August 18, 2025 • 32 mins
Join the 90-Day Body Recomp Workshop tomorrow (Tuesday, August 19) at 12 PM Eastern for only $27 (replay included). Get Philip's complete system for simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain, plus a custom nutrition plan. Register at live.witsandweights.com
--
Think you need a calorie deficit to lose fat? Or months of bulking followed by months of cutting to reshape your physique?
Think again.
Body recomp (the simultaneous loss of fat and gain of muscle) isn't just possible... it's achievable for most people under the right conditions.
Your body can become remarkably efficient at energy partitioning, directing nutrients toward muscle growth while mobilizing stored fat for fuel.
This episode breaks down exactly how this works: how your body can simultaneously burn fat and build muscle, often without scale changes.
Learn who can achieve this "impossible" feat and how to do it.
Main Takeaways:
- Body recomp is simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain, possible even at maintenance calories
- Your body actively partitions energy based on training stimulus and protein intake
- Beginners, detrained individuals, and overweight people have the highest recomp potential
- Scale weight becomes virtually useless - track strength, measurements, and photos too
Episode Resources:
- 90-Day Body Recomp Workshop - Tuesday, August 19, 12 PM Eastern ($27)
- Chef's Foundry P600 Non-Toxic Ceramic Cookware - 50% off at witsandweights.com/chefsfoundry
Timestamps:
0:01 - The scale weight paradox
3:45 - Body recomposition
5:06 - Why THIS is non-negotiable for recomp
6:48 - Energy partitioning and insulin sensitivity
9:30 - Who can achieve body recomp (spoiler: more people than you think)
12:27 - Detrained individuals
13:45 - Overweight or obese
15:09 - Older adults and advanced lifters
18:34 - What is required for body recomp & how to track
22:37 - Patience + realistic expectations
26:02 - Metabolic health improvements
28:39 - Sustainable physique development
🎓 Join Physique University for just $27/mo + get a FREE custom nutrition plan with this special link: bit.ly/wwpu-free-plan
👥 Join our Facebook community for Q&As & support
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Philip Pape (00:01):
Picture this scenario you step on the scale
for weeks at a time and itreally hasn't changed.
But your clothes are gettinglooser, your muscle definition
is starting to show, you'rehitting PRs in the gym and
according to conventional wisdom, this really shouldn't be
possible.
You have to be in a caloriedeficit to lose fat, right, but
what if I told you you can burnfat and build muscle at the same
(00:22):
time in a process called bodyrecomposition?
Today, you're going to discoverthe specific mechanisms that
allow your body to mobilizestored fat for fuel while
building lean tissue.
Who can achieve this seeminglyimpossible feat?
And it's more people than youthink and why your weight might
be the worst indicator of your.
(00:50):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host certifiednutrition coach, philip Pape,
and today we're talking aboutone of the most misunderstood
concepts in fitness, and that isbody recomposition.
Body recomp is the process oflosing fat and gaining muscle
(01:10):
simultaneously, often, but notalways, without seeing changes
on the scale, and this conceptusually challenges what a lot of
people believe about energybalance calories in versus
calories out.
Can you do it?
Can you not do it?
Is it going to take forever?
Is it only for beginners?
But when you peel back theonion, the science seems to be
(01:32):
pretty clear, and understandinghow this works can change how
you approach physiquedevelopment.
If you're the type of personwho doesn't always want to or
doesn't feel you need to usebulking and cutting which are
deliberate and more assertive oraggressive muscle building and
fat loss phases, so you might befrustrated by the scale.
(01:53):
Getting a little bit obsessedwith it, you might be afraid of
gaining fat when you gain weight, you might not want to go into
a big calorie deficit.
All of those things areperfectly normal and okay, and
you might be curious about howto optimize your body
composition while just hangingout right Without these
traditional cutting and bulkingphases.
Either way, this episode isgoing to give you the knowledge
(02:15):
to make that happen.
Now, before we get into thosemechanisms which I think are
really important to understand,or else you can't take the right
approach, I want to let youknow about something special
happening tomorrow that isrelevant to this topic.
I'm hosting a 90-day bodyrecomp workshop where I'll walk
through my system, my approachfor transforming your physique
(02:36):
without worrying about cuttingor bulking.
We're going to cover thenutrition setup to optimize this
energy partitioning.
We'll discuss today trainingprotocols or principles that
maximize simultaneous fat lossand muscle gain, as well as a
specific training program.
I actually recommend followingand the tracking methods and
principles to show you that it'sworking, even when your scale
(03:00):
weight doesn't change, or itcould be that your scale weight
is changing a little bit, andwe're going to talk about how to
demystify all of that.
I'm going to share some of themistakes that prevent body
recomp from working and how toavoid them Again.
The workshop is tomorrow,tuesday, at 12 Eastern in
physique university.
It is only $27 to get all ofthat, to get your free nutrition
plan, to get the replay.
(03:21):
If you can't make it, go tolivewitsandweightscom or click
the link in the show notes toregister Again.
Even just for the workshopitself, 27 bucks is an amazing
value.
So check that out,livewitsandweightscom, or click
the link in the show notes, andyou're going to get a 90-day
body recomp plan, three phases,all laid out for you for how to
do this the right way.
(03:45):
All right, let me start bydefining what we are talking
about when we say body recomp,because it sounds obvious, but I
think it gets misapplied andmisdefined a lot.
Body recomp is the simultaneousloss of fat mass and the gain
of muscle mass, resulting inimproved body composition, even
when total body weight remainsunchanged, or it could change.
(04:08):
That's kind of the caveat thatI wanted to add, because body
recomp a lot of people think ofit as just maintaining your
weight and getting the result.
Not necessarily, and we'regonna get into those nuances,
and so this often flies in theface of the conventional wisdom
that you have to be in a caloriedeficit to lose fat.
Most people think of energybalance.
(04:28):
You know, kind of like a bankaccount, calories in calories
out, end of story.
But your body has a lot that'sgoing on inside.
Okay, about the distribution oftissue inside your body, not
just your body mass and not justthe energy, the overall energy,
(04:49):
right?
So then we get into biochemicalmechanisms, right?
Biochemistry is what I meant tosay about reallocating energy
in ways that, at the surface,seem to break the math.
But it's not breaking the math,it's just we're using the wrong
math premise or we're lookingat the wrong type of math when
we talk about it.
So let me explain how thishappens.
At the physiological level, yourbody doesn't just dump the
(05:09):
incoming calories into a singlepool and randomly allocate them
right.
It is actively deciding whereyour energy goes, based on some
key signals, some key inputs,and the most important of these
by far is the training stimulusfrom resistance exercise, from
strength training.
And if you're not doing that ordon't want to do that, I'm
(05:32):
sorry.
You are not going to achievebody recomp.
You're also not going toachieve fat loss If you're
taking GLP-1 drugs.
You're not going to get fatloss.
You're going to lose a bunch ofweight and lose a bunch of
muscle.
All those scenarios requiretraining from resistance
exercise.
So when you lift weights, youcreate a demand signal for
muscle protein synthesis.
You're telling your body muscleand protein are important to
(05:53):
have.
Your body prioritizes sendingamino acids and energy toward
repairing and building yourmuscle tissue.
At the same time, if you'reeating adequate protein but
you're not in a large caloriesurplus, your body still needs
some energy to meet its overallneeds and it's going to.
At the same time, it's devotingsome of that protein toward
(06:14):
muscle.
It's going to mobilize storedfat to meet the energy needs.
So this is what I mean byenergy partitioning.
I want you to think of it aslike your body's resource
allocation system becoming moreefficient.
So, instead of defaulting tojust storing fat which is the
vast majority of the populationbecause you're resistance
training and eating protein,you're going to preferentially
(06:37):
fuel muscle growth and you'regoing to use fat stores for
energy.
Again, it's going to depend onthe overall energy balance as
well, but this is just the basicexplanation.
The second mechanism here isimproved insulin sensitivity.
Resistance trainingdramatically improves how well
your muscle tissue responds toinsulin, and that means the
(06:58):
carbs that you eat are much morelikely to go toward refilling
your muscle glycogen rather thanbeing converted to fat, because
your muscles are this metabolic, this glucose sink, as you've
heard, and it's pulling thosenutrients away from fat storage.
It's a beautiful thing.
So when you're in a true bodyrecomp state, you're running two
(07:19):
different processes at the sametime.
Right Now, your body's runningthese things all the time anyway
, but you're trying to balancethem out, just so.
Muscle protein synthesis ishappening at an accelerated rate
because you're training,because you're eating enough
protein and you're not in muchof a deficit.
And I say it that way becauseyou could be in a tiny deficit,
you could not be in a deficit atall, or you could be even in a
(07:41):
modest deficit which, for anewer lifter, could still allow
you to build muscle.
At the same time, your body ismobilizing fat stores, using
what's called lipolysis toprovide energy for the process.
Again, if you're in that window,right, if you're in that window
like, you don't like.
If we think of the otherdirection, if you're in too much
of a surplus, you just don'tneed.
(08:03):
What am I trying to say?
You are intaking so much foodthat, no matter what your body
does, even though it's burningfat, it's not going to burn all
the fat and therefore you'regoing to gain fat, right.
So we have to be in this window, this kind of slight deficit to
slight surplus plus window,which is why I mean you don't
necessarily have to be at truemaintenance for this to happen.
(08:25):
Now, muscle tissue requiresrelatively few net calories to
build right.
We're talking like 200 to 300calories a day for active muscle
growth, because it can't buildthat quickly.
Even if you're new.
It's going to be faster than ifyou're a more advanced trainee,
but it's still not anywherenear as fast as the rate that
you could lose fat.
So if you're eating atmaintenance, your body can
(08:46):
easily draw energy from storedfat.
For that slight bit of caloriesit needs to build muscle.
So it's kind of taking from oneand give it to the other.
It's like the Robin Hood thatyou want in your body right,
robbing from the fat, the richfat stores, to give it to the
poor muscle stores.
You build a muscle right, andguess what?
(09:06):
This gets even easier if youhave a little extra fat to begin
with.
So I always say, like, thepositive framing on being
someone who has extra weight tolose is that that extra body fat
on your body is an energysource when you start lifting
weights.
It's kind of a cool thing.
So this is why the scale canstay exactly the same or it
could even go up slightly whileyou're losing fat and gaining
(09:28):
muscle.
It could even go down slightly.
I've spoken about thesedifferent forms of body recomp
in the past and I tend to bebiased more toward maintaining
or building rather than losing.
But you can definitely achieveit in all of those scenarios and
you're essentially trading thedense fat tissue for denser
muscle tissue as you do that,and that's why the math gets a
(09:49):
little wonky.
So you might be thinking, okay,so who could actually do this?
Because that is the bigquestion that gets asked and
often answered by fitnessinfluencers in a very simplified
way.
So not everyone can achievewhat I'll say is dramatic body
recomp, but everybody canachieve some body recomp.
So if we understand the bucketsof people here and criteria,
(10:12):
then you can set realisticexpectations.
So let's start with beginners,newbies, people who are highly
detrained I kind of put them alltogether but we'll separate
them.
For now.
We'll start with beginners.
You never lifted before.
If you're a beginner, you haveamong, if not the highest
potential for body recomp,because if you're new to
resistance training, your bodyhas this huge adaptive capacity.
(10:33):
The neuromuscular adaptationsalone can drive these huge
strength gains right.
You can double, triple,quadruple your strength very
quickly in just a few months,while your muscles then also
start to grow to support thatincreasing strength.
And your body hasn't adapted tothe training stress yet because
you have a lot of potential.
So it responds aggressively towhatever calories you give it
(10:57):
right, and we're going to comeback to that.
This is why I'm not a huge fanof being in a deficit for recomp
or even just at maintenance.
I like it to be a little bitmore aggressive than that.
But anyway, hey, this is Philipand before we continue.
I want to talk about cookware.
We all love to make our ownfood.
I love nonstick pans.
The problem is I've avoidedthem for years because when they
get scratched, when they getheated, they can release.
(11:19):
The problem is I've avoidedthem for years because when they
get scratched, when they getheated, they can release
microplastics, pfas smallparticles that can accumulate
over time in the body and somestudies have shown them to be
linked to health issues.
If you're optimizing yournutrition and making lots of
food for you and your family athome, it doesn't make sense to
compromise that withquestionable cookware.
So that's why I was interestedwhen Chef's Foundry who is
(11:40):
sponsoring this episode showedme their ceramic cookware.
It's called the P600 and usesSwiss-engineered ceramic coating
which has no Teflon, no PFAS,no plastic components.
It is nonstick, it works on allstovetops, it goes straight
into the oven All the things youneed if you're trying to cook a
lot of your meals at home.
Right now you can get the P600at 50% off by going to
(12:03):
witsandweightscom slashchefsfoundry.
You'll also get a bunch ofaccessories with that.
There's a whole page thatexplains what you'll get for
that discounted 50% off.
Go to witsandweightscom slashchefsfoundry or click the link
in the show notes.
All right, let's get back tothe show.
(12:27):
The second subcategory of thisfirst category is detrained
individuals.
They also probably almost asgood as beginners, if not a
slight advantage because of howthe body springs back has a
sense of muscle memory becauseof how you've trained in the
past.
So if you used to lift weightsand then took a decent amount of
time off, this I'll just callit muscle memory.
It's kind of a colloquial termbut effectively your, your
muscle fibers are going toregain the size that they've
(12:49):
previously been programmed to becapable of.
Right, it's just going to,they're going to balloon right
back to that size very quicklywhile your body again is needing
that energy.
So it's going to burn throughfat that that you have on your
body.
And if I've had clients who theideal person for this was
somebody who had extra fat.
So let's say a guy who wouldnormally walk around at 190,
slightly muscular, he detrainedand he gained a bunch of fat and
(13:12):
he's weighing 230, now 240.
That guy can eat a bunch offood, start training and walking
and everybody around him isgoing to be jealous because he's
going to start losing that fatand gaining that muscle at the
same time, while losing weighton the scale at a good clip and
his metabolism going up.
So, honestly, a detrainedperson is rife for this.
Now, what about people who areoverweight or of an obese weight
(13:35):
?
Right, I would say that thosepeople also have a huge
advantage that I've alreadyalluded to.
They're gonna see excellentbody comp results because you
have significant fat stores.
So look at that as a positive.
What can I say?
Yes, your health is at risk.
Yes, you need to bring that fatdown, but you can also take
advantage of that situationbecause your body has plenty of
stored energy to draw from, tothe point where your body
(13:59):
perceives this as not even adeficit when you go into one, as
long as it's not too big, right.
And that's the example whereactually losing weight slowly
can work, but it tends to happenover time even so, because of
the amount of fat to lose.
So when we talk about our90-day plan tomorrow in the
workshop, it's going to apply toanybody, but the amount that
(14:19):
you achieve in 90 days is goingto depend on your starting point
, and your starting point isalso going to inform how
aggressive you want that to be.
We're going to talk about thatand give you all those scenarios
so you can customize it.
But the larger your fat storesto begin with, the more readily
your body can mobilize that fatfor fuel, because it's there.
Why not?
Let's talk about older adults,because that's a massive part of
(14:41):
the population listening tothis show and in Physique
University.
And that's what I considermyself.
I guess I'm 44, but I feel likeI'm getting younger every year.
That's the point.
But older adults can absolutelyachieve body recomp as well.
It's typically a little slower,like everything else.
Recovery is a little bit less.
There's a little bit moreanabolic resistance, where your
muscles don't respond as readilyto the protein.
(15:02):
You should probably be eatingmore protein, but it doesn't
mean you train more.
That's the only thing.
You can't change much becausethat could actually backfire.
If you have the rightprogramming, if you have high
protein intake, you know, andyou're managing your fatigue and
your recovery, then yes, again,body recomp is totally possible
.
And a lot of these categoriesoverlap, right?
People are overweight, peopleare detrained, people are older,
(15:22):
these can all overlap.
And then we have finally theadvanced lifters intermediate,
late intermediate to advancedlifters.
I would say they have thelowest potential for body recomp
.
But again, it's not impossible.
It's just a matter of degrees.
If you've been trainingconsistently for years, your
body's already adapted totraining more than a newer
lifter and you're probably goingto benefit from being more
(15:43):
aggressive.
And the extreme of beingaggressive, of course, is
cutting and bulking.
But since we're talking aboutbody recomp, it just means
pushing the needle a little bitmore in one direction, in my
opinion, toward the higherbuilding and gaining direction,
to be honest.
But there is a case to be madefor the other direction as well.
So achieving body recomp, youknow it's like, it's not
(16:07):
automatic.
That's one of the things I wantyou to take away here, in that
we're going to talk about how ithappens.
But you can't just stay atmaintenance and it happens,
right.
You have to have these, youhave to have specific conditions
that are met, and thoseconditions are the things we're
going to cover tomorrow in theworkshop, because there are it's
like if, then statements, it'slike, if this do this, if this
(16:27):
do that, right, and it's a lot.
It's a lot to cover in oneepisode and I honestly want to
give it to you know, the clientswho are really going to
implement the information, and Iwant you to implement it.
I don't want you to just bingethis show out for a walk and
you're done and you move on.
I want you to implement it, soI'm going to show you.
Okay, how should we train?
Should we go toward building ortoward losing, to stay in that
window?
(16:48):
What do macros look like?
What does timing look like?
What do we track Specifically?
What and how often do we track,and how do we do it in a simple
, achievable way, in addition toscale weight and food, because
you're going to track thoseanyway, but the scale weight's
going to become less important.
So what should we pay attentionto?
And then, what kind of mistakesare people making?
So this is tomorrow, tuesday,noon Eastern, only $27.
(17:10):
You get the replay.
You get the custom nutritionplan for free that I put
together for you and, by the way, that nutrition plan could be a
fat loss plan that you want touse later and then, in the short
term, you can do the bodyrecomp that we're going to talk
about.
Go to livewitsandweightscom orclick the link in the show notes
.
Again, that'slivewitsandweightscom.
Sign up for the workshop.
(17:30):
If you're already in Physique U, you get it included.
Hope to see you at noon Eastern.
Continuing on here, though, asfar as conditions, we've
mentioned the biggest one of all, and that is a strong muscle
building stimulus, and thatmeans progressive overload with
a foundational set of movementslike compound movements, with
(17:53):
some extra volume in there,depending on your training age
and your goals.
Okay, we're going to talk againin the workshop, we'll get into
details on that, and I'm goingto give you an exact training
template that I recommend.
That's going to give youmassive growth, surprising level
of growth.
You'll see, we're going to talkabout it in there.
Okay, but you need enoughvolume, you need enough recovery
(18:13):
.
The nice thing about bodyrecomp is, if you listen to what
I'm suggesting and bias towardgrowth rather than toward a
deficit, you're going to be in abetter position to make all
that progress and not befrustrated and really challenge
yourself and get that, thoseadaptations but then also not
worry about gaining fat, which Iknow a lot of you are scared of
, scared of right.
(18:34):
And then we have our proteinintake.
You know we're not going to getinto macros here, that's
actually pretty simple.
I talk about it a lot, butwe're going to talk about that.
And, of course, your calorieintake.
This is where it gets a littletricky because are you?
Are you aiming for maintenance?
Are you aiming to push yourmaintenance?
Are you aiming to be in adeficit?
And then, when you do one ofthose three things, what is your
body going to do in response?
(18:55):
And how do you keep up withthat, knowing that the amount of
change is so small?
It's it.
You've got to be very precisein seeing how that tracks right
and how you do that.
So my point is here you justhave to be on top of things, and
that's why body recomp isn'tjust something that happens just
because you stay at maintenance, because the last thing you
(19:17):
want to do is be togglingbetween a surplus and a deficit
and never quite being in onespot.
And then, of course, sleep andstress management all of that
that are always important thatalways supports your hormones
are going to just be just asimportant, of course, when
you're going for body recomp.
So let's talk about the trackingside of this, okay, because
(19:37):
this is where people getfrustrated and give up.
They're using the wrong metrics, or they're not patient enough,
or they're changing too manythings at once, or all the above
, all right.
Let's start with scale weight.
So scale weight is bothvirtually useless for tracking
body recomp, and also completelyessential, and I'll tell you
(19:59):
what I mean From the uselessside.
Okay, seeing the scale stay thesame or go up or go down is not
going to tell you whetherrecomp is working.
It's just going to tell youthat you've kept your energy
balance in a certain range tokeep you at that scale weight.
That's the useless side, right,because if you're gaining this
dense muscle tissue and losingthe less dense fat tissue, you
(20:22):
could gain, stay the same orlose and not quite be sure what
happened, unless you're trackingother things to show you what
happened.
So that's the useless.
Where it's essential, though,is you still want to know what
your body weight is doing,because that's going to allow
you then back into the body fatand muscle distribution.
It is one of several metricsthat go together as a system.
(20:46):
So that's scale weight.
Body fat is the next one, andthis one's big right, and you've
probably heard me say thatthere is no way to measure body
fat accurately, and that is true, but there is a very good way
to measure the change in bodyfat over time, and you don't
have to use DEXA, you don't evenhave to use an in-body.
We could do it very simply withsimple circumference
(21:07):
measurements, correlated withthings like photos, how your
clothes fit and such.
And even then you still have toindividualize.
You have to understand well foryou what should we expect to
change?
Because you may carry fat in adifferent spot than someone else
.
You know, a menopausal womanmight be carrying a lot more in
her belly and it doesn't comeoff as fast from there but it
(21:27):
comes off in other places.
Maybe waist size isn't the mostreliable.
There are ratios that we canuse that will make it a little
bit more reliable, correlatedwith the other stuff.
The other stuff like photos,okay, and strength progression
and how your clothes fit.
So I'll say circumferencemeasurements do tell a pretty
honest story.
You know waist, arm, chest,neck, thigh measurements when
(21:50):
we're looking at body recomp,but it's, how do you interpret
those?
Then we have strengthprogression, another huge
variable, another huge condition.
Of course you should betraining consistently, and this
is again why I like to be in aslight surplus for body recomp
and slight I mean very, veryslight, okay, just because you
(22:10):
want to be fully resourced forthat strength and for that
muscle building.
If you are progressing, that isa great sign.
No matter what it's a greatsign.
The more of a deficit you're in, the more under fueled you are,
the harder it is to progress.
So the more you're able toeasily progress and feel
energized and less sore andrecovered and and more recovered
, the more you know, just fromthat alone, that you're on the
(22:31):
right track.
You're getting stronger, you'remaintaining or improving your
body composition as expressed inthe gym.
And then I mentioned things likeclothes.
I mean, it's such a simplething but honestly, it's the
biggest mind shift that peoplehave, where the scale doesn't
move or it even goes up a little, but their clothes are looser
(22:52):
and they're like this is just soweird, right, but it's an
important indicator that thisthing is working.
So you've got all that.
And then the other thing Imentioned is patience and
expectations, because bodyrecomp is, by definition, going
to be slower than a focusedcutting or bulking phase.
Now, I say by definition, whatI mean is the end result.
So if you want to reduce yourbody fat percentage and increase
(23:16):
your lean mass, almost alwaysit's going to be more efficient
to do separate cutting andbulking phases.
But for those who don't want todo them, don't want to recomp
over a long period, they want todo kind of a short-term result,
without dealing with extra fatgain or going on a deficit and
all of the challenges that comealong with those.
(23:38):
Body recomp is a great middleground.
It really is.
It's a great compromise, it's agood tradeoff.
So in a cut you might lose,let's say, a pound a week or
even two pounds a week,depending on where you're
starting from.
But of course you have to be ina deficit and you have to be
doing all those things right.
You have to do the dietingpiece of it and body recomp.
However, you might lose, let'ssay, a quarter pound a week of
(24:02):
fat, but be gaining, let's say0.1 or 0.2 pounds of muscle,
right, or something like that.
In other words, it's going tobe a similar ratio, I would say
as being in a surplus, but it'sgoing to be on the top end of
that ratio, biased toward muscle.
So I just told you the wrongnumbers.
(24:22):
I should have flipped it around.
I should have said like 0.3,0.4 pounds of muscle versus like
0.1 pounds of fat, 0.2 poundsof fat, in other words, more
than two to one ratio of muscleto fat.
But their numbers are small,right, and in this case the
scale might drift or might staythe same, and I say it that way
because it depends on howprecise you are and how
(24:44):
responsive your body is to thedifferent changes in tissue.
Okay, that's why we can'tcompletely rely on the scale,
but we definitely know if thescale is going up too fast or
going down too fast, then that'san overcorrection and that
gives us information as well.
So over several months, over thethree-month period we're
talking about in the workshoptomorrow, you're going to get a
(25:04):
good physique improvement.
If you do this right Inrealistic expectation terms, you
are Versus a good physiqueimprovement.
If you do this right Inrealistic expectation terms, you
are Versus people who do crashdiets.
They lose a bunch of muscle,they get really gaunt and weak.
Then they binge it all back.
They're back where they startedwith more body fat.
To me that's not body recompright.
So most people are going tovisually see noticeable changes
at about the six to eight weekpart mark, if they're consistent
(25:27):
with their training andnutrition.
And then by three months themomentum really starts to build
and by that point my goal when Igive you a 90 day plan is to
say, hey, by then you're goingto be so excited about this.
The sky's the limit.
You can continue recomping forsix to 12 months and really get
a fantastic transformation.
Or you could say, hey, I'mgonna go with.
I now have the confidence andthe courage that I know how to
(25:52):
do this.
I can go step on the gas pedaland go build muscle or go lose
fat in a more aggressive way.
And that's what I like aboutall of this it's teaching you
about yourself and how thisstuff works.
I would say a lot of influencersout there really oversimplify
things.
They oversimplify energybalance and they also
oversimplify body recomp itselfand your body is very
(26:12):
sophisticated.
But if you understand theinputs and outputs and then
what's happening inside biomechanical or biochemically, you
can definitely gain the systema bit to make it work for you.
Energy partitioning, creatingthe right conditions,
reprogramming how your bodyresponds to food and training at
the cellular levels what we aretrying to do.
(26:32):
Your muscles will become moreinsulin sensitive.
Your body's going to morepreferentially burn energy I'll
say fat.
But then we can get into thewhole energy system argument and
I don't want to misrepresentthis.
It's not that you burn more fat, it's that you are shuttling
more nutrients toward musclegrowth and your body has, no, no
(26:55):
choice but to find the energysomewhere else, and it's going
to find that in your fat, right.
So you are actually burning netfat, not just oxidizing fat in
general.
I hope that makes sense.
I did a whole episode about likeburning versus losing fat, but
I don't want to go down therabbit hole right.
And as much as everybodylistening here is like, oh, I
want to do this, I'm going tolook great, I'm going to improve
(27:15):
my physique, that's just a niceside effect.
Like physique development is aside effect you are actually
becoming metabolically healthier, even in a proper body recomp
phase.
Better insulin sensitivitymeans better blood sugar control
.
More muscle mass means betterfunctional capacity.
Improved body comp meansreduced risk for all the chronic
diseases, and so, yes, you canimprove your health this way too
(27:36):
.
And body recomp is theintersection of optimal health
and optimal physique development.
For those who don't want toreally push it, with my goal
being that you're going to learnthat you might want to
eventually push it.
But this is a nice, veryproductive baby step there,
really more than a baby step.
I don't mean to belittle it inany way.
In fact, that's why I'm doing aworkshop tomorrow on it because
it's one of the most commonlyasked things, and I'm not going
(27:59):
to come in tomorrow and say so.
The secret is you can't do it.
No, of course not.
No-transcript.
(28:29):
We want to work with yournatural system to achieve
something that, for a lot ofpeople, seems impossible but is
completely doable getting leanerand stronger at the same time.
So it's not magic, guys.
Body recomp's not magic.
It's not too good to be true.
It's not only for beginners.
It's a legitimate physiologicalprocess that happens when you
create this window of conditionsthrough consistent resistance,
(28:52):
training, adequate proteinintake and patience.
Patience is the biggest successfactor of all.
Well, the other big successfactor, I'm gonna say, is
accountability and support.
We hardly talk about that, butwe should talk about it more,
because that is the number onereason people are most
successful reaching their goalsis they have support.
Again, another thing we havewith the workshop tomorrow and
(29:15):
with Physique U.
The biggest mindset shift,though, is moving away from okay
, this is maintenance.
Right, that's my measure ofsuccess.
That's kind of boring and it'snot going to get you very far,
but if you start tracking whatmatters your strength
progression, your measurements,how you feel, your biofeedback,
all of that then body recompbecomes kind of an enjoyable
(29:35):
gamified engineering system togo after.
It's actually kind of fun, andwhen you figure that out, when
you do that well, you can thenshift the levers in one
direction or another if you wantto go there Because your body
wants to be strong and lean andyou've got to fuel it so we can
(29:55):
do body recomp while fueling andnot gaining too much fat.
That's kind of that sweet spot.
I want to get you in right,because the goal isn't to lose
weight.
It really isn't.
I hope you know that by now, orat least listening to this show
, and if you haven't, I'm gladyou found us, because the goal
is definitely not to lose weight.
The goal is to get a strong,capable, healthy body that feels
and looks good, has muscledefinition, is lean, but you
(30:18):
don't necessarily have to loseweight to do it.
So body recomp is often themost sustainable path to
achieving that goal, and a lotit's mentally sustainable for a
lot of people as well.
So if you want to stop beingfrustrated with whatever you've
tried in the past for recomp orcutting or bulking or dieting,
or maybe you just weren't surewhat to do and you want complete
clarity, a plan for body recomp.
(30:41):
Join me tomorrow for the 90-DayBody Recomp Workshop.
Tuesday, august 19, 12 Eastern.
There will be a replay with allthe stuff.
If you can't make it, you'restill going to get everything.
I'm going to show you myapproach for achieving
simultaneous fat loss and musclegain setting up your nutrition,
training, tracking the mistakes, troubleshooting what to do for
(31:04):
your scenario, and we're goingto have time for Q&A as well.
So it's literally a workshopwhere you're going to be
thinking, hmm, how do I put thisin plan in place for me?
Okay, philip is walking methrough and now let me ask him
my specific questions.
For my scenario, we're going toanswer those in the workshop
and if we can't get toeveryone's questions, we're
going to answer them after theworkshop in the community.
So so it's tomorrow, tuesday, 12Eastern.
(31:25):
It is 27 bucks.
Go to livewitsandweightscom orclick the link in the show notes
.
One of the best values you'reever going to find to get you
clarity and result with yourphysique and health that you'll
ever find $27,livewitsandweightscom or click
the link in the show notes.
I really hope to see you guysthere.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Until next time, keep usingyour wits lifting those weights
(31:46):
and remember when your body compis improving.
The scale is irrelevant.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights Podcast
.
Picture this scenario you step on the scale
for weeks at a time and itreally hasn't changed.
But your clothes are gettinglooser, your muscle definition
is starting to show, you'rehitting PRs in the gym and
according to conventional wisdom, this really shouldn't be
possible.
You have to be in a caloriedeficit to lose fat, right, but
what if I told you you can burnfat and build muscle at the same
(00:22):
time in a process called bodyrecomposition?
Today, you're going to discoverthe specific mechanisms that
allow your body to mobilizestored fat for fuel while
building lean tissue.
Who can achieve this seeminglyimpossible feat?
And it's more people than youthink and why your weight might
be the worst indicator of your.
(00:50):
Welcome to Wits and Weights, theshow that helps you build a
strong, healthy physique usingevidence, engineering and
efficiency.
I'm your host certifiednutrition coach, philip Pape,
and today we're talking aboutone of the most misunderstood
concepts in fitness, and that isbody recomposition.
Body recomp is the process oflosing fat and gaining muscle
(01:10):
simultaneously, often, but notalways, without seeing changes
on the scale, and this conceptusually challenges what a lot of
people believe about energybalance calories in versus
calories out.
Can you do it?
Can you not do it?
Is it going to take forever?
Is it only for beginners?
But when you peel back theonion, the science seems to be
(01:32):
pretty clear, and understandinghow this works can change how
you approach physiquedevelopment.
If you're the type of personwho doesn't always want to or
doesn't feel you need to usebulking and cutting which are
deliberate and more assertive oraggressive muscle building and
fat loss phases, so you might befrustrated by the scale.
(01:53):
Getting a little bit obsessedwith it, you might be afraid of
gaining fat when you gain weight, you might not want to go into
a big calorie deficit.
All of those things areperfectly normal and okay, and
you might be curious about howto optimize your body
composition while just hangingout right Without these
traditional cutting and bulkingphases.
Either way, this episode isgoing to give you the knowledge
(02:15):
to make that happen.
Now, before we get into thosemechanisms which I think are
really important to understand,or else you can't take the right
approach, I want to let youknow about something special
happening tomorrow that isrelevant to this topic.
I'm hosting a 90-day bodyrecomp workshop where I'll walk
through my system, my approachfor transforming your physique
(02:36):
without worrying about cuttingor bulking.
We're going to cover thenutrition setup to optimize this
energy partitioning.
We'll discuss today trainingprotocols or principles that
maximize simultaneous fat lossand muscle gain, as well as a
specific training program.
I actually recommend followingand the tracking methods and
principles to show you that it'sworking, even when your scale
(03:00):
weight doesn't change, or itcould be that your scale weight
is changing a little bit, andwe're going to talk about how to
demystify all of that.
I'm going to share some of themistakes that prevent body
recomp from working and how toavoid them Again.
The workshop is tomorrow,tuesday, at 12 Eastern in
physique university.
It is only $27 to get all ofthat, to get your free nutrition
plan, to get the replay.
(03:21):
If you can't make it, go tolivewitsandweightscom or click
the link in the show notes toregister Again.
Even just for the workshopitself, 27 bucks is an amazing
value.
So check that out,livewitsandweightscom, or click
the link in the show notes, andyou're going to get a 90-day
body recomp plan, three phases,all laid out for you for how to
do this the right way.
(03:45):
All right, let me start bydefining what we are talking
about when we say body recomp,because it sounds obvious, but I
think it gets misapplied andmisdefined a lot.
Body recomp is the simultaneousloss of fat mass and the gain
of muscle mass, resulting inimproved body composition, even
when total body weight remainsunchanged, or it could change.
(04:08):
That's kind of the caveat thatI wanted to add, because body
recomp a lot of people think ofit as just maintaining your
weight and getting the result.
Not necessarily, and we'regonna get into those nuances,
and so this often flies in theface of the conventional wisdom
that you have to be in a caloriedeficit to lose fat.
Most people think of energybalance.
(04:28):
You know, kind of like a bankaccount, calories in calories
out, end of story.
But your body has a lot that'sgoing on inside.
Okay, about the distribution oftissue inside your body, not
just your body mass and not justthe energy, the overall energy,
(04:49):
right?
So then we get into biochemicalmechanisms, right?
Biochemistry is what I meant tosay about reallocating energy
in ways that, at the surface,seem to break the math.
But it's not breaking the math,it's just we're using the wrong
math premise or we're lookingat the wrong type of math when
we talk about it.
So let me explain how thishappens.
At the physiological level, yourbody doesn't just dump the
(05:09):
incoming calories into a singlepool and randomly allocate them
right.
It is actively deciding whereyour energy goes, based on some
key signals, some key inputs,and the most important of these
by far is the training stimulusfrom resistance exercise, from
strength training.
And if you're not doing that ordon't want to do that, I'm
(05:32):
sorry.
You are not going to achievebody recomp.
You're also not going toachieve fat loss If you're
taking GLP-1 drugs.
You're not going to get fatloss.
You're going to lose a bunch ofweight and lose a bunch of
muscle.
All those scenarios requiretraining from resistance
exercise.
So when you lift weights, youcreate a demand signal for
muscle protein synthesis.
You're telling your body muscleand protein are important to
(05:53):
have.
Your body prioritizes sendingamino acids and energy toward
repairing and building yourmuscle tissue.
At the same time, if you'reeating adequate protein but
you're not in a large caloriesurplus, your body still needs
some energy to meet its overallneeds and it's going to.
At the same time, it's devotingsome of that protein toward
(06:14):
muscle.
It's going to mobilize storedfat to meet the energy needs.
So this is what I mean byenergy partitioning.
I want you to think of it aslike your body's resource
allocation system becoming moreefficient.
So, instead of defaulting tojust storing fat which is the
vast majority of the populationbecause you're resistance
training and eating protein,you're going to preferentially
(06:37):
fuel muscle growth and you'regoing to use fat stores for
energy.
Again, it's going to depend onthe overall energy balance as
well, but this is just the basicexplanation.
The second mechanism here isimproved insulin sensitivity.
Resistance trainingdramatically improves how well
your muscle tissue responds toinsulin, and that means the
(06:58):
carbs that you eat are much morelikely to go toward refilling
your muscle glycogen rather thanbeing converted to fat, because
your muscles are this metabolic, this glucose sink, as you've
heard, and it's pulling thosenutrients away from fat storage.
It's a beautiful thing.
So when you're in a true bodyrecomp state, you're running two
(07:19):
different processes at the sametime.
Right Now, your body's runningthese things all the time anyway
, but you're trying to balancethem out, just so.
Muscle protein synthesis ishappening at an accelerated rate
because you're training,because you're eating enough
protein and you're not in muchof a deficit.
And I say it that way becauseyou could be in a tiny deficit,
you could not be in a deficit atall, or you could be even in a
(07:41):
modest deficit which, for anewer lifter, could still allow
you to build muscle.
At the same time, your body ismobilizing fat stores, using
what's called lipolysis toprovide energy for the process.
Again, if you're in that window,right, if you're in that window
like, you don't like.
If we think of the otherdirection, if you're in too much
of a surplus, you just don'tneed.
(08:03):
What am I trying to say?
You are intaking so much foodthat, no matter what your body
does, even though it's burningfat, it's not going to burn all
the fat and therefore you'regoing to gain fat, right.
So we have to be in this window, this kind of slight deficit to
slight surplus plus window,which is why I mean you don't
necessarily have to be at truemaintenance for this to happen.
(08:25):
Now, muscle tissue requiresrelatively few net calories to
build right.
We're talking like 200 to 300calories a day for active muscle
growth, because it can't buildthat quickly.
Even if you're new.
It's going to be faster than ifyou're a more advanced trainee,
but it's still not anywherenear as fast as the rate that
you could lose fat.
So if you're eating atmaintenance, your body can
(08:46):
easily draw energy from storedfat.
For that slight bit of caloriesit needs to build muscle.
So it's kind of taking from oneand give it to the other.
It's like the Robin Hood thatyou want in your body right,
robbing from the fat, the richfat stores, to give it to the
poor muscle stores.
You build a muscle right, andguess what?
(09:06):
This gets even easier if youhave a little extra fat to begin
with.
So I always say, like, thepositive framing on being
someone who has extra weight tolose is that that extra body fat
on your body is an energysource when you start lifting
weights.
It's kind of a cool thing.
So this is why the scale canstay exactly the same or it
could even go up slightly whileyou're losing fat and gaining
(09:28):
muscle.
It could even go down slightly.
I've spoken about thesedifferent forms of body recomp
in the past and I tend to bebiased more toward maintaining
or building rather than losing.
But you can definitely achieveit in all of those scenarios and
you're essentially trading thedense fat tissue for denser
muscle tissue as you do that,and that's why the math gets a
(09:49):
little wonky.
So you might be thinking, okay,so who could actually do this?
Because that is the bigquestion that gets asked and
often answered by fitnessinfluencers in a very simplified
way.
So not everyone can achievewhat I'll say is dramatic body
recomp, but everybody canachieve some body recomp.
So if we understand the bucketsof people here and criteria,
(10:12):
then you can set realisticexpectations.
So let's start with beginners,newbies, people who are highly
detrained I kind of put them alltogether but we'll separate
them.
For now.
We'll start with beginners.
You never lifted before.
If you're a beginner, you haveamong, if not the highest
potential for body recomp,because if you're new to
resistance training, your bodyhas this huge adaptive capacity.
(10:33):
The neuromuscular adaptationsalone can drive these huge
strength gains right.
You can double, triple,quadruple your strength very
quickly in just a few months,while your muscles then also
start to grow to support thatincreasing strength.
And your body hasn't adapted tothe training stress yet because
you have a lot of potential.
So it responds aggressively towhatever calories you give it
(10:57):
right, and we're going to comeback to that.
This is why I'm not a huge fanof being in a deficit for recomp
or even just at maintenance.
I like it to be a little bitmore aggressive than that.
But anyway, hey, this is Philipand before we continue.
I want to talk about cookware.
We all love to make our ownfood.
I love nonstick pans.
The problem is I've avoidedthem for years because when they
get scratched, when they getheated, they can release.
(11:19):
The problem is I've avoidedthem for years because when they
get scratched, when they getheated, they can release
microplastics, pfas smallparticles that can accumulate
over time in the body and somestudies have shown them to be
linked to health issues.
If you're optimizing yournutrition and making lots of
food for you and your family athome, it doesn't make sense to
compromise that withquestionable cookware.
So that's why I was interestedwhen Chef's Foundry who is
(11:40):
sponsoring this episode showedme their ceramic cookware.
It's called the P600 and usesSwiss-engineered ceramic coating
which has no Teflon, no PFAS,no plastic components.
It is nonstick, it works on allstovetops, it goes straight
into the oven All the things youneed if you're trying to cook a
lot of your meals at home.
Right now you can get the P600at 50% off by going to
(12:03):
witsandweightscom slashchefsfoundry.
You'll also get a bunch ofaccessories with that.
There's a whole page thatexplains what you'll get for
that discounted 50% off.
Go to witsandweightscom slashchefsfoundry or click the link
in the show notes.
All right, let's get back tothe show.
(12:27):
The second subcategory of thisfirst category is detrained
individuals.
They also probably almost asgood as beginners, if not a
slight advantage because of howthe body springs back has a
sense of muscle memory becauseof how you've trained in the
past.
So if you used to lift weightsand then took a decent amount of
time off, this I'll just callit muscle memory.
It's kind of a colloquial termbut effectively your, your
muscle fibers are going toregain the size that they've
(12:49):
previously been programmed to becapable of.
Right, it's just going to,they're going to balloon right
back to that size very quicklywhile your body again is needing
that energy.
So it's going to burn throughfat that that you have on your
body.
And if I've had clients who theideal person for this was
somebody who had extra fat.
So let's say a guy who wouldnormally walk around at 190,
slightly muscular, he detrainedand he gained a bunch of fat and
(13:12):
he's weighing 230, now 240.
That guy can eat a bunch offood, start training and walking
and everybody around him isgoing to be jealous because he's
going to start losing that fatand gaining that muscle at the
same time, while losing weighton the scale at a good clip and
his metabolism going up.
So, honestly, a detrainedperson is rife for this.
Now, what about people who areoverweight or of an obese weight
(13:35):
?
Right, I would say that thosepeople also have a huge
advantage that I've alreadyalluded to.
They're gonna see excellentbody comp results because you
have significant fat stores.
So look at that as a positive.
What can I say?
Yes, your health is at risk.
Yes, you need to bring that fatdown, but you can also take
advantage of that situationbecause your body has plenty of
stored energy to draw from, tothe point where your body
(13:59):
perceives this as not even adeficit when you go into one, as
long as it's not too big, right.
And that's the example whereactually losing weight slowly
can work, but it tends to happenover time even so, because of
the amount of fat to lose.
So when we talk about our90-day plan tomorrow in the
workshop, it's going to apply toanybody, but the amount that
(14:19):
you achieve in 90 days is goingto depend on your starting point
, and your starting point isalso going to inform how
aggressive you want that to be.
We're going to talk about thatand give you all those scenarios
so you can customize it.
But the larger your fat storesto begin with, the more readily
your body can mobilize that fatfor fuel, because it's there.
Why not?
Let's talk about older adults,because that's a massive part of
(14:41):
the population listening tothis show and in Physique
University.
And that's what I considermyself.
I guess I'm 44, but I feel likeI'm getting younger every year.
That's the point.
But older adults can absolutelyachieve body recomp as well.
It's typically a little slower,like everything else.
Recovery is a little bit less.
There's a little bit moreanabolic resistance, where your
muscles don't respond as readilyto the protein.
(15:02):
You should probably be eatingmore protein, but it doesn't
mean you train more.
That's the only thing.
You can't change much becausethat could actually backfire.
If you have the rightprogramming, if you have high
protein intake, you know, andyou're managing your fatigue and
your recovery, then yes, again,body recomp is totally possible
.
And a lot of these categoriesoverlap, right?
People are overweight, peopleare detrained, people are older,
(15:22):
these can all overlap.
And then we have finally theadvanced lifters intermediate,
late intermediate to advancedlifters.
I would say they have thelowest potential for body recomp
.
But again, it's not impossible.
It's just a matter of degrees.
If you've been trainingconsistently for years, your
body's already adapted totraining more than a newer
lifter and you're probably goingto benefit from being more
(15:43):
aggressive.
And the extreme of beingaggressive, of course, is
cutting and bulking.
But since we're talking aboutbody recomp, it just means
pushing the needle a little bitmore in one direction, in my
opinion, toward the higherbuilding and gaining direction,
to be honest.
But there is a case to be madefor the other direction as well.
So achieving body recomp, youknow it's like, it's not
(16:07):
automatic.
That's one of the things I wantyou to take away here, in that
we're going to talk about how ithappens.
But you can't just stay atmaintenance and it happens,
right.
You have to have these, youhave to have specific conditions
that are met, and thoseconditions are the things we're
going to cover tomorrow in theworkshop, because there are it's
like if, then statements, it'slike, if this do this, if this
(16:27):
do that, right, and it's a lot.
It's a lot to cover in oneepisode and I honestly want to
give it to you know, the clientswho are really going to
implement the information, and Iwant you to implement it.
I don't want you to just bingethis show out for a walk and
you're done and you move on.
I want you to implement it, soI'm going to show you.
Okay, how should we train?
Should we go toward building ortoward losing, to stay in that
window?
(16:48):
What do macros look like?
What does timing look like?
What do we track Specifically?
What and how often do we track,and how do we do it in a simple
, achievable way, in addition toscale weight and food, because
you're going to track thoseanyway, but the scale weight's
going to become less important.
So what should we pay attentionto?
And then, what kind of mistakesare people making?
So this is tomorrow, tuesday,noon Eastern, only $27.
(17:10):
You get the replay.
You get the custom nutritionplan for free that I put
together for you and, by the way, that nutrition plan could be a
fat loss plan that you want touse later and then, in the short
term, you can do the bodyrecomp that we're going to talk
about.
Go to livewitsandweightscom orclick the link in the show notes
.
Again, that'slivewitsandweightscom.
Sign up for the workshop.
(17:30):
If you're already in Physique U, you get it included.
Hope to see you at noon Eastern.
Continuing on here, though, asfar as conditions, we've
mentioned the biggest one of all, and that is a strong muscle
building stimulus, and thatmeans progressive overload with
a foundational set of movementslike compound movements, with
(17:53):
some extra volume in there,depending on your training age
and your goals.
Okay, we're going to talk againin the workshop, we'll get into
details on that, and I'm goingto give you an exact training
template that I recommend.
That's going to give youmassive growth, surprising level
of growth.
You'll see, we're going to talkabout it in there.
Okay, but you need enoughvolume, you need enough recovery
(18:13):
.
The nice thing about bodyrecomp is, if you listen to what
I'm suggesting and bias towardgrowth rather than toward a
deficit, you're going to be in abetter position to make all
that progress and not befrustrated and really challenge
yourself and get that, thoseadaptations but then also not
worry about gaining fat, which Iknow a lot of you are scared of
, scared of right.
(18:34):
And then we have our proteinintake.
You know we're not going to getinto macros here, that's
actually pretty simple.
I talk about it a lot, butwe're going to talk about that.
And, of course, your calorieintake.
This is where it gets a littletricky because are you?
Are you aiming for maintenance?
Are you aiming to push yourmaintenance?
Are you aiming to be in adeficit?
And then, when you do one ofthose three things, what is your
body going to do in response?
(18:55):
And how do you keep up withthat, knowing that the amount of
change is so small?
It's it.
You've got to be very precisein seeing how that tracks right
and how you do that.
So my point is here you justhave to be on top of things, and
that's why body recomp isn'tjust something that happens just
because you stay at maintenance, because the last thing you
(19:17):
want to do is be togglingbetween a surplus and a deficit
and never quite being in onespot.
And then, of course, sleep andstress management all of that
that are always important thatalways supports your hormones
are going to just be just asimportant, of course, when
you're going for body recomp.
So let's talk about the trackingside of this, okay, because
(19:37):
this is where people getfrustrated and give up.
They're using the wrong metrics, or they're not patient enough,
or they're changing too manythings at once, or all the above
, all right.
Let's start with scale weight.
So scale weight is bothvirtually useless for tracking
body recomp, and also completelyessential, and I'll tell you
(19:59):
what I mean From the uselessside.
Okay, seeing the scale stay thesame or go up or go down is not
going to tell you whetherrecomp is working.
It's just going to tell youthat you've kept your energy
balance in a certain range tokeep you at that scale weight.
That's the useless side, right,because if you're gaining this
dense muscle tissue and losingthe less dense fat tissue, you
(20:22):
could gain, stay the same orlose and not quite be sure what
happened, unless you're trackingother things to show you what
happened.
So that's the useless.
Where it's essential, though,is you still want to know what
your body weight is doing,because that's going to allow
you then back into the body fatand muscle distribution.
It is one of several metricsthat go together as a system.
(20:46):
So that's scale weight.
Body fat is the next one, andthis one's big right, and you've
probably heard me say thatthere is no way to measure body
fat accurately, and that is true, but there is a very good way
to measure the change in bodyfat over time, and you don't
have to use DEXA, you don't evenhave to use an in-body.
We could do it very simply withsimple circumference
(21:07):
measurements, correlated withthings like photos, how your
clothes fit and such.
And even then you still have toindividualize.
You have to understand well foryou what should we expect to
change?
Because you may carry fat in adifferent spot than someone else
.
You know, a menopausal womanmight be carrying a lot more in
her belly and it doesn't comeoff as fast from there but it
(21:27):
comes off in other places.
Maybe waist size isn't the mostreliable.
There are ratios that we canuse that will make it a little
bit more reliable, correlatedwith the other stuff.
The other stuff like photos,okay, and strength progression
and how your clothes fit.
So I'll say circumferencemeasurements do tell a pretty
honest story.
You know waist, arm, chest,neck, thigh measurements when
(21:50):
we're looking at body recomp,but it's, how do you interpret
those?
Then we have strengthprogression, another huge
variable, another huge condition.
Of course you should betraining consistently, and this
is again why I like to be in aslight surplus for body recomp
and slight I mean very, veryslight, okay, just because you
(22:10):
want to be fully resourced forthat strength and for that
muscle building.
If you are progressing, that isa great sign.
No matter what it's a greatsign.
The more of a deficit you're in, the more under fueled you are,
the harder it is to progress.
So the more you're able toeasily progress and feel
energized and less sore andrecovered and and more recovered
, the more you know, just fromthat alone, that you're on the
(22:31):
right track.
You're getting stronger, you'remaintaining or improving your
body composition as expressed inthe gym.
And then I mentioned things likeclothes.
I mean, it's such a simplething but honestly, it's the
biggest mind shift that peoplehave, where the scale doesn't
move or it even goes up a little, but their clothes are looser
(22:52):
and they're like this is just soweird, right, but it's an
important indicator that thisthing is working.
So you've got all that.
And then the other thing Imentioned is patience and
expectations, because bodyrecomp is, by definition, going
to be slower than a focusedcutting or bulking phase.
Now, I say by definition, whatI mean is the end result.
So if you want to reduce yourbody fat percentage and increase
(23:16):
your lean mass, almost alwaysit's going to be more efficient
to do separate cutting andbulking phases.
But for those who don't want todo them, don't want to recomp
over a long period, they want todo kind of a short-term result,
without dealing with extra fatgain or going on a deficit and
all of the challenges that comealong with those.
(23:38):
Body recomp is a great middleground.
It really is.
It's a great compromise, it's agood tradeoff.
So in a cut you might lose,let's say, a pound a week or
even two pounds a week,depending on where you're
starting from.
But of course you have to be ina deficit and you have to be
doing all those things right.
You have to do the dietingpiece of it and body recomp.
However, you might lose, let'ssay, a quarter pound a week of
(24:02):
fat, but be gaining, let's say0.1 or 0.2 pounds of muscle,
right, or something like that.
In other words, it's going tobe a similar ratio, I would say
as being in a surplus, but it'sgoing to be on the top end of
that ratio, biased toward muscle.
So I just told you the wrongnumbers.
(24:22):
I should have flipped it around.
I should have said like 0.3,0.4 pounds of muscle versus like
0.1 pounds of fat, 0.2 poundsof fat, in other words, more
than two to one ratio of muscleto fat.
But their numbers are small,right, and in this case the
scale might drift or might staythe same, and I say it that way
because it depends on howprecise you are and how
(24:44):
responsive your body is to thedifferent changes in tissue.
Okay, that's why we can'tcompletely rely on the scale,
but we definitely know if thescale is going up too fast or
going down too fast, then that'san overcorrection and that
gives us information as well.
So over several months, over thethree-month period we're
talking about in the workshoptomorrow, you're going to get a
(25:04):
good physique improvement.
If you do this right Inrealistic expectation terms, you
are Versus a good physiqueimprovement.
If you do this right Inrealistic expectation terms, you
are Versus people who do crashdiets.
They lose a bunch of muscle,they get really gaunt and weak.
Then they binge it all back.
They're back where they startedwith more body fat.
To me that's not body recompright.
So most people are going tovisually see noticeable changes
at about the six to eight weekpart mark, if they're consistent
(25:27):
with their training andnutrition.
And then by three months themomentum really starts to build
and by that point my goal when Igive you a 90 day plan is to
say, hey, by then you're goingto be so excited about this.
The sky's the limit.
You can continue recomping forsix to 12 months and really get
a fantastic transformation.
Or you could say, hey, I'mgonna go with.
I now have the confidence andthe courage that I know how to
(25:52):
do this.
I can go step on the gas pedaland go build muscle or go lose
fat in a more aggressive way.
And that's what I like aboutall of this it's teaching you
about yourself and how thisstuff works.
I would say a lot of influencersout there really oversimplify
things.
They oversimplify energybalance and they also
oversimplify body recomp itselfand your body is very
(26:12):
sophisticated.
But if you understand theinputs and outputs and then
what's happening inside biomechanical or biochemically, you
can definitely gain the systema bit to make it work for you.
Energy partitioning, creatingthe right conditions,
reprogramming how your bodyresponds to food and training at
the cellular levels what we aretrying to do.
(26:32):
Your muscles will become moreinsulin sensitive.
Your body's going to morepreferentially burn energy I'll
say fat.
But then we can get into thewhole energy system argument and
I don't want to misrepresentthis.
It's not that you burn more fat, it's that you are shuttling
more nutrients toward musclegrowth and your body has, no, no
(26:55):
choice but to find the energysomewhere else, and it's going
to find that in your fat, right.
So you are actually burning netfat, not just oxidizing fat in
general.
I hope that makes sense.
I did a whole episode about likeburning versus losing fat, but
I don't want to go down therabbit hole right.
And as much as everybodylistening here is like, oh, I
want to do this, I'm going tolook great, I'm going to improve
(27:15):
my physique, that's just a niceside effect.
Like physique development is aside effect you are actually
becoming metabolically healthier, even in a proper body recomp
phase.
Better insulin sensitivitymeans better blood sugar control
.
More muscle mass means betterfunctional capacity.
Improved body comp meansreduced risk for all the chronic
diseases, and so, yes, you canimprove your health this way too
(27:36):
.
And body recomp is theintersection of optimal health
and optimal physique development.
For those who don't want toreally push it, with my goal
being that you're going to learnthat you might want to
eventually push it.
But this is a nice, veryproductive baby step there,
really more than a baby step.
I don't mean to belittle it inany way.
In fact, that's why I'm doing aworkshop tomorrow on it because
it's one of the most commonlyasked things, and I'm not going
(27:59):
to come in tomorrow and say so.
The secret is you can't do it.
No, of course not.
No-transcript.
(28:29):
We want to work with yournatural system to achieve
something that, for a lot ofpeople, seems impossible but is
completely doable getting leanerand stronger at the same time.
So it's not magic, guys.
Body recomp's not magic.
It's not too good to be true.
It's not only for beginners.
It's a legitimate physiologicalprocess that happens when you
create this window of conditionsthrough consistent resistance,
(28:52):
training, adequate proteinintake and patience.
Patience is the biggest successfactor of all.
Well, the other big successfactor, I'm gonna say, is
accountability and support.
We hardly talk about that, butwe should talk about it more,
because that is the number onereason people are most
successful reaching their goalsis they have support.
Again, another thing we havewith the workshop tomorrow and
(29:15):
with Physique U.
The biggest mindset shift,though, is moving away from okay
, this is maintenance.
Right, that's my measure ofsuccess.
That's kind of boring and it'snot going to get you very far,
but if you start tracking whatmatters your strength
progression, your measurements,how you feel, your biofeedback,
all of that then body recompbecomes kind of an enjoyable
(29:35):
gamified engineering system togo after.
It's actually kind of fun, andwhen you figure that out, when
you do that well, you can thenshift the levers in one
direction or another if you wantto go there Because your body
wants to be strong and lean andyou've got to fuel it so we can
(29:55):
do body recomp while fueling andnot gaining too much fat.
That's kind of that sweet spot.
I want to get you in right,because the goal isn't to lose
weight.
It really isn't.
I hope you know that by now, orat least listening to this show
, and if you haven't, I'm gladyou found us, because the goal
is definitely not to lose weight.
The goal is to get a strong,capable, healthy body that feels
and looks good, has muscledefinition, is lean, but you
(30:18):
don't necessarily have to loseweight to do it.
So body recomp is often themost sustainable path to
achieving that goal, and a lotit's mentally sustainable for a
lot of people as well.
So if you want to stop beingfrustrated with whatever you've
tried in the past for recomp orcutting or bulking or dieting,
or maybe you just weren't surewhat to do and you want complete
clarity, a plan for body recomp.
(30:41):
Join me tomorrow for the 90-DayBody Recomp Workshop.
Tuesday, august 19, 12 Eastern.
There will be a replay with allthe stuff.
If you can't make it, you'restill going to get everything.
I'm going to show you myapproach for achieving
simultaneous fat loss and musclegain setting up your nutrition,
training, tracking the mistakes, troubleshooting what to do for
(31:04):
your scenario, and we're goingto have time for Q&A as well.
So it's literally a workshopwhere you're going to be
thinking, hmm, how do I put thisin plan in place for me?
Okay, philip is walking methrough and now let me ask him
my specific questions.
For my scenario, we're going toanswer those in the workshop
and if we can't get toeveryone's questions, we're
going to answer them after theworkshop in the community.
So so it's tomorrow, tuesday, 12Eastern.
(31:25):
It is 27 bucks.
Go to livewitsandweightscom orclick the link in the show notes
.
One of the best values you'reever going to find to get you
clarity and result with yourphysique and health that you'll
ever find $27,livewitsandweightscom or click
the link in the show notes.
I really hope to see you guysthere.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
Until next time, keep usingyour wits lifting those weights
(31:46):
and remember when your body compis improving.
The scale is irrelevant.
I'll talk to you next time hereon the Wits and Weights Podcast
.
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