I tried going IIFYM today - here are my results

Cranquistador

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

sunrise611

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

Both! You can have pizza and your health too.

whierd

I would do much for pizza right now.

NonnyMary

Try thinking of it like your paycheck. What's the first thing you do with your paycheck? You hopefully pay your bills. Mortgage/rent, heat, electric, food. If there's money left over, you get to decide what you're going to splurge on. A weekend getaway? A mani/pedi? Maybe you have a lot of credit card debt and you have nothing left for any of those things once you add in your credit card payments. IIFYM is like that. Your calories need to be budgeted like your money. Making sure you hit your protein and fat goals every day is like making sure you pay those bills that keep a roof over your head and the lights on. Whatever calories are left over are your splurge calories. If you're trying to lose weight then some of those calories have to go uneaten - that's kind of like your credit card payment. What's left? Probably not much. That's when you decide what to 'spend' those last calories on. Maybe you can 'afford' 4 squares of dark chocolate or a slice of pizza or half a cup of ice cream. You don't have to spend them on a treat but once you pay your caloric bills, you have that option. Does that help at all?

yes! i thought thats what i was doing, until some people thought i was denying myself food that if i didn't eat it, it will cause me to feel so deprived that i will binge.

NonnyMary

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

Both! You can have pizza and your health too.

a slice of veggie pizza, thin crust, easy on the cheese?

Cadori

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

Both! You can have pizza and your health too.

a slice of veggie pizza, thin crust, easy on the cheese?

OK see, that's where you're going to lose people. If that's YOUR choice, fine. But don't say that a slice of cheesy pepperoni that someone else has fit in their goals is unhealthy.

usmcmp

Try thinking of it like your paycheck. What's the first thing you do with your paycheck? You hopefully pay your bills. Mortgage/rent, heat, electric, food. If there's money left over, you get to decide what you're going to splurge on. A weekend getaway? A mani/pedi? Maybe you have a lot of credit card debt and you have nothing left for any of those things once you add in your credit card payments. IIFYM is like that. Your calories need to be budgeted like your money. Making sure you hit your protein and fat goals every day is like making sure you pay those bills that keep a roof over your head and the lights on. Whatever calories are left over are your splurge calories. If you're trying to lose weight then some of those calories have to go uneaten - that's kind of like your credit card payment. What's left? Probably not much. That's when you decide what to 'spend' those last calories on. Maybe you can 'afford' 4 squares of dark chocolate or a slice of pizza or half a cup of ice cream. You don't have to spend them on a treat but once you pay your caloric bills, you have that option. Does that help at all?

yes! i thought thats what i was doing, until some people thought i was denying myself food that if i didn't eat it, it will cause me to feel so deprived that i will binge.

Didn't you prove their point today? You let yourself have a treat and you went crazy because you have been depriving yourself.

Cranquistador

I would do much for pizza right now.

foot rub?

Achrya

On the note of "How do you make it work":

Let me tell you a little about what my diary used to look like. I had a 1300 calorie goal, give or take. I would eat veg and meat and fruit and meal replacement shakes and special K. These were my staples. I would do this for a few days and then, ultimately, crack because I was unhappy. And then I'd have days like this. Note that even now 2000 calories is above my goal.




So for me IIFYM works because it has to. Cutting things out makes me lose it, makes me unhappy, makes me just want to stop, makes me resent the people around me who get to eat normal food in normal sized portions, and makes me angry and bitter and mean(er).

IIFYM gave me the freedom to eat what I want and realize how much I was eating, how much I could fit, and when I needed to stop. I prelog my dessert most days, usually around lunch time, and seeing what I'm having and in what amount and how it fits puts me at ease. I know it's there, at the end of the day, and there is no need to have other treats or feel like I'm denying myself.

Hi - ironically, cutting things out makes me feel safer. Maybe because some foods are to me addicting.. im sorry i dont like to sound like the people who make themselves a victim, who explain with a bunch of psychobabble why they are an addict, but i think i am an addict to some foods. i know that all addictions could be overcome with some effort and just making a choice to not give in to it.. but it lurks there somewhat. Im aware of it. i dont have to give in to it, but i think it is still there, i think our body is programmed for survival to have certain built in mechanisms that tend to make us overeat rather than undereat. And for food to be something that is pursued, rather than denied. and that we have dopamine centers in our brains that get tripped when pleasurable food is served, and saliva that makes our mouth water when delish food is presented to us... and food that has worked as a reward when times were tough. lonely, boring, etc. etc. such like that.

Well of course different strokes for different folks BUT to me cutting things out and trying to force myself to live that way is just letting the food win. Like I said I have eaten an entire bag of cookies at once. I've eaten the whole tray of brownies or the whole pizza or two big macs (Oh those were the dayyyys) and at those times I was controlled by my urges. Even when I cut out food I was doing nothing but admitting that I couldn't handle it and that the food was stronger than me.

Now I control the food. If I want it I have it, if it fits I do it, if it doesn't than I don't.

Achrya

Try thinking of it like your paycheck. What's the first thing you do with your paycheck? You hopefully pay your bills. Mortgage/rent, heat, electric, food. If there's money left over, you get to decide what you're going to splurge on. A weekend getaway? A mani/pedi? Maybe you have a lot of credit card debt and you have nothing left for any of those things once you add in your credit card payments. IIFYM is like that. Your calories need to be budgeted like your money. Making sure you hit your protein and fat goals every day is like making sure you pay those bills that keep a roof over your head and the lights on. Whatever calories are left over are your splurge calories. If you're trying to lose weight then some of those calories have to go uneaten - that's kind of like your credit card payment. What's left? Probably not much. That's when you decide what to 'spend' those last calories on. Maybe you can 'afford' 4 squares of dark chocolate or a slice of pizza or half a cup of ice cream. You don't have to spend them on a treat but once you pay your caloric bills, you have that option. Does that help at all?

yes! i thought thats what i was doing, until some people thought i was denying myself food that if i didn't eat it, it will cause me to feel so deprived that i will binge.

Didn't you prove their point today? You let yourself have a treat and you went crazy because you have been depriving yourself.

Also this.

whierd

I would do much for pizza right now.

foot rub?

Easy. Just feed me the pizza while I rub.

sunrise611

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

Both! You can have pizza and your health too.

a slice of veggie pizza, thin crust, easy on the cheese?

You just described my favorite pizza! Perfect!

NonnyMary

Try thinking of it like your paycheck. What's the first thing you do with your paycheck? You hopefully pay your bills. Mortgage/rent, heat, electric, food. If there's money left over, you get to decide what you're going to splurge on. A weekend getaway? A mani/pedi? Maybe you have a lot of credit card debt and you have nothing left for any of those things once you add in your credit card payments. IIFYM is like that. Your calories need to be budgeted like your money. Making sure you hit your protein and fat goals every day is like making sure you pay those bills that keep a roof over your head and the lights on. Whatever calories are left over are your splurge calories. If you're trying to lose weight then some of those calories have to go uneaten - that's kind of like your credit card payment. What's left? Probably not much. That's when you decide what to 'spend' those last calories on. Maybe you can 'afford' 4 squares of dark chocolate or a slice of pizza or half a cup of ice cream. You don't have to spend them on a treat but once you pay your caloric bills, you have that option. Does that help at all?

yes! i thought thats what i was doing, until some people thought i was denying myself food that if i didn't eat it, it will cause me to feel so deprived that i will binge.

Didn't you prove their point today? You let yourself have a treat and you went crazy because you have been depriving yourself.

Actually the 3:00 baklava and 2 bite brownie was because i was feeling starving ( I did not eat enough at lunch); so yeah I gave in to the baklava!

I have thought about someone might say today proves i was depriving myself. maybe so.. however, even if i was "depriving" myself, if i had not allowed myself to eat the baklava, then todays overeating would not have happened.. i.e. there are two ways to keep from overeating - dont give in to the urge or dont stress yourself all week to the point you feel deprived.

Thats what i have been sayhing to myself.. i always kept fresh fruit on my desk, but this week i ran out. so i do need to be prepared with good food that i can grab in a time of starvation. so that i dont choose the brownie.

oh believe me, there are many times i am faced with free food at work, left over food from committee meetings and as long as i dont answer the email "theres food in the kitchen" i am ok.

whierd

I love IIFYM. I just makes things so much more simple for me when I eliminate the psychological restrictions that come with a weight loss journey. With that said, I pre plan my days the night before. For instance tomorrow I will have Count Chocula cereal in the morning and pizza in the afternoon, tonight I will log those 2 things first then build around it making sure to target all macros and calories. It's not difficult, just takes some practice.

I think that is the best strategy for IIFYM. Pre-log your intended treats and then just fill your day in around it.

herblackwings39

Oh ok,, well then... that may be it.

However, I think there is another issue.. A lot of people here say "eat everything in moderation"..Taking that literally I did. And they were not big portions, they were small, but still it caused me to go over my MFP macros.

So i think that proves we cant do everything in moderation, but that we have to moderate what we eat, we cant eat everything in moderation. It doesn't leave room for other things that would have been healthier for me.

I'm not sure what others mean by everything in moderation, but for me it's choices. I could choose to have baklava and a frosted brownie, knowing I'd be over my calorie goal or I could choose to have one of those things instead, possibly saving the other for tomorrow. My "moderation" is having things I love, just not necessarily all in the same day. I can have pizza today, tacos tomorrow, and cheese cake the day after.

NonnyMary

I love IIFYM. I just makes things so much more simple for me when I eliminate the psychological restrictions that come with a weight loss journey. With that said, I pre plan my days the night before. For instance tomorrow I will have Count Chocula cereal in the morning and pizza in the afternoon, tonight I will log those 2 things first then build around it making sure to target all macros and calories. It's not difficult, just takes some practice.

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Hi - you are another person here with hundreds of posts.. I do see that you have a good handle on food, i hope to get there one day. I'm only up to half

One day i will get ahold of all my issues with food.. already have made good progress.. i hope to be smarter about it.

BinaryPulsar

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

I ate 250 to 500 calories worth of pizza, a few times a week (it was thin crust, frozen pizza, but I like it), for this whole summer. I'm still healthy. I'm on maintenance, running around with my kiddos, and hitting the gym nearly everyday alternating weights and yoga, so it definitely fits my macros.