Weight Loss Plan and Guide

Congratulations on finding the most comprehensive weight loss plan in existence.

This weight loss plan from Weight Lifting Complete works better than anything you've tried.

This is a guarantee as this plan will lead to healthy weight loss (fat loss only) while maintaining lean muscle mass.

In order to get permanent results, you have to maintain your lean muscle while losing body fat.

If you are looking for fast weight loss, this can be very unhealthy and can lead to very bad results.

So today, I want to explain all of this to you so you have the weight loss plan you need that gives you the best possible results.

Weight Loss Plan Table of Contents

Since this page is very long and detailed, you will find an easy to use table of contents below. Each link takes you to that particular section in this guide.

1. Why Do I Know So Much About Weight Loss?
2. Weight Loss Diet Plan
3. Weight Loss Meal Plan
4. Healthy Weight Loss Plan
5. Best Weight Loss Plan
6. Weight Loss Workout Plan
7. Rapid Weight Loss Plan
8. Weight Loss Exercise Plan

At the end of each of the sections above, you will find a link back to this table of contents. This makes the weight loss plan very easy to navigate.

Why Do I Know So Much About Weight Loss?

I am the President of Weight Lifting Complete and sole creator of everything you'll find on this website.

I've been lifting weights regularly since the year 2000 and started my weight loss journey before then.

Weight Lifting Complete was created in the year 2007 and has been online and going strong since then.

So I've been around a long time and know the truth about weight loss. I'm not here to take anything from you but to only add to your life. Your success brings joy to my life.

Grew Up On A Farm Working Physical Jobs

I grew up on a small cattle farm in Kentucky, and I stayed physically active all my days as I also worked in family businesses (physical work in all of them).

When I got my first job with the United States Navy as an electrical engineering intern, my physical activity began to cease as I started sitting at a desk more and more.

Since I was making money and gained this new freedom from physical work, I also decided I was going to eat whatever I wanted too. Yes, I was young and dumb and didn't realize this was going to make me very fat and unhealthy.

It happened faster than I could blink my eyes.

One day I looked in the mirror and became disgusted with what I saw. The amount of body fat I saw in the mirror was disgusting and something I set out on a mission to delete from my body and never see again.

Started The Typical Weight Loss Plan

The internet wasn't so large back then and was even filled with worse information than you'll find now (some people actually guide you in the right direction but there are very few).

My diet plan was a can of pork and beans each day as I didn't have a lot of money. I was making decent money but trying to save for the future, pay my car payment, pay my college bills, pay for car insurance, and more.

So yes, I pretty much starved myself each day. I still remember the hunger pangs in my stomach and what they felt like throughout the day because they hurt.

But I am a very strong willed person and was determined to lose weight fast as I thought this was the best plan for me. The number on the scale went down very fast. I only drank water too. Water and pork and beans. That's it!

The Results of My Weight Loss Plan

With what I know today, I may have had the single worst plan to lose weight that I've ever seen. But it sure worked for weight loss!

My body weight went from approximately 215 pounds to 155 pounds in a matter of a few months. Everyone was astounded that this was “Josh” when they saw me. When I worked on the farm, I was never skinny but strong and solid.

Now, I looked “sickly” according to my Mother who always tells me the truth. Thank God for her as I thought I was doing good things.

Instead, I still had tons of body fat and had only lost much of my precious muscle mass. I didn't know what I was doing at the time.

I Started Eating More and Stopped Starving Myself

Once I realized that I looked “sickly” and skinny-fat, I went away from my pork and beans diet plan.

I started eating more and more food and my body weight skyrocketed pretty fast. That's when I stopped and researched more and more of what I should be doing.

This is the type of yo-yo weight loss that most people continue on throughout their lives because they lose more and more muscle mass when they use the typical starvation diet plans without the right types of exercise.

Let's just say that I went through several more years of doing everything wrong and learning from my mistakes.

Today, I will share everything I know with you so you don't have to go through that same pain. It was very difficult, and I don't want you to go through that. There's no need for that.

Go Back to the Weight Loss Plan Table of Contents

Weight Loss Diet Plan

The most important factor in ANY weight loss diet plan is the foods you are choosing to eat.

Did you know that you can eat more of the healthiest foods and get even better results than starving yourself and eating junk foods? This is the 100% truth.

So, to start out, you need to know the healthiest foods and to eat ONLY those foods. No junk food at any time is allowed.

Here's A List of Typical Junk Food and Unhealthy Food

First, I want to start out with junk food that you shouldn't be eating.

Many of these foods are a surprise to most people.

Here's a very comprehensive list of foods and types of food you should never eat on this weight loss plan.

Foods Made With Refined Flour

• White bread (buns, rolls, muffins)
• Enriched flour pastas
• White and wheat crackers
• Cookies of all types
• Cakes and cake mixes
• Cereals (refined flour)
• Packaged sauces and gravy
• Pre-packaged macaroni and cheese
• Ramen noodles and other instant noodles
• Pre-packaged lunch and dinner meals w/ pasta
• White flour
• Corn products of all types (chips, tortillas, cereals)

Foods and Drinks With High Fructose Corn Syrup

• Sodas and diet sodas
• Flavored drinks of any type
• Sugary lemonade
• Sports Drinks
• Applesauce
• Fruit cocktails
• Canned fruits with added syrup
• Condiments and sauces (BBQ sauce, steak sauce, ketchup)
• Margarita mixes and other similar drink mixes
• Jello and pudding
• Yogurt
• Ice cream and frozen yogurts
• Pre-made desserts of all types
• Juice boxes
• Candy
• Cereals
• Syrups
• Granola bars
• Pre-made and pre-packaged foods (all types)

Unhealthy Fats

• Margarine (or any butter substitutes)
• Doughnuts
• Cookies
• Microwave popcorn or movie popcorn
• Crisco or vegetable shortening
• French fries
• TV dinners
• Some peanut butter brands
• Cake icing
• Breaded meats (chicken tenders or chicken nuggets)
• Whipped toppings
• Cream substitutes
• Milk shakes from fast food restaurants
• Deep fried foods (fried fish, fried chicken, cheese sticks)
• Velveeta cheese (or cheese in spray cans)

Artificial Sweeteners

• Diet sodas (pepsi, coke, mountain dew, etc)
• Crystal light mixes or any powdered drink mixes
• Kool-Aid or sugar free kool-aid
• Sugar free drinks of all types
• Sports drinks
• Snacks and desserts
• Ice creams and frozen yogurts
• Jams and jelly
• Gum
• Candy
• Protein Bars
• Protein Powders (whey protein, casein protein, etc)
• Any sugar free products

Commercial Pasteurized Dairy from Huge Farms

• Pasteurized milk of any type (even organic)
• Pasteurized cottage cheese
• Pasteurized yogurts
• Pasteurized sour cream
• Pasteurized cheese
• Pasteurized chocolate milk (too much sugar too)
• Pasteurized cream
• Any diary products from big commercial farms

Commercially Raised Meats from Huge Farms

• Packaged and processed grain-fed Beef from typical grocery stores
• Packaged and processed bacon, salami, bologna, sausage, hot dogs
• Frozen and prepared meats (deli meats)
• Canned meats
• Farm-raised fish of any type
• Processed fish products like fish sticks
• Frozen diet dinners
• Fast food fish, beef, chicken or other meat products
• Most any restaurant meat foods

Soy Foods

• Soy milk
• Soy baby formula
• Soy protein powder
• Frozen soy ice cream or tofu products
• Tofu products of any type
• Soy protein bars or energy bars with soy
• Textrured vegetable protein
• Tofurkey (why? just eat turkey)
• Tofu hot dogs
• Soy snacks like rice cakes and soy chips
• Meatless burgers
• Meatless fast food

Sports and Energy Drinks

• Gatorade
• Powerade
• Monster energy drinks
• Red Bull energy drinks
• Rock Star drinks
• 5 Hour Energy
• AMP
• Fuse
• Sobe Adrenalin Rush
• Snapple drinks
• NOS energy
• Mountain Dew

Energy Bars and Protein Bars

• Luna nutrition bars
• Kashi bars
• Power bars
• Quaker bars
• MetRx protein and energy bars
• Balance bars
• Granola bars of any type
• Clif Builder bars
• Genisoy
• Soy bars of any type
• Any bars with ingredients you can't pronounce or unknown

Other Processed Foods

• Weight Watchers meals and foods
• Lean Cuisine foods and meals
• Smart Ones meals
• Healthy Choice meals
• Kid Cuisine
• Cool whip products (lite, free, sugar free)
• Slim Fast shakes, bars, powders
• Any instant breakfast products (including oatmeal)
• Fiber One products (pop tarts, cookies, muffins)
• Special K bars
• Rice Cakes
• Any packaged products made in a manufacturing plant

How Many of the Unhealthy Foods and Drinks Have You Been Eating and Drinking?

After you take your time to read through the lists above you might be astounded at the number of unhealthy foods you have been eating.

Seriously, I ate that way in the past too. Most people do eat those foods regularly.

This is why you feel very bad and gain weight very fast. Many of the foods you have been eating include engineered ingredients that your body just doesn't recognize!

So much of this food gets stored as body fat because your body doesn't know what it is and can't use it for any good within your body.

Today, all of that fat storage stops. And yes, you are going to have some withdrawals and cleansing pains once you start eating the right way. But they will soon go away and you will feel so amazing! I went through the same things so I know how you will feel.

Healthy Foods You Should Be Eating on This Weight Loss Diet Plan

For this weight loss plan, you must eat only the best foods at all times. When you do this, body fat will begin to disappear very quickly.

You will look much better and feel much better. And this is the way you will eat permanently. This is not a temporary starvation diet plan.

You must learn how to eat healthy all the time. You get started by making better food choices.

Top 10 Meat and Protein

• Organ Meats
• Grass-Fed Beef and Bison
• Wild-Caught Fish
• Pasture Raised Chicken
• Wild Turkey
• Wild Duck
• Venison
• Shellfish
• Pork
• Lamb, Mutton, Hogget

Top 10 Dairy and Milks

• Raw Milk from Healthy Cows and Goats
• Homemade Kefir
• Homemade Yogurt
• Homemade Cottage Cheese
• Raw Cheese from Grass-Fed Dairy
• Eggs (pasture raised chickens and ducks)
• Almond Milk and Nut Milks (no added ingredients)
• Coconut Milk (no added ingredients)
• Cream from Grass-Fed Dairy
• Homemade Sour Cream

Top 10 Vegetables

• Asparagus
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cabbage
• Cucumber
• Onions
• Peppers
• Potatoes (White and Sweet)
• Squash
• Tomatoes

Top 10 Fruits

• Apples
• Bananas
• Oranges
• Plums
• Berries (all types)
• Peaches
• Lemon and Lime
• Kiwi
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe

Top 10 Nuts and Seeds

• Quinoa
• Coconut
• Almonds
• Chia Seeds
• Flaxseeds
• Pecans
• Walnuts
• Pistachios
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Sunflower Seeds

Top 10 Oils, Fats, and Butters

• Butter from Grass-Fed Dairy
• Nut Butters (all types without added ingredients)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Udo's Choice Oil
• Coconut Oil
• Flaxseed Oil
• Fish Oil
• Krill Oil
• Fennel Oil
• Macadamia Nut Oil

Top 10 Herbs, Spices, and Sweeteners

• Honey from Local Bee Farms
• 100% Maple Syrup (limit the amount)
• Cayenne Pepper
• Cinnamon
• Chili Powder
• Turmeric
• Ginger
• Homemade Mayonnaise
• Homemade Salsa
• Rosemary

Top 10 Breads, Grains, Pasta, and Flours

• Brown Rice
• Oats
• Almond Flour
• Brown Rice Flour
• Sprouted Breads
• Naan Bread
• Oat Bran
• Rice Bran
• Coconut Flour
• Homemade Bread (healthy ingredients only)

Top 5 Vinegars and Wines

• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Rice Wine Vinegar
• Red Wine (no added ingredients)

Top 10 Beans and Legumes

• Black Beans
• Lentils
• Garbanzo Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Lima Beans
• Navy Beans
• Pinto Beans
• Fermented Soybeans (from good sources)
• Tempeh
• Miso

You Should Be Able to See the Difference in Healthy Foods

Hopefully, you can now see the differences in healthy food and unhealthy food.

A great weight loss plan will not have you eating ANY unhealthy foods, and I truly don't know of ANY popular weight loss program that doesn't tell you to eat unhealthy foods.

Some of the most popular weight loss plans even talk you into purchasing their unhealthy diet supplements and other trash that degrades your health and your body.

Most weight loss plans simply lead to muscle loss by starving you and allowing you to eat junk food. You end up feeling worse and looking worse at a lower body weight.

Healthy Drinks

The healthiest of all drinks is filtered water.

You don't need fruit or vegetable juices at any time. Just eat the whole fruit and the whole vegetable. Why get rid of the most nutrient dense portions of the fruits and vegetables? You don't need to.

Water is your main drink at all times. That's it.

You don't need coffee all day every day of the week. If you do, this means you are addicted to caffeine, and you need to stop drinking coffee. And yes, you will get withdrawals from caffeine as it's like a drug addiction.

And you especially don't need to add all of that sugar, sweeteners, and cream substitutes to your coffee as this is really hurting you. Save your money!

No energy drinks. No sodas. No diet sodas.

Get accustomed to drinking water as it's the best drink in existence. Add lemon and lime to a glass of water or two each day. Herbal teas with some local honey is good at times too (not all day every day).

Go Back to the Weight Loss Plan Table of Contents

Weight Loss Meal Plan

Since you now know more about the healthiest foods to eat for your weight loss plan (THE most important part), I want to help you put it all together in a weight loss meal plan.

A meal plan will tell you when to eat, how many meals each day, and even provide you with healthy recipes.

Counting Calories

Counting calories is a very important part of any weight loss plan. With the WLC System, I teach you how to count calories easily.

Once you have your food database setup (provided with the WLC Log Book), it takes a couple of minutes each day to count calories. That's it.

Calories are the control panel to all of your results (once you are eating all healthy foods). For example, you will measure your body weight and body fat percentage each week.

If you lost a pound or even two pounds of body fat, you would not make any diet adjustments and keep riding the wave of fat loss. When you measure your progress, you'll know whether or not you need to adjust the amount of food you are eating.

Not counting calories is like driving your car in dense fog. You don't really know where you're going but you're hoping you're on the right path.

How to Count Calories

You have to start paying attention to food labels, nutritions labels, or use online databases or other tools.

Many apps will now scan a label on a food and give you all the nutrition facts.

When you get really good at counting calories (it doesn't take long), the calories in some foods will just come to you. For example, a medium banana is about 110 calories. I know that without looking.

When you cook certain recipes, you simply keep track of everything that's going in the meals you are cooking and all of the calories. If you split it into 4 servings, divide the total calories by 4. If you need help with any of this, please let me know as I am extremely good at this and happy to help any time.

Find Your Starting Number of Calories Per Day

The most important part of your weight loss meal plan is finding the overall number of calories you want to start out with for weight loss.

In order to do this, you need to know your current body fat percentage. Or, you can estimate this body fat percentage. Some body weight scales provide you with a body fat percentage estimate.

Once you know your body fat percentage, you can easily find the amount of lean muscle mass and body fat that you have.

Example to Calculate Lean Body Mass

Body Weight = 180 pounds
Body Fat Percentage = 23.8%
Body Fat = 180 pounds x 0.238 = 42.84 pounds
Lean Body Mass = 180 pounds – 42.84 pounds = 137.16 pounds

Now that you know your lean body mass, you estimate your activity level and activity factor. Stay with me as this is very easy.

Activity Level and Factor

• Sedentary = 1.200 (Little to no exercise. Desk job.)
• Lightly Active = 1.375 (Light exercise or sports 1-3 days per week)
• Moderately Active = 1.550 (Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days per week)
• Very Active = 1.725 (Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days per week)
• Extra Active = 1.900 (Hard daily exercise or sports and physical job or 2 a day training)

Calculate Your Basal Metabolic Rate and Maintenace Calorie Level

This is just an approximation and provides you with a good starting point. If you wanted to stay the same body weight, this is called “maintenance” calorie level.

We'll then adjust this number for weight loss.

Basal Metabolic Rate = 370 + ((21.6)x(Lean Body Mass/2.2))

Let's do a quick example for a lean body mass of 137.16 pounds:

Basal Metabolic Rate = 370 + ((21.6)x(137.16/2.2)) = 370 + (21.6 x 62.35) = 370 + 1346.66 = 1717 calories

Now let's get your maintenance calorie level by using the correct activity level factor. For this example we'll say the person is moderately active and use 1.55 as the multiplication factor.

Simply take your basal metabolic rate and multiply it by the activity level factor.

Maintenance Calorie Level = Basal Metabolic Rate x Activity Level Factor

Here's the final calculation:

Maintenance Calorie Level = 1717 calories x 1.55 = 2661 calories

Your Weight Loss Calorie Levels

Now that you know your lean body mass and maintenance calorie level, it's very easy to find your weight loss calorie levels.

Weight Loss Calorie Level 1 = Maintenace Calorie Level – 2 x Lean Body Mass in Pounds

Weight Loss Calorie Level 2 = Maintenace Calorie Level – 4 x Lean Body Mass in Pounds

With the WLC System, you will NEVER lower calories below weight loss level 2. You will not starve yourself in order to lose weight as this causes muscle loss which works against an improved appearance and health.

Here's the example continued:

Weight Loss Calorie Level 1 = Maintenace Calorie Level – 2 x Lean Body Mass in Pounds

Weight Loss Calorie Level 1 = 2661 calories – 2 x 137.16 = 2387 calories

Weight Loss Calorie Level 2 = Maintenace Calorie Level – 4 x Lean Body Mass in Pounds

Weight Loss Calorie Level 2 = 2661 calories – 4 x 137.16 = 2112 calories

This means you would start out your weight loss program with 2387 calories if you weighed 180 pounds with a body fat percentage of 23.8%.

You would never decrease your calorie intake below 2112 calories for your intial weight loss plan. Instead, I will provide you with an even better weight loss strategy as we continue with this weight loss plan.

Calorie Levels Are Just an Approximation

You don't have to use the formulas above to calculate your calorie intake as these aren't magic.

If you've already been tracking calories and know what it takes to maintain your body weight, this will be a much better approximation as every person is different and sometimes body fat percentages aren't accurately measured.

Don't stress out about finding the perfect calorie intake as you'll be able to adjust it as needed when using the WLC System. You learn how to make adjustments each week after measuring results.

How Many Meals to Eat Per Day for This Weight Loss Plan

You will need a minimum of 3 meals per day each day.

I don't believe in the fad diets and fad methods like intermittent fasting (tried it and made me very unhealthy). Fasting can be great but is not needed for weight loss.

Instead, you're going to keep your body very happy and fed with nutrient dense foods. Then, your body will burn the fat away and keep your precious muscle mass.

I recommend anywhere from 3 to 6 meals for weight loss and up to 8 meals for weight gain (muscle building focus).

Eating a meal or snack every 3 hours from breakfast to bed time is my recommendation. The most important thing is overall calorie intake, but it's also important to feed your body throughout the day and not all at once or twice.

You get other benefits from eating more often each day too, but your body does eventually adapt to that too. It's fine to eat 6 meals one day and 4 meals the next day.

Focus on getting your target calorie intake each day and spreading the calories out throughout the day. It's that simple.

An Introduction to Calorie Shifting

As you'll learn, I highly recommend weight lifting workouts during any weight loss plan. I actually can't recommend weight loss without weight lifting as you will most likely lose muscle without some type of progressive resistance training.

Lifting weights 3 times per week (Day 1, Day 3, Day 5) and resting from weight training the other 4 days per week is the typical schedule I recommend for a weight loss plan.

Since you'll be working out, I usually recommend more calories on the weight lifting days and fewer calories on the rest days. This is a powerful form of calorie shifting that helps you to burn more body fat.

If you notice, you'll have 3 days of higher calories to support your weight lifting workouts and 4 days of lower calories to burn even more body fat. The average calories per day will average out to your weight loss calorie level 1.

Weight Loss Meal Plan for Workout Days

Target calorie intake for your weight lifting workout days will be your target calories plus 400 additional calories. This assumes you are lifting weights 3 days per week.

Weight Lifting Days Calorie Intake = Weight Loss Calorie Level 1 + 400 calories

Here's the example we used earlier (180 pound person with 23.8% body fat):

Weight Lifting Days Calorie Intake = 2387 calories + 400 calories = 2787 calories

To make this extra 400 calories easier, you should add more food around your weight lifting workouts. Simply add 700 calories worth of extra food directly before your workout and directly after your workout (compared to rest days calorie intake).

Weight Loss Meal Plan for Rest Days

Now, the calorie intake for rest days will be 300 less than your weight loss calorie level 1. Again, these numbers only work if you are lifting weights 3 days per week as they will average out correctly.

Rest Days Calorie Intake = Weight Loss Calorie Level 1 – 300 calories

And here's a continuance of the example:

Weight Lifting Days Calorie Intake = 2387 calories – 300 calories = 2087 calories

Example Calorie Intake Each Week

This is a sample calorie schedule using our example of the 180 pound person with 23.8% body fat.

• Day 1: Weight Lifting Day, 2787 calories
• Day 2: Rest Day, 2087 calories
• Day 3: Weight Lifting Day, 2787 calories
• Day 4: Rest Day, 2087 calories
• Day 5: Weight Lifting Day, 2787 calories
• Day 6: Rest Day, 2087 calories
• Day 7: Rest Day, 2087 calories

The average calorie intake is all of the daily numbers added up and then divided by 7. This comes out to 2387 calories for this example and equals our target for weight loss level 1.

To make things simpler, let's round those numbers up to 2800 calories on weight lifting days and 2100 calories on rest days.

Your Daily Schedule

Everyone is going to be different when it comes to a daily schedule.

For instance, I like to change my workout times up throughout the year and I currently do my weight lifting workouts at lunch time.

You might do your weight lifting workouts first thing in the morning after breakfast.

I'm going to go through an example schedule so we can get this meal plan figured out and so you understand this weight loss plan better.

Example Meal Plan Schedule for Workout Days

Target Calorie Intake = 2800 Calories

7:00
AM Wake Up

7:30 AM
Meal 1 Breakfast
500 Calories

10:00 AM
Meal 2 Mid Morning Snack
300 Calories

11:00 AM
Meal 3 Pre-Workout Meal
300 Calories

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Workout

12:30 PM
Meal 4 Lunch and Post Workout Meal
600 Calories

3:30 PM
Meal 5 Mid-Afternoon Snack
300 Calories

6:30 PM
Meal 6 Dinner
500 Calories

9:00 PM
Meal 7 Pre-Bed Snack
300 Calories

10:00 PM
Sleep Time

Total Calories in Meal Plan = 2800 Calories

Again, this is just an example and you will need to do a similar plan that meets your daily schedule.

Example Meal Plan Schedule for Rest Days

Target Calorie Intake = 2100 Calories

7:00
AM Wake Up

7:30 AM
Meal 1 Breakfast
500 Calories

10:00 AM
Meal 2 Mid Morning Snack
200 Calories

12:30 PM
Meal 3 Lunch
500 Calories

3:30 PM
Meal 4 Mid-Afternoon Snack
200 Calories

6:30 PM
Meal 5 Dinner
500 Calories

9:00 PM
Meal 6 Pre-Bed Snack
200 Calories

10:00 PM
Sleep Time

Total Calories in Meal Plan = 2100 Calories

As you can see, you aren't going to be starving with a weight loss meal plan like this. Your body will instead have all the nutrients it needs to do everything well and that includes fat loss.

Healthy Recipes for Your Weight Loss Plan

Now that all of this is coming together for you and easier to understand, we can get to using healthy recipes to fullfill our calorie intake for each meal.

To make things easier, I recommend always fixing extra food for each recipe so that you have to cook less each week. For example, we always make enough dinner in my home for lunch the next day. And then we have extra for other meals too each week.

Here's an example healthy recipe for dinner one night and lunch the next day: Chicken Fajitas Healthy and Easy Recipe.

You'll notice that each of the 4 servings is about 618 calories so this fits pretty well for your workout days at lunch. If you need more or less calories, simply scale up or down the serving size until you hit the calories you need.

For snacks, you need to prepare for these and have a plan. Here are some of my favorite snacks: healthy snacks recipes.

When you have the right recipes packed with healthy foods and powerful fat burning ingredients, your weight loss plan is more advanced than any other in existence. Your results will be fast and jaw-dropping.

Go Back to the Weight Loss Plan Table of Contents

Healthy Weight Loss Plan

Any healthy weight loss plan will be a fat loss only plan.

This is the BIG problem with most weight loss plans as they don't care if you lose muscle or fat.

And you don't realize the importance of muscle mass either until you've already lost a huge amount of weight and you still have tons of body fat.

Listen, no one wants the body fat but everyone wants and needs the muscle mass. Trust me on this one. I ignored this in the beginning of my journey too and WOW was I wrong to ignore that.

Muscle Loss Puts You in a Hole

If your main goal is weight loss, you're going to use your scale as the main indicator of progress.

A scale is a good tool in measuring results but it's only giving your body weight. I can't tell you how many people have told me they weren't happy when they finally reached their “goal weight” on their scale.

You shouldn't set weight loss as your only goal as this will most likely not turn out well. You will lose muscle when you focus only on weight loss.

Instead, the correct goal is fat loss without muscle loss (or greatly minimize muscle loss at all costs).

Fast Weight Loss

When I first started starving myself, I lost body weight very fast. I was so happy too (at the time) because I was reaching my goals.

As I lost several pounds of body weight per week, I was extremely happy and wanted even more. Starvation continued as I ate a can of pork and beans each day with lots of water.

When I reached my goal weight, I didn't look so great! I looked worse than before I lost 60 pounds. No one wants to look “sickly.”

Yes, you can lose weight faster when you focus on weight loss which is going to include muscle loss.

Don't Lose Muscle Mass!

Your goal must include keeping as much muscle mass as possible. Why is this?

Muscle is active tissue that works for you and never against you. Excess body fat is just that. It's an excess that you don't need and too much body fat is hurting your health and raises your risk of disease.

When you lose muscle, your body requires fewer calories to work properly. You have less active tissue and life is going to get more difficult for you. Instead, you want life to get easier.

Muscle actually helps you to burn body fat. As you lose muscle, proper weight loss gets even more difficult.

A healthy weight loss plan will focus on keeping muscle mass and losing body fat. This is key to this entire weight loss guide!

Go Back to the Weight Loss Plan Table of Contents

Best Weight Loss Plan

The absolute best weight loss plan will lead to permanent changes in your body.

Who wants to continue to lose weight, then gain it all back and more, and then try to lose it all again, and continue this cycle throughout their life?

This is what most people do! I've done it before. You're probably here because you're sick of the yo-yo weight loss plans and diets.

The good news is that I know how you can get permanent results that last your entire life.

The Key to Getting Permanent Weight Loss Results

If you want all the weight loss results you get to be permanent, you cannot lose muscle mass during your efforts.

Your results must be fat loss only and an absolute minimum amount of muscle loss. For example, you might lose 20 pounds of pure body fat and 1 pound of lean muscle mass.

Many people (when using the WLC System) can even gain muscle mass while losing body fat because you are lifting weights progressively and getting stronger when using your weight loss plan from Weight Lifting Complete.

But losing body fat and keeping muscle is NOT the key to getting permanent results.

Permanent Changes in Your Lifestyle

The real key to permanent weight loss is to make permanent changes to your lifestyle. For example, eating fast food every day is not healthy and will lead to fast weight gain and a very unhealthy body with many issues.

If you want to spend much of your life in doctor's offices and paying hospital bills, then keep going with all the horrible food choices and horrible exercise plans too (most of them are trash that don't work).

I don't want that for you, and you shouldn't want it for you or your family (as they have to deal with most of it). Don't put your family in a financial hole with doctor and hospital bills.

You can take it from someone who has been there. I don't miss ANY of the trash food I was eating! None of it.

REAL FOOD Tastes Better Anyway

You know the healthy food list that I gave you earlier? That food tastes much better and helps you to feel AMAZING each day.

Who doesn't want that? I wish you knew how I felt each day now compared to what I felt like when eating bad foods and not exercising.

If you know, you would make the permanent changes right now to your life. And I hope that you trust me on this because you need to change if you haven't already.

My wife makes all of our meals, and she is an absolutely amazing woman that I love with everything that I have. The food she makes for us shows me how much she loves us as she understands how important food is to our life.

She wants us to be around for a very long time for our family. Our job is to teach the children in our family and to set an example for all our friends and family. And that is what we will do.

Real food tastes absolutely amazing compared to all that engineered trash that you'll find at most restaurants. Yes, it's better than any of that very low quality food that you find at most grocery stores and restaurants.

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Weight Loss Workout Plan

I've talked about this some already on this page, but you MUST lift weights for your weight loss workout plan.

You also MUST include cardiovascular exercise in order to “burn” fat from your body. Once your weight loss diet plan and weight lifting plan is good, cardo is the key to burning more body fat.

Now, I want to show you how to put together a very good weight loss workout plan.

Weight Lifting Workout 3 Days Per Week

For this weight loss plan, plan to lift weights 3 days per week for about an hour each workout.

A full body workout plan is absolutely amazing for weight loss and for building muscle and strength.

Here's a good weight lifting schedule for your weight loss plan:

• Day 1: Weight Lifting Workout
• Day 2: Rest
• Day 3: Weight Lifting Workout
• Day 4: Rest
• Day 5: Weight Lifting Workout
• Day 6: Rest
• Day 7: Rest

The main goal of your weight lifting workouts will be to get stronger by slowly increasing the amount of weight you are lifting with the best overall exercises.

The Best Overall 7 Exercises to Focus On

Focus on getting stronger on these 7 weight lifting exercises as these cover all major muscle groups in your body. These exercises build a balanced and healthy body.

1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. Push Up
4. Row
5. Overhead Press
6. Chin Up
7. Dip

For your workouts, you will start all exercises with very light weights and simply focus on increasing the resistance a little each workout.

This progressive resistance helps you to build new muscle and hold onto existing muscle while you are losing weight.

By increasing resistance of the weight you are lifting, you are sending a signal to your body that it needs to keep muscle and to not let it go. This is why weight lifting is so important to weight loss!

Cardiovascular Exercise Workouts

Besides weight lifting, you will also need to start your weight loss workout plan with the minimum of 3 cardio workouts each week.

Steady state cardio at a medium intensity (causes you to sweat) for at least 20 minutes will burn body fat from your body and improve your health and ability to burn fat.

Cardio also helps you to build muscle and gets blood flowing and moving throughout your body. The movement of blood throughout your body is great because blood moves nutrients around your body.

Cardio Workout Schedule

To start this weight loss plan, you will do 3 cardio workouts first thing in the morning of 3 of your rest days.

• Day 1: Weight Lifting Workout
• Day 2: Rest, Cardio Workout AM
• Day 3: Weight Lifting Workout
• Day 4: Rest, Cardio Workout AM
• Day 5: Weight Lifting Workout
• Day 6: Rest, Cardio Workout AM
• Day 7: Rest

Start with 20 minutes each cardio workout.

Cardiovascular Exercises

The best cardio exercises you can choose are those that allow you to keep your heart rate in your personal fat burning zone. I will show you how to find that heart rate zone in the next section.

For now, though, here are some cardio exercises you can do for this weight loss plan:

• Walking, Jogging, or Running Outdoors
• Incline Treadmill Walking
• Outdoor Cycling with Bicycle
• Incline Treadmill Walking
• Elliptical Machine
• Stair Stepper Machine
• Exercise Bikes
• Swimming Indoors or Outdoors
• Roller Skating, Ice Skating, Roller Blading
• Rowing Machine or Outdoor Rowing on Water

Any activity that allows you to keep your heart rate within a specific zone will work. Activities that are high intensity will force you to rest and your heart rate will go in and out of the fat burning zone.

This is not a huge problem, though, and the best thing you can do is simply move more often throughout the day so you're burning more overall calories.

Finding Your Fat Burning Heart Rate Zone

To start, you'll need your age and resting heart rate.

Measuring your resting heart rate requires a watch or timer that measures seconds. After you've been resting for some time, find your pulse on your neck directly under your jaw bone.

Count the number of pulses you feel for 60 seconds. This is your resting heart rate.

Now, let's get to the calculations:

Fat Burning Zone Calculations

Maximum Heart Rate = 220 – Age

Reserve Heart Rate = 220 – Age – Resting Heart Rate

60% Intensity = Reserve Heart Rate x 0.60 + Resting Heart Rate

80% Intensity = Reserve Heart Rate x 0.80 + Resting Heart Rate

Your fat burning zone for cardio will keep your heart rate between 60% and 80% intensity levels as shown above.

Fat Burning Zone Examples

Age = 40

Resting Heart Rate = 53 beats per minute

Maximum Heart Rate = 220 – Age = 220 – 40 = 180 beats per minute

Reserve Heart Rate = 220 – Age – Resting Heart Rate = 220 – 40 – 53 = 127 beats per minute

60% Intensity = Reserve Heart Rate x 0.60 + Resting Heart Rate = 127 x 0.60 + 53 = 76.2 + 53 = 129 beats per minute

80% Intensity = Reserve Heart Rate x 0.80 + Resting Heart Rate = 127 x 0.80 + 53 = 101.6 + 53 = 155 beats per minute

So, this person would keep their heart rate between 129 and 155 when doing their cardio workouts. This will ensure the most amount of fat will be burned during the workout.

Measuring Your Heart Rate During Cardio

I highly recommend a Fit Bit for measuring your heart rate during workouts and for measuring how much you move throughout the day.

You can then move your Fit Bit to the heart rate screen and simply look at the screen every couple of minutes while exercising.

Before long, you'll be able to guess whether you're in the zone by how hard you're working.

Some cardio machines also have a heart rate device such as handles on a treadmill.

This doesn't have to be perfect, but this fat burning zone allows you to stay pretty close to the perfect fat burning heart rate.

Your body will switch to other sources of energy besides fat when you move to higher intensity. Going to lower intensity will burn less fat in the same amount of time so you get more fat burned in less amount of time when you stay in this fat burning zone.

When To Increase Cardio Workouts

The next step to your weight loss plan will NOT be to decrease calories to your weight loss calorie level 2.

With the WLC System, the first step after results slow is to add more cardio. First, you can increase the duration of the 3 workouts. Next, you will add more overall cardio workouts.

For instance, once weight loss results slow during your weekly assessment of results, you will increase the duration of your cardio workouts.

Then, you will measure results. If fat loss results are good, continue with the same plan. Measure results and continue until fat loss results slow once again.

When they do, add a second cardio workout on your rest days in the afternoon. Measure results and see what happens.

Continue to make adjustments as needed to continue fat loss. This is why the foods you eat are so important!

If you want to do much cardio, eat bad foods and waste your time. Eating healthy foods all the time will save you lots and lots of workout time.

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Rapid Weight Loss Plan

A rapid weight loss plan is usually a very bad idea as the fastest weight loss possible will include lots of muscle loss.

When you lose muscle, your health declines, your metabolism slows, and you usually gain weight very fast once you go back to eating “normal” foods.

People want rapid weight loss so all of these companies provide all of these horrible rapid weight loss plans that end up hurting people more and more. They even want you to purchase their trashy supplements and pre-packaged meals.

Stop wasting your money on all of these other weight loss programs and simply follow what I've laid out for you on this page. It's that simple.

Once you are finished with this weight loss plan, you won't ever have to go through the same thing again! This is because you have made permanent changes and body fat will never come back to your body.

How Fast Should You Lose Weight?

A single pound of pure body fat is about the size of a full 8 oz cup.

If you can lose 1 pound of pure body fat each week with no muscle loss, you will be astounded at the results when you continue with that progress over a few months.

The baseline goal for any weight loss plan should be about 1 pound of body fat each week. Some people may be able to lose up to 2 pounds of body fat each week.

Remember, though, the faster you attempt to lose weight the higher the probability of losing muscle mass. And this is what you don't want.

Measure Results Each Week

The good news is that you will measure results on a weekly basis so you know if you're moving in the right or wrong direction.

Some people never know if they're making good progress and simply continue to dig themselves into a deeper hole.

All you need to do is measure your body weight under the same conditions, measure your body fat skinfolds on your body, and calculate muscle mass and fat mass.

If your body fat is decreasing with limited muscle loss (muscle gain is better), then you are doing great.

Weight lifting with progressively larger weight is the only way to keep muscle mass while losing weight.

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Weight Loss Exercise Plan

One of the most important aspects of a weight loss exercise plan is more overall movement throughout the day.

This is where an activity tracker like a Fit Bit comes into play. These devices will even send you reminders by buzzing that you haven't moved much within the past hour. This is great because you need to move more to burn more fat throughout the day.

For this weight loss plan, you should always strive to get more movement (or more steps) each week over the course of the weight loss exercise plan.

You will need to increase movement over time to continue fat loss just as you need to increase weight lifted over time to build muscle.

Focus On Getting Better In All Aspects of Your Weight Loss Plan

You must get better at exercise to get the weight loss you want. This means improving your physical fitness in as many aspects as possible.

For instance, with the WLC System, you also add weighted stretching to your weight lifting workouts. This allows you to improve flexibility. This comes with other results besides being more flexible. You are improving your overall health!

Your weight loss exercise plan will include weight lifting, cardiovascular exercise, and stretching.

These 3 types of exercise will greatly improve your physical fitness and lead to faster weight loss and permanent results.

But don't just do these exercises! You must work on getting better and better at them. Work on getting stronger, faster, increasing mobility, increasing balance, increasing flexibility, and improving your resting heart rate.

An Example of Moving More and Counting Steps

For a weight loss plan, here's an example of how you might plan to increase your movement over time:

Week 1: 8,000 steps average each day
Week 2: 8,500 steps average
Week 3: 9,000 steps average
Week 4: 9,500 steps average
Week 5: 10,000 steps average
Week 6: 10,500 steps average
Week 7: 11,000 steps average
Week 8: 11,500 steps average
Week 9: 12,000 steps average
Week 10: 12,500 steps average

This is just an example. If you improve your movement over time like this, you will “assist” your body with continuing to burn body fat.

Improve Your Diet

Your “diet” is the normal foods you eat.

Just as you are working on improving your strength in weight lifting and the number of steps you get each day, you should work on improving the foods you eat.

For example, whole eggs from pasture raised chickens are extremely healthy for you compared to eggs from cage-raised chickens who are shot full of nasty antibiotics. This is just one example.

A great source of healthy food are small local farms that might be looking to support their families by selling food to you. This is a great way to help others and get very high quality food!

Your diet is not only important for this weight loss plan but for your overall quality of life. If you want to be healthy all your life and even get rid of all medicine and prescriptions, the healthiest foods are THE KEY to this!

For instance, I had to take many prescriptions in the past for asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, and acid reflux. Guess what? That's right. I take nothing now and feel amazing. My health is perfect. You can do the same.

My doctors told me this wasn't possible because I had structural issues within my body. My God is the almighty creator of all things, and He said I don't need to have all these issues. And now I don't because I believe Him.

Always Burn The Fat Away

Here's one final weight loss tip that I can give you.

Always increase movement and exercise to burn fat away and never try to starve it off your body by not eating.

This is why you only find 2 weight loss calorie levels with the WLC System.

It's always better to increase activity to burn calories versus taking nutrient dense food away in an attempt to starve the fat away.

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Conclusion to Weight Loss Plan

I believe this is the most comprehensive weight loss plan information that you've ever seen.

Yes, there's a lot of information on this page. If you don't understand something on this page, I am always available to answer your questions.

Just let me know (josh@weight-lifting-complete.com) by sending me an email or leaving a comment.

I wish you the absolute best with your weight loss plan. You can do this!