P90X & RUNNING??

When I was doing P90X earlier this year I was running 3-4 days a week but only doing the three strength sessions of P90X. That was quite enough. No way I would try to combine the two in the same day unless it was yoga+running or stretch+running.

Forgot to say I also do abs on Mon. & Wednes. after arm and shoulders etc. And I do 1200 calories.
Emphasis on on protein and carbs. I also drink Muscle Milk/choc.
after every workout, helps w/ recovery/soreness.

I have learned a lot this year!!

Thanks for your responses so far. Looks like I can maybe run 3 days a week which I can handle.

Also, I just heard I should be upping my calories. I only eat around 1200 now, but with this program I'll have to eat more. Yikes for me.

It depends what your goals are. If your goal is to drop lbs you'd probably want to be around 1400-1700 calories a day. You kind of have to play around with the nutrition for a few weeks to see what works. You want to fuel your workouts and 1200 may be a little low.

I would also say 1400-1700 is too low. The P90X diet guide sets the lowest caloric intake at 1800, and that does not include extra running. So I would say 1700-2000+ depending on how much you run

P90X is 6 days a week and workouts vary from an hour to an hour and a half a day. There is an additional optional workout DVD you can do on Sundays if you wish. Be aware that if you continue running while doing P90X you may not be able to keep up with what that will do to your calorie needs. They will well exceed 2000 and possibly even 2500 a day. Meeting those calorie goals while keeping to nutritious, healthy foods can be tough.

Even if you were doing P90X alone you would be looking at about 1700 minimum. Actually 1200 is too low for you now already. 1200 is only sufficient for someone sedentary.

Just because you're losing weight doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy. One of the main things we try to advocate on this forum is doing it the healthy way. Do you know what your BMR is? I can guarantee you that you could increase your calories to 1500 a day and once your body adapts you will see the same progress while having more energy.

I did 90x and running, and it's a very potent mixture, but there's a catch. I've done the P90x program twice. The first time I was around 220 at 5'8, I'm a man by the way, and hadn't truly worked out in years. About a week before I started the program I tried to get my body used to exercise by running. Unfortunately, I was barely able to run half a mile, and, to make matters worse, I had to stop several times throughout just to get through the half mile. The next week I dedicated myself completely to the P90x program. I was a bit shaky at first with following the nutrition program, but was in sync with what I needed to do by the start of the third week. Talk about results. By the start of the second month I'd developed my muscles more than I ever had in life, but I still needed to drop some weight. By this time I was about 195. The P90x companion book outlines a plan to burn extra weight by doing the cardio X program on the days of the resistance workouts starting with the second month. Instead, I decided to replace the Cardio X program with running. A month earlier I could barely make half a mile, after just a month, with my increased leg muscles decreasing their rate of fatigue, I instantly ran 3 miles just testing myself out and was surprised that after having run the longest distance I'dw ever run I wasn't even maxed by it. The pounds began to fall RAPIDLY. By the end of the second month I'd reached about 170. Eventually, due to convenience and effectiveness, I began replace my entire workout routine with running and biking. However, without continued resistance training, my body began to plateau, and without variation in my workouts parts of my body began to weaken. Overtime, I developed tendinitis in my Achilles and I stopped exercising completely from about October to March of the next year, losing track of my healthy dietary habits, and gaining a good chunk of my former weight back. Having had gotten on track before, when I was ready, I returned to living a healthy lifestyle in the same manner as before. When I reached the second month, this time, I added the running on resistance days the same as before, but was careful not to let it overtake my workout routine as the tendinitis was still present. At some point, losing weight wasn't an issue at all anymore and I began to focus on toning my body, and here;s where I hit a snag with the P90x/running hybrid program. The entire time I was running my form had been off, and as I had been working at total body fitness for two months and my emphasis on toning I began to understand engaging my core and the value of proper form. With my corrected form and increasing strength, I began increasing the intensity and duration of my runs. While I was definitely getting ripped fast my energy level throughout the day was in the toilet. It became difficult to find a healthy diet to supplement the amount of energy I was expending every other day. Gradually, something had to give, and since I already lost all the weight I needed to and had a basis for toning, I removed one of the running days and placed the remaining two at opposite ends of the weeks, sometimes replacing one of the cardio workouts or the leg resistance days entirely with an hour run. Here's what I've discovered, it's hard to get the same effectiveness at toning your core, or dropping pounds rapidly from any other exercise than running with proper form (ask the guy from the bowflew commercials how he really got those abs), and mixing it with P90x is a good complement because as you become stronger the intensity of your runs increases drastically at regular intervals. However, as your body becomes capable of handling greater amounts of physical activity from your workouts, and in general, you're going to need to find a way to supplement the massive and increasing loss of energy. If you follow the program to the T your body will begin to change quickly, and with adding something like running and still following the full workout it can be difficult to adapt that fast and alter your diet so drastically on the fly. Since gaining weight is an issue for me, and gaining/losing is mostly tied to food, there are certain foods I'm, more or less, afraid of, but, perhaps, you or others can find away around the energy loss because the effects are immediate and magnificent.

Balance! Muscle confusion, cross training... it's real. And the slower you lose the weight, the slower you will gain it back.
2cool... what is your age? I am guessing you are on the younger side? It's not easy to yo yo like
that in your 40s, 50s... For most maintenance calories are around 2000... good calories of course;)
That number has to be adjusted if you are trying to lose weight depending on your exercise routine. That's
why MFP is so great! You can plug in % carbs, % protein, % fat and track it! wallah!