insanity useless???

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  • ericabrothers
    ericabrothers Posts: 115
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    I've been doing Insanity and have noticed my clothes fitting better. The progress on the scale is slower. I will go a couple of week and lose nothing and then almost seems like overnight 3-4 lbs are gone. I keep fluctuating but its not helped that I got sick over the weekend and haven't done any. I'm going to attempt to do it tonight but I'm not sure how it will go. Anyway keep at it. My fiance has had better results but he is doing Insanity along with his regular gym routine.
  • rima933
    rima933 Posts: 151 Member
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    are you doing insanity with the calendar? or just skipping around and doing what you want?

    insanity gets your heart rate up, it does exactly as its supposed to if you are making the effort to push through the workouts as hard as you can.

    if you only have a few pounds to lose... good luck..

    its easier for someone with a high body fat percentage to lose weight than someone without much fat. juts dont give up, cardio workouts are never useless. even if you dont see results, you will feel better as you move through the program.
    I am following the calender exactly. Haven't missed 1 day. I burn about 550 cals each and i used a heart rate monitor to check. My ticker was wrong, i just fixed it, but i wish it was only a few pounds, more like 30.
  • rima933
    rima933 Posts: 151 Member
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    I've been doing Insanity and have noticed my clothes fitting better. The progress on the scale is slower.
    I have experienced this, you are right.
  • auroranflash
    auroranflash Posts: 3,569 Member
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    Exercise has a world of benefits.. the scale won't always tell you the truth... Think about this - even if you're not seeing the scale budge, you KNOW exercise is going to bring you more results than sitting on the couch. I love the saying, "Even if you're jogging slowly, you're still lapping everyone on the couch". Sometimes I get so obsessed thinking about the magic string of exercises that's going to give the absolute best results... I forget that every little bit counts. Even doing 20 squats or jumping jacks periodically through the day is better than nothing. Do what you can... contribute to yourself all through the day, and if the scale is getting you down, then weigh yourself less ^_^

    Good luck and God bless.
  • wells0707
    wells0707 Posts: 251 Member
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    I recommend taking pics. Take them now...and push through and take them again when the program is over. You will definately see a difference.
  • uniqute1888
    uniqute1888 Posts: 182 Member
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    A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!
  • Hadahsah6
    Hadahsah6 Posts: 5 Member
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    You might be building muscle first. A friend of mine worked out for a month and a half and she actually gained a few pounds, but she told me that her body puts on alot of muscle first, then she starts to shed the pounds. Don't give up, as long as your eating healthy and working out, the pounds will shed soon!
  • Sublog
    Sublog Posts: 1,296 Member
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    Hi, ive been doing insanity for 2 weeks and havent lost any weight. I have been eating reletively healthy meals and cutting back more than usual. My weight wont budge and its so frustrating. Tomorrow is my second fit test, but im thinking og giving up whats the point in working so hard if im gonna get nowhere. So sick of being fat! After my first baby i lost 90 pounds doing goodlife classes like body pump and attack, then when i got pregnant i gained most of it back again. My second baby is 7 months now, all i lost was the baby weight like 30 pounds or so. Now i cant lose anymore weight im going crazy. Its so hard. I quit goolife cuz i bougt a livestrong treadmill and a homegym, and i ran for 2 weeks without losing any weight and now insanity 2 weeks and also no weight loss... Someone please help me.
    Weight loss = 80% diet. If you haven't lose weight doing insanity, you're simply eating too many calories.
  • DorisR184
    DorisR184 Posts: 471 Member
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    If its only been 2 weeks u should hang in there, thats much too soon to call it useless. I've done 4 rounds of Insanity and I LOVE it, it changed my body completely. Also like many have already said, alot of people don't see changes until the 2nd month. I didn't see much weightloss in the first month however when I compared my day 1 and day 30 pics I had lost ALOT of inches around my waist. Unfortunately, I didn't take my measurements when I started so I dont know the exact number but it was obvious when I looked at my pics.

    Hang in there! It's worth all the sweat :wink:
  • tunktunk5583
    tunktunk5583 Posts: 76 Member
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    According to your ticker, you only have 6 pounds to lose, right? It takes a lot more time to lose those last few pounds than it would someone with much more to lose. I recommend changing your settings to lose 1/2 lb per week. You may not be eating enough, or you might be eating too much...if you feel comfortable, you could open your diary to us and we could help you out!

    I don't know what Insanity is, but if it's a workout, it's not useless. You are most likely retaining water.

    I agree with the above.

    I did Insanity for a four weeks (I manage to pull my back pretty bad) and didn't lose much weight. However, I did see a difference in my body-it was much more toned. Don't give up, it's a really great work out!
    I would watch your diet-are you utilizing the Insanity recipes?
  • rima933
    rima933 Posts: 151 Member
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    Exercise has a world of benefits.. the scale won't always tell you the truth... Think about this - even if you're not seeing the scale budge, you KNOW exercise is going to bring you more results than sitting on the couch. I love the saying, "Even if you're jogging slowly, you're still lapping everyone on the couch". Sometimes I get so obsessed thinking about the magic string of exercises that's going to give the absolute best results... I forget that every little bit counts. Even doing 20 squats or jumping jacks periodically through the day is better than nothing. Do what you can... contribute to yourself all through the day, and if the scale is getting you down, then weigh yourself less ^_^

    Good luck and God bless.
    You're sooo right!!!! i never heard that before but its pretty funny. ( the part about lapping the ppl on the couch)
  • rima933
    rima933 Posts: 151 Member
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    A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

    Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.
  • UpToTheChallenge
    UpToTheChallenge Posts: 247
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    do your fit test tomorrow. I guarantee you will see a difference in how well you do.

    Definitely do measurements, because I also didn't see much movement on the scale but I gained a lot of muscle. I told my doctor that I was doing insanity 6 days a week with good eating and she said it's possible to gain quite a bit of muscle in a month if you're doing that intense of a workout 6 days a week.

    Don't give up. It's worth it!
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    I have been eating reletively healthy meals and cutting back more than usual.

    If you've been accurately logging your meals you should open your diary so we can look. It's hard to determine what relatively healthy means. Losing weight is drivin more so by diet than anything else.
  • kmorris246
    kmorris246 Posts: 312 Member
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    Do you have a heart rate monitor with a chest strap? if not, I highly advise getting one. This way, you can be more comfortable in how many cals you can safely consume. I'm not doing the program right now, but every once in a while I'll do one of the workouts. The last one I did was plyo and I think I burned right around 400 cals according to my HRM.
    I agree with a lot of the other posters about the weight loss in the second month. I saw much more accomplished in the second month of Insanity. Not only in weight loss, but in definition (abs, legs, and arms).

    Stick with it- I promise you'll be glad that you did! My before/after pics were a world of difference!
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    Sorry guys I'm new to this and didn't know i had to click quote to reply specifically and now it won't let me fix it. But here it is, today i woke up and weighed myself and did lose a pound at least, so i do think it was water weight like you've suggested. I was upset because each day i weighed myself i kept going up a few pounds, but now im back down a bit so temporarily happy. Also my caloric intake i guess maybe was set too high, it was 1480, and then id add the calories id burn from an insanity workout (about 550 each workout) and i was still going over a bit with lots of protein left. Insanity reccommends to do 40% carbs 40% protein and 20% fat. Ive been going way over on my carbs and way below on protein. I have been eating late at night cuz im hungry. I bought that whey protein stuff yesterday and tried some yesterday and it made me very full at night so i didnt have to eat alot. Also i just figured out i can subtract an additional 350 cals a day because of breastfeeding. And i changed my activity from active to sedenetry (not sure of spelling) so that i can eat less. Im a stay at home mom of 2 so i do move around alot but not that much, plus im doing insanity. Insanity recommends to put it very active or Active while taking part in the program, but i dont think so. Thanks everyone for your replys

    I may be misreading but are you eating 1480 calories or 2030? If you are eating 1480, then it's too few. If it's 2030, try to eat back 80% of your exercise calories instead of 100%.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

    Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

    2300 calories are far far far too many calories for you. I'm 209lbs at about 11% - 12% bodyfat and I eat 2300 calories and my lifting regimine is pretty intense without including cardio.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,411 MFP Moderator
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    A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

    Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

    2300 calories are far far far too many calories for you. I'm 209lbs at about 11% - 12% bodyfat and I eat 2300 calories and my lifting regimine is pretty intense without including cardio.

    Before making the statement, you really need to understand a person BMR and TDEE. I am 200 lbs at 12% body fat and eat 3000 calories a day and I do P90X2. Even doing chalean extreme, I was eating 2700 calories and still losing.


    I would actually suspect you are under eating since you aren't much higher than your BMR.
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
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    A big part of insanity is eating enough... You body becomes more efficient when your more trim so it takes a lot more work and more fuel to drop the fat.... Sounds weird but it's true... By calculations w insanity I'm supposed to eat 2300 cals a day! I aim for 19-2000 ... And I dropped 5lbs in the first 2 weeks... And avoid salt as much as possible and water water water.... That's what worked for me when I did insanity... Good luck and dig deep!

    Thats what I was doing, but i think i ate too many calories. I feel like Insanity overestimates it. With insanity the workouts are only 43 minutes including stretching, that doesnt seem like enough excersise to eat that many calories. but if it worked for you then it must be the quality of the food Im eating and the timing.

    2300 calories are far far far too many calories for you. I'm 209lbs at about 11% - 12% bodyfat and I eat 2300 calories and my lifting regimine is pretty intense without including cardio.

    Before making the statement, you really need to understand a person BMR and TDEE. I am 200 lbs at 12% body fat and eat 3000 calories a day and I do P90X2. Even doing chalean extreme, I was eating 2700 calories and still losing.


    I would actually suspect you are under eating since you aren't much higher than your BMR.

    If by under-eating you mean healthy calorie deficit, then yes you're correct I am. I fully trust my nutritionist and follow his diet plan to a "T". During this diet I've lost 9lbs in 5 weeks and hit personal records in many lifts, not losing muscle either.

    This OP, at least I did not notice anywhere, doesn't mention her height, weight, bodyfat, so nobody here can accurately say what she should eat. She doesn't really provide any indication of what she eats and that's really important. Just by looking at her pic I find it really hard to believe she should be eating 2300 calories as a healthy calorie deficit.
  • rima933
    rima933 Posts: 151 Member
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    Ok so after reading some comments i will add more info. I am 5'6 weigh 191 pounds, and am 30% body fat 51% water. I also breastfeed so thats an extra 350 calories. Most of my weight was put on during my pregnancies. Usually what i eat is rice (white i cant stand whole wheat) or potatoes with veggies lean meat like chicken or tilapia fish, ground beef , beans, lentils, or other veggie based dishes, i also eat white pita bread, eggs, lots of fruits like grapefruits , bananas (in moderation) cereal for breakfast, cook everything with olive oil. Snacks include rice cakes and occassionally i eat unhealthy stuff like chips and chocolate.

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