Calorie intake with Insanity

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I am 5'4" and at 185 lbs...I have a goal of 1200 Calories/day but add in about 300 calories a day with Insanity workouts...I am wrapping up week 2 and have been eating 1800-2400 calories a day instead!!! I am feeling really guilty about it! Not sure if my body needs that many calories, really want to be down to 140 by May 3rd for my graduation!! A lot of people say they don't eat their calories back from working out- but then others say they start dropping weight like crazy once they actually start eating! Whose right??

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  • tabi26
    tabi26 Posts: 535 Member
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    Technically, no one is "right". You have to play around with your numbers and see what works best for you. What works for someone else may not work for you at all.

    Ask yourself some questions:

    1. Are you losing weight?
    2. Are you hungry all day long?
    3. Are you accurately measuring your intake as well as your exercise?
    4. Are you tired all the time?

    Play with your numbers and find what works for YOU. Also, sometimes it can take weeks for your body to get in line with what you're doing. Weight loss is not linear. Some weeks you'll go down, stay the same, or even gain. It's the loss over TIME that counts :).
  • paradise_runs
    paradise_runs Posts: 23 Member
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    If you look at your nutrition guide, there is a calorie forumla that comes with it to tell you how many calories you should be eating while doing Insanity. I did P90X and had 1800 (healthy) calories/day. You need to eat more calories because you burn so much; especially with Insanity!!

    For women the forumla is:
    655 + (4.35 x weight) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age)

    When you get that #, you multiply it by 1.7

    Then for weight loss: subtract 500
    Maintain weight: do nothing
    Gain weight: add 250-300

    And that will be the amount of calories you should be eating while on the program!
    (I am a Beachbody coach)
  • Iamflew
    Iamflew Posts: 24 Member
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    WOW - when I figured that out it gave me over 2200 calories!!! That is a lot!!! I don't think I would ever lose weight eating that much!! But now I am 4 weeks into exercising (3rd completed week of Insanity) and have lost a whole whopping 4 pounds....super frustrated!!!!
  • tabi26
    tabi26 Posts: 535 Member
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    You're along an average of a pound a week! That's awesome! And completely healthy and sustainable! If that continues, by the time May rolls arou d you will have lost 26 pounds! That's great! It's mabye not your goal weight, but do you have a goal size in mind? You should also get a measuring tape and track your inch loss. You'd probably be surprised with the numbers!

    As for eating that much, don't be afraid to try it! I just recently upped my calories to NET 2000/day. I'm doing P90X right now, and will be following it up with insanity. I log my workouts and eat back my calories. It's I ly been three days, but so far I'm down .3 pounds! I'm going for a half a pound a week.

    Edited to add: you're the only one who sees the number on the scale, but everyone else will see a "smaller you"! I'm going for inch loss right now, if weight comes off as well, awesome! But if not, I'll be happy with my weight as long as I can fit a smaller size :).