Issues with 21 Day Fix

I have recently finished 2 rounds of the 21 day fix. In my 2 rounds, I have lost over 30 inches but only 2 pounds. I loved the workouts but hated the eating plan. I found myself extremely exhausted and what felt like I was missing out on life. I would get up every day at 4am to get the workouts in and couldn’t keep my eyes open much past 6pm at night.

What I didn’t like the most about the 21 Day Fix was the eating plan. I couldn’t ever find recipes that really tasted good and didn’t take a lot of time to prepare. One of the rules during the fix is to not have salted seasonings or extras like a tsp of sour cream or bbq sauce etc. So my food tasted VERY plain and unsatisfying. I have lost plenty of weight before on MFP and I know that if my food tastes unsatisfying, I won’t succeed at whatever plan I am doing.

I’ve decided that I am going to go back to eating and tracking on MFP. Using the calorie counting system and eating in moderation. A lot of the foods I will eat are clean foods just like I should be eating on the 21 day fix, but others are lower calorie satisfying foods. If I have enough calories for a little bit of sour cream on my tacos, then I’m having it. If my day consists of more than 1/3 of a cup of cheese and avocados then that will be fine as long as I am in my calorie zone at the end of the day.

I find it very hard to believe that a system will work as well for everyone regardless of gender, size, height etc. I KNOW the workouts worked for me. The food did not. I did eat my containers and it truly felt like too much food for me. I have researched it a lot and I have found others who had the same results as I did. I saw the results in my clothes and my pictures but how many inches can you lose without pounds? I did it for 6 weeks with no breaks and could barely get the scale to budge. I also know that others think the number on the scale doesn’t matter. That is fine if it doesn’t matter to you, but it matters to me and I am what counts with myself. I know to keep my motivation I need to see the number go down. I did see the inches go away and it didn’t help me push to keep going all that did was frustrate me and made me start searching for others with the same results. Trying to nail the food program felt like the 21 day fix consumed my life…it was all I was thinking about.

A lot of my friends are also doing the 21 day fix and they have seen amazing results. Some are only doing the food portion and losing weight, others are doing the program 100% and are having amazing results in inches and weight. But those amazing results are for an average to small size person. I have not been able to see anyone who was very overweight or obese that had amazing results. For a 2lb loss a week, MFP has me eating 1300 calories…21 Day Fix had me eating well over 2000. 21 Day Fix gives you a 400 calorie deficit for the workout, but I have researched that as well and it doesn’t seem like users are burning 400 calories each workout. The workouts are 30 minutes long and every body size and shape will do the workouts differently. You can’t tell me that someone who is mostly following the modifier is burning the same calories as someone that is following Autumn. The plan doesn’t tell you that…the plan says here are the amount of each color you are to eat and here is your workout…expect to see amazing results. If someone is eating 2200 calories a day and only burning 150 calories, will they lose weight? They will lose inches from building muscles because they are using them in the workouts, but they will not lose weight because they are eating too many calories…regardless if they are healthy, clean, lean foods or not.

So for the next 21 days, I plan on eating healthy foods following the calorie counting tracking on MFP, I will continue my Shakeology because I do love the way it makes me feel and I will continue the 21 day fix workouts to see if I see any weight loss difference that way.