It wasn’t until I saw a picture of myself on 2005 that I realized how overweight I was. At that point my weight was 207 lbs. While I’m 5’11”, because I had little to no muscle mass, all the extra weight was mainly body fat accumulated around my torso area.
Not until 2008 I finally decided to give P90X a try after going online and looking for success stories from people. At that time, there weren’t too many BeachBody coaches, which made it easier for me to find legit reviews and stories without the constant impression I was being pushed to buy something and sign up to become a coach too.
Although since 2005 I had been working out at Bally Total Fitness, not really knowing what I was doing had only helped me gain some muscle and drop from 207 lbs to 194 lbs which was my weight right at the time I started P90X.
After successfully completing the program, I had lost a total of 30 lbs and for the first time in my life I had been able to see my abs. There is an incredible feeling knowing after I had literally killed myself for 90 days pushing my body to its limits and beyond, at times feeling I couldn’t possibly keep up with the workouts because of how out of shape I was, fighting my mind to never quit, getting my workout done no matter what time it was and how tired I would be after work, that couldn’t be compared with any other feelings I had experienced before. And from that moment on I knew this fitness program worked as promised.
With that said, I now want to specifically review and go over the program, so those who might be interested in doing it have an idea of what they will face.
P90X, which stands for Power 90 (days) eXtreme, is not a program for those who are new to working out. It is recommended to start with any less intense program in order to adapt your body and get a certain fitness level to get you ready for this monster. At the time I started the program I was lifting weights at the gym, and on my first day of doing P90X I had to sit down for 30 minutes with white lips, cold ears, sweating cold thinking I was about to pass out. I literally never felt that way in my life before, and that was just after 20 minutes of the one hour workout. For more than a week I wasn’t able to finish the each workout because my body just couldn’t do it, but as frustrated and disappointed I was at myself, I kept pushing until I was able to complete each workout.
The program comes with a nutrition plan, which is designed to help you with your energy levels as well as to help you lose body fat. The first time I did the program I did not follow the plan, but I was lucky enough to eat properly and achieve the amazing results I did. During my second time doing the program a couple of years after, I followed the plan but I modified it since I couldn’t agree to eat over 2,800 calories per day. For me, eating around 2,400 calories per day was more than enough to gain some muscle mass and still keep my body fat percentage low. Personally, I think their formula suggests way too many calories per day, and I’m sure, after talking to several people who have done the program, most of those who have achieved great results have adjusted their calories to a lower number.
Conclusion: P90X is the real deal. There is no question about it. The program targets the whole body, it requires minimum equipments and can be done in the comfort of your home if you have the commitment and desire to do daily workouts that last one hour minimum. Tony gives you plenty of instructions and tips to modify if you need to based on your fitness levels and health conditions. Tony gets super annoying after having to listen to him doing the same jokes for 90 days, but once you know how to do the exercises you can just mute him and listen to your own music. Although anyone could try it, most never finish it once they discover the workout is indeed extreme, and have no preparation to finish the program. Last but not least, like with any fitness program, the most important part to achieve your fitness goals is your nutrition. Unless you pay attention to what you eat and use free tools like MyFitnessPal (whether you use the app or website), Nutrition Menu, Live Strong’s MyPlate, or any other tool to track your macros/calories, you will waste your time and see no results.
