hey everyone. its the middle of week 2 and i havent been losing weight. ive been eating a lot of protein and pretty much following the nutrition guideline. however, im not hitting the required 2400 calorie mark each day. i find that it may be too much for me. im eating about 1800-2000 calories a day. what do you guys think? should i cut out more or add more calories.

Are you drinking lots of water? You should be getting, per day, at least about 150-200 ounces of water. I'm not sure how much you weigh but generally it's about 1 ounce per pound of body weight. The minimum is eight glasses of eight ounces of water a day. You definitely need much more water than that while doing this workout.

Some people lose weight at different rates than others. Right now you are probably building muscle while cutting fat.

Remember, muscle weighs more than fat.

Also, you really do not need to cut anything, in fact, you should strive to get at least 2000-2400 calories for the day, especially if you are doing P90X.

Also, 3500 calories equals a pound. If anything, at the calorie intake level combined with the workout, your body may be entering starvation mode and keeping all that it can.

yeah im not drinking as much water as i should. is that a really big factor in weight loss?

Absolutely gotta have water! I drink over a gallon a day. Don't count coffee, tea or any soft drinks with it. Water is the only thing that I count!!

And you'll build muscle like crazy in most cases! I've only lost about 15 pounds, but I've lost two belt notches in my pants and I'm wearing suits I haven't worn in several years!!

Here's the other side...I'm nowhere near where I want to be. But P90X is the tool to get me where I want to go! I went in realizing that I wouldn't look like the people in the videos in 90 days. I hope to look close to them in a year. I'm patient. And I'm focused. 90 days may not be enough for many of us, but each of us will see a huge improvement!

I just did my last workout for my first trip through P90X! I start my recovery week (I'm taking two weeks to recover due to a meeting obligation out of town) and then it's onward to the next round!!

To King Leonidas and Sparta!!!

Kevin

rrgg126 wrote:

QUOTE:
yeah im not drinking as much water as i should. is that a really big factor in weight loss?

Absolutely! It keeps you hydrated and keeps your joints lubricated.

I wrote a small article that I can give you about it. It's a little over 600 words.

Let me know and I'll send it via a PM.

Water is definitely important when it comes to losing weight and building muscle, probably just as important as getting the right nutrition and the right amount of sleep. Although I believe that the rule is 1 oz of water for ever kg of body weight that you have, not for every lbs. Experts say that normal people should drink anywhere from 8 to 13 glasses (8 oz each) of water a day. If you're working out intensely, such as P90X, you would probably be better off with more. I currently drink anywhere from 4 to 6 litres of water a day, which is about 1 to 1.5 gallons. Now you probably don't need THAT much, but definitely a healthy amount would be good. I would suggest at LEAST 10 glasses (8 oz each) of water a day. Of course there are many more factors in losing weight, probably the most important being your metabolism rate, but that's another issue. Keep at it and the results will come! Cheers!

P.S. There are many articles online about how much water one should drink. Also check out bodybuilding.com, they have a lot of articles about nutrition and water and sleep especially for people working out.

i just read an article about water and fat retention. you guys are totally right. im going to try drinking more water and oh yeah....i just gained 0.1 lbs! ughhh. oh well...thanks guys for your help...i'll keep you posted on my progress!

It can happen. But remember that you may be gaining muscle, a pound of which burns 30-50 calories per day. Not too bad a thing!

One of the hardest things we've all had to learn is not worshipping at the altar of the bathroom scales. If I just used that as my measure of success I'd be disappointed...only 15 pounds of weight lost in 3 months! Big woop, right? Could have done that on Weight Watchers.

But I've lost three notches on my belts. My suits fit better than they have in years. I have toned muscles. And I feel great!!

Perhaps now, and only now, my body is in position to finally lose the belly fat, and the weight that goes with it.

Just keep pressing "Play" and bring it!!! You'll get there!

Kevin

P.S.: Oh yes, and don't forget to drink your water!

0.1 lbs is not a weight gain.. You fluctuate by more than that every hour would be my guess.

Also, I also read a couple of articles that were talking about a 30-50 calorie burn a day for every 1 lbs of muscle added, which seemed to be very inspiring, but somewhat sketchy. I've recently read an article that stated that that "fact" was a myth.

To sum up the article, yes gaining muscle mass boosts your metabolism and so has you burn more calories, but to quote the article:
"But do the math for a guy that puts on 30 pounds of muscle. Does his metabolism really increase by 1500 calories? Absolutely not. For an average guy, that would require his resting metabolism to increase from 2500 calories to 4000 calories per day. How would he be able to keep any of that muscle with a metabolism like that? He'd have to eat like a pig forever."

Anyway, building muscle definitely helps to lose weight and even more so body fat %. Drinking water helps build muscle, replenish your body and organs, and helps get rid of unwanted waste. Keep up the great work!

I agree that the 30-50 calories per pound of muscle, carried to an extreme, is probably not accurate.

Prior to P90X, I had a fat analysis done and they calculated that I had nearly 200 pounds of muscle on my frame. Sounds great, doesn't it? It was done using a standardized methodology used in clinics all over the world. It was reproducible and verified by experienced physicians. It's an honest analysis.

So why can I gain fat on only 2000 calories per day? Thyroid checks out fine, adrenals do as well. No heart condition and no other metabolic problems. If I do the math and take the low number of 30 calories per pound of muscle per day I'd need to consume 6000 calories per day just to maintain the muscle mass! If I ate a healthy diet, I wouldn't be able to work very much, let alone do P90X, as I'd be eating all day.

There's more to it, but presuming that an INITIAL gain of 10 pounds of muscle burning an additonal 300 calories per day is probably reasonable. It indicates to me that I need to control my diet and exercise daily if I want to be successful. And 0.1 pounds is only about an ounce and a half, so you're fine.

Sorry for the fuzzy logic in my previous post!

Kevin

looking for a change after 2 weeks or working out, no matter how hardcore the program is, is not realistic.
if you read the post around here you'll see that a lot of members see some improvement after 30 days, most of which occur during the recovery week.
be patient

Perhaps you ought to consider some supplements.

I did the whole 90 days (never cheated) and didn't lose any weight. Plus, I danced at least 10 hours a week. I gained a lot of muscle, felt healthy and strong, but I didn't get the results I was expecting.

If you gain muscle, feel healthy and feel strong... why let how much you weigh bring you down?? If you did the whole 90 days, your at a weight that is the most healthy for you to be in. If I were you I'd be content with that and only look at the scale when you feel like your letting yourself slip to see where your at.

I agree, the scale isn't all that useful, especially not for measuring health. Check your body fat percentage rather if you're that interested. What counts is how you feel and how you look. Keep up the good work!

Keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat!

Tell us a little about your diet. That may be the main culprit as to why you've not lost any weight.

It could also be that you gained muscle in place of the fat you lost. Did you happen to take a BMI and see where you were at and where you are at now?

Hey do you or anyone else know where I can find a good, reliable body fat percentage calculator online? I'm curious as to what mine is and I don't have a nice scale or anything at home.

I don't know if any online calculators or even scales are very efficient for calculating body fat percentage. Calippers would be your best bet. A lot of gyms will do the test for you for free if they have some. Otherwise, if you use the online ones or the scale, it can be a good indication of how much you've lost or gained if you take the measurements at the same time of day and under the same conditions every time, and of course with the same test. That'll give you an estimate of how much you've changed. As for giving you a good estimate of your current bf%, what I would do is search a bunch of them on google and see what an average result or a most common result looks like.

Thanks for the advise. I knew it wouldn't be 100 percent accurate, but since I don't have any capillaries or gyms to go to, an online source is my only option. I've looked at a few different tests and some say 9.5 bf% and others say 15 bf%, so I was just wondering if anyone knew of a really reliable one I can get an idea of which extreme is more accurate.

Hey whas up folks. Yeah I have to say I have recently gotten concerned over my ongoing success in this program. I have to say I was quite pleased by day 1 and day 30 results. However, as day 60 is only a week away for me I am getting concerned that my results are tapering off, and that my day 60 pic will not show too much of a difference. Not that I am not feeling better or getting stronger but it seems as this remnant of my once glorious gut seems to not go away. I like being strong but I want a flat stomach first and foremost! So I am starting to cut back my calories as well down to 2000ish from 2500. And also make sure I Bring IT extra hard during this recovery week.

I am also going to start tracking my water consumption as well to make sure I get enough.