Insanity + diet = why im not losing weight?

Try eating back your exercise calories. If your MFP goal is 1300 calories, that should be what you're NETTING after eating those calories back. It's not supposed to be under the 1300 calories. By undercutting (not eating them back), you're creating too large of a deficit and not giving your body enough nutrition.

Do you have a lot of weight to lose? Maybe you are building muscle.

No. You can't build muscle on a deficit.

A calorie deficit is all that is needed for weight loss, so there is a miscalculation somewhere along the line. Do you log accurately? Do you weigh everything? Would you be willing to open your diary?

^^^^This. If you're at a real deficit you should be losing weight. You either aren't properly logging (this means weighing everything...yes a pain!) and maybe not burning as much as you thought. Insanity is TOUGH but short. I burn around 300 calories in a workout. It is easy to forget to add or miscalculate 300 calories in a dayl VERY easy. You aren't building enough muscle to mask a fat loss....and not eating enough isn't going to make you stop losing...probably a miscalculation!

Do you have a lot of weight to lose? Maybe you are building muscle.

wouldn't be building muscle on 1300 calories. more than likely if your doing insanity you aren't eating enough at 1300 calories.

Sorry on my phone, read the 1300 wrong.

I changed my diet back in Jan. I lost 40 lbs., but have hit a wall for the past 3 to 4 months. Today I just started Insanity and I am going to start tracking my calories again, because I stopped for the past couple of months. I think Insanity is more about how you feel and how your body changes more then the weight loss. I do feel your pain though. I hate not seeing results on the scale. LOL

No. You can't build muscle on a deficit.

That's not true. A newbie absolutely can gain muscle while losing weight by maintaining proper protein intake and lifting weights. It takes at least 1, most likely 2, years of weight training before you cannot make muscle gains on a calorie deficit because up until that point your rate of synthesis will be greater than your rate of loss (this is assuming a gradual weightloss plan of no more than TDEE-500). You also must be at sub 10% bodyfat for a man or sub 15% bodyfat for a woman for that to happen because with anything more than that, your body will use calories from stored fat as energy to synthesize new muscle from the protein you are eating.

However, you're unlikely to build a lot of muscle by doing insanity. It's a cardio/endurance workout, not a strength building workout.

If you started exercising then you could be retaining water/glycogen in the muscle - it's normal. Give it a few more weeks to stabilize. Make sure you are tracking acutely and weighing your food where possible. I would also suggest checking the calorie target as 1,300 appears a bit low.

From what I hear, none of the people I've seen starving themselves while on Insanity have lost any weight.

Curious who you know starving themselves on Insanity.

No. You can't build muscle on a deficit.

That's not true. A newbie absolutely can gain muscle while losing weight by maintaining proper protein intake and lifting weights. It takes at least 1, most likely 2, years of weight training before you cannot make muscle gains on a calorie deficit because up until that point your rate of synthesis will be greater than your rate of loss (this is assuming a gradual weightloss plan of no more than TDEE-500). You also must be at sub 10% bodyfat for a man or sub 15% bodyfat for a woman for that to happen because with anything more than that, your body will use calories from stored fat as energy to synthesize new muscle from the protein you are eating.

While a newbie can build a little muscle from being untrained, it AIN'T gonna last a year or two while in calorie deficit. With the other exceptions of a returning athlete after a long lay off and an obese person, the average person trying to put on muscle would need a calorie surplus. Gaining muscle MEANS adding mass which means adding weight. You don't add weight on a calorie deficit.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

No. You can't build muscle on a deficit.

That's not true. A newbie absolutely can gain muscle while losing weight by maintaining proper protein intake and lifting weights. It takes at least 1, most likely 2, years of weight training before you cannot make muscle gains on a calorie deficit because up until that point your rate of synthesis will be greater than your rate of loss (this is assuming a gradual weightloss plan of no more than TDEE-500). You also must be at sub 10% bodyfat for a man or sub 15% bodyfat for a woman for that to happen because with anything more than that, your body will use calories from stored fat as energy to synthesize new muscle from the protein you are eating.

While a newbie can build a little muscle from being untrained, it AIN'T gonna last a year or two while in calorie deficit. With the other exceptions of a returning athlete after a long lay off and an obese person, the average person trying to put on muscle would need a calorie surplus. Gaining muscle MEANS adding mass which means adding weight. You don't add weight on a calorie deficit.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Gaining muscle is not the same as gaining net mass or gaining weight. You changed the premises. You cannot gain net mass on a deficit. You can gain lbm while losing fat on a deficit (which will still be a net weight LOSS) until excess fat runs out or until you've trained long enough for lbm growth to slow, the latter takes 1-2 years of proper weight training.

Isn't Insanity one of the programs that comes with a nutrition guide? Why would you use only one half of such an intensive program (exercise) and completely ignore the other half (nutrition)?

You are not eating nearly enough if you are doing insanity. You should be eating at least 1800 cals a day. I would suggest following the guidelines that come with insanity. I would also start taking measurements and pictures of yourself. Sometimes the scale doesn't move but you are losing inches.

weigh solid foods and measure liquids, otherwise you are probably eating way more than you think. other than that you are probably retaining water due to the intensity of the exercise

I would like to point out to you that the lowest suggested caloric intake while doing insanity is 1700 cals according to the program.

It's important to distinguish that OP was referring to 1300 NET calories, and insanity's recommendation is for GROSS calories.

1700 - 300 to 500 for the workout puts net caloric intake at around 1200-1300 calories. OP should not aim for 1800 NET calories because she won't lose weight.