Starting P90X/Insanity in February
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I have been a little frustrated though. I was definitely getting in better shape and building muscle but I wasn't losing ANY weight. None. I figured that maybe the exercise combined with the diet was creating TOO big of a calorie deficit and I was stalling out my metabolism so last Thursday I started adding around 400-500 (healthy) calories a day to my diet. I gained 1 1/2 lbs initially but since Saturday, I've lost 4 1/2 lbs and 1.5 inches in the waist (after losing only 2 in the first 5 weeks). Yay!
thats awesome, keep us posted on how that works out for you.
whats that put your total cals at now if you don't mind my asking?
Pretty close to what it would be to maintain my body weight without exercise.
At 225 lbs my calorie intake to maintain that weight would be roughly 2,700 a day.
When I started P90X, I really didn't keep track of my calories. I cut out the fast food (I'd gotten somewhat addicted to it, which is how I gained so much weight), the mindless snacking, and limited myself to 1 Dr. Pepper a day (Gotta have my DP). But I was still eating my normal meals and never felt like I was starving myself. I had already eliminated most carbs from my died (when I wasn't eating fast food), so going low carb wasn't a big deal. When I did start tracking my calories just to see how much I was actually consuming (I wasn't changing anything), I saw that I was eating around 2,100-2,200 a day. The P90X nutrition plan kind of works on the assumption that you're burning 600 calories a day with the exercise. So I thought that if I set a deficit of 1,000 calories a day (600 from exercise, 400 from diet), which I've done before with success, that maybe I should be at 2,300 calories a day. So I made an effort to increase my calories slightly but I still wasn't losing any weight.
I think I was actually burning more calories than the nutrition plan assumes and creating a deficit larger than 1,000 calories. There's a website called P90Xcalories.com that has a calculator to help determine how many calories you're burning based on the routine, your weight, and your intensity level. According to that, I might be burning closer to 5,200 calories a week instead of the 4,200 (600/day) number given in the guide.
So I decided to add 400-500 calories to see if that helped and I might tweak it from there once I have a larger sample to judge. Still trying to figure out the best way to add those calories consistently, I ate around 3,000 on Thursday and Friday. Couldn't track on Saturday, Sunday was 2,600, Monday was 2,700, and yesterday was about 2,650. So 2,600-2,700 may be a rough butter zone. Using a consistent 600 calories burned from exercise, MFP puts my target calories at 2,830 for losing a pound a week. But since I may not reach that consistently (2,600 seem a more reasonable goal) and I'm probably burning more 600/day, that may yield closer to 1 1/2 lbs/week. We'll see.0 -
I'm 6'1" and as of today, 222 lbs.
Though I was technically obese, I never looked it. I have broad shoulders and a big chest and when wearing a t-shirt I actually looked more fit and muscular than I really was. Now, through 5 1/2 weeks of P90X, I look really good from the chest up and fantastic from the waist down (my legs look awesome), it's just that pesky part in between .
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I'm 6'1" and as of today, 222 lbs.
Though I was technically obese, I never looked it. I have broad shoulders and a big chest and when wearing a t-shirt I actually looked more fit and muscular than I really was. Now, through 5 1/2 weeks of P90X, I look really good from the chest up and fantastic from the waist down (my legs look awesome), it's just that pesky part in between .
Hi - Which P90X diet plan are you using now? For most guys (myself included), fat shredder is the way to go especially when we want to get ripped and lose that fat FAST! Given your BMR being at around 2000, I would suggest that you eat between 2000-2100 a day (assuming that you have a sedentary lifestyle) with 50% protein, 30% carb and 20% fat. MFP is a great tool to track that. Your calorie intake should be closer to that of your goal weight which maybe 180-190 lbs but for now you could stick to 2000-2100/day. I'm sure you'll see tremendous result , weight wise, after a week.
A few other things:
- Fat shredder is low carb and NOT no carb. You can try to source the carbs from multigrain or whole wheat products. Definitely cut out soda (diet or full flavor)....they're going to mess with your insulin regulation and at the minimum turn into fat.
- To fight the hunger, try to eat smaller meals (<500 cal each) and have snacks (~200 cal each) in between them. Low sodium beef jerky is a good snack. But you gotta watch out for the sodium in those things. Sodium will retain additional water in your body which will lead to heavier weight, temporarily.
- Drink plenty (ok, a lot) of water. At least 10 cups. I drink about a gallon a day.
Hope this helps
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did you stay in fat shredder the whole time?
I'm in a p90x group on here and the 'leader' is suggesting that we go through the diet phases with the exercise phases.
I was tempted to stay in fat shedder because it was really working but i figured i'd try the different diet phases, at least the first time.
I think it says in the guide that it's suggested you go through all the diet phases but you could just stay in one if you wanted. thought the final one may not be best for most. its really all about the calorie number anyway. i think fat shedder works so well because 50% of your diet is protein, and your probably not even absorbing a decent amount of that, so in effect is like your eating less.
Actually found the fat shedder to be a very satifying diet. If you actually do it with food and not protein powder, its a lot of meat lol. and a lot of cooking, which was the real pain in the *kitten*. At least on the middle diet i can fit my oatmeal with fruit in for my breakfast and still feul up on carbs before and after the work out.0 -
heres the second most important nutrition question, what are you eating/drinking immediately after a workout?0
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heres the second most important nutrition question, what are you eating/drinking immediately after a workout?
I work out first thing in the morning, so I have breakfast after my workout. It's usually:
One homemade whole-wheat pancake w/ 1 Tbsp Peanut Butter
One Smoothie (8 oz skim milk, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries)
Black Coffee (usually every other day).
That puts me around 530 calories, with about 42g protein.
Any thoughts? I am thinking about swapping some of the whey protein w/ rice protein just because the whey has a lot of cholesterol in it0 -
I'm on Day 11 of Insanity. It's getting easier but still is hard but hard in a good way. I'm firming up and i like it! I do use a HRM and eat back about 80% of my calories back, just like i do when i run a lot.0
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I work out first thing in the morning, so I have breakfast after my workout. It's usually:
One homemade whole-wheat pancake w/ 1 Tbsp Peanut Butter
One Smoothie (8 oz skim milk, 1 scoop protein powder, 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries)
Black Coffee (usually every other day).
That puts me around 530 calories, with about 42g protein.
Any thoughts? I am thinking about swapping some of the whey protein w/ rice protein just because the whey has a lot of cholesterol in it
i was using a whey powder that was super high in cholesterol, there are some that are much, much lower, might want to check into that to.
well, my thoughts are that its super important to eat SOMETHING as soon as your done. And your probably doing yourself a favor if your biggest meals are right after or soon after your workouts.
But i think the ideal formula is right whats in the p90x recovery drink... Failing that something with a 3:1 or 4:1 carb to protein ratio.
I copied the ingredients from the beach body drink, bought them individually in bulk, and put them into my protein powder in the propper proportions. Its hard at first and you need a scale (at least at first), but i've easily saved hundreds over the BB drink.
But honestly any meal high in carbs, with moderate protein and low fat is VERY good. The BB drink is better because it uses dextrose, a processed sugar that is chemically identical to blood sugar. It causes and insulin spike... blah, blah lol. its also in gatorade and i guess a lot of baked goods (got a 50 lbs bag off a baking website).
chocolate milk is also a good post exercise drink and was used in at least one univeristy study where they proved that the carb to protein ratio was beneficial0 -
did you stay in fat shredder the whole time?
I'm in a p90x group on here and the 'leader' is suggesting that we go through the diet phases with the exercise phases.
I was tempted to stay in fat shedder because it was really working but i figured i'd try the different diet phases, at least the first time.
I think it says in the guide that it's suggested you go through all the diet phases but you could just stay in one if you wanted. thought the final one may not be best for most. its really all about the calorie number anyway. i think fat shedder works so well because 50% of your diet is protein, and your probably not even absorbing a decent amount of that, so in effect is like your eating less.
Actually found the fat shedder to be a very satifying diet. If you actually do it with food and not protein powder, its a lot of meat lol. and a lot of cooking, which was the real pain in the *kitten*. At least on the middle diet i can fit my oatmeal with fruit in for my breakfast and still feul up on carbs before and after the work out.
I did fat shredder pretty much the whole time. I switched to 40/40/20 starting week 5 thinking that my diet plan should progress with the workout phases. WRONG!! Thing is until I reach my desired body fat level, I should keep doing fat shredder. In week 7 I switched back fat shredder and have seen great results. Some members in my team did it for 10 months straight!
I'm currently down to 9% BF and I want to cut another 2-3% maybe.
Yes, I too find it to be a quite satisfying diet. I get to eat MEAT!! The though part was I'm Asian and rice/noodles are something that I used to eat a lot of. Plus my favorite drink Dr Pepper and party food like pizza and wings are all high carbs and fat. But I was determined to cut them lose and I did. 0 -
heres the second most important nutrition question, what are you eating/drinking immediately after a workout?
Before I started using R&R, I would drink a premixed protein shake and a half granny smith or half cup of pineapple.0 -
yeah, got me second guessing myself now lol.
i think i'm going to stick to the plan though.
maybe not do the last diet phase tho. and mabye even alternate back and forth between 40 and 50 % protien in the last month
the drink i make is pretty close to the BB drink. carbs are split between dextrose and maltodextrin. I bought a 50 lbs bag of each over a year ago and i'm maybe halfway through them. each bag cost as much or less then one tub of BB recovery lol. it was a real pain at first, i had to save up protein powder tubs to pour the sugar into... rather then wrestling with the bag and making a huge mess each time.
I doesn't taste as good as the bb drink though. just tastes like my protein powder only sweeter (because im dumping 40g of sugar into it lol). thought about trying to figure out what artifical flavoring is in the BB drink and getting unflavored protein powder but i never tried it.
I make pancakes out of banana, egg and blueberries for post workout after a light workout like yoga0 -
I'm doing Insanity right now!! It's so rough. I must be terribly out of shape. I'm on day 8 today. I'm 5'0" and 129.5 sw. I wear a size 8/9... Somewhere in there. I don't care about how much I weigh, but more about the inches. I've had 4 kids, and uh, definetly have a "mummy tummy", my goal, is to be rid of it. For GOOD! How long before you start seeing a change? I could really use some encouragement to get through this. And to everyone, Congratulations on all the hard work!0
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yeah, got me second guessing myself now lol.
i think i'm going to stick to the plan though.
maybe not do the last diet phase tho. and mabye even alternate back and forth between 40 and 50 % protien in the last month
the drink i make is pretty close to the BB drink. carbs are split between dextrose and maltodextrin. I bought a 50 lbs bag of each over a year ago and i'm maybe halfway through them. each bag cost as much or less then one tub of BB recovery lol. it was a real pain at first, i had to save up protein powder tubs to pour the sugar into... rather then wrestling with the bag and making a huge mess each time.
I doesn't taste as good as the bb drink though. just tastes like my protein powder only sweeter (because im dumping 40g of sugar into it lol). thought about trying to figure out what artifical flavoring is in the BB drink and getting unflavored protein powder but i never tried it.
I make pancakes out of banana, egg and blueberries for post workout after a light workout like yoga
Well, at least you got 6 packs so whatever that you've been doing are working for you
Agreed. stay with 40% or 50% protein for now.
Yeah, I use R&R because it's convenient. I don't feel like spending more time prepping the recovery drink especially when I'm all worn out from the workout.
Wooo...that sounds good. Did you do whole egg or just the egg white? I've been staying away from the yolk...too much cholesterol for me.0 -
Well, at least you got 6 packs so whatever that you've been doing are working for you
Agreed. stay with 40% or 50% protein for now.
Yeah, I use R&R because it's convenient. I don't feel like spending more time prepping the recovery drink especially when I'm all worn out from the workout.
Wooo...that sounds good. Did you do whole egg or just the egg white? I've been staying away from the yolk...too much cholesterol for me.
I do the whole egg. I've heard that people do it with egg white no problem tho. i wanted to try it with egg beaters but never have.
btw, i got the post workout process down to a just a home made scoop out of three tubs... generally prepare before the work out
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I'm doing Insanity right now!! It's so rough. I must be terribly out of shape. I'm on day 8 today. I'm 5'0" and 129.5 sw. I wear a size 8/9... Somewhere in there. I don't care about how much I weigh, but more about the inches. I've had 4 kids, and uh, definetly have a "mummy tummy", my goal, is to be rid of it. For GOOD! How long before you start seeing a change? I could really use some encouragement to get through this. And to everyone, Congratulations on all the hard work!
I started off with P90X. The first week I lost about 4-6lbs but other than my chin getting smaller I didn't notice other changes at that point. It wasn't until the 2nd and 3rd week when I noticed my mid section was getting smaller.
How far along are you in the program? If you stick to the proper diet (80% of your success will come from it) and follow the workout routine, YOU WILL GET THERE!0 -
Hi! I am planning on starting INSANITY today! I really need to get myself motivated!0
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[/quote] I started off with P90X. The first week I lost about 4-6lbs but other than my chin getting smaller I didn't notice other changes at that point. It wasn't until the 2nd and 3rd week when I noticed my mid section was getting smaller.
How far along are you in the program? If you stick to the proper diet (80% of your success will come from it) and follow the workout routine, YOU WILL GET THERE!
[/quote]
I'm on day 7... I've been trying to stick to a 1200 cal diet. As long as I don't bake, or go out to eat, :blushing: I do well. I put on weight very quickly, so I try to stick to that amount. I could probably handle 1500 give or take, but definetly not more than that. Otherwise, :ohwell:
I haven't lost any weight. Not since starting insanity. I took some pictures today, and from a month ago, I've lost. I probably would have done better, but, it's life. I have a big "thing" coming up (hopefully
) the end of March. I will have ~10 days left of Insanity, and I'm hoping for a HUGE change. So, thanks, in advance, for the encouragement!! 0 -
Hi! I am planning on starting INSANITY today! I really need to get myself motivated!
Have fun! I don't know what I was expecting, but, it's rough! LOL, but you'll get through it, and feel like a CHAMP! I'm only on day 7.. So, we can do this together?0 -
Yes! I started this once in October I think and lasted for two weeks and then life just got in the way! I am ready and need to get going again!
Have fun! I don't know what I was expecting, but, it's rough! LOL, but you'll get through it, and feel like a CHAMP! I'm only on day 7.. So, we can do this together?
[/quote]0 -
Hi! I am planning on starting INSANITY today! I really need to get myself motivated!
Yes, let's do this together!0
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