Is Beachbody’s 645 Program Worth It? (Workout Review)

It is estimated that more than 2 in 5 adults in the USA are overweight or obese, which can have some serious health and mental impacts on their lives.

Training at home with some equipment became extremely common in COVID lockdown – and Amoila Cesar says he has the ultimate at-home training plan – Beachbody’s 645 Program.

Let’s see what’s what.

About the Creator – Amoila Jamil Cesar

Amoila Cesar hardly needs an introduction, as he is one of the biggest and most successful celebrity coaches on the planet. But he didn’t just fall into this position. He had to work incredibly hard to create new connections and build the clientele he has.

See, to be able to train people for a living, you need more than just a piece of paper saying you are qualified to do so. You need passion, and Amoila has that in folds.

He grew up in an environment that forced him to grow and mature quite fast, which definitely helped him develop his perseverance. Early in life, he developed a passion for fitness, and in high school, he was a pretty good basketball player.

Fast forward to college, and he earned his first CPT qualification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA).

After graduating from college, he moved to California, where he started PT with various clients that were willing to hire him as a coach – as most PTs start their career.

His infectious personality soon led to him getting some big names as clients:

• Two Chainz
• August Alsina
• Jack Osbourne
• Merle Dandridge
• Kevon Looney
• Patrick Patterson

His training is focused on (depending on the person) the fundamentals of fitness and does not aim to overcomplicate things. This makes his training plans extremely approachable to most.

He is also famous for his “WORK” program on Beachbody – but how do the 645 stack up?…

645 Overview

The first thing you need to know is that the 645 Program is the most complete program I have seen on Beachbody – hands down. The overarching goal of this plan is not only just to have you grow stronger but to improve mobility and flexibility as well.

• Fitness level: Intermediate
• Duration: 13 Weeks
• Workouts per week: 6 workouts per week
• Average workout duration: 45 minutes per week
• Equipment needed: Minimal equipment
• Goal: Lose weight and gain strength

The goals of this plan are huge. It’s simple to say you will be focused on all of these components, but did they actually design a plan that can do all of that?

Well, the very first thing that caught my eye is its massive focus on progression.

Just like your credit score, you need to constantly work for your muscles to keep growing. This means you will need to apply progressive overload – and Amoila was kind enough to attach PDF files that allow you to track your workouts.

In fact, this program is so diverse that it would take a lot of time to show what is within. But I’m going to try anyway:

• Full 13-week training program
• Bonus EMOM workouts
• Bonus cardio workouts
• Various mobility videos
• Nutrition guides
• Mindset advice
• Tracking PDFs
• Spotify playlists

As you can see, Amoila and Beachbody really went all out to see just how much information they can cram into a plan to get you results.

That said, you’ll still only be following 6 normal workouts per week:

While the program is a whopping 13 weeks long, the workout schedule remains the same. That said, they will differ greatly from one another – especially when you compare from stage to stage. Each stage will consist of 3 working weeks and 1 deload week.

The stages will differ from one another based on various factors, like intensity, load, rest times, and volume. Then, the final week (or stage 3) is called Performance Week, which is where you will test yourself to see how much progress you’ve made.

Beachbody’s 645 Program Details

As with the other Beachbody programs, you won’t really be working with sets and reps but rather with time. Some of the weighted movements will be done with typical sets and reps, and you might even do some EMOM (every minute on the minute) sets.

Estimated Calories Burned on 645

Contrary to popular belief, calculating how many calories you burn when doing anything is actually extremely hard. It can be influenced by how much you slept, how much stress you endured, how much coffee you had, or even just what your diet looks like.

That said, we can still estimate how much you could burn per workout with the 645 programs. The biggest factors that will determine how much you burn are:

• Weight: We all learned in high school that Force = Mass x Acceleration. The more mass you have, the more force you need to apply to move. This means more energy is needed.
• Muscle mass: Ever wondered how bodybuilders can eat 6,000 calories and not get fat? That’s because compared to fat, muscle mass is metabolically “active” and requires energy to sustain. More muscle mass also means you will burn more calories doing anything, even nothing.
• Training: Per minute, resistance training burns more calories than cardio, and per minute, full body training could burn more calories than only training some muscles – but that’s really splitting hairs.
• Biological sex: Males typically have more muscle mass than women and will therefore be able to move more mass, which can increase calorie expenditure.

There are some other factors, like protein intake, that could influence this as well. Regardless, here is an estimate of how many calories you can burn while doing a 645 workout:

This is a very general estimate and can differ greatly from person to person. Wearing a calorie tracker (like a smartwatch) could give you a better estimate.

While this is a viable question, your main focus should be on creating a calorie deficit through your diet. The diet will be a better option to try to cut calories since it will be way easier. While they do provide ample nutrition information in this program, they are also trying to sell you a lot of supplements.

Dieting is actually pretty simple:

1. Calculate your maintenance calories.
2. Calculate what your calorie deficit is.
3. Calculate your protein requirements.
4. Eat accordingly.

While some supplements have been shown to work, I feel that Beachbody is a bit quick to say supplements are the solution to many of the problems you’ll face. A simple and effective diet rarely needs extra supplements.

That said, supplements like creatine and protein powder might make the process easier.

645 vs The Work: What’s the Difference?

The Work is another program that was designed by Amoila and is also available on Beachbody. The Work is known for being brutal and taking no prisoners – but what are the actual differences between the two?

Overall, the biggest difference is that 645 … is better.

You can see this just browsing over the details of the two. 645 is more engaging, it tracks weekly progress (which is a big deal), and while it may be longer, that simply means the results will be that much greater.

Yes, The Work might be harder, but that does not mean it will be a better program. The lack of progression tracking and quality nutrition information would lead me to put my money on 645 being the better option.

645 is also a hell of a lot better than Sagi Kalev’s A Week of Hard Labor program.

645 Before & After Results

645 is a program that values progression and – not only encourages you to challenge yourself to be better weekly – but also gives you the nutrition plan to make progress in the fat loss area as well.

Quite a few people have had amazing results with 645, and results can include some of the following:

• Reddit user cabritadorada said that their “glutes, core and shoulders are much stronger.” They also mention that for greater results, you’d need to focus on your nutrition a lot.
• Fellow Redditor cv-mel said they feel “it’s been more effective for toning and building underlying muscle for me.”

Overall, the results from the plan are great. That said, there are always going to be complaints – we are human, after all. If you commit to the plan and really try to improve, you’re going to see results. It all comes down to how much you are willing to commit.

3 645 Program Pros

1. Cardio – and resistance training combo: The synergy of training both for cardiovascular fitness and muscle gain can potentially result in some really impressive gains while trimming fat (granted, you eat correctly).
2. Progress tracking: I’ve hammered on this point before, and that’s because it’s a big thing! Failing to track strength progress could result in you just spinning your wheels in place – and you won’t get a cool burnout with tire smoke. You’ll get a bad burnout with overtraining bloat. Hell, they even advise you to track your mobility over time.
3. Some nutrition guidance: Normally, the nutrition guides they give for Beachbody plans are just a ploy to sell you more of their supplements. This does have that guide but also has other plans that can help you calculate calories and macros.

2 645 Cons

1. Not the greatest for fat loss: When you look at the reviews from people who have used the program, they all say the plan is pretty good for gaining muscle mass but not the best for losing fat.
2. It’s just for beginners: This is not so much a con as it is a limitation. See, the more you train and expose your body to harder methods, the more you need to expose them to keep making progress. This limits this plan to only be effective for people who are beginners, and if you have been training for more than 12 months, this is not for you. Tony Horton’s 10-Minute Trainer is also a much better program for newbies.

Beachbody’s 645 Program – Final Thoughts

This is a rather refreshing program from Beachbody. Some of their other programs (not all) have been somewhat disappointing, and this plan solves all the issues I have had with other plans.

The biggest changes that are valuable are:

• The ability to track your strength week to week
• A nutrition guide that allows you to calculate your macros and calories
• The ability to add workouts onto the schedule if needed

These may seem like small factors, but they can make a world of difference. If you fail to track your progress weekly (and wait till week 13) you may not notice you’re getting weaker! Then instead of just solving it right there and then, you basically just wasted 13 weeks.

While the nutrition plan is not perfect, it is ideal for the people who they designed this program for – beginners. This, combined with the coaching style and Amoila’s chemistry, makes the plan extremely accessible to beginners.

Beachbody’s 645 program hits plenty of the right notes to be a great workout and only misses some by a small margin. That said, for a beginner, this has all the makings of a great plan.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5