OVERWEIGHT doing the P90X

are you doing their diet? Maybe up your cals more

If you don't have enough energy chances are you are not eating the right amount of calories or the amount of protein they recommend. Are you doing their eating plan with the video? If you arent you should probably follow it as close as you can it does help, and the whey protein drinks help out a whole lot with fatigue and sore muscles, but of course I am NO expert.

I wanted to first say that I am not an expert and in no way pretend to be but I do have some knowledge when it comes to working out and proper nutrition as I was a college athlete and I am currently a firefighter/EMT and Law Enforcement Officer.....so I hope my advice below helps....it's just some knowledge that I have gained over my workouts and life....

P90X is a program that gets a lot of hype but many forget to tell you that there is a P90 program out there that many people do before they get into P90X. Remember the "X" is for extreme! If you are getting light headed, there are several things that would concern me. First of all, are you getting enough calories in your diet? If not, you may need to up your calories a little bit. If you go from 3,000 calories a day to only 1,500, the body is not used to that and actually may believe that you are starving yourself and therefore starts to actually hold onto calories and fat as a measure of self-preservation. Which in turn would cause you to be tired and light headed. It would be better that you slowly start to step down the amount of calories that you eat than suddenly drop a lot of calories (just eat healthier food than maybe what is normal).

The other issue may be that you aren't getting enough protein in your diet. The average body needs 50-80g of protein a day...if you are working out more than you were before, you will need more as your body will need that extra protein to heal the micro-tears that are caused in the muscle when working out....the protein heals them and that's what causes the muscle to grow stronger and bigger. Not getting enough protein will cause a lot of the pain and muscle soreness. If you are having trouble getting more protein, a whey protein powder/drink will help with that.

Lastly, if you are not used to working out and you are getting lightheaded from the work outs...I would say if you start getting light headed in the middle of a work out...STOP!!! This may be something that you would want to talk to your doctor about before getting into a heavy workout routine like P90X (I know because I do it and yes It HURTS!). Pacing yourself is a good thing too. Remember, even the people on Biggest Loser all have doctors on the show that decide what excercises are best for them and will not put in them as much harms way.

The best thing I can say is when in doubt/light headed...Stop the workout....and talk to your doctor. Getting healthy and at a good weight is important for a healthy lifestyle but it is also important to know how to get to that state...in a healthy manner.

Hope this helps

I would seriously look into getting the regular Power 90 series first. I knew I was not, nor I am yet in the shape you need to be to do the P90X series. I am almost done with my first 30 days of the P90 workout, and I can already feel an incredible difference in strength and endurance from day 1. Hopefully at the end of the 90 days I will feel confident enough to take on the X, if not I will keep working to that point. No sense in rushing into something that will frustrate you and only cause you to quit.

I did p90x for a few weeks when i was around 190lbs and i really tried my hardest but it was too much for me at the moment.

When I started working out with Beachbody products (and I have done nearly all of them since 2007) I was 191 pounds. I had to really dial in to my diet when doing P90X and Insanity before I was the shape I am in now. I think that it is important, if not crucial, to get enough calories on P90X especially for beginners. Most people for some reason or another refuse to eat according to the P90X nutrition plan, but oftentimes when they do, they find that they still lose weight and they now have more energy to get through the day. This was the case with me. I tried to do P90X with only like 1400 calories a day and I thought that I was going to die! But when I upped it to 1800, I felt much better. I also believe that the P90X recovery drink is just as Tony Horton says "health crack." It works great and helps your body to recover after pounding your body so hard with the P90X workouts. I love it!

But then again, there is the short answer...most people starting a new program take a couple of weeks to get their body used to the program, no matter what program that might be. Sometimes it is shorter. For me, I just finished P90X round 7 a week ago and I started my hybrid ChaLEAN/Turbo Kick program Monday. I was dead tired until today. Today I felt fine through the workout and afterwards. It just takes the body time to get used to something new.

Good luck, I hope you stick with it!!!

Are you doing classic or lean? On the classic program you're doing more strength training, lean is a lot lighter on the weights with more cardio. I'm currently on week 5 (phase 2) of the classic program, 5'6" and started the program at 204 lbs.

I am not following their diet but fall somewhere between the phase 1 and phase 2 nutrition plan as far as the carb/protein/fat ratios are concerned. I need more protein in my diet but am very attuned to when I might need to up the carbs a bit. For the amount of calories, I have my MFP allowance and I wear a heart rate monitor while working out. I add that number to my exercise for the day and eat to that. If I am feeling particularly hungry though I will add a little, I just try not to.

The program itself, do what you can. Tony is always saying "Do your best and forget the rest." I am approaching this with an attitude of wanting to get into good shape. I can't do all they do right now. Some of it not at all! I just decided today that I will be doing no more Plyometrics for the rest of this round because I think I have runner's knee and I'm pretty sure that particular workout is what caused it. I'll sub other cardio that's gentler on my body but keep the rest.

I LOVE the weights! It's a methodic way for me to be sure I'm working all the major muscle groups. I use the bands instead of doing pull ups (no bar) and I modify whatever I need to modify. The best part is seeing myself improve.

If you decide to give it a go, do what you can, mark your progress and compare yourself ONLY to yourself. As long as I am making gains I'm happy. I am several inches smaller one month into it so I know it's working!

I was overweight and did P90X almost the entire 90 days the first time thru. For about the first 2 weeks, I literally thought I was going to pass out doing some of the workouts. By about week 3, I was able to get thru it better, and it felt awsome! I hope you stick with it.

P90X is for athletes I am convinced, try doing the first 15- 25 min a day at first. P90X is NOT NOT..NOT a starter program. I've been doing 30 minutes but have worked up to 40 lately. My wife is extremely out of shape and I just have her starting with the stretching a very slight exercise. Because it is 6 days a week it is working.