"Unclean" IIFYM Success Stories and Pics please?

topazora

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/ss31/topazora/before-after_zps53b6df0c.jpg
220lbs to 180lb
I still got quite a ways to go. But it was all caloric deficit and very small to no dinners. I actually do lose a lot of weight when i skip dinner over long periods of time. But I did this, eating both healthy and unhealthy foods. Its just hard to give up my poptarts and chocolate.

navyrigger46

This thread is epic. I'm not a success yet so I'm not going to post pictures, but I'm a success in training, and I follow IIFYM.

Looking good everyone.

Rigger

based on your ticker I have to disagree...you have done an amazing job...

I am not sure if anyone is ever "done" because after the weight loss come maintenance or bulk/cut cycles...I think as long as you are on the path and succeeding on that path you are a sucess.

If you're done, it means you're dead.

Or lame. Both are roughly equivalent.

Good point brother, and thanks Stef, I appreciate the kind words.

I'm actually looking forward to/dreading my first bulk here in a few months.

Rigger

Oh hey, are you me? I'm on a whole "well maybe I should just keep losing weight(past my goal)?" Trip right now.

Pretty close, I still have 12 pounds before I hit my current goal, but I know where you're coming from, I'm starting to get apprehensive about it, not sure if my current goal will be the right place to switch gears so to speak.

Rigger

waldo56

This thread is epic. I'm not a success yet so I'm not going to post pictures, but I'm a success in training, and I follow IIFYM.

Looking good everyone.

Rigger

based on your ticker I have to disagree...you have done an amazing job...

I am not sure if anyone is ever "done" because after the weight loss come maintenance or bulk/cut cycles...I think as long as you are on the path and succeeding on that path you are a sucess.

If you're done, it means you're dead.

Or lame. Both are roughly equivalent.

Good point brother, and thanks Stef, I appreciate the kind words.

I'm actually looking forward to/dreading my first bulk here in a few months.

Rigger

Oh hey, are you me? I'm on a whole "well maybe I should just keep losing weight(past my goal)?" Trip right now.

As a former lifelong fat kid, eating at a calorie surplus was incredibly difficult for me mentally.

Struggled with the first one also. So ready for the first bulk after losing weight. Gained 5 pounds almost instantly (probably all water) then went on this bulk/not bulk phase for months before I decided I should cut back down again. 1.5 years later it is still a struggle to see any fluffiness. Its getting better. (Not really.)

I don't think it ever gets all that much easier.

Bulking is challenging mentally. It takes a lot of fortitude to stay the course in the face of what at first blush appears to be disaster.

One of the reasons I like shorter bulking cycles, keeps me leaner always.

Rayman79

Four years of solid progress.

Still can't smile at a camera...

chrisdavey

I am sure this is pretty obvious to most but smaller people who are looking to lose weight are going to have a lot less flexibility with their discretionary calories based on the lower cal/macro targets.

And conversely, larger guys aiming to add weight are going to have much more discretion.

I was amazed when a 110kg (242lbs) powerlifter mate of mate was put on a diet by a well know bodybuilder (in Australia). Was aiming to increase weight yet was somehow unable to eat pizza. Apparently, can only gain weight with sweet potatoes and rice :laugh:

callmestephanie

IIFYM = If It Fits Your Macros. Basically set up a calorie goal and proper macro goals (X grams of protein a day, X grams of fat a day, X grams of carbs a day) and eat basically whatever you want to meet those macros. It's also referred to as flexible dieting. It's an alternative to "Clean Eating" which cuts out tons of foods due to the claim that they are "unclean". IIFYM helps by setting up a plan that's easy to follow and doesn't cut out foods that taste good and that you enjoy which is why people are less likely to give up on their weight loss or go on binges on IIFYM as opposed to "Eating Clean"

Ohhhh ok. Well that's what I've been doing off and on since 2009 to have lost the 42lbs. I keep losing motivation or life events happen (another pregnancy/baby) but I'm hoping I can get back to it and stay on it to reach my goal.

Derp_Diggler

I follow IIFYM. I eat mostly home cooked meals, but I eat just about anything, including an daily allotment of chocolate chip cookies, and a glass of wine, and the occasional late night shwarma.

Me at approx 175 lbs




And me after 18 months of lifting and following IIFYM, at 158 lbs.

RaspberryKeytoneBoondoggle

I follow IIFYM. I eat mostly home cooked meals, but I eat just about anything, including an daily allotment of chocolate chip cookies, and a glass of wine, and the occasional late night shwarma.

Me at approx 175 lbs




And me after 18 months of lifting and following IIFYM, at 158 lbs.

Hawt!!

creativerick

Look at all these sexy mo fos


"Eat WHATEVER THE F*** you wanna eat" (Hodge Twins)

graycaro

Awesome thread, guys. Bumping for inspiration later!

vjohn04

I follow IIFYM. I eat mostly home cooked meals, but I eat just about anything, including an daily allotment of chocolate chip cookies, and a glass of wine, and the occasional late night shwarma.

Me at approx 175 lbs




And me after 18 months of lifting and following IIFYM, at 158 lbs.

holy toledo!

callmestephanie

I don't have a before picture it seems. I started at 295lbs at 5'6".

This is about 285lbs

and this is my most recent at about 260lbs


Slowly but surely I'll get there. >_< Today I picked up a bunch of fruit/veggies and this weekend I did major grocery shopping so I have lots of options... also plan to pick up some weights and find some Youtube work out videos to start.

LolBroScience

i give up...

RiverDancer68

I eat this way, and find that I don't binge because I don't have any off limits foods. I work out a lot, and love food...all food! I don't always log, but will open my diary. And, yes I was a former clean eating obsessed type...but I've learned to relax and enjoy it all :drinker:

LolBroScience

blah.

Achrya

Hmm, may wanna shrink that down there.

LolBroScience

lmao. well.... that didnt work as intended. It was showing up as a broken link on my screen. Maybe issues with google chrome?

Sarauk2sf

lmao. well.... that didnt work as intended. It was showing up as a broken link on my screen. Maybe issues with google chrome?

If you are trying to post half nekkie pics, my inbox is thatta way

<

---

I can help

Achrya

lmao. well.... that didnt work as intended. It was showing up as a broken link on my screen. Maybe issues with google chrome?

Nah, just gotta make the tags all lower case. img not IMG

LolBroScience

lmao. well.... that didnt work as intended. It was showing up as a broken link on my screen. Maybe issues with google chrome?

Nah, just gotta make the tags all lower case. img not IMG

done, still shows up broken on my end. Only works if i right click to be redirected to the url.

LolBroScience

oh well... don't mind my failed attempt at a derail here. Carry on folks!

Derp_Diggler

oh well... don't mind my failed attempt at a derail here. Carry on folks!

Have you tried resizing them on a host site like photobucket?

Dewymorning

How do you guys keep track of all the different dietary parameters? I find it hard enough to pick foods just watching caloric intake. I can't imagine trying to figure out different foods to hit all the other parameters, too. I don't even know how I would go about choosing foods to hit macros. It sounds like playing food Tetris. How far out in advance do you plan your menus?

The weird thing that I have discovered- if I make sure I eat enough protein, and I stay under my calorie goal, then even though on a day to day basis my calories can be out of my macros quite a bit, on a week to week basis my macros were ALMOST IDENTICAL.

Why?

If I had a couple of days with higher fat content I would start craving carbs, and then after eating those all those carbs I wouldn't crave them for a while.

I do know try to stick to the macros I naturally fall into on a week to week basis on a day to day basis, but don't worry if I am a bit under or over on fat or carbs, as long as I hit my protein goal each day. But trying to stick to the macros I seem to naturally fall into has helped me control my cravings.

How do I do it?

On most days I eat the same breakfast and basically the same lunch, so it is just dinner that changes, so I have breakfast, lunch and snacks that sets me up well to hit my macros.

Then come dinner time I think "What meat and veges do I want? Include anything carby or just the carbs in veges? Do I have enough calories for a creamy sauce?"

Things like that.

:P

VBnotbitter

This is my happy thread for the day. One day I will post a picture rather than just oggling others. Its only fair

LolBroScience

oh well... don't mind my failed attempt at a derail here. Carry on folks!

Have you tried resizing them on a host site like photobucket?

I didn't try photobucket. I was using imgur, maybe i'll give it another whirl.

SideSteel

oh well... don't mind my failed attempt at a derail here. Carry on folks!

Have you tried resizing them on a host site like photobucket?

I didn't try photobucket. I was using imgur, maybe i'll give it another whirl.

I'm assuming the issue is that your lat spread just doesn't fit on one page.

royaldrea

Hey, you all look amazing. Even those of you with average abs. This is very inspiring, thanks OP for asking and thanks for sharing to everyone else.

mhasita

...

danimalkeys

What I find interesting, and this is in no way disparaging everyone's success, as I truly believe that whatever works for you to get to your goals is what you should do, but scanning profiles of a lot of the posters, it seems that there is a pretty narrow demographic of people who have had success with the IIFYM idea. While there are people on the outside of the ranges, it seems that most are men in their mid to late 20's to early 30's. For women, its around the same range but maybe extended a bit as there are a few women in their early 40's who have had success.

Maybe this is the general cross section of age here on MFP in general, I'm not sure, but I found the rather narrow age range, especially in men, interesting. Thinking back on when I was that age, I could eat pretty much anything and not worry about it, it wasn't til I was in my 40's that things caught up with me. It makes me curious to see if this will continue to work for you in 20 years.

Personally, I found eating this way worked for me for about a year. I began my weight loss journey about 2 years ago at age 49. I was 280lbs and lost 50lbs doing nothing but portion control and exercise. Then I hit a long stall where I was losing and gaining the same 5lbs over and over. Last August I started cutting back on my carbs, and that's when the scale started moving again, where I'm now 7lbs from my goal weight of 200. That doesn't mean I don't eat ice cream or what I want, if the carbs are there for that day, I'll have some treats. I suppose I follow an IIFYM plan, just with a different macro setup than is typical.

Anyway, you all are doing great, keep it up, it's inspiring for me to see the success you've all had!

jonnythan

What I find interesting, and this is in no way disparaging everyone's success, as I truly believe that whatever works for you to get to your goals is what you should do, but scanning profiles of a lot of the posters, it seems that there is a pretty narrow demographic of people who have had success with the IIFYM idea. While there are people on the outside of the ranges, it seems that most are men in their mid to late 20's to early 30's. For women, its around the same range but maybe extended a bit as there are a few women in their early 40's who have had success.

Maybe this is the general cross section of age here on MFP in general, I'm not sure, but I found the rather narrow age range, especially in men, interesting. Thinking back on when I was that age, I could eat pretty much anything and not worry about it, it wasn't til I was in my 40's that things caught up with me. It makes me curious to see if this will continue to work for you in 20 years.

Personally, I found eating this way worked for me for about a year. I began my weight loss journey about 2 years ago at age 49. I was 280lbs and lost 50lbs doing nothing but portion control and exercise. Then I hit a long stall where I was losing and gaining the same 5lbs over and over. Last August I started cutting back on my carbs, and that's when the scale started moving again, where I'm now 7lbs from my goal weight of 200. That doesn't mean I don't eat ice cream or what I want, if the carbs are there for that day, I'll have some treats. I suppose I follow an IIFYM plan, just with a different macro setup than is typical.

Anyway, you all are doing great, keep it up, it's inspiring for me to see the success you've all had!

The reason that age range dominates on the boards is because that age range more or less dominates the internet and technology sector in general. IIFYM is very much a grassroots, spread-on-the-internet kind of thing. There are no big corporate or celebrity interests behind it and so it has no traction in the mainstream media or diet industries.

It's not that it doesn't work for people. It does. In the past few years, I've helped a couple of older women (well over 50) lose a bunch of weight following an IIFYM plan. These people don't post on message boards. People in the demographic you describe dominate MFP in general.