P90x calories vs MFP calories???

nbsambucca

MFP tells me to eat 1200 calories to lose 1lb a week. I understand the adding calories with workouts. Im doing P90X (not 100% but about 80%). They tell me to eat 1800 calories to maintain in that workout. Putting strength training in as cardio doesnt give me the extra 600 calories a day they tell me to eat..... I realize muscle will be burning more as it builds. NOW....which do I do? I dont want to go over and do too much...and dont want to starve my body in the P90X program... help!!! any suggestions/reasoning will be greatly appreciated.

realwombat

Hi nbsambucca. P90X is not really a weight loss program, rather, it is a muscle building regime, and as such, their goals is to get the people on the program to fuel their bodies sufficiently in order to build muscle (which is their promise, after all). The amount of calories you will burn doing the P90X workouts will vary wildly depending on the intensity you do the workouts, and and since we have very little information about YOU and the way you do the exercises, it is hard to estimate how many calories you should eat / day to compensate for the calorie deficit caused by P90X.

The P90X documentation does not take into account individual body characteristics, rather they simply give you a 1800 calorie goal arbitrarily. I personally would eat about 400 calories/day on top of your MFP recommendation to compensate for calorie expenditure for exercise, if you do them with high intensity. If your goal is to lose fat, maybe doing something like Insanity program (cardiovascular emphasis) before doing P90X would be a more suitable plan.

Cheers,
Realwombat

nbsambucca

thank you realwombat. I think Im going to split the difference and start with an additional 300 above MFP and it will be 300 below P90X. I kind of hit a plateau with my cardio regimine and thought Id throw in more of a weight program to get the muscle build up to improve my fat burning. I do have some fat to lose but think at this point I may benefit more from additional strength training opposed to just more cardio. I plan to replace P90X cardio with 2 of my own since I never seem to get a good workout with their cardio dvd. I will start with these calories and adjust as necessary. My personal problem is I have a hard time increasing my calories...its been burned into my head all my life that eating more is bad....and I know its not true...but it take some getting used to. A friend has Insanity and LOVES it..however I have lower back issues and just watching the infomercial makes my cringe!!!