Calories Needed to lose weight

[Runningman1956]

I am 53 years old and weight currently 227 pounds I am on a 1200 calorie a day diet and I have lose 26 pounds in 3 weeks of starting P90X my wife is 54 121 pounds and has not lost a pound in three weeks she is currently on 1200 calories a day also what are your thought on where both of us need to be on calories :)

[Dave]

Hey there - Thanks for stopping by.

Take a look at this post and the Excel calorie calculator: http://bit.ly/XrUfS

I think you'll find that you are running a huge calorie deficit, which can cause rapid weight loss, but isn't very healthy. You burn about 600 calories on average with P90X, so that only leaves you 600 to power your daily functions, which isn't enough. How long have you been doing this? The major concerns are that your body may slip in to starvation mode and start storing calories as fat. I would recommend that you run a deficit, but I think 1,200 is a bit extreme.

At 227 lbs the required calories under the P90X plan are 3,324. I would not recommend going under 2,000, and something closer to 2,500 may be better. I hate to give you this advice, because the calorie deficit is clearly working for you to lose weight, which is a good thing. I would just be concerned that the calories are so low that you could cause problems in the long run. Your body needs lean protein calories to build muscle and muscle is what burns fat.

1,200 is probably too low for your wife as well. At 121 lbs, the calories should be closer to 2,000. I'd recommend about 1,500.

With all this said, the important thing to focus on is not the amount of calories, but what type of calories you take in. I would recommend that you follow the P90X Nutrition Guide, as you'll find in the post above. Getting lean protein in your diet is the key to jump starting your metabolism. Once you get your body to burn calories efficently (it can take a couple of months), you can bring back carbs and eat more calories. For example, I'm 167 lbs, and I eat 2,000 calories a day. I was eating 2,600 for a while to bulk up a bit, but found that I didn't like the extra bulk at about 175.

Also, make sure you have an accurate picture of the calories you are taking in. You can sign up for a free account with www.sparkpeople.com and they have an excellent calorie tracker. When I started, I was really surprised at how many calories I was taking in vs. how many I thought I was taking in.

So give that some thought and let me know if you have questions.

Dave

[Sterling]

I am 53 years old and weight currently 227 pounds I am on a 1200 calorie a day diet and I have lose 26 pounds in 3 weeks of starting P90X my wife is 54 121 pounds and has not lost a pound in three weeks she is currently on 1200 calories a day also what are your thought on where both of us need to be on calories :)

How tall are you?

[cypressc]

I have a question... I am still on Power 90 (the original) and have two weeks left to go. I am consistently burning 650 calories or more in the Sculpt and 700 or more in the Sweat Tapes.

Does this mean that I can eat 2500 calories a day and still lose weight? I've been doing 1500-1700 for 70 days of Power 90 and have lost weight but seem to be at a plateau. Am I eating too little? Does the P90x spreadsheet work for my regimen given the calories I am burning?

[Sterling]

I have a question... I am still on Power 90 (the original) and have two weeks left to go. I am consistently burning 650 calories or more in the Sculpt and 700 or more in the Sweat Tapes.

Does this mean that I can eat 2500 calories a day and still lose weight? I've been doing 1500-1700 for 70 days of Power 90 and have lost weight but seem to be at a plateau. Am I eating too little? Does the P90x spreadsheet work for my regimen given the calories I am burning?

What is your sex, height, weight, age?

[cypressc]

What is your sex, height, weight, age?

I'm 39, 5'11", 185 (down from 200). Been stuck at 185 for about 4-5 weeks. I'm eating about 1700 calories a day and burning 650-750 on the Level 3-4 workouts and really bringing it. Aside from Power 90, I am stuck in a chair on a computer all day long. I'm eating right: protein bars, tuna sandwiches, chicken and brown rice, ground turkey, lots of eggs, etc. I'm not a veggie guy so I supplement vitamins and fiber.

It seems to me that I am in a safe zone of losing about 1.5 pounds a week, but am I plateauing because of the workouts (going to start your Power 90 Master Series 8-week short course to get ready for P90x next)? Am I not eating enough calories?

[Dave]

I'm 39, 5'11", 185 (down from 200). Been stuck at 185 for about 4-5 weeks. I'm eating about 1700 calories a day and burning 650-750 on the Level 3-4 workouts and really bringing it. Aside from Power 90, I am stuck in a chair on a computer all day long. I'm eating right: protein bars, tuna sandwiches, chicken and brown rice, ground turkey, lots of eggs, etc. I'm not a veggie guy so I supplement vitamins and fiber.

It seems to me that I am in a safe zone of losing about 1.5 pounds a week, but am I plateauing because of the workouts (going to start your Power 90 Master Series 8-week short course to get ready for P90x next)? Am I not eating enough calories?

1,700 sounds just a tad low, but if you have the energy to get through the workouts, then I don't think I'd make any drastic changes there. 1 to 1.5 pounds per week is a very healthy weight loss rate. Keep in mind that the scale only gives you total weight. It is likely that you are losing fat and gaining muscle, which can make the scale pause, but will cause your body to shrink.

You'll love the Masters Series. It is a great program. I know you've seen the 8 week plan and a lot of people are having success with that. Keep in mind that you may burn more calories doing that than P90. It's hard, I can tell you that.

Dave

[cypressc]

Yeah, I can't wait for the Master Series. Even though I love the 3-4 workouts (and have finally mastered them), they are getting a little stale. Looking very forward to your eight-week course.

I still have enough energy for workouts at 1700 -- barely. Every now and then I am bonking in the last 4-7 minutes, so I think I'm on target. I guess I'll just have to wait for 90-day pics and let the photos do the talking. Thanks!

[chrisiclow]

I am 5' 6 ish currently 154 lbs the most I have weighted since I had my last child...I'm starting P90x Monday and with my husband the calories they are wanting you to take in seems crazy... 2400 for me He is 6' 205lbs 3000 for him we both want to lose weight as well as tone is this the right calorie intake or should we scale back a bit to lose the weight?

Also does anyone know of any websites with recipe ideas for this "clean eating plan"

[FitRunner]

Chrisiclow - P90X wasn't originally designed for weight loss as much as getting from good shape to great shape. The nutrition plan has you add 600 calories back in to not run a deficit. You are right in suspecting that you may want to eat less than the nutrition plan has you do if you are trying to lose weight. (Monica has also said that according to her measurements, she doesn't actually burn 600 calories in a P90X workout, but others reportedly do, so finding the right level may take some experimenting.) We're almost the same height and weight (I'm 5 ft 6 in, 155 lb) and I'm happy with eating about 2000 cal a day doing P90X. I'm not hungry and I have the energy to bring it during workouts. I'm also losing body fat, so the 2000 has a calorie deficit. (But not a lot of weight! So I'm building muscle and losing fat, yay.)

I'm not trying to see how much faster I could be losing weight. That would involve finding out the hard way what too little food is, which won't be good, and I know as long as I keep my body moving and run a deficit, I'll lose it eventually. I can be patient. I'm enjoying my stronger muscles in the meantime, though!

Teresa

[chrisiclow]

THank you so much for you help I will check out the forum you suggested in your other post...can weight to stop feeling like a slug...I did taebo for a long time but this is so different using so many different muscles. Did you go right into this or try something else first

[FitRunner]

Chris - I was a runner, but when I started P90X I was a somewhat fallen runner in that I hadn't run regularly for a few months. I defended my PhD thesis last October and I tried to keep the running up to remain sane for as long as I could, but there came a point where I needed ever half hour in every day to finish on time and the running went out the window. And then I had to move, which kept my routines up in the air, and then I got married, which kept things still irregular... by the time I got settled in a new place and could make a new routine it was January and I was running at paces like (:eek:) 16 min/mile. UGH!

I got back into a running routine and just swallowed my hurt runner's pride and then started P90X February 1. I'm less worried about weight than I was in January, because all the fat folds (sorry if this is TMI for anyone) that had appeared as part of my "thesis gut (http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=343)" are gone. I feel like this is my body again.

[chrisiclow]

Never TMI trust me I have them 2 and I can stand it I am truly to the point that I can stand to look at myself my legs rub together we I walk YUCK! However everyone is always saying what are you talking about you are not fat but I can feel it im tired sluggish and can not fit in pants that I could wear just 6 months ago! Im just having a really hard time getting started you know you make excuses why...then I just say tomorrow tomorrow...well Im gonna make myself monday! Thanks for all of your post it is really helpful to know someone else is going through the same thing and has gotten results

[FitRunner]

Well, when so many people are overweight or obese, overweight is more or less normal in the sense that it is unremarkable. I've been told I was "skinny" even when I was overweight and that's just not true in one sense, but true in another. I was skinny in the sense that I didn't need to shop in plus-size stores and could see plenty of people bigger than me around. However, in the senses that mattered - how I felt and what it said about my lifestyle - it just wasn't true. I had never had those fat folds before and for some reason they really bothered me, as if my body wasn't the one I'd been in all my life. And being considered skinny by some but not being able to do things I'd always loved like skiing well because I was so out of shape, well, what good is that? For me, function is first and beauty second.

It took me some time to realize that you can't compare yourself to others to see if your lifestyle is healthy enough, not with respect to either food or exercise... Junk food is everywhere and you can drive everywhere too. There's an ocean of excuses when you look around you, you can find 7263549173456 people who eat worse and exercise less. What helped me not use them, other than having the realization that I can get pretty overweight without anyone really getting in my face about it, was that I stopped thinking about what others were doing (or not) and just focused on myself and what I felt and enjoyed. I liked running, even very slowly at first, because I could see myself getting better at it. (Who doesn't like getting better at something?) That made me feel good about it while I was getting into the habit of running. After the habit was made, it got a LOT easier. But a key part of that was that I found something I enjoyed doing even when I wasn't losing lots of weight fast and even when I was only getting better slowly.

Keep us posted on Monday! I'm so excited for you!

Teresa

[CyberFitnessGuru]

As long as you take in less calories that you exert daily you will lose weight.

The numbers depend on your calorie output.