P90X After Many Failed Attempts

I've started doing DDP Yoga (http://www.ddpyoga.com/ - warning, autoplaying video) along with push-ups, squats and a bunch of stuff with a pile of dumbbells. With the help of an in-home personal trainer, I've gone from weighing 265 pounds (and getting shin splints going up a steep flight of stairs) to 215 pounds in 7 months. I took January off to rest up and give my ankles some time to relax (I broke both of them in 2000 and they sometimes hurt), and only gained 5 pounds.

Now I've added the yoga to my routine, I'll be going pretty strict on the diet starting this weekend (yes, I still drank pop and alcohol and ate chips and occasional McDonald's during those first 7 months). My goal is 190 pounds by June 1 - here's hoping!

So good luck to you, sir! It can be done :)

Hey man, thanks for your detailed feedback. You brought up a lot of good points, and I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

I am definitely going to focus a lot on my diet (substituting veggies instead of rice, eating more fish/chicken, cutting out fried foods etc). I plan on sticking to 1600 calorie intake, and I'm tracking everything on MyFitnessPal.

I do however disagree that P90X is a complete waste of time. There are tons of people who follow the program and get great results. It might not be the most "ideal" way, however it is very systematic, measurable, and goal oriented (90 days). It's also a mix of not just strength training, but also yoga, plyometrics, and Kenpo-X. In Plyometrics, you do a ton of squats. You're also doing a lot of pushups (which is an alternative to bench press).

It's overall a great workout that I can essentially do anywhere without the convenience of a gym. I plan on sticking it out and monitoring my progress. If I do get a little extra hungry, I plan to snack on healthy fruits/veggies, almonds, or drink a protein shake. Good idea about the negatives. I'm going to try that out. Thanks again for your feedback.

Sorry but P90X will NOT make you ripped. A standard barbell Starting Strength protocol is FAR superior and will stimulate muscle growth WAY more than P90x with WAY less effort.

"It shows that my BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is around 1900. That means I need to consume around 1900 to stay where I am today." - No this is wrong. You need to add your activity multiplier to get your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which is probably (assuming sedentary) ~2050Kcal/day @1900BMR.

"It also helps to note that P90X burns on an average of 700 calories per day" - This is not even TWO Starbucks cookies. What a total waste of time, it's WAY easier just to eat 700kcal less a day. Even then I would bet $1000 that a p90x workouts is not burning anywhere near 700kcal a day.

Also you added "(that means I can eat up to 2290 if I exercise)" which means that the p90x is even more useless, it's going to be your excuse to eat more, and it WILL make you really really hungry.

The good news is if you eat 1600Kcal/day you'll lose about 30 pounds (~15 pounds of fat and the ~15 pounds of water bound to those stored lipids) by the end of May, and that's with ZERO exercise. I'd drop the p90x completely. It's only going to make you really hungry and threaten the most importnat part (by FAR) of losing weight - net calories consumed.

I LOVE pullups/chin ups. Kudos for sticking with that, they're super hard at first. I'd try negatives to get you going though. That's were you get to the top of the pullup with assistance (chair, elastic band, etc), and then lower yourself on your own as slowly as you can. This will get you to full range of motion pullups/chins really fast. Once you can do 10-12 on your own, put on a dip belt and hang free weights between your legs.

If you want to get seriously ripped YOU MUST do full ass-to-grass squats and dead-lifts with the heaviest weights you can handle, and keep pushing that weight up every workout. In fact all you really need to get big is the squat, deadlift, bechpress, and chinup and eat/rest correctly. Basically buy Starting Strength book and do the program. It's incredible how well it works. I took my squat from 85 pounds to 190 in 6 weeks.

Oh, couple more things: Firstly if you're looking for something to boost your weight loss, I bet you'd see rapid results in dramatically reducing your carb intake for a few weeks. This will empty out stored glycogen in your cells, and with it LOADS of water-weight (every gram of glycogen is stored with ~3-4g of H2O). Secondly, hunger is the enemy of a diet, and protein is the ultimate weapon. Nothing blunts hunger as well as protein. If you're hungry, eat more cottage cheese, whey protein, lean-meats, etc.