Calories Burn dropping during Day 71 of P90X

carlachristinewhite

Me and my Buddy are doing P90X together and we are on Day 71. WE noticed for the past 3-4 days, our calories burned seems to be dropping down.. For example, 2-3 weeks ago, our Leg and Back routine calories burned at about 500, and then last Friday, it dropped to 300. Same with today, we did Chest, shoulders and triceps, the last session we did, I burned about 700, and today I only burned 296! What is wrong?! No changes in nutrition plan (I actually eating much healthier and don't starve) it was just weird that both of us are burning less in the same workout sessions as we did 2-3 weeks ago and cals seemed to drop.

I appreciate any feedback from any of yall.

AlissaAngelo

Hmmm... have you lost weight? As you lose weight, you have to work harder to burn the same amount of calories that you previously were. I know when I was heavier, I would always burn more calories and as I lost weight that number went down.

Hope that helps!
Alissa
www.alissaangelo.com

celestialchef

I imagine your burning less because you have less to burn. You mentioned that you're eating far better and you've been exercising like a beast. Sounds to me like you're doing everything right. great job!

Tamstar1985

your body is becoming more efficient! also, as you lose weight, your calorie burns will become lower and lower.

great job on getting through 71 days of p90x

aweightymatter

It happens! I get about the same burn that you are now getting from those videos. Sometimes even less for shoulders/triceps -- 275ish. Just take it as proof that you are getting fitter Pusha little harder or bump up your weights to try to get it back up a bit!

JMarigold

It could be related to your body becoming better conditioned. I'm assuming you are using a heart rate monitor. If that's how you are checking your burn then with the less calories burned you should also see a significantly lower heart rate through out your workout. That could simply be a result of you being fitter.

L1m1tl3ss

Echoing those above a little, but the less mass you have the less energy is required to move it, and the fewer the calories you'll burn doing the same routine.

YassSpartan

It happens to me too, I'm on week 7. This is the conclusion I got to. When I first started P90X I would be exhausted to the point I had trouble finishing the full workout. As weeks passed by and even though I keep pushing harder, increase weight and do more reps when aplicable, I don't get to that exhaustion point I used to. So I'm guessing it has to do that even though I get tired, my body is getting so much stronger that I'm unable to burn as much calories because is easier for me to workout.

What I'm doing instead is adding from 10 to 20 minutes of HIIT cardio training or Intervals to maximize my calories burn.

Also, I have read and seen on tv that the less you weight the less calories you'll burn, so as you keep losing weight, it will get harder to burn as many calories as you used to when you weighted more.

carlachristinewhite

It could be related to your body becoming better conditioned. I'm assuming you are using a heart rate monitor. If that's how you are checking your burn then with the less calories burned you should also see a significantly lower heart rate through out your workout. That could simply be a result of you being fitter.

I do have lower heart rate when doing the weight lifting routines. I hope I am fitter, but still needs to lose more weight. I guess I have to rely burning more calories in cardio workouts instead.

With that said, should I switch to Insanity and no more round 2 of P90X?

carlachristinewhite

Hmmm... have you lost weight? As you lose weight, you have to work harder to burn the same amount of calories that you previously were. I know when I was heavier, I would always burn more calories and as I lost weight that number went down.

Hope that helps!
Alissa
www.alissaangelo.com

I did lose weight. I guess it is not a bad thing, but I need to burn more calories to lose more weight right? Still have not achieved my weight goals though.

FittingIn

I'm doing a P90X/Insanity Hybrid which reportedly brings the best of both worlds. PM me if you would like a link to the workout schedule.

Gee45

Definitely lift a little heavier weights and also work on your form and getting deeper into the moves. Like on Plyometrics, sink down into the squats and lunges plus jump higher or farther. This will keep your calorie expenditure in a higher range.

fitfocusedfamily

It could be related to your body becoming better conditioned. I'm assuming you are using a heart rate monitor. If that's how you are checking your burn then with the less calories burned you should also see a significantly lower heart rate through out your workout. That could simply be a result of you being fitter.

I do have lower heart rate when doing the weight lifting routines. I hope I am fitter, but still needs to lose more weight. I guess I have to rely burning more calories in cardio workouts instead.

With that said, should I switch to Insanity and no more round 2 of P90X?

First, you are 19 days away from finishing this round. Stick with it! No sense throwing away all that hard work!
Second, definitely follow on with Insanity. It is mostly intense cardio & should burn off excess fat around the muscle you have built with X.
Third, while I agree that your heart rate may have slowed down as a result of becoming more fit, I wouldn't expect it to have slowed to the point of burning half as many calories. Check the battery in your HRM. My HRM started giving me an average heart rate of 100 or less during my Insanity workouts. I don't think that is even possible with that program. My average had been 160+. The battery/HRM was definitely bunk. I just bought a new Polar FT40 & getting a burn I expected.

Great job making it through 2 rounds of X! I'm doing X2.

carlachristinewhite

First, you are 19 days away from finishing this round. Stick with it! No sense throwing away all that hard work!
Second, definitely follow on with Insanity. It is mostly intense cardio & should burn off excess fat around the muscle you have built with X.
Third, while I agree that your heart rate may have slowed down as a result of becoming more fit, I wouldn't expect it to have slowed to the point of burning half as many calories. Check the battery in your HRM. My HRM started giving me an average heart rate of 100 or less during my Insanity workouts. I don't think that is even possible with that program. My average had been 160+. The battery/HRM was definitely bunk. I just bought a new Polar FT40 & getting a burn I expected.

Great job making it through 2 rounds of X! I'm doing X2.
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Thanks for the feedback. I am not sure if it is the battery, but both of us, my workout buddy and I are experiencing slow down of calories burned. I noticed today, the Plyometrics still does burn a lot in my case, though about 40 cals off from last week but not with my buddy who is smaller size than I am and he only burnt half of his readings from last week, but his goal is to gain weight. Anyway, I guess I have to do more cardio which I could get with a higher impact workout than high intensity weight lifting. I like the idea of lifting weight too because I saw how I am building muscles, toning my arms and abs during ab ripper.

I think my HRM is still in good battery condition but considering the Polar one soon. I am serious of getting rid of my body fat and have just the normal percentage of it when the summer comes!

carlachristinewhite

Definitely lift a little heavier weights and also work on your form and getting deeper into the moves. Like on Plyometrics, sink down into the squats and lunges plus jump higher or farther. This will keep your calorie expenditure in a higher range.

My Plyo seems to be giving me enough calories burned, moreso A LOT.. I guess a higher impact workout works best when losing weight and will keep than in mind. My squats seems to be pretty decent as long as I get to sit down while I work, I stand up a lot at work because I teach. I also notice at night, wearing my HRM one time to see how much I burned while sleeping, it is like 2000++ for a 6 hour sleep!

Gee45

My Plyo seems to be giving me enough calories burned, moreso A LOT.. I guess a higher impact workout works best when losing weight and will keep than in mind. My squats seems to be pretty decent as long as I get to sit down while I work, I stand up a lot at work because I teach. I also notice at night, wearing my HRM one time to see how much I burned while sleeping, it is like 2000++ for a 6 hour sleep!

I burn about 350 per weight lifting routine and about 500 to 600 with plyo. But I haven't had an HRM for about 3 months now. Now I"m curious to see if I have any change at all!
Wow, that many when you sleep! I wore an HRM for a 24 hour period. A day that I didn't work out and it said 1600 for the whole day. I think the sleep portion was only about 400 cals at most.

carlachristinewhite

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I burn about 350 per weight lifting routine and about 500 to 600 with plyo. But I haven't had an HRM for about 3 months now. Now I"m curious to see if I have any change at all!
Wow, that many when you sleep! I wore an HRM for a 24 hour period. A day that I didn't work out and it said 1600 for the whole day. I think the sleep portion was only about 400 cals at most.
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I wore my HRM at work for 6 hours and burned 400++ cals but I think I have to try again wearing HRM to sleep. I've read that it is possible to burn more calories when sleeping, and since I started with MFP, monitoring calorie intake, eating small frequent meals, I burn more. Regular exercise seems to help, they call it afterburn, so maybe my body is metabolizing more at night since I changed my calorie intake and eat healthier food with more fiber and less fats.

Gee45

I've heard that HRMs are not accurate when you are at rest and not getting your heart rate up. So maybe look into that to make sure.