I tried going IIFYM today - here are my results

Here's the thing...

Most of the really vocal proponents of the poptart, ice cream, bacon, cheeseburger, pizza variety of IIFYM do work out a lot and are very dedicated to fitness, from my observations on MFP. Most of them are also in maintenance or close to maintenance, and most of them were not compulsive eaters struggling with morbid obesity prior to losing their weight. Of course, I am making generalizations, and cannot provide exact details for every IIFYM proponent.

As someone who is a compulsive eater, and who has not always been fit and active, I get frustrated when I see a string of replies that basically say, "I've lost all my weight drinking beer and eating wings and brownies every day." For one, I believe that they are exaggerating a bit, and they eat much less of the junk they profess to exist on than they would lead you to believe. It's sort of a "cool kid" think on MFP to profess your love of bacon, ice cream and deadlifting at every opportunity. Unfortunately, they lead people astray a bit by not going into detail about eating healthy more often than not (how else could you meet your macros consistently?) and not being up front about the amount of training they engage in.

IIFYM would be better presented as "everything in moderation, with a focus on healthy whole foods that fuel your body, along with adequate exercise to burn excess calories." And even then, if you are a compulsive eater who has trouble limiting portions of certain foods, or who is "triggered" into a binge or uncontrollable eating by certain foods, you should be even more careful.

I believe in the general IIFYM concept, but you have to remember that you have to eat a lot of healthy foods to actually hit your macros most days, and the more unhealthy (high calorie, not nutritious) foods you consume, the less calories you have for healthy foods.

yes those posts are kinda - whats the word - frustrating or annoying to me, personally. No, im not jealous because you can have ice cream and i "cant" .. or some other such thing... but there has got to be something else that enables them to be able to eat like that.. I'm still fat. I cant do what a skinny weight lifter can.

Well do not worry, im not going off my diet, im just testing the waters, and voila, for me, today taught me a lot. i am still finding my way around, and yes i did write that topic on me being liberated from food, but my way to stay on this is to have more boundaries than a body builder does for example. I am fine eating like i did all week. Some people say that a person who eats like me (restricing some items) may one day find it too restricting and then binge and then blow the diet off, but I still think - for me - that I will blow my diet if i start eating back those things which i am now laying aside.

i think i have a gut feeling about this, how to make this work, and i think i am not ready for what IIFYM means, i dont know how to do it quite yet, or maybe i am saying i dont want to word it like that, but to just eat what i feel i should do like how i did it earlier this week, or maybe im getting hung up on semantics, in any case, im going to keep on doing what i have been doing all week.

yeah sometimes i dont take time to prepare food, or take time to go to the store, or whatever, im noit going to make excuses, but sometimes, i just dont have everything ideally. like today i had to take my cat to the vet and that sort of screwed my day a bit.. i didn't take time to bring fruit as a snak and at 3:00 i was starving. so i grabbed what appealed tome. but oh well.. tomorrow is another day.

the whole idea is to allow yourself something you enjoy IF it fits.

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

How you know they are eating lots of food?! They are probably having one serving of one treat per day or have put in a substantial work out for extra servings. This really is not hard to figure out.

When i hear words such as that, I think they are eating more food than I would be eating. It just sounds like a lot of food to me. I needed to get to the bottom of what is really going on.

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

the whole idea is to allow yourself something you enjoy IF it fits.

Ummmm....Giggity

Maybe it will help to think of it like money

You make 2,000 dollars a month.

At least 500 needs to go toward housing.

At least 450 needs to go toward your transportation.

You have 1050 left over as discretionary money. You can spend it on investing (smart) home improvements, car washing and maintenance, or SHOES, GLORIOUS SHOES!!!! As long as it fits your budget.


If you get 2000 calories:

At least 500 go to protein (125 grams * 4 calories per gram)
At least 450 go to fat (50 grams * 9 calories per gram)

Left over calories (1050) are discretionary. Now, granted, some calories will go toward any accompanying carbs, but if you pay attention to the first two there will likely be discretionary calories that can then be spend on more protein, more fat, OR ICE CREAM, GLORIOUS ICE CREAM! As long as it fits your macros.

Sweet baby Jeebus, you mean to tell me I cannot eat as much as I want of everything I want, everyday and stay in my marcos?!

Your results are not IIFYM, it's your results from eating whatever the heck you wanted with reckless abandon and being sad you cannot lose weight that way. IIFYM is about making choices to allow yourself foods that traditional diets shun as no-nos. Maybe this means you have boring broiled fish for lunch so you can have pizza for dinner. Or eating smaller portioned meals throughout the day so you can have dessert. IIFYM is about balancing the need to eat healthfully and get the nutrients you need while also enjoying treats so you don't binge out and wonder why your diets always fail.

Ugh. This thread.

/Rage.

Why does this thread make you feel so much "rage" ?

Im trying to sort out something that was bugging me on MFP, and I'm trying to deal with myself.

Rage because of course you cannot cannot eat as much of anything and everything you want all the time. If that is what IIFYM was, do you don't think everyone would be more successful with weight loss? In fact, how would you suppose people gain weight in the fist place?

yes i know.. i was trying to figure out why some people could eat a lot of foods and almost being gleeful about it, while others were kind of struggling.. im really trying to sort this out.

How you know they are eating lots of food?! They are probably having one serving of one treat per day or have put in a substantial work out for extra servings. This really is not hard to figure out.

When i hear words such as that, I think they are eating more food than I would be eating. It just sounds like a lot of food to me. I needed to get to the bottom of what is really going on.