Help! Unsure of how many calories to eat during insanity.

KevRiles
KevRiles Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
Hi Everyone. I've just started week 3 of insanity and I just wanted to say I think its great. The workouts really push me to my limit and leave me feeling energized for the rest of the day (I normally workout in the morning). This is my second time trying insanity and the furthest I've gotten, as time constraints caused me to quit after a couple of weeks my first time around.

My problem is that I'm unsure of how many calories I should be eating to see maximum results. I'm a 22 year old male, Height 6'1" and 185lbs. I don't follow the nutrition guide exactly but I eat right and keep it to small meals throughout the day. Everywhere I go I see people throwing around different numbers of how much I should be eating so I was hoping someone on here could shed some light. Also, just wondering what to set my activity level as using the MFP app (my life is pretty sedentary besides the insanity workouts and walking my dog). Any and all advice helps! Thanks!

Replies

  • KevRiles
    KevRiles Posts: 5
    Thanks for bringing this up. I am trying to lose weight. Right now I'm eating around 1800-2000 calories a day.
  • bacitracin
    bacitracin Posts: 921 Member
    It's gonna be tough, seeing as BMR and TDEE are different for everyone and a bit different every day. I set myself as sedentary on MFP and then log exercise and try to eat about 75-80% of calories back.

    Find your basal metabolic rate, then try to calculate your total daily energy expenditure based on how active you are for how long.
  • BecciJoWilding
    BecciJoWilding Posts: 50 Member
    Im just starting insanity as well. My BMR is 2314 (that includes my intense working out) and I subtracted 1,000 calories from that for a 7,000 deficiet a week which is about a 2 pound weightloss a week. If your goal is 1 pound subtract 500 from your BMR. Youre goal should not be more than 2 pounds a week for a healthy weightloss unless your life resolves around just losing weight and you can focus 8 hours a day to working out like on the Biggest Loser. But remember even on that show, some contestants will only lose 2 pounds a week
  • BecciJoWilding
    BecciJoWilding Posts: 50 Member
    I just started an insanity group for those who are just starting it. I am starting insanity Monday December 9, 2013 so I'd love for anyone else starting then to join too :) The groups name is: Insanity Start date 12-9-13. Just search it and you should be able to add yourself because it's a public group which on the start date I'll switch to private so we can share what we want without it being public to everyone
  • ellew70
    ellew70 Posts: 222 Member
    I've done two rounds of insanity. I used the method in the Insanity diet book, but that came out to 1800 for me... I'm 5 2 and was 160 lbs (now 130 yay) and that seemed like a lot. I dropped it to 1500 and that worked like a charm. I'd see what the book calculation is (by the way, I think its a TDEE calculation) and then do some trial and error. Don't drop it too much, however, as you'll feel the energy drain ... especially when you get to month 2 (evil grin)

    By the way, I did the 5 small meal thing and avoided most processed stuff (Im going to say I ate "cleaner" but not "clean) and I could tell the difference when I didn't do so. But your results may vary

    Good luck and keep pushing play.

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