Reaching Goals

It's been a few weeks since my last resistance workout in Round I of P90X but my body has adapted to the rigor of these workouts as if no time had passed. In fact, I am making tremendous strides in my push-up and pull-up performance. I'm already making 2-5 more reps since last week in both sets. I'm not sure why it is except nutrition. I assumed the heat would keep me from making these types of strides when I workout in the garage but it really hasn't affected me that much with a swamp cooler and two fans running catty corner. In any case I'm making gains in strength. I've even kept my weight down to 170 lbs. even though I'm not focusing on weight loss.

I "keep pushing play" no matter where my head space looks like that day. It's a way of life that I don't know if I could do without. I've made tremendous gains even though my wife feels that I'm getting too small. She's used to me being around 190 lbs. I explained to her that with my daily caloric intake of 2100-2400, pushing hard every workout, lifting big, and eating clean there is no way I can be getting too thin. Thin suggest lack of muscle mass and from my pics I'm sure anyone will be able to see that I'm applying muscle mass in all the appropriate areas. What I do know is that if I were to lose my muscular gains, I would have to have at least a 500 calorie deficit. I would not only be burning up my surplus of calories but I would also be subtracting from my muscle mass. This is typical in woman who do P90X who do not see any gains throughout the entire program because they use P90X as a weight loss plan and have a dramatic calorie deficit. Their body burns calories like a furnace on a cold winter's day and then they run out of calories. The body begins to take it from their muscle. Word to the wise, Eat the proper amount of calories your body needs to run with effectively!

Here is a link to find your basic caloric needs. It comes pretty close to the needs I calculated in the P90X Nutrition Plan. This Caloric Calculator can certainly give you an decent approximation for your needs:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm#

Under "Calories for Fat Loss" it states the following that reinforces what I mentioned above:
"Science tells us that 1 pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories, so a daily calorie deficit of 500 should result in 1 pound per week fat loss. In reality things don't quite work that efficiently!"

As you are strategically planning your nutrition I suggest you also document or journal your food intake. It sounds like a lot of work but it can easily become a part of your daily routine. I have a simple journal my wife got me at Borders that is specifically for nutrition. You can even develop a custom journal through Microsoft Word when you create a "new" document a window will pop up and type in Nutrition Journal, Food Diary or Food Journal and you'll have several options. If you really want to check your food intake by it's nutritional values in detail then I suggest My Fitness Pal. It's a very easy interface that has most food you find in the supermarket and specialty stores like Trader Joes (if in So. Cal):
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/