Insanity - Loss of Energy

Do you know how much a woman should eat when doing insanity?

Any particular woman? Because people of different weights and activity levels have different needs. If you're exhausted all the time you should probably up your carb levels for a bit while your body adjusts to the rigors of Insanity.

*looks up and waves"

HI JANE!!!!!

Also make sure you're eating often. At least every 5 times a day. You also need healthy carbs. I weigh 138 and eat about 1500 Cal's. If that helps. Though I don't eat bread or sugar.

So this is my first week of Insanity. I am feeling EXHAUSTED. I am guessing it is from the hard work insanity puts one through... but I am wondering if I should get some type of shake such as Whey to help boost my energy. Will I start getting my energy back next week? Help!

you probably aren't eating enough to fuel the workouts, they are VERY intense. I just finished a round.

First of all im sure your opinion is much appreciated but dont tell someone to lower their fitness goal, that is bad parenting! You deserve a spanking!
...
A good one will tell you not only your TDEE but you BMR as well keep pushing YOU CAN DO THIS!

It is not "bad parenting" to suggest that people set fitness goals that are reachable. It is much better to suggest that someone temporarily lower their fitness goal to something that is attainable that to advise them to push though a workout that is obviously beyond their fitness level at this time.

Workouts like Insanity will always be there later when you are ready for them. Just because you started the program doesn't mean you have to finish it right now if you find it makes you too tired and sore to function in your daily life.

I was EXHAUSTED during the first week or so of Insanity, and I was super stiff. I was also sleeping a bit more than usual. But it gets so much easier as your body adjusts! After the second week you will feel fitter and your body will have adjusted. A decent amount of sleep helps your muscles repair and recover.

Being exhausted and super stiff for days doesn't work for most people. They have things to do with their energy besides Insanity!

The guy that created that program should have set it up where it isn't intense for the first week and then build up the intensity gradually so people won't think they have to suffer through such torture to get fit!

I am finishing up recovery week & to start month 2 of Insanity this coming week. The 1st week was tough. In order to have enough energy to power through my calories had to go up. I was eating according to my TDEE - 20% which was 1700 and did very well. I was never hungry. Since starting insanity I am consuming 1800 - 2000 depending on how famished I am. I am losing inches & .5lbs in the 1st month. I am pretty much at goal for weight loss. Doing Insanity for better body composition & definition.

I was EXHAUSTED during the first week or so of Insanity, and I was super stiff. I was also sleeping a bit more than usual. But it gets so much easier as your body adjusts! After the second week you will feel fitter and your body will have adjusted. A decent amount of sleep helps your muscles repair and recover.

Being exhausted and super stiff for days doesn't work for most people. They have things to do with their energy besides Insanity!

The guy that created that program should have set it up where it isn't intense for the first week and then build up the intensity gradually so people won't think they have to suffer through such torture to get fit!

Jane, no offense but you seem to go into a lot of Insanity threads and discourage people from doing the program. Is this something personal you have against Insanity?

By your own admission you have never done the routines, but you seem to have made it a mission to disparage them. I've seen in more than one thread you jumping in to tell people to send the videos back and get something else.

Insanity is just another tool people can use to reach their fitness goals. It is clearly advertised as a challenging program. No one who buys a program called "Insanity" should think that it's going to be easy, and I doubt if anyone is so disillusioned into thinking it's the only workout that will have an effect.

Insanity is not for everyone. But everyone who completes it will have smashed both physical and mental barriers and deserves respect. Whether you can match the posse's intensity is not the point. It's the effort and improvement that counts.

People are sore after doing this workout because it pushes your boundaries. You use more muscles in any crossfit-type program than most people are used to, hence you will be stiff and sore after doing them the first few times. This does not imply injury or threat of injury, merely evidence that you are challenging your body. Exercise is not meant to be comfortable. If you aren't out of breath, if you don't have to talk to yourself and dig a little deeper, and if you aren't occasionally sore, you won't push your fitness boundaries. That doesn't mean reading a magazine while comfortably pedaling on a stationary bike doesn't burn calories, it just means real improvement comes from pushing the envelope, challenging your mind to keep going when you want to quit, and having the wisdom to know the difference between being tired and flirting with injury.

Insanity is scalable. You can start slow if that's all you can do. You can rest as much as you need. You can take every other day off instead of training "on program". There's no need for the designer to start you off slow, because you choose your own pace. It's just another tool. Done properly it's perfectly safe and will catapult your progress forwards. When people do Insanity and talk about "torture" and "feeling like they are dying" they don't mean it literally. Would anyone "torture" themselves every day? It's just a way of conveying to those who have never done it (and who have no idea) how challenging the program is. Because it IS hard. THAT"S THE POINT!

BTW, ANY new fitness regimen will leave someone stiff and sore for a few days. Even after training for months, if you select a new sport, chances are the first few times you are gonna hurt! That doesn't make it bad. It's proof that you're improving yourself.

Train smart, people. Use the correct form before speed. Listen to your body and avoid injury. Consistent or sharp PAIN means STOP. You won't get fit recovering from injury. But the road to fitness is not without challenge. If you don't have to push through once in a while, you won't attain true fitness. And if pushing through barriers isn't for you, consider another program. Because pushing through barriers is what Insanity is all about.

But just because it's not for you, doesn't mean it's not a good fit for someone else.

Jane, I think everyone knows there are other choices for those who want them.

For those that take on the Insanity challenge, kudos to you. For those that have completed it, you have my respect. You are all champions.

One last thing: The Insanity shirt may be a thin mediocre garment, but it's one of my most prized possessions. It's a symbol of accomplishment. It's a reminder that I've put work in before, and I shouldn't back off now and let that work go to waste. And there's an instant bond when you encounter someone else wearing one. It's a badge of honor. You don't get badges for what Martin Berkhan calls "F%@^arounditis".

For the OP:

Make sure you get plenty of good quality sleep and a balanced diet with enough calories to fuel your workout. Insanity can be used for weight loss but is primarily intended as a cardio conditioning program. To that end the best results are had during a caloric surplus or a conservative deficit. Don't go low calorie on this one. And don't go low carb, either, you will need your glycogen for all the explosive movements.

A pre-workout protein shake (not too big) 15 min before training has been shown to increase workout intensity.

A pre-workout supplement like NOExplode, etc, does wonders for me, if you can tolerate them. Use them in moderation and NOT every time you workout. A CEA stack (google) also works well, again, in moderation. And L-Tyrosine is a non-stimulant that really helps you buckle down and focus.

Within an hour after training, a good meal with lots of protein and complex carbs will help recovery. If you want, immediately after the workout a whey shake with simple carbs will kickstart the process. Wait an hour then have your main meal. This meal should probably be 25% of your daily calories.

And yes, by the second week you will notice huge improvements in your energy levels, both during the workout and during the day.

Jane, no offense but you seem to go into a lot of Insanity threads and discourage people from doing the program. Is this something personal you have against Insanity?

No, it's not just Insanity. I recommend that unless someone is already already in great shape, they avoid ANY overly extreme exercise program, including Insanity and Crossfit.

The OP was EXHAUSTED. A fitness program that's a good fit for your fitness level does NOT leave you exhausted all day after you do it!

Smart fitness coaches don't expect a person that hasn't been exercising much to do something as crazy as the Insanity fitness test the first time they come in. They ramp up the intensity of the exercise program gradually instead of hitting a new gym goer in the face with an extreme routine to show them how out of shape they are the moment they walk in the door!

The Fit Test is not crazy, either. It's 25 minutes, of which 3 minutes is warmup/stretches and 4 minutes are cooldowns/stretches. The remaining 18 minutes are intervals. It gives you a benchmark of your fitness level. The last thing it's intended to do is hit the gym goer in the face with a dose of discouragement, rather it fuels encouragement in the future when you take the test again. Every Fit Test with the exception of the first one is therefore a NSV.

Do you make money from selling Insanity? The way you are promoting it, it almost sounds like you do.

I've read where plenty of people have felt discouraged about their fitness level after doing the first fitness test. And I've read where many people were extremely sore for days after doing it. They really could have started the program with a fitness test that wasn't that over-the-top insane and given people a starting point that did not feel so painful and discouraging.

BTW, the only people on the message boards I suggested not do Insanity are people that are exhausted and/or overly sore from trying to keep up with a program that is obviously designed for people with a higher fitness level.

I have nothing against interval training. But it needs to be done in such a way that people aren't feeling too exhausted to function after their workout!

The Fit Test is not crazy, either. It's 25 minutes, of which 3 minutes is warmup/stretches and 4 minutes are cooldowns/stretches. The remaining 18 minutes are intervals. It gives you a benchmark of your fitness level. The last thing it's intended to do is hit the gym goer in the face with a dose of discouragement, rather it fuels encouragement in the future when you take the test again. Every Fit Test with the exception of the first one is therefore a NSV.

Do you make money from selling Insanity? The way you are promoting it, it almost sounds like you do.

BTW, I've read where plenty of people have felt discouraged about their fitness level after doing the first fitness test. And I've read where many people were extremely sore for days after doing it. They really could have started the program with a fitness test that wasn't that over-the-top insane and given people a starting point that did not feel so discouraging.

This is one of the few times I literally LOL'd.

No, I don't make money in any way shape or form. And promotion sounds like I'm going into Zumba threads saying "quit that Zumba, it's not doing anything for you, you must use Insanity!" I don't.

The Fit Test or for that matter any experience in life can either encourage or discourage someone. Yes, if you are out of shape the Fit Test will paint that picture in black and white. But it's not intended to discourage you at all. They even make reference in the Fit Test itself to the improvement you can expect next time. That's why you record it! Should someone be discouraged by weighing themselves? Or measuring their waistline? Or taking photos? No....it's just data. The numbers don't lie. It's a benchmark. Everyone starts somewhere. It's not where you start your journey, it's where you end up. And when you improve, those numbers don't lie either. Do you have any clue the sense of accomplishment you get from doubling your Fit Test scores in 4 weeks? Or the first time you can do the entire video without taking a break? It's EMPOWERING, not discouraging. Not every victory occurs on the scale.

You'll never expand your boundaries by training within them. That's why weight lifters say "No pain, no pain". There's little point in pumping someone up over their lackluster performance by giving them an easy test, because it just reinforces the acceptance of mediocrity. People need to be challenged. They need to look at their bellies and say "It's time for a change". And they need to look at their test scores and say "I can do better. Watch me."

One of the NSV of programs like Insanity is that you realize very quickly that you are mentally much stronger than you thought. If you think you can't do something, you never will. But when you try it, when you really reach deep down inside and focus and discover you CAN it's a powerful reinforcement. Just as your muscles grow from subjecting them to overload, so does the human spirit. You CAN do it. You just THOUGHT you couldn't.

In ANY endeavor what you get out of it is proportional to what you put into it. Insanity is an example of putting a lot into something, and getting a lot out of it in return. If you or anyone else wants to take the conservative path, that's fine. If someone wants to embrace the experience and reap the mental rewards of accomplishment and commitment for a hard job well done, more power to them. That's true whether it's Crossfit, HIIT, weight training, etc. Insanity was as hard for me on my first day as anyone, harder than most, I'd wager, at my sheer size. My Day 1 Fit Test was no prize winner. But for all that, my 15 day photo's were SHOCKING.

MFP is about encouragement, as well as an exchange of information about what has worked for others. If someone is sabotaging their results unintentionally, it's appropriate to tell them and not necessarily to coddle them. Insanity and the like does not fit that description. Therefore it's not your duty or anyone else's to talk them out of it. And I still suspect there's more behind your vehemence than you've let on in the many threads you've participated in in this manner.

Next time you find someone who's discouraged by their Day 1 Fit Test results, send them to me. I'll give help them put the Fit Test into the perspective they need.

I'll say it again: Insanity is not for everyone. It's an intense cardio-conditioning program. It's a workout for your will power and determination as well as your body. If it was easy everyone would do it.

And not all the results can be seen in the mirror hanging on your wall. Some of them show up in the mirror into your soul instead.

Sorry, one last point, as if I hadn't been clear on this already:

I am not a "Ramming Speed!" advocate.

Be safe, monitor your heart rate, warm up first, use correct form, and eat right.

Listen to your body. If you are in PAIN, STOP. If you are SORE, push through. Know the difference!

If you are EXHAUSTED, REST. A day, a week, it doesn't matter. Listen to your body. But being tired after an intense workout is not the same thing.

Know the difference between pushing boundaries and doing damage. No program of any type is a good program if you get hurt.