How confident are you that you've actually made progress in the gym over the last year?

The reality is, very few people make progress after their first year of training.

Instead, most spend years in the gym spinning their wheels, allowing a few simple mistakes to kill their progress.

So if you've been training for multiple years, but your body doesn't reflect all of your work in the gym, this blog is for you.

These are the 7 things you need to do as an intermediate to advanced lifter to start making progress in the gym again ↴

1. Follow A Progression Scheme

Without a smart progression scheme built into your training program, you'll find yourself doing the same sets, reps, and weight for months on end.

The reality of being an intermediate or advanced lifter is, we often need progression schemes built into our program to force us to get more uncomfortable, and keep pushing.

A (relatively) simple, but super effective progression scheme I love to implement with online clients looks something like this:

1. We're decreasing Reps In Reserve (RIR) the mesocycle (a 4-8 week block of training). For example...

→ Week 1: 3RIR on all sets. 

→ Week 2: 2RIR on all sets.

→ Week 3: 1RIR on all sets.

→ Week 4: 0-1RIR on all sets.

→ Week 5: Deload - 3-4RIR on all sets.

2. Use a rep range (e.g. 8-12).

3. Keep close track of your reps & load used for each set in your logbook (my clients use the TrueCoach app). The goal here is to beat your previous performance on a per set basis weekly, by either adding an extra rep or increasing load slightly. 

This progression works very well for online clients. The decrease in RIR across week allows us to use Week 1 to feel out any new exercises, and "Set the bar" you need to improve upon weekly. 

The RIR progression allows clients lots of productive time training, but we're not always so close to failure that fatigue outweighs recovery.

The pitfall the most lifters fall into when they can no longer and 5lbs to each side or the bar weekly, is simply doing the same sets, reps, and weight for weeks on end. Or, simply doing the reps and weight that feel good on any given day. 

^Both good ways to make very little progress for all your time in the gym.

This progression scheme gets clients hyper-focused on improving every set from the previous weeks performance, which is the reality of what it takes to progress as an intermediate to advanced lifter.

Now, as you can tell, I'm a big fan of this progression scheme in particular - that's exactly why I use it in my 8 Week Muscle-Building Program releasing next week (click here now to hop on the waitlist) - but this is far from the only progression scheme out there.

Your training volume (the number of hard sets you're doing) shouldn't stay exactly the same for months.

You need a smart progression the manipulates volume and intensity across a mesocycle built into your program.

2. Quit Switching Things Up So Often

The reality is, there is no such thing as "muscle confusion"... "switching it up" too frequently will actuallky kill your progress.

When you implement a new movement, it takes your body time to learn the "skill" of the movement. This is why the first few weeks of implementing a new movement, you'll see big jumps in strength - it's not that you've built a huge amount of lean muscle from last week - but your body has learned how to become more efficient at the movement (more skilled), allowing you to lift more weight, without necessarily building more muscle.

The problem is, building muscle requires fatiguing your muscle fibers to a point near failure.

And when you're "unskilled" at a movement, fatiguing the targeted muscle fibers enough to stimulate growth becomes much more unlikely, as your body & brain are simply trying to learn the skill of the new movement.

Plus, if you're always switching movements, there's no way to track progress across weeks, months, and years. It's like using a different scale every time you weigh yourself.

Using the progression above as an example, after the first few weeks of progressing a movement is when online clients really start to learn what loads and reps are needed to achieve true effective reps (the last few reps of a set that fatigue your muscle fibers enough to stimulate growth). This is where the most progress happens.

Now, this doesn't mean to never switch things up. Because we also want to be sure training programs stay engaging for clients. 

But as a general rule of thumb, you can keep all movements the same across a 4-6 week mesocycle, and should keep your primary metric-based movements much longer. The more "complex" a movement is, the longer it should stay in your training.

3. Keep A Logbook

The "why" here should be pretty apparent from the last two points.

Building the lean, strong body you want requires continuously doing a bit more work across a mesocycle, and across multiple mesocycles.

For beginners, it's easy to simple add weight to the bar every week.

For intermediate and advanced lifters, progress often looks like simply adding a rep with the same weight as last week, or hitting the same reps and load, but with a decreased RIR.

Tracking sets, reps, weight used, and RIR is one of the most valuable things you can do - since you won't be able to just add 10lbs to the bar from last week, your logbook shows you other areas you can make progress.

It also forces you to face the music if you aren't making progress, and re-asses your training strategy.

I love the TrueCoach app here. It allows you to quickly look back across your entire training history for any given movement. This is what all of my 1-1 online clients use, and what you'll be using for the 8 Week Fat Loss & Muscle Building Programs releasing next week.

4. Standardize Your Reps

All this talk of findings ways to "do a bit more" makes no difference if your form is consistently getting worse as reps or load increase.

Your should have....

1. A specified "start" and "end" point for each movement - For example, your Barbell Bent Over Rows "start" point could be the floor. The "end" point could be touching your sternum. If you're adding load and/or reps, but your range of motion for the movement is shorter than it was last week, you're likely not actually making progress. Establishing a start & end point clears this up.

2. Intra-set "breather" guidelines - Ever done a rest-pause set? You take a set close to failure, rest 3-5 seconds, crank out another rep or two, rest 3-5 more seconds, repeat. Really, although the initial set likely felt very close to failure, you can often achieve quite a few more reps by resting a bit at the top of every rep.

The problem is, it's all too easy to accidentally use this technique to inflate your training numbers.

For example... 

Let's say last week you squatted 225x8. Between the last 3 reps of the set, you rested 3 seconds at the top of the movement

This week, you squatted 225x9. Between the last 5 reps, you rested 4-7 seconds at the top of the movement.

So did you really get stronger or push closer to failure than last week, or did you just rest longer between reps?

Establishing how long and how many "breathers" will be allowed in a set is extremely helpful in standardizing this, and ensuring you're really making progress.

I like Steve Hall of Revive Stronger's recommendation of limiting intra-set breathers to a maximum of 3 per set, at a length of 3 seconds each.

3. Form standards - Similar to the above, if you're adding load or reps, but you're progressively "cheating" more each week, you're not actually building muscle. 

Simply recording form videos at least once a mesocycle (I prefer the last week before a deload) helps ensure form is up to par.

5. Get An Objective Opinion On Your Effort

The level of effort in our heads vs. the actual effort we're putting in to our lifts are often much different.

Since we do know that training close to failure is essential to muscle growth, it's important to be honest about how hard you're really training. 

With my online clients, this means assessing their logbooks and often form videos. I have a coach, who does the same form me. 

This is also why  everyone in the 8 Week Fat Loss & Muscle Building Programs releasing next week will have access to a private community, where I'll be assessing form, effort, etc.

6. Committed Cutting & Building Phases

Body recomposition - a.k.a. building lean muscle and losing fat simultaneously is of course what we all want. And it is very achievable. I see this all the time with new online clients (even advanced ones like in this client case study) .

For new online clients - even those that have been training for years - this is often the first time they've had their training, nutrition, sleep, management of life stressors, etc. dialed in simultaneously. In situations like this, we can achieve a great recomposition effect in the first 3-6 months.

But the reality is, the longer your training & nutrition have been on point, the harder it is to build muscle and lose fat at the same time.

Unfortunately, many people spend years training without ever making progress, due to always bouncing back & forth between trying to get leaner and building muscle. 

Another common mistake is simply trying to stay to lean year round.

Eating more calories than you burn in a day (although not required) is much more permissive to muscle growth. Muscle tissue is very calorically expensive, so if you body senses a shortage of calories, it won't prioritize muscle-building.

So for intermediate to advanced male and female lifters, this means that long periods of time devoted to eating more and building (usually 6-18 months) are essential to adding the amount of muscle necessary to achieving a lean, strong physique.

For a complete guide to what the building process looks like, check out Building Phases For Women: Nutrition & Training Guide and The Lean Gains Blueprint.

7. Follow A Smart Training Program

By this point, you've undoubtedly realized...

Failure to follow a smart training program will cripple your results for years.

If you're going to the gym without structured, well-thought training program, you're not going to make progress as an intermediate or advanced lifter.

Don't let another year of hard work in the gym go by without making visible progress.

Hop on the waitlist below, and get ready for an 8 week program that will help you achieve your best body composition ever, give you more confidence in your ability to program for your clients, and take away any fear that you're "not doing the right thing" in the gym ↴

There’s a huge difference between giving your clients a diet plan that gets them lean, and actually teaching them how to maintain a lean body permanently.

Look, most of your clients have already successfully lost weight at one point... because anyone can commit to following a miserable meal plan for a few months, and lose some fat.

The problem is, 95% of people regain the weight post-diet.

So if your clients are constantly struggling to maintain their results, today's blog is for you.

The Prerequisite For Success

Now, I have to start this by saying... successfully maintaining a lean body composition requires that your client first take a smart diet approach to get there.

If you’re not sure how to create a periodized nutrition protocol for your clients, there’s no better way to learn than being coached through it yourself. 

Today's blog is a deep dive into what the Practice phase of my 3P Fat Loss Model I use with online clients entails.

This system works incredibly well for my online clients... but only when it's applied properly. Using a smart nutrition plan to get you to the point where you're ready to maintain is essential to a successful Practice Phase.

Now that's clear, let's answer the biggest question you came here with...

Why Do Clients Regain The Weight?

Understanding a client's body fat fluctuations first requires an understanding of metabolism. 

Specifically, a process called adaptive thermogenesis.

As you likely know...

→ Losing fat requires eating fewer calories than you burn in a day (Calories In < Calories Out)

→ Gaining fat requires eating more calories than you burn in a day (Calories In > Calories Out)

→ Maintaining fat requires a balance of calories eaten and burned (Calories In = Calories Out)

Calories In consists of the foods you consume.

Calories Out consists of your metabolism, which has four different pieces:

1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - The calories your body burns just to stay alive. Even if you lie in bed all day, BMR won’t change. It’s calories burned through things like breathing, your heart pumping, etc. Generally, the heavier you are, the higher your BMR.

2. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) - Your body actually burns calories while digesting the food you eat:

- TEF of protein = 20–30%

- TEF of carbs = 5–10%

- TEF of fat = 0–3%.

3. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (N.E.A.T.) - All the calories you burn in your everyday movement outside the gym. N.E.A.T. is the most controllable variable of your metabolism, and seems to be the biggest difference in the metabolisms of lean and obese individuals.

4. Thermic Effect Of Exercise (TEE) - Lifting weights, cardio, etc. This is the smallest portion of your metabolism - exercise doesn't burn many calories. 

These four pieces of your metabolism account for all the calories you burn in a day.

Adaptive thermogenesis is the way these four pieces of your metabolism adapts to a diet & weight loss (or lack therof).

On a typical diet, the process of adaptive thermogenesis will look something like this:

1. Your BMR drops as you lose weight - A smaller body burns fewer calories. This also applies to TEE, a smaller person will burn fewer calories during exercise.

2. TEF drops, since you’re eating less food - Some of this can be offset by increasing protein intake, but a decrease in calories still generally creates a drop in total TEF.

3. Calories burned via NEAT also drop - When dieting, you’re depriving the body of energy (calories). You’re more lethargic, resulting in less daily movement. Step goals and increasing exercise help, but a decrease in calories burned here is inevitable.

All of this equates to a metabolism that's slower post-diet than it was pre-diet.

But, don't let the phrase "slower metabolism" freak you out. Because really, it's a good sign of a succesful diet.

→ Clients are eating less, so of course they’re burning few calories during digestion. Clients couldn't lose fat without reducing calories to some degree.

→ Their body got smaller, so it burns fewer calories, both moving and at rest… but the whole point of the diet was to achieve a leaner, smaller body.

So don’t stress some metabolic slowing. It’s a must to lose weight.

From a hormonal perspective - as clients lose weight, their fat cells shrink. 

Smaller fat cells produce less of the hormone leptin, which leads to an increased appetite (as leptin decreases, the hunger hormone increases) and decreased energy expenditure. This means that clients experience this  excessive hunger signals and low energy post-weight loss. 

From a psychological perspective - Losing weight is very motivating. Clients see the number on the scale dropping, clothes fitting better, and their bodies changing. It's easy for most people to commit to 12 weeks of being hungry, when such rewarding changes are happening.

The problem is, post-diet, clients bodies aren't changing like this. When the rapid changes stop, people often realize... "Wow, I am really hungry."

Without the incentive of further body composition changes now that they've reached their goal, many people simply go back to how they were eating before the diet.

This is why helping clients achieve results they can maintain long-term is just as much about focusing on habits & behaviors, as it is physiology.

So the fact that clients are really hungry, moving less, have lower motivation, and are burning fewer calories with slower metabolism puts them in a situation where rapid weight regain is likely... if you don't have a plan post-diet (which is exactly why the Practice Phase of the 3P Fat Loss Model is so important.)

How To Speed Up Your Client's Metabolism

It’s key to understand that your client's Calories Out/metabolism is a number that changes a lot, depending on their current body size, food intake, and activity levels.

So post-diet, they’re NOT stuck at this metabolic rate forever.

Adaptive thermogenesis works in both directions - meaning that as you eat more post-diet, your calories burned also increase.

And like always, it all comes back to Calories In - Calories Out.

Post-diet, your client's metabolisms will “speed back up” due to changes/adaptive thermogensis in...

1. Basal Metabolic Rate - Again, the larger your body is, the more calories it will burn, both moving & at rest.

So post-diet, you can increase BMR by either...

a.) Adding fat.

b.) Adding muscle.

Adding fat will speed up your metabolism, but excess fat gain is really what we’re trying to avoid when we’re talking about long-term maintenance. So probably not the best option to focus on.

Muscle is metabolically active tissue - so adding extra muscle increases the calories you burn at rest. But, it’s not a huge difference maker (daily, you’ll burn ~6 calories more with each additional pound of muscle you gain). 

Most of the metabolism boosting benefits of adding muscle come from the fact that moving a heavier body burns more calories.

2. Thermic Effect Of Food - Calories burned during digestion increases as you eat more. 

So as we increase calories to maintenance levels post-diet, your TEF is also increasing.

3. Thermic Effect Of Exercise - When you eat more, you can:

a.) Train more - Eating more calories (to an extent) means better recovery, and therefore the ability to train more frequently with overdoing it.

b.) Train more intensely - More energy (calories) in also typically increases our ability to output energy (again, to a certain extent).

Both of the factors mean that eating more usually leads to more calories burned through training.

4. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis - People’s NEAT varies a lot with how it responds to increases and decreases in calories.

I’ve mentioned many times how we can usually split client’s metabolisms up into two categories:

a.) Adaptive Metabolisms - For these people, when you eat more, your body automatically increases NEAT to compensate. (Think: subconscious fidgeting, blinking, pacing, etc.) Their body adapts to higher calorie intake by increasing calories burned through movement - so weight stays the same, even with calorie increases.

b.) Rigid Metabolisms - These people see very little or no increase in NEAT as a response to overeating. Thus fat gain is a bit easier. But on the bright side, these people usually don't have to decrease calories as much to lose fat (because calories burned through NEAT doesn't decrease as much as it would for an adaptive metabolism).

So, as we go through the process of increasing calories post-diet, your metabolism is also increasing.

5. Hormonal changes - Over time, as your client’s body gets used to being fed more, and longer senses a scarcity of energy (calories), their body will remove some of it’s energy regulating/body fat preserving mechanisms. 

Ghrelin (the hunger hormone) decreases and leptin increases. Testosterone & thyroid hormone increase. 

This equates to your body essentially “taking the brakes off”. You’ll feel better, and naturally expend more energy.

All of this means that your client's maintenance intake (the number of calories they need to be eating for weight maintenance), is an increasing, moving target.

The problem is, most coaches don't take into account the fact that their clients metabolisms have slowed post-diet, which leads to excessive fat regain post-diet.

So to successfully maintain their body composition, a client's nutrition protocol must match these fluctuations in metabolism.

Within my nutrition coaching practice, the reverse dieting process is what we do to match this. (Note: how I prefer to reverse diet clients is much different than the traditional 50-100 calorie increases every 1-2 weeks over months until people reach maintenance.)

The Reverse Dieting Process

Coming out of a deficit is a scary process for most people… especially if your client's weight has rebounded post-diet in the past.⠀⠀

Even for my clients that are coaches themselves, the fear of coming out of a calorie deficit is real.

This is the best time to again remind clients, it all comes down to energy balance.

If you’ve been losing ~1lb/week, you’re eating ~3,500 calories less than you burn in a week. So we know that to maintain, we can add back in ~3,500 calories to your diet on a weekly basis… or 500 calories per day, without worrying about fat gain.

Gaining even 1lb of fat would require eating ~3,500 calories MORE than your maintenance intake. Now, while this is SUPER doable thanks to all of the adaptations your body undergoes during a diet (as all of us who have rebounded before know), if you have a smart plan for the diet after the diet like we provide within online coaching, you don’t need to worry.

Here’s what the reverse diet process typically looks like for my online clients:⠀⠀

1. Return the client to 90% of their estimated maintenance calories. 

90% instead of 100% just to be sure we don't overshoot maintenance, as clients generally want to take extra precautions here to avoid excess fat gain.

Most of the increase in calories here will come from carbs (which give you more physiological benefits, plus better training & recovery), given you’re already eating above ~.3g fat/lb of body weight daily (the “fat threshold” clients need to hit for hormonal health & preventing fatty acid deficiencies).

2. Watch how that impacts the client's weight & measurements. 

One of the biggest mistakes people make post-diet? 

They suddenly stop hopping on the scale and taking body measurements.

This is a huge problem, because this is the exact data we use to determine how the amount you’re currently eating is impacting your body composition. 

Without this data, it’s easier to regain fat, as you're not sure how your body is changing.

Now, we're expecting the client to see a few lbs of weight gain due to increased glycogen storage and gut content. It's also normal to see an increase in the 2" below the navel measurement (most reactive to gut content) over Weeks 1 & 2 of the reverse diet, but we shouldn't see major shifts in any of these metrics.

3. Adjust nutrition based on the metrics.

After the first 1-2 weeks of the reverse diet process (where again, some increase in weight & measurements is normal), we’re looking to increase calories to start pushing the clients “maintenance calories” up.

But again, tracking metrics is key to knowing that what the client is doing with their nutrition is leading to maintenance and not gaining.

So, depending on the client, these calorie increases to “bump up maintenance” are usually 50-125 cals (usually 75% carbs / 25% fat), relative to the client's current body size.

NOTE: The degree to which we can increase a client's maintenance without fat gain is primarily dependent on how adaptive their metabolism is/how much they tend to increase NEAT as a response to consuming more calories.

For some online clients this process only lasts a few weeks, for others we can ramp maintenance up for quite some time.

4. When to stop reverse dieting

Two things to look for here:

a.) We’re looking for trunk measurements and weight to stay relatively stable (fluctuations of +/- .25 are normal) - So larger increases here indicate you've likely passed maintenance.

That said, realize that most clients will also be capable of building some lean muscle at maintenance. This is especially true for newer online client that have never spent an extended period of time eating more and following a smart training program like my online clients do.

So sometimes we'll see an increase in weight across the course of weeks. This is why it’s important that we’re also tracking body measurements.

See, most of your online clients will have a “trouble spot” they really wanted to focus on losing fat from during the diet. 

This seems to be the last place that said client loses fat from their body. It’s likely that the end of this clients diet phase was finally  shedding the fat from their “trouble spot”... after that, said client is content with their current level of leanness, and ready to focus on maintenance.

Conveniently, the last place we seem to lose fat from also seems to be the first place we regain it. (I have no science to prove this, only anecdote).

This means that in a case where your client is gaining a bit of weight, but you think it could be lean muscle not fat, it makes sense to look at measurement increases at the client's “trouble spot” as a sign that they’re potentially gaining fat (for 90% of clients it will be navel measurements, but occasionally hips). 

If we start to see consecutive weeks of measurement increases at the trouble spot, it’s a good sign that body fat is being gained.

b.) Biofeedback is normal - We all have a certain body fat percentage “floor”.

Below this body fat percentage, clients will struggle with hunger, being food focused, low energy, poor hormones, & building lean muscle is very unlikely.

Many of your hormones are a product of the amount of body fat you’re carrying. No matter how much food you’re eating, you’ll still feel shitty below your “body fat floor”.

While you can dip below this “floor” for short periods of time (e.g. for a photoshoot), living below it is not healthy or sustainable.

So the reality is, occasionally clients will have to add back a bit of body fat in order to return biofeedback to healthy levels and quit feeling like a zombie.⠀

If a clients' biofeedback (weekly measures my clients submit for things like sleep, stress, motivation, mood, training performance, etc.) is still poor, they likely need to continue the reverse diet. Similarly, normalized biofeedback is a good sign you can end the reverse diet process.

On a side note, if your client's body fat floor is higher than they want it to be (they can't stay as lean as they want without feeling awful), check out Ryan Solomon and I's discussion on how to lower your body fat floor here.

Behavioral Keys To Long-Term Maintenance

Personally, I think that learning proper food selection is the most underrated successful fat loss maintenance selection for clients.

Behavior 1: Food Selection

The reality of the society we live in is, most of our foods are designed to make us want to eat more. Pair this with the fact that most highly-processed foods are also very calorie-dense and low on nutrients, and you have a combination that makes stay lean quite a challenge.

If you’re eating lots of hyper-palatable foods, it will always be a struggle to avoid overeating - you'll always be hungry, even at maintenance.

And while most of us can grind out 12 weeks of being super hungry on a diet, it’s MUCH harder to commit to a lifetime of being super hungry, just to maintain.

A huge part of what I focus on with my online clients is teaching them how to habitually choose foods that are very filling per calorie.

This essentially puts your appetite on auto-regulate, and makes it much harder to overeat.

In the simplest terms, 80-90% of your food should have either:

a.) Grown from the earth

b.) Had a face at one point

These foods are packed with nutrients that will make your body feel amazing, create more optimal hormones, and aid your training performance and recovery. They'll also keep you full much longer than their highly-processed counterparts. 

Guidelines To Consider When Selecting Your Foods: 

1. Build your meals around protein and fiber - Lean proteins and fibrous carbs especially have a lot of volume and are very satiating per calorie. Make these a big focus of your diet to keep hunger low and make fat loss easier.

So basically, make an effort to include at least 25-50g lean protein at each meal you eat. This is always your #1 focus when selecting a meal.

From there, make an effort to always include a fist-sized serving of fruit or veggies with each meal.

2. Don't drink your calories - Liquids will digest much quicker, meaning you’re hungry again sooner. If you’re using milk as a protein source, swap it for cottage cheese or greek yogurt. Go with zero calorie sodas, and energy drinks. Black coffee.

When it comes to alcohol, things like liquor & a zero calorie mixer (e.g. vodka water, vodka soda, whiskey diet, etc.) are smart if you're going to have more than a few.

3. Find lower calorie versions of oils, dressings, and condiments.

Swap olive oil for calorie-free cooking spray. (It still has calories, but less.) Find a lower-calorie BBQ sauce or use steak sauce.  Swap high-calorie salad dressing for a fat-free vinaigrette.

Often a few easy swaps here (that you won’t even notice) can give online clients hundreds of extra calories to work with in a day.

4. Try to avoid foods that are high in multiple macronutrients.

Example: you could eat...

a.) 6oz ribeye for 493 calories (36 pro/39 fat)

-OR-

b.) 8oz sirloin (51 pro/9 fat) + 1 large avocado (10 carb/24 fat) for the same amount of calories, but more protein.

Generally avoiding foods high in multiple macros will make eating lots of food volume (think: size of food per calorie) much easier, which in turn helps you feel more full on less calories.

Behavior 2: Planning

The reality of having both a flexible lifestyle and a lean body you feel supremely confident in is, it just takes some planning ahead. I always encourage my online clients to look planning as the "rent" you pay for being able to enjoy your lifestyle and feel amazing in your body.

1. Meal Prep - Being prepped ahead nearly guarantees you'll be successful at sticking to this style of eating 80-90% of the time. You'll never "not have the right food available" or "run out of time". This doesn't mean the every meal you eat for the rest of your life has to be prepped, but most of us just won't ever have the time to cook food that aligns with our goals 3-5x/day.

2. Flexible Dieting Tools - When guiding online clients through the practice phase post-diet, I'll literally encourage clients to go out to restaurants, bars, etc., if that's something that want to be a part of their life in the future. 

We need to practice for events like this, to make sure the client has a good handle on how to manage these situations and maintain their progress. 

Now, while this could be a whole blog in itself, it essentially comes down to educating online clients how to use some flexible dieting tools like...

a.) Intermittent Fasting - On days clients know they'll be going out and/or eating a high-calorie meal later in the day, they can offset this a bit by fasting until noon-ish.

Black coffee and other zero-calorie drinks are perfectly fine. But outside of that, avoid calories.

A lot of my online nutrition clients always fast on Saturdays to allow for more flexibility in the evenings.

b.) Eat a meal of protein + high fiber carbs before drinking - The enemy here isn't alcohol itself. The enemy is drunk you who wants to eat an absurd amount of Taco Bell at 2am.

The best strategy to prevent this is to drink on a full stomach.

We already talked about how protein is the macro that keeps you full, longest. Fibrous carbs are the second most satiating these + lean protein is a solid pairing to keep you full for a long time. The carbs will also "soak up the alcohol", making your hangover less terrible.

As you drink, inhibition lowers and you'll be much more likely to eat lots of calories later, which is what we're really trying to avoid here. Think of this pre-drinking meal as damage control.

c.) Pulling or Pushing Calories - Ever eat too many calories on a Saturday and think…⠀

“Well, my diet screwed"?

I know I have.

This usually leads eating TONS of extra calories the next few days with the “F it” mindset.

In reality, what clients do with their macros on a daily basis makes very little difference. What you do on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis makes much more difference.

A single day of over eating is easily correctable.

If a client's weekly intake is on point, they have a lot more room to play with daily intake. As long as your weekly deficit is the same and you’re hitting your protein goal daily, you should get VERY similar results.

I like to call this pulling or pushing calories. 

Basically, you’re saving up calories ahead of time or eating less in following days to allow your calories on point.

This approach is amazing for online clients, because it gives them a lot more flexibility within their diets. For many clients, I simply build higher calorie intake on the weekend into their nutrition protocol for more sustainability and adherence.

c.) Macro Planning - Planning ahead is always the key to staying on track with nutrition. 

This is why I encourage all my online clients to plan their days out in MyFitnessPal the night before.

Weekday or weekend, when clients go into the day with a good idea of how to need to eat to both enjoy life and hit their goals, they'll be much more likely to succeed. 

Behavior 3: Movement

Like we've talked about, many of our clients will see a big variance in NEAT (movement outside of the gym) as their body changes.

One of the biggest differences we see between the metabolisms of individuals who are naturally lean, and those who have lost a large amount of weight, is their NEAT levels.

Post-weight loss, levels of NEAT will naturally be suppressed for most. If unaccounted for, this can (and often does) lead to weight regain.

This means that maintaining a consistent movement goal post-diet is very important for long-term maintenance. Personally, I assign my clients a daily step goal.

And that is how we help clients finally break the yo-yo dieting cycle, and finally achieving a lean, confident version of themselves they can maintain long-term.

If you need more expert guidance achieving this yourself, click here now to apply for online coaching with me.

Are you confused about why your clients aren't getting fat loss results?

Maybe you can't even get yourself lean, let alone a client.

I've been there in the past - both with myself and my clients. Which is exactly why I'm writing you this blog now.

Nothing is more disempowering than feeling unable to control your own body composition, or help your clients achieve the results they want.

This blog is designed to clear up your confusion, and teach you exactly what to focus on within nutrition to help your clients achieve their best body composition ever.

The Fat Loss Blueprint

So, to make the science as simple as possible, it's extremely helpful to break this down into a hierarchy of importance.

The closer to the bottom of the hierarchy something is, the less important it is to achieving your best body composition.

Similarly, if focusing on something lower in the hierarchy (e.g. nutrient timing) is causing you to disregard something higher on the hierarchy (e.g. energy balance), you won't get results.

You can look at this as your fat loss order of operations. Make sure you consistently have the level above mastered, before moving on to the next level above.

1. Sustainability & Adherence

When a new client starts online coaching with me, the process begins with a strategy call.

The premise of this call?

We want to figure out what you can realistically sustain long-term.

The reality is, we as coaches could give most of our clients 1,000 calorie chicken and broccoli meal plans... and if they stuck to the plan for a few months, they'd be able to give us a great progress picture. 

The problem is, we're not really doing anything to teach or educate them by taking this approach.

In 3-4 months, when that client no longer works with us and (inevitably) gets sick of eating chicken and broccoli, they'll have no idea how to maintain their results. 

Weight will rebound, they'll hire another coach or start another meal plan, and the cycle continues.

On this initial call, I always tell new clients... 

"I want to be the last coach you ever need to hire."

Because really, when we educate clients on the principles of nutrition, and guide them down a sustainable path, we empower them to maintain leaner, stronger, more confident versions of themselves without us here.

This is exactly why we spend so much time initially talking about your lifestyle, and what diet structure will work best for you as an individual. That's how we build the diet structure easiest for you to adhere to, and teach you a style of eating you can maintain long-term.

This is why so many diets work for people in the short-term (e.g. keto), but inevitably lead to weight rebounds... people get too caught up in what will yield the quickest results, instead of the best strategy for lasting results.

This is the beauty of individualized online coaching, it allows us to customize every aspect of your nutrition strategy to be the absolute best fit for you.

2. Calorie Intake

What is required to lose fat has been made super confusing by people marketing tons of different diets. You'll often here questions from clients like...

"What macro split do I need to be following for fat loss?"

"What supplements will make me burn fat?"

"Do I need to be intermittent fasting in order to lose fat?"

In reality, we only need to check one box in order to lose fat.

✔ You must be eating fewer calories than you're burning.

So while calories aren't the only thing that matter... if you're eating more calories than you burn in a day, you won't be able to lose fat.

The biggest mistake most people who can't get lean are making?

Focusing on eating all of "the right foods" associated with a specific diet, supplements, and meal-timing... but forgetting to account for how many calories they're eating.

Because I want to make sure this is hyper clear for you and your clients...

Calories are energy.

→ When you burn more energy (calories) than you take in, you lose weight. This is called a negative energy balance, or a calorie deficit.

→ When you take in more energy (calories) than you burn, you gain weight. This is positive energy balance, or a calorie surplus.

→ When you’re taking in the same amount of energy as you're burning daily, you maintain your weight. You’re eating at your maintenance calories.

To lose or gain weight, you must manipulate energy balance by:

✔ Increasing/decreasing the calories you eat

✔ Increasing/decreasing the calories you burn

How to manipulate calories out:

→ Exercise - Lifting weights, cardio, etc. Contrary to popular belief, exercise doesn't burn many calories. You could burn 500 calories with an hour on the stairmill, and then drink a 500 calorie margarita in five minutes.

This is why trying to "burn it off" doesn't go well for most.

→ Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (N.E.A.T.) - All the calories you burn in your everyday life outside the gym. N.E.A.T. is the most controllable variable of calories out. Adding in a bit of daily movement adds up to thousands of extra calories burned over a month.

This is why all of my online clients with fat loss goals also have a step goal.

→ Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) - Calories burned during digestion. It takes energy to turn the food you consume into energy. This is TEF.

→ Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns just to stay alive. Generally, the heavier you are, the higher your BMR.

These are the four components of metabolism, A.K.A. the processes that can increase calories out.

How to manipulate calories in:

→ Control Calories - Here, your only option is manipulating your calorie intake.

So, to be sure you didn't miss it...

→ Calories In > Calories Out = Weight Gain

→ Calories In = Calories Out = Weight Maintenance

→ Calories In < Calories Out = Weight Loss

This means you don't have to follow ANY specific diet. As long as you create a negative energy balance, you'll lose weight. This is a very empowering realization for most, and allows us to create a nutrition strategy that is 100% individualized to you when you start online coaching with me.

Professor Mark Haub illustrated this point with his now infamous Twinkie Diet. He lost 27 lbs in 10 weeks, eating a diet of Twinkies, powdered donuts, nutty bars and the like instead of normal meals.

Despite eating a diet of almost entirely processed, sugar laden foods, he still lost weight by creating negative energy balance.

So Are Calories All That Matter?

From the above, it would be easy to draw the conclusion...

"Calories are all that matter! I can just eat whatever I want, as long as I fit it into my calorie goal."

The thing is, while calorie intake is the MOST important factor for weight loss or weight gain... it gets a bit more complex than that.

So while controlling calories is the most important factor for fat loss (and the only part of the hierarchy that 100% must be in place to successfully get leaner), they're not the only thing you should focus on in order to achieve your best body composition ever.

3. Macronutrients

So while your (or your client's) overall calorie intake is the MOST important factor for fat loss, what those calories consist of also has a big impact on how your body changes.

Looking at macros instead of just calories helps you optimize your food intake to your goals.

All the foods you eat are made up of some combination of the following macronutrients (macros):

→ Protein - 1 gram of protein contains ~4 calories

→ Carbohydrates - 1 gram of carbohydrate contains ~4 calories

→ Fat - 1 gram of fat contains ~9 calories

→ Alcohol - 1 gram of alcohol contains ~7 calories

Each macro has some unique benefits worth weighing when determining your goals.

Protein:

Keeping protein high is crucial to building a great body.

→ Adequate protein is a MUST for building lean muscle - through a process called muscle protein synthesis, your body turns the protein you eat into muscle protein (your muscles are essentially made of your dietary protein). When your protein intake is inadequate, you can't fully recover and grow from you training.

→ On a similar note, adequate protein is necessary to maintaining muscle mass as you diet.

→ Protein is the most satiating macronutrient (it keeps you full longest). The hardest thing about diets? You’re hungry. More protein helps.

→ Protein also has the highest thermic effect (TEF) of all the macros. It takes energy to turn the food you consume into energy. When you eat more protein, you're actually increasing the calories out side of the energy balance equation, since you're burning more calories via TEF.

• Protein - 20-30% of calories consumed are burned via TEF
• Carbs - 5-10% of calories consumed are burned via TEF
• Fat - 0-3% of calories consumed are burned via TEF

Outside of controlling calories, increasing protein intake to .8-1.2 grams/lb of body weight daily is the most impactful thing you can do nutritionally to improve body composition.

This is why all of my online clients track at least calorie & protein intake. When we account for these two factors, we can create some amazing body composition changes.

Fats:

→ Fat plays an important role in hormone production, so adequate fat intake is necessary - the lowest you want to set fat intake is .3-.4g/lb. Much lower than this, and you start running the risk of EPA (Omega-3 fats) deficiencies. Your fat intake is also a building block for many hormones in your body.

→ Protein and fat are "essential" (you'll feel awful/potentially die if you go too long without eating them).

Carbs:

Carbs are "non-essential". You'll survive just fine without 'em, so there's not a "floor" for how low you can take carbs. But...

→  Your body’s preferred energy source is glucose. Glucose comes primarily from carbohydrates. When you stop eating carbs, your body depletes its glycogen (the stored form of glucose) stores fairly quickly.

→  When we don’t have enough carbs coming in to fuel our body with glucose, the body eventually starts breaking down fats for energy instead. These fatty acids are converted to ketones by the liver. Ketones replace glucose as the body and brain’s primary fuel source. With ketones as the primary fuel source, some things change. A big one - your ability to exercise intensely decreases. This makes building a lean, strong physique much harder.

Alcohol:

Your body essentially views alcohol as a poison. Priority #1 for your body is getting alcohol out of your system ASAP.

To be more efficient at this, the body shuts down other processes to clear the system faster. Stuff like - oxidation of fat, hormone production, muscle tissue repair, etc.

Basically, when you drink, your progress (losing body fat, building lean muscle) stop until your body clears the alcohol.

That said, fat loss still comes down to creating a calorie deficit.

Drinking only causes you to gain body fat if it's kicking you out of a calorie deficit (unless you're taking it to the extreme/alcoholism levels).

So, the key things you & your clients need to take from this:

→ Getting in adequate protein (.8-1.2g/lb body weight) is essential to building a great body. Put your focus on getting adequate protein in before worrying about carbs & fat.

→ It's important for your health that you don't under-eat fats.

→ Carbs are non-essential, but In most cases really help when it comes to building a lean, strong body.

4. Food Quality

You've probably heard the term nutrient-dense foods. Nutrient-dense foods are simply foods that are packed with vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are key to overall health, gym performance, and even your mental state.

Typically, whole foods are much more nutrient-dense - (Think: anything that comes from the earth or lived on the earth at one point). Meats, veggies, fruit, etc.

On the other hand, highly-processed foods typically contain very few nutrients.

So here's the thing - You now know that you can literally lose weight by eating whatever you want, as long as you control calories. Eating clean isn't a must for fat loss.

But, is ignoring food quality a good idea?

Absolutely not.

→ Your health will be awful. You need adequate intake of the nutrients whole foods provide to feel good, perform in the gym, and function properly.

→ Plus, while dieting, you have to deal with being hungry often. Highly-processed foods are literally engineeder to make you want to eat more. They're "hyper-palatable". Not ideal when the goal is eat less.

Eating mostly unprocessed, whole foods will keep you full longer. Whole foods typically have more volume per calorie (you get more "bang for your buck" as far as satiety per calorie goes). They also generally contain more fiber, which also increases fullness.

Really, it mostly quality foods is important, and ties back to your ability to manage hunger and control your overall calorie intake. So while not a "must" for fat loss, your food choices can make or break your ability to stick to the diet.

So your diet doesn't need to be strictly salmon and spinach... but making 80-90%of your diet whole foods will make the process much easier, and you'll feel better throughout.

From there, you're free to enjoy the other 10-20% of your calorie intake from whatever your heart desires (as long as you work it into your food intake goals) without any negative effects on your results or your health.

After years of online coaching, I've molded this way of thinking into a nutrition philosophy I call The Lifestyle Diet. Highly recommend you check out the free ebook - it teaches you many of the same nutrition rituals I teach my online clients.

Now, I get it... talking about food quality is far from the most exciting thing for our clients. So I want to keep this section brief. But you do need to be aware that food quality is also important for preventing micronutrient deficiencies, which can be detrimental to client's health.

The five most common micronutrient deficiencies:

→ Vitamin D

→ Calcium

→ Zinc

→ Magnesium

→ Iron

Ideally, a diet with a good variety of whole foods will cover all your bases here, with you consuming dairy, red meat, and getting regular sun exposure, along with eating one serving of fruits and veggies for every 500 calories you consume.

That said, since this ideal world often isn't reality for our clients, it's important to understand where deficiencies could come up.

5. Nutrient Timing

On paper, nutrient timing/meal timing isn't nearly as important as your overall calories, your macros, or eating quality foods. 

So if focusing on nutrient timing is something that is stressing your clients out, and causing them to miss on overall calories, macros, or food quality - you're really missing the forest for the trees.

That said, within individualized coaching, we'll often find that nutrient timing loops back to the client's ability to control calories and stick to the diet.

A great example of this is my online client Colin.

Colin is a busy professional, who works at a desk all day. So naturally, he doesn’t burn a lot of calories via movement. He is also focusing on getting leaner.

All of this means that his calorie intake must be relatively low in order to lose fat.

Colin is also a family man, and an awesome Dad. His family goes out to dinner multiple times per week - these meals (which are generally higher-calorie) are very important to Colin.

If I told Colin “Stop eating out with your family”, his ability to stick to the diet would likely plummet. We’re taking away a very important part of his life.

So instead, here’s the nutritional strategy that Colin uses:

→ Waking - 11:30am: Fasting

→ 11:30am: Pre-workout protein shake

→ 1pm: Post-workout meal (first “real” meal of the day)

→ 3-4pm: High protein snack

→ 6-8pm: Dinner with family

Using this strategy, Colin always has ~1,000 calories to work with for family dinners. This has allowed him to enjoy his family, AND build a leaner, stronger body in the process (he’s lost 30+lbs, and built LOTS of lean muscle & strength).

So while nutrient-timing in & of itself isn't often the most important thing for clients (as you can see from the hierarchy), it can occasionally tie back into a clients overall ability to stick to the diet (as seen in the example above).

Occasionally implementing things like fasting, or putting a high-volume salad ~1 hour before clients have been noticing cravings can really improve overall adherence.

From a habit formation perspective - when you eat at the same times every day, you train your body to release hunger signals at those specific times daily, and NOT the rest of the day. Basically, by eating at consistent times, you're reducing your urges to snack.

Now, for those with clients with calories, macros, and food quality on lock, (and who are actually interested in putting in the extra time to optimize nutrient-timing), here are my recommendations:

→ Protein Timing Across The Day - It's true that calories are the primary driver of weight loss or weight gain. But for optimal lean muscle growth, you need to consider muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

Muscle protein synthesis is basically the process of your body turning dietary protein into actual lean muscle.

Consuming protein (with the most optimal amount being 25-50g) increases muscle protein synthesis for ~3-6 hours.

So, to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis through your day, it's most optimal to spread your protein (and meals) across 4-6 meals, with 25-50g protein at each.

→ Pre-Workout Meal - What you eat pre-workout is key for kick-starting the recovery process, and helps fuel your body through intense training.

To prevent as much muscle protein breakdown (the opposite process of muscle protein synthesis - muscle protein is being broken down) as possible, and create optimal circumstances for recovery/growth, you should consume ~25-50g of protein in this meal. If you really don't have the option to eat a pre-workout meal (e.g. you workout super early), I'd recommend at least drinking a protein shake before hand. This will digest very quickly, and shouldn't give you issues.

If you have time to allow the meal to digest pre-workout (>1 hour), adding ~25-50 grams carbs to the mix is smart. A mix of carbs from starch and fruit gives you a combo of faster and slower releasing carbs to fuel you through the workout.

We want to avoid too much fat in this meal, because it will slow digestion, and have you feeling sluggish during your training.

A solid pre-workout meal could look something like:

• Greek yogurt (slow digesting protein)
• Whey protein (fast digesting protein)
• Oatmeal (starchy carb)
• Berries (carb from fruit)

Typically, you'll feel best eating this 1-2 hours before you workout. I like to split the difference here and go with 1.5 hours pre-workout. Eating this meal too close to your workout will have you lifting with food still digesting in your belly, making you feel sluggish.

→ Post-Workout Meal - As far as protein, aim to eat another ~25-50g of protein within an hour post-workout (as it will have been about 3 hours from your previous bolus of protein at this point).

With carbs, insulin sensitivity is highest post-workout. (Basically, your body will most efficiently use carbs for muscle-building purposes at this time.) So it makes sense to time lots of fast-digesting carbs post workout (e.g. white rice, spotted bananas). This is the most important time to consume carbs, as far as timing goes - so if your carbs are limited on a diet, putting most of them here is smart.

On a similar note, an intense training session will trigger a stress response. Basically, when you experience stress, cortisol (the stress hormone) rises and your nervous system enters a sympathetic state or “fight-or-flight mode”. In this state, your brain perceives an imminent threat, and slows or stops all bodily processes but the most vital to either “fighting or fleeing”. This means processes crucial to your recovery - food digestion, hormone production, and muscle growth itself - are slowed or essentially stopped.

So obviously, to optimize recovery, you want to get out of a sympathetic state as fast as possible post-workout, and get into the parasympathetic or “rest and digest” state. Here, your body focuses on nutrient absorption, repairing damaged tissues, etc.

The beauty of timing your carbs intra/post-workout like this is, carbs help decrease cortisol levels. So consuming carbs post workout will help you create a better environment for building lean muscle.

Similar to the pre-workout meal, we want to keep fat low here. Fat would slow your body's ability to digest the nutrients you just took in.

→ Pre-Bed Meal - Now, sleep is a crucial part of your body actually being able to make build muscle & burn fat. Eating too close to bed will slightly disrupt your sleep quality, but we also want your body to have some protein available throughout the night. ~1 hour before bed, eat 25-50g protein from a slow digesting source (casein powder, greek yogurt, cottage cheese).

So to wrap all of this up simply:

→ The most important thing - finding the meal frequency that is easiest for you to adhere to, and helps you control your overall calorie intake.

→ Once you have calories, macros, and food quality of point, you can focus on making the meals around your workout are high protein, high carb, and low fat. The meal(s) further from your workout are still high protein, but higher fat and lower carb.

6. Supplements

The unfortunate reality of supplements is, most of the legal ones do little to nothing. That's why they're way up here, at end of the hierarchy.

You can absolutely build a lean, strong body without ever taking a supplement.

That said, a few supplements can be slightly helpful (just remember their position in the hierarchy).

→ Creatine Monohydrate - Creatine is an extremely well researched supplement, with the most effective form being creatine monohydrate.

Our bodies use creatine phosphate for as a fuel source for the first few seconds of intense or explosive movement/exercise. Think of supplementing with creatine as “topping off the tank”. It allows you to maintain high-intensity exercise for slightly longer.

This means an increase in strength, and overall workload you’re able to handle in the gym, equating to building more muscle.

Now, the effects of creatine are far from “steroid-like”, but it is a proven supplement to aid building muscle and strength.

3-5 grams/day is the general recommended dose.

→ Caffeine - Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Although considered a psychoactive drug, its use is extremely common and mostly unregulated.

Of all the supplements on this list, caffeine has by far the most noticeable effects. Not only does caffeine boost mood, alertness and mental clarity, it also has some real benefits to your workouts.

Research shows that caffeine decreases perceived effort, increases power output, and improves endurance.

Not that you needed an excuse for more caffeine, but it’s a real performance booster. Just keep your intake reasonable. Ideally less than 400mg per day.

→ Protein Powders - If you’re able to hit your daily protein requirements entirely from whole foods, there’s no need to use a protein powder. Protein powders are lacking many of the micronutrients that quality, whole food protein sources will have.

But, if you’re struggling to meet your daily protein requirements, supplementing with a protein powder can be helpful.

Whey protein and casein proteins have the best amino acid profiles of available protein powders. They're the easiest for your body to absorb and use. It’s debatable which is superior. The body digests whey protein quicker than casein protein.

Whey and casein protein are derivatives of milk. So if animal products are a no-go for you: pea or rice proteins have the best amino acid profiles.

→ Multi-Vitamin - Getting all of your micronutrients from whole foods is ideal.

Ideal, but not always realistic. Taking a multivitamin is a good way to ensure your daily micronutrient needs are met.

→ Vitamin D - We obtain vitamin D naturally through food and sunlight.

The issue? Most of us don’t get enough time in the sun, and the amount of vitamin D is negligible in most foods outside of fatty fish. As a result, vitamin D deficiency is extremely common

Taking a vitamin D or Cod liver oil supplement can be extremely helpful in preventing this deficiency.

The typical recommended dose is 1,000-2,000 IU per day

→  EPA And DHA (Fish Oil) - EPA and DHA are essential fatty acids. Now, if you eat fatty fish 2+ times per week, you're good on these. If not, a fish oil supplement can help.

Typically, 1-2g EPA + DHA per day is advised.

Again, supplements are the LEAST important factor. You'll rarely see any noticeable difference from taking a supplement. So don’t get caught up in the minutiae of things like supplements, and forget to focus on the things that really make a difference when it comes to changing your body.

If you're struggling to get your clients results fat loss results, I hope you found this helpful.

I know having this order of operations for where we put emphasis on within coaching, and looking at this at "master one step/level of the hierarchy before moving on to the next" has helped my online coaching practice tremendously.

If you're ready to learn more from me, and discover how my customized online coaching service can help you achieve the leanest, most confident version of yourself, click here now to apply for coaching.

Last weeks blog (Training Program Design 101) was a crash course on all aspects of program design from the monthly, weekly, and daily perspective.

Today, we're diving into how to put all of this information together into the most effective training split your your current goals and lifestyle. 

Last week was theory, this week is application.

If you can't tell already, a LOT of thought goes into my online clients training programs, and the 12 Week training programs I'll be opening up soon (click here to hop on the waitlist).

The purpose of this blog series is to help coaches insecure about the program they're prescribing their clients OR themselves, finally feel confident in their programming abilities.

Sure, you can keep just giving your clients random exercises you saw on Instagram... but you're not helping them as nearly as much as you could be (and it's reflected in their results). Building a lean, strong body requires so much more than just doing random movements that feel hard.

Your training program needs to have the right amount of frequency, volume, and intensity for your clients. More importantly, it has to be something they can adhere to with extreme consistency to get results.

This is a huge part of what I do as a coach to get my online clients such great results - your program needs to be customized to you specifically, with your goals, limitations, and lifestyle taken into account. 

That's a program you'll be able to stick to, and one that'll create great results. 

So now that you have a deeper understanding of thought process behind the variables that ANY training program needs to take into account from Training Program Design 101, let's get into application.

Let's dive into how to determine the best training split for your clients, as well as exactly how to lay out each day of the program. 

Some things I consider when deciding an online client's training split include:

1. Lifestyle & Adherence

For your clients to achieve results from a program, it needs to be something they can stick to consistently for MONTHS.

The reality is, many of your clients have like tried and failed with the #nodaysoff approach more times than they can count.

If your clients are trying to train 6 days a week, but usually miss 2-3 training days due to time constraints or motivation... they'd get much better results following a 3-4x/week split.

Biting off more than you can chew will give you WORSE results than a training program you can be consistent with.

This is exactly why the 12 Week Fat Loss & Lean Muscle Gain Programs I'll be releasing soon have multiple options - this allows us to truly fit your training to your lifestyle.

2. Training Experience

Building lean muscle requires progressive overload. 

Basically, your total volume needs to increase over time. Volume is quantified as: "Sets X reps X weight = volume".

But, I don't math good. So let's just quantify volume as your number of hard sets. (Hard sets: sets in the 5-20 rep range, finished with 1-3 reps in the tank.)

Progression over time requires gradually increasing number of hard sets. This leads to eventually adding more training days to make room for the added volume/sets.

Now, this doesn’t mean “more volume ALWAYS equals more growth”.

→ Your maximum recoverable volume (MRV) is the maximum amount of volume your body can recover from and adapt to. When you’re over your MRV, results are worse, even though you're doing more work.

→ Your MRV increases over time. As you continue to incorporate progressive overload, volume gradually increases. But there’s most definitely a point of diminishing returns where volume becomes too much.

→ This varies a lot by individual, (and definitely isn't a fixed amount - check out the Resensitization Phases blog for more) but we can generally assume the longer someones been training properly, the higher their MRV will be.

Point being, if you’re new to lifting and start right out of the gate training 6 times per week - you'll likely get WORSE results than training 3-4 times per week. 

As you get more advanced like most of my online clients, training 4-6 times per week becomes smarter.

Signs You're At Or Near Your Ideal Number Of Hard Sets:

✔ Your strength is consistently increasing on the compound lifts

✔ You're consistently sore.

✔ You're getting good pumps.

✔ You're pushing yourself, but don't feel "run down".

This where you or your client is at? Don't add sets or training days. Focus on adding weight to your compound lifts while staying in the 6-15 rep range.

Example:

You bench 225 for 8 this week. Aim for 225 for 9 next week. Once you can hit 225 for 12 (or whatever rep ranges you’re working in), bump weight to 235 and start over at 8. This progression naturally increases volume without having added sets/time in the gym.

Signs You're Doing Too Many Hard Sets

✘You feel beat up/run down.

✘ Motivation to hit the gym is low.

✘ Strength is stagnating or decreasing.

✘ No pumps.

If this is more like you or your client, it's probably time to decrease the number of hard sets you're performing. Focus on sleeping more, managing stress, and improving your diet. 

In this case, you're simply doing too much to recover from. Dial it back a bit.

Signs It's Time To Add More Hard Sets (And Potentially A Training Day)

✘ Recovery is good.

✘ Strength is stagnating.

✘ You're rarely sore.

✘ No pumps.

If this is you or your client, it's likely time to add in more hard sets.

3. Frequency

Studies seem to show that when volume is equated, training every muscle group at least twice per week is more optimal for muscle growth than once per week training. (1)

Example:

Doing 5 sets of 10 squats with 135lbs twice per week would create more muscle growth than doing 10 sets of squat with 135lbs once per week, despite volume being the same.

Now, there’s not much proof of additional benefit to training a muscle more than twice a week, outside of the increase you’d see in volume (which again, can reach a point of diminishing returns.)

As of now, your best bet seems to be making sure you're training everything with twice per week frequency. While more than this definitely won't hurt (given you manage volume and intensity properly), it's far from a must.

So, when you take all these different factors into account, you’re left with a couple different “most optimal” training splits that can realistically be followed by most:

→ 3x/Week Full Body

→  3x/Week Full Body/Upper/Lower

→ 4x/Week Upper/Lower

→ 5x/Week Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper or Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower 

→ 5x/Week Upper/Lower/Push/Pull/Lower

→ 5x/Week - Upper/Lower/Body Part Specialization

Again, when choosing your split, the most important thing is choosing a program you can stick to consistently, NOT the one that looks sexiest on paper.

Ok, let's get into what you came here for...

Building Your Training Split

Before we dive into samples of how I would design each split for you as an online client, let’s clear up some terminology:

→ Primer Circuits  —  Each training day starts with a circuit designed to prime your body for heavy lifting. DON’T skip this. You’ll increase your odds of injury, and get worse results. Perform the listed exercises consecutively, take a 30-second rest period, and repeat for three total rounds.

→ Rest Periods  —  Avoid the temptation of turning your workout into a giant circuit. Too short rest periods reduce your ability to overload the movements, and in turn change your body.

→ Supersets — Pairing two exercises back to back. This is indicated by a.) b.) OR a.) b.) c.) when you’ll be doing three exercises consecutively. Do exercise a.) - take the prescribed rest period (0.5–1 minute) - do exercise b.) - take the prescribed rest - repeat.

Got all that? Dope. Let's dive into the training splits.

3x/Week Full Body Split

A solid option for your clients who are super busy, or those who are relatively new to proper training (I bring on lots of new clients who have been "training" for years, but get great results on a full body split as it's the first time following an intelligent, periodized program.) 

Ideally, you would set this up with at least one rest day between each training day.

In the 12 Week Fat Loss Program I'm releasing soon, your training schedule looks like...

Monday: Full Body - Day 1

Tuesday: Optional Aerobic Work

Wednesday: Full Body - Day 2

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Full Body - Day 3

Saturday: Optional Anaerobic Work

Sunday: Rest

That said, the program does offset which movement patterns are trained, so you're good to do two training days back-to-back if needed. DON'T run all three training days consecutively.

Here's an template of how I'd build this for an online client ↴

3x/Week Full Body/Upper/Lower Split

Another great option for busy people, or those newer to proper training.

Again, you'll ideally have at least one rest day between each training day.

I typically program this:

Day 1: Full Body Strength

Day 2: Upper Hypertrophy

Day 3: Lower Hypertrophy

You now know training each muscle group twice per week is ideal. A full body/upper/lower split like this allows for a strength day, AND two size focused days, where the client is really able to focus on hitting specific muscle groups with a ton of volume and still get a great pump (hard to do with 3x/week full body).

Here's an template of how I'd build this for an online client ↴

4x/Week Upper/Lower Split

This is one of my favorite training splits. It’s solid for most anyone but the most rank beginner, all the way up to those with years of experience in the gym. Really, this split can be scaled up for a long time, without seeing a drop off in progress.

The 12 Week Lean Muscle Building Program I'm releasing, the Upper/Lower Split Is Programmed like this...

Monday: Day 1 - Upper

Tuesday: Day 2 - Lower

Wednesday: Optional Aerobic Work

Thursday: Day 3 - Upper

Friday: Day 4 - Lower

Saturday: Optional Anaerobic Work

Sunday: Rest

Here's an template of how I'd build this for an online client ↴

5x/Week Upper/Lower/Push/Pull/Lower Split

This is a great option for more intermediate - advanced clients who have more time to focus to training. You can accrue a lot of volume across a week with this split, which also means we need to be very smart with movement selection and intensity. We don't want stress to outweigh recovery.

This split is fun, because the first two days (upper & lower) feel very "functional strength-focused", while the later three days feel much more bodybuilder-esque.

For optimal results, I recommend online clients run this split:

Monday: Day 1 - Upper

Tuesday: Day 2 - Lower

Wednesday: Rest or Aerobic Work

Thursday: Day 3 - Push

Friday: Day 4 - Pull

Saturday: Day 5 - Lower

Sunday: Rest

Here's an example of how I'd program this for you within coaching  ↴

5x/Week Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower Upper Split -Or- Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower

This is very similar to the above training split, but my preferred option for online clients who really want to focus more on lower body OR upper body, because here we're hitting either upper or lower with 3x/week frequency (as opposed to the 2x/week frequency with the U/L/P/P/L split).

I've used the Lower/Upper/Lower/Upper/Lower split often with my more advanced female clients who want more to spend a few months focusing on glute growth. In this situation, the final Lower day is very glute focused.

We also have to be very smart about exercise selection and intensity, so regardless if your 5th day is Upper or Lower, making it more focused on the mind-muscle connection & pump, rather than pushing heavy weight is smart.

This split is fun, because the first two days (upper & lower) feel very "functional strength-focused", while the later three days feel much more bodybuilder-esque.

For optimal results, I recommend online clients run this split:

Monday: Day 1 - Upper

Tuesday: Day 2 - Lower

Wednesday: Rest or Aerobic Work

Thursday: Day 3 - Upper

Friday: Day 4 - Lower

Saturday: Day 5 - Upper

Sunday: Rest

Just flip the Upper & Lower days to make this a lower body focused program.

Here, the same principles apply to the first four days of the week as with the 4x/week Upper/Lower split. The 5th day is where we need to take extra consideration  ↴

6x/Week Push/Pull/Lower/Push/Pull/Lower

Finally, we have the P/P/L/P/P/L split. As you can imagine, it's easy to rack up a lot of volume quickly when training 6x/week like this. So again, we need to be very smart about exercise selection and intensity.

This essentially means being sure to limit movements that are very neurologically taxing. If your training is entirely heavy barbell movements 6x/week, you'll have trouble recovering and actually making progress.

I'd typically set this up:

Monday: Day 1 - Push

Tuesday: Day 2 - Pull

Wednesday: Day 3 - Lower

Thursday: Day 4 - Push

Friday: Day 5 - Pull

Saturday: Day 6 - Lower

Sunday: Rest

Here's how I'd program this for an online client ↴

And that is exactly how to program smart, fun, and effective programs for anyone - from beginner clients to the most advanced.

If you're ready to experience a 12 week, periodized program created by me using the principles from this blog, drop you email below.

When the doors open for this program, I'm limiting the amount of people who can join. Once the spots fill up, this program will NOT be available again.

You'll have a choice between an Upper/Lower functional bodybuilding program -OR- a full body strength/fat loss program. Both programs are designed to transform your physique, build functional strength & lean muscle, and push your energy systems to new heights.

On top of that, you'll have access to myself in a private community for accountability & support. We're here to answer any questions you have about the programs, your nutrition, etc.

Again, spots are limited. Drop your email below to hop on the waitlist, and among the first notified when the program opens ↴

The "Why" Behind This Blog

I wasn't going to give you this as a free blog.

In fact, this blog was originally supposed to be explaining my thought processes behind the 12-week training program I'm releasing SOON.

In this upcoming program (more details at the bottom of the blog), you'll have a choice between an Upper/Lower functional bodybuilding program -OR- a full body strength/fat loss program, plus access to me, a private community, and much more.

But, mid-editing I realized...

"This is everything any coach insecure about the programs they're prescribing their clients (or themselves) needs to know about programming."

This literally takes you through the process of designing training months, weeks, and days for your clients.

And because I like giving & helping out others who are struggling to get clients or themselves results like I once was, here we are. 

So with that said, I give you Program Design 101. 

Enjoy.

The 3 Fundamental Principles Your Training (Or A Client’s) Should Always Be Built Around

1. Your training program needs to be fun. 

There are lots of solid, evidence-based programs out there that forget this all-important aspect. When you’re having fun with your training, you’re more motivated, you push harder in the gym, you get better results, and most importantly - you build a lifelong habit.

2. Your training program needs to be backed by science & goal-specific. 

Know what’s great for motivation? 

Actually making progress. 

Many training programs are fun and entertaining for a few weeks… until you realize you’re not making any progress. This means nothing in these programs are random. We’re implementing different periodization strategies, progressions, and phases to not only make your training fun and engaging, but also change your physique dramatically.

3. Your training program needs to help you look better, feel better, AND move better. 

This means we’re not force-feeding movements that create pain, we’re taking the time to mobilize & prime your body before training, you’re training all the foundational movement patterns in their correct ratios, and we’re NOT neglecting your aerobic system.

Unfortunately, there’s a huge lack of training programs & information out there on how to create programs that meet all 3 of these principles.

Which is exactly why I've been building this program, and am giving away a stupid amount of education in this blog.

I’ve been there - both as the trainee & the trainer - confused as to why my programs weren’t working for myself and my clients.

I built you this program and wrote this blog so you don’t ever have to feel like I did. You’ll be armed with both the knowledge and the actual training program you need to create the leanest, strongest version of yourself you’ve ever seen.

Never again will you have to wonder if you’re “doing the right thing” in the gym - for yourself or a client.

Designing A Training Month (A Mesocycle)

Because I know many of you reading this are coaches yourselves, I want to start by explaining the why behind the program you’ll be following. I want this to be an educational experience to not only help you create your best body ever, but also help get your clients better, pain-free results.

To build a great program, we start by looking at training from the mesocycle perspective. 

Mesocycle is a term often used within training program periodization. In this case, it refers to a month or a "phase" within your training program. 

Both the Upper/Lower functional bodybuilding program and the full body strength/fat loss program program have three mesocycles. 

While it’s smart to plan from a macrocycle perspective (over the course of multiple months - years) for competitive powerlifters, athletes, and the like - for most general population trainees, we really have no idea what the future holds and how long we’ll be working together. 

So for most coaches that work with the general population, it makes the most sense to focus on creating well-structured mesocycles that your clients (or yourself) can easily build off of in the future, without a rigid yearly plan.

Basically, we’re looking at the desired outcome from each month or phase of training first, and reverse engineering from there, all the way to what each training day should look like.

Now, I’m assuming you're like most of my online clients - your goals are to build functional strength & muscle while staying lean.

To accomplish this, we know we’ll need push intensity and/or volume across the course of the mesocycle. But we also need to make sure we’re managing fatigue properly, to allow recovery & adaptation to the increasing training stimulus. This leaves you STRONGER at the end of the mesocycle, instead of under-recovered and beat up.

Essentially, designing a smart mesocycle starts by determining your progressions for volume, intensity, and frequency across the phase.

To better understand, let’s break down a few of the progressions built into this program.

Using Reps In Reserve

To implement the progressions in this program properly, and really create your best body ever, it’s essential that you understand a concept called Reps In Reserve (RIR).

Reps in reserve gauges how many reps you have in the tank at the end of a set. This is the tool we’ll be using to make sure you’re using the appropriate amount of effort (neither too much or too little) to keep progressing all 12 weeks of this program.

The beauty of using reps in reserve is, it makes your program much more individualized to how you’re feeling on a daily basis. 

If you’re low on sleep, under-recovered, or experiencing significant life-stress, an exercise will feel harder. Rather than grind away at (currently) unsafe weights, reps in reserve naturally regresses and progresses intensity, depending on how you’re feeling. 

Since I’m not there with you in the gym to judge the appropriate intensity for you to train at, this helps us auto-regulate your training and optimize your results.

To Gauge Reps In Reserve  - Ask yourself at the end of a set: “How many more reps could I have squeezed out if I absolutely had to?” Your answer is your “Reps In Reserve” (RIR), or how many reps you feel you had left before failure.

Utilizing reps in reserve properly ensures your training is providing an effective stimulus for growth.

See, the closer you take a set to failure, the more muscle fibers you recruit and fatigue. It’s thought the last few reps of a set are by far the ones you get the most out of, because they do the most to disrupt homeostasis and spark new muscle growth. (This is the concept of "effective reps".)

We know that if we push the intensity too far (0 RIR/lots of sets to failure), we’ll create too much stress to recover from. We also know that if your RIR is too high (probably 5+), you won’t get much out of your set.

So it’s smart to spend the majority of your time training around an 1-3 RIR, which is exactly what you’ll be doing in this program.

The Progressions

Tying this all together - We’re manipulating your training volume and intensity through weekly variations in RIR, sets, reps, or a combination of the three factors.

For example, below you’ll be decreasing RIR weekly AND adding a rep. At the very least, you’ll add a rep each week (and potentially weight). 

This is from Weeks 1, 2, and 3 (respectively) of the Upper/Lower program ↴

Here, we’re increasing volume by manipulating sets. RIR stays the same, but volume still increases weekly:

There are lots of progressions like this built into the programs, but you get the idea.

Your strength movements will follow a set progression like shown above. We’ll push volume via sets, weight, and RIR for 3 weeks. We’ll then drop volume for a week during your deload - this is important, as we allow your body to fully recover from the last few weeks of pushing and adapt/grow! If we just linearly increased volume and intensity every week of this program, you would regress.

From here, you’ll be able to start the progressions over in the next phase/mesocycle, but with a heavier weight than the previous. (E.g. mesocycle 1 you could deadlift 3x5 @225 with 1 RIR. mesocycle 2 you find you can deadlift 3x5 @235 with 1 RIR.) This way, we’re also increasing the total volume you lift as the mesocycles go on.

So by the end of mesocycle 3, volume will be much higher than mesocycle 1, and you’ll be much stronger with more lean muscle.

Energy Systems

Progressing across the course of a mesocycle also means considering your cardio progressions.

No matter if you choose the 3x/week full body split or the 4x/week upper/lower split, you'll have two optional cardio days built in. I would highly recommend you do them, regardless if your goal is getting leaner, or building muscle.

The cardio I’ve programmed won’t “steal your gainz”... it’ll help them.

Really. Let me explain.

Your energy for different activities in the gym comes from three main "energy systems":

1. Anaerobic-Alactic System - Primarily fuels the first ~15 seconds of exercise

2. Anaerobic-Lactic System - Primarily fuels the first ~60 seconds of exercise

3. Aerobic System - Primarily fuels from 60-90 seconds on exercise forward

Now, when you're lifting weights, you're primarily using the first two "anaerobic" energy systems.

You're probably NOT doing much training to build your aerobic system, which is a mistake. 

To quote Joel Jamison:

“Your aerobic system drives restoration of homeostasis within the cellular environment following anaerobic energy production.”

Basically, your aerobic system is what helps you recover from anaerobic efforts (lifting).

A higher level of aerobic fitness (to an extent) will translate to faster recovery and likely heavier weight lifted (due to decreased fatigue) between sets.

Secondly, you need to consider your autonomic nervous system (ANS).

Your ANS handles the processes in your body that don't require conscious control. Things like breathing, blood flow, digestion, etc.

The ANS has two main branches:

1. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) - a.k.a. Fight or Flight Mode

2. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) - a.k.a Rest and Digest Mode

Your ANS is always activated, and is in either a sympathetic or parasympathetic state.

When you're in a sympathetic state - You’re in “fight-or-flight mode”. You’re sensing some eminent danger or threat. To get ready to fight, better perform in the gym, or even run away, adrenaline and cortisol are released, and blood flow to the major muscle groups increases. 

Your body shuts down or slows many processes you don’t need to survive in the short-term (digestion, hormone production, etc.) This is rarely caused by actual physical danger. Most any stressful situation, physically or mentally, puts you in a sympathetic state.

The sympathetic state is catabolic. It breaks things down. Sympathetic states are often activated through:

• Intense workouts
• Stress in daily life
• Too little sleep
• Stimulants
• Under-eating⠀

These are all necessary at certain times to achieve your goals. Stress/sympathetic states aren't bad - just be sure to take time to recover from 'em.

When you're in a parasympathetic state - Your body is in “rest and digest” mode. This is where the important factors to recovery happen. Your body is producing hormones, digesting food, absorbing nutrients, building muscle, etc.

The parasympathetic state is anabolic. It builds. So obviously, outside of the necessary sympathetic state required to stimulate muscle growth in the gym, we want to spend as much time in a parasympathetic state as possible.

Outside of managing life stressors properly, one of the best things you can do to spend more time in a sympathetic state is... you guessed it… developing your aerobic system.

As the aerobic system develops, the PNS response increases. Having higher aerobic fitness allows you to get back into a parasympathetic state quicker after training - translating to better recovery and more progress.

Now that you’re sold on some aerobic or “lower-intensity” cardio, you’ll also notice you have an even split of aerobic & anaerobic cardio programmed. In simplest terms, the aerobic work is programmed to help your recovery between sets and training sessions, the anaerobic is programmed to increase your performance during each set. 

We don’t want to program too much stressful high-intensity anaerobic along with what is already a challenging training program - which is why you’re keeping it to one day of anaerobic work & one day of aerobic work.

That said, you'll see that none of the cardio is random - just like your lifting it follows very specific progressions.

Designing A Training Week (A Microcycle)

Now that you know the basic outcomes you want from your mesocycle, let’s look at the smaller scale of how to plug the proper movement patterns in on a weekly (microcycle) basis.

The Movement Hierarchy

To understand how to put together an amazing training week, you first need to shift your focus to movements instead of muscles.

I first learned of the Six Foundational Movement Patterns from John Rusin:

1. Squat

2. Hinge

3. Lunge

4. Push

5. Pull

6. Anti-movement

The idea here is training movement patterns, rather than focusing too much on training specific muscles in isolation.

By training each of these movement patterns, you end up training every major muscle group in your body.

Now achieve pain-free lean muscle & functional strength, there’s a clear hierarchy of importance within the six foundational patterns. The thing your training is probably missing, is the correct dose of each pattern - which is why I created The Movement Hierarchy.

This is an incredibly useful tool to use when programming for yourself or your clients. Let’s break it down.

→ Tier One: Row | Hinge | Anti-Movement

Tier one is your most foundational movements. To achieve health and longevity in and out of the gym, you need to emphasize these most within your training.

These movement patterns (and the muscles they train) truly create the foundation for a healthy, pain-free body that’s both functionally strong and athletic.

The posterior muscles (the muscles on the backside of your body) are key stabilizers to the most frequently injured and unstable joints in your body:

• Your upper back musculature stabilizes the shoulder joints
• Your hamstrings stabilize your knees
• If your glutes are weak, you’ll compensate with your low back.

A weak posterior increases your odds of experiencing pain and potentially injury around one of these joints.

Most of us love to push (think: bench press, overhead press). Pushing trains our anterior musculature: chest, delts, quads... the fun stuff you can watch yourself train in the mirror.

But when it comes to pulling (which works the muscles on the backside of your body), those muscles are much harder to feel and see. Out of sight, out of mind.

Typical office jobs that have you sitting at a desk with a slouched forward posture makes things worse. Most of us have a pretty significant anterior > posterior muscle imbalance, which frequently shows up as low back and shoulder pain.

Now, it’s easy to train anterior > posterior muscles to the point of imbalance. But it’s very hard to achieve a posterior too strong relative to the anterior.

The Row (Horizontal Pull)

When you row, you’re primarily Training the muscles of your upper back.

A strong upper back is key to shoulder health and stability. If you’re benching a lot, you need to be rowing just as much (if not more).

Mastering the rowing movement builds a strong foundation for a healthy, pain-free upper body. This is why you’re going to be putting a STRONG emphasis on the rowing pattern in this training program, and adding in lots of extra upper back volume with movements like Band Pull-Aparts, Facepulls, Dumbbell Back Flys, etc.

Not only does this focus on your upper back change how your physique looks entirely, but your shoulders will also feel amazing.

The Hinge

The hinge movement pattern is great for your hamstrings and glutes, and often back and core.

Strong glutes are essential both in and out of the gym - when your glutes aren’t strong enough to do their job on a movement like a squat or deadlift, more of the work is forced on the surrounding areas… usually your lower back.

In general, the hinge pattern is where people most often report tweaking their lower backs. The usual culprit is either:

• You don’t know how to hinge properly.
• Your glutes are weak OR you’re not recruiting them when necessary.

Either way, it’s important to practice the skill of the hinge AND train the muscles associated with hinging to set yourself up to feel crazy strong in the gym and stay pain-free outside of the gym.

Most hinge variations are great for your whole backside - so you get a lot of bang for your buck out of this pattern. Get strong at your preferred deadlift variation, and you’ll build great glutes, hamstrings, and upper back in the process.

Anti-Movement

We all love to do tons of spinal flexion exercises: crunches, leg raises, and the like. 

The thing is, when we’re training spinal flexion, we’re not effectively training our core for its essential function: resisting movement to stabilize your spine and pelvis under load.

The ability to use your core to resist movement is key to a strong deadlift, squat, and even overhead press. Very often the limiting factor keeping you from being as strong as you could be on your compound movements is the core. The inability to stabilize your spine is also a likely culprit for your low back pain.

Anti-movement encompasses anti-extension, anti-lateral flexion, and anti-rotation movements.

Now, you probably cringe when you think of doing a boring set of planks. I get it... I do, too. But as you’ll find in this training program, anti-movement training doesn’t have to be boring at all.

By putting a major emphasis on Tier One of The Movement Hierarchy, we’re helping you build a very resilient body, and setting you up for a lifetime of pain-free progress.

→ Tier Two: Squat | Horizontal Press | Vertical Pull

Tier Two primarily trains the muscles opposite your Tier One muscles. 

Squat

The squat has a somewhat undeserved reputation as a glute builder. It’s really a much more quad-dominant movement for most people. For those with a quad > hamstring imbalance, this is a common cause of low-back pain, and squatting more will make the issue worse, so just make sure you’re prioritizing your posterior work.

Similar to the deadlift, you don’t have to force feed conventional barbell back squats into your training program (just do more single-leg/lunge work). Find a variation that works the best for your anatomy, injury history, and goals, and get really damn strong at it.

Horizontal Push

Everyone’s favorite: Bench Presses, Push-Ups, etc. Horizontal pushing is great for your push muscles: your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

All great things - but pushing more than you pull often leads to shoulder pain. So be sure to mind the hierarchy, and keep lots of upper back work in.

Vertical Pull

You’re training your upper back here as well, but from overhead.

These are above rows on the movement hierarchy, because many people don’t yet have the ability to move their scapulae correctly when pulling. This results in other muscles doing the work... and often shoulder pain. The rowing motion is easier to master first, and carries over to strength on the vertical pull.

Truly, most people could train only the first two tiers and get great results. If you’re a coach, this is where your clients will spend most of their time (but be sure to add in single-leg work). By mastering them, you’ll build an amazing foundation for a lean, strong body.

→ Tier Three: Vertical Push | Lunge

Lunge

When we look at your training from a “functional” viewpoint, the ability to do things with one leg at a time is very important.

The squat and hinge are great movements. But, when training with both legs at the same time (bilaterally), often one leg will be doing more of the work than the other, without you realizing it. 

This compounds over time to form imbalances, and potential pain and injury.

On the same note, if you have back issues, training the lower body hard enough to create an effective training stimulus becomes a challenge. 

This is where unilateral (single-leg) work like lunges is a game-changer. It allows you to load the legs super heavy, while also drastically reducing the amount of stress that you put on the spine.

For example:

Say you can’t progress past 225×6 on your back squat without tweaking your low back.

You decide to load up the split squat movement heavy and find that you can rep out 70lb dumbbells in each hand for 6, without back pain.

When you squat 225, you’re basically hitting each leg with ~112.5lbs. With split squats, you’re hitting each leg with 140lbs, but with much less stress on your back. It’s a win-win. Unilateral movements allow you to create a GREAT training effect for the lower body, without loading the spine to the degree necessary with bilateral squat variations.

Really, I would consider unilateral/lunge work as interchangeable with you squat movement pattern. 

From real-world experience training hundreds of clients in-person and online, the lunge variations (e.g. Bulgarian splits squats, reverse lunges) will often make as much or more sense for your goals and lifestyle than bilateral squats. 

So if you have back issues, you’re OK to plug a single leg movement in for the squat pattern in this program. The only reason the squat is lower on The Movement Hierarchy is. If you can’t squat on two legs, you’re screwed on one.

Vertical Push

Pressing overhead incredible for building strong shoulders that look great.

That said, realize that you’re already hitting your shoulders with quite a bit of volume training your horizontal presses. So adding in too many more sets of horizontal presses will leave your shoulders feeling beat up, and quickly. 

Plus, we just don’t do things overhead much in our day-to-day life. So if you haven’t been training properly, you’ll likely be lacking the mobility you need to get overhead. This means that most people will do well with a limited amount of overhead pressing (relative to the first two tiers).

You’ll get 90%+ of the results sticking in Tiers 1-3 - these should always be the primary focus of your training.

→ Tier Four: Isolation Work

I’m not going to go too in-depth here, as I really address this in the Finishers section below. But essentially, isolation work is just a useful tool to bring up weak points, or and more volume to muscles you want to focus on. 

One of my favorite things about this program is, you have multiple options to choose from to build your specific weak points (e.g. upper back, hamstrings, glutes), as well as focusing on your vanity muscles like biceps - which is important! Remember, having fun is a HUGE part of long-term success with your training.

Designing A Training Day

Ok, you know how to put together a solid month of training, and each week within that month. Now it’s time to educate you on how to build the perfect training day within each week.

Building The Perfect Training Day: My 5 Phase System

There are FIVE PRINCIPLES I design all my online client's individual programs around.These principles allow you tons of customization with your training, while also ensuring that your program is based on a solid foundation that WILL get you results.

Every training day in the programs is built around this 5 phase system.

The principles can each be seen as distinct phases. Each phase has a very specific focus, but they’re all pushing you towards the same overarching goal.

Since this is essentially the definition of periodization, think of these 5 phases as a periodization system within your training day. 

I truly believe this is the most effective way to train for anyone who wants to look better, feel better, and move better.

Phase One: Mobilize

→ Goal - Prep the joints and muscles you'll be training for movement through their full ranges of motion.

If you’ve been sitting at your desk all day, your body isn't ready to get under a barbell for an ass-to-grass squats.You need to prep your joints and muscles for movement before adding load.

If you skip this phase, you're increasing the odds you'll get injured.

Now don’t worry, you don’t need to turn into “the mobility guy/girl” - we’re making this as quick and efficient as possible.

Prescription - You’ll be doing at least one dynamic mobility movement to address the joint(s) and muscles you’ll using for your first strength movement of the day. Choose an option corresponding to your first strength movement of the day. (E.g. if deadlifting, choose a hinge pattern.)

Optionally, add 1-2 more movements addressing specific weaknesses relevant to today’s training. (E.g. if your ankle mobility is an issue, and you’re squatting today, choose an ankle mobility movement to pair with the bear squat.)

If you don't have any movement restrictions, you're welcome to do the prescribed movement pattern for your first strength movement, and move on.

Phase Two: Prime

→ Goal - Activate the necessary muscles to fire optimally, and prep the central nervous system for explosive movement.

The priming phase allows you to fully recruit the necessary muscles when called upon. It also primes your CNS to be explosive, improving performance in the strength portion of your training session.

Again, this is dependent on your first strength movement of the day. Your primer phase will always consist of:

1. Posterior chain exercise(s) - The muscles on the back side of the body play a key role in stabilizing the most injury prone joints - the knees, shoulders, and spine.

These are also the muscles we have the hardest time feeling/recruiting, so activating the posterior is a must for both muscle growth and injury prevention.

• Upper back - The upper back muscles stabilize the (very unstable) shoulder joint. Upper back activation work before a heavy push movement means less stress on the shoulders and lower odds of injury. The upper back also plays a key role in movements like the deadlift (lats help keep the spine rigid) and front squats (upper back keeps the bar in place), so always include at least one upper back exercise in the priming phase.
• Hamstrings & Glutes - The hamstrings are key to stabilizing the knees. The glutes are key to protecting the spine. Again, these muscles are typically under-active. If you go into a heavy deadlift without first activating your glutes and hamstrings, the work will be distributed somewhere else (usually your lower back).

2. Core Activation - The core stabilizes the spine. Being able to activate and brace the core when under a heavy load with movements like squats and deadlifts is crucial. You're mimicking what your core will be doing during the workout.

3. Explosive movement - Here, you're preparing your central nervous system to lift explosively when we start the training portion of the workout. You’ll always be performing a movement pattern that corresponds with your first strength movement of the day in an explosive fashion. We DON’T want to create fatigue here, but a few explosive reps that mimic the first strength movement mean your CNS will be firing on all cylinders when you get under the barbell.

Phase Three: Metric-Based Movements

→ Goal - Stimulate maximal strength and muscle gain by pushing heavy weight on the compound lifts.

Now that your body is fully mobilized and primed, you're going to start the most challenging part of the workout right out of the gate.

Basically, this is the part of the training program where we get you strong as hell, and build some lean muscle to boot.

You're lifting heavy weight (while maintaining quality form), and pushing for frequent weight increases. The objective here is applying the principle of progressive overload.

Progressive overload: The gradual increase of stress placed on the body during training - basically, you need to find a way to do a bit more in the gym over time to keep changing your body. 

Now, as you’ll learn about soon, you have progressive overload built in to this program - all you have to do is follow it as it’s laid out, and you’ll see great progress!

In this phase, you're focused on either adding weight or adding reps to 1-2 compound movements (the first three tiers of The Movement Hierarchy).

You're focusing on these first because:

• You're working many different muscle groups simultaneously - This makes the compound movements, GREAT for building muscle and strength, but also very fatiguing - so they should start off your workout.
• Mechanical tension - Muscle growth comes from three primary mechanisms:

→ Mechanical tension: Created by lifting heavy-ass weight. By progressively increasing the amount of tension you put on a muscle, you force growth.

→ Metabolic stress: The burning feeling you get when you do a high-rep set of curls. Metabolites are accumulating in your muscle cells, leading to cell swelling, hormonal changes, and a variety of other factors that are thought to influence muscle growth.

→ Muscle damage: Adequate training stress >> muscle damage (often experienced as soreness) >> recovery >> growth

Out of these three factors, mechanical tension is thought to be the most important.

Compound movements allow you to lift much more weight than isolation movements. This means you create a lot more tension with compound movements, and therefore build more muscle.

And that, ladies & gentlemen, is how I've built you the perfect 12 week training program inside of my membership coaching program.

I'm going to be releasing this program SOON. (Dependent on COVID-19).

When the doors open, I'm limiting the amount of people who can join the 12-week program.

And once the spots fill up, this program will NOT be available again.

→ This is a 12-week periodized training program run by me, through the True Coach software I use with all my 1-1 clients.

→ You'll have a choice between an Upper/Lower functional bodybuilding program -OR- a full body strength/fat loss program.

→ Both programs are designed to transform your physique, build functional strength & lean muscle, and push your energy systems to new heights.

→ On top of that, you'll have access to myself in a private community for accountability & support. We're here to answer any questions you have about the programs, your nutrition, etc.

Again, spots are limited. Drop your email below to hop on the waitlist, and among the first notified when the program opens ↴

Have you been stuck losing the same 10-15lbs over and over again for years, but never getting as lean as you want?

Or maybe it's a client who's stuck in a fat loss plateau.

In today's blog, you'll learn:

→ The simplified nutritional science behind fat loss stalls

→ My 8 step system to fix fat loss stalls with online clients

→ How to adjust your macros to break plateaus

→ And much more...

This blog is your guide to finally breaking through your body fat settling point, and getting as lean & confident as you've always wanted.

Fat Loss Purgatory

You start a diet.

The goal?

Make this the summer you finally get abs. (By the way, I can help If you’re struggling with this.)

Things are going GREAT the first month.

You’re down 10lbs, and a few inches from your waistline.

But just went it’s starting to look like this might be “the diet”... (you know, the one that actually works)… you hit a hard fat loss stall.

You macros just don’t seem to be working for your body like they used to.

This is followed by a few weeks of diet purgatory (always feeling like you're dieting, but never making progress), before eventually giving up altogether.

Sound familiar?

So what's really going on here? Why do so many people seem to have this exact struggle?

Why Fat Loss Stalls

It's well known that to lose fat, calories in must be less than calories out... A.K.A. you need to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day.

Now, the total calories your burn in a day is what we call your metabolism, and it's a lot simpler than you might think.

Basically, your metabolism has four different pieces:

1. Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - The calories your body burns just to stay alive. Even if you lie in bed all day, BMR won’t change. It’s calories burned through things like breathing, your heart pumping, etc. Generally, the heavier you are, the higher your BMR.

2. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) - Your body actually burns calories while digesting the food you eat:

- TEF of protein = 20–30%

- TEF of carbs = 5–10%

- TEF of fat = 0–3%.

3. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (N.E.A.T.) - All the calories you burn in your everyday movement outside the gym. N.E.A.T. is the most controllable variable of your metabolism, and seems to be the biggest difference in the metabolisms of lean and obese individuals. (1)

4. Thermic Effect Of Exercise (TEE) - Lifting weights, cardio, etc. This is the smallest portion of your metabolism -  exercise doesn't burn many calories. You could burn 500 calories with an hour on the stairmill, and then drink a 500 calorie margarita in five minutes.

These four pieces of your metabolism account for all the calories you burn in a day.

So, if your food intake has stayed exactly the same (calories in) but you’re not losing anymore, we know that your calories burned must have decreased.

Or as you’ve probably heard it put... Your metabolism has slowed. (*gasps*)

But really, don’t worry.

A “slower metabolism” is a normal part of weight loss, due to something called metabolic adaptation. You didn’t break anything, nor are you doomed to a life of under-eating.

As the four pieces of your metabolism adapts to weight loss and less food (metabolic adaptation), some changes occur:

1. Your BMR drops as you lose weight - A smaller body burns fewer calories. This also applies to TEE, a smaller person will burn fewer calories during exercise.

2. TEF drops, since you’re eating less food - Some of this can be offset by increasing protein intake, but a decrease in calories still generally creates a drop in total TEF.

3. Calories burned via NEAT also drop - When dieting, you’re depriving the body of energy (calories). You’re more lethargic, resulting in less daily movement. Step goals and increasing exercise help, but a decrease in calories burned here is inevitable.

When you eat more, it has the opposite effect on your metabolism - you have more energy, you’re eating more food, and have (potentially) a larger body, so you start to burn more calories.

But in this circumstance, your body is getting smaller as a result of your diet, and burns fewer calories as it shrinks.

Thus, your metabolism slows. Some of this is an inevitable part of fat loss, and actually means you’re achieving the goal of the diet - a smaller body.

To learn more about Metabolic Adaption, Optimizing Fat Loss, And Reverse Dieting, check out my podcast on the topic with Eric Trexler of Stronger By Science ↴

But Wait...

In my experience as a nutrition coach, metabolic adaptation is rarely the reason fat loss actually stalls… I’d say ~5% of the time.

If your fat loss is stalled right now, you’re probably in the other 95%... meaning you don’t need to decrease calories or increase cardio yet in order for fat loss to resume.

The goal within nutrition coaching is always to keep you eating as much as possible, while achieving your leanest, most confident self. So we need to get to the bottom of this.

Why Fat Loss ACTUALLY Stalls (95% Of The Time)

This leads to a vicious cycle of...

Cutting calories → still not losing weight → cutting calories → STILL not losing weight → “Ugh, diets just don’t work for me!” → Quitting (for a few months, before you start the cycle over)

Again, this probably sounds familiar.

And it's exactly why when your macros “stop working” within nutrition coaching, the last thing we do is cut calories.

In fact, we have a very clear system for troubleshooting stalled fat loss.

Here’s what it looks like...

The 8 Step System For Diagnosing Stalled Fat Loss

This is the exact order of operations or questions I take you through with nutrition coaching.

I’ve spent years perfecting this system. This allows us to pinpoint exactly what factor has stalled your fat loss, and adjust your nutrition & training strategy accordingly.

Ready? Start by asking yourself...

1. Have measurements decreased?

My online clients all take body measurements weekly, and drop them into their accountability tracker (shown).

How your measurements are changing is the single biggest factor I adjust your nutrition from.

Your weight stall or even increase due to factors like building lean muscle, stress, digestion, sleep, and hormones… just to name a few.

Measurements give a much more accurate picture of your progress across the course of a week, and are less prone to the fluctuations of the scale.

→ If you’ve lost .25”+ off of multiple measurement sites, it’s safe to say that you’re losing fat. No nutrition adjustments needed.

→ If not, move on to #2.

2. Has weight decreased?

For most, the ideal speed of weight loss when trying to get leaner is .5-1% of body weight per week.
But like I mentioned, scale weight can fluctuate pretty wildly, due to things like water retention from higher sodium intake, stress, and digestive issues.

Most SHOULD see a monthly trend of 2-4% of total body weight lost, but this rarely plays out as losing exactly .5-1% per week.

This is why taking body measurements is so important - online clients will often see weight loss stall, but a big decrease in measurements. This will be followed by a large weight drop a week or two further along.

So don't get caught up in weekly weight changes. Look at the trend over multiple weeks/the month.

This also very much depends on how lean you are already, and how much muscle you’re building as you lose fat.

A great example of this is my former online client Andrea (shown), who only lost 6 lbs over 6.5 months of coaching, but had a crazy body recomposition and measurement changes.

→ If you’ve lost .5%+ of bodyweight, no nutrition adjustments needed.

→ If not, move on to #3.

3. Did Fat Loss Stall Abruptly, Or Did Hunger Largely Decrease?

The reality is, metabolic adaptation is a slow process - a fat loss stall via metabolic adaptation happens very slowly, with rate of loss gradually decreasing.

So if you saw good changes on these macros a few weeks ago, and then an abrupt stall, you probably don’t need to decrease calories yet. The issue lies somewhere in #4-#6.

Similarly, if you’ve been relatively hungry throughout the fat loss phase (2.5-3.5/5 is normal in a fat loss phase) and suddenly see a large decrease in hunger (without drastically increasing the % of protein or whole foods within your calories), it’s likely that calories in have increased, or calories burned via movement have decreased.

→ These are important points to be aware of. Move on to #4.

4. Are you consistently hitting your macros?

This one’s pretty simple - if you’re not consistently hitting your macro goals, then you’re just eating more calories needed to lose fat.

No macro adjustment can make up for a lack of consistency.

Now, if you’re someone that struggles to hit your macros consistently, apply for coaching with me by clicking here.

We’ll:

1. Hold you extremely accountable to a smart nutrition plan

2. Find the best diet structure for your lifestyle. This is where the art of coaching comes in. Often people struggle to stick with diets, because the diet structure is a poor fit for the your lifestyle. A great example of this is watching clients macros compliance and results skyrocket after giving them higher calories on the weekends with something like the 5|2 macro split.

→ If you’re not consistently hitting your macros, no nutrition decreases needed. We’ll likely revisit our diet strategy, and make sure it’s the best fit for you and your consistency.

→ If you are hitting macro targets consistently, move on to #5.

5. Are You Measuring Food Accurately?

Measuring food accurately is very important for macros. Tracking accurately requires measuring most of your foods. I know it’s a pain in the ass... but not as much as kinda tracking for years and never getting results, right?

Truly, this is one I could go on about for a long time… but I’ll try to keep it brief.

Tools to help track accurately:

→ A food scale

→ A set of measuring cups

→ A set teaspoons and tablespoons

The Most Common "Tracking Mistakes":

→ Cooking oils - Even if you don’t apply it directly to your food, but rather line the pan with it, it still gets absorbed. This can add up to hundreds of untracked calories

→ Dressings, toppings, alcohol, and condiments - The two biggest culprits here are salad dressings and condiments like BBQ sauce. Both are sneaky high in calories, and all too easy to forget to track.

→ Estimating instead of measuring - We're typically pretty terrible at estimating our food intake accurately.

→ Not tracking entire meals or days.

→ Getting too flexible, with foods that are hard to track accurately. Nothing at all wrong with going out to eat, but eating food you didn’t prepare yourself always leaves much more room for error - you’ll never know exactly what’s in the dish you’re eating. So even if your macros look perfect in your tracker, eating out too frequently can still lead to underestimating calories.

Guidelines:

→ Don’t track using metrics like: small/medium/large. One medium banana. One large avocado. ½ bowl of rice. 1 steak. This leaves a lot of room for error.

→ Weight measurements (in grams) are by far the most accurate. Weigh as much as possible with a food scale. Measure the rest with cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons.

→ Weigh your meats raw (but thawed) and track them as such.

→ If you realize you’re not measuring your food accurately, don’t beat yourself up! This is a common mistake. We’ll take the next few weeks to work through your food diary together, and figure out anywhere inaccuracies could be slipping in.

→ If you are measuring food accurately, move on to #6.

6. Are you consistently hitting your daily movement goal?

Like we talked about earlier, NEAT is the most manipulatable variable of your metabolism.

Metabolism varies a lot in how it responds to over-eating or under-eating - especially NEAT.

From my experience as a nutrition coach, most client's metabolisms fall into one of two categories:

→ Adaptive Metabolisms - For these people, when you eat more, your body automatically increases NEAT to compensate. (Think: subconscious fidgeting, blinking, pacing, etc.)

Your body adapts to higher calorie intake by increasing calories burned through movement - so weight stays the same, even with calorie increases.

The opposite happens on a diet. When you eat less, your body decreases NEAT by a large degree to compensate.

Your body adapts to lower calorie intake by decreasing calories burned through movement - so weight stays the same, even with calorie lower than before.

→ Rigid Metabolisms - These people see very little or no increase in NEAT as a response to overeating. Thus fat gain is a bit easier.

But on the bright side, these people usually don't have to decrease calories as much to lose fat (because calories burned through NEAT doesn't decrease as much as it would for an adaptive metabolism).

To prove this idea - A 1999 study fed 16 people 1,000 calories over their maintenance intake per day.

- Weight gain between individuals varied from .8lbs to 9.3lbs - a huge difference in 8 weeks.

- The change in NEAT between individuals also varied wildly, from -98 cals up to +692 cals per day.

Basically, the 16 people in the study had crazy different responses to eating the same calorie surplus. There's a huge variance in how people's energy expenditure (via NEAT) will respond to overfeeding or underfeeding.

So the point of all this talk is - as you diet, movement will likely reduce. While we can’t account for all of the fidgeting and blinking you might cease to do, we do give all fat loss focused clients a daily movement goal.

This helps ensure that your weight loss hasn’t stalled from a decrease in movement.

Depending on how active you are at work, 7-10k steps per day is a realistic target for most.

→ If you realize movement has decreased, schedule in 1-2 walks per day (or as needed to hit movement goal). Fat loss progress should resume soon.

→ If you are hitting your movement goals, move on to #7.

7. Was Your Last Macro Adjustment Less Than Two Weeks Ago?

The reality is, it just takes time for a decrease in calories to compound to noticable changes. So if it’s been less than two weeks since your last macro adjustment, you likely need to just give it more time.

→ If it’s been less than two weeks since your last macro adjustment, stay put. Progress should pick up soon.

→ If it’s been 2+ weeks, move on to #8.

8. Have You Taken A Diet Break In The Last 12 Weeks?

For most clients, sticking to the diet seems to get much harder after 6-12 weeks - not to mention the potential physiological benefits of diet breaks. (2) I’ve seen much better client results implementing diet breaks every 6-12 weeks, instead of just trying to diet continuously. (Learn all about diet breaks here.)

→ If you haven’t taken a diet break in the last 12 weeks, implement one now for 1-2 weeks.

→ If you have taken a diet break in the last 12 weeks, it's time to make an adjustment.

How To Make Adjustments

So now we’re sure that your fat loss has stalled due to metabolic adaptation, and not mismanaging calories in (or accidentally decreasing movement), let’s talk about how we’d adjust your nutrition & training strategy within coaching.

Basically, we have three options:

1. Decrease calories in.

2. Increase calories out.

3. A combination of both decreasing calories in and increasing calories out.

Of course, we need to get a bit deeper into each of these.

1. Decreasing calories in.

All your foods are made up of some combination (or at least one) of these “macros”:

- Protein, which contains 4 Calories per gram

- Carbohydrate, which contains 4 Calories per gram

- Fat, which contains 9 Calories per gram

So when setting your macros and adjusting your macros, there are some boxes we want to be sure are checked:

✔ You need to be eating .8-1.2g pro/lb of bodyweight (if you’re not used to eating much protein, we’ll start you lower and ramp this intake up over time).

✔  For hormonal health and preventing fatty-acid deficiencies, etc. you need to be eating .3g fat/lb+ daily.

(To learn exactly how I set new online client’s macros, check out The Complete Guide To Setting Your Macros.)

As long as we have those two boxes checked, we can really set carbs and fats to your preference. The more advanced you are, the more likely we are to mess with carb/fat ratios and the like, instead of strictly focusing on the best approach for your adherence. (For more advanced individuals with the goal of getting as lean and strong as possible, I generally like to keep protein in the 1-1.2g/lb range, fat in the .3-.35g/lb range, and fill the remaining calories with carbs.)

→ If you're not making progress, normally a 5-10% reduction in weekly calories will be enough to get fat loss to resume again in a fat loss phase.

→ If progress has just dipped slightly (e.g. you’re still losing, but slower than .5% of body weight per week), your adjustment will likely be closer to a 5% decrease.

→ If progress has stalled hard (e.g. no weight or measurement changes in 2+ weeks), we’ll err towards a 7.5-10% decrease.

It's pretty rare that I'll drop someone's calories by more than 10%, unless we need to be super aggressive for a strict deadline (e.g. a photoshoot. By the way, check out my client Rachel’s exact nutrition & training prescription to get photoshoot lean here.)

This reduction in calories can come from carbs, fats, or a combination of both. We never drop protein below the .8-1.2g/lb mark. To build or maintain your lean muscle in a fat loss phase, it’s essential to get adequate protein.

→ Pull from fats if… you’re still above the fat threshold (.3g/lb), and are chasing as much lean muscle gain or maintenance as possible.

→ Pull from carbs if… you’re at the fat threshold, or just prefer a higher fat diet.

→ Pull from both if… your food choices are the most important factor to sticking to your diet. This will allow you to keep the same foods in your diet (just in smaller portions), instead of having to drastically cut back on carb heavy or fattier foods.

So let’s look at a hypothetical client to illustrate this.

Client stats:

Weight: 200lbs

Intake: 2505 Calories | 200g protein | 280 grams carbs | 65 grams fat
 

This client has hit a hard stall, and we’ve decided to decrease calories by 10%.

2505 X .1 = 250 Calories

→ We’ll keep protein as is (BW X 1).

→ The client enjoys a high fat diet, so we want to keep fat a bit higher if possible.

 → That said, we know the client’s training performance will take a hit if we drop carbs too low.

So, we’ll pull the 250 calories evenly from carbs and fat.

-14 grams fat or 126 kcal (14 x 9).

-31 grams carbs or 124 kcal (31 x 4).

...for a total deduction of 250 calories.

New intake: 2255 Calories | 200g protein | 249g carbs | 51g fat

2. Increase Calories Out

Your second option is to simply move more. This is generally much less practical than controlling calories - it usually takes less effort to decrease calorie intake by 200 (you just eat less), than it does to increase calories burned by 200 (which equates to an extra ~30-45 mins of movement per day).

Your options here:

→ Increase training volume. We strategically add more sets of compound movements to your training, or add in another training day.

I’ve seen this strategy work best with those that are newer to proper training, and have only been following a smart training program 2-3 days per week. The problem is, the more we increase volume, the more “recovery resources” your body needs to repair itself. Recovery resources are already very limited on a diet, so for more advanced individuals who have been following a smart training strategy 4+ times per week, a big jump in volume would often be detrimental to results.

→  Increase aerobic work - I prefer to start here when increasing calories via movement for most (outside of those who can realistically add training volume within their recovery abilities). Aerobic work is easier, and actually helps your recovery.

We would generally start by increasing your step goal close to the realistic limit you can hit (~10k for most), and next add 1-2 sessions of incline walking or cycling for 30-40 mins at a heart rate of 120-140 BPM.

If the client prefers, this can also be something like shorter and more intense (but still aerobic focused) bouts (e.g. 2,000m on the rower @2:00/500m pace. 2 min rest. Repeat x4.)

→ Increase anaerobic work - While quicker, anaerobic work is much more stressful on the body, and takes more time to recover from. I generally limit this to 1-2 sessions per week, and prefer to tack this onto the end of a session in the form of a fat loss finisher (learn all about programming the perfect finishers here), rather than standalone sessions.

Really, when programming cardio the most important factor is that you’re doing something you can stick to. So if you absolutely hate incline walking, it’s not going to be in your program.

3. A combination of both decreasing calories in and increasing calories out.

This is pretty self-explanatory. If you would rather increase movement a bit (e.g. add in 1 aerobic session) and decrease calories slightly (e.g. 4-5%), instead of a large decrease or increase in either, that’s perfectly fine.

And that’s your roadmap to fixing stalled fat loss and FINALLY achieving the leanest, most confident version of yourself.

If you want more expert nutritional guidance, daily accountability, and a strategy fit to your specific needs and lifestyle, click here now to apply for Online Coaching.