How to Get a Beach Body in 3 Months

Cut your calorie intake. Losing fat and getting lean is all about creating a calorie deficit -- consuming fewer calories than you burn. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends that active men consume 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day to maintain weight and active women consume 2,000 to 2,400. To lose fat, you will need to go slightly below this. Reduce your calories by 500 to 1,000 calories per day to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, advises MayoClinic.com. In three months, this should give you a noticeable weight loss.

Add weight training to your routine. Perform a full-body training session three times per week on non-consecutive days for the first month and a half. Full-body workouts use more muscle groups and burn more calories than body-part splits, making them superior for fat loss, says strength coach Marc Perry of Built Lean. Perform five to six exercises per session, covering your whole body, such as squats, leg curls, chinups or pulldowns, shoulder presses and bench presses or pushups.

Switch to an upper-body, lower-body split in the second half of your three months. This involves working your upper body on Monday and Thursday and lower body on Tuesday and Friday. By adding a fourth session each week, you're increasing the frequency of muscle stimulation, calorie burn and metabolism boost, but still allowing for ample recovery.

Increase your training intensity. The weights you lift should be challenging. The notion that high repetition sets with lighter weights is better for fat burning is false. Perform all your exercises for three to four sets of eight to 12 reps using a weight that's challenging, but that you can lift with perfect form. Keep your rest periods to no longer than 60 seconds to increase calorie burn. Aim to progress consistently every week during your three-month plan.

Perform cardio three days per week. Cardio aids with burning calories and shedding fat. In weeks one to six, perform two steady-state sessions and one interval session. Your steady state session could be 30 minutes at a moderate pace on the bike, treadmill or rower. For your interval sessions, pick a gym machine, warm up for five minutes, then work at maximum intensity for 30 seconds. Go at a leisurely pace for 90 seconds and repeat 10 times. From week seven, switch to two interval sessions and one steady state session.