I tried going IIFYM today - here are my results

NonnyMary

Ok now i have read your posts - thank you and i have an understanding of it, but putting to practice is a challenge for me so far.

though i may have been doing it somewhat but calling it by a different name (forget about today, that was an experiment

Now, what i dont get is this - on MFP we ALL are fitting everything in our macros.

So what is the difference between saying 'on MFP i can eat 1600 calories, 35 sugars, etc." and "I do IIFYM".

I dont think there is a difference because MFP is doing IIFYM.

RECowgill

Ignoring all the haters here and talking only to NonnyMary, who I believe has legit issues and is trying to work through them:

First off I'm curious about your calorie goal of 1600. Is that really right for you? Is that artificially low or should you be eating a bit more? I ask because I don't know if 1600 was set manually by you based on realistic goals or if that is what MFP truly recommends. It seems like a low target to me, but I'm not sure. If its low, its unrealistic, you won't be able to stick to it.

A lot of people here won't understand what you're going through because they've never been obese. I was at 280lbs for my peak weight, eating way too much sugar, salt and cals. My portion sizes were too big and I had too much junk food in the mix. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney and liver problems, frequent headaches, tired all the time, irritable. I fixed all that with at first small changes to diet, then progressively more changes. It has taken about a year for me to just do basic things and really fix those problems.

I don't think your numbers are that bad because I could easily see that typically they have probably been a lot worse. Ignoring calories for a second, the real issue I see with what you ate today is sugar. Much of my own weight gain was from excessive amounts of sugar, namely soda, but also candy or whatever else. You may not be able to cut it out of your diet right away, but start to work on it. 117g of sugar in a day is horribly excessive. An adult human should have no more than 30-50g of sugar a day, and a single can of soda will have 50g or close to it. Plus its that HFCS which is arguably worse than sugar.

I made immediate progress by cutting out soda from my diet, I recommend you do likewise. Watch your sugar intake and get that number way down. Some bodybuilder or personal trainer might feel comfortable having a soda, but I don't think you can afford it. Those healthier people have never been obese and they don't understand all the complications that go with it.

Likewise on sodium, you should have no more than 2500mg a day and preferably less. I cut mine to 1500 a day, I don't always succeed but I try for it. Most American diets consist of about 5000-6000mg of sodium or more a day, we are all being poisoned by salt. One of those mcd's burgers might be only 400 cals but it could be 1200mg of sodium just right there. Focus on cutting that back too. So in the big picture, 3000mg of sodium is bad but may be a lot better than you've done before. It may be better than most typical American diets. That's better than I was eating at 280lbs.

I would just keep eating and logging and trying to replace unhealthy foods with healthier choices. You need to do a bunch of research on what foods are good and bad. Read labels. Get really serious about it. Just do it incrementally, try and replace one bad snack with a good one. You're gonna keep going over on your numbers for months probably, but just keep trying, keep experimenting, keep trying to change your habits. That's the key thing is you need to replace bad habits with good sustainable habits. No gimmicks or BS, but things you can actually do till you die. You gotta think of it in those terms, if you are trying to force yourself to eat something you just can't stomach, don't do it. Work on eating better than yesterday and finding healthy foods you like.

And an important point with fixing your diet, is also a contradiction, which is never starve yourself. Don't stress if you have to go over now to figure out how not to go over later. Maybe you were eating 3000 cals a day before, and 2000 cals would represent a huge improvement, I don't know. But if you have a day where your target is 2000 and you eat 2500, don't panic. Just analyze what you're eating and pick out those bad actors that gave you calories without filling you up, and work on replacing them with healthier more filling foods.

I don't know your exact experiences, but having been through some real weight loss I assure you it will not be quick or easy. Just keep logging, always eat when you need to but watch your portions and work on replacing bad foods with good ones. You might even have whole months where you are over every day and just not hitting your numbers. That's ok, keep trying, keep researching. Google is your friend, keep searching and learning these subjects, the amount of information out there is enormous. You should be a constant student.

Incidentally my caloric intake is about 2500/day on non-workout days and 3000/day on workout days. Those are my numbers, roughly, to maintain my weight. So if I'm able to eat a bit under that and be satisfied then I'm losing weight- hooray! It has sometimes worked for me to think of it more in terms of here's my maintenance line. Instead of trying to suddenly reverse course and drop weight fast, you could try focusing on "do no more damage" and start with maintenance. Fill your maintenance cals up with better foods, and work down from there. You don't want to feel stressed or as if its hopeless just because you're going over by 300 cals or so, that is really no big deal.

Good luck, I hope this helps you.

Fullsterkur_woman

There is no way I can eat 1/2 cup of ice cream. There is no way I can eat one pop tart.

Me neither. It'd just piss me off. So I hold off and don't eat pop tarts until I can have two. Or I eat a pint of Arctic Zero (it'll help me reach my protein goals anyway!).

I have set my protein goal pretty gosh-darn high, and I also know that my body needs starchy carbs at each meal, so the macro for me that sometimes gets left behind is fat. And I am ok with that, because I know there will be days when I will plan to go over my calories and eat a big bacon cheeseburger and sweet potato fries and it will average out.

But I always get my protein, I (almost) always get dessert at lunch and dinner (which takes the form of a 100-calorie chocolate muffin with vitamins and fiber), and I (almost) always get 5+ servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

Because I plan in my "treats" with lunch and dinner every day, and I need to get basically 1 gram of protein for every 10 calories I eat, there usually isn't any discretionary calories left. I usually have to whip out a calculator and kitchen scale to tweak my portion sizes until I fit my macros.

If you're operating on small margins or with stricter requirements like I am, you have to be comfortable doing lots of math, conversions, weighing and adjusting if you want to enjoy the freedom of IIFYM. With great power comes great responsibility. :laugh:

Also, for the record, I have a 6-pack (of Crisco! :laugh: ) and I'm in maintenance (at about 30 pounds higher than I'd like)! Well, sort of; I'm just losing really slowly, because I refuse to deprive myself and I refuse to lose muscle mass. I re-gained about 25 pounds last summer/fall when I was playing hospice nurse to my cat who had cancer. It took a lot of effort just to finally get the brakes put back on, and it's taken a ton more effort and about 7-8 months to slowly start moving in reverse! But that is OK, because I know if I didn't do it this way it wouldn't be sustainable and I would start binging again.

I am the only one who has to live with my results, so I get all the authority about my methods. Likewise is true for you and yours. :drinker:

dynamitegalxo

Ok now i have read your posts - thank you and i have an understanding of it, but putting to practice is a challenge for me so far.

though i may have been doing it somewhat but calling it by a different name (forget about today, that was an experiment

Now, what i dont get is this - on MFP we ALL are fitting everything in our macros.

So what is the difference between saying 'on MFP i can eat 1600 calories, 35 sugars, etc." and "I do IIFYM".

I dont think there is a difference because MFP is doing IIFYM.

Most people who fly the IIFYM flag are those who disagree with "clean" eating and try to get people to see that you don't have to live on spinach leaves and egg whites. You're absolutely right, we all have to fit our choices into what MFP gives us (or what we tweak MFP to be) but some people are more liberal in their food choices than others.

MrsFowler1069

I would do much for pizza right now.

foot rub?

Easy. Just feed me the pizza while I rub.

I just have to say that I notice time and again that every conversation around here has a pretty good likelihood of becoming about pizza. I love this place. : )

Fullsterkur_woman

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

Maybe. Does it fit your macros?

:laugh: That was my exact thought too!

ryry_

Ignoring all the haters here and talking only to NonnyMary, who I believe has legit issues and is trying to work through them:

Where are the "haters" you speak of? All i see is 6 pages of people answering her questions in a thoughtful manner, with random playful banter thrown in.

Sorry i don't mean to speak for my "posse".

jetscreaminagain

1 you've been here two months why would I be following you and know that you out of the tens of thousands of people here believe one or another thing? And if I did know that why would I care?

2 you did not disprove if it fits your macros by intentionally blowing past your macros and then looking back and saying see it didn't work I went past them!

3 you characterized if it fits your macros as being something with no boundaries. You are confused. The term indicates that the macro limits are the boundaries and the focus is on sticking to those boundaries. Try that.

4 the freedom in if it fits your macros is that you aren't worrying if a food is clean or what a caveman ate or combined correctly or raw vegan or Dr. Ox's lastest superfood. All you worry about it if it fits your macronutrient requirements for the day. ***it is a psychologically healthy thing to be agnostic on the moral goodness or badness of a food. All thug good food bad food stuff is crazy and it feeds a disordered relationship with food. Your behavior today sort of proves that***

Just eat food but not too much but enough and enough of the key nutrients. If it fits your macros is a good way to just focus on what is important.

But if you want to buck against that and just do crazy, by all means, go ahead. That's fine, but understand that's your choice and doesn't reflect on the noncrazy people here and the choices they make.

MrsFowler1069

Ok now i have read your posts - thank you and i have an understanding of it, but putting to practice is a challenge for me so far.

though i may have been doing it somewhat but calling it by a different name (forget about today, that was an experiment

Now, what i dont get is this - on MFP we ALL are fitting everything in our macros.

So what is the difference between saying 'on MFP i can eat 1600 calories, 35 sugars, etc." and "I do IIFYM".

I dont think there is a difference because MFP is doing IIFYM.

Most people who fly the IIFYM flag are those who disagree with "clean" eating and try to get people to see that you don't have to live on spinach leaves and egg whites. You're absolutely right, we all have to fit our choices into what MFP gives us (or what we tweak MFP to be) but some people are more liberal in their food choices than others.

Yes....I love spinach and egg whites. I would be pretty hard pressed to find in my diary a day that didn't include at least one, but probably both. But part of the reason that I seek out "that type" of food that I love is so that I have room for other things that I love....pizza, chicken wings, cheese, whiskey, etc. And I don't feel bad about it for a second. :drinker:

NonnyMary

Ignoring all the haters here and talking only to NonnyMary, who I believe has legit issues and is trying to work through them:

First off I'm curious about your calorie goal of 1600. Is that really right for you? Is that artificially low or should you be eating a bit more? I ask because I don't know if 1600 was set manually by you based on realistic goals or if that is what MFP truly recommends. It seems like a low target to me, but I'm not sure. If its low, its unrealistic, you won't be able to stick to it.

A lot of people here won't understand what you're going through because they've never been obese. I was at 280lbs for my peak weight, eating way too much sugar, salt and cals. My portion sizes were too big and I had too much junk food in the mix. I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, kidney and liver problems, frequent headaches, tired all the time, irritable. I fixed all that with at first small changes to diet, then progressively more changes. It has taken about a year for me to just do basic things and really fix those problems.

I don't think your numbers are that bad because I could easily see that typically they have probably been a lot worse. Ignoring calories for a second, the real issue I see with what you ate today is sugar. Much of my own weight gain was from excessive amounts of sugar, namely soda, but also candy or whatever else. You may not be able to cut it out of your diet right away, but start to work on it. 117g of sugar in a day is horribly excessive. An adult human should have no more than 30-50g of sugar a day, and a single can of soda will have 50g or close to it. Plus its that HFCS which is arguably worse than sugar.

I made immediate progress by cutting out soda from my diet, I recommend you do likewise. Watch your sugar intake and get that number way down. Some bodybuilder or personal trainer might feel comfortable having a soda, but I don't think you can afford it. Those healthier people have never been obese and they don't understand all the complications that go with it.

Likewise on sodium, you should have no more than 2500mg a day and preferably less. I cut mine to 1500 a day, I don't always succeed but I try for it. Most American diets consist of about 5000-6000mg of sodium or more a day, we are all being poisoned by salt. One of those mcd's burgers might be only 400 cals but it could be 1200mg of sodium just right there. Focus on cutting that back too. So in the big picture, 3000mg of sodium is bad but may be a lot better than you've done before. It may be better than most typical American diets. That's better than I was eating at 280lbs.

I would just keep eating and logging and trying to replace unhealthy foods with healthier choices. You need to do a bunch of research on what foods are good and bad. Read labels. Get really serious about it. Just do it incrementally, try and replace one bad snack with a good one. You're gonna keep going over on your numbers for months probably, but just keep trying, keep experimenting, keep trying to change your habits. That's the key thing is you need to replace bad habits with good sustainable habits. No gimmicks or BS, but things you can actually do till you die. You gotta think of it in those terms, if you are trying to force yourself to eat something you just can't stomach, don't do it. Work on eating better than yesterday and finding healthy foods you like.

And an important point with fixing your diet, is also a contradiction, which is never starve yourself. Don't stress if you have to go over now to figure out how not to go over later. Maybe you were eating 3000 cals a day before, and 2000 cals would represent a huge improvement, I don't know. But if you have a day where your target is 2000 and you eat 2500, don't panic. Just analyze what you're eating and pick out those bad actors that gave you calories without filling you up, and work on replacing them with healthier more filling foods.

I don't know your exact experiences, but having been through some real weight loss I assure you it will not be quick or easy. Just keep logging, always eat when you need to but watch your portions and work on replacing bad foods with good ones. You might even have whole months where you are over every day and just not hitting your numbers. That's ok, keep trying, keep researching. Google is your friend, keep searching and learning these subjects, the amount of information out there is enormous. You should be a constant student.

Incidentally my caloric intake is about 2500/day on non-workout days and 3000/day on workout days. Those are my numbers, roughly, to maintain my weight. So if I'm able to eat a bit under that and be satisfied then I'm losing weight- hooray! It has sometimes worked for me to think of it more in terms of here's my maintenance line. Instead of trying to suddenly reverse course and drop weight fast, you could try focusing on "do no more damage" and start with maintenance. Fill your maintenance cals up with better foods, and work down from there. You don't want to feel stressed or as if its hopeless just because you're going over by 300 cals or so, that is really no big deal.

Good luck, I hope this helps you.

]]

yes you quite understand me. I personally believe there are people who must eat food with a different approach (the people who have eating disorders vs ones that just eat too much for another reason);

MFP set my numbers except i changed the sodium to eat around 1600 or less if i can. today was an experiment, but if you look back earlier this week and last week its what i do on a normal basis. I try to keep from starving by not starving myself on purpose, but sometimes you find your in a spot where you are not prepared as you could have been and too tired to go bother going to the store, or whatever, not trying tomake an excuse just saying what was the situation that put me in that spot.

I'm going to continue as i was doing, and if i keep that up i beleive i will make that goal of weight loss by 2 years from now.. its something that i have to live with.

I was reading some threads and i just didn't get them. I think when i read something someone writes like "I ate ice cream, pop tarts, pizza and fried chicken" i need to ask them what that really means in the big picture.. it can be misunderstood by someone from the outside looking in, like WTH are they doing???

I also wanted to check myself because like i have made already about 525 posts, and i advise people when they ask a question about "can i eat anything in moderation" i then am concerned if i am misleading them or what.

DavPul

Ok now i have read your posts - thank you and i have an understanding of it, but putting to practice is a challenge for me so far.

though i may have been doing it somewhat but calling it by a different name (forget about today, that was an experiment

Now, what i dont get is this - on MFP we ALL are fitting everything in our macros.

So what is the difference between saying 'on MFP i can eat 1600 calories, 35 sugars, etc." and "I do IIFYM".

I dont think there is a difference because MFP is doing IIFYM.

You're absolutely correct. MFP is set up in iifym style. It's the users the start with the Eat Clean and Sugar is the Devil and Wheat Belly crap.

Fullsterkur_woman

Most people who fly the IIFYM flag are those who disagree with "clean" eating and try to get people to see that you don't have to live on spinach leaves and egg whites. You're absolutely right, we all have to fit our choices into what MFP gives us (or what we tweak MFP to be) but some people are more liberal in their food choices than others.

I can't speak for most IIFYM folks, but I eat a helluva lot of spinach and egg whites. That's precisely *how* I'm able to eat a small dessert at lunch and dinner.

NonnyMary

Ignoring all the haters here and talking only to NonnyMary, who I believe has legit issues and is trying to work through them:

Where are the "haters" you speak of? All i see is 6 pages of people answering her questions in a thoughtful manner, with random playful banter thrown in.

Sorry i don't mean to speak for my "posse".

no man you are exactly correct. and no one here has "haters" that f*cking word is so damn overused

''

oh yeah everyone has been so helpful and patient with me, i know they've probably seen my concerns over and over and i appreciate those who have taken time to explain what they feel is a simple concept.. for some reason i haven't been able to grasp it,, but i have reasons, i think i dont want to grasp it because to me it would give me too much liberty for the things which i dont want to include in my diet because i think they may lead me to trouble. (like today! oh i could have done worse easy!!!

Achrya

Ok now i have read your posts - thank you and i have an understanding of it, but putting to practice is a challenge for me so far.

though i may have been doing it somewhat but calling it by a different name (forget about today, that was an experiment

Now, what i dont get is this - on MFP we ALL are fitting everything in our macros.

So what is the difference between saying 'on MFP i can eat 1600 calories, 35 sugars, etc." and "I do IIFYM".

I dont think there is a difference because MFP is doing IIFYM.

There isn't a difference as far as MFP goes, since it's clearly set up for you to be able to track your macros.

However there are a lot of people who don't do that (calories only) or care less about macros and more about not eating/only eating certain kinds of foods.

norahwynn

I did not read all the other responses so forgive me if you've already clarified the point of this thread. I just have no idea what you're trying to prove.

IIFYM means 'If It Fits Your Macros', not 'If It Fits (in) Your Mouth'.

What you did is not fit anything into your macros so I don't know what the problem is. :flowerforyou:

NonnyMary

Ok now i have read your posts - thank you and i have an understanding of it, but putting to practice is a challenge for me so far.

though i may have been doing it somewhat but calling it by a different name (forget about today, that was an experiment

Now, what i dont get is this - on MFP we ALL are fitting everything in our macros.

So what is the difference between saying 'on MFP i can eat 1600 calories, 35 sugars, etc." and "I do IIFYM".

I dont think there is a difference because MFP is doing IIFYM.

You're absolutely correct. MFP is set up in iifym style. It's the users the start with the Eat Clean and Sugar is the Devil and Wheat Belly crap.

'

ok so your making sense here.. i see that now in your examples.

whierd

I eat a hell of a lot of spinach, eggs, chicken, tuna, etc.

NonnyMary

I did not read all the other responses so forgive me if you've already clarified the point of this thread. I just have no idea what you're trying to prove.

IIFYM means 'If It Fits Your Macros', not 'If It Fits (in) Your Mouth'.

What you did is not fit anything into your macros so I don't know what the problem is. :flowerforyou:

oh basically that food and me have issues

DizzieLittleLifter

Omg.... Lol

Achrya

I eat a hell of a lot of spinach, eggs, chicken, tuna, etc.

So do I. Half of my freezer is chicken breasts/tenders/thighs. I have a shelf in my cupboard just for tuna (And I buy it at costco, so...a lot of tuna) and I go through spinach like crazy.

I eat these things so I can get my nutrition, make my calories, and then have my cookies and ice cream or pizza later.