regime in strict order. It is for people who have jumped the first few hurdles and are trying to find a way to allow themselves to step back a bit. It's not for you. that's cool. No worries.

aha!! i thought so.

I have been seeing a trend in the people who encourage others to do IIFYM. it seems those with the 6 pack abs and 1600 posts can do that. You may have hit the nail on the head

Ummm..how can you say that when you had no idea what you were attempting?

NonnyMary

You didn't even hit your macros, you went over in everything. IIFYM should be about 80% "clean" foods and 20% for treats.

Yes i did go over.. on purpose, for the couple of reasons I mentioned,, (No worry, it will undo itself in a couple days.

then it didn't fit your macros so you actually didn't do IIFYM so your totally unbiased, extremely scientific, one whole day experiment basically didn't even exist as what you at did not fit your macros

I realized too that I cant give myself too much leeeway and i need to back to what I was already doing all week which really was ok. (ok i admit, I was starving at 3:00 today and there was a plate of desserts and i grabbed that .. i didn't take time to have fruit on hand.)

you didn't give yourself "leeway". you PURPOSELY went over. there's a difference in there somewhere, no?

NVM. i wish you the best in all your fitness goals and sincerely hope you find a method to adhere to that you don't purposely scuttle.

yeah i did choose to eat extra for a couple reasons. One of which lately I've been thinking of what would happen if i added in a few things that i forbade (so that i woudln't feel "deprived" or something and if i could handle it now). im still feeling like im treading in water full of sharks because i know myself,, i have food addictions, though under control, but still i really dont know what would happen if i let myself enjoy things like i put aside for awhile. I guess i have to actually try it and see what it does.

ryry_

You didn't even hit your macros, you went over in everything. IIFYM should be about 80% "clean" foods and 20% for treats.

Yes i did go over.. on purpose, for the couple of reasons I mentioned,, (No worry, it will undo itself in a couple days.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but are you saying you ate more than you were supposed to on purpose to prove you couldn't do it?

Bottom line is, if you want to lose weight you need to create a calorie deficit, regardless of your eating plan.

In order to make sure the weight lost is mostly fat, not muscle, you need to eat sufficient protein and provide a stimilus to tell your body to keep the muscles (ie strength training and physical activity).

For fat loss, all else is dependent on personal preferences and any relevant medical conditions.

When you realize the above is true, abstaining from a candy bar is less intimidating because you realize you can log it and still lose weight.

You don't have to eat the candy bar if you don't want. You don't have to not eat it either.

I generally follow IIFYM, today I had Grilled Chicken, coffee, half and half, guac, cheese, bbq sauce, pb jelly toast, greek yogurt, apples, protein shake, white chocolate candy corn M &M's, garden pizza. Over my sodium but meeting my calorie goal and protein goal (I am much more liberal, with carb and fat intake).

ETA: I also think your sample size is miniscule. Just like 1 day is not enough to make any significant progress in your fat loss, its also likely not sufficient to determine if an eating works for you.

MyOwnSunshine

Here's the thing...

Most of the really vocal proponents of the poptart, ice cream, bacon, cheeseburger, pizza variety of IIFYM do work out a lot and are very dedicated to fitness, from my observations on MFP. Most of them are also in maintenance or close to maintenance, and most of them were not compulsive eaters struggling with morbid obesity prior to losing their weight. Of course, I am making generalizations, and cannot provide exact details for every IIFYM proponent.

As someone who is a compulsive eater, and who has not always been fit and active, I get frustrated when I see a string of replies to a new MFP member that basically say, "I've lost all my weight drinking beer and eating wings and brownies every day." For one, I believe that they are exaggerating a bit, and they eat much less of the junk they profess to exist on than they would lead you to believe. It's sort of a "cool kid" thing on MFP to profess your love of bacon, ice cream and deadlifting at every opportunity. Unfortunately, they lead people astray a bit by not going into detail about eating healthy more often than not (how else could you meet your macros consistently?) and not being up front about the amount of training they engage in.

IIFYM would be better presented as "everything in moderation, with a focus on healthy whole foods that fuel your body, along with adequate exercise to burn excess calories." And even then, if you are a compulsive eater who has trouble limiting portions of certain foods, or who is "triggered" into a binge or uncontrollable eating by certain foods, you should be even more careful.

I believe in the general IIFYM concept, but you have to remember that you have to eat a lot of healthy foods to actually hit your macros most days, and the more unhealthy (high calorie, not nutritious) foods you consume, the less calories you have for healthy foods.