Im 28 yo male who has been doing the p90x program for last 5 weeks. I follow the program exactly including the diet program. I am currently eating a decent amount of carbs and protein. All healthy food, not cheating at all! I take supplements (protein, creating, lucine, amino acids, nitric oxide) and daily vitamins.

I have not gained nor loss any weight. I have started to notice that my workouts have gotten weaker... lifting less for less reps. I know that its not that I over pushed myself. I have been slowly progressing through the weights and have not done any additional exercise other than what the program says.

What is going on with me?

How tough are you finding the workouts? How close to your maximum are you lifting?

Can you post your stats and your diet in detail? I'm less interested in the supps than the food.

The workouts are getting tougher! I started slow and then began to up weights, however, I feel like I'm going backwards now. I lifting almost same as when I started 5 weeks ago. No where close to max. Getting frustrated as other friends who eat worse than me and work out for less time are getting better results!

Stats: I'm 28 yo male, 6'00" 183 lbs

Food: I eat 5 times daily. 3 meals, 2 snacks. I try to eat everything, but sometimes portions are too much! Following is my food for the week:

Day 1:
Breakfast:1 cup oatmeal, 8 oz skim milk, 1bsp protein powder, 1/2 oz raisins
Snack: Protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: Shrimp pasta pomodoro
Snack: 1 oz cheese with 6 crackers
Dinner: 9 oz extra lean burger, 3 oz low fat cheese, baked potato, salad, 1/2 cup of berries

Day 2
Breakfast: Whole wheat bagel, 8 oz cottage cheese, orange
Snack: protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: Grilled chicken burrito with a V8
Snack: Carrot sticks
Dinner: 9 oz fish (usually salmon), rice

Day3:
Breakfast: Pear and granola muffin, 8 oz nonfat yogurt, 1 cup strawberries
Snack: Protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: Tuna roll up on whole wheat tortilla
Snack: 3 cups light popcorn and string cheese
Dinner: 9 oz chicken, V8 and rice

Day 4:
Breakfast: Protein shake
Snack: Protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: Turkey breast sandwich, whole wheat toast, lettuce, and V8
Snack: Non fat yogurt 8oz
Dinner: 9 oz salmon, asparagus, baked potato, salad

Day5:
Breakfast: 2 whole wheat waffles, banana, cup of skim milk
Snack: Protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: Chicken pita
Snack: Pretzel
Dinner: Tuna salad on whole grain roll

Day 6:
Breakfast: 6 egg whites, breakfast potatoes, 8 oz cottage cheese, orange juice
Snack: protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: White bean and tuna salad
Snack: Celery and peanut butter with dried fruit
Dinner: 9 oz Italian turkey meatloaf, baked potato, salad,

Day 7:
Breakfast: 3 pancakes, blueberries, skim milk, protein powder
Snack: protein bar and recovery drink
Lunch: Chicken caesar salad
Snack: peanuts and 3 cups popcorn
Dinner: Filet mignon, rice and a V8

Do you track your food with something like fitday? Any idea what your daily calories are? You haven't listed amounts or weights, so it's possible you are simply eating bigger portions than you need. The fact that you have trouble finishing suggests you are eating more than you need.

If you commute to a desk job, it's possible your calorie requirements are lower than you think.

Are you going to bed on time?

For the amounts and daily calories, I used a formula the book gave me to figure out how many calories I should be intaking. I do have the amounts of food, just didn't list them. I was hoping to start doing more cardio this week, however, don't have the energy to do so. I don't really consider myself overweight, however, was hoping to build a bit of muscle and overall strength and stamina from this program.

I am a police officer who works varied shifts, mostly second (2p-10p) and third (10p-6a) with some power shifts (7p-3a). I try to get at least 6-8 hours sleep daily

You should go get your blood, urine, and saliva tested to see everything that is going on in your body. You need to get your body pH, alkaline reserve, oxidative stress, electrolytes, carb metabolism, protein metabolism, cellular respiration, hydration, liver stress/toxicity, kidney stress, adrenal stress, inflammation, and anabolic/catabolic biomarker levels checked. Obviously you are doing everything right, and something could be going wrong inside your body that you have no clue about. I know all of those words and what not probably do not make sense, but I can help you get those checked if that's something you want to do.

Hi jnye1981,

It's only been 5 weeks!

Its natural for your body to break down... Its like a roller coaster moving up... Or like a upward moving stock market...

Its imposible too just keep getting stronger without getting weaker (http://muscle-balance-training.com/blog/688/keep-getting-stronger-without-getting-weaker-during-the-5th-week/)...

Just like its impossible for the stock market to keep going up without having a pullback from the daily, weekly, monthly highs...

Nothings wrong with you... Your just pushing yourself to the edge and that's exactly what you should be doing! :)

You can see good strength gain after 1 week, even 3 weeks, but after four weeks, your body is going to test you... It is going to be a bit weaker and you need to keep on pushing through it like the Little Engine That Could...

It might take a full month for you to bounce on the way up again, but that's why it's a 90 day program and not a 5 week program...

Keep it up and you will get there... Just as long as your pushing yourself...

This "down time" your body is going through will be temporary... And the harder you work yourself now, they higher you will "bounce" into a better fit you... I've seen it time and time again... Plus gone through it myself plenty of times... Its all peek and valleys..

One more thing... It matters what time you actually eat your meals...

Don't eat within 2 hours of a really intense workout...
I'm talking your sweating your A$% off workout!

When you have food in your stomach, all the blood rushes to your stomach to digest your food as opposed to your muscles and lungs where you need them to perform at your best!

Not even and especially a protein shake... Protein shakes are meant for after your workout..

Find a way to eat right before the 2 hour mark...

You should be working out hungry... Unless its yoga/flexibility day... Then on the "rest" days, you can have that protein shake before the workout...

But if your doing Kempo! You need your body prepared...

I hope that helps...

Committed to your fitness success,

Jeff Gordon Parker
Index of / (http://www.MuscleBalanceTraining.com)

Well, now its been 8 weeks for you.. ;)

You could be overtraining just because your muscles are not sore does not mean that you are not over training, your nervous system also needs a rest. Are you trying to gain weight? Why the diet, eat heaps of anything and train less but train hard. And remember what program works for some people might not work for another, everyone is different, maybe your muscles are made up of more slow twitch fibers than fast twitch so maybe a different type of training is needed.