I tried going IIFYM today - here are my results

NonnyMary

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.

Totally disagree with this. I'm a compulsive eater. I have not always been fit and active. I eat ice cream, Pop Tarts, cookies, etc., literally every day. I train for a grand total of 3.5 to 4 hours per week. And I lose weight. It's not my fault that some people are unwilling to control their behavior when there's a tray of cupcakes in front of them. Don't tell me I'm lying or just trying to be a cool kid. It's hard work that clearly not everyone is willing to do.

I wasn't trying to attack anyone. I actually use IIFYM as well, and I deadlift and eat bacon and ice cream.

I was trying to explain the concept of IIFYM to the OP in a way she could understand and use or not use, depending on her situation.

I get frustrated because there is almost a guaranteed automatic response to new posters who post their "great diet plan" that includes only clean eating/paleo/low carb/vegan/insert restriction here kind of eating. Multiple people will respond to their plan with claims about IIFYM in a boastful way that is almost misleading. While they exclaim about the ice cream, poptart, cheeseburger eating that IIFYM entails, they don't always share the details like ice cream = 1/2 cup serving and not a whole pint every single day.

You are all right that IIFYM is probably the best way to lose and maintain, but there really isn't a book or catchy website detailing the plan to people who don't know what it means. People like the original poster can easily get the wrong idea about what "moderation" and IIFYM entails, especially if they are new and don't know what questions to ask.

I certainly stated in my original post that I was making a "generalization" and not detailing the food logs of specific dieters.

That sounds sensible.. Well it may be that I was reading posts and getting a wrong interpretation of what i thought they were doing. but i see you have clearly shown me what is happening. If I am understanding it right you could say something like this - "today I ate cookies (1 Oreo); pop tarts (1); ice cream (1/2 cup - 100 calories) and fried chicken (1 leg 300 calories); but to me I was interpreting it as a sleeve of Oreos, 3 pop tarts - one for each meal; ice cream - 1-2 cups, and fried chicken dinner.

frankly it was scaring me a bit.

Cadori

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.

Totally disagree with this. I'm a compulsive eater. I have not always been fit and active. I eat ice cream, Pop Tarts, cookies, etc., literally every day. I train for a grand total of 3.5 to 4 hours per week. And I lose weight. It's not my fault that some people are unwilling to control their behavior when there's a tray of cupcakes in front of them. Don't tell me I'm lying or just trying to be a cool kid. It's hard work that clearly not everyone is willing to do.

Ok you are one of the people I was referring to when i said its the poeple who have 1600 posts or more that found a way to eat treats. How the heck do you do it?

Unless its like this - something weird i found out -

a piece of chocolate cake can have 400 calories, but a regular ham sandwich can have 800 calories. some sweets can have lower calories. but it wouldn't give you much nutrition.. is this what you mean? or do you exercise those extra calories? do you miind telling me how you do it?

It depends. Did you hit your protein target? Fat? Do you have calories left over? How many? 400? 800? If 400, eat the cake, if 800, eat the sandwich or TWO pieces of cake.

NonnyMary

Well in a way we ALL do IIFYM around here.. we are all trying to fit everything in our macros.

So why is there such a war between what looks like 2 groups of people? I dont mean to insult anyone.

there was a thread which someone said they were going to go cold turkey and others from the IIFYM crowd were giving their opposite points of view.

I think i got a bad impression of what some of the people were saying in defense of IIFYM. Some people thought i was being too deprivating myself since I was not allowing myself treats.

so while trying to work this out in my head, this is where I am,, and I dont know if i have a wall there or something because I interpreted it as if i dont have ice cream, fried chicken and poptarts, i was gonna be totally deprived and binge or something.

But now i see even with you all who beleive in IIFM, there are limits you do put on yourself, so its not what i was interpreting. i see you guys as giving yourself to eat all these things, and i tried to copy that, and it did not work out.. so it is confusing.

NOW you are getting somewhere.

the whole idea is to allow yourself something you enjoy IF it fits.

I have my goals set to 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat...what are yours?

Hi - not sure, i just let MFP decide, but i did lower the sodium of my own choosing to a lower amount than 2500 that MFP allows.

NonnyMary

Do you eat pancakes for breakfast?
You should.

Coming from a profile pick with a waffle... I think the waffles would be disappointed.

Edited to fix my spelling.

haha! in every topic we have a commedian thank you!

Cadori

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.

Totally disagree with this. I'm a compulsive eater. I have not always been fit and active. I eat ice cream, Pop Tarts, cookies, etc., literally every day. I train for a grand total of 3.5 to 4 hours per week. And I lose weight. It's not my fault that some people are unwilling to control their behavior when there's a tray of cupcakes in front of them. Don't tell me I'm lying or just trying to be a cool kid. It's hard work that clearly not everyone is willing to do.

I wasn't trying to attack anyone. I actually use IIFYM as well, and I deadlift and eat bacon and ice cream.

I was trying to explain the concept of IIFYM to the OP in a way she could understand and use or not use, depending on her situation.

I get frustrated because there is almost a guaranteed automatic response to new posters who post their "great diet plan" that includes only clean eating/paleo/low carb/vegan/insert restriction here kind of eating. Multiple people will respond to their plan with claims about IIFYM in a boastful way that is almost misleading. While they exclaim about the ice cream, poptart, cheeseburger eating that IIFYM entails, they don't always share the details like ice cream = 1/2 cup serving and not a whole pint every single day.

You are all right that IIFYM is probably the best way to lose and maintain, but there really isn't a book or catchy website detailing the plan to people who don't know what it means. People like the original poster can easily get the wrong idea about what "moderation" and IIFYM entails, especially if they are new and don't know what questions to ask.

I certainly stated in my original post that I was making a "generalization" and not detailing the food logs of specific dieters.

That sounds sensible.. Well it may be that I was reading posts and getting a wrong interpretation of what i thought they were doing. but i see you have clearly shown me what is happening. If I am understanding it right you could say something like this - "today I ate cookies (1 Oreo); pop tarts (1); ice cream (1/2 cup - 100 calories) and fried chicken (1 leg 300 calories); but to me I was interpreting it as a sleeve of Oreos, 3 pop tarts - one for each meal; ice cream - 1-2 cups, and fried chicken dinner.

frankly it was scaring me a bit.

Yes, you were interpreting it wrong.

usmcmp

Ok you are one of the people I was referring to when i said its the poeple who have 1600 posts or more that found a way to eat treats. How the heck do you do it?

Unless its like this - something weird i found out -

a piece of chocolate cake can have 400 calories, but a regular ham sandwich can have 800 calories. some sweets can have lower calories. but it wouldn't give you much nutrition.. is this what you mean? or do you exercise those extra calories? do you miind telling me how you do it?

Someone posted this link earlier: http://iifym.com/what-is-iifym/

whierd

I see others have already weighed in on the misinterpretation.

Proceed.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

PikaKnight

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.

Totally disagree with this. I'm a compulsive eater. I have not always been fit and active. I eat ice cream, Pop Tarts, cookies, etc., literally every day. I train for a grand total of 3.5 to 4 hours per week. And I lose weight. It's not my fault that some people are unwilling to control their behavior when there's a tray of cupcakes in front of them. Don't tell me I'm lying or just trying to be a cool kid. It's hard work that clearly not everyone is willing to do.

I wasn't trying to attack anyone. I actually use IIFYM as well, and I deadlift and eat bacon and ice cream.

I was trying to explain the concept of IIFYM to the OP in a way she could understand and use or not use, depending on her situation.

I get frustrated because there is almost a guaranteed automatic response to new posters who post their "great diet plan" that includes only clean eating/paleo/low carb/vegan/insert restriction here kind of eating. Multiple people will respond to their plan with claims about IIFYM in a boastful way that is almost misleading. While they exclaim about the ice cream, poptart, cheeseburger eating that IIFYM entails, they don't always share the details like ice cream = 1/2 cup serving and not a whole pint every single day.

You are all right that IIFYM is probably the best way to lose and maintain, but there really isn't a book or catchy website detailing the plan to people who don't know what it means. People like the original poster can easily get the wrong idea about what "moderation" and IIFYM entails, especially if they are new and don't know what questions to ask.

I certainly stated in my original post that I was making a "generalization" and not detailing the food logs of specific dieters.

Actually, there is a website. IIFYM.com

NonnyMary

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

jasonalvear

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 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" think 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.

yes those posts are kinda - whats the word - frustrating or annoying to me, personally. No, im not jealous because you can have ice cream and i "cant" .. or some other such thing... but there has got to be something else that enables them to be able to eat like that.. I'm still fat. I cant do what a skinny weight lifter can.

Well do not worry, im not going off my diet, im just testing the waters, and voila, for me, today taught me a lot. i am still finding my way around, and yes i did write that topic on me being liberated from food, but my way to stay on this is to have more boundaries than a body builder does for example. I am fine eating like i did all week. Some people say that a person who eats like me (restricing some items) may one day find it too restricting and then binge and then blow the diet off, but I still think - for me - that I will blow my diet if i start eating back those things which i am now laying aside.

i think i have a gut feeling about this, how to make this work, and i think i am not ready for what IIFYM means, i dont know how to do it quite yet, or maybe i am saying i dont want to word it like that, but to just eat what i feel i should do like how i did it earlier this week, or maybe im getting hung up on semantics, in any case, im going to keep on doing what i have been doing all week.

yeah sometimes i dont take time to prepare food, or take time to go to the store, or whatever, im noit going to make excuses, but sometimes, i just dont have everything ideally. like today i had to take my cat to the vet and that sort of screwed my day a bit.. i didn't take time to bring fruit as a snak and at 3:00 i was starving. so i grabbed what appealed tome. but oh well.. tomorrow is another day.

My fat loss from 290 down to 170 was in following IIFYM. The secret to doing IIFYM for me and losing 120 pounds? I took the time to plan my meals, took the time to get exercise, and took the time to allow certain treats every now and then and still hit the macros I set for myself daily. If I ate all my food for the day and have a craving for a treat, I do NOT eat it, as it does not fit my macros. If it is early in the day and I haven't ate much, I eat the darn cookie and plan out the rest of the day to hit my numbers. It is not only weight lifters and super lean people making use of IIFYM.

mamadon

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?

Well for me it is the opposite. If I didn't have a small daily treat (within my limits) then that is what would ultimately cause me to fail. In the past, when I did diets that restricted certain foods, I would give up after a short period of time. I plan to eat this way the rest of my life, so I want my treats.

ryry_

the whole idea is to allow yourself something you enjoy IF it fits.

Ummmm....Giggity

devil_in_a_blue_dress

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

How you know they are eating lots of food?! They are probably having one serving of one treat per day or have put in a substantial work out for extra servings. This really is not hard to figure out.

Mokey41

I'll chime in with that fact that I don't watch my macros at all but I do eat what I want as long as it's in my calorie budget. I don't have any specific health or fitness goals beyond not gaining weight so if a bacon cheeseburger works into my daily calories I eat it. Today has been one of those days where I've eaten crap most of the day but I'm still under my 1500 calories and got a run in after work. I don't believe in saying I can't eat pizza, I can't eat a whole pizza but I can have a slice or maybe even 2. I can have ice cream, it might only be a 1/2 cup but I can have it.

It's way too much work to figure out all the macros and manipulate my food to fit the numbers. I tried it for awhile it found it much too obsessive for me to stick to it. Since I'm in maintenance for over 2 years now I'd say my way works somehow.

NonnyMary

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

How you know they are eating lots of food?! They are probably having one serving of one treat per day or have put in a substantial work out for extra servings. This really is not hard to figure out.

When i hear words such as that, I think they are eating more food than I would be eating. It just sounds like a lot of food to me. I needed to get to the bottom of what is really going on.

bugtaylor

Keep trying don't give up. Decide if u want pizza or ur health

Cadori

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

How you know they are eating lots of food?! They are probably having one serving of one treat per day or have put in a substantial work out for extra servings. This really is not hard to figure out.

When i hear words such as that, I think they are eating more food than I would be eating. It just sounds like a lot of food to me. I needed to get to the bottom of what is really going on.

If you have 150 pounds to lose, you probably can eat more and still lose.

devil_in_a_blue_dress

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

How you know they are eating lots of food?! They are probably having one serving of one treat per day or have put in a substantial work out for extra servings. This really is not hard to figure out.

When i hear words such as that, I think they are eating more food than I would be eating. It just sounds like a lot of food to me. I needed to get to the bottom of what is really going on.

Words such as what? I really do not understand why it would seem like having more food. People are basically saying no food is off limits forever.

sunrise611

I do IIFYM

Today I had

Toast with jam, Grilled chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers, rice, bagel, cheese, yogurt with hemp seeds and ice cream.

So you see I had 80% good food then my ice cream . I got plenty of protein and good fats.

That is IIFYM

Nice variety! Well done!