IIFYM is fine for weight loss but not for optimal health. All calories are not created equally. Think I'm going to hop on the keto train as well. I need some hormone restoration after a couple runs on the bike.
I'll disagree with you here.
IIFYM isn't about eating anything want, which seems to be the misconception.
It's about being smart with what you eat and being able to manage calories.
Yes, you would be dumb to consume your total budget of carbs with a big bowl of ice cream. Though I'll sometimes have a small bowl, depending on what I've eaten that day. The concept of the program is that you can theoretically eat what you want, but you shouldn't. Why? Because some foods fill you up more with few calories that others.
If you screw up and blow a bunch of calories on shitty foods, like pizza or hamburgers... You're probably not going to make your budget for the day because you're going to be starving later in the day and you'll end up way over later.
However, if I plan on having a "bad" day, like a Crawfish Boil Party with plenty of beer, I'll try to work around it by cutting calories the day before and after. I'll also go for a long morning run too... Anything I can to minimize the impact.
I've always ate a lot and I always seem hungry. So, in every meal, I try to add filler foods, like salads or other vegetables. But I also have some kind of meat... because I love meat. Chicken, turkey, steak, fish... But I always weigh those foods because of how many calories there have.
I've been tracking calories with diet and exercise since around August, using MyFitnessPal. On my cardio and gym days, I'll give myself about 1/2 the extra calories from exercise. I always track calories, even on bad days. Just for the knowledge alone it's worth it, even if I completely blow my budget for the day.
It's worked pretty well, I've lost 50lbs since then and gone from 30%+ bodyfat to somewhere between 15%-20%.
Progress has really slowed lately, so I'm going to have to tighten my diet up I think, if I want to lose more.
