You kill it in the gym. So why don’t you look like you want to? The answer is pretty simple, you haven’t found the right kind of training program, coupled with the right nutrition advice to help you achieve your goals. This article will provide you with a plan aimed at reducing body fat while maintaining your strength and WOD fitness. Did I mention it’s also 100% free?

The first thing I tell all my athletes is that there is nothing here that is some “secret” or “hack” to achieving your goals. I’ve been playing the functional fitness game for over 11 years and I can tell you that those things don’t exist.

This is simply going to be a well proven fitness program, based on my experience as a coach, rooted in science. It will also be coupled with common sense nutrition planning that has worked for my athletes and I during our fat loss cycles.

This program should yield 15-25 pound fat loss, with very minimal changes to muscle mass. Obviously some will lose more, and others will lose less. Now lets get to the details.

The Functional Fitness Program

The fitness portion of this program is based off of one of my most popular free fitness plans called: 6 Weeks of Muscular Growth for Functional Fitness.

Here are links to the full 12 weeks, as there are two parts to the cycle.

6 Weeks of Muscular Growth Part 1

6 Weeks of Muscular Growth Part 2

As of this writing I’ve had over 75,000 athletes take a look at the program, and many have had excellent results.

This program is actually designed primarily for strength and hypertrophy for the functional athlete, but it works very well when trying to lose weight, and drop body fat because you actually need a fair amount of muscular work to maintain your muscle mass when in a caloric deficit.

Here is a snap shot of what part one looks like.

Phase 1: Week 1

Phase 1: Week 2 Fitness Plan

Here is a snapshot of what part two looks like.

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Part II of the Functional Fitness Program

Because losing fat is easier when you burn more calories we will be adding in one of my favorite programs for two reasons. One, it will increase your aerobic capacity, allowing you to improve your WOD times and two, it will burn a few hundred extra calories, kick starting your fat loss.

Click here for part two: The Aerobic Capacity Program.

Here is a snap shot of what the aerobic capacity plan looks like.

Detailed Instructions

The muscular growth plan is designed to be twelve weeks in length. Since we are dieting, we need to add some days into the plan when we don’t feel the best, to allow for some more recovery.

This should be on a case by case basis. If you feel pretty sore and the gym is the last place you want to be then it’s ok take an off day. Obviously don’t do this every week.

It also needs to be noted that the aerobic capacity program is done primarily before and after the muscular endurance program, with two additional days of running.

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This brings the program to roughly 6 days per week if you take no additional rest. Because I want you to rest more when you need it, just make sure you are doing the programs in sequential order.

Once you reach the end of the 8 weeks I would like you to repeat weeks 4-8 so the total length of the muscular endurance program matches the aerobic capacity program.

This is what the fitness portion of the program looks like in a snapshot.

Fitness Program Snapshot

Lastly, I recommend you read the full article for each portion, as they will probably answer any and all questions that I have not addressed here. Now, let’s get into the nutrition portion of the plan!

The Nutrition Program

Many people spend way to much time worrying about the minutia of nutrition. This is not necessary. Once you understand the basics, and have some solid guidelines it isn’t very complicated, but it can take a bit of trial and error to see what you respond to the best.

This is just like different exercises in the gym. You have some favorites, moves that you are naturally good at, and you have some that just don’t feel right to you. You’ll find that certain foods, and methods of dieting are the same way.

First I recommend you read the ultimate nutrition guide which will cover the basics of macros, calories, and everything you need to know to get started on your diet.

Now that you understand the basics you are ready to get going on the actual diet plan.

Click Here for the Fat Loss Program

Click Here for the Nutrition Calculator

This is a quick overview of what happens in this program. It relies you being consistent in the gym, eating the right amount, and tracking your intake with the excellent app, My Fitness Pal. As a side note, there is no need to upgrade for the paid version of this app, the free version will do just fine.

Detailed Nutrition Instructions

First read the links in this section, as this will likely answer all of your questions, but I will quickly summarize some key points here.

Overall energy expenditure is what will drive your fat loss. You will have to maintain a caloric deficit to lose weight. There is no getting around this! This program helps you manage a reasonable deficit so you can maintain gym performance and not feel hangry all the time.

I’ve made it even easier to figure out how much and what kind of macros you should be eating with the calculator, but understand that that is only a starting off place.

Some people will find that they can lose fat for a long time with only a 300 cal deficit where as others may need to go above 500 cal initially. However, I do not want anyone running huge 1000 cal deficits as this will yield a host of undesirable consequences such as: excess muscle loss, lower WOD performance, and less long term fat loss.

This plan is designed to take all hundred days and it is crucial that you maintain your weight loss between .5-1.0% of your overall body mass. Here is an example of what I mean.

Example

A 200lb male should lose between 1- 2 lbs per week

A 160 lb female should lose between .8 – 1.6 lbs per week

Anything above this will not be sustainable for the full duration and it will incur a whole host of unwanted side affects that we spoke of above. Be patient!

Final Tips

Remember this plan is designed for the functional athlete that wants to change how they look and drop body fat. You will make some improvements in your physical performance, but the biggest changes will be in your physique.

For those that successfully complete this program they should read this article on how to successfully come off of a diet so you don’t lose all of your hard work.

This program is very comprehensive, but it’s success will ultimately be up to you. Are you putting in the work? Did you study the free resources? Are you honestly tracking your food? If you do these things correctly you will lose fat. Now get out there and start training!

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If you have any questions or comments put them below where I can answer them quickly.

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