Can anyone help? I need direction?

Back in March 2012 I posted the original IPOARM to help new dieters understand that dieting may not be easy, but it can be simple.
Since then i've had 100s of PMs and zounds of tweets and Facebook MSGs asking for a better explanation of how to set it up.
So i've decided to rewrite the Road Map and hopefully clear some things up.
This version of IPOARM was a collaboration with Pu_239 and adding in Heybales Spreadsheet thats become ever so popular on the IPOARM forum.
We will provide all links to the spreadsheets.

Disclaimer: Dan, PU_239 and Heybales are not doctors nor are we Nutritionists. We have simply compiled a way for you to lose fat in a way that is sustainable for the long term.
This is not a "Diet" per se. This is our way of life. If you are under specific dietary restrictions from your Doctor, please speak to them first.
We are in no way advocating that you should go against any medical advice given by your doctors.
Over the past 2 years we have had great success having people from all walks of life try this method.

In Place of a Road Map is simply a way to get your metabolism functioning at max capacity while eating as much as you can and getting the results that you need.
This is also a Fat Loss program.
Never confuse Fat Loss with Weight Loss.

Often you will see IPOARM members pop into the forums on the "1200 calories" threads and spread the Road Map.
The reason behind this type of seeding is that most of the members did the 1200 route and thru trial and error have found that it didn't work well.
At some point they stalled out or plateaued.
On a 1200 calorie diet if your metabolic rate has slowed, you've got 2 choices:
1) Reduce calories more or increase cardio.
2) Raise calories up to balance hormones and allow fat loss to resume.
IPOARM is designed so you wont have to resort to low calories and you wont have to deal with metabolic slowing and plateauing.

On to Version 3!


1) You aren’t unique like a snowflake.
2) None of us can defy the laws of physics.

2) Patience is the number 1 tool for any type of lifestyle change.



What you need to know

1) Body Fat%

So many people don’t really know what their body fat% is. 
I'm shocked every time I ask a member and they don’t have a clue! 
Some people don’t even know what a safe BF% should be! 

Athletes (6-13% for men, 16-20% for women) 
Fitness (14-17% for men, 21-24% for women) 
Acceptable (18-25% for men, 25-31% for women) 
Obese (25%+ for men, 32%+ for women) 

A good way to diet correctly is to set a body fat% goal as opposed to a weight goal. 
The human body can fluctuates up to 5lbs on average daily! 
That would drive any person crazy who likes jumping on the scale every 30 mins! 
Measuring body fat is a more sane approach to the diet. 
Expecting a 1-5% change in a month is certainly acceptable in the middle BF ranges. 
In the higher ranges it really depends on your BF%, macronutrients and workout routine.
I had an MFP friend who lost about 9% within a few weeks!


An interesting paper written by Martin Berkhan, creator of www.LeanGains.com talks about the amount of fat the human body can burn in a day. After reading it I started working out 3 times a week and had better results than working out 5 days a week. 
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=160054937436250



Understanding body fat and how you lose it will certainly keep you from hopping on the scale every day and probably have you running up to GNC for a handy set of calipers $20.
I'll also note that post workout nutrition, generally high in protein and carbs, can carry a lot of water back into depleted muscles and on occasion can be stored in the fat cells. This can mask actual fat loss.
Lyle McDonald talks about this here:
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html



2) BMR or Basal Metabolic Rate or RMR Resting Metabolic Rate.

If you were in a coma and in the hospital, the doctors would feed you your BMR in calories. 
This ensures you have enough nutrients for vital organs to function. 

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/science-homework-help/107443-ten-essential-organs-in-the-human-body/ 
This is just a small list of vital organs in the human body. 

Eating at BMR and staying in bed should maintain things as long as you do nothing at all. 
Most people who start using MFP dont really understand the importance of this BMR number. 
They jump in with both feet thinking "I'm going to lose soooooo much weight and be fantastic!" 
What they dont understand is by not eating back calories from working out, they are netting below BMR. 
The only people who should be eating below BMR are folks who have had Gastric Bypass 9in early stages of recovery) , 500-700 cals/day, or people who are morbidly obese and only for an extremely short time and only prescribed by a Certified Nutritionist/Dietician.

I know I know!
There have been recent studies on fasting for extended periods of time and losing weight. The reason they lose weight is because this is “FULL STARVATION” you will lose a lot of muscle mass doing full starvation. Semi Starvation causes people to plateau and stall out. This is eating below BMR. For all intents and purposes we are going to assume that the people on this site hopefully love food and can learn to have a synergistic and healthy relationship with it.


Most people who eat at or below BMR will lose weight for a short time then plateau. 
This will eventually lead to the starvation mode debate. Someone will say, “Starvation mode exist!” someone else will say, “Studies show that metabolism doesn’t slow that much. Look at people from WW2 and gastric bypass”. Starvation mode is a myth.” The reply will be, “I ate low calories and I didn’t lose weight for a long time.” The debate begins.

There is a phenomenon that has been studied for a long time but somehow a lot of people in the fitness industry never got their hands on it. These studies have shown people didn’t lose weight on SEMI-STARVATION diets. They did lose some but then they stopped losing weight. This is called Dieters Edema. What happens is that the fat cells can attract water through the glycerol molecule and the fat cell will fill with water. Did you know that fat and water have roughly the same density? This means water and fat take up the same space and weigh about the same. So when you look in the mirror you weigh the same and you look the same. HELLO PLATEAU.

The way to stop dieters edema is to eat more, or FULL-STARVATION (this is not semi-starvation). Full starvation is extremely low calories, like 500 a day(it will vary from person to person). Now you know why people who had weight loss surgery lose weight, yet someone who is eating low calories can stall out. The stall out is semi starvation, the weight loss surgery is full starvation. The entire debate of starvation mode was because people didn’t understand it, now we do. So stop the debating.





This is a list compiled by Lyle McDonald on the effects of dieting on certain hormonal responses.
On the left is an anabolic state or "Fed" state.
On the right is a catabolic state or "Underfed" state.
Anabolic is the building of tissue, fat or muscle.
 Catabolic is the breaking down of tissue, fat or muscle.

The further to the left you go, above TDEE, you’ll gain weight in the form of Muscle and or fat. 
This is dependent of your activities and stress levels. The further to the right you go, Below TDEE, you’ll lose weight in the form of Fat and or Muscle. Again dependent on activity and stress levels.

 If the body does not get enough energy from calories, you’re at risk for dieters edema. Also Leptin levels drop and cortisol levels rise.

Tom Vanuto covered this info in his book "Burn The Fat Feed the Muscle"

"The chief fat storing enzyme is called Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL). When you drop your calories too low, your body will produce more LPL and less fat burning enzymes. In other words, when you don’t eat enough, your body changes its chemistry to make it easier to store fat in the future."

He continues with…

"The Thyroid gland is largely responsible for the regulation of your basal metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories at rest). When your body senses a severe reduction in calories, there is a corresponding reduction in the output of active thyroid hormone (T3). The result is a decrease in your metabolic rate and fewer calories burned."
From Burn The Fat Feed the Muscle Page 27.

Your hormones fluctuate all the time. You can control, to a certain extent, how those hormones effect your weight. If your energy balance is in a positive direction, you'll gain weight. Hopefully you are doing proper resistance training and building lean mass. If you are eating at maintenance, you'll maintain your weight. Energy in is equal to energy out. If you are in a negative energy balance, you lose weight. If proper resistance training is being utilized you'll maintain most Lean Muscle while losing fat.

The problems arise when someone is in such a severe negative energy balance that the body detects that its in trouble and will increase and decrease specific hormones in an attempt to balance energy needs. In other words its trying to slow things down. LPL rises allowing the storage of fat. T3 drops hindering fat loss. Cortisol rises in an attempt to catabolize active tissue, like skeletal muscle or other active tissues using precious calories and fuel.

Muscles are made from protein. The body uses carbs as its main source of energy. What happens is your body will need carbohydrates and it will start to break down its muscle tissue to convert to glucose (glucose is what carbs turn in to in the blood stream). Protein will be used for vital organs to sustain life, this protein will come from muscles.
Make sure you eat your calories!

3) TDEE
TDEE stands for Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is how many calories you burn per day. Calories are a unit of energy; you use energy every second of everyday. Calories are used for breathing to running marathons. Every time your heart beats you’re burning calories. Carbs, proteins, fats are NOT CALORIES. They contain calories, but they are not calories. There are diets out there that say cut out a certain food and you will lose weight. Will this work if you’re over on your calories? No. We have tried many times to “trick” the body to lose weight quicker by modifying different variables, from meal timing to food choices. Time and time again we came to the conclusion you can’t out trick your body. Calories in vs calories out period.
Weight loss or weight gain is based around your TDEE. If you eat over your TDEE you will gain weight, if you eat under your TDEE you will lose weight(there is a caveat that will be mentioned later). 



I have been an advocate for eating properly with Nutrition being #1 when it comes to dieting.
You can lose most of your excess weight just by dieting down with nutrition alone.
 However, those who do this find themselves losing lean mass if they aren’t using their muscles and working out so it’s not really recommended.
 And yes, because this has been asked before, you can eat just about anything so long as it fits your macros.

So now that I have given you the 3 most important numbers to always know while "dieting", I'll give you a good source to figure all this information out on your own. 
This was the first source I used to help myself and countless others to lose weight. 
Once you have this link you can keep using it as you drop weight and body fat to recalculate your numbers. 
Remember that as lean mass rises and fat mass drops, youll have different nutritional needs! 

http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/ 
Do all of the different calculators for body fat.
You'll need a tape measurer.
Find the middle number. 
Some calcs will be high and some low.

Write this info down or screenshot it.

Next you'll go back to tools and do the BMR tool.
This tool turned into a big discussion on the old post so I'll try to keep this as simple as I can.




Here you'll enter all your info from the MBF Calc.
But, under GOAL weight, I want you to put in your CURRENT weight.
This will give you a page that looks like this:


I use Light Activity for my modifier.
I wouldnt ever use Sedentary unless I was unable to walk or simply sat in front of the TV all day.

So looking at Light Activity, 2036, this is a guesstimate on how much I should be burning within a 24hour period.
If you work out 5 days a week, try Moderate activity!
Screenshot or write this info down.
You'll also notice the Katch McArdle reading of my BMR.
I like to eat and I like my muscles so I tend to stay away from this number unless i'm pulling an Eat Stop Eat Day.

On to MFP and custom settings.
To customize MFP you click SETTINGS>GOAL>CHANGE GOAL>CUSTOM>CONTINUE...






I have my MFP set to my TDEE so I know that I can eat up to and below that number to lose fat.
I also know that I can add 250-500 cals to that number on heavy lifting days in hopes of muscular growth. 

For Morbidly Obese you can go as low as 30% below TDEE but beware the hormonal drops and if you plateau you'll need to come back up to TDEE for a few days.

I recommend 20% below TDEE.
If after 2 weeks the inches arent coming off then reassess your activity level and try a lower/higher setting.

 This study shows that individuals who have dieted down with moderate to low deficits are more likely to maintain weight loss and health as opposed to those who diet down on a Very Low CalorieDiet.

http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v9/n11s/full/oby2001133a.html



If you want simplified macronutrients, set Protein and Fat both to 30% using the drop down numbers. 
Carbs should fill in at 40% unless you live in a wormhole and the laws of standard percentages dont apply.
 This is similar to The Zone Diet in terms of macros.
If you just want to monitor your macros and custom tailor them on a daily basis, more advanced, calculate 1g protein per pound of Lean Mass(from MBF Calc) and .30-.70g Fat per pound of Lean Mass.


When monitoring your macros it's common on heavy lifting days to drop fats down to minimal, .30xlbm, and raise carbs up to fill in the remaining calories. 
This can be the opposite on rest days if you low carb when you dont lift.
 Some are known to go well above TDEE on lifting days and drop down below TDEE on rest days. 
This is cyclical dieting in a nutshell.

If you want to monitor your macro nutrients, it’s recommended to eat more protein as your activity level goes up. To fit everything in with proper fat intake and carb intake while still meeting your calorie goal can be a complex calculation. I (Pu_239) made it in a excel spread sheet to do all the calculations for you. All You do is Enter your Body fat %, TDEE and weight. The calculations are done for you.

There are 3 categories they correspond to your body fat %. The more body fat you have the bigger deficit you can have.
Women and men also have different body fat levels and they both use the the same method. It shouldn’t be like this. This new approach is more flexible.

Men Categories
Category 1: less than 15% body fat.

Category 2: 16-25% body fat 

Category 3: 26 > body fat 



Women Categories

Category 1: Less than 24% body fat. 

Category 2: 25-35% body fat 

Category 3: 35% > body fat.


Just enter your weight, body fat and TDEE in the yellow cells. Your macro nutrients are calculated for you. Some of the % might be slightly off due to precision errors in excel. SO just get as close to the macros as possible when you enter them in to MFP. Round up your protein, for example if you have 32% for protein round it up to 35%. Then Round up your fat, and the carbs will fall in to place.

Priorities:
• Hit your calorie goal
• Hit your protein goal
• Hit your fat goal
• Hit your carb goal

Sometimes people are over their calories by a few hundred one day, then under 100 the next day and their calories fluctuate daily. You ever wonder how close you really are to your calorie goal? You might be over a few hundred calories every week and not lose weight. The point is to be in a calorie deficit over the long term, not just a few days a week. How will you know where you stand if you don’t monitor it? I came up with a solution for this. When I(Pu_239) first used this sheet, it made me realize where I was messing up. I have had many users have success with it and realize what they were doing wrong. This sheet will keep a daily track of your calories. If you go over one day it will subtract calories the next day. If you go under one day it will add calories the next day. It will keep a running tally of where you stand on a daily basis.
You can also save calories for a special day, or you can use this for calorie zigzagging. You can also use this for the 5:2 method. Below is a picture of it.

Notice it as a place to keep track of your progress from month to month. The column where it says “Free calories” that how many calories you earned. “Calories to consume today” is your goal for that day. “Consume tomorrow” is calories to consume tomorrow. You can enter your calories today, and see if you have the calories you want tomorrow, for a high calorie day or something.

To get both spreadsheets download it here at this link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2MlEgY5q9lgTk1abHJsMElONlE/edit?usp=sharing

On the bottom there will be 2 tabs, one to calculate your macros and one for the calorie tracking. 

To truly benefit from a FAT BURNING program you will need to have some type of resistance training. 
If you are not lifting weights or doing body weight workouts, you will have a very hard time maintaining lean mass while in a caloric deficit. 
I always suggest for gym goers, the Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength programs. 
Both teach basic compound moves and can help catapult your strength. 
I'm sure you can find many other lifting programs but do keep in mind, if you lift Minnie Mouse dumbbells youll have Minnie Mouse muscles. =D 

Cardio is great for accelerated fat loss but if you are overweight or obese I would only recommend a brisk walk. 
Every pound of fat on your stomach is 8 on the knees and 10 on the upper back. 
Once you get down to an acceptable BF level then run to your hearts content. 

Rest and recovery is just as important as the actual workout.
Make sure when you rest....you really really rest!
Take a walk!
You'll see changes in no time!

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask. 
If I missed something important please let me know.



A note from PU_239:
I mentioned to Dan that he doesn’t have anything about the psychological aspect of weight loss. After a 185lbs weight loss, I am pretty sure I know a thing or 2 about it. So below are the 6 biggest obstacles to weight loss.

1. Making it too complex.
There are those people who believe to lose weight you must eat x amount of protein, y amount of fat, and z amount of carbs and stay within a specific calorie limit, while eating 6x a day, and exercising only in the morning, with HIIT style training. I used to be one of these people. When people start out on weight loss they have a false sense of what is needed to lose weight.

A few common beginner beliefs are:
I must eat low carb to lose weight.
I must eat clean to lose weight.
I must drink x amount a water a day to lose weight.
I must exercise x amount of hours a week to lose weight.

Solution: Get all that non sense out of your head. To lose weight you only need one thing, burn more calories than you consume within reason. That’s all. I have been bed ridden due to a back injury (it was just a pulled muscle). If that’s not sedentary I don’t know what is. I also ate pure crap food and I still lost 10lbs that month. Weight loss isn’t about carbs, fats, proteins or whatever, it’s about calories. I might as well throw this in there as well, the people who can’t hit their caloric goal. Here is some advice, eat a burger or ice cream; get off your “health” trip.

2. Binging
Binging is a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink. People are always complaining about binging.

Solution: Guess what? binging doesn’t make you fat. Going over your calories does. One of the biggest problems with binging is that 95% of the time it’s on food with low nutritional density. This means its food that doesn’t have many nutrients. The solution to this is pretty simple, stop eating crap. Go binge on some lettuce or water. Then you get the people who don’t cook their own food, they live with someone else such as a parent or something and they have no choice of what they eat.
You may not have a choice of what you eat; you do have a choice of “HOW MUCH” you eat. It’s about calories remember? If you have this problem log your calories, doesn’t matter what you eat just log it. See what you average for a week then you slowly cut down on your total calorie intake. Lets say by 100 calories a week. That’s not hard.

3. Motivation
A lot of people say, “ I am not motivated today.” My reply to this is “So what?” Weight loss is not about being motivated or not. It’s about action. (Yes I know that there is motivation behind every action to all the psycho babble people). You don’t have to be all pumped up listening to tony robbins or something to go to the gym or stay within your calorie goals. You just have to do it, that’s all. Motivation doesn’t last, habits do. So how do we get the habits needed to lose weight? You simply build a foundation. When I was 400lbs I couldn’t even walk 10mins. So what I ended up doing was walking 5mins 5 days a week. People would mock me saying “you’re ot going to lose weight only walking 5mins a day.” They didn’t see the big picture. I then built up to 8mins, then I would take a break and walk another 2minutes for a total of 10mins. Eventually 5mins of walking turned in to 1hr 30mins of jogging. Baby steps are the secret to building habits. You have bad eating habits? Baby step your way out of that situation. For example, eat a good breakfast then eat whatever you want for lunch and dinner. Once it’s a “habit” then work on your lunch, once that’s a habit focus on your dinner. Not hard right? This is how habit are built for the long term. Notice how habits and time are related, the more you practice something the better you get at it and the easier it is to do. This is why quick weight loss doesn’t work, they don’t have the habits to keep it off.

4. Negative Emotions
This is probably one of the biggest causes for failure in weight loss. You’re there working your butt off, go weigh in and you gain weight. Or you eat some “bad food” and say to yourself, “well I already ruined today, I might as well eat all of it and everything in sight.” Then you feel bad, well you actually feel bad through the entire process. Or you can hit a plateau, get bummed out.

Solution: LET IT GO. Negative emotions won’t help you or your situation. You have to stay positive. If I got a penny for every time I binged or had a bad weigh in, I’d probably be rich. I know it can get a little discouraging but don’t let it stop you. Keep this in mind, I BINGED MANY TIMES, yet I still lost a lot of weight. So who cares? I had many bad weigh ins yet I still lost weight, so who cares? Don’t let this stuff get to you. It can literally ruin everything. I see it as gambling, you will lose some and you will win some, the object is to win more than you lose.

5. Plateaus
I’ll start this off with a quote, “ A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over ad expecting a different result.” I have stalled out for 6 months one time, yet I stayed positive and kept on going, trying different things till I found something that worked. If you upped your calories a few times, or down a few times that doesn’t mean you tried everything.
A few things I tried
1. CKD(Cylicical ketosis diet)
2. Ketogenic diet
3. High calories with specific ratios (3,500 calories)
4. 3,000 calories
5. 2,750 calories
6. 2,500 calories
7. 1,200 calories
8. Low carb diet
9. Alkaline diet
10. Intermittent fasting Warrior diet style
11. Intermittent fasting leangains style
12. Intermittent fasting ESE style.
13. Alternating carbs diets.

Solution: There are many things to try. You have to be patient and find what works for you. You should give whatever method you’re doing a month and see how it goes. If you’re in a plateau right now, I came up with my own method, it has helped a lot of people. What I would try first is eat at your TDEE 1 day, the next day eat TDEE * 0.60 and repeat. This is a form of calorie cycling, it’s designed this way due to scientific reasons which I won’t get in to in this post.

6. Patience
I saved the best for last. Nothing I listed above will work without patience. I have asked many people who have lost over 100lbs about their success. We might have achieved our weight loss using different methods, but w all agree on 1 thing. That’s patience. Without it, you will have no weight loss. This is highly linked with negative emotions. If you’re patience and don’t expect things to happen overnight you will be patient. I can’t stress this and take baby steps enough. You should always build a foundation with what you’re doing and build on it daily. Eventually what you thought was impossible will be possible.

For Heybales Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Amt7QBR9-c6MdGVTbGswLUUzUHNVVUlNSW9wZWloeUE

If you have specific questions regarding the spreadsheets, please feel free to post in the IPOARM forums or contact the creators.
Dan doesnt use the spreadsheets (Mac) and cannot answer any questions on how they work.



"Great bodies are built in the kitchen and while we sleep! Everything else is secondary."




PS: Due to being in the busy season I wont be running numbers for free anymore.
Its very time consuming.
PM me any Qs and if you need custom numbers run we can discuss it 1 on 1.