By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sports Discussion - Builtlean: Guidelines to Lose Fat, Not Muscle

BuiltLean Workout Guidelines To Lose Fat, Not Muscle


Over many years of trial and error, our Builtlean team has developed workout guidelines to help you lose fat without losing muscle while developing a more functionally strong, fit body that you can enjoy for the rest of your life. We’ve spent thousands of hours training clients, conducting research, and experimenting with different exercise methods and techniques in order to create these very simple, but effective guidelines.

We have five primary guidelines that all our workouts have in common:

1) Complete 2 To 3 Strength Circuits™ Workouts Per Week

While a beginner exerciser can likely increase strength and performance with as little as one strength circuit workout per week, the research shows more training tends to create greater strength increases.1The exercise authority ACSM recommends adults complete 20-60 minutes of rigorous exercise 3x per week, or 30-60 minutes of moderate intensity exercise 5x per week.2 In line with ACSM standards, we recommend you complete 2, to 3 strength circuitsTM workouts engaging each muscle group 2 to 3 days each week.

Strength training is so important because you keep your muscle as you lose only fat, improves your functional strength in daily life, and helps you burn more fat.3

2) Strength Before Cardio Training

Whether you should do cardio before, or after weights, is a persistent question in fitness. Does doing cardio before weights help you get stronger and lose more fat? What we believe and what the prevalence of research shows is to do full body strength circuits™ before HIIT (high intensity interval training), or other cardio for reasons including (1) you have more energy and focus to lift weight, (2) less risk of injury due to fatigue, and (3) your muscles contract more effectively. For several other reasons, see our article Should You Lift Weight Before, or After Cardio. We recommend completing strength circuits™ before doing any HIIT or other cardio. You can also consider doing HIIT conditioning on a separate day if that works well with your schedule.

3) Each Workout Features 2, 3 Key Strength Exercises

Exercise selection is debatably the most important variable in your exercise routine. If you choose the wrong exercises, they may be ineffective, or worse, cause injury. But if you choose the right exercises, you will be able to yield a great return on effort. You don’t need to do 20 exercises a workout to get solid results.

A focus on key exercises with a high return on effort is the foundation for each workout, and the foundation of an effective exercise routine. An example would be basic squat, lunge, push, pull and twisting movements with a sufficient amount of resistance. We recommend thinking about exercises in terms of movement patterns, not just muscle groups (more on this in guideline #5).

4) Every Workout Is Full Body

What does a “full body workout” actually mean? A full body workout means every muscle gets “used” during the workout. This does not necessarily mean you must to do a strength specific leg exercise every workout, but it does mean you have to at least use your legs (and every other muscle group) at some point during the workout.

For example, you may have a workout that emphasizes shoulder and back exercises, but you can finish off with kettlebell swings, which recruit your hips, glutes, legs, and your entire body, some jump squats, or even some sprints. For people sitting in a chair all day long, or generally sedentary (which is 95% of us), not using your legs, hips, and glutes in every workout is a huge disservice to your body!

5) All Movement Patterns Are Used At Least Once Per Week

Our bodies are designed to move. So when we think about exercise, and more specifically strength training, solely in terms of body parts like the arms, chest, and back, we are taking the wondrous complexity of our bodies and reducing it to a clunky piece of machinery.

When you throw a baseball, you are lunging, twisting, and pushing, which requires just about every muscle in your body to work in sync. So if you train only one muscle, does that help your body move better? I think not. The basic movement patterns we recommend you use at least once per week are (1) squat, (2) lunge, (3) push, (4) pull, (5) twist, (6) bend, and (7) combination exercises. You can emphasize certain muscle groups over others in a given workout, but the exercises you choose can be based on movement patterns.

BuiltLean Workout Structure

Most of our workouts are 45 minutes or less and follow a framework like the one below. For some workouts, we may forego the HIIT conditioning depending on the intensity of the circuits:

Where is the stretching and foam rolling you may ask? In between exercises and strength circuits™, we recommend grabbing water or stretching. At the beginning of the workout, we do recommend “targeted” foam rolling by focusing on a few movements, but it depends on time. In a perfect world, foam rolling every day along with stretching is ideal.

We hope this helps make the challenge of creating an effective workout much easier for you.


http://www.builtlean.com/2013/04/23/workout-guidelines-lose-fat/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=fat&utm_campaign=weekly+newsletter+&inf_contact_key=345b9e3a259753aa45516bb9c2a55a3810091aab065232f542523457ad2643f0




       

Around the Network
spurgeonryan said:
Does any of this Builtlean stuff use Crossfit exercising ?


It has it's own routine that isn't built around infomercials and lies like you see with P90x and other workouts like that.




       

how does this compare to p90x ?



ClassicGamingWizzz said:
FrancisNobleman said:
how does this compare to p90x ?


p90x

 

<3


P90X is the best thing since sliced bread <3



Wii U is a GCN 2 - I called it months before the release!

My Vita to-buy list: The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, TearAway, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, History: Legends of War, FIFA 13, Final Fantasy HD X, X-2, Worms Revolution Extreme, The Amazing Spiderman, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - too many no-gaemz :/

My consoles: PS2 Slim, PS3 Slim 320 GB, PSV 32 GB, Wii, DSi.

FrancisNobleman said:
how does this compare to p90x ?


This is a routine that will get you results regardless of what you want it to be. 

P90X is something that I do not like because they don't tell people what it is for.  While it is a good program it is targeted for people who are over weight.  IF you are a person trying to build muscle rather than lose weight then P90X is not what you want.  there is also better ways to lose weight than p90x.  It is just a program that people who don't know very much about working out buy into because of the infomercials.

Programs like that always gives like a time limit too like 3 months and you will be ripped or somethign like that.  That is also false.  that depends on the effort and ability you are from the beginning.  That 3 months is how long each cycle is.  Then you repeat it over and over again.  Building muscle also takes time.  20lbs of lean muscle a year is spectacular so the things they say in the infomercials is borderline lying.




       

Around the Network
JayWood2010 said:
FrancisNobleman said:
how does this compare to p90x ?


This is a routine that will get you results regardless of what you want it to be. 

P90X is something that I do not like because they don't tell people what it is for.  While it is a good program it is targeted for people who are over weight.  IF you are a person trying to build muscle rather than lose weight then P90X is not what you want.  there is also better ways to lose weight than p90x.  It is just a program that people who don't know very much about working out buy into because of the infomercials.

Programs like that always gives like a time limit too like 3 months and you will be ripped or somethign like that.  That is also false.  that depends on the effort and ability you are from the beginning.  That 3 months is how long each cycle is.  Then you repeat it over and over again.  Building muscle also takes time.  20lbs of lean muscle a year is spectacular so the things they say in the infomercials is borderline lying.


I think you are approaching P90X with too much unjustified hostility. I seriously disagree that the program is targeted at overweight people and is mainly about losing weight - among other arguments, it wouldn't put such a strong emphasis on pull-ups if that was the case. It's a program that has the target to give you a great beach body and it delivers. I don't know where could your confusion about it come from, I don't know a single person that shares your feelings, neither do I understand why you would make such a fuss about something like that. If you want to do some bodybuilding, you have other programs from the company (like Body Beast) targeted at that, so your arguments really seem to be groundless. Just by getting through the site of Beachbody I can easily tell which program is supposed to do what. P90X doesn't cure cancer and nobody says it's supposed to.



Wii U is a GCN 2 - I called it months before the release!

My Vita to-buy list: The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, TearAway, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, History: Legends of War, FIFA 13, Final Fantasy HD X, X-2, Worms Revolution Extreme, The Amazing Spiderman, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - too many no-gaemz :/

My consoles: PS2 Slim, PS3 Slim 320 GB, PSV 32 GB, Wii, DSi.

Scisca said:
JayWood2010 said:
FrancisNobleman said:
how does this compare to p90x ?


This is a routine that will get you results regardless of what you want it to be. 

P90X is something that I do not like because they don't tell people what it is for.  While it is a good program it is targeted for people who are over weight.  IF you are a person trying to build muscle rather than lose weight then P90X is not what you want.  there is also better ways to lose weight than p90x.  It is just a program that people who don't know very much about working out buy into because of the infomercials.

Programs like that always gives like a time limit too like 3 months and you will be ripped or somethign like that.  That is also false.  that depends on the effort and ability you are from the beginning.  That 3 months is how long each cycle is.  Then you repeat it over and over again.  Building muscle also takes time.  20lbs of lean muscle a year is spectacular so the things they say in the infomercials is borderline lying.


I think you are approaching P90X with too much unjustified hostility. I seriously disagree that the program is targeted at overweight people and is mainly about losing weight - among other arguments, it wouldn't put such a strong emphasis on pull-ups if that was the case. It's a program that has the target to give you a great beach body and it delivers. I don't know where could your confusion about it come from, I don't know a single person that shares your feelings, neither do I understand why you would make such a fuss about something like that. If you want to do some bodybuilding, you have other programs from the company (like Body Beast) targeted at that, so your arguments really seem to be groundless. Just by getting through the site of Beachbody I can easily tell which program is supposed to do what. P90X doesn't cure cancer and nobody says it's supposed to.

I have done P90X and own it.  I also know the science behind  working out and how your muscles grow.  Going to a gym and doing compound movements will give you more results than you will ever see from P90X.  They have very little exercises that are for building a lot of muscle.  It however will help you lose fat.  Pushups and other body resistant workout doesn't really give you much muscle excluding pull ups which is great for you back.

Replace movements such as pushups with bench press and you will get a real workout for your chest.  Weighted squats over squats etc.

Let me explain with Brad Pitt who is an ectomorph.  Ectomorphs are slender body types who has more trouple building muscle than mesomorph's and endomorphs because of their high metabolism.  

This is Brad Pitt in Troy   He is roughly 190lbs in Troy. He is normally around 170lbs. He had to gain 20 lbs to get to this. They gave him a year to transform his body if I remember correctly You would not see him doing things such as P90X to do this



P90X is more geared for losing weight such as this



Notice that he is noticeably smaller.  In this time frame he did not gain muscle, he lost fat.  It is actually relatively impossible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.  He lost fat and revealed the muscle he already had

This is my main problem with P90X and programs like it.  They do not tell you these things so for ectomorphs who buy P90X will get no results what so ever due to the lack of nutrition information and lack of compound movements.  For people with High body fat percentages it is great but even then they dont really know how they got muscle due to the lack of information.  They did not gain muscle, they lost fat.  Once they lost that fat then some people want to gain muscle.  They don't because now it's a dead end routine unless you want to maintain your current bodyfat %

Here is a comment over at bodybuilding forums to show you a little more at what I'm saying.

Conclusion: I think that if you follow a good diet and do ANY TYPE of cardio for 90 days straight you will lose a significant amount of weight. I do think that P90X is the best at-home workout system you can buy without a doubt, but I think that the success of the program is based on the fact that you are watching your diet and working out for 90 days straight. The hardest thing for me is to keep the motivation, and if you can do that, you will definitely lose a lot of weight and therefore it is worth the money. Good luck man.

or this

see im not trying to loose weight im trying to gain size and strength. im a fire fighter and i know that the cardio portion would be good for me but i want some more size. does this program adress that, or is it more geared towards the loosing weight and getting fit?
Then get a gym membership, and run 5x5 or a full body routine with heavy compound movements.




       

Yeah. Like I said - P90X doesn't cure cancer. It doesn't do everything. Just remember that they don't tell you anywhere that you're gonna be a bulky mother*** after finishing it. They say "you will be in the best shape of your life". And they deliver just that. You can't say that you don't build muscle at all with P90X, that's just crazy. It's not bodybuilding, but it's just silly to say something like this, cause it's well... impossible.

Your mistake probably is the same many people who work out a lot make - you think everyone who works out wants to build up big muscle - and this just isn't true. P90X gave me better results than going to gym. It gives me exactly what I want from it and what it says on the cover - I couldn't be happier.
Also note this sentence from your quote:

"I do think that P90X is the best at-home workout system you can buy without a doubt"

So why the hate? If someone starts P90X cause he wants to look like Schwarzenegger, he is either an idiot or endlessly ignorant. If a person doesn't know the first thing about working out and what a given workout can give him, it means he's a complete newbie who doesn't know what he's doing anyway and this workout is always a good start - also for such a person, cause at least it's gonna teach him some good habbits (a good warm up, cool down, stretching, etc.).
If you know what you want and you want something else - there is a number of other workouts from this very company, that can meet your needs. Wanna get some bulk? Go Body Beast. It really takes no more than 15 minutes to go through their whole web page and select a program that's best for you, if someone doesn't care to do that, why should you care about it? And more importantly, why would you attack a wonderful product like P90X?

To sum up - I really can't see what your point here is. P90X doesn't deliver what it doesn't promise to deliver? Well slap my ass and call me Sally!



Wii U is a GCN 2 - I called it months before the release!

My Vita to-buy list: The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, TearAway, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, History: Legends of War, FIFA 13, Final Fantasy HD X, X-2, Worms Revolution Extreme, The Amazing Spiderman, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - too many no-gaemz :/

My consoles: PS2 Slim, PS3 Slim 320 GB, PSV 32 GB, Wii, DSi.

Scisca said:
Yeah. Like I said - P90X doesn't cure cancer. It doesn't do everything. Just remember that they don't tell you anywhere that you're gonna be a bulky mother*** after finishing it. They say "you will be in the best shape of your life". And they deliver just that. You can't say that you don't build muscle at all with P90X, that's just crazy. It's not bodybuilding, but it's just silly to say something like this, cause it's well... impossible.

Your mistake probably is the same many people who work out a lot make - you think everyone who works out wants to build up big muscle - and this just isn't true. P90X gave me better results than going to gym. It gives me exactly what I want from it and what it says on the cover - I couldn't be happier.
Also note this sentence from your quote:

"I do think that P90X is the best at-home workout system you can buy without a doubt"

So why the hate? If someone starts P90X cause he wants to look like Schwarzenegger, he is either an idiot or endlessly ignorant. If a person doesn't know the first thing about working out and what a given workout can give him, it means he's a complete newbie who doesn't know what he's doing anyway and this workout is always a good start - also for such a person, cause at least it's gonna teach him some good habbits (a good warm up, cool down, stretching, etc.).
If you know what you want and you want something else - there is a number of other workouts from this very company, that can meet your needs. Wanna get some bulk? Go Body Beast. It really takes no more than 15 minutes to go through their whole web page and select a program that's best for you, if someone doesn't care to do that, why should you care about it? And more importantly, why would you attack a wonderful product like P90X?

To sum up - I really can't see what your point here is. P90X doesn't deliver what it doesn't promise to deliver? Well slap my ass and call me Sally!


Not exactly what I was saying.  My criticism of P90X is the lack of information and this false belief that people have that they are gaining a ton of muscle when in reality they are likely just losing fat and maybe adding little bit of muscle.  For ectomprophs it is a dead end workout.  

You are right that people have different goals and I definitely understand that.  I'd also never want to be the size of Arnold.  The 4 ideal sizes that comes to my mind are Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Cruise, and Christian Bale.  These are all people who have maintained a moderate size with low body fat percentage keeping the lean cut look.  Not the bubble muscle look you see arnold having.  Not my thing.

To sum up what I was saying is there is better ways of doing this than p90x.  Do any kind of cardio workout or just lift weights while eating correctly will get you the same results as P90x.  That is my main criticism of it. They also have a guy by the name of Tony Horton (Which did not create the program)  being the coach.  That was a strategic manuever for business.  The body he has will not be obtained by doing p90x for the majority of people.  For people who needs a lot of guidance it is a good program to lose weight but I dont see much else out of the program.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  60% of the U.S. is overweight so that means P90X reaches out to close to 2/3 of the United States and would actually help them.  I just wish they would give more information on it than saying it is a science.  Most workout programs has a scientific method behind it.




       

JayWood2010 said:
Scisca said:
Yeah. Like I said - P90X doesn't cure cancer. It doesn't do everything. Just remember that they don't tell you anywhere that you're gonna be a bulky mother*** after finishing it. They say "you will be in the best shape of your life". And they deliver just that. You can't say that you don't build muscle at all with P90X, that's just crazy. It's not bodybuilding, but it's just silly to say something like this, cause it's well... impossible.

Your mistake probably is the same many people who work out a lot make - you think everyone who works out wants to build up big muscle - and this just isn't true. P90X gave me better results than going to gym. It gives me exactly what I want from it and what it says on the cover - I couldn't be happier.
Also note this sentence from your quote:

"I do think that P90X is the best at-home workout system you can buy without a doubt"

So why the hate? If someone starts P90X cause he wants to look like Schwarzenegger, he is either an idiot or endlessly ignorant. If a person doesn't know the first thing about working out and what a given workout can give him, it means he's a complete newbie who doesn't know what he's doing anyway and this workout is always a good start - also for such a person, cause at least it's gonna teach him some good habbits (a good warm up, cool down, stretching, etc.).
If you know what you want and you want something else - there is a number of other workouts from this very company, that can meet your needs. Wanna get some bulk? Go Body Beast. It really takes no more than 15 minutes to go through their whole web page and select a program that's best for you, if someone doesn't care to do that, why should you care about it? And more importantly, why would you attack a wonderful product like P90X?

To sum up - I really can't see what your point here is. P90X doesn't deliver what it doesn't promise to deliver? Well slap my ass and call me Sally!


Not exactly what I was saying.  My criticism of P90X is the lack of information and this false belief that people have that they are gaining a ton of muscle when in reality they are likely just losing fat and maybe adding little bit of muscle.  For ectomprophs it is a dead end workout.  

You are right that people have different goals and I definitely understand that.  I'd also never want to be the size of Arnold.  The 4 ideal sizes that comes to my mind are Brad Pitt, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Cruise, and Christian Bale.  These are all people who have maintained a moderate size with low body fat percentage keeping the lean cut look.  Not the bubble muscle look you see arnold having.  Not my thing.

To sum up what I was saying is there is better ways of doing this than p90x.  Do any kind of cardio workout or just lift weights while eating correctly will get you the same results as P90x.  That is my main criticism of it. They also have a guy by the name of Tony Horton (Which did not create the program)  being the coach.  That was a strategic manuever for business.  The body he has will not be obtained by doing p90x for the majority of people.  For people who needs a lot of guidance it is a good program to lose weight but I dont see much else out of the program.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing.  60% of the U.S. is overweight so that means P90X reaches out to close to 2/3 of the United States and would actually help them.  I just wish they would give more information on it than saying it is a science.  Most workout programs has a scientific method behind it.


Well, maybe you're right, but I don't think it justifies such bad word of mouth that you're giving it. Maybe I just know too much not to understand what P90X gives me, but then again - if you haven't got that basic knowledge, you're a newbie anyway and this workout can't be bad for you. I see P90X as kind of a starting point anyway, a first serious step into fitness, a good basis to work up from - and it's awesome at that. Also don't forget, that they don't say you're going to be bulky and big, the fact some people may think so, well - a complete lack of knowledge always hurts :P

 

PS. I'd add Ryan Reynolds to that list - a good list by the way, I also think this is what every guy should go for.



Wii U is a GCN 2 - I called it months before the release!

My Vita to-buy list: The Walking Dead, Persona 4 Golden, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, TearAway, Ys: Memories of Celceta, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, History: Legends of War, FIFA 13, Final Fantasy HD X, X-2, Worms Revolution Extreme, The Amazing Spiderman, Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate - too many no-gaemz :/

My consoles: PS2 Slim, PS3 Slim 320 GB, PSV 32 GB, Wii, DSi.