Muscle Gain?! (P90X)

healthydoseofglitter

I have been doing p90x for 4 weeks now. I have lost 3lbs total. Today when I weighed myself I was up 2lbs. I have not followed the p90x meal plan. But I have been eating WAY better than before and tracking 5 days a week here on fitnesspal. Any suggestions? I can see that I lost inches ... but to see the numbers come back up on the scale is really discouraging.

rose1617

Give it time. Wait it out.
Especially if you're on a day of P90x that is mostly strength training and not much cardio (which truthfully is a lot of P90X), you will see a gain.
P90X is one of those programs that you need to be more focused on the # of inches (aka how your clothes fit) rather than the # on the scale because it will fluctuate with the muscle that you gain.

erickirb

When starting an intense program your muscles will retain water to aid in repair. Once you get used to the exercises you should shed at least some of that water and see your weight go down. A better thing to focus on is you body fat % instead of weight.

Christine_Ann

Hi!

Im on the program too! What is your daily intake like? I tried looking up your profile, but had some trouble locating. Did you try to do the nutrition plan? Its essentially just healthy choices and enough calories to burn fat and give you energy to work out.

rad007

Measurements are the true key.....I definitely understand the discouragement and frustration. But the proof is in the pudding. Muscle weighs more than fat. It also depends on when you are weighing yourself. Some days my weight has 8 lb variance. Morning, After Workout, or After Eating.

sagithia

All I can recommend is to do the nutrition plan. It is key to losing weight. I did the program without doing their eating plan and then three weeks later started the eating program and instantalyl saw the difference in my weight loss.

dharmachic

A 2-4 lb gain in muscle mass for women especially in the time period you've been doing it for is normal (same thing happened to me on P90x), so don't be discouraged at all with the slight scale gain. You won't keep building muscle though with this program since it's not a bulking program, so once you've hit that limit, as long as your diet is geared towards losing fat and you're pushing it hard during the workouts, you will see the pounds drop, guaranteed. You could also try following the meal plan or at least follow the same principles and see if your results improve.

Keep taking your measurements to ensure that you aren't just putting back on pounds of fat. As long as your measurements keep going down, you're still headed the right way. Good news is that say your scale says you're down 10 pounds, but you gained 3 lbs of muscle. That means you actually lost 13 pounds of body fat! (I don't know, that always cheers me up )

Cina04

I wouldn't go by the weight on the scale but more by progress pics. so far I haven't seen much weight loss while doing Insanity but comparing pics from day 1 to day 14, I can see my body slimming down and starting to ton up but still in the same weight range.

Just keep with it - i think I may take the scale out of my house to prevent me from checking my weight and wait until after i finish month two to see how much I weigh. I haven't been following my rule about weighing myself only on Thursdays

healthydoseofglitter

Thank you everyone! Perhaps I will give the meal plan a try and see what happens.

hiddensecant

I always gain weight at the start of Phase 2 ... it will even out. It's just new muscles that you're targeting and attacking, so they need extra water for repairs. But I think the photos showed the most difference between Phase 1 and 2 when I lost only 2 pounds than between 2 and 3 when I lost 5 pounds.

Just be sure your foods are clean and lift heavy. The inches often come off first but the pounds will come off too eventually.

Cina04

I wish I can follow a food plan but I'm such a picky eater and don't like a lot of things!

Also why most eating healthy be expensive?!?!