P90X Nutrition Plan Explained

Understanding how the P90X Nutrition Plan works is the first important step.

Watch this video by Dave where he explains how the P90X Nutrition Plan is designed to teach your body its relationship with carbohydrates—and how to fuel for performance over the long haul.

Having a qualified P90X certified coach that has completed the program numerous times is super important to your success. It gives you someone to bounce ideas off of and a key source of motivation, tips and helpful strategies.

We are are BOTH P90X Certified Coaches—you can learn more about us on our coach profiles:

• Coach Dave
• Coach Monica

We know the P90X Nutrition Plan inside and out and have created a simpler system to help YOU maximize your results.

We use a performance-based assessment system that goes beyond what the number on the scale says and digs into your goals. We also help keep you accountable and motivate you.

Take advantage of our FREE P90X coaching and go sign up NOW!

Your next step is to download our P90X Nutrition Plan Excel file below.

The document contains several steps at the top that will help you determine how many calories you will need on a daily basis and what “level” of the program you will be on.

As explained in the video above, the P90X meal plan progresses from a high protein/low carb diet to a more balanced, but slightly higher, carb diet.

The daily trackers on the spreadsheet represent a mid-range of the various program “levels.” You will need to customize it to your level, which is why we didn’t make it a PDF file. This next video explains the spreadsheet:

It’s important to understand why the P90X Nutrition Plan changes.

One word—GLYCOGEN

Glycogen is your primary fuel source. You burn more of it and, therefore, need more of it when you’re working at high intensity.

The P90X workouts are hard! In the beginning, you’ll likely be struggling to keep up. You most likely won’t be elevating your heart rate to an anaerobic state during Chest & Back. However, as you progress through the workout, you’ll get stronger and you will work harder.

You’ll also burn more glycogen, so you’ll need to replace it. This happens when you intake carbs, which are converted into glycogen and then stored in the muscles and liver. However, the muscles and liver have limited storage capacity. When they’re full, the overflow goes into the fat cells and that’s why we need to limit carb intake early on. You’ll get your carbs back, but you are going to have to earn them.

The Excel file also has a daily tracker you can use. We suggest printing and laminating if and keep track of your portions each six days. (Or, just print a new page every six days.)

The daily tracker also has boxes for water and supplements to help remind you to DRINK WATER. It will help you stay accountable and on target to being an outrageously fit YOU!

When you download the P90X Menu Plan files below, you will see that each section tells you how much a “serving” is. For example, a 3 oz chicken breast is one serving of protein. If you eat a larger (9 oz) chicken breast, then that is (3) servings of protein, and you would check (3) boxes in the protein category in your daily tracker.

Gaining an understanding of your caloric needs is very important. Many people comment that the calories required for the plan appear very high.  This video explains why the calories are calculated the way they are calculated:

Below you will find three different P90X Meal Plans for each phase of the P90X diet. Download these documents, starting with Phase I—Fat Shredder and take a good look at the foods in the food plan.

This was especially important for us because we wanted healthy kid-friendly meals. Although our kids’ taste palate expand all the time, eliminating  items off the list make the list more realistic. This is a good shopping list for us.

Once you have an understanding of how many calories per day you get and the portions of each food group, you’ll want to consider how to break those up in your day.

Monica shot this video describing how she uses the Phase I, Level I of the P90X meal plan during her day:

P90X NUTRITION  PLAN (PHASE I) SHOPPING LIST (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WORD DOC)

In proteins, for example, we removed ham slices, soy burgers, soy cheese, tofu, turkey bacon, veggie burgers, and veggie dogs. The simplified list was AWESOME for menu planning and for food shopping at the store.

Family dinners have always been my biggest concern. Obviously, our children are not restricted to portions like (1) carb, (2) proteins and (1) veggie.

A delicious turkey meatball or lean ground beef meatball with a home made marinara and a cup of whole grain pasta makes a delicious meal for the whole family.

Corn tortillas and shredded chicken is another delicious meal for the family. Depending on your specific level and phase, you can add black beans and brown rice.

Stay tuned to get more menu ideas that are both completely P90X-compliant and YUMMY!

P90X NUTRITION PLAN (PHASE II) SHOPPING LIST (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WORD DOC)

This is just the second phase of nutrition in the P90X Meal Plan.

P90X NUTRITION PLAN (PHASE III) SHOPPING LIST (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WORD DOC)

This is the last phase of nutrition in the P90X Meal Plan.

Shakeology was not included in the original P90X Nutrition Plan, because it didn’t yet exist—P90X2 and P90X3 were updated to include it.

At 140 calories with 15g-17g of protein and 17g-19g of carbs, it was hard to place it. With Beachbody’s advice, we characterized Shakeology as a snack in our P90X resources.

Most people add fruit and peanut or almond butter to Shakeology, which alters the carb count, may add extra healthy fats that keep the body satisfied longer, and/or increases the calories. Take a moment and look up the caloric and macronutrient (protein/fat/carb) values of your additions and track them accordingly…you may be looking at a double snack. (We’ve updated the Excel document below to reflect this change.)

If you are interested in giving Shakeology a try, click here to get a sampler pack with one pack of each flavor.

NOW LET’S BRING IT!!!