Expectations for Fat Loss and Muscle Building Results on the WLC System

What type of fat loss and muscle building results can you achieve with the WLC System?

You need to know what to expect in terms of building muscle and losing fat, right?

It sure would be nice to estimate exactly how much you will gain and lose with WLC.

Well, that's exactly what I'm going to discuss here on this page.

After reading this section, you'll be able to come up with a good estimate of how long it will take you to reach your final overall goal.

The time frame to reach your goals simply depends on how far away you are from your goals.

Differences In Expectations

Your results will depend on many factors.

I am going to go over some of these factors and help you estimate your muscle building and fat loss expectations.

For example, after learning more about these factors, you may be able to estimate that you will gain about 1 pound per week during muscle building weeks.

Or maybe, you could possibly gain 2 pounds of muscle per week. Pay attention here and use the guidelines presented here to estimate your gains.

If you've read all the sections of this website up until now, you'll know that you will only focus on one goal at a time. This means you put all of your focus into either building muscle or losing fat. You will not attempt to do both at the same time.

Factors Affecting Your Results:

• Level of Experience
• Current Condition
• Genetic Limits
• Gender
• Age
• Consistency
• Body Type

We're going to go over each of the 7 factors above in detail. You'll then know why some people get very fast results and others take a little more time.

All of the estimates given in this section are going to assume that you follow this program exactly as it is laid out for you in each of the sections of the WLC System. This means that you will perfectly follow the weight lifting, diet, cardio, tracking, measuring, adjusting, planning, and any other guidelines.

If you do not follow the guidelines of the WLC System, do not expect to get the results presented in this section.

Let's take an in depth look at each of the factors that affect your results for both muscle building and fat loss goals…

Factor #1: Level of Experience

The level of experience is a huge factor in the results you will get while on this program or any program for that matter. This is just a fact of life. You can overcome many of these factors, though, by following the program perfectly and working as hard as you possibly can every day of the week.

Building muscle will be the easiest for true beginners. Beginners who have never lifted weights before are extremely sensitive to changes. This means weight lifting will provide a great muscle building stimulus even with light weights.

Beginners also gain strength very fast, which helps the beginner gain a lot of muscle very fast. Diet changes will also help the beginner make fantastic progress.

Intermediates who have finally learned how to stress the muscle when lifting weights will also get great results. It does take some time to learn how to perform the exercises correctly. When you finally learn, the results will start to improve. Intermediates have this to look forward to.

Advanced lifters will still do great, but the gains for advanced lifters will be much slower simply because the advanced lifter has already built a lot of muscle mass. Our advanced programs includes special techniques for advanced lifters to further enhance their muscle building results.

Fat loss is a slightly different story. Beginners will do just fine if they follow the program as laid out. If beginners stray from the program guidelines, they will have trouble losing fat. So stick to the program.

Fat loss will depend more on your current condition, age, and your body fat percentage. All experience levels will do great with fat loss if you follow the program guidelines. Advanced lifters will be able to lose fat much easier due to their increased muscle mass levels.

When you work on building muscle mass, fat loss becomes much easier in the future.

Factor #2: Current Condition

Your current condition is another huge factor in the results you will receive. For example, let's say you were an advanced lifter and looked absolutely great. You had a lot of muscle mass and low body fat levels.

But, for some unknown reason, you let yourself go for 6 months or so. You ate everything in sight and gained a lot of fat. You start this program. Do you know what happens?

That's right! Your results are spectacular. You gain a lot of muscle and lose tons of fat.

You slightly surpass your previous best condition on your very first program cycle. This happens so quickly because your body will go back to a previous state very quickly. Muscle mass will come back fast and fat will appear to melt right off.

Many of those programs and products you see on TV and in the magazines use the type of person in the example above to sell their products. They will take before and after pictures and show the miraculous results. What they don't tell you is that person spent 10 years of their life getting to that condition, and then took some time off purposely to become a slob.

This is why you just can't trust many of the before and after pictures that you see.

If you are very overweight, you will also get some spectacular results. You will most likely build a lot of muscle and lose a lot of fat during the same program cycle.

If you are more on the average side, your results will depend on many of the other factors.

For example, a beginner will get great results. If you are average when it comes to muscle mass and fat mass, you are most likely a beginner. An intermediate lifter will be above average when it comes to muscle mass and body fat percentage. Everyone starts at a different point, though, and everyone is different.

Results will be slower as your current condition is better compared to worse. This is in general terms. If you are in great shape now, this does not mean that you will not get superb results from WLC. Your results depend on too many other factors. Let's learn more…

Factor #3: Genetic Limits

This factor is very simple. The closer you are to your genetic limits, the slower your results will be. But, I want to stress that you should never let your pre conceived expectations of your genetic limits get in your way of building muscle and losing fat.

No one has any idea of what their genetic limits are! I can tell you that the closer you get to your genetic limits, the slower your muscle gains will be. But, you will not know how close you are to your limits. You can guess by what you've been able to do in the past.

Let me give you an example from my own experiences…

My normal body weight without lifting weights and adding muscle would be around the 170 pound mark at a height of 5'11”. Before I gained a lot of fat and started working out, that was my exact body weight.

Lately, I've been able to up my body weight to nearly 240 pounds at a lower body fat percentage than I would have been at 170 pounds. Gaining muscle even at a very high calorie intake was getting very tough to do. And I know how to build muscle. I've built right at 70 pounds of muscle onto my small body frame.

I know that I am getting closer to my genetic limits, but I will not let that stop me from working hard as possible to improve my body. As I continue, I have to settle for smaller gains over the weeks, months, and years.

I just can't continue gaining muscle at a fast rate. I'm too close to my genetic limits to gain muscle very fast.

The bottom line is: The longer you workout and the more muscle you build, the harder it will be to make huge muscle gains. The lower percentage body fat that you happen to have, the harder it will be to lose more body fat. See what I mean?

Factor #4: Gender

Men and women are no different when it comes to building muscle and losing fat. The processes inside our bodies are exactly the same. Nothing changes between the male and female muscle building and fat loss processes inside our bodies.

I find it absolutely hilarious when people tell women to lift weights differently than men. We are no different when it comes to building muscle and losing fat.

The male and female bodies do have different environments inside, though! I'm sure you've heard of testosterone, right? Well, higher levels of testosterone make muscle building and fat loss much easier. And you should already know that males have much higher testosterone levels than females.

So, males will have higher expectations than females when it comes to building muscle and losing fat.

The environment inside your body does not change the muscle building and fat loss processes, though. So, nothing will change when it comes to our programs for men and women.

Both men and women will get the best results of their life with our programs.

Compared to men, women will simply have to decrease muscle building and fat loss expectations. Women will not be able to build muscle as quickly as men, but smaller amounts of muscle and smaller amounts of fat loss look better on women because women are naturally smaller framed than men. So it all evens out.

Factor #5: Age

As you age, your results will slowly diminish. Age works against us our entire lives and is no different in the case of building muscle and losing fat. Testosterone levels decrease as we age.

Teenagers will get the absolute best results, especially male teenagers. The rest of us can't do anything about that!

If you are a male teenager, just be happy that you are reading this right now. You are at the perfect age to take advantage of the enhanced muscle building environment inside your body. And you've found the best program. Strap yourself in and get ready for some awesome results.

If you're older, this does not mean that you won't get spectacular results. All this means is that you would have gotten even better results at a younger age. But, none of that matters now. We live for the present. We can't change the past. So, let's get going!

Factor #6: Consistency

I wanted to include consistency because it's one of the most important factors for you getting the absolute best results. If you aren't consistent with your weight lifting workouts, diet, cardiovascular workouts, and every other aspect of our programs, you will not get optimal results.

Consistency is the key to building muscle and losing fat. You can't skip workouts all the time and cheat on your diet every day. You will not get results. Skipping even one workout and cheating on your diet will set you back.

Be consistent. Follow the program guidelines. Work hard. And get the best results of your life. It really is that simple.

Factor #7: Body Type

This is the last and one of the most important factors in the results you will receive from this program.

I want all of you to know that no two people are alike. This means that you should never compare yourself to others in the world of building muscle and losing fat. Worry about yourself and the progress you are making.

Don't let the progress of someone else get you down. If their progress motivates you, then by all means use that as a motivator. Just don't make unfair comparisons between yourself and another person! You will soon learn why…

Have you ever heard of two people following the exact same weight lifting program, diet, and cardio program and one of those people gets amazing results while the other gets next to no results? Well, this can happen due to the differences in every person.

That's why our programs adjust to fit the person — not the other way around.

Our programs allow you to make changes to your program on a weekly basis to ensure that you are making progress! No two people are alike, and we know this. Our programs are all designed with this in mind.

That's why changes can be made on a weekly basis to ensure you make the greatest progress of your life.

But, let's take a look at some of the characteristics of your body that will affect the speed of results you obtain…

1. Your Pre-Determined Amount of Muscle

All of us are born with a certain amount of muscle. We can increase and decrease the size of our muscle, but the amount of muscle will never change. Or at least science has never proven that we can change the number of muscle fibers present in our bodies.

Science has proven that muscle cells can split and form new muscle, but this has only been proven in animals and not humans. But, that doesn't mean that it hasn't happened.

This formation of new muscle cells is called hyperplasia. I personally believe in hyperplasia, but it has never been observed in a human body. Hyperplasia has been observed in animals during weighted stretching. I have a trick up my sleeve for you later in regards to that…

2. Your Muscle Composition

Every muscle consists of one of two types of muscle fiber. You have Type I fibers and Type II fibers. Stick with me for a second…

Type I fibers are slow twitch or red muscle fibers. They are actually red in color due to the contents of the muscle fiber. Type I fiber is able to carry more oxygen and therefore sustain endurance activities, hence the red color.

Type II fibers are composed of Type IIA and Type IIB. Type IIA is also a red muscle because it is rich in mitochondria and capillaries and is able to sustain aerobic activity or activities that require oxygen.

Type IIB fibers are white fibers otherwise known as fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers are anaerobic and are therefore used for activities like weight lifting and other sports that depend on short and quick bursts.

The composition of your muscle fibers will affect your results on any program. Gaining strength and size fast will depend on your muscle fiber composition. The greater amount of Type IIB fibers you have, the faster your progress will be.

3. Your Pre-Determined Amount of Fat

The number of fat cells in your body can never decrease from your pre-determined amount.

But, the good news is that you change the size of these fat cells. The bad news is that you cannot decrease the number of fat cells. Even worse, you can increase the number of fat cells! Not to worry, though. You now have this course and access to our programs.

People who start with a lower number of fat cells will have a much easier time obtaining a lower body fat percentage. Those of you who start out with a larger number of fat cells will simply have to work harder to decrease the size of those fat cells. There is nothing hard work and intelligent planning can't fix.

4. Your Metabolism

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy you expend at rest. You want your BMR to be as fast as possible. A fast BMR will help you build muscle and lose fat quickly. If you have a slow BMR, there is great news ahead.

Before we get to the good news, though, I want to get the bad news out of the way. Your BMR decreases with age. It will also decrease with the loss of muscle mass. But, we are going to do something about your BMR…

Everything you do on our programs will help you increase your BMR. Increasing lean muscle mass is one of the best ways to increase your BMR. But that's not all you'll do on WLC to increase your BMR.

You will never be able to increase your basal metabolic rate unless you decide to do something about it. You've already taken that step by reading through this course.

5. Arm, Leg, and Torso Length

The length of your arms, legs, and torso will affect the way you look and the rate at which you gain strength on different exercises. And when you gain strength at a fast rate, you will build muscle at a fast rate.

If you have long arms, legs, and a long torso, you are at a mechanical disadvantage when lifting weights on most exercises. But, that doesn't mean you can't make unbelievable progress.

Don't ever let any of these characteristics stop you. You'll fight them just as I have and just as millions of others do every day.

Shorter arms and legs allow smaller amounts of muscle gain to look even better. People with longer limbs will need to build more muscle to get the same visual effect. Consider yourself lucky if you have shorter limbs.

6. The Size of Your Joints

Joint size does nothing more than make your muscles appear larger or smaller. If you have small joints, the surrounding muscle will look much larger than it really is and vice versa. Larger joints require that you build more muscle to get the same visual effect.

Do you have small, medium, or large joints? Here's a quick and easy test you can perform to determine your joint size…

Use your opposite hand to wrap your thumb and middle finger around your wrist. If your middle finger overlaps, you have small joints. If the middle finger and thumb touch, you have medium joint size. You have large joints if the two fingers do not touch at all.

7. Insertion Points of Each Muscle

Every person has different insertion points for every muscle. You see, the insertion point of every muscle affects the visual appearance of the muscle and the strength of that muscle.

Let's look at an example…

Let's look at your biceps. Flex your arm, and place as many fingers as it takes from your opposite hand between your elbow and your biceps muscle. The more fingers you can place between the elbow and the muscle, the further your bicep inserts from its origin.

What exactly does this mean for you?

The closer a muscle inserts to the origin, the longer the muscle. Longer muscles have more potential for growth. So, if you have insertion points closer to the joint, you have greater potential to build more muscle. The muscle will also be visually more appealing.

There's nothing you can do about your insertion points. I just wanted to make you aware of your insertion points and your muscle building potential.

If you have shorter muscles or muscles that attach further away from the joint, you have a mechanical advantage. You have better leverage when lifting a weight compared to the people who have longer muscle bellies that insert closer to the joint.

This means you will be stronger and get stronger at a faster rate. This means great things for your strength and muscle building potential too. So there's positives and negatives to both sides.

8. Your Digestive System

Your digestive system is very important due to the fact that some digestive systems are better at utilizing nutrients from foods. Absorption is the key here.

If your digestive system has trouble absorbing and utilizing nutrients, you may need to find a supplement that helps. There are some good supplements out there to help your digestive system.

You can at least try a digestive supplement for a month and see if your gains improve. If your gains do improve, then you know that your digestive system isn't great at absorbing and utilizing nutrients. You'll find my recommended digestive supplement in the supplements section.

9. Your Culture

Where you grew up and how your parents raised you can make a big difference in the body you have. Your diet is greatly influenced by your culture.

For example, if you have grown up in the deep Southeastern part of the United States, you most likely have been eating a pretty bad diet. Some kids have no choice growing up but to eat a bad diet. They will end up with higher body fat levels than kids who grow up in a culture that eats much healthier.

SIDEBAR: If you're a parent or plan on being a parent someday, you should really help your kids to eat healthy. Get them started on the right path now, and they won't have to deal with obesity or health problems as they age. That's your job as a parent.

Some people may gravitate towards being a vegetarian while others will be big meat eaters. The big meat eaters will have much more muscle mass than the vegetarian, in general.

Other people will grow up playing sports. Usually, the serious athlete will eventually be introduced to weight lifting, cardio, and diet to help improve athletic performance. These people will have lower body fat levels and a greater amount of muscle mass.

The good news about this is that all of your culture related diet flaws and other flaws can easily be corrected. You can easily lose fat and gain muscle with our programs.

10. Carbohydrate Sensitivity

Some people are extremely sensitive to carbohydrates. Carbohydrates can make carb sensitive people gain fat quickly. Why?

Well, carb sensitivity is actually caused by the increased blood sugar levels when carbohydrates are eaten. A large amount of insulin is released when blood sugar levels rise.

Insulin is a storage hormone.

When levels of insulin are high, body fat will never be used for energy. When levels of insulin are low to none, body fat can be used as an energy source.

Carb sensitive people really need to watch the amount of carbs they eat. If you are carb sensitive, your diet must be comprised of a lower percentage of carbs. Before long, you will know if you are carb sensitive. You'll really learn your own body with our programs.

I went through all of these characteristics just so you know that some people do get faster results while others get slower results. But, you will learn how to beat the cards you were dealt.

You will learn how to make changes on a weekly basis to continually improve the program to fit your body type.

So, What Should You Expect for Fat Loss and Muscle Building Results?

Now that we've been through all of the factors that affect your results, let's talk about your results in terms of real hard numbers.

How much muscle will you gain during a muscle building cycle? How much fat will you lose during a fat loss cycle?

Let's set baseline expectations for building muscle and losing fat. From there, you can adjust your expectations based on the factors we've talked about. Adjust your expectations according to your advantages and disadvantages. After a cycle on one of our programs, you will know what to expect from there on out.

On average, you can expect to gain around a pound of muscle per week during a muscle building cycle. Averages for fat loss are also around a pound of fat loss per week. From there, you can adjust your expectations up or down.

Just remember everything you've learned. Use what you've learned so far to make necessary adjustments to the 1 pound per week expectation…

How about an example or two? Would that help?

Case Study #1

• Age: 18
• Gender: Male
• Experience: Beginner Level – Never Lifted Weights
• Body Weight: 140
• Height: 6 feet, 0 inches
• Body Fat Percentage: 11%
• Genetics: Father is 150 pounds at 5'11”. Grandfather is 145 pounds at 6 feet tall.
• Carb Sensitive: No
• Joint Size: Small Joints
• Goal: Build as much muscle as possible. Gain weight and get bigger.

Given the above, how would you rate his ability to gain muscle? Is he going to gain muscle at the rate of 1 pound per week, or would you adjust his expectations up or down?

Advantages

Age and Gender are big advantages. This guy is still a teenager and will have an optimal muscle building environment inside his body due to increased testosterone levels. Body Fat Percentage is an advantage. The guy doesn't seem to gain body fat very easily because of his low body fat percentage even in an untrained state.

His experience is one of the biggest advantages. He has never lifted weights before nor has he consciously tried to gain weight or improve his diet. He is not carb sensitive, which is great news.

Carbohydrates will form a larger percentage of his diet. He will not have to be extremely careful with his carbohydrate choices.

He believes in the program and will do everything in his power to do what it takes to build muscle once and for all. You gain a huge advantage when you believe in something.

Disadvantages

He is tall and very skinny. His father and his grandfather are similar in size and stature. His genetics do not seem to be very good for building muscle. But, his father and grandfather have never attempted to gain weight before.

We can't be sure his genetics are bad for muscle gain because he has never lifted weights before nor has his father or grandfather.

Small joints are another indication of poorer genetics. People with smaller joints sometimes have a harder time gaining muscle. Again, this does not mean that he has bad genetics. It's just another sign that we can look at. There are many huge bodybuilders with small joints too.

Adjustment of Expectations

It's tough to gauge the disadvantages here because we can't be sure if he has bad genetics for building muscle. We are going to go with the positive signs for bad genetics and guess that he has bad genetics.

But, the guy is a true beginner in all aspects. He has never lifted weights and has never tried to gain weight before. Just these changes should elicit a huge muscle building stimulus for a guy his age.

If he has the dedication to eat enough food and work hard at all aspects of the program, he will gain muscle easily in the beginning. We can then re-assess later and know for sure if he will have trouble gaining muscle from there on out.

For the first program cycle of WLC, I would expect this guy to easily gain 1 pound per week. He should set his goals high, though, and shoot for 1.5 pounds of muscle gain per week. He will check his progress every week and adjust his diet and cardio to gain as much muscle as possible.

Let's look at a second case study…

Case Study #2

• Age: 36
• Gender: Female
• Experience: Beginner Level – Lifted weights before but not seriously
• Body Weight: 160
• Height: 5 feet, 4 inches
• Body Fat Percentage: 24%
• Genetics: Mother is 130 pounds at 5'6″. Grandmother is 115 pounds at 5'2″.
• Carb Sensitive: Slightly
• Joint Size: Medium Joints
• Goal: Fat Loss. Says she wants to tone up and has set her mind to do whatever it takes.

Now that you've been through an example, you should be able to go through the advantages and disadvantages and adjust expectations for this example. Before long, you will be able to identify your own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

Her beginner level is her biggest advantage. She tried some weight loss diets in the past with some success, but she gained the weight back rather quickly — not her own fault.

She's never really been on a complete program consisting of weight lifting, diet, and cardiovascular exercise. She will get awesome results from weight lifting combined with a great diet and cardiovascular exercise. And her willingness to do whatever it takes to get results is another huge advantage.

She seems to have pretty good genetics for fat loss. Her mother is at a great body weight for her height. And her grandmother has also never been overweight. This will be another huge advantage for her.

Her diets in the past were focused on weight loss and nothing else. She did not lift weights and do cardio with the weight loss diet. She lost muscle and therefore gained the weight back quickly. She does have some experience dieting, so she knows what it takes to get things done.

She simply gained weight from a bad diet over the years. Here age has started to catch up with her and her metabolism has slowed greatly. She just can't go overboard any more with all the bad foods, desserts, and junk foods.

The good news is that her body doesn't want to be overweight. Her genetic predisposition tells us that she should weigh much less.

Disadvantages

Age is going to make it slightly tougher for her fat loss efforts. She's let her weight get a little out of control. She's probably close to 30 pounds over her normal body weight. So, it can take some time to get to where she wants to be. It's taken her years to gain that weight, and it won't come off in a few weeks.

She has developed some carb sensitivity as she has aged and mainly due to the bad diet over the years. She will have to be careful with the carb sources that she chooses. And she should lower the percentage of carbs in her diet slightly. If she follows the diet guidelines, she should not have any problem with the carb sensitivity.

Adjustment of Expectations

She has many more advantages than disadvantages. The only real disadvantage that she has is her decreased metabolism from her age. But, that can be fixed with through the program. Her expectations should be set right around the 1 pound of fat loss per week mark.

Since she has about 30 pounds of fat to lose, she should give herself about 6 months to reach this goal. She may very well reach her goal much quicker due to her beginner status.

The Advantaged and Disadvantaged

Most of us should expect to be around the 1 pound per week rule. A small percentage of the people out there will get superior results and some of you will get less than average results.

There are advantaged people who are genetically superior to the rest of us. These people can never lift a weight and look better than most of us. If these people do decide to lift weights, they build muscle at a very fast rate. Most of the elite level bodybuilders fall into this category.

These genetically superior people will sometimes do everything wrong, but still get great results. They will then give advice to all of the people with average genetics. The people will listen because the person looks so great. What they do must work, right? Wrong.

If a genetic superior decides to use our program, you can expect well above average results! Watch the muscle grow and the fat disappear very quickly!

Then, you have a small percentage of the population who are disadvantaged when it comes to building muscle and losing fat. These people may have a very hard time building muscle and a very easy time gaining fat. These people will have to do everything perfectly to gain a lot of muscle and lose a lot of fat.

That's okay, though, because our programs will help these people reach their goals much faster than any other program. Adjustments will continuously be made until the genetically disadvantaged person is making great gains.

Just remember, you most likely do not have below average genetics. Even if you do, you will do great with our programs. Guaranteed.

One last thing before I go…

Never let expectations stop you from achieving more. Always shoot for the stars! Go for more. Prove me wrong with my expectation guidelines and then let me know about it! I love to hear success stories.

Now that you know what to expect and you know how to adjust your expectations, you can easily estimate the duration of your journey to the body you want.

How Long Will It Take?

Now, let's see how long it's going to take you to reach your final goal. Remember, you can only focus on one goal at a time during a program cycle.

You know I like examples. Let's use another example to show you what I mean…

Amount of Muscle Needed to Reach Goal: Gain 20 pounds

Amount of Fat Needed to Reach Goal: Lose 10 pounds

This is easy now, right?

Average expectations will put you at 20 weeks for building muscle and 10 weeks for losing fat. So, 30 total weeks of muscle building and fat loss will do the trick. This does not include weeks off that are a requirement of the program.

So two muscle building cycles at a length of 10 to 12 weeks each should do the trick for the muscle gain goals. And one fat loss cycle at 10 to 12 weeks should do the trick for the fat loss goals.

That's it… you now know how long it's going to take you to reach your goals.

And remember, what we discussed on this page in terms of fat loss and muscle building results is related to use of the WLC System. The WLC System provides you with amazing results. If there's anything out there better than WLC, we're sure not aware of it.

Give the WLC System a shot, and you'll see.

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