Am I eating too much?

southpaw211

I am on day 23 of Power 90. I lost about 4 pounds in the "getting ready to start Power 90" phase in the week before I started. Haven't lost a pound since (5'4", 171 pounds). I've lost a little in inches (1 inch from waist & 1 inch from hips). Not enough to feel it in my clothes. I can see biceps in my arms now, which is pretty cool. That's pretty much it. Now my head is completely phyching me out.

I understand that I'm trading fat for muscle, and that it doesn't necessarily reflect on the scale and I shouldn't even be weighing myself. I just wish I could see it ELSEWHERE, you know? I mean, when I started on day 1, I cut a ton of bad *kitten* out of my diet. Not that I was a horrible eater, but I did cave to the Monday bagel at the office, the kids' cereal for breakfast, the once or twice a week going out to lunch. And going out to dinner twice on the weekend with the family, usually eating pasta or something else highly caloric. I have not eaten like that at all. My only junk vice has been veggie lover pizza on a thin crust. And I work hard to earn that, burning some extra calories during the day. I've tried to eliminate as much processed food as possible from my diet, as well as any refined sugars, desserts, etc. I never eat past 7pm. I don't drink juice. No diet sodas or crystal light or anything like that. Unsweetened almond milk, occasional coconut milk. I guess I thought with the total elimination of sugar I would see something, as I always hear of the pounds melting off when people eliminate the crap from their diets.

I take supplements (kind of a mish-mash I threw together - multi, glutamine, vit c, cod liver oil) every morning. Haven't missed a workout and upped my weights last week to 8 pounds (though I'm certain I should up them to 10 pounds already as I can get to 12 reps, but not 15). I'm also very active in the evening, riding my bike, gardening, cleaning, chasing after my kids. A lot of times those calories burned don't make it onto MFP as I don't enjoy walking around with my HRM on.

As I look through my food diary since 5/28, I see this: roughly 1500 calories a day eaten (gross), 120-180 carbs, 40-50 grams of fat and 100-120 grams of protein. Those numbers are higher than my projected goals, I guess accounting for calories burned that I have logged. I know my calories are pretty much in line, but are my carbs/fat too high? My goal for carbs is 135 day and fat is 27 a day. This is pre-calories burned. My goals are set to 45% carbs, 20% fat, 35% protein. I feel like I should be further reducing carbs & fat, but then I also want to be able to reasonably sustain my nutrition habits. And I've read not to get hung up on macros.

I'm just wondering if I should be changing more than what I've done already, if I should just be more patient, I don't know. I just want to start seeing a positive effect of giving up the saturday morning donut and the extra hour of sleep since I get up an hour early to workout before my kids wake up. Did I mention that I swear my cardio workout is getting harder? How is that possible?? I could barely make it through it this morning, for the exhaustion in my leg muscles. They felt about an inch shorter than they ought to be. I really just want to see this ship turn around at some point, and all I feel right now is tired. Grrr.

southpaw211

Bump, in case anyone has any insight?

::crickets chirping::

southpaw211

One last bump...could really use some encouragement here.

kungfugirlrox

You may not be eating enough to sustain your workouts. 1500 calories seems low for your height and weight, especially if you work out with both weights and cardio. Maybe you can switch up your macronutrients. Maybe up your protein to 1 gram per bodyweight, so 170 grams protein for you. Try other calorie calculators from other website such as fat2fitradio which is more accurate in my opinion. You can always up your calories for a few weeks and gauge how your body is doing. Good job for sticking with your training:-)

southpaw211

Thanks for the idea! I checked out the calculators on that site and it does look like I could add some calories into my day. I'm going to increase it by a couple hundred and see if that helps. I'm hoping it will give me more energy to put more into my workouts and get things moving.

pamelak5

I agree - your workouts are intense. I looked at your diary for the past few days, and you're leaving anywhere from 600-1200 calories on the table. Eat them - it might just be that you're sluggish and not putting 100% into your workouts because you don't have enough fuel. I was distrustful of the process because I was used to being hungry and not losing - but now I eat around 1900-2100 a day, have five hard, good workouts a week, and one day where I walk a few miles and I am losing. Good luck!

erickirb

I agree, I think 1500 is much too low, I would suggest changing that to 1700 on days you workout, and 1400 or so on days you don't

krazykando

I have used Power 90 and had success with it. Like you though I was slow on the weightloss starting off but then around the 45 to 60 days I started losing weight faster. Just stick with it and you will see results. I still use Power 90 and some of the P90X vidoes in my workouts and I am still seeing results using it. Tony may be annoying but he does get results! Good Luck!

littlepinkhearts

Here's a link to some reading on how much you should be eating for your energy level http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/3834-eat-more-to-weigh-less and it's got a lot of other stuff you might wanna look at also

glennstoudt

One last bump...could really use some encouragement here.

Go down on carbs and up on protein. During (and still) my weight loss journey I tracked carbs, protein, fat, saturated fat daily. My goal, not always achieved, is 100-120 net carbs a day. This is based on MFP's setting of 1810 cal/day, which is supposed to lose me a pound a week. It is not anymore, because I am eating back most, but not all of my exercise calories. For reference, I am a 57 year old guy since I am too lazy to put a picture in the profile. You can and will lose weight and be patient, like you have to be to be a mom. Keep doing the work, keep the dietary profile the same but consider changing the carbs macro. It worked for me. I lost 40 in about 6-7 months, now am mostly about maintenance. My activity schedule during the peak weight loss period sounded pretty much like yours, except for the chasing kids part. Good luck.