First you eat then you get hungry

Read any P90x blog and you will eventually find a post about the how hard it is to eat all the food. So here is my token entry, but there's a twist.

That first breakfast is a real killer. For Level II your eating an 8 egg white omelet with 3 oz of cheese and 12 oz of cottage cheese with 1 cup of berries. It's almost painful eating that much. Especially since most people doing P90x have trained themselves for low calorie diets. That first week you feel like a 300 pound fat guy at an all you can eat buffet. My coworkers eyes went wide when they saw my shrimp stir fry because it looked like a meal for three. I was definitely anxious those first 2 weeks. I was right in between Level I and Level II and was wondering if I made a mistake going with Level II.

The key thing here is what your eating in the meal plan. It's a huge amount of veggies and protein and almost no carbs and low fat. So yes you are eating a ton of food but that doesn't necessarily translate to a ton of calories. The calories you are eating are all good calories from protein and vegetables and whole grains. Remember that calories are just a measure of how much energy something contains. You're bodies ability to convert a food into something useful depends on what it is (Protein/Carbs/Fat/Alchohol). Basically, to build muscle, Protein is what you want and stay far away from the alcohol which is basically converted to fat. This is why you can't just buy a bottle of vodka and be good for a week.

Well I'm almost through week three and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The first two weeks my body was definitely panicking a bit. I felt over full the whole time and was worried that I was putting on fat. Now I think my body has figured it out. I'm hungry when I should be now and eating the meals is easier. My body fat is also down about 1%. I'm also happy that my weight is slightly up, 2 lbs, which means I'm gaining muscle as well.

So my advice to you is don't sweat the first coupe of weeks. It'll be a pain but by end of the first month you should see the results. My promise to myself was to stay on Level II unless I gained over 5 lbs and had higher body fat%.