I've been lurking here for about a week, as I started P90X last Sunday. As I'm finishing up my first week I wanted to have you guys take a look at my diet and tell me what I need to correct. I'm 28, 5'8, was 185 last week, now 182.

I'm eating on the schedule of, breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, and occasionally after dinner snack, but still 2 hours before bed.



The first thing I can see that is a problem is the high sodium level. I'm not thrilled with that and want to get it down. You can see I got the carb percentage more in check as the week went along. Learning a completely new diet is a challenge.

Then I come to my questions. I am obviously way under the amount of calories I'm supposed to be eating. I am not really feeling a huge loss of energy like I thought I would, and I'm not hungry all the time like I thought I would be either. Is it ok to atleast temporarily be working in the 1300-1500 calorie range?

Next question is the fat level. I'm probably averaging about 12% of my diet as fat. There really isn't any reason that I don't know about, to try to raise that to the 20% the nutrition guide suggests is there?

Long first post, thanks guys for your help. I really appreciate it.

Imho your diet looks really good..Really similar to the numbers I try to hit and I'm 6'3 225 atm

Well it all depends on your goals bud. Do you want to cut weight or gain muscle. With the low amount of calories you are getting you are generally going to be more cutting then bulking up.

As long as the fat you are getting is good fats I forget what they are called but i know to stay away from saturated and trans fat. You want to eat things like olive oil, nuts, and i think a few other things. Stay away from fried junk and you're good. If you want just have a handful of almonds or walnuts or something and it will get you right up to that 20% and you are set.

LuckeyBear wrote:


Actually I want both. I haven't worked out since high school. I was an athlete then, but then I went to college. Too much beer. Too much pizza. And I got soft. Very soft. I want to lose the fat (I have quite a bit of it in the belly region), and gain muscle.

Thanks for your opinion. I appreciate it.

Although it can happen, P90X is not a bulking routine. The less calories you eat the harder it is going to be to maintain the muscle you have, let alone bulk.

Your fat goals are good. 40g is what I shoot for. However, there are good fats that you absolutely need. Nuts and olive oil are high in good fat. If you eat those every day it's going to be very difficult to stay under 40g of fat. As long as your eating good fats it's okay to hit 20% fat intake.

Your carb intake is incredibly low. I wouldn't have lasted a week on that amount. But, as long as you have the energy, whatever works for you is best. Just don't think carbs are "bad". Good carbs are complex carbs. You want to eat those instead of stuff with sugar in it, like desserts, potatoes, breads and pastas made from enriched (white) flour.

Maintaining a very low calorie intake has it's potential longterm drawbacks. After a while your body will get used to whatever your calorie intake is and slow your metabolism to adjust. This is inevitable. So when you do start eating more it's going to be easier to put on weight. I did not eat a whole lot under the amount of calories I needed to maintain weight. I was usually no more than 500 calories below. Sometimes I even ate a little more than what I was supposed. I think this is why I was able to lose weight the whole entire 90 days even while increasing my calorie intake. I think my metabolism didn't slow down, or very little.