The “Portion Plan”
The P90X Nutrition Guide has a meal plan and a portion plan. For those who don’t like the specific meals spelled out in the nutrition guide (which is most of us!!) there is the handy dandy portion plan where we can eat what we choose but fit it into the little check-boxes so that at the end of the day we have consumed the proper amounts of proteins, carbs, fats, dairy, fruits, veggies, and snacks. Great idea, right? Well, sure … if you want the type of good results others get with P90X.
But what if you want the absolutely jaw-dropping results that teamRIPPED peeps are getting with P90X?? Will the portion plan cut it? NO WAY!!!
I personally can’t stand the portion plan. It’s incredibly inaccurate, and to get max results you simply must be accurate. Why do I call the portion plan inaccurate? Simple! Take this example:
Suppose I make a shake consisting of a scoop of whey protein, a scoop of Shakeology, a banana, a spoonful of natural peanut butter, and some skim milk. Is that shake a “snack”, a “protein”, a “fruit”, a “dairy”, a “veggie”, “carbs”, “fats”, or all 7??? Who the heck knows!!! It’s got a little of everything! But not a whole serving of any one thing.
And the same goes for nearly every food — it’s not purely protein, or purely fat, or purely carb. When people who have been doing the portion plan actually spend the time to track their percentages, they often find they are WAY off of the target percentages that the guide suggests. For instance, on the fat shredder plan, you should be getting 50% of your calories from protein. You can follow the portion plan religiously and think you are right on, but plug your foods into a nutrition tracker like Fitday, Myfitnesspal, Tap&Track, etc. and you can find that instead of 50% protein, you are at more like 35% protein (which is more in line with a phase 3 bulking diet than a fat shredder diet!) Yikes!
So don’t ask me what category your shake should fall into unless you want an earful from me LOL! I highly recommend putting in some effort to tracking what you eat. There are several advantages to nutrition tracking:
1) You will get MAX results, in true teamRIPPED fashion!
2) You aren’t a slave to a meal plan or a set of boxes to check. You can eat a variety of foods, suited to your tastes.
3) You can learn the real habits of healthy eating that will carry over for the rest of your life instead of having to follow someone else’s diet (whether it be mine or the nutrition guide meal plan).
4) You will know how and when to adjust your nutrition based on specific goals you have for your health and fitness.
Trust me, it takes some work at first to get used to tracking your percentages and calories, but once you’ve done it for a few weeks, it’s second nature. I have been doing it for over 2 years now, and it’s great. I do it in a matter of seconds, with a simple click on my iPhone app, and I know exactly where I’m at every day, any time of day, toward my daily nutrition targets.
So for those of you still trying to get results with the meal plan or portion plan, it’s time to go beyond … into the elite level of teamRIPPED Legends! It’s time to start nutrition tracking! Learn all about how in these articles:
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37 Responses to “The “Portion Plan””
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Great post! I followed the portion plan for my first round of P90X and still had great results but found it extremely archaic, confusing, and inconsistent. I wish I had found teamRIPPED and your nutrition plans way sooner!
Here’s to hoping P90X2 has a much better nutrition guide!
I felt the same way about the P90X nutrition guide( just wasn’t accurate enough for me). Myfitnesspal or CalorieCounter iphone apps are great ways to track your calorie intake. The magic happens in the kitchen NOT the workout room. Your nutrition has to be dialed in 110%.
I couldn’t agree more. It wasn’t until I started tracking my calories with MyNetDiary on my iPhone that I realized how off my f/c/p ratio was. Although I was eating healthy foods from the p90x guide, I was consumig way too much fat. Thanks to tracking my calories I have never looked better or been in better shape.
Agree. I use myfitnesspal as a great database…although most of these apps do not track one thing (unless I have missed it) is Effective Carbs
E.g. Fiber, Sugar Alcohol etc are not retained in your body and hence do not affect blood sugar. But just looking at total carbs then does not tell the real story.
Would have loved to have an Effective Carb counter as well
Hello Coach,
Wanted to pick your brain. I’m sure you loved food just as much as I do, before you started the program (so you can answer with experience lol). Did you kinda wean yourself into smaller portions when you started? Or just jumped right in and sucked it up. Should I start so body demands better food? Get used to being hungry at first? Just wanted to know what thoughts you battled with when you started. Thank you.
So true about the percentages. I remember the 1st time I tracked nutrition in myfitnesspal, and my protein wasn’t even close to 50%. Thanks coach!!
Awesome write-up Coach! I started using myfitnesspal and realized it’s way much better and easier.
On a side note, I used to track veggies also, but realized later that it’s probably not the best thing to do. Now I just add calories (somewhere between 150 – 200 for veggies) and don’t count those carbs towards my daily intake. Stuff like Oats, Potatoes, etc. go into the tracker.
Hey Robert. I sucked it up and got right to business. Weaning myself never worked before, and I knew that if I was going to take this seriously, it required a 180 degree turnaround and sucking it up while I broke the cravings. Read my article “hungry” if you are feeling hungry after making the change in diet.
hi coach i am following your nutrition tips and their are giving me great results in just a week and a half so far….. im following a 2000 calories diet but… im not reaching 1000 calories from protein..,, almost kind of 936 eating 7 times a day but im perfect on the fats like 43 grams of fat… but on the carbs im eating 706 calories and my limit following the fat shredder plan should be 600 calories. having a 100 calories more from fat will affect my fat loss?? my maintenance level is kind of 2800 calories.
Hey Ricardo you are close man. Try increasing the serving size on some of your protein portions, and then decrease the carbs or cut out a portion of carbs and you’ll be there.
So true coach,
I dropped the portion plan months ago. I’ve been tracking my food ever since. Takes some getting used to, but it eventually becomes second nature.
Bring it!!!!!!!!11
Wait above post confused me,, we should be trackin grams of each with the conversion per day. Not actual calories of carbs of prot,n fat,
same thing correct? Sorry if dumb question
Wayne,
You ever read any of the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson??? I’ve been doing that plan for a couple of months now and it’s by far my favorite way of eating.
Thanks for this great post. I really struggled alot with the nutrition, until I found teamRIPPED! You are the nutrition king. One question. Is it true that you will slow your metabolism down if you are consuming to few calories? According to a web calculator, my BMR is down from around 3000 to 1800 (since dropping 45 pounds). Does 1400-1500 cals seem too low for someone doing P90X weighing 185?
Coach,
I’ve been using the tap and track app you recommend but have a couple of questions. First, is the daily calorie alotment it gives you (based on age, activity level, etc) meant to represent the calories needed to maintain current weight or is that the number of calories meant to lead to the 1-2 pound per week weight loss you enter when first registering into the app? In other words, do I need to still create a daily calorie deficit or is it built into the calorie alotment it gives you. Secondly, when entering my exercise, should I choose regular or high intensity? I know that I definitely “bring it” at a high intensity but generally their numbers seem very high. I feel I would be better off underestimating my calories burned. Your thoughts?
Yes Mike, they are the same thing. You need to know how many grams of each (proteins/carbs/fats) you are eating each day (which will also tell you how many calories of each you are eating each day).
Hey Jordan, I’ve looked at the primal blueprint but I don’t see any research backing it up. Seems a bit random to say meats are okay, and so is dairy, but not oats, etc. If I am leaning in any direction right now on a diet shift, I am considering a vegetarian / vegan approach (which I may experiment with in the next round).
Hey Greg, that’s okay, but don’t go any lower than that, or the metabolism could slow down more.
Hey Randy, don’t go with the defaults that tap and track gives you after you enter your info. Manually adjust it so that the calorie goal each day is what you want it to be (for me it was 1900-2000 during round 1, 3000 in round 2 and 3, 3600 in round 4, and back to 3000 in round 5).
And don’t mess with inputing exercise. I don’t “add more calories” to my day to make up for the exercise. I already know I’ll be exercising and I already know what I want my daily calorie intake to be.
Awesome post Coach!!! The portion plan is DEF confusing!!! Thank you so much for laying it out for us in such simple terms that obviously will yield GREAT results!!! Good stuff man!!!!
Hey Coach, I just got the Tap & Track app yesterday and added in a sample day of my diet and you were right, I’m way over on carbs and way under on protein (I’ve been following the portion plan). I think I can correct it by taking a few things out and subbing more protein in, but I wanted to know your opinion about counting the recovery drink. If I don’t count it, my fats, proteins, and carbs are basically spot on. I know you didn’t count it during your first round, so would you say this is a wise thing for me to do and just drink it on top of my 1800-1900 cal fat shredder diet? Or should I still find a way to include it in my daily calories?
Hey Aaron, I’d say that it’s okay to drink it in addition to your 1800-1900 plan, especially since that’s what I did and it worked out pretty well :-)
Excellent, my thoughts exactly :) I can’t believe how much I’ve learned from this site over the past few months… I’m ready to finally make the drop into single digit body fat %. Thanks for being such an awesome coach!
Hey coach,
so are you saying that as long as we keep our fats, proteins, and carbs at the fat shredder percentages that we can stray from the foods that are in the food plan? By stray I mean eat different veggies that the ones they have in the meal plan or different fruits. I am doing the 1900 calorie diet and am eating very healthy, but I would like to eat certain fruits or veggies that are not listed on the nutrition plan. Thanks!
Yes Tommy! By tracking, you can sub other items and be just fine (in fact better) than following the random plan!
Coach, thanks! I will be applying these tips starting tomorrow. I can’t wait! :)
Soooo, if i ever needed a ipod touch it’s now! I was so in the dark,before this post, and maybe still gray.But thanks for shedding light on this subject.Math was never my strong suit.
Thanks….
ps can i get a simple break down of this thing call nutrition, or is there such a thing? lol….
Hey Craig, a simple breakdown doesn’t exist unfortunately LOL! That’s why we have to spend so much time figuring it out. But as you know from your own results, as we dial it in to suit our body we will see better and better results. Keep bringing it!
Can i switch b/w the portion plan and meal plan? For instance, can I do a portion plan one day and a meal plan another?
Hey Shalanda, I guess so, but if you read the article above you’d know that I don’t like either of those if you are looking for max results.
Thanks, no i am really just wanting to lose about 15 lbs and tone back up. thanks.
Hey coach, just wondering if GoLEAN cereal, skim milk, and chocolate milk are all essentially good foods to take down while on p90x( specifically the fat shredder phase)
Hey Stephen, GoLean is great! I eat it often. Skim milk is okay as well, although I stay away from dairy myself. Chocolate milk is obviously NOT a good choice, as the chocolate flavor is nothing but sugar and artificial flavors.
Coach, Ive been on phase one for a few days now and was wondering about a few questions:
1. Do I HAVE to split meals up to 5-6 meals? EX:today i had one meal accidentally at about 16-1700 calories…so I only had about 500 calories for the rest of day which was basically my protein shake..So I haven’t eaten since 5pm..Is that safe and okay? I feel as if Im burning more fat though this way even tho I’m starving! Maybe takes time to get used to?
2. Is it okay to chew gum when hungry? such as 5 Gum?
Ive been into the program only 5 days and have already seen my abs shaping up and fat being lost but is this an okay idea? Sometimes I have to have bigger meals because I have a packed schedule ahead out of the house with no time to eat… but I usually dont eat 4-5 hours before bed tho..
THANKS
Hey Stephen, you need to split your food intake somewhat evenly throughout the day. The meals can be bigger than the snacks, but having 3/4 of your daily calories in one meal is not good. So try not to repeat what you did today and plan a little bit ahead.
You can absolutely chew sugarless gum. No worries!
Congrats on the progress so far. Keep it up!!
Coach,
I am totally confused at how to calculate my food intake, protein, fat, carbs. I am currnetly deployed in Afghanistan and am limited on what foods come with labels. Any suggestions on how I can eat properly without the labels??
Thanks,
MAJ P
Hey Bob! Sure man, even without labels you can get really close by using a nutrition tracking program on either a phone (if you have a mobile that you carry) or on a computer. Start by reading “nutrition tracking” in my Nutrition All In One section = http://teamripped.com/my-nutritionsupplements/nutrition-all-in-one
Hope that helps man! Be safe and God bless you for your service!