So, The 6-Week Challenge Is Over….Now What?

Here are some helpful tips to keep your progress advancing on your own, now that the six week challenge is officially over.

Minor Nutrition Tweaks
Remember what produced your results, and don’t get too cute with how you change things! If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it! However, six weeks is a good time to consider the following if you feel like your progress is plateauing.

1. Planned “De-Load”
Just as every training program needs a de-load every few months, so too does a laser focus on nutrition. If you’ve been killing it and adhering strictly to your nutrition, first thing we suggest is that you take a week off! Don’t eat like a pig, but don’t track, don’t sweat the small stuff and enjoy the foods you love and miss. A week break can do wonders for your mental motivation and it won’t set you back very much, if at all.

2. Re-Calibrate Your Calories
If you are following Fat Loss Level 2 and you have lost more than six pounds of fat as a woman or ten pounds of fat as a man, it’s a good time to re-calculate your daily caloric need.

3. (ADVANCED) Consider a Focus on Macros
If you have been killing your results in Fat Loss Level 2, consider a more narrow focus on macros moving forward. This is an unofficial Fat Loss Level 3 where you are following a more precise breakdown of protein, carbs, and fat grams in your daily diet.

Example: Jane weighs 153 pounds

Protein = 1 gram per pound of bodyweight (i.e. Jane needs 153 grams of protein each day)

Carbs = 1 gram per pound of bodyweight (i.e. Jane needs 153 grams of carbs each day)

Fat = Your bodyweight x 30-40% (i.e. Jane needs 47-62 grams of fat per day)

Continue to Scan
The adherence to a weekly body composition scan can be very beneficial for continuing to make progress and keep your food actions accountable. It’s why we offer it as a membership add on, because having a visual of what’s occurring, you’re trying to get to a destination with no map or checkpoints. Doable, but much harder than it needs to be. Add the weekly scan package, here.

(You get one free monthly scan as a member.)

Hit the Reset Button
Maybe you didn’t get the results you wanted because you weren’t able to really give it your best effort like you thought you would. That’s okay and it happens to all of us! There is no reason you can’t spend the next 4-6 weeks getting some great results. Just take a breath and restart with page one of your Nutrition Guide. You got this.

Accountabili-buddie
Find someone in the gym where you can be accountable to one another. Could be a classmate, a friend who goes at a different time than you, hell could even be your spouse who doesn’t go to the gym but understands your desire to continue with positive changes. Find someone who can be your support system where you can help each other stay on track with the little things.

Do More With Less in the Gym
The answer is very rarely to solve physique hurdles with more fitness. It’s usually just better nutrition that solves most woes. Don’t try to further advance your progress by taking the hammer approach where everything looks like a nail and you just go harder and harder. If you’re training three to four times per week, your gym frequency is spot on and needs no adjustment. The smarter approach is to focus on getting more output on those days you spend in the gym. Heavier loads, pushing your pace, and increasing the stimulus you’re already getting. Not adding another day of it. Too much training can cause you to go backwards.

Best of luck and if you have a hurdle you absolutely cannot seem to push through, reach out! We’re here to help.