IIFYM questions!

1) That seems like a lot of protein because it's a myth perpetuated by the supplement industry and athletes who are sponsored by supplement companies because it's in their monetary interest for you to be eating excessive amounts of protein so you buy more of their products. 1-1.6 g per KILOGRAM of bodyweight is the optimal amount necessary, as proven by scores of nutritional scientists in peer reviewed studies. Protein should be the last macro you worry about. Carbs, fats, and then protein should be the priority order, and as long as you're hitting your calorie goals then the chances are that you're hitting your protein numbers comfortably.

2) Whatever works for you, I guess. You could get really good at eyeballing after a while. But if you wanted to eat something "unclean", although I hate that term, then tracking that will probably be beneficial to make sure you don't miss numbers. Although if it's rare then I wouldn't worry about it, just do whatever you're doing now if you're comfortable with it and if the scales are doing what you want then it's not a problem.

3) Really depends on your goals. If you're losing weight then you're gonna have to decrease your macros once you plateau to decrease overall calories and break your body out of homeostasis. But if you feel your calorie amount is too small as it is and that it is negatively effecting your health (physical and mental) and your training, then you've probably been chronically under eating for a long time and should be increasing calories rather than cutting them more. You can counteract this by going on a reverse diet and increasing your calories by 200 every 2-3 weeks until you reach what should be your maintanence (watch the scales) and then start again from there. Although this requires a lot of thought about food which you don't seem so keen on, but I'd really recommend it and it would only take 2 or 3 months max to complete.

Regarding protein intake, 0.8g per pound is enough and I think you shouldn't go below that to be honest. Protein is important when losing weight to help you to hold on to as much muscle mass. Higher than 0.8g per pound is good but I think going over 1g per pound of body weight isnt neccessary, especially cause you can use the calories for carbs/fat.

1) That seems like a lot of protein because it's a myth perpetuated by the supplement industry and athletes who are sponsored by supplement companies because it's in their monetary interest for you to be eating excessive amounts of protein so you buy more of their products. 1-1.6 g per KILOGRAM of bodyweight is the optimal amount necessary, as proven by scores of nutritional scientists in peer reviewed studies. Protein should be the last macro you worry about. Carbs, fats, and then protein should be the priority order, and as long as you're hitting your calorie goals then the chances are that you're hitting your protein numbers comfortably.

2) Whatever works for you, I guess. You could get really good at eyeballing after a while. But if you wanted to eat something "unclean", although I hate that term, then tracking that will probably be beneficial to make sure you don't miss numbers. Although if it's rare then I wouldn't worry about it, just do whatever you're doing now if you're comfortable with it and if the scales are doing what you want then it's not a problem.

3) Really depends on your goals. If you're losing weight then you're gonna have to decrease your macros once you plateau to decrease overall calories and break your body out of homeostasis. But if you feel your calorie amount is too small as it is and that it is negatively effecting your health (physical and mental) and your training, then you've probably been chronically under eating for a long time and should be increasing calories rather than cutting them more. You can counteract this by going on a reverse diet and increasing your calories by 200 every 2-3 weeks until you reach what should be your maintanence (watch the scales) and then start again from there. Although this requires a lot of thought about food which you don't seem so keen on, but I'd really recommend it and it would only take 2 or 3 months max to complete.

thank you! that was really helpful. although I used the IIFYM calculator on IIFYM.com and it still said i needed 129 grams of protein. i'm really hesitant to eat that much, i have to drink like 3 protein shakes a day just to reach it, that's WITH eating eggs/some other protein with every other meal. i work out pretty aggressively but it still worries me because it feels like overkill.

mostly i'm just wanting to drop body fat and get more muscle. ultimately i know the scale is going to get higher for me which is fine, but I can't really rely on the scale to tell me whether to increase or decrease macros. i guess that's my confusion there. sorry for so many questions!!

HMMMMM. I like the IIFYM calculator for working out TDEE and BMR but I really disagree with that protein number. My max number of protein a day is about 120g, as a 175lb guy who powerlifts. The 1-1.6g per KG number was a real game changer, I was able to cut protein shakes out of my diet completely and just eat a **** load of carbs to fill in the rest of my calories, which is the nicest thing ever because who doesn't wanna gorge on carbs every day?

I guess my best advice is, since you seem to like eating 'clean' (which is fine) so I assume you eat a lot of the same things regularly (WHICH IS ALSO FINE) so you could just track your macros for a couple of weeks on myfitnesspal and see where your numbers are at and then adjust your food a little bit until you're hitting what you want and are used to what you need to roughly eat daily to reach them and then just stop tracking and eyeball the rest of the way. The few weeks might be tedious and annoying, but it won't be very much in the grand scheme of it all.

But anyway, if your goals is losing fat and adding muscle then I'd recommend recomping. Most people hate it because it takes longer than the traditional quick cut with a high caloric deficit, but it allows you to progress on your lifts constantly and build muscle at the same time as losing fat (PM me if you have any questions about recomping).

2] i tend to lean more on the "clean eating" side of the scale, but i like that IIFYM allows me to eat whatever I want if I feel like it [i know, i know , as long as it fits in my macros]. but i cook at home a lot, and this whole entering-every-ingredient and scaling down per serving size is EATING MY LIFE AWAY. most the time I just plop some protein and veggies on a plate and call it good to save myself the hassle. do most IIFYMers just eat plain whole foods to keep it easier?

This is totally what I do! I'm a pretty boring eater & I live alone, so I thought I was the only one, but the idea of making a meal & then having to enter the recipe into MFP seems excessive. I'm just way too lazy for that. So I always have scrambled eggs with some meat & veggies scrambled in, or a chicken breast & baked potato, or just a plate of raw veggies with hummus, or a sandwich. Way easier to track & less time consuming!