The Fit Chocoholic: IIFYM For Beginners

As promised, I am here to share a small round up of posts that will help any IIFYM newbies. I provided a brief overview of what IIFYM is yesterday in a post about my decision to start counting macros. But, since I am still new to the IIFYM world, I wanted to share a few other blog posts that can serve as a good resource to anyone wanting start flexible dieting.

First, I want to share the resource I used to calculate my macros. Hop on over to iifym.com and go to their IIFYM Calculators page.

Scroll down until you find Step 1 and fill out all of the information.

Make sure you scroll down and complete the Exercise Level portion of step one (I work on a MacBook Pro and for some reason it pushes exercise level down the page so I have to scroll to find it. It may not be that way on your operating system). I was unsure of my 'Current Body Fat%' so I left it blank. After you enter your weekly exercise level click on 'Calculate Your TDEE' and your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) and TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) will appear to the right, as seen below.

Simply put, your BMR is the number of calories you burn by simply existing. TDEE is your BMR + the number of calories you burn through physical activity. Now that you have your TDEE and BMR calculated, scroll down to Step 2 to choose your goals.

This is where you need to know what your personal fitness goals are. Do you want to achieve fat loss or maintain your weight where you are currently at? You can also choose goals based on the need to gain weight and it also gives you the option to create custom goals. After you select the goal that is best for you, move on to step 3 to select your nutrition plan.

Make sure you have IIFYM selected in the 'Common Plans' box to the left. Step 3 will have you choose your grams per pound of body weight of protein and fat. Keep in mind that these numbers are a jump off point and you can tweak them based on how your body responds to them in a few weeks. After you have selected your protein and fat grams, your suggested macros will appear in Step 4.

You can see that your results are provided in overall macros you need to consume daily and it also gives you the option to see your macros per meal, based on how many meals you consume in a day. Again, this is a starting point and you may need to make some modifications after a few weeks.

I hope this gives you an idea of where to get started in figuring out what you specific macros may be. Here are some other great resources from my fellow FitFluential Ambassadors that may help as well!