The last episode covered why gaining weight while training hard is an effective way to get lean by packing on muscle, increasing metabolism, and making it easier to lose fat later.

Today we’re tackling the “losing fat” part of getting lean. If you haven’t listened to episode 12, go back and do that first. If you’re a newer lifter who is not extremely overweight, your best gains will come through hard strength training and eating at maintenance or in a slight surplus to improve your body composition. I recommend focusing on building muscle before you worry about losing fat.

However, if you’re a late novice or intermediate lifter who has spent time in a building phase and is ready to “lean out” through a fat-loss phase, this episode is for you. After all, most of us want to maintain a healthy weight, and we can’t keep packing on muscle (along with some fat) forever. The body adapts, muscle-building slows down, and sometimes we need to “rev the engine” so-to-speak by taking a break, cutting some weight, and resetting ourselves for the next building phase.

The challenge is losing weight at a reasonable pace while retaining as much of that hard-won muscle as possible through appropriate training and nutrition choices. Just as we want to maximize muscle size and growth while gaining weight, we want to minimize muscle loss and maximize fat loss while losing weight.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• When it makes sense to enter a weight-loss phase

• How fast you should lose weight

• Training and diet strategies to retain as much muscle as possible

• Metabolic adaptation and taking “diet breaks”

• Listening to biofeedback, especially as you get really lean

• My recent, successful 12-week weight-loss phase and current cut

RELATED LINKS:

• MacroFactor app for food logging and calculating expenditure (use discount code "WITSANDWEIGHTS")

🎙️ ABOUT THE SHOW
At Wits & Weights, we help you shred fat, build strength, feel energized, and project confidence in your career and relationships without excessive dieting, cardio, or food restrictions.

👉 Just go to witsandweights.com/coaching to connect with me.

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👨‍💻 HOSTED BY

• Philip Pape of Wits & Weights (Instagram 👉 @witsandweights)

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Transcript

This podcast was transcribed automatically, so please forgive any errors or typos.

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