P90X And Insanity – The Danger Of Undereating (From Personal Experience)
I’m going to share some personal experience about calorie intake on exercise routines like P90X and Insanity. I have experience on not eating enough, even after being thoroughly advised by the Beachbody advice staff to increase what I am eating.
So here’s some background:
When I did my first round of P90X, I ate by the guidelines. I ate 3,000 calories a day. And I shed fat in the first phase. In the second phase, I shed more slowly. My first thought was “I’m over eating!” So I cut my calories down.
When I started this last round of P90X, I ate less calories purposely from the start. The first 2 phases I ate at 2,400 and the last phase I ate at 1.800.
Now…I lost some fat at 1,800, but not nearly as much as what I did when I was eating at 3,000.
When I started Insanity, I thought the 1,000 deficit would be the way to go. So I set my diet up with that in mind. I pushed hard the first week and saw a loss of 2 pounds. After 2 weeks, I was down near 3 pounds, an inch off my waist and a bit more than that off of my chest. And then it all stopped, though.
My energy for the workouts decreased. I started to struggle more, even in the warm-ups. I had problems finishing strong through the routines. I quit losing weight, losing inches, and losing energy.
I knew that something wasn’t right, so I went back to the guidebook and did some reading.
Here’s what I learned:
1,000 calorie deficit works real well with light to moderate exercise or no exercise at all. But when you subject your body to a strenuous routine, 1,000 calories short will eventually shock your body in a negative way.
Today was only my second workout since increasing to 2,400 (which is at 500 deficit on the low end, so I may be increasing again next week). I could tell a huge difference in my energy throughout the routine, even if I did still get winded and tired. But considering I had interrupted sleep last night from kids, being able to push harder today was a blessing.
And I’m guessing at my end-of-week weigh in and measurement, I’ll see a decrease in weight and inches.
The moral of the story: If you are doing P90X or Insanity to lose weight, be mindful of your calories. Too little is dangerous to your results.
I’m pretty sure this must be happening to me too. I was so sure that had to be losing weight, I’m on day 10 and I have pushed hard through all the workouts, stopping only for a sec or 3 for water. I have worked harder than I have in years and sweat, and I have lost nothing. I am blown away and bummed out! All this work. I recently got off my low carb diet and been eating normally, not counting calories but not overeating. I just mainly eat dinner. I have also felt a decrease in energy throughout my workout too but figured it was just the fact that my body has worked harder than it has in a long time. I was beginning to think that the high intensity shocked my body into storing weight but I found nothing on the net about this…only high intensity and how good weight loss is for most people. Anyways thanks for your post. it’s nice to see someone else on the same journey..and read about it..lol.
Hi Amanda, thanks for stopping by…
It sure sounds like your body is not consuming enough. What I had to do was return to the nutrition guide, figure out what the range of calories should be, take off 500, and try that for a bit. If you are close to your goal weight or body fat percent, the deficit probably needs to be a little smaller.
Also, don’t feel bad if you haven’t lost yet. Are your clothes looser? Are you watching inches? I’ve learned to not rely on the scale as much as inches, although I’ll check weight every now and then (sodium intake mainly). If this is your first intense routine, you very well may not show weight loss for 3 weeks. It is a common occurrence, especially in women.
Check your calories, compare back to the nutrition guide, and see where you are. Feel free to drop your calorie range here and lets see where you are.
Brent
http://www.GetFitWithBrent.com
Brent,
I recently discovered that I am severly undereating and do P90X as well as cardio. I started logging my food and some days, after deducting the calories burned from working out – I found I had only consumed 150 calories. So based on this, I am adding calories back into my diet and was wondering how long does it take to see the weight start to drop after adding calories back in, a week; month; 2 months?