October 13, 2025 • 40 mins
Track your nutrition without shame or judgment. MacroFactor learns your metabolism and adjusts to what's actually happening with your body with no guilt, no moral judgment, just data. Try it free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS: https://bit.ly/philipmacrofactor
--
Can you love your body and still want to change it?
For years we've been caught between two extremes: the body positivity camp that says any discussion of weight is harmful, and the traditional fitness world that makes you feel guilty for not being lean enough.
You want to respect yourself, but you also want to get stronger, healthier, maybe change your body composition.
Learn why removing shame doesn't mean removing high standards, how fitness capacity matters more than the number on the scale, and the system for building health while respecting your body right now.
Discover the framework of dignity-first performance engineering that lets you pursue measurable health improvements without moral judgment about your body.
Main Takeaways:
- Self-acceptance and measurable health improvements are not in conflict
- Stigma and shame actively make health worse
- Fitness and strength predict health better than BMI
- Use behavior-based data, not moral judgment
- Coach yourself with neutral observation instead of criticism and practice self-compassion to improve adherence
Episode Resources:
- Review the podcast by October 15 for a chance to win 3 months free in Physique University Mastery Track ($261 value). Leave a review at Apple Podcasts... EVERYONE who leaves a review will get a gift from me :)
Timestamps:
0:01 - The false dichotomy: body positivity vs health goals
5:03 - Dignity-first performance engineering framework
9:06 - What the research actually shows
18:33 - Build your health dashboard
28:19 - Behavior-based nutrition approach
31:49 - Coaching yourself without shame
36:09 - Fit at any size (with caveats)
39:20 - Stop letting weight dominate
🔥 Take our 2-minute Metabolic Quiz for a free, personalized fat loss blueprint with training and nutrition recommendations
🩸 Book a Performance Bloodwork Analysis to find out what's slowing your metabolism, fat loss, & muscle gain (20% off with VITALITY20)
🎓 Lose fat + build muscle in Physique University (use code FREEPLAN for a free custom nutrition plan)
👥 Join our Facebook community for fitness support
👋 Ask a question or find me on Instagram
📱 Try MacroFactor 2 weeks free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS (my favorite nutrition and macros app)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
Can you love your body and still want to change
it?
For years you've been caughtbetween two extremes: the body
positivity camp that says anydiscussion of weight is harmful,
and the traditional fitnessworld that makes you feel guilty
for not being lean or ripped orshredded enough.
You want to respect yourself,but you also want to get
stronger, healthier, maybechange your body composition.
(00:22):
And there's a tension betweenthese two worlds where you feel
like you have to choose betweenself-acceptance and
self-improvement.
Today we're proving that youcan have both.
You'll learn why removing shamedoesn't mean removing high
standards, how fitness capacitymatters more than the number on
the scale, and the system forbuilding health while respecting
(00:42):
your body right now.
Now, I'm gonna show you whythis isn't actually a conflict
(01:15):
at all and how you can engineeran approach that honors both
self-respect and measurableprogress.
Now, this episode, I wanted tocreate it because of multiple
listener questions I've receivedover the past few months, all
asking variations of the samething.
Is it wrong to want to changemy body?
Am I betraying body positivity,right?
(01:35):
The concept if I try to losefat or gain muscle.
Now, they didn't say it thatway specifically, but I'm kind
of paraphrasing because this isa legitimate question.
The vanity question, I'm tryingto look good, I'm trying to
improve my physique.
You know, I don't want to havemy belly spilling over my genes,
however, viscerally you putthat into words.
And I think they do reveal thisbig problem today and how we
(01:57):
talk about health, bodies, aboutchange, about personal
improvement.
And I think we're gonna try tosolve that problem today using
evidence, using clear thinking,and using a framework that you
can use.
Before we get into it, I wantto share a few quick wins from
Physique University over thepast couple weeks just to show
(02:18):
you how positive this can bewhen we are pursuing health.
And the first one is thehighlight of my week was that a
few people told me I lookhealthy and vibrant.
The biggest one of all is thaton Friday night I went to a
fancy fundraiser dinner and hadmy picture taken.
When I looked at the picture, Iknow my body size has not
changed yet, but I liked thepicture.
First time in almost 18 years.
Now, again, that's kind ofstraddling the, you know, how I
(02:40):
feel versus how I look dichotomywe're talking about today.
The second one, I feel likeconsistency in getting to the
gym and whatever level of dietI've achieved are big wins.
I'm proud of my increasing,increasing all my PRs this week.
So again, there's more of afocus on improvement from a
strength perspective that willtranslate to physique
improvement, and yet that isn'treally the point.
(03:01):
The third one is I sense yourpassion for helping people.
It comes through in theresponse time you give us as
clients and the attention you'reputting into helping us grow.
You're really excited abouttraining.
I get more excited to trainbecause of your excitement for
it.
It's infectious.
I'm really liking theexperience.
So I wanted to share all ofthese because they're really
more focused on the process ofimprovement, and that is gonna
(03:21):
be key to what we talk abouttoday with the topic and the
framework.
So let's talk about this.
What is this false dichotomy?
Let's name the problem clearly.
On one side, you have this bodypositivity movement.
At its core, it is aboutpushing back against appearance
hierarchies, I'm gonna callthem, right?
Like it depends on where youare on that hierarchy and what
(03:45):
kind of social media you use andwhat age you are and what that
means to you.
But basically, this movement,in my opinion, is trying to
remove moral judgment from thesize that you are with your
body, right?
I think that's a pretty fairdefinition.
And guess what?
I think that is a valuablething.
I think that shame doesn't helpanybody, it doesn't improve
(04:06):
health, it can undermine health,it is not, it's just not
helpful to the situation.
On the other side, you have,I'll say, traditional weight
normative fitness culture,right?
Which is irks me the most, Iwould say, about what I see on
Instagram, for example, or inthe way coaching programs are
framed.
And this is where we use weightloss as the primary or only
(04:29):
endpoint.
I mean, all the all thecommercials I see for now for
Noom and microdosing, and it'sall about weight loss, right?
All the GLP ones, it's justwhat they talk about.
And I think that sometimes,well, it definitely works from a
marketing perspective, but Ithink it's not super helpful at
all when it comes to how anindividual receives this because
(04:49):
it is packaged with shame-basedmessaging.
It is usually tied into somesort of rigid rules or system
and the implicit message thatyou are not acceptable until you
hit a certain size or number onthe scale.
And I've talked many times onthis show about how I don't even
like that phrase weight lossbecause it doesn't tell you what
(05:10):
you're trying to achieve, whichis improved health, body
composition, you know, mindsetthat comes from a variety of
factors that we measure, notjust weight.
In fact, weight loss can be acountermeasure if you're using
it the wrong way.
So here we are, stuck in themiddle, and you kind of feel
like you have to pick one ofthese or cozy up with one of
these camps.
Maybe you don't, okay?
Maybe I'm falsely ascribingthis to you, the listener, but
(05:33):
still you're aware of thisdichotomy.
And either, you know, on onehand, people are saying just
accept your body as it is, whichkind of implies that you're
giving up on your health goals.
It really does, because bydefinition, if you improve your
health, you're gonna improveyour physical representation of
that health, is the way I'mgonna put it, right?
(05:54):
That's so that's on one side.
And the other side is, youknow, pursuing health goals and
then feeling guilty that youcare about improving your body
or like, you know, somebodymakes you feel bad because, oh,
now it's all about looks foryou, isn't it?
Right.
And I think this is a falsechoice because the reality is
you can practice self-acceptanceand dignity and still pursue
(06:16):
measurable health behaviors,right?
That's the way I'm gonna put itmeasurable health behaviors.
We had Jamie Selsler on, wholost over 350 pounds, and I
realized the framing of that isweight on the scale, but his
whole conversation with me wasnot about the weight on the
scale.
It was about the process ofself-acceptance and self-respect
to get healthier so that he canlive and thrive in the world
(06:37):
for a long time to come.
So these things are not inconflict.
I think the conflict onlyexists when we confuse weight
with health or when we attachmoral value to body size.
And so I'm gonna be explicitabout the framework we're
building today.
Uh, I gave it a phrase in mynotes.
I call it dignity firstperformance engineering.
Maybe that's a mouthful.
I don't know if it'll stick,but dignity first performance
(06:58):
engineering.
It's kind of a mesh between thetwo in the best way.
So, dignity first, what I meanby that is no moral value
attached to weight or food, notolerance at all for stigma.
These are just things.
They're things you can measure,they're, you know, things that
have wide spectra in terms oftheir judgment or attributes.
(07:18):
And why would you tie that intoself-worth?
You don't earn your worth byhitting a certain whatever, even
if it's body fat and bodycomposition, right?
It's not tied to your worth.
And then the performanceengineering piece means we focus
on the measurable behaviors andoutcomes, right?
The process.
I've talked about physiqueengineering before, but I'd
really rather use the termperformance engineering, with
(07:39):
physique just being one of manyoutputs.
So we're talking strengthgains, like in the testimonial I
shared about getting PRs,personal records.
This could be your hearthealth, your cardiovascular
fitness, your blood markers,biomarkers, sleep quality,
energy levels.
And then even body compositioncan be among the data stream to
give you objective information.
(08:00):
And this isn't about, you know,lowering standards, right?
Because that's part of theargument people make is that you
have to lower standards for thebody positivity move bubble.
I'm not gonna go there.
I think, I think we keep highstandards, whatever those are
for you, right?
Which for you, it may not benearly as high as someone else
because it's relative to whereyou are right now, you know,
start where you're at.
(08:21):
So we keep these standards forbehaviors and biomarkers, but
altogether remove any moraljudgment of our body, right?
Our physical body.
And so, what is the standardthen?
Well, the standard is you showup consistently, you train and
make progress, you hit whatevertargets you are setting for
yourself, or at least you doyour best, knowing that you
(08:42):
can't, you're not gonna beperfect, but you're gonna be
consistent.
And then you track the thingsyou care about, right?
And this could be verydifferent from one person to the
next, even though on this showwe talk about a standard set of
these types of metrics.
So the standard is notachieving a certain body weight
by a certain date, or else youfailed as a person.
So that's kind of the falsedichotomy that I wanted to
(09:05):
dispel first.
Now, in the second segment, Iwant to talk about what the
evidence shows because I thinkthat's important too.
It's not just some guy'sopinion on uh a podcast or on
YouTube, all right?
What does the research tell us?
Because I think there's somehard data here.
And the first big thing is thatstigma and shame simply make
health worse.
You're like, yeah, that'sthat's obvious, right?
(09:26):
But you know what?
The conversation on mentalhealth has changed a lot in the
last only 10 years, 20 years.
I mean, I'm 44 and I canremember the 90s, and there was
a lot of shame and stigma aroundeverything health related, you
know, mental health, a lot ofit, okay?
And things have changed a lot.
And and this isn't tough love,right, that I'm asking for or
(09:49):
motivating tough love.
It's really physiologicallyharmful when we have stigma and
shame.
Studies show that experiencingweight stigma predicts higher
cardiometabolic risk, disorderedeating, elevated cortisol,
right?
You're just stressed, evenhigher mortality risk,
independent of BMI.
(10:09):
Okay, so this mental aspecttranslates to the physiological
aspect.
And there are differentmechanisms behind this.
There's activating your stressphysiology, right?
The fight or flight, theparasympathetic versus
sympathetic.
There's people who avoidgetting medical care because of
the stigma, right?
There's behaviors where youcompensate with your eating, and
(10:30):
that could that definitelyincludes emotional eating,
right?
And you're familiar with all ofthese concepts, I'm sure.
So when you shame someone abouttheir weight, and I hope nobody
listening to this is doingthat, you're not helping them
get healthier, right?
You are actively making themless healthy.
And that's what the data shows.
Second, as far as data goes,research, is that fitness and
(10:51):
strength do matter at any size.
So this is a kind of aninteresting concept, right?
When we were talking about ourfitness as in cardiorespiratory
fitness, but also muscularstrength, muscle mass, very
important things we talk abouthere, are among the strongest
predictors of lower all causeand cardiovascular mortality
across all BMI categories.
(11:12):
People who are fit and haveobesity actually have lower
mortality risk than people whoare unfit but might be at a
normal BMI.
This is kind of like the strongwith lots of muscle mass but
extra fat persona versus skinnyfat, but not much muscle mass.
I would rather be in general bethe person with more muscle, as
(11:33):
long as we're not talking aboutexcessively overweight, right?
That's like its own category.
But this is really crucial.
I've had plenty of clients whohave been lifters for many years
with lots of muscle mass.
And they have extra fat, butthey're a lot healthier than
other people with theirbiomarkers, even despite that
extra fat because of the musclemass and the fitness.
And actually, in some cases,I'll see like their cardio
(11:53):
fitness isn't great because theydon't walk a lot, and then they
start walking, and thatimproves.
Or vice versa.
Somebody's really fit in theendurance, but they don't have
much muscle mass.
They start training for musclemass and then their markers
improve, right?
Training improves healthmarkers even before you get any
substantial weight loss.
That's really, reallyimportant.
That's really important.
A person who lifts weights, whodoes a little bit of cardio,
(12:15):
and that can, yes, absolutelyinclude walking, and ultimately
improves their resting heartrate, maybe their VO2 max, I'm
not as hung up on that metric,but you know, their general
fitness is getting healthier,whether or not, independent of
losing any weight.
That's really powerful.
That's very empowering, I wouldsay, as well.
And it's the behavior thatdrives the benefit here.
(12:36):
Okay, that behavior of being anathlete and training.
Third, when we look at thedata, weight inclusive or
health-centric approaches canimprove health.
This is interesting.
Okay.
I'm just sharing the data here,whether you like the terms or
this hits you right or not.
So there's some systematicreviews of the health at every
(12:57):
size type programs that do showimprovements in lipids and blood
pressure and eating behaviorsand psychological well-being.
The effects on body weight aresimilar to the what I'll call
traditional weight-focusedinterventions in some of these
analyses.
This is interesting becauseyou're basically saying this is
almost sounds like bodypositivity, doesn't it?
Like, okay, you can be healthyat any size.
(13:19):
We're gonna set that as thepremise, but now we need to get
healthy at your size.
That's what strikes me aboutit, which tells me that behavior
change is carrying most of theload, not just the weight loss.
And so it moves the needle inthe right direction, if that
makes sense.
All right, the fourth thing Ifound in the research is that
intuitive and mindful eating arevery promising for mental
(13:43):
health and cardiometabolicmarkers.
Now you're shocked, right?
Because I I've blastedintuitive eating on other
episodes, but usually what Imean by that is intuitive as in
go right in and try to beintuitive and listen to your
hunger signals without havingdeveloped the skill of doing so
through some form of trackingand awareness, right?
So I'm not talking about that.
I think the idea here is moreon the mindfulness piece.
(14:06):
Okay.
Research links this mindfuleating.
When we say intuitive, that iswhat I'm talking about in this
context, to a lower BMI, lowerwaist circumference, better
psycho psychosocial outcomes,and mindful eatings associated
with improved mood, healthiereating patterns.
Now, I love mindfulness and Ilove developing a skill of
knowing what and how to eat,even if it becomes more and more
(14:28):
intuitive by using a system toget there.
That is the best of bothworlds.
You've got to be taught, is mypoint.
You've got to be taught, you'vegot to learn the skill of
intuitive eating and mindfuleating.
They're not magic bullets,right?
For a lot of us, they'reactually hard.
Some apps, based on likepsychological behavior, are
probably have the right approachthere when it comes to the
(14:49):
mindfulness piece.
Unfortunately, they often lackthe data side of things, the
numbers side of things.
And in my opinion, you cancombine the two in a really nice
way.
But if you've been stuck inlike a diet binge cycle, you've
got to start somewhere.
And I think having mindfulnessin general goes a long way.
Now, before anyone accuses meof being anti-weight loss or
(15:09):
promoting some unhealthylifestyle, I want to address
legitimate criticisms.
Okay.
Some online body positivitycontent does cycle back to pure
talk of appearance and it candilute health behaviors.
All right.
Not everyone thrives withpurely weight neutral messaging.
(15:33):
Okay.
Let me say that again.
Not everyone thrives withpurely weight neutral messaging.
Some people are motivated bybody composition goals, and
that's totally fine.
Some people are motivated bypure vanity goals, and that's
totally fine.
As long as the process is freeof stigma and the metrics go far
beyond scale weight.
Okay.
This is consistent with a lotof things I've been saying over
(15:56):
the years that your motivationsare yours.
They can change.
You can have multiplemotivations.
There are multiple levels ofmotivation, right?
You can have some superficialmotivation up here, maybe some
external motivation, that'sfine.
And then you get deeper anddeeper and deeper.
And ultimately it ties to awhat we say is your why, right?
Like the deeper reason you wantthis.
You want to be a role model foryour kids.
You want to be able to not befalling in and breaking your hip
(16:19):
when you're in your 70s, right?
You don't want to be a nursinghome, those things.
So that's a legitimatecriticism that, you know, when
we talk about body positivity,which again, I'm not supporting
the traditionally criticizedversion of it on this episode.
I'm trying to add nuance to howwe define it or how we think
about it.
And the issue isn't whether youwant to change your body.
(16:42):
The issue is whether shame ispart of the equation and whether
you're using a single metric todefine success, right?
Because I've met so many peoplethat, you know, they have they
have some extra weight on theirbody.
They know it's not healthy.
There's no benefit in shamingthem.
And yet they're not surewhether they can be healthy
(17:02):
without losing a lot of weight.
And I think it's okay to focuson health and performance and
not even care about weight.
And guess what?
A beautiful thing happens inthat your body will start to
respond physically andphysiologically to that, which
often involves releasing storedbody fat and building more
muscle and partitioning yournutrients where you want them,
right?
And then the things happennaturally because you're using
(17:24):
your body in that way, in thatfit athletic sort of way.
All right.
And I I love data, I lovetools.
You guys have heard me maybetalk about Macrofactor.
It's my favorite nutrition app.
I use it every day myself totrack my expenditure, my
metabolism, my food.
But the reason I like toolslike that is they are adherence
neutral.
They do not, they do not shameyou for missing a target.
(17:45):
So if you can find an app likethat or a tracking method like
that, where all you're doing istracking against your goals and
metrics, but nothing is likeflashing a big red bell at you
that says, you just failedbecause you were over by five
calories.
That can be very helpful.
Now, speaking of metrics andremoving shame from the process,
(18:06):
anything you can do whereyou're not judged and you're
just adjusting based on whathappened and saying, I learned
from this.
Now I'm gonna do somethingdifferently in the future to
lessen the impact when ithappens again is really, really
helpful.
All right.
That's kind of what an engineerthinks like.
An engineer, an inventor, aninnovator is gonna fail a lot of
times, but they don't eventhink of it as failure.
(18:28):
They think of it as learningfrom the data.
All right.
So the next thing I want totalk about is those metrics.
In other words, what should youtrack?
And you might be hearing mydogs bark.
If weight isn't the metric thatmatters and body composition is
just one of the data streams,what should you track?
So think of it like adashboard, right?
What would this dashboard lookthat paints a complete picture
(18:50):
of your health and progress?
So we could just stop talkingabout weight loss.
Okay, let's start withperformance metrics.
This is really where I wantedyou to focus most of your
attention.
One thing you want to do istrack your strength progression,
your maxes on your key lifts.
Now, what this might look likeis if you're a beginner, you
might only be tracking fourlifts.
(19:11):
You know, your squat, yourbench, your deadlift, your
press, maybe.
And then you for five reps,let's say, and you're gonna
track those.
As you get more advanced,you're gonna track more of the
lifts and you're gonna trackmore rep ranges.
It might just matter to trackwhat is in your current program.
So I'm doing a five-day-a-weekprogram right now where every
week I'm doing the same, youknow, exercises I did the week
(19:31):
before.
So what I care about is am Iprogressing at those exact
exercises and reps each week?
Whether I go up in reps,whether I go up in weight, do I
need to do a reset to kind ofyou know continue progressing or
whatnot?
So that's that's strength.
Now, cardiovascular fitnessgets a little more complicated.
There are there are people I'dsay more experienced than me in
(19:52):
the endurance world.
I would say for the averageperson, for you and me, resting
heart rate by itself is gonna bea big indicator, okay?
Because you can see arelatively fast improvement when
you, for example, start walkingmore or doing more cardio
supportive activities.
But if you like wearables andtracking other data, I would say
heart rate variability ishelpful.
(20:13):
Anything on an aura ring orphone or wearable or strap or
whatever that can help you is ispretty cool, right?
But that's all that's it.
I would say resting heart rateis is enough, just to keep it
simple.
How about your work capacity?
Okay, this is also cardiorelated, but it also is related
to your lifting.
How many sets can you do beforeyou get winded?
How quickly can you recoverbetween them with your rest
(20:34):
periods?
You know, again, this is tiedin a little bit to your step
count.
It's important to be aware ofall that because the amount of
cardio and type of cardio you dois going to support how much
work capacity you have in thegym.
And what you do in the gym withyour lifting can also increase
your work capacity.
So different people havedifferent goals there.
And all of these metrics tellyou am I getting fitter and
stronger?
Right?
Because they respond prettyquickly to your training.
(20:57):
They're very motivating whenyou see them improve, and then
they predict long-term healthreally, really well, far more
than body weight does if youwere listening to some of the
relationships I mentionedbefore, like the fact that
having more muscle is gonna besuper protective, even if you
have a little extra weight.
So that's performance.
Then we get to body compositionmetrics.
We're still gonna track these,but as part of context, as part
(21:18):
of a big picture.
So your waist circumference,your body weight, but looking at
the trend over time.
So again, if you usemacrofactor, it uses a 20-day
exponential moving average.
The app that I'm developingalso thinks of things in this
context of trends and kind ofpressure in a direction over
time.
And you don't have to use likea DEXA scan or anything like
(21:40):
that.
There are simple ways to trackwith the Navy formula, for
example.
We use, I have a biofeedbackand physique tracker in physique
university we use, where youjust put in some simple
measurements and it gives youthese estimates.
But if you look up Navyformula, you just need a few
measurements to track it thatway.
But all of these are laggingindicators and they change more
slowly versus the performanceindicators, which are more
(22:02):
either leading or real-time typeindicators.
I mean, resting heart rate is alittle bit of a lagging
indicator, but they changepretty quickly.
These body composition metricsare gonna take time to change.
So this is where you have tonot let a week of no movement,
because a week is nothing, sevendays is nothing, tell you, hey,
this is not working if yourperformance metrics are
(22:22):
improving.
In fact, in many cases, thethese body composition things
aren't gonna change very much atall, but your health and your
performance is gonna improve alot.
And then your body compositionmight start to catch up.
So those that's bodycomposition.
The third category on yourdashboard is the metabolic
health markers.
And this is getting your labsdone, I would say, every at
least annually, if not every sixmonths, or even three months if
(22:45):
you're really into this stuff.
And that's a lot of differentthings that could be A1C,
fasting glucose, your lipids,your blood pressure, inflammant
infl markers of inflammation,nutrient, you know, deficiencies
and stuff.
And these tell you what'shappening inside your body,
right?
Not just what you see in themirror.
This is very, very important.
It tells you how what you'reeating is affecting what's in
your body.
Are you getting enoughsunlight, right?
(23:07):
Those kinds of things.
How are your hormones?
Right?
You can have a six-pack, butstill have terrible metabolic
health, or you can have a littlehigher body fat percentage, but
have really good metabolichealth.
And this goes back to why bodypositivity gets really tricky.
We want to know what's actuallygoing on.
And of course, we we do aservice now called performance
blood work.
I need to share that with youguys because I have a I have an
(23:28):
example, some example reportsfrom clients who've done that
recently.
You effectively get 85 plusbiomarkers measured, and then
thousands of calculations andpatterns put on top of that to
then say, okay, these twomarkers are low or they're in
the normal range rather than theoptimal range.
How do we get them to be moreoptimal?
(23:49):
All right, you need to be maybesupplementing with omega-3 fish
oil over here.
And are you training?
You know, are you strengthtraining?
Of course, that's gonna be oneverybody's plan that I put
together.
But yeah, that those are thekind of things that are can be
really powerful.
And then you do have subjectivemetrics, right?
Like your biofeedback is kindof subjective, although when you
track it over time, it becomesa little more objective, if that
(24:11):
makes sense.
Kind of the idea of quality,qualitative data becoming
empirical, if you will.
So energy, mood, sleep quality,how you feel during your
workouts, your digestion, yourhunger, all this, all those
stuff, right?
There's a whole list.
These matter because if you're,let's say, losing weight, but
you feel like garbage, you'renot really winning.
(24:31):
I mean, you're not you're notgonna feel your best probably
when you're in a fat loss phase,but there are optimal ways to
do it, okay?
And conversely, if you'regetting stronger and you feel
great, but the scale's notmoving, maybe your waist is
going down, you're probablydoing exactly what you should be
doing, right?
That's where it gets kind ofconfusing.
So if if the the key here islooking at all of these
together.
So if your strength's going up,your waist is going down, your
(24:54):
energy is high, your labs areimproving, and your weight is
exactly the same, that is ahuge, massive win right there.
That's a massive win.
You are replacing fat withmuscle, or I should say you're
losing one and gaining theother, and you're getting
healthier and you're gettingmore capable.
And I bet you're feeling betterand more confident.
If you only looked at thescale, you'd think that nothing
(25:15):
was happening and you mightquit.
So that's a great example.
All right, so now let's quicklytalk about nutrition in this
framework because I think a lotof people get stuck here.
We've talked a lot abouttraining and performance, and
you're like, well, where doesfood come into this?
Well, the first principle hereis make it behavior based,
right?
Not outcome-based, always.
So if you can focus on what todo day to day and then track
(25:37):
that and see how you're doingand nudge, nudge, nudge till you
get there, it's gonna work outreally well.
Okay.
And that's things like yourminimum targets for protein, 0.7
to 1 gram per pound.
Hitting that consistently isgoing to go a huge way.
Same thing for fiber, 25 to 35grams, probably more like 25 for
women, 35 for men.
Vegetables, fruits, wholegrains.
(25:58):
If you have to supplement,supplement.
Build the meals that you enjoy.
I want you to enjoy your food.
If you hate chicken breasts andbroccoli, don't make that a
regular staple in your diet.
Find proteins and vegetablesyou do like, prepare them in a
way you do like.
Learn how to cook really goodfood.
Use a meal service if you haveto, you know, marry somebody
who's a great cook.
Okay, that was out of line,maybe, or not.
(26:19):
I don't know.
I got lucky in that regard.
You don't want to suffer yourway through, you want to build
the sustainable behavior.
And so, those of you who'vebeen chronically dieting in the
past, or you've done multiplerounds of restrictive diets, of
carnivore, of keto, of low carb,all that, intermittent fasting,
right?
Then tracking these things andeven some of the mindfulness and
(26:39):
intuitive eating things canhelp.
Believe it or not, together,these things can help because
then you can learn to recognizehunger, physiological versus
emotional hunger, when you'refull, removing moral labels from
food, eating withoutdistraction, so you can taste
your food and take time to letit digest and let yourself fill
up before you overeat.
Like those skills are gonnareduce the backlash that you
(27:01):
would get from rigid dieting.
And when combined with hittingsome simple ranges and targets
and tracking that, that'severything.
Let me tell you, that iseverything.
Now, speaking of trackingcalories and macros, I'm not
saying, I'm definitely notsaying you never track those.
In fact, I think anybodylistening to this podcast with
the goals we have should trackthese.
(27:23):
Okay.
If you have a body compositiongoal at all, if you want to lose
fat or gain weightintentionally to build muscle,
then you've got to understand atleast your energy balance and
whether you're in a surplus ordeficit so you don't hold
yourself back or make it take alot longer and get more
frustrating with plateaus thanyou want.
Okay.
Track your intake, practicethis neutrality when it comes to
(27:45):
food.
You know, eat mostly wholefoods, hit hit your macros,
still honor your hunger andfullness cues.
It all works really well, butreally just start somewhere.
And the difference is themental side, right?
You are not tracking to punishyourself or earn the right to
eat from your exercise, right?
Your tracking is information.
It is data to help you engineerthe outcome that you want by
(28:05):
focusing on the here and now andthe process.
Just like when you tracktraining volume.
It's a tool.
It's a tool, right?
And you're gonna go off track.
That's cool, that's fine.
Everyone does.
You don't spiral into shame.
You just adjust and moveforward.
You learn from it.
One meal, one day, one week ata time.
The trend is what matters.
All right.
So this is where let's talkabout coaching psychology here.
(28:29):
So that's it, that's all I haveon nutrition.
So I think a lot of theapproaches with the psycho based
on psychology is where thingsfall apart.
So you might be doing all thethings we just talked about.
You might have great training,you might have a good nutrition
plan.
But if you have terribleself-talk, if you're always
beating yourself up, you are notgonna stick with it.
Right.
So this really is aboutcoaching yourself without shame.
(28:52):
How do we do that?
How do we do that?
All right.
One thought I have is replacecriticism with neutral
observation.
I'm simply observing.
So instead of saying, you know,I'm I'm really lazy, I skip the
gym again.
Just say I didn't train thisweek.
What got in the way of me doingthat?
What can I do differently nextweek?
You see the difference, right?
You're not labeling yourself,you're just observing what
(29:15):
happened.
Right?
Different framing.
One shuts you down, one opensup problem solving.
Focus on the process, not theoutcomes.
We've mentioned this already.
Instead of I need to lose 20pounds, I gotta get that last 10
pounds off.
It's I'm gonna train four timesthis week and I'm gonna hit my
protein, you know, five out ofthe seven days of the week,
whatever your goal is.
You control the process, youdon't control the outcome.
(29:37):
So if you're gonna judgeyourself at all, it's on the
things you can control.
And it then it tends to be moreof an objective rather than a
moral judgment.
Another thought I have here isto use approach goals, not
avoidance goals.
In other words, not avoidancegoals, in other words, what the
approach is.
So instead of saying I need tostop eating junk food, say I'm
(29:59):
going to include a Proteinsource and a vegetable at every
meal.
You know, you're creating agoal on your approach, not
something you're trying toavoid.
And they're more motivatingthat way.
Another one is self-compassion.
I mean, a lot of you I know canprobably do better here.
And I know I could have in thepast as well.
This is not the same asself-indulgence.
Self-compassion is recognizingthat struggle is part of the
(30:23):
human condition.
And so you're going to treatyourself with the same kindness
you would show your best friend.
And you're going to commit todo better without the spiral
into shame.
It's okay to want to do better,but you don't have to shame
yourself for it.
Self-indulgence, on the otherhand, is giving up on your
personal standards because youdon't feel like meeting them.
All right.
That there is a difference.
(30:44):
I don't want you to do that.
Whereas self-compassionimproves behavior change.
I mean, the research is clearon this.
People who practiceself-compassion have better
long-term adherence to healthbehaviors than people who rely
on self-criticism.
If you're a natural optimist,great.
If you're not, this issomething to work on.
All right.
Think about it this way.
If you had a coach whoconstantly told you you were
(31:04):
garbage, that you never succeed,that you're worthless every
time you make a mistake, wouldyou want to keep working with
that coach?
Of course not.
Well, guess what?
You are your own coach rightnow.
You would quit, you would firethat coach, you would talk bad
about them probably if anybodyasks.
So why would you treat yourselflike that coach?
You you shouldn't.
All right.
So just to wrap this in a bow,I want to tackle some of the
(31:25):
objections related to bodypositivity.
And the big one is is itanti-health?
No.
I think the issue is notacceptance of your body, it's
whether the messaging detachesfrom the behavior and the health
marker.
So you can respect your bodyand still work to improve your
fitness and your nutrition, yoursleep, et cetera.
They're not in conflict.
Body positivity becomesproblematic, in my opinion, when
(31:48):
it denies that the behaviorsmatter or when it shames people
for wanting to improve theirhealth.
All right, now what about thedebate about you can be fat but
fit?
Well, the research shows thathigher fitness attenuates risk,
whatever your size is, but itdoesn't mean the risk vanishes.
Fitness is protective, it'smitigating, but it's not the
(32:09):
only thing.
Your behaviors will drivereducing that risk because a
person with obesity who liftsweights, does cardio, eats well,
manages stress, is healthierthan a sedentary person who
doesn't do those things, even ifthey're at a normal quote
unquote normal BMI.
But lower body fat, all elseequal, confers quite a few
additional benefits.
So the point here is to focuson the behaviors because those
(32:31):
are what you control and drivemost of the benefit.
And it's also going to lead tofat loss anyway, if that's what
you need.
All right.
And then one more thing I wantto address here is you know,
this comment if we stop talkingabout weight, people will never
change.
And I think that's backward.
I think stigma reduces change.
I think shame makes people lesslikely to engage in health
behaviors, more likely to avoidmedical care, more likely to
(32:51):
binge eat, right?
Behavior-first coaching, wherewe focus on the actions and the
markers rather than weight,often works better.
So I don't think we need to, Ithink we can stop talking about
weight in the way that a lot ofpeople talk about it, and and it
and the world's gonna be abetter place, right?
So the goal isn't to never talkabout weight or body
conferences, is to remove themoral judgment from the
(33:13):
conversation and use multiplemetrics, not just one.
So, what do you actually dowith all this information from a
practical standpoint?
All right, I'm gonna give yousome simple tips.
The first one is pick twofitness metrics to improve over
the next two months.
Very simple.
You test them now, you retestlater, and you make these your
primary progress measures.
(33:35):
Cut out all the noise, juststick with those two over the
next two months.
For example, hitting yourprotein and fiber if you're if
nutrition's important to you.
And then just build your mealsyou enjoy around those targets
until you hit them on a regularbasis.
And it and it kind ofsimplifies the process.
Or replace a self-criticalthought each day with a neutral
observation, like we talkedabout.
(33:56):
This is a practice, it takeswork, but you have to be
intentional about it and say,this is the thing I'm going to
do each day.
Or track a health marker withyour doctor every few months.
Obviously, these are going tochange more slowly, but being,
again, intentional or doing ourperformance blood work service,
for example.
So you right now have abaseline and have interventions,
(34:16):
and then you can do what I'mtalking about right now, focus
on one or two.
I will put together aperformance plan for you that
really narrows the list to atmost, let's say 12 interventions
maximum to help you focus.
You know, you use theseinformation to guide your
decisions and not the mirror andnot the scale weight.
And it's defining success morebroadly, even though it's more
(34:38):
intentional and therefore,ironically, it's more precise.
Your training performance, yourenergy, your sleep, your labs,
your measurements, whatevermakes sense for you right now.
Obviously, if you're working acoach, if you were working with
me, we would go all in onmultiple measures, but we would
do it in a way that wassustainable, where you had me to
lean on.
If you're doing it yourself, Ireally recommend focusing on one
or two things at a time.
(34:59):
And I won't say perfectingthose, but making them
consistent.
And that's how you'd build asystem.
All right, so I think to wrapthis up, what is very powerful
about all of what we're talkingabout today?
Why are we even talking aboutit?
I think it to use a clicheflips the script on how we think
about body change and bodypositivity.
A lot of people start with theend goal in mind.
(35:20):
Maybe it's the physique, thebody weight, and then they work
backward.
And I try to define physique assomething more than just the
body, let's say, but Iunderstand that that's the
standard definition.
And people say, look, I want tolook like this, so I need to do
these behaviors.
And then when things don'tchange fast enough to look like
that, they quit, right?
You quit.
You're like, okay, this isn'tworking.
(35:41):
I got to do something elsebecause you were measuring the
outcome.
But if you start with, again,this phrase, dignity first,
performance engineering,interesting mesh of two
concepts.
You start with the behaviorsand the values.
You say, hey, I want to bestrong and capable, I want to be
healthy.
These are the behaviors thatcan build those qualities, like
(36:03):
what are X, Y, Z.
And as a side effect, my bodywill probably change in ways
that I like.
The physique becomes a bonus,right?
It's not the prerequisite forfeeling good about yourself or
your self-worth.
And then what happens when youmake that shift is guess what?
You're gonna be able to stickto it.
Then we have that A word,adherence, which is the
foundation of everything.
(36:24):
But you don't get to that untilyou accept yourself right now.
You're not waiting for thefuture version of yourself.
You are acceptable right now.
You accept yourself, and thenyou're building on that
foundation of where you areright now.
And I think the research backsthis up.
I think, you know, programs andapproaches that focus on health
behaviors and remove weightstigma are absolutely at least
(36:47):
or probably far better long termwith their outcomes compared to
traditional quote unquoteweight loss programs.
And more importantly, they havebetter psychological outcomes.
Mental health is so importanthere, guys.
That means you get the samehealth benefits, who doesn't
want that, but less suffering.
Who doesn't want that?
So great.
That's what engineering is allabout.
You know, performanceengineering, maximum output,
(37:08):
minimum waste, efficiency.
We talk about it all the time.
So the question is not, can Ilove my body and still want to
change it?
The question is, what kind ofchange am I pursuing and why?
That's it.
That is your question now.
Obviously, you love yourselfand you love your body and you
want to change your body becauseyou love it, most likely.
You want to improve in someway.
(37:29):
And if you're pursuing strengthor fitness, energy, longevity,
capability, and then the bodycomposition change happens along
the way.
That is what I mean by dignityfirst performance engineering.
So if you're pursuing a bodyweight right now because you
think it will make you theperson you can accept, that is
shame-based fitness culture.
(37:51):
It does not work.
Choose the first one.
Okay, choose the first one.
And that is dignity, acceptyourself now, and then go after
the improvement and make ithappen.
And that is kind of a betterapproach, in my opinion.
So what let me bring mythoughts together because I'm
kind of rambling a little bit.
I think you can practiceself-acceptance and still pursue
(38:12):
measurable health improvements,and they're not in conflict.
That is the message today.
The conflict only exists whenwe start latching on moral value
to scale weight, or we use asingle metric to judge success.
Whatever that metric is, maybeit's not scale weight, maybe
it's something else, but stillyou lack nuance and context.
And removing that stigma is notequivalent to removing the
(38:35):
standards.
We still keep high standardsfor our behaviors, for our
biomarkers, for the process,right?
While removing the moraljudgment about our body in the
moment.
So fitness capacity, I think,is a good term to use here.
It's one of the strongesthealth levers that can exist,
regardless of body size.
If you can focus on gettingstronger, on building muscle and
(38:57):
getting fitter overall, therest tends to follow.
The rest tends to follow.
And remember that behaviorchange tends to carry most of
the load, not weight loss.
The behavior change is whatcarries the load.
All right.
Mindful tools, smart training,having structure can all reduce
(39:18):
all of that backlash and thatyo-yo, you know, what am I
trying to say, weight regainthat everybody's worried about
from rigid dieting, and insteadshifted more toward these
sustainable habits.
You just have to build yourdashboard, like we talked about
today.
Coach yourself with the samerespect you chose someone you
care about.
Be kind to yourself.
It's not soft, it's not woo.
It's smart, it is effective, itis sustainable.
(39:40):
All right.
If today's episode clicked foryou, I want you to do me a favor
and just text this to a friendwho needs to hear it.
Hopefully, I gave this thetreatment it deserved, some
nuance, some empathy, not atoxic level of delusion or
anything like that, I hope.
And it was what you needed tohear.
I know I needed to say it, Ineed to hear it myself sometime.
So text this to a friend who'sbeen stuck between, you know,
(40:02):
like wanting to respectthemselves and wanting to
improve their health.
It's not a false, it's a falsedichotomy.
We don't have to have, it's notmutually exclusive, right?
So text it to a friend who'stired of the all or nothing.
Text it to a friend who needsto hear this.
And then if you want to godeeper on any of this, if you
want help building your ownsystem with coaching, a
(40:23):
community, anything like that,we do have Wits and Weights
Physique University, where youcan learn more physique.wits and
weights.com.
That's physique.wits andweights.com.
But really just send this to afriend who needs to hear it.
And until next time, keep usingyour wits, lifting those
weights.
And remember, your body iscapable of amazing things when
you give it the right stimulus,the right fuel, and the right
(40:44):
respect.
This is Philip Pape, and you'vebeen listening to Wits and
Weights.
I'll talk to you next time.
Can you love your body and still want to change
it?
For years you've been caughtbetween two extremes: the body
positivity camp that says anydiscussion of weight is harmful,
and the traditional fitnessworld that makes you feel guilty
for not being lean or ripped orshredded enough.
You want to respect yourself,but you also want to get
stronger, healthier, maybechange your body composition.
(00:22):
And there's a tension betweenthese two worlds where you feel
like you have to choose betweenself-acceptance and
self-improvement.
Today we're proving that youcan have both.
You'll learn why removing shamedoesn't mean removing high
standards, how fitness capacitymatters more than the number on
the scale, and the system forbuilding health while respecting
(00:42):
your body right now.
Now, I'm gonna show you whythis isn't actually a conflict
(01:15):
at all and how you can engineeran approach that honors both
self-respect and measurableprogress.
Now, this episode, I wanted tocreate it because of multiple
listener questions I've receivedover the past few months, all
asking variations of the samething.
Is it wrong to want to changemy body?
Am I betraying body positivity,right?
(01:35):
The concept if I try to losefat or gain muscle.
Now, they didn't say it thatway specifically, but I'm kind
of paraphrasing because this isa legitimate question.
The vanity question, I'm tryingto look good, I'm trying to
improve my physique.
You know, I don't want to havemy belly spilling over my genes,
however, viscerally you putthat into words.
And I think they do reveal thisbig problem today and how we
(01:57):
talk about health, bodies, aboutchange, about personal
improvement.
And I think we're gonna try tosolve that problem today using
evidence, using clear thinking,and using a framework that you
can use.
Before we get into it, I wantto share a few quick wins from
Physique University over thepast couple weeks just to show
(02:18):
you how positive this can bewhen we are pursuing health.
And the first one is thehighlight of my week was that a
few people told me I lookhealthy and vibrant.
The biggest one of all is thaton Friday night I went to a
fancy fundraiser dinner and hadmy picture taken.
When I looked at the picture, Iknow my body size has not
changed yet, but I liked thepicture.
First time in almost 18 years.
Now, again, that's kind ofstraddling the, you know, how I
(02:40):
feel versus how I look dichotomywe're talking about today.
The second one, I feel likeconsistency in getting to the
gym and whatever level of dietI've achieved are big wins.
I'm proud of my increasing,increasing all my PRs this week.
So again, there's more of afocus on improvement from a
strength perspective that willtranslate to physique
improvement, and yet that isn'treally the point.
(03:01):
The third one is I sense yourpassion for helping people.
It comes through in theresponse time you give us as
clients and the attention you'reputting into helping us grow.
You're really excited abouttraining.
I get more excited to trainbecause of your excitement for
it.
It's infectious.
I'm really liking theexperience.
So I wanted to share all ofthese because they're really
more focused on the process ofimprovement, and that is gonna
(03:21):
be key to what we talk abouttoday with the topic and the
framework.
So let's talk about this.
What is this false dichotomy?
Let's name the problem clearly.
On one side, you have this bodypositivity movement.
At its core, it is aboutpushing back against appearance
hierarchies, I'm gonna callthem, right?
Like it depends on where youare on that hierarchy and what
(03:45):
kind of social media you use andwhat age you are and what that
means to you.
But basically, this movement,in my opinion, is trying to
remove moral judgment from thesize that you are with your
body, right?
I think that's a pretty fairdefinition.
And guess what?
I think that is a valuablething.
I think that shame doesn't helpanybody, it doesn't improve
(04:06):
health, it can undermine health,it is not, it's just not
helpful to the situation.
On the other side, you have,I'll say, traditional weight
normative fitness culture,right?
Which is irks me the most, Iwould say, about what I see on
Instagram, for example, or inthe way coaching programs are
framed.
And this is where we use weightloss as the primary or only
(04:29):
endpoint.
I mean, all the all thecommercials I see for now for
Noom and microdosing, and it'sall about weight loss, right?
All the GLP ones, it's justwhat they talk about.
And I think that sometimes,well, it definitely works from a
marketing perspective, but Ithink it's not super helpful at
all when it comes to how anindividual receives this because
(04:49):
it is packaged with shame-basedmessaging.
It is usually tied into somesort of rigid rules or system
and the implicit message thatyou are not acceptable until you
hit a certain size or number onthe scale.
And I've talked many times onthis show about how I don't even
like that phrase weight lossbecause it doesn't tell you what
(05:10):
you're trying to achieve, whichis improved health, body
composition, you know, mindsetthat comes from a variety of
factors that we measure, notjust weight.
In fact, weight loss can be acountermeasure if you're using
it the wrong way.
So here we are, stuck in themiddle, and you kind of feel
like you have to pick one ofthese or cozy up with one of
these camps.
Maybe you don't, okay?
Maybe I'm falsely ascribingthis to you, the listener, but
(05:33):
still you're aware of thisdichotomy.
And either, you know, on onehand, people are saying just
accept your body as it is, whichkind of implies that you're
giving up on your health goals.
It really does, because bydefinition, if you improve your
health, you're gonna improveyour physical representation of
that health, is the way I'mgonna put it, right?
(05:54):
That's so that's on one side.
And the other side is, youknow, pursuing health goals and
then feeling guilty that youcare about improving your body
or like, you know, somebodymakes you feel bad because, oh,
now it's all about looks foryou, isn't it?
Right.
And I think this is a falsechoice because the reality is
you can practice self-acceptanceand dignity and still pursue
(06:16):
measurable health behaviors,right?
That's the way I'm gonna put itmeasurable health behaviors.
We had Jamie Selsler on, wholost over 350 pounds, and I
realized the framing of that isweight on the scale, but his
whole conversation with me wasnot about the weight on the
scale.
It was about the process ofself-acceptance and self-respect
to get healthier so that he canlive and thrive in the world
(06:37):
for a long time to come.
So these things are not inconflict.
I think the conflict onlyexists when we confuse weight
with health or when we attachmoral value to body size.
And so I'm gonna be explicitabout the framework we're
building today.
Uh, I gave it a phrase in mynotes.
I call it dignity firstperformance engineering.
Maybe that's a mouthful.
I don't know if it'll stick,but dignity first performance
(06:58):
engineering.
It's kind of a mesh between thetwo in the best way.
So, dignity first, what I meanby that is no moral value
attached to weight or food, notolerance at all for stigma.
These are just things.
They're things you can measure,they're, you know, things that
have wide spectra in terms oftheir judgment or attributes.
(07:18):
And why would you tie that intoself-worth?
You don't earn your worth byhitting a certain whatever, even
if it's body fat and bodycomposition, right?
It's not tied to your worth.
And then the performanceengineering piece means we focus
on the measurable behaviors andoutcomes, right?
The process.
I've talked about physiqueengineering before, but I'd
really rather use the termperformance engineering, with
(07:39):
physique just being one of manyoutputs.
So we're talking strengthgains, like in the testimonial I
shared about getting PRs,personal records.
This could be your hearthealth, your cardiovascular
fitness, your blood markers,biomarkers, sleep quality,
energy levels.
And then even body compositioncan be among the data stream to
give you objective information.
(08:00):
And this isn't about, you know,lowering standards, right?
Because that's part of theargument people make is that you
have to lower standards for thebody positivity move bubble.
I'm not gonna go there.
I think, I think we keep highstandards, whatever those are
for you, right?
Which for you, it may not benearly as high as someone else
because it's relative to whereyou are right now, you know,
start where you're at.
(08:21):
So we keep these standards forbehaviors and biomarkers, but
altogether remove any moraljudgment of our body, right?
Our physical body.
And so, what is the standardthen?
Well, the standard is you showup consistently, you train and
make progress, you hit whatevertargets you are setting for
yourself, or at least you doyour best, knowing that you
(08:42):
can't, you're not gonna beperfect, but you're gonna be
consistent.
And then you track the thingsyou care about, right?
And this could be verydifferent from one person to the
next, even though on this showwe talk about a standard set of
these types of metrics.
So the standard is notachieving a certain body weight
by a certain date, or else youfailed as a person.
So that's kind of the falsedichotomy that I wanted to
(09:05):
dispel first.
Now, in the second segment, Iwant to talk about what the
evidence shows because I thinkthat's important too.
It's not just some guy'sopinion on uh a podcast or on
YouTube, all right?
What does the research tell us?
Because I think there's somehard data here.
And the first big thing is thatstigma and shame simply make
health worse.
You're like, yeah, that'sthat's obvious, right?
(09:26):
But you know what?
The conversation on mentalhealth has changed a lot in the
last only 10 years, 20 years.
I mean, I'm 44 and I canremember the 90s, and there was
a lot of shame and stigma aroundeverything health related, you
know, mental health, a lot ofit, okay?
And things have changed a lot.
And and this isn't tough love,right, that I'm asking for or
(09:49):
motivating tough love.
It's really physiologicallyharmful when we have stigma and
shame.
Studies show that experiencingweight stigma predicts higher
cardiometabolic risk, disorderedeating, elevated cortisol,
right?
You're just stressed, evenhigher mortality risk,
independent of BMI.
(10:09):
Okay, so this mental aspecttranslates to the physiological
aspect.
And there are differentmechanisms behind this.
There's activating your stressphysiology, right?
The fight or flight, theparasympathetic versus
sympathetic.
There's people who avoidgetting medical care because of
the stigma, right?
There's behaviors where youcompensate with your eating, and
(10:30):
that could that definitelyincludes emotional eating,
right?
And you're familiar with all ofthese concepts, I'm sure.
So when you shame someone abouttheir weight, and I hope nobody
listening to this is doingthat, you're not helping them
get healthier, right?
You are actively making themless healthy.
And that's what the data shows.
Second, as far as data goes,research, is that fitness and
(10:51):
strength do matter at any size.
So this is a kind of aninteresting concept, right?
When we were talking about ourfitness as in cardiorespiratory
fitness, but also muscularstrength, muscle mass, very
important things we talk abouthere, are among the strongest
predictors of lower all causeand cardiovascular mortality
across all BMI categories.
(11:12):
People who are fit and haveobesity actually have lower
mortality risk than people whoare unfit but might be at a
normal BMI.
This is kind of like the strongwith lots of muscle mass but
extra fat persona versus skinnyfat, but not much muscle mass.
I would rather be in general bethe person with more muscle, as
(11:33):
long as we're not talking aboutexcessively overweight, right?
That's like its own category.
But this is really crucial.
I've had plenty of clients whohave been lifters for many years
with lots of muscle mass.
And they have extra fat, butthey're a lot healthier than
other people with theirbiomarkers, even despite that
extra fat because of the musclemass and the fitness.
And actually, in some cases,I'll see like their cardio
(11:53):
fitness isn't great because theydon't walk a lot, and then they
start walking, and thatimproves.
Or vice versa.
Somebody's really fit in theendurance, but they don't have
much muscle mass.
They start training for musclemass and then their markers
improve, right?
Training improves healthmarkers even before you get any
substantial weight loss.
That's really, reallyimportant.
That's really important.
A person who lifts weights, whodoes a little bit of cardio,
(12:15):
and that can, yes, absolutelyinclude walking, and ultimately
improves their resting heartrate, maybe their VO2 max, I'm
not as hung up on that metric,but you know, their general
fitness is getting healthier,whether or not, independent of
losing any weight.
That's really powerful.
That's very empowering, I wouldsay, as well.
And it's the behavior thatdrives the benefit here.
(12:36):
Okay, that behavior of being anathlete and training.
Third, when we look at thedata, weight inclusive or
health-centric approaches canimprove health.
This is interesting.
Okay.
I'm just sharing the data here,whether you like the terms or
this hits you right or not.
So there's some systematicreviews of the health at every
(12:57):
size type programs that do showimprovements in lipids and blood
pressure and eating behaviorsand psychological well-being.
The effects on body weight aresimilar to the what I'll call
traditional weight-focusedinterventions in some of these
analyses.
This is interesting becauseyou're basically saying this is
almost sounds like bodypositivity, doesn't it?
Like, okay, you can be healthyat any size.
(13:19):
We're gonna set that as thepremise, but now we need to get
healthy at your size.
That's what strikes me aboutit, which tells me that behavior
change is carrying most of theload, not just the weight loss.
And so it moves the needle inthe right direction, if that
makes sense.
All right, the fourth thing Ifound in the research is that
intuitive and mindful eating arevery promising for mental
(13:43):
health and cardiometabolicmarkers.
Now you're shocked, right?
Because I I've blastedintuitive eating on other
episodes, but usually what Imean by that is intuitive as in
go right in and try to beintuitive and listen to your
hunger signals without havingdeveloped the skill of doing so
through some form of trackingand awareness, right?
So I'm not talking about that.
I think the idea here is moreon the mindfulness piece.
(14:06):
Okay.
Research links this mindfuleating.
When we say intuitive, that iswhat I'm talking about in this
context, to a lower BMI, lowerwaist circumference, better
psycho psychosocial outcomes,and mindful eatings associated
with improved mood, healthiereating patterns.
Now, I love mindfulness and Ilove developing a skill of
knowing what and how to eat,even if it becomes more and more
(14:28):
intuitive by using a system toget there.
That is the best of bothworlds.
You've got to be taught, is mypoint.
You've got to be taught, you'vegot to learn the skill of
intuitive eating and mindfuleating.
They're not magic bullets,right?
For a lot of us, they'reactually hard.
Some apps, based on likepsychological behavior, are
probably have the right approachthere when it comes to the
(14:49):
mindfulness piece.
Unfortunately, they often lackthe data side of things, the
numbers side of things.
And in my opinion, you cancombine the two in a really nice
way.
But if you've been stuck inlike a diet binge cycle, you've
got to start somewhere.
And I think having mindfulnessin general goes a long way.
Now, before anyone accuses meof being anti-weight loss or
(15:09):
promoting some unhealthylifestyle, I want to address
legitimate criticisms.
Okay.
Some online body positivitycontent does cycle back to pure
talk of appearance and it candilute health behaviors.
All right.
Not everyone thrives withpurely weight neutral messaging.
(15:33):
Okay.
Let me say that again.
Not everyone thrives withpurely weight neutral messaging.
Some people are motivated bybody composition goals, and
that's totally fine.
Some people are motivated bypure vanity goals, and that's
totally fine.
As long as the process is freeof stigma and the metrics go far
beyond scale weight.
Okay.
This is consistent with a lotof things I've been saying over
(15:56):
the years that your motivationsare yours.
They can change.
You can have multiplemotivations.
There are multiple levels ofmotivation, right?
You can have some superficialmotivation up here, maybe some
external motivation, that'sfine.
And then you get deeper anddeeper and deeper.
And ultimately it ties to awhat we say is your why, right?
Like the deeper reason you wantthis.
You want to be a role model foryour kids.
You want to be able to not befalling in and breaking your hip
(16:19):
when you're in your 70s, right?
You don't want to be a nursinghome, those things.
So that's a legitimatecriticism that, you know, when
we talk about body positivity,which again, I'm not supporting
the traditionally criticizedversion of it on this episode.
I'm trying to add nuance to howwe define it or how we think
about it.
And the issue isn't whether youwant to change your body.
(16:42):
The issue is whether shame ispart of the equation and whether
you're using a single metric todefine success, right?
Because I've met so many peoplethat, you know, they have they
have some extra weight on theirbody.
They know it's not healthy.
There's no benefit in shamingthem.
And yet they're not surewhether they can be healthy
(17:02):
without losing a lot of weight.
And I think it's okay to focuson health and performance and
not even care about weight.
And guess what?
A beautiful thing happens inthat your body will start to
respond physically andphysiologically to that, which
often involves releasing storedbody fat and building more
muscle and partitioning yournutrients where you want them,
right?
And then the things happennaturally because you're using
(17:24):
your body in that way, in thatfit athletic sort of way.
All right.
And I I love data, I lovetools.
You guys have heard me maybetalk about Macrofactor.
It's my favorite nutrition app.
I use it every day myself totrack my expenditure, my
metabolism, my food.
But the reason I like toolslike that is they are adherence
neutral.
They do not, they do not shameyou for missing a target.
(17:45):
So if you can find an app likethat or a tracking method like
that, where all you're doing istracking against your goals and
metrics, but nothing is likeflashing a big red bell at you
that says, you just failedbecause you were over by five
calories.
That can be very helpful.
Now, speaking of metrics andremoving shame from the process,
(18:06):
anything you can do whereyou're not judged and you're
just adjusting based on whathappened and saying, I learned
from this.
Now I'm gonna do somethingdifferently in the future to
lessen the impact when ithappens again is really, really
helpful.
All right.
That's kind of what an engineerthinks like.
An engineer, an inventor, aninnovator is gonna fail a lot of
times, but they don't eventhink of it as failure.
(18:28):
They think of it as learningfrom the data.
All right.
So the next thing I want totalk about is those metrics.
In other words, what should youtrack?
And you might be hearing mydogs bark.
If weight isn't the metric thatmatters and body composition is
just one of the data streams,what should you track?
So think of it like adashboard, right?
What would this dashboard lookthat paints a complete picture
(18:50):
of your health and progress?
So we could just stop talkingabout weight loss.
Okay, let's start withperformance metrics.
This is really where I wantedyou to focus most of your
attention.
One thing you want to do istrack your strength progression,
your maxes on your key lifts.
Now, what this might look likeis if you're a beginner, you
might only be tracking fourlifts.
(19:11):
You know, your squat, yourbench, your deadlift, your
press, maybe.
And then you for five reps,let's say, and you're gonna
track those.
As you get more advanced,you're gonna track more of the
lifts and you're gonna trackmore rep ranges.
It might just matter to trackwhat is in your current program.
So I'm doing a five-day-a-weekprogram right now where every
week I'm doing the same, youknow, exercises I did the week
(19:31):
before.
So what I care about is am Iprogressing at those exact
exercises and reps each week?
Whether I go up in reps,whether I go up in weight, do I
need to do a reset to kind ofyou know continue progressing or
whatnot?
So that's that's strength.
Now, cardiovascular fitnessgets a little more complicated.
There are there are people I'dsay more experienced than me in
(19:52):
the endurance world.
I would say for the averageperson, for you and me, resting
heart rate by itself is gonna bea big indicator, okay?
Because you can see arelatively fast improvement when
you, for example, start walkingmore or doing more cardio
supportive activities.
But if you like wearables andtracking other data, I would say
heart rate variability ishelpful.
(20:13):
Anything on an aura ring orphone or wearable or strap or
whatever that can help you is ispretty cool, right?
But that's all that's it.
I would say resting heart rateis is enough, just to keep it
simple.
How about your work capacity?
Okay, this is also cardiorelated, but it also is related
to your lifting.
How many sets can you do beforeyou get winded?
How quickly can you recoverbetween them with your rest
(20:34):
periods?
You know, again, this is tiedin a little bit to your step
count.
It's important to be aware ofall that because the amount of
cardio and type of cardio you dois going to support how much
work capacity you have in thegym.
And what you do in the gym withyour lifting can also increase
your work capacity.
So different people havedifferent goals there.
And all of these metrics tellyou am I getting fitter and
stronger?
Right?
Because they respond prettyquickly to your training.
(20:57):
They're very motivating whenyou see them improve, and then
they predict long-term healthreally, really well, far more
than body weight does if youwere listening to some of the
relationships I mentionedbefore, like the fact that
having more muscle is gonna besuper protective, even if you
have a little extra weight.
So that's performance.
Then we get to body compositionmetrics.
We're still gonna track these,but as part of context, as part
(21:18):
of a big picture.
So your waist circumference,your body weight, but looking at
the trend over time.
So again, if you usemacrofactor, it uses a 20-day
exponential moving average.
The app that I'm developingalso thinks of things in this
context of trends and kind ofpressure in a direction over
time.
And you don't have to use likea DEXA scan or anything like
(21:40):
that.
There are simple ways to trackwith the Navy formula, for
example.
We use, I have a biofeedbackand physique tracker in physique
university we use, where youjust put in some simple
measurements and it gives youthese estimates.
But if you look up Navyformula, you just need a few
measurements to track it thatway.
But all of these are laggingindicators and they change more
slowly versus the performanceindicators, which are more
(22:02):
either leading or real-time typeindicators.
I mean, resting heart rate is alittle bit of a lagging
indicator, but they changepretty quickly.
These body composition metricsare gonna take time to change.
So this is where you have tonot let a week of no movement,
because a week is nothing, sevendays is nothing, tell you, hey,
this is not working if yourperformance metrics are
(22:22):
improving.
In fact, in many cases, thethese body composition things
aren't gonna change very much atall, but your health and your
performance is gonna improve alot.
And then your body compositionmight start to catch up.
So those that's bodycomposition.
The third category on yourdashboard is the metabolic
health markers.
And this is getting your labsdone, I would say, every at
least annually, if not every sixmonths, or even three months if
(22:45):
you're really into this stuff.
And that's a lot of differentthings that could be A1C,
fasting glucose, your lipids,your blood pressure, inflammant
infl markers of inflammation,nutrient, you know, deficiencies
and stuff.
And these tell you what'shappening inside your body,
right?
Not just what you see in themirror.
This is very, very important.
It tells you how what you'reeating is affecting what's in
your body.
Are you getting enoughsunlight, right?
(23:07):
Those kinds of things.
How are your hormones?
Right?
You can have a six-pack, butstill have terrible metabolic
health, or you can have a littlehigher body fat percentage, but
have really good metabolichealth.
And this goes back to why bodypositivity gets really tricky.
We want to know what's actuallygoing on.
And of course, we we do aservice now called performance
blood work.
I need to share that with youguys because I have a I have an
(23:28):
example, some example reportsfrom clients who've done that
recently.
You effectively get 85 plusbiomarkers measured, and then
thousands of calculations andpatterns put on top of that to
then say, okay, these twomarkers are low or they're in
the normal range rather than theoptimal range.
How do we get them to be moreoptimal?
(23:49):
All right, you need to be maybesupplementing with omega-3 fish
oil over here.
And are you training?
You know, are you strengthtraining?
Of course, that's gonna be oneverybody's plan that I put
together.
But yeah, that those are thekind of things that are can be
really powerful.
And then you do have subjectivemetrics, right?
Like your biofeedback is kindof subjective, although when you
track it over time, it becomesa little more objective, if that
(24:11):
makes sense.
Kind of the idea of quality,qualitative data becoming
empirical, if you will.
So energy, mood, sleep quality,how you feel during your
workouts, your digestion, yourhunger, all this, all those
stuff, right?
There's a whole list.
These matter because if you're,let's say, losing weight, but
you feel like garbage, you'renot really winning.
(24:31):
I mean, you're not you're notgonna feel your best probably
when you're in a fat loss phase,but there are optimal ways to
do it, okay?
And conversely, if you'regetting stronger and you feel
great, but the scale's notmoving, maybe your waist is
going down, you're probablydoing exactly what you should be
doing, right?
That's where it gets kind ofconfusing.
So if if the the key here islooking at all of these
together.
So if your strength's going up,your waist is going down, your
(24:54):
energy is high, your labs areimproving, and your weight is
exactly the same, that is ahuge, massive win right there.
That's a massive win.
You are replacing fat withmuscle, or I should say you're
losing one and gaining theother, and you're getting
healthier and you're gettingmore capable.
And I bet you're feeling betterand more confident.
If you only looked at thescale, you'd think that nothing
(25:15):
was happening and you mightquit.
So that's a great example.
All right, so now let's quicklytalk about nutrition in this
framework because I think a lotof people get stuck here.
We've talked a lot abouttraining and performance, and
you're like, well, where doesfood come into this?
Well, the first principle hereis make it behavior based,
right?
Not outcome-based, always.
So if you can focus on what todo day to day and then track
(25:37):
that and see how you're doingand nudge, nudge, nudge till you
get there, it's gonna work outreally well.
Okay.
And that's things like yourminimum targets for protein, 0.7
to 1 gram per pound.
Hitting that consistently isgoing to go a huge way.
Same thing for fiber, 25 to 35grams, probably more like 25 for
women, 35 for men.
Vegetables, fruits, wholegrains.
(25:58):
If you have to supplement,supplement.
Build the meals that you enjoy.
I want you to enjoy your food.
If you hate chicken breasts andbroccoli, don't make that a
regular staple in your diet.
Find proteins and vegetablesyou do like, prepare them in a
way you do like.
Learn how to cook really goodfood.
Use a meal service if you haveto, you know, marry somebody
who's a great cook.
Okay, that was out of line,maybe, or not.
(26:19):
I don't know.
I got lucky in that regard.
You don't want to suffer yourway through, you want to build
the sustainable behavior.
And so, those of you who'vebeen chronically dieting in the
past, or you've done multiplerounds of restrictive diets, of
carnivore, of keto, of low carb,all that, intermittent fasting,
right?
Then tracking these things andeven some of the mindfulness and
(26:39):
intuitive eating things canhelp.
Believe it or not, together,these things can help because
then you can learn to recognizehunger, physiological versus
emotional hunger, when you'refull, removing moral labels from
food, eating withoutdistraction, so you can taste
your food and take time to letit digest and let yourself fill
up before you overeat.
Like those skills are gonnareduce the backlash that you
(27:01):
would get from rigid dieting.
And when combined with hittingsome simple ranges and targets
and tracking that, that'severything.
Let me tell you, that iseverything.
Now, speaking of trackingcalories and macros, I'm not
saying, I'm definitely notsaying you never track those.
In fact, I think anybodylistening to this podcast with
the goals we have should trackthese.
(27:23):
Okay.
If you have a body compositiongoal at all, if you want to lose
fat or gain weightintentionally to build muscle,
then you've got to understand atleast your energy balance and
whether you're in a surplus ordeficit so you don't hold
yourself back or make it take alot longer and get more
frustrating with plateaus thanyou want.
Okay.
Track your intake, practicethis neutrality when it comes to
(27:45):
food.
You know, eat mostly wholefoods, hit hit your macros,
still honor your hunger andfullness cues.
It all works really well, butreally just start somewhere.
And the difference is themental side, right?
You are not tracking to punishyourself or earn the right to
eat from your exercise, right?
Your tracking is information.
It is data to help you engineerthe outcome that you want by
(28:05):
focusing on the here and now andthe process.
Just like when you tracktraining volume.
It's a tool.
It's a tool, right?
And you're gonna go off track.
That's cool, that's fine.
Everyone does.
You don't spiral into shame.
You just adjust and moveforward.
You learn from it.
One meal, one day, one week ata time.
The trend is what matters.
All right.
So this is where let's talkabout coaching psychology here.
(28:29):
So that's it, that's all I haveon nutrition.
So I think a lot of theapproaches with the psycho based
on psychology is where thingsfall apart.
So you might be doing all thethings we just talked about.
You might have great training,you might have a good nutrition
plan.
But if you have terribleself-talk, if you're always
beating yourself up, you are notgonna stick with it.
Right.
So this really is aboutcoaching yourself without shame.
(28:52):
How do we do that?
How do we do that?
All right.
One thought I have is replacecriticism with neutral
observation.
I'm simply observing.
So instead of saying, you know,I'm I'm really lazy, I skip the
gym again.
Just say I didn't train thisweek.
What got in the way of me doingthat?
What can I do differently nextweek?
You see the difference, right?
You're not labeling yourself,you're just observing what
(29:15):
happened.
Right?
Different framing.
One shuts you down, one opensup problem solving.
Focus on the process, not theoutcomes.
We've mentioned this already.
Instead of I need to lose 20pounds, I gotta get that last 10
pounds off.
It's I'm gonna train four timesthis week and I'm gonna hit my
protein, you know, five out ofthe seven days of the week,
whatever your goal is.
You control the process, youdon't control the outcome.
(29:37):
So if you're gonna judgeyourself at all, it's on the
things you can control.
And it then it tends to be moreof an objective rather than a
moral judgment.
Another thought I have here isto use approach goals, not
avoidance goals.
In other words, not avoidancegoals, in other words, what the
approach is.
So instead of saying I need tostop eating junk food, say I'm
(29:59):
going to include a Proteinsource and a vegetable at every
meal.
You know, you're creating agoal on your approach, not
something you're trying toavoid.
And they're more motivatingthat way.
Another one is self-compassion.
I mean, a lot of you I know canprobably do better here.
And I know I could have in thepast as well.
This is not the same asself-indulgence.
Self-compassion is recognizingthat struggle is part of the
(30:23):
human condition.
And so you're going to treatyourself with the same kindness
you would show your best friend.
And you're going to commit todo better without the spiral
into shame.
It's okay to want to do better,but you don't have to shame
yourself for it.
Self-indulgence, on the otherhand, is giving up on your
personal standards because youdon't feel like meeting them.
All right.
That there is a difference.
(30:44):
I don't want you to do that.
Whereas self-compassionimproves behavior change.
I mean, the research is clearon this.
People who practiceself-compassion have better
long-term adherence to healthbehaviors than people who rely
on self-criticism.
If you're a natural optimist,great.
If you're not, this issomething to work on.
All right.
Think about it this way.
If you had a coach whoconstantly told you you were
(31:04):
garbage, that you never succeed,that you're worthless every
time you make a mistake, wouldyou want to keep working with
that coach?
Of course not.
Well, guess what?
You are your own coach rightnow.
You would quit, you would firethat coach, you would talk bad
about them probably if anybodyasks.
So why would you treat yourselflike that coach?
You you shouldn't.
All right.
So just to wrap this in a bow,I want to tackle some of the
(31:25):
objections related to bodypositivity.
And the big one is is itanti-health?
No.
I think the issue is notacceptance of your body, it's
whether the messaging detachesfrom the behavior and the health
marker.
So you can respect your bodyand still work to improve your
fitness and your nutrition, yoursleep, et cetera.
They're not in conflict.
Body positivity becomesproblematic, in my opinion, when
(31:48):
it denies that the behaviorsmatter or when it shames people
for wanting to improve theirhealth.
All right, now what about thedebate about you can be fat but
fit?
Well, the research shows thathigher fitness attenuates risk,
whatever your size is, but itdoesn't mean the risk vanishes.
Fitness is protective, it'smitigating, but it's not the
(32:09):
only thing.
Your behaviors will drivereducing that risk because a
person with obesity who liftsweights, does cardio, eats well,
manages stress, is healthierthan a sedentary person who
doesn't do those things, even ifthey're at a normal quote
unquote normal BMI.
But lower body fat, all elseequal, confers quite a few
additional benefits.
So the point here is to focuson the behaviors because those
(32:31):
are what you control and drivemost of the benefit.
And it's also going to lead tofat loss anyway, if that's what
you need.
All right.
And then one more thing I wantto address here is you know,
this comment if we stop talkingabout weight, people will never
change.
And I think that's backward.
I think stigma reduces change.
I think shame makes people lesslikely to engage in health
behaviors, more likely to avoidmedical care, more likely to
(32:51):
binge eat, right?
Behavior-first coaching, wherewe focus on the actions and the
markers rather than weight,often works better.
So I don't think we need to, Ithink we can stop talking about
weight in the way that a lot ofpeople talk about it, and and it
and the world's gonna be abetter place, right?
So the goal isn't to never talkabout weight or body
conferences, is to remove themoral judgment from the
(33:13):
conversation and use multiplemetrics, not just one.
So, what do you actually dowith all this information from a
practical standpoint?
All right, I'm gonna give yousome simple tips.
The first one is pick twofitness metrics to improve over
the next two months.
Very simple.
You test them now, you retestlater, and you make these your
primary progress measures.
(33:35):
Cut out all the noise, juststick with those two over the
next two months.
For example, hitting yourprotein and fiber if you're if
nutrition's important to you.
And then just build your mealsyou enjoy around those targets
until you hit them on a regularbasis.
And it and it kind ofsimplifies the process.
Or replace a self-criticalthought each day with a neutral
observation, like we talkedabout.
(33:56):
This is a practice, it takeswork, but you have to be
intentional about it and say,this is the thing I'm going to
do each day.
Or track a health marker withyour doctor every few months.
Obviously, these are going tochange more slowly, but being,
again, intentional or doing ourperformance blood work service,
for example.
So you right now have abaseline and have interventions,
(34:16):
and then you can do what I'mtalking about right now, focus
on one or two.
I will put together aperformance plan for you that
really narrows the list to atmost, let's say 12 interventions
maximum to help you focus.
You know, you use theseinformation to guide your
decisions and not the mirror andnot the scale weight.
And it's defining success morebroadly, even though it's more
(34:38):
intentional and therefore,ironically, it's more precise.
Your training performance, yourenergy, your sleep, your labs,
your measurements, whatevermakes sense for you right now.
Obviously, if you're working acoach, if you were working with
me, we would go all in onmultiple measures, but we would
do it in a way that wassustainable, where you had me to
lean on.
If you're doing it yourself, Ireally recommend focusing on one
or two things at a time.
(34:59):
And I won't say perfectingthose, but making them
consistent.
And that's how you'd build asystem.
All right, so I think to wrapthis up, what is very powerful
about all of what we're talkingabout today?
Why are we even talking aboutit?
I think it to use a clicheflips the script on how we think
about body change and bodypositivity.
A lot of people start with theend goal in mind.
(35:20):
Maybe it's the physique, thebody weight, and then they work
backward.
And I try to define physique assomething more than just the
body, let's say, but Iunderstand that that's the
standard definition.
And people say, look, I want tolook like this, so I need to do
these behaviors.
And then when things don'tchange fast enough to look like
that, they quit, right?
You quit.
You're like, okay, this isn'tworking.
(35:41):
I got to do something elsebecause you were measuring the
outcome.
But if you start with, again,this phrase, dignity first,
performance engineering,interesting mesh of two
concepts.
You start with the behaviorsand the values.
You say, hey, I want to bestrong and capable, I want to be
healthy.
These are the behaviors thatcan build those qualities, like
(36:03):
what are X, Y, Z.
And as a side effect, my bodywill probably change in ways
that I like.
The physique becomes a bonus,right?
It's not the prerequisite forfeeling good about yourself or
your self-worth.
And then what happens when youmake that shift is guess what?
You're gonna be able to stickto it.
Then we have that A word,adherence, which is the
foundation of everything.
(36:24):
But you don't get to that untilyou accept yourself right now.
You're not waiting for thefuture version of yourself.
You are acceptable right now.
You accept yourself, and thenyou're building on that
foundation of where you areright now.
And I think the research backsthis up.
I think, you know, programs andapproaches that focus on health
behaviors and remove weightstigma are absolutely at least
(36:47):
or probably far better long termwith their outcomes compared to
traditional quote unquoteweight loss programs.
And more importantly, they havebetter psychological outcomes.
Mental health is so importanthere, guys.
That means you get the samehealth benefits, who doesn't
want that, but less suffering.
Who doesn't want that?
So great.
That's what engineering is allabout.
You know, performanceengineering, maximum output,
(37:08):
minimum waste, efficiency.
We talk about it all the time.
So the question is not, can Ilove my body and still want to
change it?
The question is, what kind ofchange am I pursuing and why?
That's it.
That is your question now.
Obviously, you love yourselfand you love your body and you
want to change your body becauseyou love it, most likely.
You want to improve in someway.
(37:29):
And if you're pursuing strengthor fitness, energy, longevity,
capability, and then the bodycomposition change happens along
the way.
That is what I mean by dignityfirst performance engineering.
So if you're pursuing a bodyweight right now because you
think it will make you theperson you can accept, that is
shame-based fitness culture.
(37:51):
It does not work.
Choose the first one.
Okay, choose the first one.
And that is dignity, acceptyourself now, and then go after
the improvement and make ithappen.
And that is kind of a betterapproach, in my opinion.
So what let me bring mythoughts together because I'm
kind of rambling a little bit.
I think you can practiceself-acceptance and still pursue
(38:12):
measurable health improvements,and they're not in conflict.
That is the message today.
The conflict only exists whenwe start latching on moral value
to scale weight, or we use asingle metric to judge success.
Whatever that metric is, maybeit's not scale weight, maybe
it's something else, but stillyou lack nuance and context.
And removing that stigma is notequivalent to removing the
(38:35):
standards.
We still keep high standardsfor our behaviors, for our
biomarkers, for the process,right?
While removing the moraljudgment about our body in the
moment.
So fitness capacity, I think,is a good term to use here.
It's one of the strongesthealth levers that can exist,
regardless of body size.
If you can focus on gettingstronger, on building muscle and
(38:57):
getting fitter overall, therest tends to follow.
The rest tends to follow.
And remember that behaviorchange tends to carry most of
the load, not weight loss.
The behavior change is whatcarries the load.
All right.
Mindful tools, smart training,having structure can all reduce
(39:18):
all of that backlash and thatyo-yo, you know, what am I
trying to say, weight regainthat everybody's worried about
from rigid dieting, and insteadshifted more toward these
sustainable habits.
You just have to build yourdashboard, like we talked about
today.
Coach yourself with the samerespect you chose someone you
care about.
Be kind to yourself.
It's not soft, it's not woo.
It's smart, it is effective, itis sustainable.
(39:40):
All right.
If today's episode clicked foryou, I want you to do me a favor
and just text this to a friendwho needs to hear it.
Hopefully, I gave this thetreatment it deserved, some
nuance, some empathy, not atoxic level of delusion or
anything like that, I hope.
And it was what you needed tohear.
I know I needed to say it, Ineed to hear it myself sometime.
So text this to a friend who'sbeen stuck between, you know,
(40:02):
like wanting to respectthemselves and wanting to
improve their health.
It's not a false, it's a falsedichotomy.
We don't have to have, it's notmutually exclusive, right?
So text it to a friend who'stired of the all or nothing.
Text it to a friend who needsto hear this.
And then if you want to godeeper on any of this, if you
want help building your ownsystem with coaching, a
(40:23):
community, anything like that,we do have Wits and Weights
Physique University, where youcan learn more physique.wits and
weights.com.
That's physique.wits andweights.com.
But really just send this to afriend who needs to hear it.
And until next time, keep usingyour wits, lifting those
weights.
And remember, your body iscapable of amazing things when
you give it the right stimulus,the right fuel, and the right
(40:44):
respect.
This is Philip Pape, and you'vebeen listening to Wits and
Weights.
I'll talk to you next time.
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