Once you've obtained your goal from your first round of P90X, you'll be asking yourself "what should I eat after p90X? This article will give you some ideas and tips on what to do after you've completed P90X. Now that you're a le...
Once you've obtained your goal from your first round of P90X, you'll be asking yourself "what should I eat after p90X? This article will give you some ideas and tips on what to do after you've completed P90X.
Now that you're a lean, shredded machine after transforming your body with P90X, it's going to be time to make some quick adjustments and move to a maintenance calorie intake so you don't continue to lose weight; heck, we might even build some lean body mass! So if you want to jump into muscle building now that you're leaner, taking your transformation in another direction, it's important that you spend at least two weeks at maintenance since this helps to ‘reset' the metabolism and give your body a break from the stress placed upon it during the intense transformation and fat loss from your initial 90-day journey. For this, you will want to continue with Week 1 of P90X and Phase III Endurance Maximizer nutrition.
If you immediately dive into a muscle building diet and continue with the P90X workout program, there is a much higher chance that you'll start to gain body fat as your metabolism is likely suppressed by about 10-20 percent from being on the lowered calorie intake. Maintenance will bring that back up to where it needs to be before shifting gears.
Here's how to move from maintenance successfully:
Increase Calories By 10 percent Every 4-5 Days In order to put fat loss to a stop, the most important thing is to consume more calories on a daily basis. This many mean jumping from the Level I nutrition plan to Level II (or from Level II to Level III). However, the trick is to do this gradually over a week or two by adding about 100 calories/day until you reach a place where you're not gaining or losing body fat (gaining weight is OK since you'd probably be putting on more muscle).
You must hit a certain weekly calorie surplus to add muscle mass while doing P90X, so by moving up a Level on the P90X Nutrition Plan, you'll already have a guide to follow that you're familiar with. If you're just looking to maintain, you'll need to slowly up your calories until you find the balance where you're not gaining weight, not losing weight, and not gaining (or losing) body fat.
Do Not Overcompensate By Adding More Cardio After completing P90X, you're going to be a lean machine and have tons of energy. You're going to feel complelled to start doubles, Insanity, and do more workouts than you did during your first 90 days. Remember that P90X alone will burn about 600 calories per day. If you add more cardio on top of it, you'll need to eat even more to sustain your gains and prevent your body from going into starvation mode. Muscle burns more calories than fat, so don't feel strange if you feel like you're eating WAY TOO MUCH. Your body needs it.
You may regain one or two pounds of body fat while moving to maintenance, but much of this will likely be lost quickly once your metabolic rate stabilizes. Consider scaling back on your cardio training slightly to allow your body a better chance to recover. If cutting back on cardio scares you, then leave your calories where they are for a week while cutting down on the cardio. Then once you see that you haven't gained fat in doing so, you can begin to start bringing the calorie intake up again.
Add More Carbs if you're low in energy After your first round of P90X (assuming you lowered your body fat to your goal levels) you'll want to stick on Phase III (Endurance Maximizer) diet. This loads you up on carbs which will help fuel your body through your workouts. You can even feel free to add additional carbs if your stomach is growling. Remember, you're in top-notch athletic shape now and you need to fuel your body. You shouldn't be starving to death, but instead putting in proper fuel to sustain your new muscles! Carbs have gotten a bad reputation ever since the popularity of the Atkins diet in the early 2000s, but fact of the matter is that healthy carbs are essential for sustaining your gains. Whole grains, Sweet Potatoes and beans (as opposed to donuts and bagels) will energize you and make your muscles pop.
