insanity useless???

rima933

Exercise has a world of benefits.. the scale won't always tell you the truth... Think about this - even if you're not seeing the scale budge, you KNOW exercise is going to bring you more results than sitting on the couch. I love the saying, "Even if you're jogging slowly, you're still lapping everyone on the couch". Sometimes I get so obsessed thinking about the magic string of exercises that's going to give the absolute best results... I forget that every little bit counts. Even doing 20 squats or jumping jacks periodically through the day is better than nothing. Do what you can... contribute to yourself all through the day, and if the scale is getting you down, then weigh yourself less ^_^

Good luck and God bless.

You're sooo right!!!! i never heard that before but its pretty funny. ( the part about lapping the ppl on the couch)

rima933

A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

UpToTheChallenge

do your fit test tomorrow. I guarantee you will see a difference in how well you do.

Definitely do measurements, because I also didn't see much movement on the scale but I gained a lot of muscle. I told my doctor that I was doing insanity 6 days a week with good eating and she said it's possible to gain quite a bit of muscle in a month if you're doing that intense of a workout 6 days a week.

Don't give up. It's worth it!

JNick77

I have been eating reletively healthy meals and cutting back more than usual.

If you've been accurately logging your meals you should open your diary so we can look. It's hard to determine what relatively healthy means. Losing weight is drivin more so by diet than anything else.

kmorris246

Do you have a heart rate monitor with a chest strap? if not, I highly advise getting one. This way, you can be more comfortable in how many cals you can safely consume. I'm not doing the program right now, but every once in a while I'll do one of the workouts. The last one I did was plyo and I think I burned right around 400 cals according to my HRM.
I agree with a lot of the other posters about the weight loss in the second month. I saw much more accomplished in the second month of Insanity. Not only in weight loss, but in definition (abs, legs, and arms).

Stick with it- I promise you'll be glad that you did! My before/after pics were a world of difference!

psuLemon

Sorry guys I'm new to this and didn't know i had to click quote to reply specifically and now it won't let me fix it. But here it is, today i woke up and weighed myself and did lose a pound at least, so i do think it was water weight like you've suggested. I was upset because each day i weighed myself i kept going up a few pounds, but now im back down a bit so temporarily happy. Also my caloric intake i guess maybe was set too high, it was 1480, and then id add the calories id burn from an insanity workout (about 550 each workout) and i was still going over a bit with lots of protein left. Insanity reccommends to do 40% carbs 40% protein and 20% fat. Ive been going way over on my carbs and way below on protein. I have been eating late at night cuz im hungry. I bought that whey protein stuff yesterday and tried some yesterday and it made me very full at night so i didnt have to eat alot. Also i just figured out i can subtract an additional 350 cals a day because of breastfeeding. And i changed my activity from active to sedenetry (not sure of spelling) so that i can eat less. Im a stay at home mom of 2 so i do move around alot but not that much, plus im doing insanity. Insanity recommends to put it very active or Active while taking part in the program, but i dont think so. Thanks everyone for your replys

I may be misreading but are you eating 1480 calories or 2030? If you are eating 1480, then it's too few. If it's 2030, try to eat back 80% of your exercise calories instead of 100%.

JNick77

A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

2300 calories are far far far too many calories for you. I'm 209lbs at about 11% - 12% bodyfat and I eat 2300 calories and my lifting regimine is pretty intense without including cardio.

psuLemon

A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

2300 calories are far far far too many calories for you. I'm 209lbs at about 11% - 12% bodyfat and I eat 2300 calories and my lifting regimine is pretty intense without including cardio.

Before making the statement, you really need to understand a person BMR and TDEE. I am 200 lbs at 12% body fat and eat 3000 calories a day and I do P90X2. Even doing chalean extreme, I was eating 2700 calories and still losing.


I would actually suspect you are under eating since you aren't much higher than your BMR.

JNick77

A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

2300 calories are far far far too many calories for you. I'm 209lbs at about 11% - 12% bodyfat and I eat 2300 calories and my lifting regimine is pretty intense without including cardio.

Before making the statement, you really need to understand a person BMR and TDEE. I am 200 lbs at 12% body fat and eat 3000 calories a day and I do P90X2. Even doing chalean extreme, I was eating 2700 calories and still losing.


I would actually suspect you are under eating since you aren't much higher than your BMR.

If by under-eating you mean healthy calorie deficit, then yes you're correct I am. I fully trust my nutritionist and follow his diet plan to a "T". During this diet I've lost 9lbs in 5 weeks and hit personal records in many lifts, not losing muscle either.

This OP, at least I did not notice anywhere, doesn't mention her height, weight, bodyfat, so nobody here can accurately say what she should eat. She doesn't really provide any indication of what she eats and that's really important. Just by looking at her pic I find it really hard to believe she should be eating 2300 calories as a healthy calorie deficit.

rima933

Ok so after reading some comments i will add more info. I am 5'6 weigh 191 pounds, and am 30% body fat 51% water. I also breastfeed so thats an extra 350 calories. Most of my weight was put on during my pregnancies. Usually what i eat is rice (white i cant stand whole wheat) or potatoes with veggies lean meat like chicken or tilapia fish, ground beef , beans, lentils, or other veggie based dishes, i also eat white pita bread, eggs, lots of fruits like grapefruits , bananas (in moderation) cereal for breakfast, cook everything with olive oil. Snacks include rice cakes and occassionally i eat unhealthy stuff like chips and chocolate.

Marll

Finished a round of Insanity early January, even after 60 days didn't notice much loss on the scale (about 4lbs) even pushing HARD each workout. What I did notice was more muscle definition, clothes getting a bit looser and much better endurance.

psuLemon

Ok so after reading some comments i will add more info. I am 5'6 weigh 191 pounds, and am 30% body fat 51% water. I also breastfeed so thats an extra 350 calories. Most of my weight was put on during my pregnancies. Usually what i eat is rice (white i cant stand whole wheat) or potatoes with veggies lean meat like chicken or tilapia fish, ground beef , beans, lentils, or other veggie based dishes, i also eat white pita bread, eggs, lots of fruits like grapefruits , bananas (in moderation) cereal for breakfast, cook everything with olive oil. Snacks include rice cakes and occassionally i eat unhealthy stuff like chips and chocolate.

Oh this is great information. This puts your BMR at ~1673. I assume you are at sedentary as your basic lifestyle. So below is the math.


TDEE = 1673 * 1.2 +350 (BF) + 550 (exercise) = 2907 * .80 (defecit) = 2326.


So based on Katch McArdle, 2300 calories far off. Now, if you are active with your new born, the calories could be more (300 calories more). So with this information, I would say, make sure you are eating 2300 calories in a day and give it time. I know with beach body programs, they say weight loss could take 30-45 days for women. Now if you are not eating that many calories, then it might be time to up your current calories.

Now keep in mind there might be a small margin of error as no calculation is perfect. This is why you have to monitor it for a while (heck, it's been almost a year and I still play with my calories... have always increased it). But you watch for a month, if you lose weight... maintain calories. If you gain weight (not just 2 lbs), then you decrease by 200 calories, if you maintain weight, then you increase your calories by 200.

rima933

i just made my diary public temporarily... so embarassing but if thats what it takes to get good feedback there it is.

jadedone

You probably should eat more on exercise days especially. Try upping your daily calorie intake to about 1700-1800.

And measure, measure, measure!

I lost 3 pounds in the past 2 weeks or so, and I lost 2 inches in my waist and 2 in my hips in approximately that same time frame. At the end of the day, if your measurements are smaller, that's way better than results on the scale.

psuLemon

i just made my diary public temporarily... so embarassing but if thats what it takes to get good feedback there it is.

You are definitely under eating. Beach body recommends no less than 1800-2000 calories to do these programs. And based on your info, you should be around 2300. So eat up. Scary isn't it.

rima933

Ok so after reading some comments i will add more info. I am 5'6 weigh 191 pounds, and am 30% body fat 51% water. I also breastfeed so thats an extra 350 calories. Most of my weight was put on during my pregnancies. Usually what i eat is rice (white i cant stand whole wheat) or potatoes with veggies lean meat like chicken or tilapia fish, ground beef , beans, lentils, or other veggie based dishes, i also eat white pita bread, eggs, lots of fruits like grapefruits , bananas (in moderation) cereal for breakfast, cook everything with olive oil. Snacks include rice cakes and occassionally i eat unhealthy stuff like chips and chocolate.

Oh this is great information. This puts your BMR at ~1673. I assume you are at sedentary as your basic lifestyle. So below is the math.


TDEE = 1673 * 1.2 +350 (BF) + 550 (exercise) = 2907 * .80 (defecit) = 2326.


So based on Katch McArdle, 2300 calories far off. Now, if you are active with your new born, the calories could be more (300 calories more). So with this information, I would say, make sure you are eating 2300 calories in a day and give it time. I know with beach body programs, they say weight loss could take 30-45 days for women. Now if you are not eating that many calories, then it might be time to up your current calories.

Now keep in mind there might be a small margin of error as no calculation is perfect. This is why you have to monitor it for a while (heck, it's been almost a year and I still play with my calories... have always increased it). But you watch for a month, if you lose weight... maintain calories. If you gain weight (not just 2 lbs), then you decrease by 200 calories, if you maintain weight, then you increase your calories by 200.

Thankyou for the extremely informative response.

rima933

if your measurements are smaller, that's way better than results on the scale.

So truee