Insanity and The Primal Blue Print

gracienkaidens_momma · July 2011

So I'm reading the book, "The Primal Blue Print" which is all about changing your eating habits to cut down on carbs (50-100 grams of carbs a day for "effortless" weight loss and 100-150 carbs a day to maintenance). I love the book. It's extremely interesting to me and informative (Love the science behind it all!) but I'm confused when it comes to doing Insanity with it. Insanity is such a high intensity workout which requires your heart rate to be super high and the Primal Blue Print book is all about regular low-moderate workouts paired with a few strength training sessions a week and 10-15 minutes of sprinting every 7-10 days. The author Mark Sission talks about Chronic Cardio, a phenomenon many participate when doing intense amounts of cardio to try to lose weight and see no real gains because it puts so much stress on the body that the body actually produces hormones that counteract weight loss. I was thinking about doing a modified version of Insanity with it because I'm really restricting carb intake. What are your thoughts on this, my fellow Primal friends?

coltrane23 · July 2011

I don't know Insanity really well, but I have the impression it's similar to CrossFit. I do CF 4 days a week, lift heavy weights on a couple of those days, and run 3 miles or more on another day. It's not quite the PBF format, but it's a similar concept and it's been working for me.

gracienkaidens_momma · July 2011

That's good that it's working for you! You have definitely seen awesome results from it! How long have you been eating Primal?

coltrane23 · July 2011

I probably started Primal in mid-November 2010. I'd already lost 30 lbs. by then using Body-for-Life, but I didn't have a plan for what to do after the first 12 weeks (do another 12 weeks, and another, for the rest of my life . . . . ?). A friend of mine is a gym rat who's seriously into fitness, and he told me about Paleo, which I tried but couldn't remain that strict so from there I migrated to Primal. For me it's a lifestyle, not a diet, because I find the principles easy to live by--and I need that because I hate dieting.

I didn't start CrossFitting until probably Feb. of this year. Before that it was dumbbells and bodyweight exercises in the garage, but without the intensity that CF requires. Once I started CF, combined with Primal, I *really* started to see some changes on the scale and in my appearance. I've consciously slowed down the weight loss now, in order to focusing on building muscle. Still some cardio via the WODs and the weekly run, but more emphasis now on lifting heavy things.

gracienkaidens_momma · July 2011

So I see you found the weight loss dropped faster with your program. I don't know anything about CF. I wonder if it's as intense as Insanity. I am not sure if I'm going to continue Insanity. It's so hard to get motivated and I get so frustrated because I cannot keep up with them. It's way more intense than I imagined it would be. I do love the way I feel afterwards though. I honestly love my kettlebell workouts and can definitely feel an all-over body workout with them. I am going to be going heavier with my kettlebell. I am thinking that my kettlebell workout 4 days a week paired with walking/jogging a few days a week would be enough exercise for me to see results while staying under 100 carbs a day.

gracienkaidens_momma · July 2011

Later on when my body is used to this new way of eating (like this fall) I would like to get into Insanity.

gracienkaidens_momma · July 2011

Later on when my body is used to this new way of eating (like this fall) I would like to get into Insanity.

Tonyalolita · July 2011

I have an Insanity program at my job and it is insane. At first I lost 15 lbs with my regular eating habits. I got injured and gained 20 lbs back. I am back into the program for 5 weeks now, I gained alot of muscle tone with no weight lost. I have been on a strick diet during this time just to see if I would lose more. Well, realizing with the insanity workout it is necessary to do a high protein diet along with your daily fruit and veggies. Don't cut back on the calories that your body is required. Make sure when you log in your exercise you select high impact aerobics. Insanity is a 1000 calorie burn off for most athletes. Keep motivated. I am changing my diet back to high protein as of today.

hiddensecant · July 2011

I think you're better off doing HIIT (Turbo Fire) if you're going Primal. You need carbs for Insanity.

Kettlebells is great for strength training and you can get pretty far with that alone.

NYGoddess77 · July 2011

Yes Insanity puts alot of stress on the body. I did it in Feb 2o11. It's a good workout but I felt the pain in my joints and hips. It's more for endurance and performance rather than fat loss. I'd recommend P90X over Insanity anyday. TF HIIT is great as well. I find that protein and FATS give me the energy I need more than Carbs.

gracienkaidens_momma · July 2011

I've heard of Turbo Fire but have never done it before. Thanks for your suggestions.

coltrane23 · July 2011

In the last month, when I decided to shift from strictly burning fat to attempting to build muscle, I also shifted my diet to support the new workout philosophy.

I changed my goal on MFP from 2lb/week to 1.5lb/week to increase my calories. Manually adjusted my macro goals to 40% protein, 30% fats and 30% carbs. I try to eat 200g of protein a day, which is still not enough for someone my size given my regimen but it's all I can cram in my piehole. I load up on fats as well, from all the Primal-approved sources (except coconut, which is pricey and I don't like it enough to pay that much for it).

Carbs come as a matter of course with the fruits and veggies, and I'm usually around 100-120g of carbs a day. I am definitely seeing changes, I lost 1.25 inches around my waist in the course of two weeks after changing. I check again tomorrow night, so I'm interested to see if I've lost any more yet.

Insanity and The Primal Blue Print

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