Ep 156: How to Lose 1,000 Pounds
What would it take to lose 1,000 pounds? Find out the surprising truth about dieting and discover a radically different, evidence-based approach to transforming your body composition.
In this episode, Philip (@witsandweights) talks about breaking the cycle of dieting and weight regain, strength training, and mindset shifts. It is not another quick fix or fad diet but a method that prioritizes long-term results through evidence-based approaches, focusing on body composition rather than simplistic weight loss goals.
Philip touches on the societal trend of repetitive dieting attempts and weight fluctuations, shedding light on the struggles individuals face in maintaining sustainable results. He talks about the dangers of perpetual dieting and yo-yo weight cycles, emphasizing the importance of preserving muscle mass during weight loss. He also discusses the significance of strength training and muscle building for overall health and body composition.
Today, Philip also introduces the upcoming launch of Wits & Weights Physique University, a dynamic semi-private group coaching program meticulously designed to elevate your fitness journey. This experience is tailored to empower you with personalized nutrition and strength training strategies.
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Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your physique and enhance your well-being.
Today, you’ll learn all about:
4:27 Wits & Weights Physique University
10:50 The truth behind dieting cycles
15:00 Weight loss vs. fat loss
16:31 Breaking free from traditional dieting
21:24 The importance of body composition
24:53 Put a plan in place
27:15 Improving body composition through strength training
31:05 Training has to be hard, and reframing your mindset
43:17 Outro
Episode resources:
Embarking on a health and fitness journey can often feel like navigating through a labyrinth of conflicting information and fleeting trends. Today, we are presented with a refreshingly straightforward and sustainable approach to dieting, strength training, and overall health transformation. The episode's underlying message is clear: traditional dieting paradigms are fundamentally flawed, often leading to a vicious cycle of weight loss and gain, also known as the dreaded yo-yo effect.
Philip opens the episode by confronting the harsh reality that traditional diets are typically designed for failure, leading not only to temporary weight loss but also to potential harm to our metabolism and overall health. Instead of fixating on the numbers on the scale, Philip urges listeners to shift their focus towards enhancing their body composition through muscle building. He makes a compelling case for the inclusion of all macronutrients in our diets and advocates for a flexible approach to eating, which does not demonize any particular food group. This philosophy is built upon the foundation of evidence-based strategies, which promise not just temporary reductions in weight, but genuine, lasting transformations in health and body composition.
The podcast delves into the psychological and physiological ramifications of yo-yo dieting, a phenomenon all too familiar to many of us. Philip underscores the importance of understanding the difference between weight loss and fat loss and the perils associated with the loss of lean muscle. Through a more holistic approach, which includes strength training and proper nutrition, listeners are encouraged to not just reduce calories, but to redefine their relationship with food and exercise altogether.
One of the most profound takeaways from this episode is the call to redefine fitness and shift our mindset towards health. Philip inspires listeners to perceive food as fuel and exercise as a celebration of what our bodies are capable of achieving. The emphasis on creating training habits and tailoring nutrition to individual needs is a testament to the podcast's commitment to providing actionable advice that resonates with a diverse audience. Whether you are a seasoned athlete or just beginning your fitness journey, the podcast serves as a personal guide to nurturing a healthier relationship with food and exercise, transforming them from burdensome tasks into joyous celebrations of health.
Moreover, Philip does not shy away from providing concrete tips on fat loss and ab training, often sharing insights from his own journey and struggles with fitness. His transparency and willingness to share both his knowledge and personal experiences lend an authenticity to the podcast that is both engaging and relatable.
In summary, this episode represents a call to action for anyone looking to break free from the constraints of traditional dieting and to embark on a more informed, flexible, and enjoyable path to health and body composition. It's an invitation to join a community that celebrates strength, nourishment, and the transformative power of a well-rounded approach to fitness. For those ready to challenge the status quo and embrace a new paradigm in diet and health transformation, this episode is a must-listen.
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Transcript
Philip Pape 00:00
What would it take to lose 1000 pounds? What if that approach is exactly the opposite of what it takes to achieve the health and physique you've always wanted? Today you're going to learn a Surprising Truth About dieting and discover a radically different evidence based approach to transforming your body composition. Welcome to the Wits & Weights podcast. I'm your host, Philip pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger. Optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition will uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Wits & Weights
Philip Pape 00:45
community Welcome to another solo episode of the Wits & Weights podcast. In our last episode 155 Six steps to rebuild your strongest healthiest body over 40. With Brian grin. Brian discussed how to find clarity tackle stress and make sleep your secret weapon for fat loss and muscle gain. We talked about nutrition myths, meal timing, and intermittent fasting plus effective strategies for training smart given your recovery capacity and joint health. Today for Episode 156, how to lose 1000 pounds, we're going to tackle a topic that might sound insane, but there's a method to my madness. And there's a reason I titled it this ridiculous number of 1000 pounds. And before he started thinking this is just another fad diet or quick fix, which would be kind of insane. Just hear me out right what we're really going to do. What we're going to explore today is the truth behind the dieting cycle that so many of us have experienced this is men and women. For most of our life. Let's be honest, when it comes to what the numbers tell us, which is 95 to 99% of people are always dieting to some extent and then fail to maintain those results. We're also going to talk about how it can hold you back from achieving the health and physique you've always wanted. So by the end of this episode, you'll either have a new understanding of or a refresher in. Number one, why traditional dieting often fails, why it can be harmful to your health to your metabolism. Number two, the importance of focusing on body composition and building muscle. We love muscle here, not just weight loss, and in fact, sometimes not weight loss. Number three, how flexible dieting and strength training can help you achieve sustainable results results that will give you lasting changes for the rest of your life. And the mindset shifts needed to do that. Now whether you've been struggling with this exact thing, yo yo dieting, dieting cycles for, you know recently for years for decades, or you're just starting your health and fitness journey. On this show, we are all about bringing you knowledge and tools. That's it knowledge and tools that you need to break free from some of the conventional traditional wisdom, quote unquote, on dieting, on eating on movement, and start actually making progress. Now, before we dive into the show, even though I'm really excited to get into the topic, I've also got something really special to share with you for the first time ever on the show. And it is relevant to today's episode. So let me ask you a question. Do you feel like you're stuck in that cycle, whether a cycle of restrictive diets, you go on keto, you come off, you go on Carnival, you come off, whether it's endless cardio, because you feel like you just got to keep moving to burn fat, whether it's your lifter, and you keep getting stuck, not quite able to build that muscle. And you just find yourself back at square one, whatever that means to you. And you're putting in all the effort. That's the thing. We're taking action. People listen to the show, if you're listening, I know you are learning and growing and trying to do everything, every trick in the book, to build muscle to lose fat and still not always seeing the results. And wants you to know that you are definitely not alone. And by that I mean, almost everybody on this planet deals with these issues. To some extent, myself included. And I was there several years ago, I've come a long way. And I'd love to share that on this podcast and help you do the same. And I've seen time and again, clients, the Facebook community, you know, my podcast listeners, people who are ambitious people who are in their 30s 40s, beyond who you know, faced life, and they've learned and they still have these challenges despite putting in the work. And maybe you've even succeeded everywhere else, your career, your family, your personal growth. But when it comes to your physique, it's like hitting your head against a brick wall. So I want you to take that. And now I want you to imagine a world actually, for those of you who are child of the 80s like me, you know from the 90s and 2000s. The movie, the guy who announced the movie trailers in a world where you're not just another member in a crowded gym. You're not just a follower of the fad diet are the influencers. I want you to picture yourself with a clear plan. It's Taylor Just for you, for how you like to live your life, or how busy you are. And you're able to build a strong, lean, healthy physique. You don't have to sacrifice a bunch of time and like carve out your schedule for a million things. You don't have to sacrifice your lifestyle you're eating out, you're going to vacation, your travel, you're enjoying baked goods, ice cream, whatever it is. And imagine feeling completely empowered physically, mentally, emotionally, like, I know what I can do, I've got this, I know that every action I take is going to create an output that I have control over. And then finally, you look in the mirror and you say, Yeah, I did that, like I did it, and I can do it again. So if that's the confidence you want, I am introducing for the first time on the podcast, something called Wits & Weights physique, university, this is launching in April, it's been a passion of mine for probably over a year now to take what I've learned from working with one on one clients from talking to so many of you in, in the free calls that I do in people in the Wits, & Weights, Facebook community, in all the experts with all the guests that I've had, and experts I've spoken to on podcast, and put it into a format that is more accessible to more people to make more of an impact. Now many of you may already know or maybe not that I offer one on one coaching right now one on one, coaching tends to be a lot more expensive. It's not for everyone, it's a much more tailored hands on approach. But this new program is more of a semi private group experience. And in my opinion, it goes way beyond typical, quote unquote, group coaching programs, because what I want for you is what I would want in something like that, okay, I would want education, I would want application, I would want personalization. And I would want a community that could support me actively, not just in Facebook group, you know, I love our Facebook group, something where you're completely dedicated with like minded individuals, going after the best version of yourself. But I don't want to keep it a mystery. So I'm going to tell you what you get. And then I think this coming Saturday, I'm going to record an episode specifically about the program in detail for people who are curious. But here's what you get in a nutshell, there are gonna be weekly live coaching calls. So that right there is an excellent learning and coaching opportunity, a custom plan based on a unique assessment that you take. All right, right there. Most group coaching programs don't do that for you. This isn't a template, this isn't like a macro prescription. This is you submit a form, I or my team take a detailed look at it and put together a plan for you that that's like an 1820 Page nutrition plan. I'm going to drop monthly workout programs, okay, based on the principles that I espouse when it comes to strength and muscle. And these will be for different skill levels, different equipment, different days per week, and so on. So just sticking around for those could be worth it for you. I'm going to have courses, this is the backbone of why I'm calling it university courses in everything from nutrition to training, to hormones to metabolism, I'm going to constantly expand this. So if you're in the program, you're going to get new stuff all the time and constantly be learning, because I want to bring you the ultimate DIY experience, which is crazy for a coach to say, right, because a lot of coaches, they want to kind of hook you into their program. My values are that if you can learn to do it for yourself, but you continually learn and grow, the continual growth is where the value is. And that's what I want to bring you, I want to take you from 80 to 90 to 95% to 99%. And then constantly be able to apply yourself and get better and better over time. And the cool thing is, as I mentioned earlier, it's accessible, I'm bringing it to you at a fraction, the cost of one on one coaching. And here's the thing, you'll be part of a private community, it's it's beyond what something like Facebook can provide, it's going to be much more personal. There'll be specific channels for different phases. So like if you're going after fat loss, you hang around with the fat loss crowd if you're going after muscle building, hanging out with that crowd. And you can jump around, depending on your needs. So I mean, kind of think of Reddit or slack or something like that. Put in a private community. And you can still get some one on one attention there with weekly check ins in the community, hence, the semi private experience. Okay, enough about that, because I don't want this to be a big sales pitch. But I did want to announce it for the first time and I'm very excited about it and hope you are too and you can hear my voice where I'm bringing all the awesome things of one on one coaching to more people. That's the goal here. So if you're ready, if you're ready to get that clarity if you want to launch your physique transformation, and do it sustainably in a community of like minded, curious ambitious fitness enthusiasts, right, that's what we are Wits & Weights physique University is where it's going to be. And I invite you to use the link in the show notes to put your name on the presale list. So I'm rolling this out in a way that I think is fair, the very first group to be notified will be my private clients and people who've had been intimately involved in our community with they've had calls with or they've attended my live events, and they've gotten on this special VIP He lists let's call it and then everyone else who's on the list that you're going to sign up here in my show notes. You loyal listeners of the show are going to have the next opportunity a few days later. And then finally, it'll go to more of a public lots. So those the first few slots, I think I'm going to make 10 slots available, it's going to be for 97 a month. This is basically free kits, like a like a guinea pig group, just to get the program going and you get first crack at it. And then the remaining presale slots are gonna go up to 147 a month, which is still an amazing value, and then the final launch price is probably gonna be around 247 a month. Alright, so if you want to get on that presale list for that early notification, just click the link in my show notes and again, Wits & Weights physique University is going live in April, and I'm gonna release more information all about the program on Saturdays bonus episode. All right, let's get into today's episode because the foundational principles of what we're talking about are completely irrelevant to the types of things you're going to learn and apply in the Wits & Weights physique University, today's episode is called How to Lose 1000 pounds. Alright, first, I'm going to explain why the title of the show actually makes total sense. Picture this because you probably can actually picture it because you lived it. First you decide to lose weight, then you start a new diet, keto, anyone, carnivore, anyone, vegetarianism, whatever. And maybe you get some success. In fact, you probably do have some quote unquote, success as in, the weight on the scale goes down. But then something happens, life happens. The weekend happens, the trip happens, the injury happens, the sickness happens. And before you know it, you're right back where you started. If not, let's be honest, a few pounds heavier. So if this sounds familiar, it's because it is so prevalent. You're not not only not alone, it's probably 90 95% of people have gone through this. And I did some research. And this is where the episode title comes from. It looks like most people try dieting at least 100 times in their lifetime. And I can believe this because I had a guest on a long time ago. I don't remember who I feel like it was a woman who said women that women tend to die at like 120 times on average. But men are not far behind. Let's be honest, we also have been wanting to lose weight and go through these cycles. Every time you die, you probably lost some weight, you lost 10 pounds, 1520 pounds. So if we assume 10 And you've dieted 100 times 10 times 100 is 1000 pounds. So to answer the question, stated by the title, how to lose 1000 pounds, most people actually do that.
Philip Pape 12:35
Okay, and it's not really a trick. I mean, I did trick you, let's be honest, I wanted to listen to the episode, but I'm giving you the goods. Now, the only reason people have lost that 1000 pounds is because of course they keep gaining it back and then having to do it over and over and over again. But here's the thing, is that cycle? Is that process of losing weight really what we want, like why are we going after that? Ask yourself every time you've stepped back into the Keto world, or the diet world or Weight Watchers, or Octavia or whatever it is, why, why are you doing it? And then when you lose the 1015 20 pounds? Does it make you happy? Does it get what you want. And today I want to dive into this. There's a lot of mindset stuff here, but there's some physiology as well. And we're going to explore a more evidence based way to transform your body and improve your health. So for those who are longtime listeners of the show, I think this is a great episode to refresh you on why we're doing this like and how this all works. So let's start by taking a look at the dieting cycle. We talked about how often people die at least 100 times in their life right there. If you just go by the number of years people live, I mean, even if somebody started when they were 10, and they went to their 90, and that's 80 years, that's still more than one diet a year. Right? Yes, crazy. And it's probably compressed into a certain timeframe right? For a lot of people might be starting in their teenage years, teenage 20s 30s, right kind of the vanity years, let's call it but then it might ramp up as you get the hormones start to kick in, especially for women, but men as well. And you just go on these cycles. But every time you lose weight, you also you also probably gain the weight back and then you gain more. And this is that yo yo diet, right? The effect of losing and regaining weight. It's frustrating for sure. But it's actually very harmful to your health into your metabolism even if you stayed the same scale weight that entire time. Because first let's think what happens when you diet. When you restrict calories, right? Your body starts to compensate starts to conserve. It induces metabolic adaptation, a totally normal process. Nothing you can do about it. That's fine, right? Your metabolism slows down, conserves energy, the more you die, well, if you are constantly dieting, you're constantly going into that mode, right? And then when you start eating again, you're now primed to regains energy that you've lost as fat. And if you're not tracking, eating flexibly, all the things we're going to talk about in a minute, if you're just indiscriminately eating, whatever, you're probably going to gain more So now let's add another layer on top of that, which is where I really think the rubber meets the road. And how vicious this cycle is. That is the weight loss versus fat loss comparison here. Because when you lose weight, if you're not strength training, if you're not eating the protein, you're going to lose muscle and you're gonna lose a lot of muscle, we're talking like 25% of it up to 50% of it as a muscle, it's a big number, you lose 20 pounds, five of it must be muscle, then you gain 1020 pounds back, it's all fat, you do it again, muscle, beginning back fat pounds and pounds and pounds of beautiful lean muscle tissues just fine off your body, the one thing we want to keep and grow, you're just losing, and you get more and more skinny fat, get more and more fluffy. But even worse, metabolic disease sets in, you know, fatty liver disease, you get more insulin resistant. Like all the things that we associate with obesity, and poor health and older age, even if you're not that, quote, unquote, heavy according to the BMI. But many of us do that as well. Because what you find when you lose muscle, is it's even easier to gain the fat. And then you end up gaining more and you get heavier, and then higher body fat percentage is this vicious cycle. And you're not sure what to do next, because all you've done in the past is diet. And it leaves so many people feeling hopeless, and feeling defeated. But it doesn't have to be that way. That's what I'm doing this show for. And that's what I love that you're listening today. Because this is going to change your life if you've never heard it before. And if you have, it's just hopefully going to re motivate you as to why this is important. One of the problems of traditional dieting is it's just too restrictive. And it's completely unsustainable, right? So I'll get to the Fat Loss Weight Loss thing, but right now I'm talking about the dieting itself. Because even when you are trying to lose fat and your strength training, and you're doing all the other things, right? The way that you approach your diet is extremely important. Let me ask you this, would you rather cut out foods or just cut out calories. And it's important to think of it that way. Because when you want to lose weight to lose fat, meaning you are, you're training to build muscle, you're holding on to the muscle, and you're losing weight to lose fat. When you want to do that, you have to be in a calorie deficit, you just have to be energy balance, right. And you can either do that by cutting things indiscriminately, so that somewhere down the line, it results in you eating less. Or you can go right for the jugular and say, you know, what's a more efficient way to reduce my calories? How about reduce my calories? Let me say that again? What's the most efficient way to reduce your calories? Reduce your calories? Now, what do most people do, they don't reduce their calories, they cut out carbs, or they cut out seed oils. So they cut out plants for God's sake on carnivore come on cutting out plants, right. And you start cutting out so many things that naturally cause and effect and effect and effect in effect, you end up cutting out, you know, the corn chips you normally have. And you cut out the alcohol you normally have you cut out the nuts, the big bag of nuts you have every day and you know, it ends up leading to guess what? A calorie deficit. So why don't we instead of cutting out foods, we just moderate the calories and the macros where we want them and then eat whatever the heck we want to hit those macros and calories. So I think it's very twisted. People get backward when they say Oh, I don't want to count calories. Oh, that's restrictive. Oh, you shouldn't calorie restrict, there is a time and place to go in a calorie deficit in a controlled manner when it's combined with healthy movement practices. And so when you're going to do that, why wouldn't you do it as efficiently and in control as you can? Right? So instead of cutting out food groups are drastically reducing the you know, your diversity of what you can eat, which not only deprives you of important nutrients, it simply sets you up for failure. The lack of things means you're going to want those things, period. You know it? I know it? Okay, I love ice cream. If I said I'm cutting out ice cream completely. All I would think about is when Can I have ice cream? How can I fit it in? When can I sneak it in? Oh, maybe I'll just cut calories here so I could fit ice cream and over there. And it becomes this whole restrictive talk this conversation in your head. Okay, who wants to live their life without pizza or ice cream Come on, or whatever that vise is for you. Now I did just get a ninja creamy, which I know is all the rage now. So I've jumped on that bandwagon. And I will say it is quite amazing when you can make an entire pint of ice cream that tastes like a frosty from Wendy's that has 300 calories, 50 grams of protein and very little fat and carbs. That is amazing. And I encourage you to take advantage of science in that way. That's perfectly fine. Okay. But the truth is here focusing on dieting in a restrictive way is not to your benefit. And I wanted to mention that because at some point there is a need for a calorie deficit to go into a fat loss phase and we want to at least diet the proper way. But now I want to go back to the conversation of dieting and weight loss in the first place. Why do we even do that? Right? Yeah, you want to be better physique, you want a better physique, because it'll help you feel great look great, you know, be a role model for your kids have more energy and so on. But when you've lost the weight on those restrictive diets in the past, did it give you that, and I posit that it probably did not. Unless you were doing a bunch of other things, to hold on to your muscle and improve your body composition. Hey, this is Philip. And I hope you're enjoying this episode of Wits & Weights, I started Wits & Weights to help people who want to build muscle lose fat and actually look like they lift. I've noticed that when people improve their strength and physique, they not only look and feel better, they transform other areas of their life, their health, their mental resilience and their confidence in everything they do. And since you're listening to this podcast, I assume you want the same things the same success, whether you recently started lifting, or you've been at this for a while and want to optimize and reach a new level of success. Either way, my one on one coaching focused on engineering your physique, and body composition is for you. If you want expert guidance and want to get results faster, easier, and with fewer frustrations along the way to actually look like you lift, go to wits & weights.com, and click on coaching, or use the link in my show notes to apply today, I'll ask you a few short questions to decide if we're a good fit. And if we are, we'll get you started this week. Now back to the show.
Philip Pape 21:24
Right, so let's talk about body composition. Because body composition is just what it sounds like. It's the composition of tissue in your body of fat to muscle. And we give it a lot of lip service. And people talk about it all the time. A lot of people I don't think understand exactly how to get there. And one of the big misconceptions I hear often is, well, I'm just gonna get lean before I build muscle. Very common, I just need to lose the weight before I build muscle and I've fallen trapped to this myself, I've fallen trapped to it as a coach with my clients who come in, they're not really that overweight, but they're just so uncomfortable with their body. And having felt like they've lost the ability to even control that aspect of it, that they want this, they want a quick wins. And so what I'm trying to balance is a quick win, but not a quick fix, right. And there is a very fine balance. Because for a client of mine who's working with me where I can monitor everything and do it in a controlled safe fashion, we can absolutely set up for fat loss for about 4678 weeks, without cutting calories, right? We set up for it, we get your training where it needs to be dialed in, where you're training heavy, but having lots of recovery. You're not doing too much cardio, you're just doing the right amount and you're walking, you are eating plenty of protein, all the things and then yeah, we can go after a controlled fat loss phase, even if in reality, I would really love that you would gain muscle first, okay? It's not my body, though. It's your body and I want to work with you. And because I'm there as your coach, I can at least help guide you through that process in a safe way. Get the quick win without the quick fix, doing it sustainably and then saying, Okay, I've lost a few pounds, I'm feeling good, I understand how this works now. And I trust you that I can go the other direction and build muscle with very little weight gain. And, and even if there is some weight gain, a lot of that's going to be muscle. Okay? Now the I don't want to make this whole muscle building talk because I did an entire podcast on that. I have a guide my muscle building nutrition blueprint that came out, you can get that at wits & weights.com/free, if you want the whole guide to building muscle, but I just want to talk about the fact that a lot of people unless you're very overweight, don't necessarily have to lose weight. You can maintain your weight. You can train strength train, right, apply this flexible dieting approach where we are tracking macros, and we're tracking calories. And we have this more sustainable way of eating whatever we want. Including the indulgences that we enjoyed maybe 10 20% of the time, instead of cutting out entire food groups, getting the right balance of protein, carbs, fat and yes, carbs. Carbs are important. Unless you're in fat loss where the carbs naturally get pushed pretty low. More carbs are generally going to make most people feel better. There are lots of carbs to choose from. So don't get don't get pigeonholed and thinking of carb is this one thing, right? There's fruits there starches, there's grains, those are the big ones. There's carbs that are contained in plant sources like legumes, right beings. So the right balance of all these things for your body for your goals. What are you still enjoy your favorite foods in moderation and make progress. I just had a talk yesterday with a client was wedding next year. This is a male client now about two thirds of my clients are female, third or male. And I expect every type of client that I work with, whether they're all about building muscle and gaining or they're trying to lose fat and get get lean. When Wits & Weights University comes out we're going to have plans for every style of goal the physique goal, but at the end of the day, everyone will go through every phase at some point, right? I'm a big fan of periodized in the nutrition and so he has a wedding coming up and we are talking about what makes sense If it's over a year from now, he wants to improve his physique a bit more, he's lost a little bit of fat, gain a little bit of muscle, what do we do? And I said, Well, you've got the time is on your side, like, if time is on your side, you're not pressuring yourself with a date. You know, like, I've got to be ready for the summer and you know, three months, which I get it, some people have those goals they want to put on themselves. And then we just need to do have realistic expectations. But if you got time on your side, it gives you a lot more options. And I always prefer the option that says, let's, you know, plan for the worst hope for the best. Meaning we put a plan in place that is conservative enough to give you weeks and weeks of, quote, unquote, falling off track. And normally I hate using that phrase, but most people know what I mean by that. And because you're planning it in, it's not really falling off track, you're basically saying, Look, life's gonna happen, I'm going to take a trip here, trip here, trip here, somebody's gonna visit me, we're gonna go eating out here, and then we're gonna have a party on this day, a party on that day, we've got the holidays on it ended up and because life is going to happen, assuming happens, planned for it and say, Okay, well, in an ideal world, this amount of fat loss or this amount of muscle building would take, you know, 16 weeks or 26 weeks, I'm going to tack on like 25% of that, because I've got all this time to work with giving myself the chance for diet breaks, or maintenance breaks, give me a chance for going faster or slower. That extra time gives you a chance. And that means you can have a flexible macro plan by macro, I don't mean protein, fats and carbs. I mean, like big picture, you can have this flexible plan for not only, you know, day to day or flexible, but week to week and month to month, the whole thing is designed with your life in mind, life is going to happen, right? And so he and I came out with it with some very conservative rates of gain and rates of loss that gave him a lot of buffer. And we said, look at any given time, you can choose to step on the gas pedal and go after it and be more aggressive. You know, within reason, right? We set limits, because you don't want to lose too fast. You don't want to gain too fast, or else you get unnecessary muscle loss or fat gain. And there you go. So when we talk flexibility, that's what we're talking about. Now, I'm kind of meandering, from topic to topic, but it all it all is gonna tie together pretty well. We talked about flexible dieting, we talked about body composition, how do we then improve our body composition in that context? Well, that's where the building muscle comes in. That's where strength training comes in strength training, with progressive overload, training, close to failure, so that you progress and get stronger over time, will help you look and feel better than you could ever imagine. Whatever the scale weight is. So that's the beauty of it. That's bringing me back home, in what I was talking about here, that instead of losing weight, why don't you build muscle, build muscle at maintenance, build muscle in a lean gain, or build muscle in a more optimal, slightly more aggressive game? Either way, it's going to benefit you in the long term, no matter what, even if you carry a little extra fat, the extra muscle is worth way more than any negatives from extra fat. Let me say that again, extra muscle is worth way more in on the positive side than any negatives from extra fat. It's so true, like muscle is the cure to obesity, that I'm just gonna say it that way. muscles, the cure to obesity, I have plenty of clients who are bigger guys, or even bigger. Women who are super strong have a lot of muscle. And they are in fantastic health. But if you looked at them, you'd say, wow, they carry a little extra weight. And they're cool because they want to carry the weight. They feel stronger, more capable, functional, and they're pushing a lot of weight. I have plenty of other clients were like No, no, I want to be lean, I want to have a six pack, I want to have the muscle definition. Okay, we still build the muscle first, and then we just lean out a bit more aggressively than someone else might. Having more muscle mass means you can eat more without gaining weight. Okay, that is a weird word in my book. I don't know. I mean, there's a couple reasons for this. The first is, muscle is an expensive tissue for your body to carry. It is not a natural thing to carry this extra muscle, we naturally lose muscle over time. But we have these beautiful things called weights and machines and cables where we can load our skeletal muscular system and actually prevent the loss of muscle mass with age and add new muscle mass, right? That muscle mass is expensive in terms of the resources required from your food from the amino acids, okay to constantly rebuild that tissue. And so you burn a few more calories by carrying more muscle mass. Not only that, you burn even more calories because you're probably walking around at a heavier scale weight. And this is again, the opposite of the dieting cycle thinking of I need to get skinnier, skinnier, skinnier No, no, no no no. We want to get leaner and stronger and fitter and more muscular but muscular doesn't mean bulky. It doesn't mean bulky ladies, muscular means, you know hard, tight, operate, good posture, like you look like a an athletic human being. That's what it looks like. Okay, men and women. Unless you're on steroids, you're not going to get bulky. Even men aren't going to get bulky without a lot had to work over many, many years, and a lot of eating. So having more muscle mass means your muscles gonna burn more, and your body is going to burn more all because you are carrying more weight, which also means when you die, and when you gain you do it from higher levels, not because you've magically ramped up your metabolism, it technically, other than the fact that you carry more of stuff that requires energy. So in that sense, you have like, does that make any sense? If you and someone else with the same body composition, you can't change your metabolism, alright, and I've used that term in the past incorrectly, you can't really change it, you can just change your body so that your metabolism is correlated with that new body. Does that make sense? So maybe it doesn't matter. Because you at the end of the day, you're burning more calories. And that's looks like changing your metabolism. So we'll we'll leave it at that. Okay, so I'm trying to, I'm looking at my notes, see, if I anything I missed in this section, with strength training, the thing to remember is being consistent. Okay, I did a quick wits about this recently about just getting started as often the hardest thing and then being consistent, the training has to be hard. Now, art is a very nebulous term. And I've talked about this in many contexts. But it should be hard enough to push your muscles close to failure so that they have no choice but to adapt when you're sleeping the next day, and get a little bigger, so that you can live more the next time and more than next time. Okay, strength training will help you build that lean, toned, hard muscle, whatever word you want to do, which actually will make you look smaller, in a good way. Right, lean or whatever word you want to use, and more defined, even if the scale doesn't change. Okay, so all of these concepts are really important to revisit, over and over again, in our heads and understand why building muscle is important, and also helps us get over the mindset of the fear of building muscle, which often requires gaining weight. So how do we make that shift? How do we make the mindset shift from focusing on weight loss to, I'm gonna call it health and body composition, because I think they go hand in hand, I think weight loss, which causes you to lose muscle, if you're not going after fat loss is what I mean, is detrimental to your health. Getting skinny by virtue of just indiscriminately losing a bunch of tissue is not good for your health. Whereas adding muscle, whether the scale goes up or down is, is supremely helpful to your health. All right, but a lot of it does start in the mind. And so if you've ever listened to me talk about reframing positive reframe Allah, very positive guide naturally, but I also have learned as a skill to reframe things in a positive way. And when clients check in and again, if you join the Wits, & Weights University, one of the earliest course modules I'm going to have in there, it's about mindset, all the aspects of mindset, it's not fufu type stuff, even though there's a place for some of that, if anybody knows me, it's evidence based. But it's also practical. Like that's what I want to be is like, what tools do we use to shift our mindset to serve us and our goals. So for example, instead of seeing food as the enemy, or seeing exercise as punishment, we reframe those things, right? Food is fuel food is nutrition for our bodies, right? It gives us the energy, we want more of it, we want to add in the foods that serve us add in the protein that helps us build muscle, add in the carbs, it gives us energy in recovery, add in the fats that support our hormones, add in the things that don't mess with our digestion, right? Add in the things that keep us full, adding indulgences here and there that keep us sane. So that's food, exercise or training is a celebration of what our bodies can do training and lifting weights, when you can go in there and push the iron around, move the cable around, whatever, and engage with your muscles and just bring it all together as this beautiful system that can work together and push things around. Like that is a celebration of your body. But you can do that. And you can do it more and more effectively. And you can push more force, the stronger you get. And then that causes you get more muscle definition and get bigger and stronger and leaner and harder. And all those great things. All right, very passionate about this. When we focus on nourishing our bodies, and moving them in ways that feel good, we're more likely to stick with the habits. That's where the consistency and habits come in. Not forcing ourselves to do it with discipline and willpower. But taking a little action, seeing the win that comes from fueling ourselves and for moving. And then we just want to do it over and over and over again, no matter how hard it is. When you approach health and fitness from this place of self care and compassion, right as much as I talked about lifting weights, yeah, it is a is an act of self care, as opposed to how to lose 1000 pounds, which is fun. caching yourself in restricting yourself. When you do that, when you care about yourself enough to prioritize these things, amazing things can happen because that is when you actually enjoy eating nutritious foods, you look forward to your workouts, you start to see changes in your energy, your sleep, your well being and yes physiologically to and things like your hormones. And of course, visually, your body composition, your physique, you get more muscle, less fat, and whatever drives you like for a lot of people having more energy is kind of a nebulous thing. But like, looking great naked in the mirror is very visceral. So take all those things, and they're all valid for you, whatever drives, alright, so the key, even though I just said, those drive you right, and you have a goal somewhere down the road, the key is to focus on the here and now for the process. Because if the process can be enjoyable, like eating the food, like doing the workouts, you'll get the outcome, and they go hand in hand, right? You get the small wins along the way. Like I lifted five more pounds this session than last session, I chose to have this or that at the restaurant. And always remember, progress is never linear. Like I have to I tell my clients this all the time, and it still comes up because it's in our nature to beat ourselves up. Especially when we're very ambitious. When we are do it yourselfers, we almost put perfectionism on ourselves. And then there's these ups and downs and the downs tend to be amplified. But what matters is you keep showing up because the UPS will outweigh the downs over time. And then eventually, mentally, you get to the point where the downs are tolerable, and then there and then you almost don't care because you know, with certainty with confidence, you are going to keep progressing, no matter what life throws at. All right. So to recap, man, I'm totally into this topic, I hope you guys are to the dieting cycle, the losing and regaining weight, in the form of mainly, not mainly, but fat and muscle is terrible for your health. It's also frustrating. So instead of focusing on that, why don't we prioritize body composition, prioritize health through these simple pillars of flexibility of sustainability. And it really pervades everything we talk about from a sustainable approach to lifting, which means prioritizing recovery, and progression and balancing all of that a sustainable approach to eating where you eat whatever you want, but you have the restraint of the energy balance that you need and the macro balance you need for your goals. And by shifting our mindset to one of self care and compassion. All of these things make it sustainable, because they are in tune with a positive, healthy psychology and way of living. That doesn't feel like we're fighting against ourselves. So if any of this resonates with you, I encourage you to start small, right? I encourage you to download macro factor and start tracking your food. I encourage you to commit to a string training program, right and schedule it in, get ready to go and reach out for help if you need to know how to get started. If you need any support or guidance on along the way you're listening to this podcast I want you don't know this isn't a podcast where you just consume information. Okay, this is a podcast where you can get resources to help. I'm a nutrition coach, we have a community we have the Wits & Weights, physique, university starting up, the whole purpose of that is to provide more and more impact to more people to navigate this exact journey and find what works for you, not what to cut out, not how much you have to run. But what works for you. Thank you so much for tuning in today. You know, we covered a lot. Thank you for sticking with me is what I meant to say. Right, we talked about the truth behind the dieting cycle, we talked about a more effective approach to transforming your body transforming your health, focused on body composition, flexible diet, dieting, and strength training. And that will help you break free from this endless cycle. And we talked about the mindset of self care and compassion. So as we close out today, I do want to remind you of a game changer. Okay, this is going to be a game changer in April. For those stuck in the frustrating cycle of diet of cardio of all the old usual things. The fifth floor answers the this is bad, this is bad, this is bad. Let's get away from all that. All right. If you've got little to show for all of your hard work so far, something's got to change and if you're ready for change, Wits & Weights physique University is launching in April, and it's going to be a unique semi private group coaching experience that in my opinion is unlike anything out there. It just isn't. I have not seen anything that has this much support value and personalization in a semi private setting, community setting. All right, this is where you're going to achieve the physique you want. Strong, lean, healthy, you're gonna get a program that blends personalized but flexible nutrition, strain training, you're gonna get monthly programs, educational courses, weekly coaching calls, an incredible community support system, and all of it at a fraction of the cost of one on one coaching. So if you're ready, are you ready for change if you're ready to transform your physique and join a community of like minded fitness enthusiast, who just don't want to stay stuck in the dieting cycle rat race, then jump on the presale list right now, by clicking the link in the show notes. secure your spot take advantage of the special presale price, which is just crazy low. Anybody who knows typical prices for you know, good nutrition coaching because I know there are a lot of terrible coaches out there. I'm not going to call them out by names. But if you if you run them by me, I'll let you know.
Philip Pape 40:49
It's a crazy price, and you want to get it before it goes up. So let's make this year the one where you finally achieve your fitness goals. How's that? Alright, in our next episode 157 Bill Campbell on aggressive dieting, dirty bulking and keto effects on muscle building. Dr. Campbell is back on to revisit the latest and rapid fat loss, including our findings from the Wits & Weights read tilbyr challenge last year that followed a protocol inspired by his research. He and I discussed progressive versus aggressive calorie deficits. When does optimal bulking become dirty bulking, the effects of a keto diet on muscle building, and a new study that builds Research Lab is currently planning you're gonna have to listen all the way through to find out what that is. And I do have one more little surprise. All right, if you're not yet a subscriber of Bill's body by science research review, by the way, I have no affiliation. I don't get any kickbacks, none of that. Okay, if you don't subscribe you yet, now's the time because I had the honor. I felt so honored that Bill asked me to do this. But I had the honor of contributing as one of his two experts for the March 2024 issue. So all I'm asking for you as a favor is Go subscribe. You could do a monthly if you just want to get the one issue. But then you'll probably get hooked and unsubscribe or I think he has an annual option. So go subscribe to body by science a s AP, so you get the March issue because this episode is dropping in March. And I think he only includes like the last two issues when you subscribe. So definitely subscribe now. So you get the March issue. And I just want to support my friend Dr. Campbell. I mean, he does great research down at University of South Florida. And he's a phenomenal guy he's doing right by the world. And he's a great teacher as well. I've learned a lot from him. So hit me up if you do that, if you subscribe to body by science, hit me up by Instagram, at Wits & Weights or by email at Phillip at wits & weights.com. And just let me know, hey, I subscribe to Bill's review. I want to know how many of our community are taking him up on that offer with the contribution that I made in there because I made two contributions are going to find interesting one is on ab training. Okay, which I don't know if I've ever actually talked about on the show, other than like one quick quits. So it's all about ab training, both nutrition and training. And then the other one is on my entire fat loss protocol. Like how would I set it up soup to nuts? And what's the importance of fats and carbs in that equation? Alright, that's it. I hope you enjoyed this episode of How to Lose 1000 pounds and now you know exactly what I meant by that. It's not what we want to do is that we want to we want to get strong. And as always, I want you to stay strong. And I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits & Weights podcast. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits & Weights. If you found value in today's episode, and know someone else who's looking to level up their Wits & Weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the Follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong
