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Way to bring it bro, awesome results, your pics alone motivate me to push myself even harder. Did you follow the nutrition to a tee? I am trying to eat right as much as I can, however I am a cop and I work constantly and often have to eat out, and I find it hard to find healthy places to eat.

Phenomenal results. Thanks for posting them.

Did you follow the nutrition plan in terms of calories recommended and protein/carb/fat breakdown, including bumping up the carbs to 60% in Phase 3?

I have to admit I question your starting weight/BF % though. No way did you look like 28% BF starting out. Maybe 18% at worst. Are you sure you measured accurately?

Sorry, but the numbers just don't add up. If you were 28%/200 lbs and now 8.8%/178 lbs that means you lost 40 lbs of pure fat (56 lbs fat to 15.6 lbs fat, or -3 lbs per week) and added 18 pounds of pure muscle during 90 days (144 lbs lean body mass to 162.4 lbs lbm, or +1.4 lbs/week). From everything I've read that is physiologically impossible. Since there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat, that would mean even if you're operating at a 1000 calorie/day deficit (which P90X does not recommend) you could lose at most 2 lbs fat per week. Even in that scenario, I wouldn't think it would be possible to put on >1 lb muscle per week at a 1000-calorie per day deficit, since muscle growth requires a caloric surplus .

I'm not trying to take away from your results - the pictures speak for themselves. I'm just trying to reconcile what you posted with everything I've read, since your numbers seem almost unreal and I want to keep my expectations realistic for my own P90X cycle.

Thanks for the comments. The only reason I posted them on here was to hopefully provide motivation to those that are considering the program or have started and fell short of their goals.

Without question, the nutrition component was the hardest concept to figure out. But, that all changed after the first 30 days. Once I finally transformed my thinking to eating for fuel rather than for satisfaction and feeling full, it was not as difficult as I anticipated. I followed the nutrition plan to the letter in the first 30 days by using the meal planner and shopping list on teambeachbody.com. Once I hit the second phase, I basically used the same shopping list but mixed up the actual meals and portions to suit my caloric needs.

Once I hit about Day 50, I pretty much eliminated all refined carbohydrates like bread, pasta, and rice (yes, even brown rice). These foods were basically replaced with an abundance of fresh vegetables. In other words, dinner for me always consisted of about 8 oz of protein such as broiled chicken (with plenty of seasoning), pork, fish, or beef (flank steak usually) and as many vegetables I could ingest...love me some broccoli.

All of these changes came after reading The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson.

Oh, and Shakeology for breakfast everyday...even when I was traveling. That variety of shakes you can make with that stuff are endless.

I have to address coolhwhip comments on the body fat. You are probably right about the incorrect BF number of 28%. That number came from my bathroom scale using Electronic Impedence Analysis. I think we all know the margin for error on those things is pretty high. However, the final 8.8% number came from the doctor using bioelectrical EIA with the electrodes hooked up to your wrist and foot. Believe me, I questioned it too but they felt confident it was accurate.

Anyway, thanks for comments. Let me know if I can clarify anything about the nutrition aspect of the program. Prior to the X, I never even bothered to read the nutrition info or worried about my protein to carb ratio so this is all new to me. I'm far from an expert but I know what worked for me.

I bonked many times in the first 30 days especially while I tried to figure out my nutrition needs. Since I workout in the evenings, I had to really make sure I had the proper amount of carbs without going overboard. A pre-workout banana seemed to really help.

Hah! I was wondering when someone was going to comment on the furless chest from Day 60 on. Probably should have put a disclaimer in my original post saying "P90X does not make you less hairy".

Cutting out the starchy and refined carbs came after reading The Primal Blueprint constantly. It totally changed my way of thinking about carbohydrates and sugar. I'm not a harcore PB'er as he calls it but try to incorporate most of his dietary principles into my everyday nutrition...even Post X.

I counted calories for about two weeks from day 50 to 65 and found that I usually was around 2100, on average. Once I got in the new lower carb routine, I would guess I was in the 100-150g per day range...but I certainly wasn't obsessive about it.

The staples of my diet were lots of nuts(mademias), full fat Greek yogurt, avocados, steamed veggies, and plenty of lean protein. Didn't really do many protein shakes other than a few Protein Plus bars now and then but only when necessary...and Shakeology for breakfast everyday.

Does that help at all?

Thanks for this link. I spent about two hours reading through that website last night. Then today I started adding up all the carbs I was eating between Clif bars, bread, chicken marinades (wow), and the occasional bowl of cereal. I think I've figured out why my current weight-loss plateau has lasted six weeks. Even though I'm good on protein, and I've been sticking to about 1900-2100 calories a day (burning 750-900 calories every night on Power 90 Master Series), but I'm eating way too many carbs.

Today I am going to try and only eat 50-100g of carbs and see how that feels. Does that sound too low for a 185lb. guy? I really want to get to 170 (down from 205) and have been stuck at 185.

Thanks again - your pics and this thread have been a serious inspiration to me. I am approaching Day 120 in my lead-up to P90X and feel like the info I've gotten from this thread will help me get over this plateau period. Cheers and enjoy Cabo!

PS - got any larger photos that show the changes in your face? My wife can't believe how different you look.

Glad to hear it. Just remember, the nutrition thing is mostly new to me so I am far from an expert. So I guess the point is to find what works for you and stay disciplined.
Let me know what you think of the book. Mark Sisson knows his stuff but sure a lot of people disagree with some his ideas.

Nate... Holy cripes you got ripped! I am not sure if your "mane" was hiding it in your 30 day pics but man the improvement from 30-60 is crazy! I'm not quite at the point of shaving my chest but it'll get there

I read through The Primal Blueprint as well as a few of the Paleo diet books. My body responded great to the low carb eating. I would say 75% of my carbs were from veggies and Shakeology (I drank it on cardio days, mainly). I think I mentioned it in my email to you but if phase 1 I dropped 10 pounds(about 100-120 carbs). In phase 2 I only lost 6 pounds. However, in phase 3 I went down to 20-40 carbs and dropped 12 pounds! This round I'm definitely staying low carb and I can bet thats why you got soooo ripped.

Nice work Nate!