IIFYM diet. Am I doing this right???? Please help!

Calichick94 · September 2014

I'm a 172lbs, 20 year old female. About two weeks ago I started following an IIFYM diet and I just wanted to make sure I'm doing this correctly.

Based on my acitvity, weight, ect.. I shoud be eating 1770 calories and the breakdown of my macros based on the IIFYM calculator; 111g protein, 217 carbs and 50g fat. I've done my research and I have read a lot on people's posts and I know that the protein and fats are minimums and whatever's left over will be the calories of the carbs. The thing, I'm always exceeding my fats and for protein I'm either close to or exceed it. When I go over fats its usually around +20g and for protein around +/- 10. However, for carbs I don't reach it at all, not even close usually I'm under by about 20-40g. But at the end of the day I'm over my calories based on MFP but when I calculate my calories from my macros it's not over by much as the overall calories. Oh and I use a scale to accurately measure and log my food.

For example, yesterday according to MFP I was over by 300 calories but when I calculated my macro cals it was over by about 90 or 100 cals. The way I calculate is fats is x9, carbs and protein x4 each.

My goal is fat loss, and so my question is if I'm going over my cals a little bit but I'm under by carbs and only over my protein and fat, will that stall my fat loss? I've cut down on carbs significantly and focused on taking in more protein and fats.

So am I good? Or should I focus on staying under on cals even though I'm already under my carbs? I'd like to make sure if I'm on the right track.

Another thing, I exercise a total of 4-5 hours per week but I only go to the gym 2-3 times a week, therefore on the two days I go I stay for 2 hours and on the third day just an hour. So when I'm asked to how many days I exercise in order to calculate my acitivity on the IIFYM calculator. What do I write? 4/5 days a week (assuming an hour each day) or 2-3 times a week? I'm pretty busy (full time uni student, parttime job and volunteering) and I don't have time to go to the gym 5 days a week.

I'd rather go and spend a good amount of time there. So what what do I choose? I'm burning the same amount of calories per week in total. Does it really matter?

Thank you,

cwolfman13 · September 2014

IIFYM isn't a diet, it's a concept. IIFYM simply suggest that you don't have to demonize certain foods and groups of foods...so long as you hit your calories and macros...so a slice of cake isn't a big deal so long as you have carbs and what not remaining in your macro allotment and you hit your calories.

The IIFYM calculator is just a TDEE calculator and they are capitalizing on the concept...but there is not ideal macro ratio...the YOUR in IIFYM is kind of important. The concept was born out of the fitness industry, not the diet industry...so people's ratio of macro nutrients and what is ideal for them has more to do with performance goals than anything else. For example, an endurance athlete is likely to have a much different macro ratio than a body builder in order to maximize their performance.

Where weight control is concerned, calories are what count...your macros make no difference whatsoever if you over consume calories. The math probably isn't working for you because many database entries are user entered and thus have errors, particularly where macros are concerned because the vast majority could care less about them.

In RE to your activity level, just pick one...then you make adjustments as per real world results. These calculators are just meant to give you a reasonably good starting point...but nobody has a calorie requirement of exactly XXXX calories per any of these calculators.