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Final Pre-P90X Thoughts

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Tomorrow I start P90X. Dun, dun, DUN! ... In my last post I was discussing some fears I have regarding the program, specifically with the calorie intake requirement. Because the workouts are so demanding, the program requires a higher calorie intake than someone who is typically on a diet for weight loss. Under normal circumstances, most women my age and my weight class would aim for a diet of 1200 calories. However, P90X requires that I consume 1800 calories. The additional 600 calories required of me will be used to burn during my workouts. Then I started getting nervous. 600 calories is a LOT to burn in ONE work out. What if I don't burn enough? Then I'll be over-eating. So, I did a little research, and I found this:

The average amount of calories burned while doing a single P90X video seem to range between 550 and 750 calories per hour. KenpoX, Plyometrics, and CardioX tend to burn more calories than the resistance based videos. Also adding Ab Ripper X to the end of your P90X workout will burn an extra 200-250 calories. The resistance based P90X videos do not burn as many calories as the others I mentioned while you are exercising. However, your body tends to burn more calories over the course of several hours after your P90X workout when using the resistance based videos. It seems that most people average 600-700 calories an hour using the P90X system. If you are overweight you will most likely burn 100-200 calories more than the average P90X user. Also, if you are small or very thin you will most likely burn 100-200 calories less than the average P90X user.

In other words, for tomorrow night's workout (Chest & Back and Ab Ripper X) I'll be burning somewhere between 850-1200 tomorrow night! How did I come up with that?
  • 550-750 calories for Chest & Back
  • 200-250 calories for Ab Ripper X
  • 100-200 calories for being overweight
Tada! That's INSANE! ... So, let me think here. *Calculates how many calories I will burn during the first week vs. how many calories I'll consume the first week - based off my meal plan and fitness plan for the first week* ... So, for my first week, based strictly on the math, I should lose 2.0-2.6 pounds. However, that's only based on the math. That doesn't take into account water weight, muscle gain, if my body goes into shock or not, etc, etc, etc.

So, I feel a little better about the added calories. Plus, after I laid out my meal plan and then determined how many calories each day was, I'm not really even hitting the 1800 mark. Most of my days are around 1400 calories. I'm really hoping this isn't going to impact me negatively. When I made my meal plans I took into account everything the program was requiring (x-amount of protein, x-amount of carbs, etc). I don't want to add in any extra food and potentially cause myself to eat too much - so for the first week at least I'm going to go with my meal plan as it is - hopefully it works out!

I am SUPER excited about starting tomorrow. I don't think I've been this excited to start a program in a long, long time. Tonight I take my measurements and before pictures though. Ugh. I don't even want to think about it - especially the pictures. But, no where to go but down at this point. And I really, really think I will *cheese* ... I'm cheesing a lot lately aren't I? ... Good sign?

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