Coach HubThe levers: one at a time, and where they stop
Only reach for a lever once adherence is coached and fixed, or when adherence is genuinely good but progress is still slow.
The options
| Lever | What it is | Why use it |
|---|---|---|
| Reshape the week | Widen the gap between high (training) and low (rest) days, or move toward more low days than high. Remove the pre-workout snack on rest days (Module 3). | Barely changes how the plan feels. It shifts where the deficit sits. |
| Weekday and weekend split | Slightly lower weekdays that build a buffer for a social weekend | For highly social clients. Plans for the weekend instead of fighting it. |
| Movement | Steps first, then structured cardio. One change at a time: a few more minutes, one more session or one more level (Module 4). | Expenditure before food. There's only so much food to take away. |
| Food drop | About 200 kcal, mostly carbs | The last structural lever. |
The order isn't a strict ladder. Pick the lever that fits this client (more than one way to skin a cat). But food comes off last, because it's the one you can't keep pulling.
One change per check-in
Change three things, and if next week is better you won't know which one worked. One change, watch the next data point, decide again.
Where the levers stop
These are the guardrails you don't push past:
- Women at or under about 1,200 kcal, or men at or under about 1,400 kcal: don't cut food further
- Structured cardio at about 3 hours a week: don't add more
Below those, the hormonal and adherence cost reliably outweighs the fat-loss benefit.
When everything's maxed: reset
If the levers are near their limits, or adherence is collapsing and fatigue is high (often after several weeks of aggressive lever-pulling), don't push another lever. Reset:
- Return to maintenance for 1–2 weeks (a diet break, 6.6)
- Rebuild adherence and re-anchor the routine
- Resume the deficit at the level you left it, not deeper
A reset is a tool, not a failure. A coach who can call a reset cleanly gets clients through 16- and 20-week transformations. A coach who only knows how to push deeper has clients who quit at week 9.