IIFYM....plateau
erojoy
Posts: 554 Member
Quick question to anyone that has a lot of experience with IIFYM and one that has always confused me about IIFYM. Lets say you eat all of your calories for the day but your macros are all still short. Do you eat to fulfill your macros or do you start over the next day and focus your meal around them instead of the calories. I can almost always hit protein and fat, but carbs i'm stuck. I feel like I'm eating so much but just don't reach it.
I'm 5'11.5'' 207 lbs
I don't have premium so my numbers are a little fudged.
Calories 1934
Carbohydrates 242 g 50 %
Fat 54 g 25 %
Protein 121 g 25 %
I work out 3 days a week doing heavy lifting (Bench PR 100, Squat 185, DL 185, etc). I play soccer two days a week and do additional cardio on gym days at around 30 minutes of walk run usually totaling around 2.5 miles, but avg 7 miles per day. I'm active I move, I lift, I eat, but one thing I don't do IS LOSE.
Can you see anything right off the bat that could tell you why?
**Also please do not try to sell me on fad diets, this is what I am interested in, I just need help to make it work for me.
***I also opened up my diary for now in case anyone wants to look at it. Not too exciting. haha.
I'm 5'11.5'' 207 lbs
I don't have premium so my numbers are a little fudged.
Calories 1934
Carbohydrates 242 g 50 %
Fat 54 g 25 %
Protein 121 g 25 %
I work out 3 days a week doing heavy lifting (Bench PR 100, Squat 185, DL 185, etc). I play soccer two days a week and do additional cardio on gym days at around 30 minutes of walk run usually totaling around 2.5 miles, but avg 7 miles per day. I'm active I move, I lift, I eat, but one thing I don't do IS LOSE.
Can you see anything right off the bat that could tell you why?
**Also please do not try to sell me on fad diets, this is what I am interested in, I just need help to make it work for me.
***I also opened up my diary for now in case anyone wants to look at it. Not too exciting. haha.
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Replies
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I never worry about what the calories say. I eat to make sure my macros hit my numbers. If you hit your macros on point, then your calories should pretty much even out.0
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Quick question to anyone that has a lot of experience with IIFYM and one that has always confused me about IIFYM. Lets say you eat all of your calories for the day but your macros are all still short. Do you eat to fulfill your macros or do you start over the next day and focus your meal around them instead of the calories. I can almost always hit protein and fat, but carbs i'm stuck. I feel like I'm eating so much but just don't reach it.
I'm 5'11.5'' 207 lbs
I don't have premium so my numbers are a little fudged.
Calories 1934
Carbohydrates 242 g 50 %
Fat 54 g 25 %
Protein 121 g 25 %
I work out 3 days a week doing heavy lifting (Bench PR 100, Squat 185, DL 185, etc). I play soccer two days a week and do additional cardio on gym days at around 30 minutes of walk run usually totaling around 2.5 miles, but avg 7 miles per day. I'm active I move, I lift, I eat, but one thing I don't do IS LOSE.
Can you see anything right off the bat that could tell you why?
**Also please do not try to sell me on fad diets, this is what I am interested in, I just need help to make it work for me.
Wait, so you are out of calories but still under on macros? I would guess that you are using inaccurate entries, which probably means their are inaccuracies elsewhere.
Carbs and protein = 4 calories per gram
Fat = 9 calories per gram.
Do the math and look at your entries to see where the mistake is.
As far as not losing, the general concensus is to improve accuracy. You are probably eating more than you think. Are you weighing your food?0 -
If you've maxed out your calories and are short on macros then you either have erroneous entries or you're over on other macros. If you've maxed out your calories, you stop eating...that's way more important than hitting some macro bang on.0
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Quick question to anyone that has a lot of experience with IIFYM and one that has always confused me about IIFYM. Lets say you eat all of your calories for the day but your macros are all still short. Do you eat to fulfill your macros or do you start over the next day and focus your meal around them instead of the calories. I can almost always hit protein and fat, but carbs i'm stuck. I feel like I'm eating so much but just don't reach it.
I'm 5'11.5'' 207 lbs
I don't have premium so my numbers are a little fudged.
Calories 1934
Carbohydrates 242 g 50 %
Fat 54 g 25 %
Protein 121 g 25 %
I work out 3 days a week doing heavy lifting (Bench PR 100, Squat 185, DL 185, etc). I play soccer two days a week and do additional cardio on gym days at around 30 minutes of walk run usually totaling around 2.5 miles, but avg 7 miles per day. I'm active I move, I lift, I eat, but one thing I don't do IS LOSE.
Can you see anything right off the bat that could tell you why?
**Also please do not try to sell me on fad diets, this is what I am interested in, I just need help to make it work for me.
Wait, so you are out of calories but still under on macros? I would guess that you are using inaccurate entries, which probably means their are inaccuracies elsewhere.
Carbs and protein = 4 calories per gram
Fat = 9 calories per gram.
Do the math and look at your entries to see where the mistake is.
As far as not losing, the general concensus is to improve accuracy. You are probably eating more than you think. Are you weighing your food?
This is what I am thinking (unless you're drinking a lot of alcohol).0 -
If you are hitting your protein and fat targets, and under your calorie target, you shouldn't need to worry about your carbs.0
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Quick question to anyone that has a lot of experience with IIFYM and one that has always confused me about IIFYM. Lets say you eat all of your calories for the day but your macros are all still short. Do you eat to fulfill your macros or do you start over the next day and focus your meal around them instead of the calories. I can almost always hit protein and fat, but carbs i'm stuck. I feel like I'm eating so much but just don't reach it.
I'm 5'11.5'' 207 lbs
I don't have premium so my numbers are a little fudged.
Calories 1934
Carbohydrates 242 g 50 %
Fat 54 g 25 %
Protein 121 g 25 %
I work out 3 days a week doing heavy lifting (Bench PR 100, Squat 185, DL 185, etc). I play soccer two days a week and do additional cardio on gym days at around 30 minutes of walk run usually totaling around 2.5 miles, but avg 7 miles per day. I'm active I move, I lift, I eat, but one thing I don't do IS LOSE.
Can you see anything right off the bat that could tell you why?
**Also please do not try to sell me on fad diets, this is what I am interested in, I just need help to make it work for me.
Wait, so you are out of calories but still under on macros? I would guess that you are using inaccurate entries, which probably means their are inaccuracies elsewhere.
Carbs and protein = 4 calories per gram
Fat = 9 calories per gram.
Do the math and look at your entries to see where the mistake is.
As far as not losing, the general concensus is to improve accuracy. You are probably eating more than you think. Are you weighing your food?
This is what I am thinking (unless you're drinking a lot of alcohol).
My two thoughts exactly.
Macros sure are a personal thing. I'd be starving with those ratios.0 -
If you aren't hitting the macros you like, try switching up some foods in your diet. For example, I noticed you had an isogenix shake for breakfast yesterday, which is 24g of protein for 240 calories. My protein is 24g of protein in 120 calories. That could free up a fair amount of calories (or give you twice as much protein for the same amount of calories).
I guess it mostly depends on where you feel like you are lacking, and if you feel your macro breakdown is helping you hit your goals (and keeping you satiated).0 -
^even if the match makes sense, if someone eats avocados, cheese, nuts and whey shakes all day, they could feasibly hit their fats and protein without hitting carbs.0
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Most likely due to rounding errors. Some labels' calories don't match up with the 4, 4, 9 calculation, too.0
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Quick question to anyone that has a lot of experience with IIFYM and one that has always confused me about IIFYM. Lets say you eat all of your calories for the day but your macros are all still short. Do you eat to fulfill your macros or do you start over the next day and focus your meal around them instead of the calories. I can almost always hit protein and fat, but carbs i'm stuck. I feel like I'm eating so much but just don't reach it.
I'm 5'11.5'' 207 lbs
I don't have premium so my numbers are a little fudged.
Calories 1934
Carbohydrates 242 g 50 %
Fat 54 g 25 %
Protein 121 g 25 %
I work out 3 days a week doing heavy lifting (Bench PR 100, Squat 185, DL 185, etc). I play soccer two days a week and do additional cardio on gym days at around 30 minutes of walk run usually totaling around 2.5 miles, but avg 7 miles per day. I'm active I move, I lift, I eat, but one thing I don't do IS LOSE.
Can you see anything right off the bat that could tell you why?
**Also please do not try to sell me on fad diets, this is what I am interested in, I just need help to make it work for me.
***I also opened up my diary for now in case anyone wants to look at it. Not too exciting. haha.
No, I stop eating when I've used up my calories. Macros don't have to be perfect, and it isn't worthwhile to eat more calories just to get a "better" ratio. If you are hitting protein and fat, don't worry if you don't have the perfect amount of carbs. If you feel like you aren't getting enough fiber (due to lack of carbs), then by all means REPLACE a little protein or fat with some carbs, but don't ADD on top to create a surplus of calories.
I look at it this way: If I am about to eat my last meal and I am short on a macro, then I try to adjust my meal accordingly, within reason. So it might mean taking away the cheese and adding more veggies. But I don't add more food after I've met my calorie budget. Does that make sense?0 -
There are a lot of entries in the database that have a calorie value but do not have macro nutrient value. A couple of these items in your diary would explain it. Fiber can also be a culprit. Food labels can list fiber towards carbs and calories, and sometimes not. Plus, looking at your diary, you add back in exercise calories which alters your goals. It makes it hard to follow.0
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I certainly don't know a lot about nutrition nor the ins and outs of IIFYM diets, but scrolling through your diet I do see you fairly consistently going over on your fats, and under (sometimes very largely) under on your protein. When you are saying you "are hitting your proteins and fats" are you saying that you are getting to the allotted amount and stopping, or seeing it as a "minimum" requirement? You do tend to have a large amount of carbs available at the end of your days, but unless you are trying to add muscle, I would probably focus more on balancing out your fats and protein.
The math seems to add up. From the short span of the week that I previewed, a lot of your over calories would be coming from fat. Move some of that to your carbs (sure) or protein (definitely!) and I think you could see some changes.
More importantly, hows your water consumption? You're going to lose a lot of water with the activities you've described and some days your are going pretty high sodium (granted you'll lose some while exercising) you may be retaining water.
PS: I'm digging the hard apple cider for breakfast (hey, honesty is super important!).
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What you guys are saying does make a lot of sense. Bad thing is like 80% I take right off of food labels. I wish I had the time to make everything fresh, but I don't even have time for a prep day. It is so frustrating. I just want to figure this out, because I work so damn hard at the gym. Ok, I'm going to have to take a look at those calorie to carb/fat/protein ratio, if you guys really think that I should be a lot closer to hitting them then something is wrong.
Also @vismal is there a way to turn that off even? The whole negative calories net calories thing always confuses me.0 -
What you guys are saying does make a lot of sense. Bad thing is like 80% I take right off of food labels. I wish I had the time to make everything fresh, but I don't even have time for a prep day. It is so frustrating. I just want to figure this out, because I work so damn hard at the gym. Ok, I'm going to have to take a look at those calorie to carb/fat/protein ratio, if you guys really think that I should be a lot closer to hitting them then something is wrong.
Also @vismal is there a way to turn that off even? The whole negative calories net calories thing always confuses me.
Not meeting macros perfectly will not stall weight loss-underestimating calories will. The point was that if you are using inaccurate entries, you probably have other inaccuracies as well.
It is good to hit your macros for numerous reasons-but as long as you're within your calorie goals you should be losing weight. Get more accurate (easily done with a food scale). Then you will lose weight0 -
dsweingartner wrote: »I certainly don't know a lot about nutrition nor the ins and outs of IIFYM diets, but scrolling through your diet I do see you fairly consistently going over on your fats, and under (sometimes very largely) under on your protein. When you are saying you "are hitting your proteins and fats" are you saying that you are getting to the allotted amount and stopping, or seeing it as a "minimum" requirement? You do tend to have a large amount of carbs available at the end of your days, but unless you are trying to add muscle, I would probably focus more on balancing out your fats and protein.
The math seems to add up. From the short span of the week that I previewed, a lot of your over calories would be coming from fat. Move some of that to your carbs (sure) or protein (definitely!) and I think you could see some changes.
More importantly, hows your water consumption? You're going to lose a lot of water with the activities you've described and some days your are going pretty high sodium (granted you'll lose some while exercising) you may be retaining water.
PS: I'm digging the hard apple cider for breakfast (hey, honesty is super important!).
You are not wrong, my fats are baaadd. Usually with protein shakes, eggs, and chicken i get close to protein, but I think I need to rework what I'm eating. I just am one of those people with so little time for myself. I drink at least 100 ounces of water a day. That's the goal. I forget to always log it, but I drink this huge 1.18 L water bottle 2 times per day and then half of one more.
...so move over fat to protein. Ok got it. I'll work on that.
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I just don't log exercise on MFP. I log my exercise in a notebook. There's also a way to input it as a custom exercise and count it as 1 calorie burned so it still tracks the workout but doesn't mess with your totals. Someone else here I'm sure can chime in on how to do that. If you want some help with IIFYM, I put together a series of videos on getting started with it, including answers to common problems that come up. Feel free to check it out: http://goo.gl/zqIv6HWhat you guys are saying does make a lot of sense. Bad thing is like 80% I take right off of food labels. I wish I had the time to make everything fresh, but I don't even have time for a prep day. It is so frustrating. I just want to figure this out, because I work so damn hard at the gym. Ok, I'm going to have to take a look at those calorie to carb/fat/protein ratio, if you guys really think that I should be a lot closer to hitting them then something is wrong.
Also @vismal is there a way to turn that off even? The whole negative calories net calories thing always confuses me.
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What you guys are saying does make a lot of sense. Bad thing is like 80% I take right off of food labels. I wish I had the time to make everything fresh, but I don't even have time for a prep day. It is so frustrating. I just want to figure this out, because I work so damn hard at the gym. Ok, I'm going to have to take a look at those calorie to carb/fat/protein ratio, if you guys really think that I should be a lot closer to hitting them then something is wrong.
Also @vismal is there a way to turn that off even? The whole negative calories net calories thing always confuses me.
you're going to have inherent rounding errors for starters. secondly, it's great to be aware of your macros...but obsessing about them to this extent is a bit ridiculous...there's nothing magical about hitting your macros bang on. IMO, you're worry yourself a lot for nothing.0 -
Not meeting macros perfectly will not stall weight loss-underestimating calories will. The point was that if you are using inaccurate entries, you probably have other inaccuracies as well.
It is good to hit your macros for numerous reasons-but as long as you're within your calorie goals you should be losing weight. Get more accurate (easily done with a food scale). Then you will lose weight
I have a food scale, I just have to prepare more of my own food. Simple, I know...if only i had the time.
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I just don't log exercise on MFP. I log my exercise in a notebook. There's also a way to input it as a custom exercise and count it as 1 calorie burned so it still tracks the workout but doesn't mess with your totals. Someone else here I'm sure can chime in on how to do that. If you want some help with IIFYM, I put together a series of videos on getting started with it, including answers to common problems that come up. Feel free to check it out: http://goo.gl/zqIv6HWhat you guys are saying does make a lot of sense. Bad thing is like 80% I take right off of food labels. I wish I had the time to make everything fresh, but I don't even have time for a prep day. It is so frustrating. I just want to figure this out, because I work so damn hard at the gym. Ok, I'm going to have to take a look at those calorie to carb/fat/protein ratio, if you guys really think that I should be a lot closer to hitting them then something is wrong.
Also @vismal is there a way to turn that off even? The whole negative calories net calories thing always confuses me.
If you're on the app just select the exercise, and click on the line that shows the calories, change it to 1.0 -
It's good to try to hit your macros but more important to not go over you caloric deficit. Unless you just want an excuse to eat more
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I just don't log exercise on MFP. I log my exercise in a notebook. There's also a way to input it as a custom exercise and count it as 1 calorie burned so it still tracks the workout but doesn't mess with your totals. Someone else here I'm sure can chime in on how to do that. If you want some help with IIFYM, I put together a series of videos on getting started with it, including answers to common problems that come up. Feel free to check it out: http://goo.gl/zqIv6H
Awesome, thx!
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Macros are calories, just a more accurate way to count them. Especially if you weigh everything out.0
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Not meeting macros perfectly will not stall weight loss-underestimating calories will. The point was that if you are using inaccurate entries, you probably have other inaccuracies as well.
It is good to hit your macros for numerous reasons-but as long as you're within your calorie goals you should be losing weight. Get more accurate (easily done with a food scale). Then you will lose weight
I have a food scale, I just have to prepare more of my own food. Simple, I know...if only i had the time.
Nah, I barely cook anymore and am consistently losing. Anything I eat at home I weigh, including fruit, veggies, etc. I go out to eat often, and simply try to stick to chains, etc that tend to have more accurate calorie counts. I also eat lots of pre-made food.
If you're tracking accurately, perhaps you need to reconsider your calorie goal. Macro distribution can certainly help to retain muscle mass (protein levels) and increase satiety, but again they do not affect weight loss.0 -
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Nah, I barely cook anymore and am consistently losing. Anything I eat at home I weigh, including fruit, veggies, etc. I go out to eat often, and simply try to stick to chains, etc that tend to have more accurate calorie counts. I also eat lots of pre-made food.
If you're tracking accurately, perhaps you need to reconsider your calorie goal. Macro distribution can certainly help to retain muscle mass (protein levels) and increase satiety, but again they do not affect weight loss.
How dumb is it that I've never thought of weighing fruit and veggies. I go by how many I have or cups of, etc. But you are right that isn't exactly accurate. Oh man my food scale is going to get a workout now. haha0 -
This might help you quite a bit: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1Nah, I barely cook anymore and am consistently losing. Anything I eat at home I weigh, including fruit, veggies, etc. I go out to eat often, and simply try to stick to chains, etc that tend to have more accurate calorie counts. I also eat lots of pre-made food.
If you're tracking accurately, perhaps you need to reconsider your calorie goal. Macro distribution can certainly help to retain muscle mass (protein levels) and increase satiety, but again they do not affect weight loss.
How dumb is it that I've never thought of weighing fruit and veggies. I go by how many I have or cups of, etc. But you are right that isn't exactly accurate. Oh man my food scale is going to get a workout now. haha
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Not meeting macros perfectly will not stall weight loss-underestimating calories will. The point was that if you are using inaccurate entries, you probably have other inaccuracies as well.
It is good to hit your macros for numerous reasons-but as long as you're within your calorie goals you should be losing weight. Get more accurate (easily done with a food scale). Then you will lose weight
I have a food scale, I just have to prepare more of my own food. Simple, I know...if only i had the time.
Nah, I barely cook anymore and am consistently losing. Anything I eat at home I weigh, including fruit, veggies, etc. I go out to eat often, and simply try to stick to chains, etc that tend to have more accurate calorie counts. I also eat lots of pre-made food.
If you're tracking accurately, perhaps you need to reconsider your calorie goal. Macro distribution can certainly help to retain muscle mass (protein levels) and increase satiety, but again they do not affect weight loss.
I agree that the overall calorie intake vs output is the largest determining factor (and with that accuracy of entries). I brought up the macro distribution with the assumptions that the reporting accuracy is there and that OP is simply still not losing. Calories out > calories in = weight loss. If the calories in are accurate and there is still no weight loss (not considering composition), then it would be time to start looking at the calories out part of the equation and what is effecting that. That gets REALLY complicated, and I know I am no where near understanding that. But yes, calories in versus calories out is kinda the golden rule I guess.0 -
dsweingartner wrote: »
PS: I'm digging the hard apple cider for breakfast (hey, honesty is super important!).
LMFAO I was hoping no one would see that. Told my friend on a walk just now that I opened my diary to the public on a bad month. Alcohol for breakfast, Starbucks...ugh. haha Thing is that I've been having this issue for months, and haven't gained any weight from doing this...not a great reenforcer. :-(
I do think however I've learned some valuable lessons here. Thank you for helping me out everyone. This community is awesome.
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dsweingartner wrote: »
PS: I'm digging the hard apple cider for breakfast (hey, honesty is super important!).
LMFAO I was hoping no one would see that. Told my friend on a walk just now that I opened my diary to the public on a bad month. Alcohol for breakfast, Starbucks...ugh. haha Thing is that I've been having this issue for months, and haven't gained any weight from doing this...not a great reenforcer. :-(
I do think however I've learned some valuable lessons here. Thank you for helping me out everyone. This community is awesome.
Hey, if weight loss was easy it wouldn't be such a problem. I think being honest with yourself is going to be the best way to remain accountable (classic "my name is ______, and I'm an alcoholic" kind of approach). I've had several days where I had to fill in the 5,000 calorie SURPLUS. But when you try to ignore that or pretend it didn't happen, you're only cheating yourself. Stick with it, from my understanding weight loss is a long game.0
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