Question for iifym veterans

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melissaw78
melissaw78 Posts: 214 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How far over or under your numbers be and still be considered hitting your marks? Example: 150p/128c/46f

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  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    IIFYM (the nutrition plan not the website of the same name) does not have to mean fixed numbers of grams or certain percentages - that's just one way and a very restrictive way which I would argue is in conflict to the philosophy of flexible dieting that spawned the acronym IIFYM.

    An alternative is to set minimum goals for protein (or protein and fat) and the remainder of your calorie allowance becomes flexible. For your protein goal personally if that was my minimum goal I would regard anything from 150g upwards to be hitting my marks. I also wouldn't be that bothered if occasionally I missed it by a small margin, perfection isn't required as your body manages variances very well if you give it the raw materials over a reasonable timescale.

    Fixed grams also doesn't work with the MyFitnessPal variable daily calorie goal in line with exercise which personally I far prefer to a same every day calorie goal (average TDEE method of accounting for exercise).

  • MikePTY
    MikePTY Posts: 3,814 Member
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    Even in iifym, calories is the real important number for weight loss. You should be eating at on our about your calorie goal. The macros are just a general guide for your fitness goals as well as satiety. You can diverge as much or as little from them as desired.

    In general, I aim for my protein goal, and then while I generally target my carbs and fat macros, they tend to have a lot of variation. My targets are 45c/30f/25p. Most days I am within a couple of percentage of 25p. Sometimes my fat and carbs are right on the mark. Other days it will be 50c/25f while other days it will be 30c/45f. I tend to notice a bit of a dip in athletic performance if I have a hard workout and my carbs are too low. But other than that it doesn't affect my weight loss.

    40% protein (which is what yours look like to me) may be a bit excessive and hard to hit, and shouldn't really be necessary for most standard weight loss or fitness goals.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited January 2020
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    Pure alcohol (without the mixers/flavors, etc) is its own macro, at 7 calories per gram. You for sure want to account for it somehow.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,060 Member
    edited January 2020
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    Wait.

    What?

    There is 0.1g of protein in a 5 ounce serving of wine. The carbs vary, but around 4-8g is reasonable. No fat in wine.

    That's a convoluted calculation you've got there! Of course I think calculating 7 calories per gram of ethanol is way too much work, too. Just grab an approximate calorie count and call it a day.

    Unless you're having a lot of wine. Then I have a different solution.
  • hotstrawberry
    hotstrawberry Posts: 13 Member
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    I didn’t come up with the calculations I read them in various articles online
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    Back when I was tracking I usually add alcohol as quick add calories or if it's from the database it adds a bit to my carbs I think.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,060 Member
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    Back when I was drinking alcohol I often couldn't even remember how much I drank. :lol:


    OR what I ate.


    That was a problem...I didn't/couldn't lose the last 15 pounds until I quit drinking completely.
  • hotstrawberry
    hotstrawberry Posts: 13 Member
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    Okay. I can see you don’t want to be helpful so bye
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,060 Member
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    hotstrawberry wrote: »
    Okay. I can see you don’t want to be helpful so bye

    Not true.

    They / we answered your question.

    If you want to take it further, you can always start your own thread. This started as a IIFYM question, and alcohol isn't really a nutritional substance, but it does have calories that need to be factored in some way. It's just not a straight-forward calculation. I would go to the manufacturers' website for calories and other nutrition and then log it as they list it.

    All calories count in macros counting. IIFYM is simply a way to enable people to eat and drink whatever they want as long as it fits their macros.

    What part of that is confusing?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,060 Member
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    When it fits macros it fits calories.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    Alcohol is its own macro, as others said. You don't have to count is as any of the C/P/F macros -- the cals will still count. That's what I (hypothetically) would do.

    However, if absolutely intent on putting it into a macro for some reason, I would consider the following:

    Usually when doing IIFYM, protein is the most focused on macro and is a minimum. Therefore, I would never count alcohol as protein.

    Personally, I don't care about fat vs carbs, but if you tended to be under on fat then you shouldn't count it toward fat.

    On the other hand, if you were fine on fat and focused on getting enough carbs to support training efforts, then maybe putting it to fat (and not carbs) would make the most sense to make sure you got in all your carbs within the permitted cals.

    I didn't drink by the time I did MFP (too much drinking earlier in life), but I did the only other time I lost weight. That time I did not have access to MFP or similar (it was around 2003). I decided to write down what I was eating and try to basically hit the recommended servings of different food groups. I thought the recommendations for grains were too high, though (I've never really eaten a lot of grains) and so I decided that wine counted as a serving of grains. I don't actually recommend that, though, although I lost weight successfully (while continuing to drink way too much for some time).
  • angel7472
    angel7472 Posts: 317 Member
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    Ok...that was a nice little intermission. Back to iifym...For me it's a guideline. I do the TDEE method also so I know what to eat every day and what macro to hit. I only really pay close attention to protein. The rest are what they are.
    I have a ritual that every night at 9pm when I'm watching tv I get my one serving of candy or sweet. Because of this I always hit my calories but my carbs go way off. To me and the past 4-5 years of maintaining within 5 pounds it works.
    I don't follow it religiously. It's a guideline. IIFYM is meant to be a guideline. Some people will follow it to the T. For me it's just there to keep me from going out of control.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    Re how far above or below you can be, on a single day it doesn't matter, of course. In general, it is going to depend on how and why you picked those macros. Often at the beginning you are still figuring out what macros work best for you.

    Personally I have a protein minimum that I try to meet or exceed most days, and don't have strong reasons to have carbs or fat at a particular number (outside of the range I always hit anyway). Some may find it really helps their exercise goals to hit 55% carbs, so consider that very important. Others may find macros to be very helpful structurally (I find some other considerations besides macros provide that structure for me).
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    I consider my macro goals to be just a tool to support meeting my needs for protein and fat. If I'm over or under in a particular day, I don't consider it a problem, I just try to be within an acceptable range most of the time (for me, "acceptable" is meeting my minimum goals for protein and fat).

    I think the key to answering this question is figuring out why you've got specific goals. Are they to support your nutritional needs? Are they driven by specific health concerns? Have you learned from experience that a certain range helps control your appetite better? Once you know why you have specific goals, you'll have a better understanding of how close you need to be.

    For the vast majority of us, worrying about a handful of grams off isn't likely to accomplish anything.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,060 Member
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    Mysteriously...posts disappeared...now this thread doesn't make much sense in that alcohol side-discussion...odd.

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