I've gained 7 pounds after a month of P90X, WHY?

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riskiestlavonn
riskiestlavonn Posts: 207 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi Guys,

I started P90X over a month ago now, and my weight has steadily increased. I'm starting to feel discouraged/ wondering if I should quite this workout and find something else to do. Has anyone else run into this problem? Any help would be appreciated. :)

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  • steadk
    steadk Posts: 334 Member
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    it is probably water retention by your muscles because they need to repair themselves. If you're gaining muscle, its a good thing. are you measuring also? the number on the scale doesn't tell the whole story. :)
  • JJordon
    JJordon Posts: 857 Member
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    A quick check of your diary, and it made me ask, are you eating enough? And what is your water intake? And since I can't see your macros like my own, I'll have to ask, are they in the 40-40-20 range or 45-35-20 or 50-30-20 for protein, carbs, and fats? I know P90X is the last one for your first 30 days.
  • KatieHall77
    KatieHall77 Posts: 129 Member
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    You probably have more muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat. Another poster showed pics, she actually weighed more after training P90x, but lost at least a dozen inches. Take measurements, I would bet you have lost inches.
  • teelynn35
    teelynn35 Posts: 239 Member
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    it is probably water retention by your muscles because they need to repair themselves. If you're gaining muscle, its a good thing. are you measuring also? the number on the scale doesn't tell the whole story. :)

    This^ throw away your scale and start taking body measurements. Muscle is denser than fat, so it takes up less room. It's possible the scale is higher but your body is smaller
  • haroon_awan
    haroon_awan Posts: 1,208 Member
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    How do you look?
    How do you feel?
    How are your clothes fitting?
    What is your maintenance calories?

    Right now, your eating is very off. Some days you eat 1000 calories, yet yesterday you ate 1900 calories. Your protein for most days is not enough.

    Have a read of http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
    and/or
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/how-to-estimate-maintenance-caloric-intake.html

    To summarise it, eat: ~11-13 cal/lb of bodyweight.
    For example, if you weigh 123lbs so for fat loss you should eat between 1353 (11*123) and 1599 (13*148) calories per day.
    Set protein to 1g/lb of weight.
    Set fat to 0.5g/lb of weight.
    Fill the remaining calories with carbs.
    Eat the same on ALL days, regardless of whether you are training or not.

    These are generalisations. Of course, it needs to be adjusted for each individual and this is mainly trial and error. My actual maintenance is about 3200 even though I weigh 157lbs and am 172cm tall. I've used a ton of calculators and equations, but the one that's working for me right now is the Schofield equation here http://www.globalrph.com/schofield_equation_bmr.htm
  • riskiestlavonn
    riskiestlavonn Posts: 207 Member
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    A quick check of your diary, and it made me ask, are you eating enough? And what is your water intake? And since I can't see your macros like my own, I'll have to ask, are they in the 40-40-20 range or 45-35-20 or 50-30-20 for protein, carbs, and fats?

    Haha, my diary doesn't reflect what I actually eat right now. My goal this month is to log my food each and everyday. To tell you the truth, I never pay attention to my macros, maybe that is something else that I need to do.
  • haroon_awan
    haroon_awan Posts: 1,208 Member
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    A quick check of your diary, and it made me ask, are you eating enough? And what is your water intake? And since I can't see your macros like my own, I'll have to ask, are they in the 40-40-20 range or 45-35-20 or 50-30-20 for protein, carbs, and fats?

    Haha, my diary doesn't reflect what I actually eat right now. My goal this month is to log my food each and everyday. To tell you the truth, I never pay attention to my macros, maybe that is something else that I need to do.

    Step 1, solve this and come back next week or two :)
  • JJordon
    JJordon Posts: 857 Member
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    The Beachbody programs are honestly, 70-80% nutrition, eating, focusing on your macros, intake, and really being accountable about your diet. If you do this first, you should lose weight, combining this with the advanced to extreme exercise program, will only speed this up.

    However, if you are passive and cruise on autopilot, you won't get near any of the results you are looking for on this program or any other. Even the bodybuilders say, diet first, fix it, get it right, then lift.

    I'll be honest, re-do your first 30 of the 90 days on P90X, but really focusing on the diet part (logging intake, getting your macros near exactness) and the pounds should fly off, really. Trust me, I goofed. I'm on Insanity, first week, I did terrible. Lost 1.3, next week, did great, lost 6.7. It's that simple.

    Why? Had my intake k/cals all wrong, first of all. Then, I lowered my intake, bumped up my macros to proper levels, and woosh, there it went in the right direction.
  • pspetralia
    pspetralia Posts: 963 Member
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    Have you taken measurements?
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    A quick check of your diary, and it made me ask, are you eating enough? And what is your water intake? And since I can't see your macros like my own, I'll have to ask, are they in the 40-40-20 range or 45-35-20 or 50-30-20 for protein, carbs, and fats?

    Haha, my diary doesn't reflect what I actually eat right now. My goal this month is to log my food each and everyday. To tell you the truth, I never pay attention to my macros, maybe that is something else that I need to do.

    Whoops.
  • Brad805
    Brad805 Posts: 289 Member
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    The last 20lbs takes a little more attention to the nutrition part of the equation. As you lose weight your body requires a little less energy each day. If you have been exercising at the same time you will probably notice that your heart recovers much faster from intense workouts. That means your also burning a tad less during your workouts. My guess is you need to tighten up your nutrition. I suspect what you measured is mainly fluid retention also. You would be fooling yourself if you thought you could build 7lb of muscle in a month.
  • teamike
    teamike Posts: 83 Member
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    My wife and I are in week 4 of p90x. I have lost 10 pounds, but my wife hasn't really lost any (maybe a pound). She is eating around 1500 calories a day 50/30/20 prot/carbs/fat. She was getting a little discouraged, but she believes if she just sticks to the diet and continues to workout that when she finishes the 90 days that she will look and feel like a whole new person.

    I have read in a lot of posts that a lot of women see majority of their results from 60-90 days.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    Start logging. Log accurately. Weigh and measure your food. My guess is that you've been eating over your maintenance calories without realizing it, and that's why you're gaining. It's true that you will retain water for the first couple of weeks, but that should only be a couple of pounds and it should be temporary. Exercise makes you hungry. You want to make sure you eat enough, but without accurate logging you're likely eating more than you think.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    A quick check of your diary, and it made me ask, are you eating enough? And what is your water intake? And since I can't see your macros like my own, I'll have to ask, are they in the 40-40-20 range or 45-35-20 or 50-30-20 for protein, carbs, and fats?

    Haha, my diary doesn't reflect what I actually eat right now. My goal this month is to log my food each and everyday. To tell you the truth, I never pay attention to my macros, maybe that is something else that I need to do.

    Whoops.

    Definitely a whoops. If you aren't logging accurately, there's no way of knowing. Best guess is you are eating more calories than you are burning.

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