Insanity + Daily Cardio + Casual Weight Lifting = No Weight

volrathdesign

Hello,

Pretty sure my meals are listed publically so feel free to view them for those who want to maybe help figure out why I'm not seeing the results I'm looking for.

I've been doing Insanity for about 3 months (5-6 days a week) every single week and I've gotten in great "physical shape" but I'm not seeing a single pound of weight come off. Current weight is 188.6 (M).

Generally speaking I'm burning around 800-1100 calories from doing Insanity (Still doing month 1 for the third time before I move onto month 2). I've started adding in jogging after completing Insanity for about 15-30 minutes, and on other days I do some light weight lifting too for my chest, back, and arms.

Now it's certainly possible I could be gaining muscle and that's why I'm not seeing my weight go down so I will have to get back into the habit of using my Caliper at home, but outside of that reasoning I can't quite figure it out.

I've stuck to my nutrition plan very strongly about 85% of the time which I would say is way better than the average person, but the weight is still not coming off. In total for 3 months of work I think I've dropped 3 pounds.....

If anyone who does this program or has better answers as to why I'm not seeing the pounds come off I'd really appreciate because it's getting frustrating to continue with this workout and nutrition plan when I'm not seeing the results.

Sidesteal

I've stuck to my nutrition plan very strongly about 85%

What happens the other 15% of the time and is this 15% available in your diary or is the 15% "not logging"?

Also, how active are you outside of your training? Desk job?

volrathdesign

I track and record everything even if it's not a good choice.

It's impossible to be 100% good all of the time I'm not training to be a competitive bodybuilder, just want to lose the weight and build some muscle mass back up at the same time, but the weight loss is priority #1.

And yes outside of my daily training I'm at a desk job.

Legend2point0

If your burning up to 1000 calories a then I hope your food intake is up to 2800 so your end your day at 1800, you need to make up for those burnt cals or your body will go catabolic and you'll end up in starvation mode, you'll burn off muscle and keep fat. My best burns were the days I kept the calories up! Gotta think of the body as a furnace, you have to throw logs in the fire if you want the burn. Nutrition is the key to weight loss, if it isn't good then you won't get good results. Try the eat-clean diet, or go to bodybuilding.com and look at Jamie Eason's diet schedule for men and women.

Best of luck!

FAVORED1

You have to switch your routine.... Your body has adapted and is in rest mode! CHALLENGE yourself to go to the next level; keep the body guessing ALL the time. Otherwise, you will begin to maintain what you have. Interval training is a great way to bust through that wall.... also try cycling/spin... Additionally, workout for at least 45mins strong (your absolute best) and allow that afterburn to take over!

nikkishai

I'm kinda in the same boat! After finishing my 3rd round of P90X, I started Insanity, and after 7.5 weeks I lost zero lbs and zero inches! So, forgive my lack of scientific reasoning here, but I just figured that I was working at too elite of a level for my eating, and I felt that eating more to workout harder was counter-productive to my goals. I still have fat to lose, so I'm opting for the treadmill/elliptical cardio and a calorie deficit to get the extra fat off.

To me, Insanity is a fantastic workout, but it's at such an "elite" level, that it seems to be more of a "fitness-gaining" workout and not a "fat-loss" workout. What I did was shift my thinking and start with a clean slate. I did the Fat Smash 9 day detox (mainly fruits/veggies, no meat, candy, alcohol, bread) and I dropped 4 lbs. Water weight or not, the scale moved down and I'm still hitting the gym. (I was on a 5 month plateau so I'll take 4 lbs down any day!) Hope this helps some...

Sidesteal

It's possible that you're overconsuming calories. Not usually the case with people on MFP since MFP usually sets things too low (IMO), but I went back into your diary for a good chunk of time to view your consumed cals.

I would take two weeks and eat back slightly less exercise calories, or alternatively, you can set MFP up to custom settings which would allow you to set up a steady intake each day and then you don't log exercise calories. (You'd set up your cals/macros and eat to that target each day).

If you go with the latter of the two options, feel free to PM me and I'll take a look at your macros/etc.

volrathdesign

My base calorie total is ~1,800 for my daily intake before I workout.

On days I exercise I try to eat back half of my total workout calories for the day, usually rounding out at about ~2,300 calories for the day.

It's just so hard to think that eating more and more will result in better results, I dunno just bizarre logic to me.

volrathdesign

If your burning up to 1000 calories a then I hope your food intake is up to 2800 so your end your day at 1800, you need to make up for those burnt cals or your body will go catabolic and you'll end up in starvation mode, you'll burn off muscle and keep fat. My best burns were the days I kept the calories up! Gotta think of the body as a furnace, you have to throw logs in the fire if you want the burn. Nutrition is the key to weight loss, if it isn't good then you won't get good results. Try the eat-clean diet, or go to bodybuilding.com and look at Jamie Eason's diet schedule for men and women.

Best of luck!

Nah my caloric total on days I've worked out over 1000 calories has never even come close to 2800 calories.

kellyss20

are you recording your body measurements? I do Insanity & I hardly see the scale move until I get into Month 2 workouts. Insanity is pretty intense cardio - I can't believe you have the energy to do more cardio every day on top of those workouts! You are a machine!

Sidesteal

Nah my caloric total on days I've worked out over 1000 calories has never even come close to 2800 calories.

Relating to my previous post, MFP overstates calories burned, sometimes by quite a bit. This, in addition to just viewing your intake, is what lead me to suggest a slight intake reduction.

volrathdesign

Nah my caloric total on days I've worked out over 1000 calories has never even come close to 2800 calories.

Relating to my previous post, MFP overstates calories burned, sometimes by quite a bit. This, in addition to just viewing your intake, is what lead me to suggest a slight intake reduction.

What do you mean? I just put in the calories I burned off from my HRM in my custom personal workout on MFP.

This is why I'm frustrated. Some are on here saying I need to consume more calories, and others are saying I need to consume less, and that's why it's frustrating

Sidesteal

What do you mean? I just put in the calories I burned off from my HRM in my custom personal workout on MFP.

This is why I'm frustrated. Some are on here saying I need to consume more calories, and others are saying I need to consume less, and that's why it's frustrating

I understand. You're pretty much always going to get conflicting answers and it's frustrating.

Are you using an HRM just for exercise calories or do you wear a bodybugg/similar device to get your maintenance intake over the course of a full day?

Sidesteal

It's just so hard to think that eating more and more will result in better results, I dunno just bizarre logic to me.

For lean individuals, and individuals that eat at a deficit over long periods of time, leptin (thyroid hormone) levels drop and eventually you can stall on weight loss due to this. Ramping up calories (and carbs) will bump leptin levels up.

However, you don't need to up calories for an extended period of time. You should be fine just taking a couple of high calorie/carb days and then resume your deficit, but since you basically stated that you're about 85% good, it implies to me that you already are taking some "cheat" days which should (in theory) help with this.

I am willing to bet you're not at a very big deficit given your current intake (and desk job), so I don't think this is the issue but I could obviously be wrong.

volrathdesign

What do you mean? I just put in the calories I burned off from my HRM in my custom personal workout on MFP.

This is why I'm frustrated. Some are on here saying I need to consume more calories, and others are saying I need to consume less, and that's why it's frustrating

I understand. You're pretty much always going to get conflicting answers and it's frustrating.

Are you using an HRM just for exercise calories or do you wear a bodybugg/similar device to get your maintenance intake over the course of a full day?

I only use the HRM for excersise calories. Since I'm at a desk job all day I doubt my caloric burn outside of working out is high enough to even bother tracking.

volrathdesign

It's just so hard to think that eating more and more will result in better results, I dunno just bizarre logic to me.

For lean individuals, and individuals that eat at a deficit over long periods of time, leptin (thyroid hormone) levels drop and eventually you can stall on weight loss due to this. Ramping up calories (and carbs) will bump leptin levels up.

However, you don't need to up calories for an extended period of time. You should be fine just taking a couple of high calorie/carb days and then resume your deficit, but since you basically stated that you're about 85% good, it implies to me that you already are taking some "cheat" days which should (in theory) help with this.

I am willing to bet you're not at a very big deficit given your current intake (and desk job), so I don't think this is the issue but I could obviously be wrong.

Fair enough but I want to know why I'm not seeing the results I should be. I'm working out 6 days a week pretty hard (i think at least), and yet I get on the scale and I'm lucky if it's dropped one pound.

I was losing more weight when I wasn't working out at all and I was just tracking my daily food intake. I figured by adding in exercise the pounds would fly off. Makes no sense.

Legend2point0

So you have 1800 cals intake but you burn 1000 a day working out leaving you 800 = not good, this is not enough for a 180lb guy to live on so the body thinks its starving, and every meal after that you body tries to retain as much fuel as possible. The body sheds what it doesn't need keep this in mind. Its like water retension, bloated people are scared to drink more water, but that is exactly what they need so the body doesn't think I am not going to get water for a long time. It does the same with food. When the body isn't getting what it needs it hold on to what it can. Sounds crazy but when I used to cut weight for competitions I would eat loads of icecream and cake, and drink gallons of waters, and my body would shed 10lbs in a week. Not a very healthy thing to do.

I would suggest do a 2 on, 1 day off workout routine, and do 30 minutes of cardio on your off days, eat your full 1800 calories a days and not focus on what your burning for calories. Muscle needs fuel, fuel is food and body fat. You'll see results faster than ever.

On your Food Goals try to lower your carb intake and increase your protein intake. Carbs are food that can easily be broke down for fast absorption, and when not used are stored easily as fat. Protein is lean and hard for the body to break down, your body burns calories to digest, but protein is muscle food!

My typical day is:

Breakfast - Protein shake with water, 4 egg whites, and instant oats.

Coffee break - Protein shake and a fruit

Lunch - fish or chicken with a starch and veggies

Coffee - protein shake with raw veggies or fruit

Supper - fish or chicken with a starch and veggies

Bed time - casein shake

1800 calories 180g carbs, 180g protein, 20g fat.

And I'll lose a pound of week but doing weights and "light" cardio.