Help me with caloric intake and Insanity

I was wondering about this too and kind of asked the same question but in a weird way but never got a clear response. I woukd say that's not enough from what I did get feed back on. I was doing 1380 I am bigger than you 5'10 and 170 but I did increase my intake slightly, like 1570 because I originally had a goal of losing 2 lbs per week. I just started insanity 10 days ago and haven't lost weight but have lost 1% body fat taking in 1380. Hope this helps a little add me for insanity support I'm friends with other girks that have started or finished it

If you're following MFP as a baseline, then whatever you burn, you do need to eat at least 1/2 of that.
I don't do Insanity, so I'm not sure of the burns there (and I'm loads heavier than you, too).

It's not about losing weight fast, it's about losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way.... and your body needs that fuel.
My estimate is around 16-1700 cals for the program, but again, I know next to nothing about it. Good luck.
x

Don't overestimate your calorie burn, but yes, you should eat your exercise calories back - if you are using MFP's calculations for what your caloric intake is, that is a NET number, meaning any exercise you do has to be eaten back so your net equals your daily max.

Example: You are to eat 1400 calories per day. You exercise and burn roughly 300 calories. You should now eat 1700 calories.

MFP overestimates caloric burn, so don't trust their #s. I use whatever the machine gives me, rounded down to the nearest 25. I also calculated what my caloric intake should be using a different methodology that is better than MFPs and doesn't want you to eat back exercise calories, because it already accounts for them in the calculation, and that methodology gave me a daily intake of about 1750. So - I set my MFP at the 1360 it recommends, and I eat back exercise calories but I don't go past 1750-1800 so I don't take in too much beyond my TDEE-20% calculation.

Also, while 'the bigger the deficit the bigger the loss' is, on its face, true - it is not always healthy. You want weight loss to be sustainable. You want this to be a lifestyle change, not another diet that can be failed. Weight loss = a calculation of calories in v calories out. But cutting back too much will be unhealthy, not supply you with the nutrients you need, and will ultimately backfire as you eat too little for too long and hurt your overall health. Food is fuel. 1200 per day is probably too low anyway. 1200 per day without eating back exercise calories is WAY too low.

I am almost through week four and I have yet to lose any weight or inches. My hubby says he is seeing changes, but I just don’t yet (other than cardiovascular strength… my endurance has gone up exponentially). I’m doing the TDEE -20% method because I find that doing HIIT my HRM is just all over the place and I don’t trust it. I’m 5’5” 140 lbs and I eat on average between 1500 - 1800 calories a day depending on my hunger. I know this is well below my TDEE and I should be losing weight, but I feel like this program has me holding A LOT of water for muscle repair and being in a healthy weight range it just doesn’t want to come off. From everything I’ve read the recovery week and the second month is when it all starts to show, so on I go trusting the process.

Thank you all for all the feedback. I did a little bit of research and I read that many who have followed the caloric intake per the insanity nutrition guide have started to lose weight, verses a lower calorie diet and not losing weight. The insanity nutrition guide is saying that I need to eat 2000 calories a day. I was going to try that and see if the higher calories work for me. I have only 10 to 15 lbs to lose and have been at a plateau for a long time now following what MFP tells me too. Anyone who is following insanity, I would love to add you as a friend on here. It is great for feedback and motivation.

You all gave me some very good pointers. I am not sure what to think now lol. Should I up it to 2000 as Shaun T suggest and maybe that will help my plateau or should I just eat my exercise calories back and stay at 1200 net? Hmmmm

The method Shaun T uses in the nutrition guide is the Mifflin-St Jeor TDEE method, which I have heard is inaccurate. I use the Harris-Benedict method which IIFYM TDEE calculator says is more accurate. It gives about 100 calories less than the Mifflin method for me. If you’re nervous about jumping up to 2000 calories right away try adding 250 calories to your diet every day for a week to see how much weight you lose. If you lose more than 1 pound a week you’ll need to keep adding 250 calories a day until you are only losing 1 - .5 lbs per week. The slower the loss the more likely you are to keep it off.

I would do at least 1500 +exercise calories. I lost 13 pounds in the 63 days. I also went from a size 16/18 to a 12. Be careful doing this on 1200, I managed it for a week and a half before I was so exhausted I spent 5 days in bed sick and had to start over.

Try it if you want but don't be afraid to up your calories if you are feeling tired or run down. After all this is about what is going to work for you. We can only give advice on what has worked for us.