Eat More to Loose Weight

check out my youtube video on it i think i explain it pretty well!!

http://www.youtube.com/jaymebales83

try upping your calories for a week and see how it goes. It really does depend on the individual. I tried eating more calories and i plateaued. So for my body i need 1200 to 1300 calories a day. I do cardio workouts (elliptical and walks). It really does just depend on the person. Considering what type of workout you are doing you might want to add more protein to your diet.

when i'm searching for food i try to be as specific as possible
if i'm searching for egg i type in the type of egg eg. 'medium fried egg' or 'fried egg white' and it comes up fine
other foods i normally put the name of the brand before it or if its a local dish i put in my nationality before it. eg. jamaican ackee and saltfish

you should definitely eat more though. since you allotted 1800 try to at least eat 1500 or the full 1800 different from exercise calories

Plug your numbers in here and it will tell you how many calories you should eat for your goals. http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

I set it up based on my activity level and it does seem to work. I know my best bud told me to never eat over 500 calories per meal. But, at the end of the day you had to have eaten what the system told you to eat. I know she lost a ton of weight (and so did her friends). It's something to do with the body storing food when it thinks you're are starving. She even adds on the food when she exercises and it tells her to eat. I think it does work quite well. The key is to get as close as possible (not several hundred under). I'd say at least within 100 calories so that your body starts losing. The other part is the small meals. I'm eating about 5 meals (three key ones and two snacks spread out randomly) which helps with never eating over 500.

I don't know if it'll work for you but it's worked for my friend and her friends who've lost over 40-60 pounds so I'm trying it out. So far, I've only been here for about two weeks but I have dropped weight. I did notice one thing - you end up eating healthier when you have to figure out what you'll eat to get that little bit more: veggies, fruits, dairy/cheese...nuts....

Good luck!

I almost forgot, I've found a lot of foods by typing in things like 'green pepper raw'. I usually find several and try to find one that seems accurate. Sometimes just typing it into google helps. If not, look and see if it's been verified several times. Usually you just click the nutrition button once you select it and you can tell if other people have said it was accurate. It's not perfect but it helps.

By the way, the term 'raw' seems to be connected to a lot of fresh stuff like eggs or veggies.

Last but not least, make sure you set your profile to match if you're sedentary, somewhat active...very active...whatever you are so that it helps guide you on the calories.

Couple things that I see as I've gone through P90X twice. Most of the results (in terms of weight loss) do not come until about the middle of month 2. If you've measured you should see a difference. Since it's resistance intensive you're replacing fat with muscle. The scale will not move much especially if you've been sore as your muscles will retain water to repair themselves. Muscle is denser than fat so while 1lb of fat is the same weight as 1lb of muscle the space that muscle occupies is much smaller. Think of it like bricks and feathers. You'd need 1 dump truck to haul 1 ton of bricks but would need 50 to haul 1 ton of feathers.

It can get a little tricky with MFP as their method is to use your BMR + Activity Level + Exercise Calories - Weight Loss Goals but with P90X you figure out your caloric needs (you're Level I - 1800). I'm taking a guess that when you figured this out you were higher but reduced to the 1800 as they suggest to lose weight. All good so far.

Assuming your MFP setup provides you with the 1800 Calorie target all is good there but go back into the Goals and do "Custom" so that you can change your Macro nutrients to 40% Carb, 40% Protein, 20% Fat. This is where you should be in Month 2 from a Macro perspective. If you wish to burn more fat you can stay on the Month 1 plan (lower carb) and change those to 30%/50%/20%. Keep an eye on this and if you see the workouts becoming more difficult you may need more carbs for fuel. At that point, I'd change to the 40/40/20. Now you should have the right macro levels to shoot for and either enter your exercise calories but ignore eating back your calories (reduction already done with the P90X method) or simply don't log your exercise at all. Just eat your 1800 as the P90X nutrition says.

From there use the Portion Plan from the Program (Month 1 Portion in Parenthesis if you go the lower carb route):

Protein: 4 - 3 oz servings per day...most lean meats including chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, lean red meat, eggs and protein powder will provide ~100 calories each 3 oz serving (Month 1 Portion is 5 - 3 oz servings)

Fats: 1 - 1 Tbsp serving per day...good fats such as avocado, olive, canola and flaxseed oils (Month 1 - same)

Carbs: 2 - 2 servings of 200 calories each. Examples: Whole grain brown rice, quinoa, pasta, oatmeal, 1 sm potato/med sweet potato, 2 slices whole wheat bread, etc. Check the serving sizes but most of these are about 1 cup (Month 1 = 1 serving)

Dairy: 2 - 2 servings of 120 calories each. Examples: 1.5 slices low-fat cheese, 1oz 1% cottage cheese, 8 oz skim or 1% milk, 8 oz nonfat yogurt, etc. Again check the serving sizes of what you get. Most should be in this range. (Month 1 = same)

Fruits: 1 - 1 fruit with 100 calories. Examples: 1 med apple, 1 med banana, 1 med grapefruit, 1 cup grapes, 1 large orange, 1 cup berries, 1 cup watermelon or other melon. (Month 1 = same). This was my least favorite part by the way.

Veggies: 2 - 2 servings 50 calories per serving; Generally about 1 cup of most veggies; 2 cups of leafy veggies (Month 1 = same)

Condiments: 1 - 1 serving 50 calories; This is your dressings, marinades, etc. I always used light balsamic vinaigrette

Snacks: 3 - 3 servings approximately 100 calories each; You can double them if you want a Protein bar, nuts, etc.

Plug your numbers in here and it will tell you how many calories you should eat for your goals. http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

Coolest site ever. Thanks!

You're welcome. :flowerforyou: One thing, though, if you use those numbers you don't need to worry about eating back exercise calories because it adds it in for you. That got me in trouble at first so I stopped logging exercise.