So my iifym is

I'm no expert or professional, but if you have tried so many things I would just keep it simple this time. Just plug your numbers into MFP along with your goals and follow the deficit that MFP gives to you. Weigh and measure all of your food and if you work out eat back most of your exercise calories. It does work, but it is you who makes it work. You have to stick to it. You have gained weight back in the past cause of all the fad diets and not maintaining after.

If you must do IIFYM then that seems about right.

Hi! My name is Laura. I am 42 yrs old, 5'7" and 158 lbs. My fat % is 27.6 right now. I have been dieting for 20 weeks. At first I was eating around 1200 calories a day. I lost weight, but I plateaued. I had a fitness trainer help me by figuring my BMR and the amount of calories I should be eating daily to lose weight. This is 1520 cal/day with maintenance at 2027 cal. Well, for the past four weeks I have plateaued AGAIN! A female friend of mine that is into body building suggested I go to IIFYM.com to figure my calories and macros. All I have been doing in to the past was watching calories, but she told me I need to watch proteins, carbs, and fats also. Well, when I did the calculator it told me that I should be eating 1740 cal/day (at aggressive 20%). I freaked out. Wow....I feel that if I am not losing weight at 1520 calories, isn't 1740 calories a day gonna make me GAIN weight??? She told me to stay off the scale for a couple weeks because I may gain weight as my body gets used to the extra calories, but if I follow the macros then I will start losing weight again. My main question to you is....do you feel 1740 calories a day is to high? Will I lose weight while eating this many calories?? Any suggestions you have will be appreciated!

Question I have tried every attempt to lose weight it was suggested to use the iifym formula ... As I have now gained again I'm at 206.4 which means I have to eat 1802 calories to lose weight? Does this sound right, I'm just curious because I can't lose weight with 500 cal, 1000 cal, 1200 cal not counting cal, ww, jcraig, ideal protein, phen, adkins, all of these I've tried over last several years the scale keeps going up 60 pounds in the last 8 months..I'm 35' female, 5'2 and now 206.4 pounds suggestions

Stop doing fad diets. Stop yo-yoing. Let's get down to basics here. Have you read this? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

I plugged in your numbers into a basic calculator, and got an estimate of your BMR at 1550 or so and your TDEE (with just basic daily living like shopping and walking the dog) at about 2150. All the hype, all the advice aside, if you eat between your BMR and TDEE every day, you WILL lose weight (barring any other health issues). But it takes a commitment to tracking everything accurately.

I guess I just feel that eating even 300 under my maintenance calories would keep me from losing weight, but it is true what you say. As far as exercising...oh yes!! I workout out 5-6 days a week doing HIIT. I usually do TurboFire (kickboxing) or jogging for HIIT, and I also do strength training. I have had to take it down to cycling this past week for my HIIT being as I hurt my ankle. It is still high intensity just not high impact. No jumping around for me for another week until my ankle is better. Thanks!!!

the scale keeps going up 60 pounds in the last 8 months..I'm 35' female, 5'2 and now 206.4 pounds suggestions

Unless you're leaving out the parts where you're binge eating between fad diets thereby causing that massive amount of weight gain, it sounds more like a medical issue to me and a basic IIFYM plan is very unlikely to be the answer. I'd talk to your doctor and get some idea as to whether there's potentially a medical condition causing you to gain weight and, if so, take steps to get that under control.

Had to change my macros being as my body is a little carb intolerant. By eating all those carbs I was only hurting myself. I am on a low carb diet now. Eating way more protein than carbs, so looking to see what till happen on weigh in day.

To those confused or curious about IIFYM, I have an entire playlist of YouTube videos that will walk you through the entire process from beginning to end. I feel that the calculator on the IIFYM website often times has you eating too much protein at the expense of fat and carbs. If the concept of IIFYM doesn't make sense to you, these videos should help clear it all up:

http://goo.gl/zqIv6H

To the OP, if you are saying you didn't lose weight while consistently eating 1000 calories or less everyday at a body weight of over 200 lbs then one of the following must be true:

1: You have an extremely profound metabolic disease process. If you believe this is the case I would see an endocrinologist and have them order every test under the sun

2: You are bad at counting calories. Studies show humans can overestimate the calories in a meal by upwards of 40%. The simple difference between using a measuring spoon to measure peanut butter vs weighing it on a scale can be a 100-200 calorie difference per serving. Do you weigh 100% of your food? Do you often eat food you did not prepare? How much guess work is involved?

3: You are not consistent. How often do you blow your diet. Cheat days? Free meals? Do you ever binge? Remember eating 1000 calories for 5 days then eating 4000 calories on Saturday and Sunday is the same as eating 1857 calories every day.


If number 1 is your problem IIFYM is likely not the answer. If you feel numbers 2 or 3 might be your problem, then IIFYM could certainly work for you.