P90X Rant

Stick with it! The second month you get the best results!!! I only made it through 2 months, and was in the best shape of my life...you can do it!!!

How much are you eating. In the diet plan for P90x the minimum amount suggested is 1800 calories per day. Due to the intensity of the workouts you need more fuel for your body. One reason for the stalled weight loss is that you may not be eating enough.

Yeah, after Day 30 I was a little disappointed too, but don't give up! Those Day 60 pictures will amaze you! And by Day 90 you won't even remember what the "old" you looked like. Try to keep fruit around or some very low calorie snacks like the Jello Mousse Temptations (60 calories) for when you want to treat yourself. I need a little snack every day too, and if I have these options around then I'll usually pass on the cookies or cupcakes. Just try to keep the end goal in sight, and don't get discouraged. You're right on the verge of a breakthrough

Bumping to respond to a little later...

14 pounds!!! what an accomplishment!! I only lost literally 1-2 pounds doing p90x. (i wasn't eating right) Keep at it and the results will start to show. Also, you could try some intense cardio. I am following p90x with Insanity and feel like the muscles were there from p90x but hidden under a layer of goo. Insanity is slowing peeling back that fat to let the muscle tone show through! But truly, a 14 pound weight loss is AWESOME!

I'm not even sure where to start.

First, I know many, many people get fabulous results from P90X.

Here's my personal experience:

I did my first round about two years ago, and I was pleased with my improvements in strength and flexibility as well as the changes in my body. I continued to work out after that (sampling other BB programs), but I wasn't great with my diet, so while I stayed pretty strong, I never really got my weight/body fat down to where I wanted it to be.

I started a second round a little more than a year ago. About the beginning of Phase 2, my dad was hospitalized with congestive heart failure, and it felt like my whole world was crumbling. I spent hours, days, and nights at the hospital pretty much all of last July, and I totally neglected my exercise and my eating. Dad passed away August 4, but he was my inspiration to get my crap together. I started Slim in 6 on August 10 and joined here a week after that and utilized the Food Diary to track my food (best tool in the world, by the way!). I moved on to Slim Series (follow-up to Slim in 6). I lost 25+ pounds over seven months and felt better than I'd felt in my entire adult life. My legs were in phenomenal shape, but I felt like I was missing some of the upper-body benefits I'd gotten from P90X, so I decided to do a third round.

I just finished my third round of P90X last week. I didn't miss a single workout (other than Day 90, LOL), and I continued to diligently track my food (although I increased my calories slightly, not necessarily focusing on weight loss at this point and definitely not wanting to risk losing lean). Overall, I feel good after having completed that third round, but to be honest, I didn't really change much at all. I had a body comp done on Day 89, and I actually lost a small amount of lean. It wasn't significant, but I didn't have any great improvements. To look at me, you could see that my arms, chest, back and shoulders looked leaner and more defined. But my legs looked fatter and less defined.

The thing is, I was feeling like this was what was happening to me about halfway through, but I carried on, thinking certainly now that I really had my eating down, I'd get impressive results by the end of 90 days. It turns out, what I felt like was happening to my body actually was, and my lesson was that I am going to trust my instincts from now on and not stubbornly complete an entire program if I feel like tweaking it might serve my needs better.

What I'm going to do now is a hybrid of Slim in 6, Slim Series, and P90X. I am confident I will get the best of all worlds by doing that. I think my lesson learned is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all workout program. I don't want people to think I am saying P90X isn't a great program, because I think it is, and I think it by itself could be just what the doctor ordered for lots of people. There are too many success stories for it not to be. I am going to incorporate one upper-body P90X workout into my weekly routine because I think I will benefit significantly from it. That said, I think it's OK if you feel like something isn't working for you to change it up or to tweak things. I've learned that, for me, more cardio and lots more leg work is what gives me optimum results. I'm not saying I know exactly what you should do, but I just wanted to let you know you're not alone in being somewhat disappointed. I know a lot of people are encouraging you to stick with the 90 days and say you'll see the results then. I don't necessarily disagree. They may be right. Heck, if you do the 90 days, maybe you will be pleased. It certainly won't hurt anything. I'm just saying that if you try it and it doesn't work as well for you, I don't think that's necessarily a failing on your part. I think it's possible you're more like me and might benefit from using it in a little bit different way from how it's prescribed.

I hope you got something useful out of that. I told you I didn't know where to start. It sort of looks like I didn't know when to stop either!

I agree alot w/what glfprncs2 said about nutrition. My 1st round of p90x, I didn't even allow myself to cheat once a week. I had a frozen yogurt the Saturday of each recovery week & that's it. However, I started at 129 pounds just like you & saw NOTHING change until day 47...while my husband was losing like a pound a day & transforming before my eyes. By day 90 I was fitting into clothes that I thought I would never fit into again & had lost about 9 pounds. I followed p90x w/Insanity...& here is where I also agree w/PJilly...not every program is for everyone. Not only did I find Insanity to be boring beyond belief, I felt thicker in the core/waist while doing that program. After Insanity I went back for my 2nd round of p90x & by the end of Month 1, WOW!! Major changes in my body. I think it just took my body longer to show major changes. I'm more of a P120X type of girl.

I do know that my body responds more to strength training than cardio. I'm someone who really only needs 30 minute cardio sessions, not hour long sweatfests like others do, so p90x works well for me. I did however add short cardio on strength days.

I'm rambling now, but just wanted to let you know you're not alone in not seeing major results early on. I do however think you should finish out the program & see what happens. I also think you should focus on nutrition more than anything. Plus, nothing has made me feel accomplished & more proud fitness-wise than being able to say "I'm a p90x grad!!"

I didn't have the time to post this earlier, but here's my 'story.'

I started P90X on April 4, 2009. I weighed 204 pounds (I'm a 5'9" female), walked my dogs a few days/week, but really didn't do anything consistent. I DESPISED myself.

When I bought P90X, my husband was TICKED and said I just wasted $130. Perhaps that was the best thing for me, because it motivated me to keep pushing play.

I followed the nutrition guide TO THE T for the first two months. In hindsight, I probably wasn't eating enough, but I had enough fat on me (I was at 42% body fat), that I still had energy for the workouts and for life. In month 3, my nutrition wasn't as good, and I stayed with the macronutrient suggestions in phase 2, but I still lost 20 pounds, a ton of inches, and a lot of body fat. I was a size 16/18 when I started...a 14/16 at the end.

I'm a teacher, so I figured if I was ever going to try doubles, the summer was the time to do it. I jumped right back in with a 2nd round of P90X, doubles. In my 2nd round, I lost, maybe, 7 pounds, but I lost a TON of inches and body fat. I went from a 14/16 pant to a 12. I really leaned out, was pleased with my results, but starting to get bored.

I went ahead and did a 3rd round of P90X+ that fall, even after Mark Briggs (who has done 18+ rounds of P90X) told me that for my goals, he would recommend ChaLean Extreme. I thought I would be going backwards after doing P90X, so I didn't listen. I did my 90 days, nutrition was good, but not great, lost another 5 pounds and could get into an occasional size 10. That's when I figured Insanity would get me where I wanted to be....

I did Insanity in January/February of this year. The workouts were brutal, I hated the warm up every day. I pushed through and finished, leaned out my abs quite a bit, but otherwise, my results weren't what I thought they would be for the effort I was putting into the program. The final week, I also developed an injury in my ribcage (a intercostal ligament pull---put me on the floor anytime I did any exercise that caused me to engage my core which is pretty much everything). Two months later, I could workout, but still couldn't do ab work.

I finally listened to Mark Briggs and did ChaLean Extreme (without the extra ab workouts). I LOVED it. Seriously...I felt like I was pushing myself harder than I ever did in P90X, and I felt like the strength workouts were really designed for women. Period. I didn't lose weight, but did get my body fat percentage to 20%, and my measurements indicated that i was smaller. So, same weight, smaller body...increase in lean muscle mass.

I'm now doing a hybrid of ChaLean Extreme and Turbo Fire and dropped 4 pounds in the past 3 weeks. That's a pretty big deal because I'm already quite fit from my previous year of intense exercise. I eat between 1800-2000 calories most days. I'm sure when I do my measurements in a week, that I'll see some changes as well. I took a picture of my flexed bicep the other day and compared it to the end of my 3rd round of P90X+...it's crazy how much leaner I am.

So...why am I sharing all of this? Honestly, it's because not every program works for every person. I think P90X is a great program, but I find the nutrition guide (especially phase 1), pretty unrealistic for most people. I would bonk and crash on the low carbs if I tried to use phase 1 nutrition today because of my body fat %. You've got to find the nutrition balance that truly works for you (for me, it's a fairly clean diet of 40% carbs, 35% protein, 25% fat), and an exercise program that you enjoy. Period.