My P90X Diet
Jun 22nd, 2010 | By Coach Nancy | Category: Diet Reviews, Nutrition & Weight Loss, P90X Diet, P90X FAQ
Hi Everyone,
I get a lot of questions about diet.
- How many calories should I (you) eat?
- Why the 40/40/20 ratio of carb/protein/fat for calories?
- Can I (you) change the 40/40/20 ratio to something else?
- Do I (you) have to measure & count everything?
- Do you have sample menus?
- How much or what can I eat on a cheat day?
So it’s time to address these issues in a way to enable you to make the correct choice for you. Diet is at least half the battle to getting a great transformation. It’s more than just eating the right number of calories to lose weight. For maximum weight loss you need to eat the right amount of calories with the optimal macronutrient compositio between carbs/protein/fat to spark your metabolism and burn the most fat off your body – especially around your waist!
Calories
Women: If your goal is to lose weight while you build lean mass then I recommend you set your daily caloric intake at 10x your body weight in pounds. Thus if you weigh 155, you would eat 1550 calories each day.
Now if you are at a weight lower than 140, then keep your calories at 1,400. The reason for this is there is a minimum amount of calories your body will need to complete the very challenging P90X workouts at the right intensity to produce changes in your body. Underfeed your body and you’ll end up lacking the right level of energy to ‘bring it’. Completing the routines without high intensity just won’t give you the dramatic changes I got – the dramatic changes you want. So eat enough calories if you are 140lbs or lighter.
Conversely, there is a maximum amount of calories I recommend. Don’t eat more than 1,800 even if you weigh more than 180lbs. Your body really doesn’t need more than 1,800 even if you weight more. The point is to eat what your body needs for maximum nutrition and energy output. If you weigh over 180, you’ve been eating way too many calories to get that heavy and you need to take proportionately bigger action to get your body to respond.
Finally, if you are breastfeeding, add 300 – 500 calories a day to your calculation from above based on the number of times a day you breastfeed and how much breast milk your body is manufacturing.
[Note: P90X is not an exercise for pregnant women. Also wait at least 6 weeks after delivery before starting P90X.]
Men: If your goal is to lose weight while you build lean mass then I recommend you set your daily caloric intake at 12x your body weight in pounds. If you weigh 190 then your calorie allotment for the day would be 2,280 or roughly 2300 calories.
And as is the case with my recommendations for women, there are minimum and maximum amounts of calories you may have regardless of what the 12x equation calculates. Even if you weigh less than150 lbs, eat at least 1800 calories. And if you weigh more than225 lbs, don’t eat more than 2700 calories.
For men who don’t need to lose weight but want to add mass, start with a diet of 15x your weight and make adjustments from there as need be. You may need to eat more than 15x your weight in pounds.
Cheat Days
One day a week, add a cheat day. On cheat day you eat more than your daily allotment. In fact you eat whatever you want! And you may eat as much as you want.
The point of a cheat day is three fold. First it gives you a break so you can eat things you may have been secretly craving during the week. Knowing there is this cheat day that is, at most, only 6 days away, makes staying the course easier.
Next, by the time you are done with cheat day, you will feel fat, bloated, sluggish and wondering why you ate that crappy food. Over time you will come to appreciate that eating clean makes you feel more energetic and have clearer thinking as well as help you lose weight. This is part of committing to a new lifestyle something that is doable over the long run.
Third there is a metabolic advantage to having a cheat day. Your body gets confused on how many calories you are going to be taking in. It actually won’t process them all. So your body won’t get too efficient at living off of the lower calories which can happen for people who don’t have cheat days.
It is true that you’ll gain weight on a cheat day. But most of that will be water weight. The rule is that you don’t weigh yourself more than once a week and do that the day before or the morning of your cheat day before you eat anything. By then the water weight falls off and your body is back to a calorie deficit situation and weight comes off at a slow to modest pace.
What You Eat
With the exception of your cheat days, I always recommend that you eat your calories in a 40/40/20 ratio of carb/protein/fat. The reason for this is to make sure your body has enough protein to repair the micro tears that occur as you lift weights. It is this micro tear process that actually causes your body to add lean mass (muscle). After all the effort you’ll put in during a P90X resistance workout, you want to make sure you get the most out of it by eating properly.
Eating only 20% of your calories from fat is a very low fat diet. Many of you will struggle a bit with this at first. The key will be to cut out all fast food, most prepackaged foods and focus on lean cuts of meat and fish using only very modest amounts of good oils like olive oil for salad dressing and perhaps to rub your meat or fish with before you use a seasoned rub for flavor and grill or broil your meat.
You will also find you’ll have reduce your carbs from what you have been eating. While this is not a low carb diet like Atkins, it is carb managed. If you are over weight, I can almost guarantee that I watched what you ate I’d tell you that you eat too many carbs and, worse yet, the wrong ones.
Eat only 1 serving of starch/grains a day. This will be a huge adjustment for many of you. But the problem with starches (potatos) and grains (breads, cereals, baked goods and more) is that they tend to get converted into sugar too quickly, spiking your blood sugar levels up and causing your body to produce excess insulin just to manage it. Excess insulin causes your body to horde fat, not burn it. And worse yet, you’ll carry a lot of that fat around your gut. I keep a list of the bread products I buy at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/members/forum/#topic/Bread.htm. These products are lower calorie, low carb and high fiber.
Your carbs should be mostly fresh and steamed veggies, fresh fruit and 1 serving each of dairy and starch/grains per day. No fruit juice. I know this is very different from how you eat now. But the way you eat now isn’t working.
Invest in some high quality protein powder. I use Shakeology which is a meal replacement shake and I use Myofusion protein powder for more protein during the day. The reason for the protein powder is that it’s hard to maintain the reduced fat target you have and get enough protein unless you use protein powders.
Can I Change the 40/40/20 Ratio?
If you want to burn fat and add lean mass you want to use the 40/40/20 ratio. This is optimum for losing weight – especially belly fat. Any other combination is less effective.
Once you hit your ideal weight, you may play with the ratio a bit.
Why Measure Everything?
If you are more than 5lbs overweight, you are eating the wrong foods and too much of them. I’ve already addressed what you should eat above. Now consider the fact that you need to retrain you mind on what is proper portions. Reading labels and even using a small food scale is invaluable. Once you do this for a couple weeks, you’ll know what a proper portion is.
I Need Help With Menus
I get a lot of requests to show what I eat. Realize that each of you is likely to have different needs than I do.
If you are stuck on how to set up your eating plan each day, I know of no better source than the menu planner tool that Beachbody has. This is available to all club members along with other benefits like 10% off of all future purchases. If you’ve not joined club membership yet, I strongly recommend it!
>>> Sign Up for Club Membership Now <<<
Click here to read my article on the menu planner at Beachbody.
Hi Coach Nancy,
Your website is such a great resource–thanks! I’ve read most of your posts and comments but I’m afraid I still have a question about the nutrition plan, so I apologize for the redundancy. I’m rather petite–5’3″ and 108 lbs. at most–so I’m really unsure as to how many calories I should be eating per day while on the P90X Classic program. I’m not overweight by any means, but I would like to lose some weight in my trouble areas–my hips, butt, and thighs. I eat healthily in the first place, but I’ve begun to track my habits to make sure I’m within the 40/20/20 range as you suggest.
However, 1400 calories per day seems like a lot to me. I’ve read that you suggest your body weight times 10 but not if you’re under 140 lbs. However, it seems like a pretty huge jump to go from 1080 calories (although, (I’d out eat that number in a second!) to 1400. I find that I hover around 1200. What do you recommend? I’ve been taking one scoop of protein in a glass of lowfat chocolate milk after the weight-lifting workouts, which helps add to my calories, so it’s not that I can’t eat that many calories (I’m a grazer so I’m constantly eating something), I just worry it’s a bit too much given my size. Also, I’m not yet so in shape that I can comfortably get through all of the workouts. I usually get through 75% of Plyometrics, for example (although I’m getting there!), so I’m not sure I “deserve” the extra calories just yet.
Thanks for any advice!!!
Angie
Hi Angie,
Thanks for stopping by and asking good questions.
The answer to your questions has to start with changing your mindset because you have some beliefs that are holding you back. And it’s not your fault you developed this mindset – all around you are women’s magazines, the diet industry and many other media outlets and advertisers who are giving you wrong messages. Over time, you absorb these and assume they are truths. It’s a surround and overwhelm strategy that works for them but doesn’t for you.
Now let’s start at the beginning. At 5’3″ and 108 lbs, you don’t need to lose another pound. You may even discover if you open your mind that you need to weigh more. You can add muscle and lose fat and move the scale up and find out that your body measurements are smaller and you are curvier in the right places. There are women bodybuilders that are your height or shorter, weigh up to 20lbs more than you and I will bet in a side by side photo shoot would be judged with better bodies. So please let go of your fear of weight and start focusing on body measurements and how good you look naked. If you are not measuring yourself once a week, start now. Also take pictures every 30 days. The pictures will show you just how far you’ve really come.
Next, You are doing P90X now and eating 1200 calories a day so we would actually compare the 1400 to 1200, not 1080. The point in developing rules of thumb, like the 10x calorie target for women, is that it’s easy to communicate and easy to remember. But the downside of these rules of thumb is that people just want to use them 100% of the time and take them to extremes where they actually don’t work. That’s why I draw the line at 1400. Your body needs a certain amount of calories just to survive and if you don’t feed it enough (in the proper nutrient ratios), you can’t grow muscle and you won’t even burn fat because your body will go into survival mode. In survival mode your body starts to shut down and gets very efficient at burning minimum calories. While this is a pretty cool trick if you ever get stranded on a deserted island and can’t find much food, it’s not what you want in today’s world. Not only do you need to eat enough calories, you need to have a cheat day so really confuse your body and keep the metabolism working properly.
You don’t tell me how old you are but I’m going to guess that I have a good 15 years or more on you. I bring this up because despite having a significant age disadvantage and a lot more weight I was lugging around when I started and a chronic neck injury, I was able to to Plyo all the way through without thinking I was going to vomit my 2nd time through it. Easy it wasn’t but I am not relating to your comment about getting comfortably through it. This brings me to my last point. Either you are not working this program intensively as you should or you are too weak from not eating enough calories.
Many women just hold back on exercise. Some fear they will bulk up (won’t happen) and others just have been listening too long to the misinformation out there about lifting light for toning and doing hours of moderate intensity exercise to burn fat. The truth is that if you want to burn fat, you need to workout as intensely as you possibly can. What those advocating the moderate instensity aerobics totally miss is what happens during the 24 hour period after you finish exercising. High intensity exercise burns more sugar than fat while you do the exercise (versus the moderate to low exercise with burns more fat than sugar) BUT it burns more calories and more calories from fat during the 24 hour recovery period that follows exercising.
As for bulking up, where does that fear come from? The truth is that women only have fractions of the testosterone and HGH hormones that men have. Those hormones are the ones responsible for mens’ ability to bulk up. The only women who bulk up are spending countless hours in the gym on specially designed programs and eating to build muscle and take supplements to boost their testosterone and HGH levels so they can put on more mass. Moreover, if you were to see these women not pumped up for pictures, you would not typically see them as all that bulky.
The thing I like about P90X or any properly designed exercise routine is that you can keep growing with it. You never get through it ‘comfortably’. I don’t have many days I don’t wake up and feel some muscle soreness. That’s because I’m still trying to grow and maintain my muscle so I have to challenge it every workout. Challenging muscles leads to muscle soreness.
So, if you are not sweating profusely after every workout and feeling a good measure of muscle soreness from the resistance training, you are not working hard enough. If you are reaching this state but are struggling through Plyo a couple weeks into the program, you either need more calories or have some underlying medical condition that likely needs attention.
So forget about your weight for a week or two. Take your measurements and eat properly and see how far you can push yourself. Trust me, the confidence and personal power you’ll develop by doing so will far outweigh how great you feel when people compliment you on your fantastic figure!
Nancy
?Hi Coach Nancy,
Thanks so much for your response. You’re right–I need to take the focus off the number. I should know better. Besides, I need to gain weight to gain muscle anyway. I just wanted to make sure that 1400 calories wasn’t too many. I’ve been really enjoying the weight-lifting portions of the DVDs–the arms and shoulders workout is awesome! I do struggle with the cardio workouts. I just think I’m in poor cardiovascular health. So those are the workouts I find myself pushing to get through. I’ll keep up the calories and the workouts.
Thanks!
Angie
PS- good guess about my age. I’m 28.
Hi Angie,
Since you are having trouble with the cardio part of this, you could likely benefit from replacing the Kenpo with a HIIT (high intensity interval training) routine. When done correctly, these are short workouts (15 – 25 minutes) that can not only send your body into hyper drive when it comes to fat burning, it can and will help your cardio. I’m currently working on a video now (actually more than one) for HIIT routines but I’ve got a super simple one posted at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/members/m/articles/view/Muscle-Building-Fat-Blasting-Workout-Program-1.
Nancy
?Hi Nancy,
I am 5 days into P90X Classic, and have worked hard to adjust my diet according to Tony Horton’s requirements (I’m 26 years old, 5’7 and 145lbs). Most of my weight is in my belly, and I’m really worried that I’m going to do all of this work and not lose the fat. If I continue with P90X and switch to 1400 calories at 40/40/20 as you suggest, will I be able to gain lean muscle and tighten up my tummy at the same time? I’ve read that for women, the anabolic (building) and catabolic (burning) modes are completely separate – that unlike men, we can’t build muscle and burn fat simultaneously. Your results are great – exactly what I hope (an plan) to achieve. Is this likely to work for me if I give it my all? Or will I end up with new muscles underneath my flub, just pushing it out further?
Thank you!
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth,
You’ve got some wrong information. First, no one can be in both an anabolic state and a catabolic state at the same time because in an anabolic state you are building muscle and in a catabolic state you are wasting muscle. So they are opposite states. Catabolic does not mean buring fat.
Secondly, while it’s harder for women to lose fat and add muscle, the processes work similar to what men experience – it just takes us longer. To build lean muscle you need to get your body to do a few things so let’s take a deeper look while still keeping things simple:
Hormonal states can be influenced by many factors. Obviously there is sex – men have loads of testosterone, IGF and Hgh which help to grow muscle and burn more fat. Women have only a fraction of these hormones but have far more estrogen and progesterone which is why we are the ‘softer’ sex. Age is a factor for both men and women because as we age there is a decline in both sexes. For men it’s more of a steady decline but for women we have an abrupt adjustment phase which is menopause. Even before menopause we have peri-menopause which causes us to have wide swings in hormones. But beyond those factors, rest, diet and exercise all impact your hormone levels.
So to grow muscle you need to work your muscles hard, get them the proper nutrition and rest for optimal hormonal levels. It’s a simple ‘work, nourish, rest’ pattern. Now what you need to know is this is pattern is only tangentially related to the total calories you consume. It’s not how many calories but whether you eat the right portions of the macro nutrients. Macro nutrients will impact your hormone levels.
The good news is that the right mix of macro nutrients taken in at the right levels can provide an environment in the body where you can burn fat and grow muscle. That’s what my guidelines do. Eat according to my guidelines and perform the Classic routine working at the low rep range where you lift as heavy as you can while still maintaining good form and you will grow lean muscle and burn off fat.
Unfortunately the P90X nutrition plan does not work for women who want to add muscle and burn fat. It is too many calories for us. A big tip off is the fact that it is not differentiated between men and women. Obviously a man at 5’7″ who weights 150lbs would look entirely different in terms of lean mass and fat composition than a woman who stands 5’7″ and weighs 150lbs.
I clearly added muscle and burned fat and I did it at the same time. Forget the bad counsel you got from another source and follow my guidelines and you will see huge improvements.
Nancy
P.S., I want to point out that I added muscle and burned fat at 50 (I’m now 51) and had entered menopause. This means it was far harder for me than it would be for you at 26 which means you are young with much better hormonal levels to begin with. So lose excuses and just ‘bring it’ – you’ll be so happy you did.
?Hi Nancy
I’m 50, 5’4″ and weigh 150 lbs. I would like to get back to 136 for starters and then we’ll see. My question for you is would I consume the 1500 based upon the formula of weight x 10 since I’m 150 or would I calculate the formula based upon the weight I wish to be … which in this case would only be 100 calories less since you also advised not to go below 1400?
Thank you, Kathleen
Hi Kathleen,
You calculate your diet based on your current, not desired weight. So start with 1500. That calorie target with the 40/40/20 carb/protein/fat macro nutrient ratio will be a big change. Trust me if you follow that, you will lose weight. Once you drop to 140, then drop another 100 calories and hold.
Nancy
?Nancy,
Wow, I cant believer your 50!!! you look amazing. You just pushed me to start P90X, my son has the DVD’s so I have no excuse. I was feeling down because I am 46 and menopausal- past peri and I have gone to Weight Watchers twice and have not lost an ounce. I don’t even know I got to your blog. I have two questions. The first, shakeology- is that lactose free? I am lactose intolerant , but would love to try the shake. Also, I hope this doesn’t sound foolish. I weight 177, so should I start at 1770 calories? So should I take in 40% 708 calories in protein and 708 in carbs and 354 in fat. Thank you for posting this information so women like me (menopausal) don’t feel like this weight is a lost cause.
I look forward to hearing from you soon. I am so excited.
Lily
Thanks again Nancy. I am re-reading over your articles on nutrition info and diet so that I have a basic plan to follow from day to day and I just went to http://www.myfitnesspal.com and plugged in the calories and ratios so that it will be that much easier for me to track my day.
My knee is healing and so my workouts should be better, harder, more consistent this next 60 days and I am very excited about the outcome.
Awesome Katheen! Just do you best, even if you need to make modifications, and the results will come. I can’t say often enough that I made tons of modifications when I started. Even today I make a few!
Nancy
?Thanks Lily!
You do start at 10x your current weight so 1770 would be correct. You are correct in your caloric breakouts between carbs/protein/fat. Do remember you get a cheat day once a week where these rules don’t apply. On cheat day you eat whatever you want without regard to calories or macro nutrient ratios.
Shakeology does have whey protein isolate in it which is a higher grade of whey protein than whey protein concentrate. Research shows that “individuals with lactose intolerance should select a pure whey protein isolate, which has less than 0.1 gram of lactose per tablespoon (20 grams). This is less lactose than the amount found in a cup of yogurt and research has shown that most people with lactose intolerance have no trouble taking this very small amount of lactose. Individuals with lactose intolerance should avoid whey protein concentrates as they usually contain lactose and the amount can vary greatly from product to product” (copied from http://www.wheyoflife.org/faq.cfm#19).
If you make me your coach I would be happy to send you a sample of either the chocolate or greenberry so you could try it out. To make me your coach just click on this link (it’s free):
Make Nancy My Coach
Thanks!
Nancy
?2 quick things I meant to add:
- The amount of whey protein isolate in Shakeology is 15 grams which is less than the amount referenced by the wheyoflife.org research so the lactose would be even less than what they reported.
- I’m menopausal as well. Hate the hot flashes but intense exercise and eating right have really helped. Moreover, I was menopausal when I started and had the big gut and was able to totally lose it. I actually need to update my pictures again as I’ve shaped up even further than the last pictures show. So even for us meno-gals, a total body transformation is possible.
?Nancy,
I just clicked on make Nancy my coach. Did you get my info. I would love to try the Shakeology. I am so happy that I found this board. I have been struggling with my weight for quite awhile and was told that I have to embrace this “new” body. Looking at your results, I can see now that I too can achieve the body I want- it is possible. I had a friend tell me that i should schedule a consultation with a plastic surgeon because that would be the only way I could loose my belly fat. Thank you Nancy for sharing your story and opening my eyes to the possibility that I too can be sexy strong….LOL…
Lily
Thanks Lily!
Your friend suffers from misinformation. In our society of ‘quick fixes’ we forget what is really possible. We women do tend to accumulate belly fat but as you can see I lost mine and I did it at 50 when I had started menopause. I keep getting leaner as time goes on and I find this ‘control’ over my body the best gift I have ever given myself.
Nancy
?Nancy,
I’ve completed round one of p90x classic and am in the middle of a p90x/Insanity hybrid, but my belly fat remains. I had noticeable results in my arms and upper body, and my lungs and legs feel stronger. My diet is very much in line with yours so I’m not sure why I haven’t seen much of a change in my midsection. I started at 112lbs, and am down to a comfortable 95lbs. I’m 5’0″ so 112lbs felt heavy on my small frame. I’m 40 y/o, carried all three pregnancies low, so my lower abs stick out and haven’t responded to the hard work I’ve put into reducing it. Maybe it’s a matter of doing multiple rounds and being very patient? I get through the lower ab exercises in ARX just fine so I know the underlying muscles are strong; I just can’t figure out why the stuff on top won’t go away. Your thoughts? Could it be something as simple as changing up my diet?
I wish I had terrific results after round one like you did. I love your progress!
-Kat
Hi Kat,
At 5′ 0″ and 95lbs, I am surprised you feel you have an ab problem. One thing you need to consider is if you are suffering from a bit of what I call body dismorphia. By that I mean are you sure that your lower abs really stick out? There is some very modest protrusion of the lower abs that is perfectly natural.
Now is you are certain it is not a case of body dismorphia, then your issue is either poor diet choices or poor form when doing exercises for your abs. When exercising your abs on the floor, be sure your lower back is flat against the floor, not arched. And as for diet, while you may be eating fine overall, too many simple carbs (think breads, rice and potatoes) will cause problems.
If you’d like to send me a photo, I could get a better idea of what to recommend. My email is pressplayfitness @ gmail.com (I put spaces in there so it’s not scraped by spammers).
Nancy
?