P90x-advice needed

I read a recent study that went against a lot of what is preached on cardio but makes sense to me. Most consider cardio the best calorie burner -- and it does during the time of exercise. But this study said that if you only work out for about 1 hour then you you are not working out for the other 23 hours in a day. Therefore, an hour of both cardio AND STRENGTH work the best because strength training builds muscle which burns more calories during the other 23 hours than fat. So the article was stressing a mixture of both cardio AND muscle exercises to build a lean body that will STAY lean easier. So although I believe pulling doubles is a good idea I would do a cardio (like Insanity) AND a muscle exercise mixture (like P90X) versus pulling a double cardio only. If you look back at my diary for my first attempt you will see me burning a LOT of extra calories by cardio but the results were not all that more impressive than those weeks of mostly P90X.

As to reducing calorie consumption, I would go by past experience FOR YOU and not as much by what others say. If you are happy with your progress I would not change. But if you think you it should not be taking as long to lose the weight (based upon what MFP is telling you) then I would definitely drop your calorie consumption. Truthfully, most people "forget" or UNDER-estimate the amount of food they take in and they OVER-estimate the amount of calories they burn-- often because they forget that some of that workout time is warming up time which hasn't gotten their heart to a prime burn level yet. So if you have the discipline I would mostly say drop consumption to get where you want to be faster. Harder efforts, though more difficulty, can yield faster results which can encourage you to stick with it -- as long as the effort is not TOO difficult.

FOR MY DISCIPLINE LEVEL, MY NEED TO SEE RESULTS, AND THE AMOUNT THAT WORKS FOR MY METABOLISM -- I make my calorie goal only 1300 while trying to lose pounds but raise it to about 1700 or so while trying to maintain. Also, while losing I try to be COMPLETELY honest and fanatical about recording ALL my calorie intake and calorie burn in MFP and I adjust my goal calories according to my results. If you don't track input and output calories well then setting any goal becomes pretty meaningless and you just get disappointed because you don't get the results that you expect.

Sorry for the length of this message but you've impressed me so much with how comitted you are in using MFP each and every day. And you were one of the best motivators I had to help me reach my goal. So I really would really like to see you make your fitness goal too.