Hello. Question for FA again - sorry. I posted a question earlier about my calorie intake, and you recommended that I consume about 1600 cal a day since I don't have much weight to lose and toning up and gaining muscle is my pioity. I just purchased the Fat Flush book and I'm starting the 21 plan tomorrow.

According to the book, I'm meal plan B, which amounts to about 1250 cal per day. I'm confused. Even if I go up a level to plan c it's only up to 1450 cal per day. Does the fact that i'm on the fat flush diet mean I should take fewer calories or should I stick to the meal plan B and just add a couple more snacks in to up the calories to 1600?

Please steer me in the right direction. Thanks.

It gets a little subjective here. Personally, I think you're in a position where you can skip the fat flush and go straight to the Formula for Life.

However, if you feel more comfortable doing the fat flush first, it's only a few weeks, so I don't think that will be an issue. If you're doing B and you just don't have the energy, skip up to C.

Go for it!

I'm going to go ahead with the fat flush simply beacuse my hubby needs to lose weight and it's easier to cook the same meal! I'm having trouble eating everything for dinner so I think I'll stick to B. As it is I'm really stuffed by the time I finish everything on my plate!

Thanks again!

I was in the same situation as you a few months back and Brice really clarified something for me. Leanmommy

Here was my question:

Brice...I have a Formula question...
it says that I should follow plan"A" and that just plain scares me....1,063 calories for the day. Even when I move up to plan "B" it's only 1,257 cals. Do you think I should stick with P90's guide and eat more considering I am doing these hard workouts 6 days a week? And then just use the basic principles out of The Formula cause I really do like to eat this way. I guess I just feel my metabolism has really kicked in and I am hungrier more now with all these workouts. Don't want to cheat my body of fuel...Your opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Also, for the post workout drink(4:1) can we do a solid food too? The only reason I ask, is I workout from 8:30-9:30 p.m. and my recovery drinks plus all my water has me, uhhhm, getting up all night! Can we do cereal 4:1 or a bread type thing? It needs to be high glycemic carbs right? Thanks!

Yall have an awesome day...today is day 7 round 2 for me...seeing some more changes....yippee! A friend asked me today if I was losing weight....woo hooo, that makes ya wanna keep at it!!!! Hubby was also impressed with my bicep after curling my 15 pounders for the past 2 weeks. Bye! Tori
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I will post his response on the next reply so it won't take up so much room. You should really visit his coaching thread too!

Here is what coach Brice helped me see:


leanmommy you are the only one bolded today. Do you feel special? You should. You most recent post brings up something important about the formula. Its a weight loss book. Hotmommy, er, I mean leanmommy, Tori, is already at a weight she feels comfortable with and that means she needs to look for other sources of what a good calorie count should be for her to maintain her weight or make it lean. If I recall, Tori weighs around 105 - 110 and isn't looking for a huge weight loss, just some toning. She has to eat enough calories to maintain her weight while she converts what tiny amounts of fat she might have left to muscle. She could eat just a tad less than her body requires to help this happen. She certainly doesn't want to be on "The Formula's" restricted calorie diets. So how does she find out what the right numbers are? I don't remember Tori providing her height. She did say she saw something on fitday.com that said she needed 1200-1300 calories to maintain her weight. Be careful. Fitday reports 3 kinds of calorie users: Basal (this is just existing. If you sat on the coach all day, you'd use this many calories. You use this for breathing, heart beating, making cells, digesting, etc.) Lifestyle (this is stuff you do every day like working, cleaning, watching TV, eating, etc). Activities (things you do beyond the day to day activities that might be called exercise, fishing, mowing the lawn, running, P90, SI6, whoopee, etc.) I have to believe that if Tori is being told by fitday.com that she needs only 1200-1300 calories a day either she is 1) 3 ft tall, 2) 70 year's old, or 3) she's looking at the Basal number. Looking at her pictures, I put my money on number 3. If you use Fitday, you need to look at Basal + Lifestyle to come up with an approximation of your minimum calorie needs for the day. Add the calories you use for Activities and you have your Basic Metabolic Rate or BMR.

So Tori, another way to look at this is to use the Beach Body Diet Guide. Look at the page that begins: Calorie Equation. These numbers are the BMR numbers (Basal + lifestyle) that you need. These charts are a range for a reason. Everyone's body is different. This chart says a person who wants to weigh 110 and stay that way should eat between 1700 and 2400 calories per day (this would be your BMR and includes BASAL + LIFESTYLE + ACTIVITIES). Doing P90 or SI6 could take you from sedentary to Moderate or Moderate to Active.

Therefore, if Tori wanted to lose a lot of weight she would want a minimum calorie intake of 1200-1400 calories 5 days per week and 2 days of 1700-2400 calories. Let's assume Tori is right in the middle of the range. She'd need 2050 calories to maintain her weight. Since she might be interested in losing some fat and replace it with muscle mass (to get ripped, she's already the perfect weight!!!) , she might consider dropping calories 4-5 days a week and eating her maintenance 2-3 days a week. She might even need to reverse these ratios, eat 4-5 days at maintenance and 2-3 on a 500 calorie deficit. Given she is in a maintenance mode, she can play a little to see what works for her. The beauty of it is she can drop to the next lowest plan in "The Formula" if she does gain a few pounds while she tries to figure it out.

Bottom line, Tori, if you want use "The Formula" to help you maintain your weight, which I personally do, you have to find the plan that supports the correct maintenance calorie cound and not use the weight loss charts provided. If you can provide me with your height, accurate weight, body fat % or BMI, if you know it, I can help you figure out a BMR. Based on what you've told me so far, I believe it is about 2000 calories. I would eat off plan D most of the time and plan C on the restricted calorie days. If you find you are losing weight or, more important, not getting muscle definition, you might have to go up to E and D. If you are gaining weight and it isn't muscle definition, drop down to C and B.

Remember you may gain weight Tori. Your muscles are getting stronger and muscle is much smaller than fat for the same weight. That means you could gain weight and still lose inches. Use the tape measure to tell you if you are gaining, not the scale.

Wow, I wanted that to be short and sweet and it turned into something completely different. I'm sure many of you will have questions after seeing that. Do us all a favor and post them here. I
don't mind the private emails. I actually enjoy them. The point is your questions are so helpful to so many I like to see them here too.

By the way, I'll tell you I am on 2 weeks of no calorie counting and so far so good. I am going by visual clues and experience and feeling great. Only time will tell if I have learned, after almost a year of being anal retentive about my calories, if I can do it in maintenance mode. Looks good.

My next phase will be a muscle building phase (hey, I'm a guy, I want to bulk up a tad. Clark's on my heels). I'll need to increase my calories to support it and I will have to count to make sure I am getting enough. When I do spot checks, I find I am usually under where I think I am. I'll post my exercise plan and show you today's calorie intake vs. the calories I'll need to support the bulking phase. By the way, since I'll be using beach body videos, I'll never get to Arnold Schwarzenegger kinds of proportions. I'm shooting for "Tonyland."

Quite the difference from 1 year ago where I thought I was eating just a tiny amount of food, but still not losin weight. Problem was I was eating garbage. An example, I would starve myself food wise and still drink 5-6 sodas (regular, not diet) a day. Do you have any idea how many calories that is? Then I would reward myself 1/2 hour before bed time with about 1-1.5 cups of ice cream, no whimpy ice milk for me. Between the ice cream and sodas I was consuming my required calorie count for the day in fat and sugar. All the other stuff I was eating piled on top of that. I'm surprised I didn't weigh 300lbs.

Ta ta for now. Time to stop rambling and do some work!

Brice


Hope this helps Mumof2! Good luck!!!
Leanmommy

So funny, I misread your first post and started to answer you again... I was going to point out the same ole stuff. At least I am consistent. I'll have to remember that post.

Brice

I'm new at all this stuff and I feel extremely lost in the maze.I've been reading the different threads which are all so helpful and inspiring but at the same time when it comes to food I'm at a total lose.

I've been a dancer my whole life(it's my passion) but my dance training gave my a very distorted view of food.Now that I have three children under the age of 4 1/2 yrs. and have been staying home to raise them I've gained about 65lbs. and do not know how to eat right to lose it!

I'm waiting for my P90 to arrive and want to get started on a healthy lifestlye/relationship with food...working-out hard does not scare me it's not eating correctly to get the maximum result and balance between weightloss and muscle definition.Can anyone help?I want desperately to succeed.Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dancermom

Dancermom -

It's not as hard as you think. Basically, you already learned everything Beachbody espouses when you were in 5th grade. A healthy, balanced diet with plenty of whole grains and fresh fruits and veggies.

We suggest, at least to start with, your diet be 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat. There's a diet guide that comes with your tapes that will explain that better.

If you want to read more, there's a great book called "The Formula" by Gene and Joyce Daoust. Reading that book will go a long way towards your dietary education.

Also, don't be afraid to write in with questions.

The formula book is great, but a lot of their recipes (even in the Fat Flush portion) use foods that are on Tier's 3, 4 and even 5 of Michi's ladder. I was under the impression that, ideally, you really want to stay on Tier's 1 & 2, and occasionally 3. I guess the question is am I sacrificing or stifling my results by following The Formula as opposed to Michi's Ladder?

Michi's Ladder takes more of a do-it-yourself approach to a healthy diet -- it's also a pamphlet. The Formula is a more structured guide and it's 300 pages, so it can take the time to show you how to integrate all kinds of food into your life.

Just because something is low on the Michi scale doesn't mean you shouldn't eat it ever. For example, peanut butter is a really good source of protein -- but it's really, really fatty, so you don't want to eat it morning noon and night. You can totally integrate it into your diet in small amounts -- in moderation. (Notice that it's actually a snack on the Michi food plan.) Another one in soy sauce -- great source of protein and it makes steamed veggies and rice come alive -- but you only need a little for it to work and you don't want too much because of the sodium, so you can use it it moderation. Get it?

So, you see, the two system aren't that far off. If you have the Formula, I suggest you use it. But if you're in a situation where you can't make the recipes found in the Formula, you can always look to Michi for guidence.

Thanks for your post. I've only just read it! I didn't think anyone else would post here and never checked back.

Brice's answer does help. Thanks!

I've just been trying to locate brice's thread but can't find it anywhere. Can you point me in the right dirction please? Hopefully, you'll come back to this post! Thanks.

Welcome to Brice's World:

http://forums.beachbody.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=528299664&f=3932969366&m=7992905107

You can find me here if you were looking for my P90 adventure:

My 90 day and beyond story.

Denis was too kind to post my coach thread. Thanks big guy!

Another thread about calorie counting. But it's tied more to maintenance.

My bottom line advice is don't let the confusion freeze you in your tracks. If you do The Formula Fat Flush plan (Plan A does sound low, low, low) and use the foods in the diet plans provided, you'll do fine. If you want to substiture the Michi's ladder foods in the top 2 tiers for some of the lower tier foods in Fat Flush, great. You don't have to... Make it easy, follow the Formula for the 90 days if you want to make it easy on yourself.

We can all drive ourselves trying to be perfect. I used my previous habits as a reference. No matter what I did, even if it wasn't perfect, it was 300% better than the previous unhealthy lifestyle I was leading.

You'll do fine!

Brice

My nternet has been out a couple of days. I am just now checking in. Thank you Brice and FA for sending me in the right direction! I will check out these links tonight!

Thanks again.