P90X Nutrition and Calories

Day 9/90 | 10% Complete
Today I'm going to write about my nutrition habits on P90X and what I've learned that works and doesn't work. A complete and awesome Nutrition Guide is shipped along with P90X. This guide goes hand in hand with the P90X workouts. It breaks down what calorie range you should be in, calories burned, what percentage of fat, carbs, and proteins you should eat, and even what foods you should eat. I'll tell you specifically what my goals are here. First off, since I am fairly thin to begin with, I am not looking to lose weight. Instead, I am looking to stay lean and build muscle. Therefore, I will follow the guide for Phase I Level II. The formula in the guide tells me that my nutrition level is 2400 calories per day.

150lbs x 10 = 1500 RMR
1500 RMR x 20% = 300 Daily Activity Burn
1500 RMR + 300 Daily Activity Burn + 600 P90X Workout Burn = 2400 Energy Amount
2400 - 2999 = Level II (you should eat 2400 calories per day)

For phase I of the program, I should eat 50% in protein, 30% in carbohydrates, and 20% in fat. I am trying to eat foods that are very low in saturated fats, and I am trying (although it's hard) to keep my sodium to a minimum too.

If you want to follow the Nutrition Guide exactly, it actually spells out every meal for all 90 days, giving you really good recipes for soups, sauces, breakfast, lunch, and dinner! It's one of the best nutrition guides I've seen anywhere just because it's so easy to follow and allows you to pick and choose what you want to actually do.

I follow the guide pretty closely, but it's very hard and time-consuming to follow it exactly every day. Some of the recipes have lots of ingredients and take time to make. Making lunch almost every day is somewhat of a chore for me because I never used to make my lunch and bring it to work. When I go out to eat, I try my best to continue following my guidelines. For lunch, if I go out I might go to Boston Market and get 8oz Turkey with sides of mixed vegetables and red potatoes (and skip the cornbread!)

One final note is that I found a great website that allows you to track your eating throughout the day so you know exactly how much you are feeding your body. The website is SparkPeople. You can use it because it's free and it's made extremely well.