Weight Watchers vs. Weight Lifting - What Do I Eat?

When I first started P90X, I was still following Weight Watchers and eating my 20 points per day – which was roughly 1150 calories. I saw the p90x nutrition guide that comes with the program and saw that my recommended calorie allowance was anywhere from 1800 to 2200 calories a day. What the heck?! No WAY was I going to start eating that much. I worked too hard counting my points to lose those 30lbs or so. Plus, I figured, it’s simple– take in less calories, burn more calories working out, I’ve GOT to lose weight, right? A month into p90x I was still counting points and didn’t lose a single pound. And I was busting my butt 6 days a week! It was discouraging. The more I started reading on calorie consumption, the more I realized that the people at p90x were right – I NEEDED to eat more. I was starving myself on 1200 calories a day – and if I worked out and burned another 500 calories, I was really only at a net caloric intake of 700 calories! Even without vigorous exercise, the 1200 really aren’t enough calories to live on. When you go into such a substantial caloric deficit, your body thinks that it’s being starved – and holds onto everything you take in for dear life, storing it as fat. Our bodies are really smart like that – if it thinks a famine is on the way, it’s going to prepare by storing as much as possible. I finally let go of my point counting, and started eating more. I started monitoring my caloric intake (I use a site called the daily plate), and am now eating anywhere from 1600-2200 calories a day. Right away, I dropped 4 lbs. My metabolism was re-started! I am now eating enough to properly fuel my workouts, build muscle (which in turn burns calories – 25x more than your fat does!), and be healthy. I eat anywhere from 5-7x a day, which may sound like a lot, but isn’t too bad with a little preparation.

Here is a sample day:

• 6am - workout
• 7:30am - Breakfast – 1/4 c dry oatmeal, 3 egg whites, 1t flax seed oil, 1 scoop protein powder
• 10am - Snack 1 – 1c greek yogurt, ½ c berries, 1T flax seed
• 12:30 - Lunch – 3c baby leaf spinach, 4oz chicken breast, 1T balsamic vinegar, ¼ c goat cheese, ½ c mixed berries, 1T sliced almonds
• 3pm - Snack 2 – String cheese, apple, 2T peanut butter
• 5:30pm - After work snack – ¼ almonds, protein shake, red pepper slices, ¼ c cottage cheese – just something to keep me going until dinner so I don’t completely overeat
• 7:30pm - Dinner – 4 oz protein (chicken, salmon, tilapia, turkey), 2c steamed veggies, ¼ c brown rice
• 10pm – Snack (sometimes) – ½ c almond milk with 2T chocolate protein powder, ¼ c cottage cheese with 1T sugar free preserves, protein shake – I still have the mentality that I need to have something “sweet” at night. I should really be calling it quits after dinner, but some habits are hard to break.

I make all of my chicken breasts on Sunday – pop 6 or 7 in the oven and cook them for an hour, and then put them all in baggies so I have them ready for the week. It takes me all of 10 minutes each night to prepare my lunch for the next day, and my dinners are not extravagant enough to where it takes me more than half an hour to prepare/cook. I limit alcohol as much as possible. I didn’t drink for almost the entire p90x period – it’s nothing but empty calories and slows down your metabolism – so why bother?


Two GREAT books to read in regards to diet and caloric intake:

• The Clean Eat Diet by Tosca Reno. Your body is probably 10% genetics, 10% gym time, and 80% what you put in your mouth. You can work out til the cows come home, but if you’re not eating the proper foods, you’ll never see the results. This books explains what to get rid of and what to add into your diet. I notice a HUGE difference when I eat clean.

• The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler. This book is great to explain just why your body needs so many calories to survive and how many calories it takes to build a pound of muscle. Muscle burns fat, so to build muscle, we need to eat more (and eat the right kinds of food), in addition to working out. This book changed the way I looked at caloric intake.