Eating too much with Insanity

The nutritional guide told me to eat 1700. I'm 4'10 and 125. I only burn 300 calories at the most during the month 1 workouts so far, so I don't think I should be eating that high of an amount either. I've been sticking to the 1200 that MFP gave me + my calories burned. so if i burned 300 calories in a day, I eat 1500.

mine said to eat 1650-1900 depending on how much i wanted to lose. i am 5'4" and 125 lbs. if i want to lose a lb a week i would go with 1650 and if i want to lose 1/2 lb a week, 1900. i have been a lot closer to averaging 1800 and have not lost very much weight although i feel a lot stronger. i think you want to use the insanity guide as a rough guide. i am not a huge fan of anyone eating 1200 but i think if you are pretty short it might be more like 1600 for this workout. from what i have heard, just make sure you are eating NET calories above your BMR and you shoudl be fine. figure out what your TDEE is (that is what you would eat to maintain) and you could eat just a little below that and still expect to lose weight on insanity. although i haven't yet, i think my body is just adjusting to it. a lot of peopel see their results in the second month from what i have heard.
just FYI, my BMR is around 1300, TDEE is around 1900. so i thought by eating 1700-1800 that would allow me to have enough energy for the workouts and lose mostly fat and not muscle.

you must be younger than me, my BMR was 1335...which I don't even think that is correct based on the calculations. I wore a HR monitor one time all day and night and it was a lazy day and only burned like 900 calories

Everyone is different but in order for ME to eat 2300 calories and lose weight, I need to be burning around 600 calories during Insanity, which I did; so I ate 2100-2300 and lost weight. But I have had my resting metabolic rate measured and it's 1795 calories a day for me just to exist. Since you will NOT lose weight if you eat too little while doing Insanity (and you will not make it through the workouts), try eating 2300 calories for your first two weeks of Insanity and see how that affects you. If you haven't lost ANY weight (doubtful), I would take the calories down to about 2100 or so the 6 days you work out.

Sidenote: Eating 2300 calories is easier than you think when you're doing Insanity. Your body's metabolism will be going so crazy, you'll be hungry all the time. Just make sure the calories you're consuming are healthy ones.

I followed the Insanity nutrition guide calorie estimate of 1750 for the first 8 weeks of Insanity and I think it was too high for my size (5'7 140-145 lbs). My visible results were minimal: an inch from my waist and one from my hips (I could stand to lose 3" in both of those places). Everyone talks about how the 2nd month is where the results are, but I can't tell a difference between my Day 30 and Day 55 pics. By the final week, I decided I had had enough - my knees hurt and I was just run down. This wasn't the program for me.

I know Insanity is tough (I did the fit test yesterday and the first workout today) and according to calculations, I should be eating 2300 calories a day and still lose weight. I think this sounds ridiculous. I used to eat about 1600-1800 and maintain my weight. I know I'm working tough which burns more calories, but I don't see how eating THAT MUCH MORE is really going to help me lose. I am getting a lot of protein and following the diet plan word for word. I'm just lost on if I really should be eating 2300 calories (5 small meals a day, 300 for the snacks and 500 for the meals plus a snack of 200 to make up the difference).

Just a quick check - did you subtract the last but of the sum instead of adding it? I was all excited that I had loads and loads of calories, then realised I had added instead of subtracting one bit. Whoops!

when you exercise your calorie intake goes up... and i hear that insanity is an insane workout so i would imagine you would have to eat more because you burn a billion calories.

Thank you so much for this information. I am on day 5 of Insanity and I love it!! I was also surprised to see that I should be eating 1700 calories while doing Insanity but I don't think I could get through the workout if I didn't. I have had to eat about every 3 hours or I get a HUGE headache........

I just started month 2. Im trying to lose weight all around. MFP is what i think is helping me lose the weight. By following the MFP formula. Im not in it for big "Quads". If I here Shaun T talk about Quads one more time....!!

I did the calculation and it said I should eat 2300 calories. I don't think so! I'm on day 4 and I feel like I'm eating way too much. Yesterday I was super full all day almost to the point of discomfort. I never did reach 2300 calories, but I did reach 1900 day 1 and it just didn't feel right.

I love eating every few hours, it does wonders for my energy levels and concentration. I think going forward I will eat 250 calorie meals ever 2-3 hours, with a 300-350 calorie lunch. Then I'll modify it if I need to.

Does anyone feel that they should supplement insanity with running or additional exercises? Am *I* insane?

The idea is to increase your metabolism! The heavy workout along with the increase in calories pushes your metabolism up. If you eat under the recommended calories you will end up with a platue in weight loss because of low metabolism. Also if your working out half hearted you wont lose much unless your exessively overweight.

I found its better for me to give all I got for half of each exersize instead of trying to go as long as I can at the workout level that is required to go for long periods of time. This builds my burst muscle and explodes calories.

The idea is working out as though its a 100 meter dash on each exersise instead of a marathon but again this is for my specific desire in body type.

If you look up the difference between marathon runners and sprinters they have completely different types of workouts and body shapes.

Really anyone can do insanity but like any workout there is different levels of doing it.

Jumping jacks done with higher jumps, straighter arms, and more force are a whole different level than doing them normal.

So if your not losing weight push harder because it isn't the program thats the problem or the calorie intake.

Holy **** this thread is loaded with the most terrible advice I've ever seen. It seems like most people here do not understand simple chemistry and decide that the best way to lose way is to way under eat. This will do two things: 1. Decrease muscle mass 2. Put your body into fat storage mode.

@Dss8503,
You seem to be the worst case. You may have lost 60 lbs on your "running diet" but you were eating WAY too few calories. You opted for fast weight loss because you did not have the patience to do it healthily and safely. Sorry, but its the truth. Honestly, your skin and your body will hate you for it if you don't plateau soon. If you would have maintained a reasonable calorie deficit of 500 calories or even 1000 at that weight, you may have been ok. But 1500 calories? My 120 lb mother needs more intake than that. For 257 lbs anything anything less than 2500 is ridiculous if you are counting calories accurately. The good thing about BeachBody is their programs generally put a lot of emphasis on nutrition unlike other programs. They have trained dieticians and sports physicians who know much better than you do, do not neglect their advice because of BroScience. You need to reset your metabolism or you will gain all the weight back. And it will be all fat with even less muscle than you had before. Losing 60 lbs does not make you an expert, especially if its only 20 % of your body weight. One more thing: Insanity might not have been for you in the first place. The main thing people on this thread are forgetting, or unaware of, is that Insanity is a conditioning program for people already in shape. A lot of people eat maintenance on Insanity because it is not primarily a weight loss program. Once you are in good shape, it will help you become more explosive, faster and have more endurance. If you are doing it half heartedly or before you are in shape, you will not see the same benefit from it.

Are you sure you did the calculation properly? i.e. did the subtraction of 500 for weight loss?

mine said to eat 1650-1900 depending on how much i wanted to lose. i am 5'4" and 125 lbs. if i want to lose a lb a week i would go with 1650 and if i want to lose 1/2 lb a week, 1900. i have been a lot closer to averaging 1800 and have not lost very much weight although i feel a lot stronger. i think you want to use the insanity guide as a rough guide. i am not a huge fan of anyone eating 1200 but i think if you are pretty short it might be more like 1600 for this workout. from what i have heard, just make sure you are eating NET calories above your BMR and you shoudl be fine. figure out what your TDEE is (that is what you would eat to maintain) and you could eat just a little below that and still expect to lose weight on insanity. although i haven't yet, i think my body is just adjusting to it. a lot of peopel see their results in the second month from what i have heard.
just FYI, my BMR is around 1300, TDEE is around 1900. so i thought by eating 1700-1800 that would allow me to have enough energy for the workouts and lose mostly fat and not muscle.

you must be younger than me, my BMR was 1335...which I don't even think that is correct based on the calculations. I wore a HR monitor one time all day and night and it was a lazy day and only burned like 900 calories

A HRM is not going to give you anything remotely accurate for a calorie burn just lounging around doing nothing. Your calorie burn is not directly correlated to your HR.