Over the years we have had several different iterations of the Beach Body Challenge. We settled on the current version several years ago after constantly tweaking it to find the version that got the best results for our clients. In the last two years we have had 222 people complete the Beach Body Challenge. I have tracked every participants results in that time and I wanted to take a deep dive into the numbers to see how effective the program has been. What I found was not only has it been extremely effective, but that it has achieved exactly the goal we were looking for. The more compliant the client was, the better their result.
The main focus of the Beach Body Challenge is for participants to develop the healthy habits that will help them to get to their goal body composition. We determined the six things that were most important for them to do every day in order to make progress. They were 1. Eat quality food 2. Eat the right quantity of food (total calories and correct macros) 3. Drink enough water 4. Get enough sleep 5. Exercise every day 6. Do a Coyote Fitness workout. We created a 6 week scorecard where they would get a point on each day (6 possible points) for each thing that they did. They would get a point for 1. Eating 90% of their food from the food list we provided 2. Eating within 10% of their calorie goal and macro breakdown goal 3. Drinking 100 ounces of water 4. In bed for 8:30 (with the idea of getting 8 hours of sleep) 5. Doing 30 minutes of exercise and 6. Doing the Coyote Fitness Workout of the Day (coming to class would count for both 5 and 6). We encourage them to take one day of rest from a Workout each week (Sunday) and on this day the 6th point is a bonus point for not drinking alcohol that week. Over the 6 weeks there are 252 total possible points. Our theory was that the more points each participant got, the better their results would be, and after crunching the numbers this is exactly what happened.
We determined the progress by using an InBody 270 machine and having each participant scan at the start and finish of the challenge. We looked at three measurements of the scan to measure progress: 1. Muscle pounds gained 2. Body fat pounds lost, and 3. Body fat percentage lost. We are not interested in people losing a lot of weight, but sacrificing muscle to do it. What we have seen in the past is the people who do this end up regressing once they stop dieting and their body composition is even worse because they add fat that replaces the muscle. Finally, we calculate the winners based off their changes in the above listed categories, as well as total points. Because they turn in their total points we are able to tell how compliant they were. Below is a breakdown of the results we have seen from the 222 people who have finished this version of the Challenge.
The average results across all 222 participants were: .37 pounds of muscle gained, 5.56 pounds of fat lost, and 2.2% body fat lost. What this tells us that on average people who finish the challenge are losing body fat while also gaining muscle. This is exactly what we wanted! Upon further review we can see how effective the challenge actually is. Those participants who were 90% compliant (225 points or more) gained .6 pounds of muscle, lost 11.22 pounds of body fat, and lost 4.19% body fat. These people’s results were almost twice as much as the average! We also broke it down further into point ranges. Those who got 200 points or more (80%+ compliant) gained on average .52 pounds of muscle, lost 9.36 pounds of body fat, and lost 3.72% body fat. Those who got 100-199 points gained on average .43 pounds of muscle, lost 5.7 pounds of body fat, and lost 2.29% body fat. These people were between 40-80% compliant. Those with less than 100 points (less than 40% compliant) gained .32 pounds of muscle, lost 4.36 pounds of body fat, and lost 1.69% body fat. And finally, those who did not track their points gained .21 pounds of muscle, lost 4.12 pounds of body fat, and lost 1.57% body fat.
I know I just threw a lot of numbers at you, so let me break it down a bit. What we see is that, across the board, the more points the clients gained, the better their results in all three categories. They gained on average more muscle mass, they lost more body fat, and lost more body fat percentage. We also saw that, just by finishing the Challenge they were most likely going to lose over 2% body fat in 6 weeks, which is something that, if repeated 3 or 4 more times, can completely change someone’s body and health. Finally, we see that those who did not track their results because they thought they could keep up with it in their head had the worst results. This is on par with what we have seen consistently over the years in the gym. People always have a hard time remembering how consistent they have actually been, and they usually overestimate how compliant they are. Just by the simple fact of tracking your daily habits you are more likely to succeed.
I hope this article sheds a little light for you on the Beach Body Challenge and how truly incredible the results have been. It is very hard to lose body fat while maintaining or even gaining muscle (there are many “influencers” on Instagram who will tell you that it is impossible) and yet on average every single Beach Body participant does just that. These numbers also show that the Beach Body Challenge does exactly what it is supposed to do. The more compliant you are, the better your results will be! I want to close by challenging you. If you plan on doing the Challenge then really commit to it. See how many points you can get. The more points you get the better chance you have of getting where you want to be. If you are not happy with your body composition and want to jumpstart your progress then I would highly recommend doing the Challenge. We run 4 of these a year (2 in person and 2 online) and they can be a great way to help develop a habit and get the ball rolling towards the progress you dream of.