The Vanguard app · Get leaner
The scale cannot tell fat from muscle
So the app keeps you lifting the whole way down, holds a heavy week instead of piling on, and charts your waist beside your lifts.
The position
Lifting, the whole way down
When weight comes off, some of it can be muscle. Strength work through the whole loss gives your body a reason to hold on to its muscle, so the program keeps you lifting from the first week to the last.
- A heavy week holds
- When a week in a deficit feels heavier, the next one holds or trims sets instead of piling more on.
- Cardio counts too
- Your conditioning counts against each muscle's redline, the same weekly ceiling as your lifting, so the two never stack past it.
- Strength, charted
- Every lift's estimated max is charted session by session. A change too small to be more than the day is labelled within normal variation.
- Weight and waist
- Charted from your check-ins and coloured by your goal: for fat loss, a waist going down reads green.
In Vancouver
Coached in person, with a dietitian in the building
The studio coaches strength training for weight loss 1-on-1, and our registered dietitian works in the same building, booked separately.
The research
What the research says about losing fat and keeping muscle
Six papers, each one linked. They are why the app keeps you lifting and holds a heavy week.
Murphy, Koehler, 2022 · Scand J Med Sci Sports
Meta-analysis and meta-regression
A deficit shrank lean mass gains from lifting (effect size −0.57) but not strength gains. Around 500 kcal a day was enough to stop lean mass gains: an estimate, not a hard line.
Read the paper by Murphy, Koehler, 2022 (opens in a new tab)Garthe, Raastad, Refsnes et al., 2011 · Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab
Randomised trial · n = 24 elite athletes · lifting 4 times a week
Both groups lost about 5.5% of body weight. Losing 0.7% a week, the slow group gained 2.1% lean mass; losing 1.0% a week, the fast group lost 0.2%. Bench press rose 13.6% against 6.4%.
Read the paper by Garthe, Raastad, Refsnes et al., 2011 (opens in a new tab)Helms, Aragon, Fitschen, 2014 · J Int Soc Sports Nutr
Evidence-based recommendations · natural bodybuilders
Lose about 0.5 to 1% of body weight a week to keep the most muscle. A recommendation drawn from the evidence, not a trial of its own.
Read the paper by Helms, Aragon, Fitschen, 2014 (opens in a new tab)Roth, Schwiete, Happ et al., 2023 · Scand J Med Sci Sports
Randomised trial · trained men · 6 weeks in a deficit
Three sets per exercise against five, eating 30 kcal per kg of body weight: no difference in lean mass or muscle thickness.
Read the paper by Roth, Schwiete, Happ et al., 2023 (opens in a new tab)Forbes, 2000 · Ann N Y Acad Sci
Review
The less fat you start with, the larger the share of any loss that comes from lean tissue. A bigger deficit raises that share too.
Read the paper by Forbes, 2000 (opens in a new tab)Schumann, Feuerbacher, Sünkeler et al., 2022 · Sports Med
Meta-analysis · 43 studies
Adding aerobic training changed muscle growth and maximal strength by effectively nothing. Explosive strength dipped (−0.28), more when both shared a session. A second 2022 analysis found a small cost to fibre growth with running.
Read the paper by Schumann, Feuerbacher, Sünkeler et al., 2022 (opens in a new tab)
Research describes groups of people, not you, and none of it is a promise about you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Read on
The other goals
- Build muscleTone, shape or size, with the focus where you want it.
- Get strongThe squat, bench, deadlift and press, set from your own estimated max.
- Move better for lifeGetting off the floor, carrying, holding a position under load.
- Build an engineConditioning set per machine, with strength alongside it.
- Train for a raceA run or a hybrid race on the calendar, worked back from race day.
The Vanguard app
Try it on your own training
Fourteen days free, then $19.99 a month or $199 a year, in Canadian dollars. In your browser, on any phone or computer. Cancel in the app in two taps.