Getting in shape and staying there is everyone’s dream. Everyone wants to look their best and be fit and healthy. But what’s it going to take to get to that point? Is it a weight loss supplement? Is it Beachbody on Demand? This article will briefly discuss when weight loss products on the market changed and then get directly to your best beachbody workout for weight loss.
When Pharmaceutical Products for Weight Loss Changed
The years 2010 was a big change for pharmaceutical companies. No longer would FDA tolerate weight loss medications causing severe health problems. They issued a warning connecting weight loss medications to severe liver injury. That’s the year that another weight loss medication called Phenocal, manufactured by Pharmaxa, became popular. They used all-natural ingredients such as Hoodia gordonii, green tea extract, and 7-keto, plus other thermogenic compounds.
The medications that were targeted by FDA were Xenical (Orlistat) and Alli (Orlistat over the counter). There were 13 reports of severe liver injury between 1999 and August 2009 for these medications. Phenocal is said to control appetite, activate thermogenesis, increase energy levels, and contain all-natural ingredients. Phenocal hasn’t been linked to any issues with liver injury.
So if your goal is weight loss, check out the supplements or medications in depth. Make sure they aren’t linked to liver or other injury.
With this in mind, let’s move on to Beachbody workouts where you don’t have to worry about liver toxicity! And by the way, there’s no connection between Phenocal and Beachbody.
Introduction to Beachbody
Beachbody started in 1998 as a multilevel marketing company and made it big with their before and after getting fit and healthy photos of people posted on Instagram. They launched their famous Shakeology meal replacement weight loss shake.
The company created a platform to help people get in shape and lose weight by offering workouts that could be done at home, fitness guides, nutrition plans, and supplements. This all started before the pandemic so that by 2020 when people were at home, Beachbody was perfectly positioned for success in large numbers.
The Beachbody workouts for beginners, intermediate level, and advanced levels may also be done at the gym, but between 2020 and 2021 many gyms closed. During the pandemic, Beachbody streamed free classes to children.
The concept of the company was to download one of their workouts and use it. These were especially important for those searching for the best beachbody workout for weight loss. Each workout was set up for a certain length of time, such as 7 days up to 100 days, with most workouts continuing for 30 days.
In 2015, the company launched its video-on-demand streaming subscription service called Beachbody on Demand (BOD). The company changed its name to BODi in 2023. The “i” added to BOD is for interactive, meaning you take part in live online workout classes. It’s like a Zoom call for workouts.
What is a Beachbody workout?
A Beachbody workout is a workout you do while watching a video. Each Beachbody workout is for beginners up to those who are advanced. The workouts get progressively more difficult. They may or may not include nutritional tips and meal plans or recipes. Each workout may require you to have certain types of equipment, such as resistance bands, weights, a yoga mat, dumbbells, or other types of equipment.
When you sign up for Beachbody on Demand membership, you have access to a fitness workout streaming service of programs ranging from 21 days to 100 days that you can follow. Each is geared towards bodybuilding, yoga, Pilates, cardio, spinning, dancing, etc.
BODi gives you access to the spin workouts in this membership, but you’re required to buy their MYXII bike for over $1800.
How to Lose Weight With Beachbody Workout?
When you want to lose weight and get fit and healthy with the best Beachbody workout for weight loss, you’ll need to consider a few things:
- What type of exercise can you commit to?
If you can’t commit to it, you’ll never succeed at it. - How fit are you right now?
Matching your proper level of fitness to the Beachbody workout for beginners, intermediates or advanced level is always a key to success. If you’re a beginner and choose a higher-level workout, it’s too easy to become frustrated and give up. If you’re advanced level and choose a Beachbody workout for beginners, you’ll get bored. - What is your time commitment to exercise each day?
You’ll be provided the time the workouts are with each choice. Most of them are 30 minutes; quite a few are 55 minutes, and some are less than 30 minutes/session. - Do you have a favourite trainer?
If you can’t stand your trainer, you’ll feel frustrated from the start till when you quit. Be happy with your trainer. - How important is making food and diet changes to your plan? Have you already made diet changes or are you starting out with the standard American diet?
If you’ve already conquered your diet ghosts and goblins, there’s no need to redo it. It would be better to choose a workout without a meal plan that could upset your presently working diet and meal plan. However, if you need help in this area, remember that nutrition accounts for most of your results. Choose a workout plan that includes addressing nutrition.
What is the Best Beachbody Workout for Weight Loss?
Any workout you do is going to show results for weight loss if you are consuming fewer calories. Building muscle mass helps you raise your basal metabolic rate so you can burn fat faster. Whichever workout program matches your lifestyle and fits your idea of how you want to work out will mean better commitment, which equals better success.
Below are some of the current Beachbody workouts that are quite popular for Weight Loss:
The Shortest Beachbody Workout: Clean Week
This program is also 30 minutes a day but only 7 days long. You can easily commit to 7 days instead of 21 or 30 days. It’s a low-impact program with cardio, strength, and flexibility workouts plus you’ll learn meal prep and recipes for clean eating. You’ll need dumbbells or resistance bands as well. It will give you a good start because you have proof you stuck it out for 7 days – and you can do more.
Dance-Related Beachbody Workouts for Weight Loss: Let’s Get Up, YOUv2, Country Heat
Any of these could be your best beach body workout for weight loss.
Let’s Get Up is bodyweight training combined with dance cardio. You only need 30-35 minutes per day six days a week, and it’s 30 days long. Adding dumbbells may help burn more fat as well as do a little bit of sculpting. The workout is set to music, so you pretty much forget you are exercising and have some fun during each session. You will undoubtedly be perspiring profusely.
YOUv2 is similar to Let’s Get Up in that it involves dance and cardio, but the routines are going to be done to music from the ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s also 30 days long. Plus, you get a nutrition plan that emphasizes making small changes along the way instead of a strict diet. You won’t need any extra equipment for this Beachbody workout.
Country Heat is another dance/cardio workout program that’s only 30 minutes daily for 30 days, six days a week. This time you get top hits of country music. Expect to sweat. Ideal for beginners because you’re taught the dance moves in one of the videos. You won’t need any extra equipment for this one. Good for postpartum recovery of the body. Great for all fitness levels. Just make sure you have space in your home for dancing.
Boxing for Weight Loss: 10 Rounds
10 Rounds is a boxing workout that combines technique, intensity, and repetition and offers maximum burn. It’s a total body workout. Great for coordination and endurance. It involves three boxing training days and two days of bodybuilding. The 6-week program leaves you shredded and mean. Equipment needed includes resistance loops, dumbbells (light, medium, heavy), and a small towel. Expect to sweat.
If You Need a Workout with Yoga and Pilates for Weight Loss: PiYo
PiYo is a mixture of Yoga and Pilates. Pilates focuses on the core muscles. If you combine Pilates with yoga for greater flexibility, you get better gains. Add muscle-sculpting to the picture and you get low-impact exercises that keep your body in constant motion while also engaging multiple muscle groups. The intensities of the workouts vary. If you are an experienced athlete, you’ll still find challenges with these workouts. This is a 60-day program. You’ll need a yoga mat, water, and a wide enough space to take a step in each direction, as well as sliders.
A Maximal Weight Loss Beachbody Workout Not for Beginners: Insanity Max 30
In this workout, you’re using Max Interval Training plus your own body weight to do movements for agility, endurance, cardio, strength, and plyometrics. By working within your maximum ability during most of the workout and forcing shorter recovery times, you’re increasing the breakdown of fat. Everything uses your own body weight so there’s no need for weights. It’s challenging but that’s where the 15-pound weight loss results come in. Call it a 60-day cardio-based workout program. Keep pushing yourself.
Weightlifting Workouts for Weight Loss: MBF, Body Beast, 80-Day Obsession, 21-Day Fix
MBF stands for Muscle Burns Fat. Each workout is 25-35 minutes long. It’s set up using classic weightlifting and great music and includes one-sided training. The workout engages your entire core. You’ll do one move with one weight for one minute and then repeat with another move. Equipment needed includes a set of weights, a yoga mat, and a jumping rope.
The Body Beast workout is geared toward those who want more definition and lean body mass and can-do weightlifting in the comfort of their own home. You can be in the intermediate or advanced level for this program, but you will need adjustable weights, a chin-up bar, a yoga mat, a chin-up max, a curl bar with weight plates, and a stability ball. Every day you’ll work a different muscle group to strength-train your entire body. It’s the more traditional style of weightlifting. Sessions are 11-55 minutes long. There are 12 workouts with 3 optional workout plans and a nutrition plan.
The 80-Day Obsession is one of the latest programs. It’s 6 workouts per week so it’s intense. There’s a specific nutrition plan of eating every 2-3 hours you will need to follow. Each phase has six workouts: Leg Day, Booty Day, Total Body Core Day, Cardio Core Day, Arms, Abs, and Ass Day (AAA), and Cardio Flow Day. The weights, reps, and compound movements change all the time these days. Workouts are between 30 minutes and 60 minutes. On one day of the week, you’ll be primarily resting and stretching.
The 21-day Fix workout is only 30 minutes and includes 21 different workouts that will hit either the upper or lower body or abs and may include cardio, yoga, and Pilates. It’s suitable for beginners, intermediates, and those advanced; just check the instructions and choose the right level.
The Beachbody meal plan is 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates. There’s a formula you will use to ensure this ratio is obtained daily and you simply follow it and place your food into different portion control containers. Foods are color coded on a chart with portion size for a meal noted. Then you choose your target calories and look at the master plan for how many portions you can have that day. Place the portions in the containers for the day and you’re good to go – no more thinking for the rest of the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
This answer depends on what expert you check with, but the following are good choices:
- P90X3 by Tony Horton. Meant for advanced athletes to improve agility, power, balance, and range of motion. It's one of the toughest workouts.
- LIIFT4 by Joel Freeman. This one is best for intermediate-level athletes. Its strength training and weight loss effects are done with resistance bands and weights.
- Focus T25 by Shaun T. Another workout program meant for intermediate-level athletes, this one focuses on intense cardio and workouts using one’s own body weight. This one may burn the fattest.
- 3 Week Yoga Retreat. This one is for beginners to start to limber up the body and regain balance while working on controlled strength.
- Body Beast by Sagi Kalev. Another intermediate workout, this one is basically a weightlifting program you can do at the gym or with your own set of weights at home. You’ll get chiseled and can incorporate a meal plan that helps you in that regard.
You can expect that any of these would be your best beachbody workout for weight loss if you can handle the intensity.
The best ones are the ones you will stay committed to. Many women seem to like the workouts with dance. Music seems to bring out their inner fun being, so they don’t think of the workout as a workout but fun.
Here’s a breakdown of the calories burned in some workouts.
- Core De Force Dynamic Strength: 421 calories
- Core De Force MMA Shred: 413 calories
- PIYO Drench: 394 calories
- Core De Force Power Sculpt: 388 calories
- Lower Fix Extreme: 373 calories
- Hammer and Chisel Agility: 365 calories
Any of these that can burn more than 350 calories per session can always be considered the best beachbody workout for weight loss. That’s one pound of weight loss or more per week burnt just from movement, and the increased metabolic rate will likely burn another two to three pounds more.
Conclusion
You won’t find any studies on any of the Beachbody workouts. They are all created by people in the business of working out/health and fitness who are die-hard about workouts.
The only study you’ll find for anything related to Beachbody is one on the Shakeology shake reported in The Journal of Nutrition in June 2022. This study followed 206 people for 12 weeks who were consuming two shakes per day. One hundred fifty-two people completed the study and 56 were in the Shakeology group. The Shakeology group lost more weight and exhibited decreases in cholesterol and increases in adiponectin.
Beachbody workouts are a godsend to those who want to start working out and do it with gusto. You have more variety to choose from, and when you finish one 30-day program, you can choose another, and so on. You’ll never get bored, and your results will improve as you vary it up. These workouts can be instrumental to you getting fit and healthy in a way you never could before by simply going to the gym.