Muscle Burns Fat Advanced is a 3 week at home workout program available on beachbody on demand that includes 21 total body workouts that can be done in 30-40 minutes a day with minimal equipment. It is to be done directly after Muscle Burns Fat for optimal results in a six week combined workout program.
Included are examples of the workout calendar, a full honest review, and tips to make your experience successful.
This post contains affiliate links, please see my disclaimer for more information. Lauren is an independent team beachbody coach who co-runs The Girl Squad on the BOD app.
learn about the home workout program
muscle burns fat advanced
Muscle Burns Fat Advanced is a Beachbody at home workout program which launched in July 2020.
It was created by Super-Trainer Megan Davies, who also created clean week , muscle burns fat, and won The 20’s, Beachbody’s realty “tv” show.
What makes Muscle Burns Fat Advanced (& Muscle Burns Fat) unique is the use of a weighted indoor jump rope, called the BOD Rope.
The BOD Rope helps make the cardio portion of the workout more fun (any other cardio haters like me out there?!) plus it builds strength in those upper arms.
It does take a little bit of time to get used to the coordination of the BOD Rope, but honestly, I feel like it’s even better for your holistic health (brain/coordination challenge + physical/cardio challenge).
It honestly gets much easier to get the hang of it after week one (yay motor learning! aka your brain is mastering the moves so you don’t have to think about them as much!).
The rest of the workouts include symmetrical and asymmetrical strength moves, which basically means that sometimes you’ll use a weight in both arms, and sometimes you’ll use a weight only on one side. This helps build strength in your core and back muscles, plus it confuses your body so you burn more calories.
Muscle Burns Fat Advanced is the next level up for those who complete Muscle Burns Fat. It is highly recommended that you do Muscle Burns Fat first, then Muscle Burns Fat Advanced either directly after for a total of 6 weeks (best results) or within a reasonable timeframe of doing Muscle Burns Fat.
Muscle Burns Fat Advanced intensifies and builds on the workout moves you learn in Muscle Burns Fat. If you go straight to Muscle Burns Fat Advanced, it’s kind of like skipping your main meal and going straight for the fries, it might taste good at the time, but you’ll be left feeling like you’re missing something.
If you’re worried that Muscle Burns Fat won’t be fun because you’re too advanced, I’d definitely encourage that you at least try out the muscle burns fat sample workout, because after six years of doing Beachbody workouts 4-5x/week I still enjoyed BOTH programs.
Want to learn more? Here are all the details:
21 workouts (each different, so you don’t get bored)
Workout Breakdowns: Lower Body, Core (2 days), Upper Body, Full Body, Cardio, Dynamic Recovery for a total of seven workouts/week (I personally do 4-5/week and let it take longer)
Workout Calendar to x off each workout on so you don’t lose track
25-40 minute total body workouts (cardio/dynamic recovery are 25 minutes, rest are 35-40”)
Equipment: Dumbbells and BOD rope
Great For: weight loss, building strength/muscle, cardio, getting those abs to pop
*located in start here tab
“muscle burns fat advanced makes cardio, dare i say, fun. ”
what do those Muscle Burns Fat Advanced results look like?
It is always my opinion that one should focus on the journey of fitness and less on the results, because a results focused mentality can be a huge let down if your body takes longer than your mind expects.
If you focus instead on the action oriented behavior: fitness and nutrition and work on mastering your consistency and discipline of those behaviors because you like the person you are when you do them (workout, eat healthy), then your results will come naturally and with less resistance.
Atomic Habits is a great book if this is something you’ve struggled with in the past (ie starting/stopping a fitness routine due to feeling like the results you’re trying to achieve aren’t coming).
But I do add the Beachbody results in this blog post, because here’s the thing — people do resonate with them — and if that’s what helps you get started, girl, I’m all about it.
*in start here tab
Official Review of Muscle Burns Fat Advanced
MBF Completed: December 2020-January 2021
MBFA Completed: April 2021-June 2021
In my review on Muscle Burns Fat, I talk about how I was initially skeptical of these new “bod ropes,” because they seemed like they wouldn’t be super valuable or much different than using your hands as fake jump ropes, and cost an additional $20.
I ended up buying the official bod ropes from the Beachbody website, anyway, because I needed to update my supplements and grabbed a completion pack for the deal.
After completing Muscle Burns Fat and really liking the style of both the program and Megan Davies, the super-trainer, I ended up switching to the new release 9 Week Control Freak for January-March of 2021.
After I finished 9 Week Control Freak, I decided to circle back around and complete Muscle Burns Fat Advanced. For some reason during this season, I was lacking some motivation and overall it just took me longer.
Sometimes this happens, and while I averaged 3.5 workouts per week instead of the 4-5/week I shoot for, I don’t believe it was due to any fault of the program (I really enjoyed it and felt like it was super quick, plus it was a three week workout calendar so legit NO EXCUSES for myself!).
Muscle Burns Fat Advanced was both super similar to MBF and different enough to keep me on my toes. Here are the things I noticed that were different compared to Muscle Burns Fat.
MBFA vs MBF Differences:
They added a Megan Minute to increase the intensity at the end of the workouts. The Megan Minute is 60 seconds of one move.
The warm up was a little more challenging/complex
The moves and speed of the workout were a little faster/more complex
AAMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) became six minutes vs. four minutes
The total workout length was 5-10 minutes longer
Generally, moderate changes overall, nothing huge but enough to keep it fun and engaging. If you completed MBF for three weeks and then MBFA for three weeks, these changes would be minor but enough to avoid you getting bored and quitting the program before the six week mark.
10 tips for completing muscle burns fat advanced
USE A VARIETY OF WEIGHTS
I personally used a variety of weights for Muscle Burns Fat and Muscle Burns Fat Advanced. These programs are geared toward strength building in an endurance focused manner so you’re inherently going to use lighter weights. THIS IS NORMAL. Don’t worry that you aren’t able to lift quite as heavy as you would for a different program such as 80 Day Obsession or A Week of Hard Labor.
It’s simply a different style of muscle building and we need both low rep high weight and low weight high reps to keep a healthy balance. I personally used x3 sets of weights (I have 3-4 weight sets on hand for optimal switching) for most workouts. I used 10lbs dumbbells, my adjustable dumbbells at 12.5lbs, and 15 dumbbells. I also have 5lbs ankle weights I hold for any moves that are overhead when my shoulders are exhausted to avoid over doing it. For all my equipment links, check out my home gym.
GET OUT BOTH WEIGHTS
The workout moves quick. Usually there are the asymmetrical moves first, where you’re only using one weight; however, for Megan Minutes often you’ll use both weights, so pro move is to get out both weights first, so you’re not left scrambling to grab the second one. If you do realize you don’t have a weight out that you actually need, there’s no shame in the pause game.PAUSE IF YOU NEED TO
Speaking of pausing, I am a huge fan of using the pause button when you need it. In an ideal world we run through the workout program from start to finish, but here’s the deal — in lauren land real life basement workout sessions, it looks more like this: start workout and do warm up, grab sips of pre-workout throughout because I didn’t finish it yet, start workout, realize my music is messed up, hit pause, realize I also forgot the closed captions which I like to use so I can read while listening to music louder than the voices on the tv pause again and fix, hit play, eventually hit a point where I need to review a move because my brain is tired, hit pause and rewind, re-watch, and feel better about the move, finish the workout.Literally, zero shame in any of that. Still got a great workout and hit my goal. So if you need to pause to catch your breath, go to the bathroom, review a move — whatever, seriously girlfriend I’m probably doing it more than you and still getting great results, so it’s okay to relax and give yourself a break.
DROP WEIGHT IF YOU FATIGUE
To reiterate, this program is based on endurance strength training vs max strength training, which means that you will likely be lifting lower than you’re used to. If the weight you picked up to start with becomes SUPER HEAVY, grab an OS (OH SHIT) weight (usually 2-5lbs less) and finish it up with those.Seriously, totally normal thing to do if you’re pushing yourself. Also, it’s better for your overhead motion and joints if you drop down vs compensating by bringing your shoulders to your ears or doing other not optimal movements to “get it up there,” because it’s in all reality too heavy for your current fatigue level.
KEEP BOD ROPES NEARBY
This workout leaves no wasted space, so it moves from one move to another quick — make sure that your BOD ropes are nearby otherwise you will definitely have to pause to grab them! I personally waited to track my weights on the pdf tracker sheets until after the BOD rope section.
This basically looked like doing the reps (majority of that section), the Megan minute, and the BOP rope interval and then tracking my weights from the “reps” section.GET A TOWEL
Sister, you’re going to sweat. But that’s how abs are made, right?DO CONTROLLED STRETCH AT NIGHT
I was pretty darn sore after week one of MBFA and MBF, so while the controlled stretch stretches are technically for 9 Week Control Freak, I would highly recommend rolling out, stretching, or focusing on an epsom salt bath at night if you’re sore like I was.I might have been an unusually sore person, but the 6-7 minute stretches at night from controlled stretch were money to decrease my overall tightness, fatigue, and increase my ability to move.
PS make sure you grab the controlled stretch calendar in the girl squad fit resource section because there isn’t one from beachbody.TAKE FIRST WEEK SLOW
In my honest opinion, it’s okay if it takes you more than seven days to complete the first week of MBFA. Much like MBF the first week is really tough from a muscle soreness standpoint.
It might be less so for MBFA if you do it straight through with MBF the first three weeks and MBFA directly after for three more weeks for a total of six weeks, but I’d gather to say that it’ll probably still be an adjustment.
I shoot for 4-5 workouts/week and I’ll be honest when I say week one for MBFA, I did four workouts because my body just seemed to need a little bit more rest. Totally fine, still loved the program and I hit all my personal goals, which is what matters in the long term.DO TWO ROUNDS OF MBF IF YOU’RE A BEGINNER
I would totally recommend doing two rounds of MBF if you consider yourself new to working out or if you’re coming off of an injury. There is a good amount of short, controlled jumping movements and the combination of asymmetrical (one sided) movements and symmetrical (two sided movements) add up to be more challenging both mentally and physically.
We had a ton of girls in The Girl Squad opt for multiple rounds of MBF before moving onto MBFA and they felt way more confidence when they did feel up to the MBFA challenge with having a little longer than 3 weeks with MBF.
If you do find yourself a little over your head in MBFA after transitioning, they do have a modifier or heck you make the rules so just switch on back to MBF or a different program like clean week, Morning Meltdown 100 or barre blend and put MBFA on the calendar for a few months or a year from now. It’ll be there for you when you’re ready for it.
PS in total honesty, it took me a year to try 21 day fix extreme because it terrified me and I haven’t done insanity yet. And I’m okay with my journey, because it’s been fun and entertaining and given me great results for the last six years at my pace.USE Recover , FOR THE LOVE.
I used to think that supplements were only for boys. I mean weren’t they creepy and generally not healthy? BOY WAS I WRONG. I am currently obsessed with supplements because they help my body run more efficiently and honestly are a huge hack for my ambitious heart that likes to do big things (like writing multiple books on amazon).
I use a few supplements that I love (all Beachbody brand, because I trust them, their mission, and their quality — including being NSF sport certified, I like to pretend I’m still a high level athlete!).
Recover, mentioned above is Beachbody’s post-workout protein. I’m a huge fan of the chocolate whey (I don’t personally have milk intolerances but they do have a vegan version for our milk protein intolerant/vegan friends). I love to blend it with 1/4 a frozen banana and a few frozen cherries with almond milk/water blend because it tastes like a frosty and I really like frosty’s even though I haven’t had fast food in like five years (big fast food: Mcdonalds, burger king, wendy’s, etc).
I would highly recommend that you use a protein + shakeology (what I use) or add additional protein to your diet for optimal results and (less muscle soreness). If you choose to keep your current diet and forgo supplements check the epsom salt bath recommendations, stretches, and foam rolling to keep the soreness manageable. If you’re curious about all the supplements I use, check out my kitchen stash.
what are members of The Girl Squad saying about Muscle Burns Fat/MBFA?
ready to do the whole workout program: muscle burns fat and/or muscle burns fat advanced?
Have you tried the Muscle Burns Fat Advanced Sample Workout and you’re ready to do the whole program?
I get it girl, I loved completing MBF and MBFA in 2021 and will likely revisit them again in the future because they were quick and easy, much like 21 day fix (which I’ve done multiple times as well). Here are the bundles you can get started with — I initially got started with the 21 day fix bundle back in 2015 or the MBF Veggies Hater Bundle equivalent. However, I would’ve gotten the Fit Kit Bundle if it had existed & that’s what I recommend these days to my ambitious ladies who are ready to start the journey all in style.
Muscle Burns Fat and Muscle Burns Fat Advanced are both included in the bundles below.
Here are your options:
Muscle Burns Fat & Muscle Burns Fat Advanced “Fit Kit” Bundle
Muscle Burns Fat & Muscle Burns Fat Advanced “Too Sore Too Tired” Bundle
Muscle Burns Fat & Muscle Burns Fat Advanced “Veggie Haters” Bundle
You can access Muscle Burns Fat and Muscle Burns Fat Advanced without any supplements or equipment by getting the “workouts only option” here. Curious about what supplements I use, how often, or for what purpose/result? Check out my supplement stash.
*muscle burns fat and muscle burns fat advanced are included in the workouts only option and in the free two week trial when you choose the 3 month subscription option (your card doesn’t get charged until after the two weeks if you choose not to cancel!).
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it’s where me & my bff Marcie spend most of our time sharing our own workouts, our struggles, & cheering on the other ambitious women committing to beachbody on demand workouts. I cannot wait to cheer you on for committing to & falling in love with home workouts. Here’s to creating a fit routine you actually stick to.
AUTHOR: Dr. Lauren Baker, DPT, PT, ATC, MTC is a Physical Therapist, Certified Athletic Trainer, Online Fitness Coach, Military Wife, & Circus Addict who is obsessed with sharing all her adventures & knowledge so that you know that literally ANYTHING is possible with a little bit of Google & a WHOLE lot of courage. ps let's hang on instagram.
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