September 1, 2025 • 28 mins
Join Physique University to get a personalized nutrition plan to look and feel better and stop guessing about your calorie needs: bit.ly/wwpu-free-plan
--
Why do some people thrive on far fewer calories than others (who might be miserable eating at that level)?
When we talk about whether 800 calories a day is "unsafe," we're asking the wrong question. After all, your size, training, activity level, and energy needs are unique to you and can vary widely among the population.
Learn why there's no universal unsafe calorie number, how to determine your own metabolic limits using biofeedback, and the critical trade-offs between aggressive deficits and sustainability.
Main Takeaways:
- There's no universal "unsafe" calorie number
- Metabolic adaptation is real but reversible, not permanent "damage"
- Use biofeedback (energy, sleep, strength, mood) as your personalized guide rather than arbitrary rules
- The trade-offs between speed, sustainability, and metabolic preservation require intentionality
Episode Resources:
- Wits & Weights Facebook Community - Connect with others who understand nutrition isn't about universal rules
Timestamps:
0:50 - The obsession with 800, 1200, and 1500 calories
5:18 - The reality of individual energy needs
8:50 - Very low-calorie diets (VLCDs) in clinical settings
10:30 - The Optavia problem
16:14 - Metabolic adaptation vs "metabolic damage"
19:28 - Speed vs. sustainability vs. metabolism
20:44 - Using biofeedback as your personalized compass
24:23 - The non-negotiables
25:29 - Context vs. absolutes
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👥 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):
Is 800 calories a day unsafe?
The answer might surprise youbecause it depends entirely on
who we're talking about.
A 105-pound woman has vastlydifferent energy needs than a
300-pound man, yet programs likeOptivia push 800-calorie diets
on everyone.
Today, we are going to cutthrough the confusion around
(00:22):
very low-calorie diets.
You'll learn why there's nouniversal unsafe calorie number,
how to determine your ownmetabolic limits using
biofeedback and data, and thecritical trade-offs between
aggressive deficits andsustainability.
(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 going to tackle oneof those highly debated
questions in fitness Is 800calories a day unsafe?
And I picked 800 on purpose,because sometimes people say
1200 or 1500, and we're going toget into these nuances.
But I picked a really lownumber because the question
(01:13):
comes up all the time.
Given our cultural obsessionwith magic numbers, with
universal thresholds and setpoints, we act like 800 or 1200
calories is the universal floorfor women and 1500 for men and
that anything below that foreverybody is automatically
dangerous.
But the reality is, as always,more nuanced than any arbitrary
(01:38):
threshold and it depends oncontext, constraints and
individuality, and I love thefitness industry and I say that
sarcastically.
You know Instagram.
They love to exploit confusion,confusion across the board.
Companies, weight loss programsthey market things that are
ridiculously extreme, to behonest, and they do so via fear.
(02:00):
They spread fear about thingslike metabolic damage.
We still hear that term.
Your metabolism is broken ordamaged, not a thing.
And then you are left wonderingif that lower calorie target is
going to help you reach yourgoals faster or it's going to
sabotage your metabolism.
Why can this program do this?
But then this influencer overhere says that's way too low,
(02:20):
and I made this episode becauseone of our Physique University
members actually asked thequestion said like I've heard
that X number of calories is toolow.
Is that true?
And I wanted to address thisbecause it's a very relevant
topic.
There is a rise in rapid weightloss and, yes, rapid fat loss
too, but sometimes they getinterchanged incorrectly.
(02:42):
We know about Optivia, which hasbeen around a long time, and I
have clients that constantlycome to me saying, yeah, I tried
Optivia in the past.
It was miserable.
I was down 800 calories and youweren't supposed to exercise
and it was just arbitrary,regardless of your size, your
activity level, your metabolicneeds, not even the very basic
quote, unquote personalization.
And then we're also seeing moreresearch on physician
(03:03):
supervised very low caloriediets for obesity.
And then we're also seeing moreresearch on
physician-supervised verylow-calorie diets for obesity.
And we're seeing, with weightloss medications, very
low-calorie diets, intentionalor not.
We're seeing research ondiabetes reversal, pre-diabetes.
And that adds all thiscomplexity to the discussion
where you're like, well, what'sthe thing that I'm supposed to
go with?
And, by the way, it's actuallyquite simple.
(03:23):
What's hard is implementing itfor you.
We're going to get into that.
But before we get into thespecifics, I do want to share
something that Julia fromPhysique University recently
told me.
She said quote I joined WWPUand finished the onboarding
today.
I'm glad I'm here.
Before I thought it's just moreinformation and better
(03:44):
organized as is possible to soakup in the podcast, but I
started to feel that thecommunity and support are really
the resources which willfinally move the needle for me.
Now this, I'll say, perfectlycaptures things that obviously
I'm not marketing as well myself, and that is that it's not just
about the information, it's howwe implement it right.
(04:05):
Individualized approachesmatter so, so much.
And Julia realized shortly afterjoining.
Because, again, apparently theway I market it isn't good
enough to show you this thatgeneric information, even if
it's helpful, even if it'sevidence-based, like we talk
about on the show, is not enough.
She needed personalizedguidance to find what worked for
(04:26):
her unique situation.
So if you're ready to do that,let's say you've been listening
to the podcast for a while andyou want to stop guessing about
all these things, includingcalorie needs.
But that's just scratching thesurface.
You really are looking for asystem designed specifically for
your body, for your goals, foryour constraints, for your
preferences, right?
These are all important things.
(04:46):
Physique U is where we makethat happen, where we help you
determine your metabolic needs,your hormonal situation, your
training situation, and create asustainable plan that preserves
muscle while achieving yourphysique goals.
You can learn more about thatat the special link in the show
notes, because only that link isgoing to give you a free
nutrition plan that I will buildfor you, because you're a
(05:09):
podcast listener and I love togive stuff away.
So go to the special link inthe show notes to join Physique
U, get the free plan and we'llsee you in there.
All right, let's talk about whythis question about calorie
levels and whether 800 caloriesor 1200 or whatever is unsafe,
even matters, right, it comesdown to fitness culture.
(05:29):
We're obsessed with magicsolutions, formulas, the one
best fit answer, right?
The one thing you know.
You've probably heard againthat women should never go below
1200 calories or 1,500 calories, and these often get thrown
around as if they're universallaws of physics, but they're
completely arbitrary.
Here's the reality.
(05:50):
Okay, let's get into numbers.
A sedentary 105 pound woman Okayand I've worked with some
clients that are in that rangemight only burn 1,200 calories
per day at rest.
That is her total metabolism,not even RMR or BMR.
We're talking about her totaldaily energy expenditure.
You add in, you know, even moreneat walking movement on top of
(06:13):
that.
Maybe she pushes it up to 1500.
She had some muscle mass, right, she does all the healthy
lifestyle things and she's stillburning 1500 calories.
So for her, at 15 or 1600calories, even eating 1200
calories is just a very moderatedeficit, like 25% deficit.
Right, it's small, it's notgoing to even feel like
(06:33):
starvation.
I mean, I've worked with theseclients before and I've had them
on the show before, in fact,where they'll say you know what?
This is what my body needs itfeels okay.
And so if you're 105 pounds andyou burn, you know, between 12
and 1600 calories, then eating athousand calories may be
totally reasonable for yourdeficit.
Now eating 800, even at thatlevel tends to be pushing it for
(06:55):
most people.
It doesn't mean it's unsafe.
It depends on the deficit andhow long you go, and the reason
I wanted to start with thatquestion for this episode is to
suggest that there really is nogood answer to that.
I would say unsafe is relativeto how aggressive your deficit
is, how long it is and how it isaffecting you right Now.
Compare that to.
(07:15):
On the other extreme, we havepeople that are 300 pound plus,
who might be burning 3,000calories at rest.
A male, for example, who burns3000 calories is not uncommon at
all.
Somebody who lifts weights infact doesn't have to be 300
pounds, it could be 225, 250burning that much.
So for him, 800 calories, likeactually an actual intake of 800
(07:36):
, would represent a massive,ridiculous, extreme.
Yes, unsafe deficit.
It would be like 70, 75%, okay,and that would be extremely
difficult to sustain outside ofclinical supervision.
And having said that, Irecently onboarded a client who
weighs about 250 and he had doneOptivia at 800 calories and
(07:58):
told me how miserable that was.
And it's not like he died,right Like.
When we say unsafe, we also haveto qualify and define what we
mean by the word unsafe.
To me, unsafe is more about thetotality of the context, right
Like if we're driving.
If you said, is driving 65miles an hour unsafe?
Well, it depends on the roadconditions, the weather, your
car, the driving experience.
65 miles an hour in a schoolzone is extremely unsafe, but on
(08:30):
the Autobahn you're probablygoing to get honked at for going
too slow, right?
So same thing applies tocalories.
In that the context reallymatters.
In fact, 800 calories is notfar from where a lot of people
might hit when doing a rapid fatloss phase for two weeks with
protein modified fast.
Right, and it wouldn't beunsafe in that context.
It'd be highly controlled,highly structured, exactly what
they're intending to do.
That's why I think it'simportant not to blanket
statement anything.
So when we talk about very lowcalorie diets and defining our
(08:55):
terms, there's actually a termVLCD very, very low calories per
day, I think.
Or very low calorie diets,right, vlcds.
And they are actually definedas 800 calories a day or less.
But these are not likelifestyle diets.
These aren't rapid fat lossphases.
They are clinical interventions, typically under medical
supervision, for people who havesevere obesity or diabetes, and
(09:19):
there's actually a lot ofrobust research on properly
supervised, very low carb dietsor low calorie diets, not carb
Icalorie diets.
When you look at those studies,we see rapid weight loss of
about three to five pounds aweek and a lot of the blood
markers improve.
Blood sugar, blood pressure,lipid profiles make sense
because we know that there's ahigh correlation with reducing
(09:41):
excess body fat.
Notice that what I said in thisthese are properly supervised,
clinical, very low carb, verylow calorie diets, have somebody
monitoring.
They have high quality proteinwhich is gonna preserve your
lean mass.
They have vitamin and mineralsupplementation, regular
checkups with the medicalprovider, and they're temporary
(10:02):
no more than, say, 12 to 16weeks, which to me is actually
quite a long time for 800calories.
If you weren't in a medicalsituation, at most you might do
it for two or three weeks andthen they transition back to
higher calories.
So either way, you'rerecovering afterward, which
again doesn't mean it's unsafe.
No, for these people it'sactually what they need to
survive and live a thriving lifeagain and have healthy blood
markers so they don't die.
(10:23):
That's the opposite of unsafe.
Now life again and have healthyblood markers, so they don't
die.
That's the opposite of unsafe.
Now do they have to do it thatway?
I don't know.
That's a whole differentconversation.
I think the problem comes whenthe commercial, highly marketed
weight loss programs take anumber like that and then they
give you the food Optivia,anyone.
They give you processed barsand shakes, they send it to your
(10:44):
door, they tell you not toexercise and then they send you
away for months at a time andlike good luck.
Well, we know how that ends.
That ends with crash and burnand even if you lose the weight,
you're going to gain it allback because you don't know how
to sustain that right.
And I'm sorry to pick onOptivea specifically, but it
comes up time and time and timeagain Cl and time and time again
(11:06):
, clients and students every daywho I talk to have tried this
in the past and I wish I had metthem before they tried it.
But hey, it's a good learningexperience, if nothing else.
Right, it puts everyone on areally low, sub-thousand calorie
diet using pre-packaged foods.
That's gross, I mean, I thinkthat's gross.
I don't want to live that way.
You know what I did slim fast along time ago when I was like 20
for maybe two months, hated it.
(11:28):
It was miserable.
Every time I knew I was goingto have lunch I'm like, what am
I doing?
I think I actually eventuallysnuck Chinese food with my slim
fast, thinking that well, I'mstill having the slim fast.
Like, seriously, I think that'swhat I did because I was so
craving more food and obviously,okay, look, there's a lot of
problems with this approach.
It's not like I'm telling yousomething that is surprise, but
(11:51):
the big one is the one size fitsall calorie target, regardless
of body size, activity level,metabolic rate.
And it ties to this topicbecause people will say the 1200
, the 1500 calories, the lessthan 2000 calories, whatever is,
quote, unquote this or that foreverybody.
You just can't make statementslike that.
Again, 120 pounds versus 200pounds, sedentary person versus
(12:12):
active person, somebody liftingweights with lots of muscles,
somebody who's who's sedentary,right, big differences.
So that's the big one.
The second one is that for theprograms that push these things,
sometimes the macros are allscrewed up or the protein is low
and I know there's a wholemovement toward you know protein
is dangerous or like stopprotein maxing or proteins
(12:34):
crowding out all this otherstuff.
Folks, we do not get enoughprotein on average in this
country or in the world ingeneral.
Most people are far deficientjust getting enough protein.
We're not talking about 300grams a day of protein.
We're talking 0.7 to 1 gram perpound of your body weight.
So if you're 150 pounds, that'sno more than 150 grams of
protein.
It's not a massive amount ofprotein.
And if you do it as apercentage of your diet, it's
(12:56):
also not massive.
It's like 15, 20%, right, it'snot that high.
So if you're on an aggressivedeficit, you have to have high
protein by default.
So as soon as you lose theconnection between those two,
you're going to have problems.
And then the other thing here isthat something like Optivia
discourages exercise.
I don't understand that and I'mnot going to waste my time
reading the Optivia and theManjaro and the Terzepatide or
(13:26):
Wegovi and all that, wherepeople are giving these things
or maybe they get themthemselves without any guidance
on lifestyle, and they're notlifting weights and they lose
muscle as a result, right, notbecause of the drugs, but
because of the aggressivedeficits, the low protein and
all of that, and it leads toworse body composition outcomes,
which is not what we're tryingto do right Now.
The programs that give youfoods that are prepackaged I
(13:48):
mean just that's a wholeseparate issue as well.
You know, being dependent onthese, it's really quite the
racket, isn't it Like?
Just, instead of learning howto structure your own nutrition,
just make your own food.
Or even if you want to buyprepared food from like a
service and choose the foodsthat meet your goals, that's
fine.
It's this idea of them sendingit to you and locking you into
that.
So now compare all that to whatwe talked about on width to
(14:11):
weight, which is anevidence-based approach where we
calculate your energy needs, wemake sure you have enough
protein, we emphasize resistancetraining consistently and, most
of all, we use flexibility withyour food, with really, really
the whole process is got a lotof adaptability and flexibility
built in, because it shouldconform to your constraints and
(14:33):
your life, your ability toadhere and maintain beyond just
a short-term dieting phase andactually be able to eat for life
.
And so this is why contextmatters so much in nutrition and
why I love to help people getto that next step of.
Okay, I've listened to thepodcast, or I listened to a
(14:53):
bunch of physique.
You know fitness podcasts and Iknow the science and I know the
general idea here.
But how do I do that for myself, right?
So that's why I createdPhysique University.
We don't use arbitrary numbers.
We actually help you determineyour actual needs based on your
body size, activity level,biofeedback.
We then work backward to createthe plan that has the right
(15:16):
aggressiveness for you.
So, again, it's not just hereare my calories and macros.
It's what is your goal?
Is your goal moderate fat lossor body recomposition?
Is it a bit more aggressive?
Are you actually trying tobuild muscle?
And then, what is the rightlever?
And then, beyond that, shouldyou be eating the same calories
every day or should you cycle?
Should you have more on theweekends, right?
All that's what I'm talkingabout when it comes to making it
(15:39):
fit your life, so that thenumbers are the same, but the
way that it's structured mightvary drastically, right?
So it's not just.
Here's a template.
So, anyway, if you're lookingfor something like that, check
out Physique U, use the speciallink in the show notes.
I'm going to keep mentioningthis because that link is going
to give you a special bonus.
You're going to get a freenutrition plan from me and
(16:01):
that's going to unlock anaccelerator that'll help you get
even faster to your goal.
Not quick fix, fast, butefficiently fast to your goal to
lose fat, to build muscle, foryour situation.
So let's address the elephant inthe room metabolic adaptation.
Right, you've heard me talkabout this, or, if you're new to
the show, I want to contrastmetabolic adaptation with terms
(16:25):
like metabolic damage orstarvation mode that are used by
people to claim that eitheraggressive deficits are harmful
and permanently so, or that youare permanently harmed because
of something you did in the past, and I'm sorry, but we're going
to have to fix that, and here'smy special protocol to do it.
(16:45):
The truth is more nuanced andalso more empowering, I would
say, in that metabolicadaptation look at the word
adapt.
Adapt is something that isflexible, right, it can adapt
one way and then it could adaptback.
It's a real thing.
It's a real phenomenon where,when you eat less, your
metabolic rate decreases beyondwhat you'd expect, just from
(17:07):
losing weight.
So if you're losing weight, ifyou're in a deficit, the fact
that you weigh less is going toburn fewer calories, yes, but
beyond that, your metabolismgoes down due to what's called
metabolic adaptation.
It's kind of a protectivemechanism.
It's an efficiency mechanism.
We've talked about the biggestloser study and I know there's a
big Netflix documentary aboutit I haven't seen it yet but
(17:29):
they had massive metabolicadaptation.
It persisted years later andit's recoverable, but it's
recoverable only on a similartimeline as it was adapted in
general right.
And in that study they hadextreme deficits combined with
excessive cardio, combined withinadequate protein.
They had muscle loss and theyhad metabolic adaptation.
So part of their metabolicdecline became permanent, not
(17:53):
because of adaptation, butbecause of things like muscle
loss that they're going to haveto build back.
When we talk about just run ofthe mill metabolic adaptation,
this is driven by a fewdifferent things.
Now, if you're losing lean mass, to me that is not a source of
metabolic adaptation.
That is a source of burningfewer calories due to having
(18:14):
less muscle.
That's different.
But the hormonal changes thatcome in from metabolic
adaptation, like a decrease inthyroid and reproductive
hormones, those are real andthey cause you to burn fewer
calories and that's normal.
And the more aggressive you go,the more that's gonna happen, to
the point where you're alsogetting the lean mass loss.
You're getting the hunger thatgets ramped up.
You're getting the fancy termslike hyperphagia, which is just
(18:38):
massive hunger, but if you're inthe right window, you're gonna
have some metabolic adaptation.
But you're going to have somemetabolic adaptation, but you're
also going to preserve yourmuscle by eating protein, by
training, and the adaptation ismuch less severe and more, I'll
say, reversible in a shortperiod.
That's the way I'm going to putit.
It's always reversible.
It depends on how aggressivelyyou did the diet.
(18:58):
And again, this connects to thistopic of like 800 calories or
whatever.
So I guess the silver lining ofthat is that an aggressive
deficit, in some ways it'sreversible.
And because the time is short,the reversibility is also short.
But if you go aggressive for along time, then that's where the
problem comes in.
(19:18):
You're not gonna permanentlydamage your metabolism, which is
the thing that couldsensationalize.
Okay, I hope all that madesense.
So I like to think like anengineer.
Right, every diet involvestrade-offs between three main
factors the speed of yourresults, the sustainability of
the process and, I'll say,preserving your metabolism,
(19:41):
that's.
I'm not talking about the costschedule, quality triangle, the
iron triangle, fat loss that's adifferent thing that I talked
about in another episode.
This is more of a the threethings that are going to get
impacted the most when you do adiet and how you can optimize.
So you can optimize for speedand you can go very aggressive
with a deficit, but you're goingto sacrifice sustainability and
(20:04):
that's where you have to keepthe time short.
Right, you're going to increasethe risk of muscle loss.
If you don't, you're going toincrease the risk of severe
metabolic adaptation.
So that's one thing.
You could also optimize for howsustainable it is, how much you
can adhere to it, by making itmore conservative, but of course
, your progress is going to beslow.
And then you can optimize forpreserving your metabolism by
(20:25):
going at a reasonable level ofaggressiveness, but also having
diet breaks and refeeds, andthat's going to extend your
timeline.
Extend your timeline.
You're not actually on the netincreasing your metabolism,
you're just taking breaks alongthe way and it's going to take
longer, but it's going to feelmore sustainable while still
being somewhat aggressive, ifthat makes sense.
So the key here is to understandthese trade-offs and then to
(20:47):
choose intentionally,consciously, not accidentally,
falling into usually what's anextreme approach because someone
said you know these are theamount of calories you should or
shouldn't go above or below.
So let's talk about biofeedbackfor a second, because that's
another thing I had in my noteshere.
That is extremely helpful as aguide.
(21:10):
All right, we fixate a lot onnumbers and, when it comes down
to it, numbers like yourexpenditure, like how many
calories you have to hit, likeyour macros, are just starting
to scratch the surface, right?
What's really below all of thatis what's in your body.
It's your biofeedback, it's theconstant information that you
get about whether your approachis actually working or you're
(21:32):
pushing too hard.
Now, it's hard for many peopleto read those signals when they
first do this, because they'reso screwed up, they're so
misaligned and miscalibratedfrom years of doing this the
wrong way, and that's okay.
When you start to do thingsintentionally, you also start to
regulate your biofeedbacksignals.
Your energy levels, your sleepquality, your strength in the
(21:53):
gym, your recovery, your hunger,your mood all of that starts to
get more regulated and thentherefore more trustworthy.
So it's kind of a chicken andegg, right.
So that's why it helps to notbe pushing anything too hard
initially, to not be in a dietand to let things regulate while
you're improving yoursustainability part of the
equation and improving your foodquality and things like that,
(22:17):
and then you can challengeyourself.
And then, once you challengeyourself with something like a
diet, the goal is not to feelmiserable.
Right, we don't want to bemiserable, and so the warning
signals will be there inaddition to the numbers.
The numbers are one thing, butif I say, go and eat 800
calories and you do it and youactually feel great during the
process, who am I to tell youthat that's unsafe or too low?
But if I tell you to eat 1500calories for a diet and you're
(22:40):
you know you normally burn 3000calories chances are you're
going to get fatigued from thatpretty quickly.
You're going to have troublesleeping, you're going to have
potentially a loss in yourstrength and muscle.
You might you might be in a badmood, you might get hangry or
actually lose hunger, you mightlose hair.
I mean I don't know.
There's going to be a lot thathappens in women.
There's a lot of hormonalimpacts, right with not only
(23:02):
thyroid but, you know, menstrualcycle.
I mean everything.
So when you get that kind ofbiofeedback, that indicates
you're pushing beyond what yourbody can handle sustainably, and
that's where it gets into theword potentially unsafe.
You know again, what does safemean?
That's questionable.
Now, the beauty of biofeedbackis it is completely personalized
(23:22):
to you, by definition.
Right, the more petite womaneating 1200 calories, she might
have excellent biofeedback,being in this moderate deficit,
and the weight just comes off,no problem done with, the diet
moves out.
But then you got that biggerman, let's say the 200 pound man
.
He's eating 1800 calories.
My show warning size For me.
My biofeedback can fluctuate,and so that's another, more
(23:45):
advanced way to handle thosesignals, in that you can push
sometimes and pull back othertimes.
So, regardless of your calorietarget, two factors are critical
that we've mentioned alreadyno-transcript, very low calories
(24:22):
.
Maintaining those priorities oftraining and protein is going to
dramatically improve yourresults and reduce the negative
consequences that come fromaggressive dieting.
All right.
So I had some other things.
I had some other things to talkabout it, but I think we're
going long winded here.
My, my message to you if you'reconsidering a very aggressive
(24:42):
approach, obviously if you haveunderlying health conditions, if
you're taking medication,something like that, working
with a health provider, right,that's outside my scope, that's
medical.
If you're considering it forsomething like rapid fat loss
and I get people come to me allthe time.
Hey, I want to follow yourrapid fat loss protocol and I'll
say, okay, are you training?
Are you tracking?
Are you eating enough protein?
Do you have a good body image?
(25:03):
Do you have a good relationshipwith food?
If any of these answers are no,sorry, don't do rapid fat loss,
because that's just recipe fordisaster, you know, is your
stress high?
Is your right sleep bad?
All that stuff has to be dialedin right.
So if you're considering a veryaggressive approach, it is
perfectly safe, if it's rightfor you, if it's controlled and
structured and if yourbiofeedback is solid for the
(25:26):
duration of that deficit.
So I want to leave you with whatI consider the most important
insight from today, and that isthat the fitness industry,
they've conditioned us to thinkin absolutes, and maybe
conditions not the right word, Imean, I think it is, but it
could just be that they have,you know, blasted the message
that there are dichotomies, thatthere are false dichotomies.
(25:50):
I should say, you know, safeversus unsafe, you see it all
the time Fear mongering all thetime, good versus bad, right
versus wrong.
But your body doesn't operatethat way.
Right, it has context, it hasconstraints.
So it's not whether X number ofcalories is inherently safe or
unsafe.
It's whether a specific targetmakes sense for your unique
combination of all the thingsyour body size, your activity,
(26:11):
your goals, your lifecircumstances.
So, instead of asking whatshould everyone do which is, by
the way, a very common questionto podcasters is what?
What is the answer to this?
What should I do here, withoutthe context?
It's what makes sense for meright now.
Okay, what makes sense for meright now?
In fact, I was just thinking inour, our Facebook group, which
you can join for free anytime,which, in which Facebook group,
(26:34):
we actually have an Ask Philipthread that I do once a month,
and the whole point of thatthread is for you to ask the
question what makes sense for meright now, right.
And then you stop being a victimof arbitrary rules Yep, I said
it trigger word victim and youstart being the intelligent I
was going to say designer, butisn't that referred to a
creationism and stuff, theengineer of your own approach,
(26:57):
right?
And this is the mind-blowingshift in your brain that I think
separates people who actuallyget this thing, that make it
last, that sustain those resultsthat they're walking around one
year, five years, 10 years fromnow, having lost the fat,
having improved their bodycomposition and they're living
an enjoyable life from those whobounce and yo-yo between the
(27:17):
extreme approaches, hoping thatthe next solution is going to
work for them.
So the next time you hearsomeone online say that a
specific calorie number isuniversally safe or unsafe,
number one, unfollow them.
And then number two, you'llknow that you're missing the
bigger picture, or that they'remissing the bigger picture, I
should say, because ofeverything we talked about today
.
Right, and you know better.
You know better.
So, instead of searching forthe magic number, focus on
(27:39):
developing skills, skills theskills to understand your energy
needs, your biofeedbackstructure, your nutrition for
your goals.
Make informed trade-offs basedon what matters most to you
right now, which only you know,only you know, and if you need
to share it with someone else toget some accountability and
some help, that's what we'rehere for.
(27:59):
That is how you make itsustainable.
That is how you achieve yourgoals.
And look, if you want to connectwith others who understand this
.
You don't want to join PhysiqueUniversity yet.
You're not ready to take theplunge there and accelerate your
results to that level.
You can still join our freeFacebook community.
I that level, you can stilljoin our free Facebook community
(28:20):
.
I already mentioned it once.
You can search for it onFacebook or click the link in
the show notes, and that iswhere we share experiences, we
ask questions, we support eachother without judgment, without
oversimplified advice thatyou're going to find everywhere
else.
All right, until next time,keep using your wits lifting
those weights and remember yourphysique is built through
evidence, not arbitrary rules.
This is Philip Pape, and you'vebeen listening to Wits and
Weights.
Talk to you next time.
Is 800 calories a day unsafe?
The answer might surprise youbecause it depends entirely on
who we're talking about.
A 105-pound woman has vastlydifferent energy needs than a
300-pound man, yet programs likeOptivia push 800-calorie diets
on everyone.
Today, we are going to cutthrough the confusion around
(00:22):
very low-calorie diets.
You'll learn why there's nouniversal unsafe calorie number,
how to determine your ownmetabolic limits using
biofeedback and data, and thecritical trade-offs between
aggressive deficits andsustainability.
(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 going to tackle oneof those highly debated
questions in fitness Is 800calories a day unsafe?
And I picked 800 on purpose,because sometimes people say
1200 or 1500, and we're going toget into these nuances.
But I picked a really lownumber because the question
(01:13):
comes up all the time.
Given our cultural obsessionwith magic numbers, with
universal thresholds and setpoints, we act like 800 or 1200
calories is the universal floorfor women and 1500 for men and
that anything below that foreverybody is automatically
dangerous.
But the reality is, as always,more nuanced than any arbitrary
(01:38):
threshold and it depends oncontext, constraints and
individuality, and I love thefitness industry and I say that
sarcastically.
You know Instagram.
They love to exploit confusion,confusion across the board.
Companies, weight loss programsthey market things that are
ridiculously extreme, to behonest, and they do so via fear.
(02:00):
They spread fear about thingslike metabolic damage.
We still hear that term.
Your metabolism is broken ordamaged, not a thing.
And then you are left wonderingif that lower calorie target is
going to help you reach yourgoals faster or it's going to
sabotage your metabolism.
Why can this program do this?
But then this influencer overhere says that's way too low,
(02:20):
and I made this episode becauseone of our Physique University
members actually asked thequestion said like I've heard
that X number of calories is toolow.
Is that true?
And I wanted to address thisbecause it's a very relevant
topic.
There is a rise in rapid weightloss and, yes, rapid fat loss
too, but sometimes they getinterchanged incorrectly.
(02:42):
We know about Optivia, which hasbeen around a long time, and I
have clients that constantlycome to me saying, yeah, I tried
Optivia in the past.
It was miserable.
I was down 800 calories and youweren't supposed to exercise
and it was just arbitrary,regardless of your size, your
activity level, your metabolicneeds, not even the very basic
quote, unquote personalization.
And then we're also seeing moreresearch on physician
(03:03):
supervised very low caloriediets for obesity.
And then we're also seeing moreresearch on
physician-supervised verylow-calorie diets for obesity.
And we're seeing, with weightloss medications, very
low-calorie diets, intentionalor not.
We're seeing research ondiabetes reversal, pre-diabetes.
And that adds all thiscomplexity to the discussion
where you're like, well, what'sthe thing that I'm supposed to
go with?
And, by the way, it's actuallyquite simple.
(03:23):
What's hard is implementing itfor you.
We're going to get into that.
But before we get into thespecifics, I do want to share
something that Julia fromPhysique University recently
told me.
She said quote I joined WWPUand finished the onboarding
today.
I'm glad I'm here.
Before I thought it's just moreinformation and better
(03:44):
organized as is possible to soakup in the podcast, but I
started to feel that thecommunity and support are really
the resources which willfinally move the needle for me.
Now this, I'll say, perfectlycaptures things that obviously
I'm not marketing as well myself, and that is that it's not just
about the information, it's howwe implement it right.
(04:05):
Individualized approachesmatter so, so much.
And Julia realized shortly afterjoining.
Because, again, apparently theway I market it isn't good
enough to show you this thatgeneric information, even if
it's helpful, even if it'sevidence-based, like we talk
about on the show, is not enough.
She needed personalizedguidance to find what worked for
(04:26):
her unique situation.
So if you're ready to do that,let's say you've been listening
to the podcast for a while andyou want to stop guessing about
all these things, includingcalorie needs.
But that's just scratching thesurface.
You really are looking for asystem designed specifically for
your body, for your goals, foryour constraints, for your
preferences, right?
These are all important things.
(04:46):
Physique U is where we makethat happen, where we help you
determine your metabolic needs,your hormonal situation, your
training situation, and create asustainable plan that preserves
muscle while achieving yourphysique goals.
You can learn more about thatat the special link in the show
notes, because only that link isgoing to give you a free
nutrition plan that I will buildfor you, because you're a
(05:09):
podcast listener and I love togive stuff away.
So go to the special link inthe show notes to join Physique
U, get the free plan and we'llsee you in there.
All right, let's talk about whythis question about calorie
levels and whether 800 caloriesor 1200 or whatever is unsafe,
even matters, right, it comesdown to fitness culture.
(05:29):
We're obsessed with magicsolutions, formulas, the one
best fit answer, right?
The one thing you know.
You've probably heard againthat women should never go below
1200 calories or 1,500 calories, and these often get thrown
around as if they're universallaws of physics, but they're
completely arbitrary.
Here's the reality.
(05:50):
Okay, let's get into numbers.
A sedentary 105 pound woman Okayand I've worked with some
clients that are in that rangemight only burn 1,200 calories
per day at rest.
That is her total metabolism,not even RMR or BMR.
We're talking about her totaldaily energy expenditure.
You add in, you know, even moreneat walking movement on top of
(06:13):
that.
Maybe she pushes it up to 1500.
She had some muscle mass, right, she does all the healthy
lifestyle things and she's stillburning 1500 calories.
So for her, at 15 or 1600calories, even eating 1200
calories is just a very moderatedeficit, like 25% deficit.
Right, it's small, it's notgoing to even feel like
(06:33):
starvation.
I mean, I've worked with theseclients before and I've had them
on the show before, in fact,where they'll say you know what?
This is what my body needs itfeels okay.
And so if you're 105 pounds andyou burn, you know, between 12
and 1600 calories, then eating athousand calories may be
totally reasonable for yourdeficit.
Now eating 800, even at thatlevel tends to be pushing it for
(06:55):
most people.
It doesn't mean it's unsafe.
It depends on the deficit andhow long you go, and the reason
I wanted to start with thatquestion for this episode is to
suggest that there really is nogood answer to that.
I would say unsafe is relativeto how aggressive your deficit
is, how long it is and how it isaffecting you right Now.
Compare that to.
(07:15):
On the other extreme, we havepeople that are 300 pound plus,
who might be burning 3,000calories at rest.
A male, for example, who burns3000 calories is not uncommon at
all.
Somebody who lifts weights infact doesn't have to be 300
pounds, it could be 225, 250burning that much.
So for him, 800 calories, likeactually an actual intake of 800
(07:36):
, would represent a massive,ridiculous, extreme.
Yes, unsafe deficit.
It would be like 70, 75%, okay,and that would be extremely
difficult to sustain outside ofclinical supervision.
And having said that, Irecently onboarded a client who
weighs about 250 and he had doneOptivia at 800 calories and
(07:58):
told me how miserable that was.
And it's not like he died,right Like.
When we say unsafe, we also haveto qualify and define what we
mean by the word unsafe.
To me, unsafe is more about thetotality of the context, right
Like if we're driving.
If you said, is driving 65miles an hour unsafe?
Well, it depends on the roadconditions, the weather, your
car, the driving experience.
65 miles an hour in a schoolzone is extremely unsafe, but on
(08:30):
the Autobahn you're probablygoing to get honked at for going
too slow, right?
So same thing applies tocalories.
In that the context reallymatters.
In fact, 800 calories is notfar from where a lot of people
might hit when doing a rapid fatloss phase for two weeks with
protein modified fast.
Right, and it wouldn't beunsafe in that context.
It'd be highly controlled,highly structured, exactly what
they're intending to do.
That's why I think it'simportant not to blanket
statement anything.
So when we talk about very lowcalorie diets and defining our
(08:55):
terms, there's actually a termVLCD very, very low calories per
day, I think.
Or very low calorie diets,right, vlcds.
And they are actually definedas 800 calories a day or less.
But these are not likelifestyle diets.
These aren't rapid fat lossphases.
They are clinical interventions, typically under medical
supervision, for people who havesevere obesity or diabetes, and
(09:19):
there's actually a lot ofrobust research on properly
supervised, very low carb dietsor low calorie diets, not carb
Icalorie diets.
When you look at those studies,we see rapid weight loss of
about three to five pounds aweek and a lot of the blood
markers improve.
Blood sugar, blood pressure,lipid profiles make sense
because we know that there's ahigh correlation with reducing
(09:41):
excess body fat.
Notice that what I said in thisthese are properly supervised,
clinical, very low carb, verylow calorie diets, have somebody
monitoring.
They have high quality proteinwhich is gonna preserve your
lean mass.
They have vitamin and mineralsupplementation, regular
checkups with the medicalprovider, and they're temporary
(10:02):
no more than, say, 12 to 16weeks, which to me is actually
quite a long time for 800calories.
If you weren't in a medicalsituation, at most you might do
it for two or three weeks andthen they transition back to
higher calories.
So either way, you'rerecovering afterward, which
again doesn't mean it's unsafe.
No, for these people it'sactually what they need to
survive and live a thriving lifeagain and have healthy blood
markers so they don't die.
(10:23):
That's the opposite of unsafe.
Now life again and have healthyblood markers, so they don't
die.
That's the opposite of unsafe.
Now do they have to do it thatway?
I don't know.
That's a whole differentconversation.
I think the problem comes whenthe commercial, highly marketed
weight loss programs take anumber like that and then they
give you the food Optivia,anyone.
They give you processed barsand shakes, they send it to your
(10:44):
door, they tell you not toexercise and then they send you
away for months at a time andlike good luck.
Well, we know how that ends.
That ends with crash and burnand even if you lose the weight,
you're going to gain it allback because you don't know how
to sustain that right.
And I'm sorry to pick onOptivea specifically, but it
comes up time and time and timeagain Cl and time and time again
(11:06):
, clients and students every daywho I talk to have tried this
in the past and I wish I had metthem before they tried it.
But hey, it's a good learningexperience, if nothing else.
Right, it puts everyone on areally low, sub-thousand calorie
diet using pre-packaged foods.
That's gross, I mean, I thinkthat's gross.
I don't want to live that way.
You know what I did slim fast along time ago when I was like 20
for maybe two months, hated it.
(11:28):
It was miserable.
Every time I knew I was goingto have lunch I'm like, what am
I doing?
I think I actually eventuallysnuck Chinese food with my slim
fast, thinking that well, I'mstill having the slim fast.
Like, seriously, I think that'swhat I did because I was so
craving more food and obviously,okay, look, there's a lot of
problems with this approach.
It's not like I'm telling yousomething that is surprise, but
(11:51):
the big one is the one size fitsall calorie target, regardless
of body size, activity level,metabolic rate.
And it ties to this topicbecause people will say the 1200
, the 1500 calories, the lessthan 2000 calories, whatever is,
quote, unquote this or that foreverybody.
You just can't make statementslike that.
Again, 120 pounds versus 200pounds, sedentary person versus
(12:12):
active person, somebody liftingweights with lots of muscles,
somebody who's who's sedentary,right, big differences.
So that's the big one.
The second one is that for theprograms that push these things,
sometimes the macros are allscrewed up or the protein is low
and I know there's a wholemovement toward you know protein
is dangerous or like stopprotein maxing or proteins
(12:34):
crowding out all this otherstuff.
Folks, we do not get enoughprotein on average in this
country or in the world ingeneral.
Most people are far deficientjust getting enough protein.
We're not talking about 300grams a day of protein.
We're talking 0.7 to 1 gram perpound of your body weight.
So if you're 150 pounds, that'sno more than 150 grams of
protein.
It's not a massive amount ofprotein.
And if you do it as apercentage of your diet, it's
(12:56):
also not massive.
It's like 15, 20%, right, it'snot that high.
So if you're on an aggressivedeficit, you have to have high
protein by default.
So as soon as you lose theconnection between those two,
you're going to have problems.
And then the other thing here isthat something like Optivia
discourages exercise.
I don't understand that and I'mnot going to waste my time
reading the Optivia and theManjaro and the Terzepatide or
(13:26):
Wegovi and all that, wherepeople are giving these things
or maybe they get themthemselves without any guidance
on lifestyle, and they're notlifting weights and they lose
muscle as a result, right, notbecause of the drugs, but
because of the aggressivedeficits, the low protein and
all of that, and it leads toworse body composition outcomes,
which is not what we're tryingto do right Now.
The programs that give youfoods that are prepackaged I
(13:48):
mean just that's a wholeseparate issue as well.
You know, being dependent onthese, it's really quite the
racket, isn't it Like?
Just, instead of learning howto structure your own nutrition,
just make your own food.
Or even if you want to buyprepared food from like a
service and choose the foodsthat meet your goals, that's
fine.
It's this idea of them sendingit to you and locking you into
that.
So now compare all that to whatwe talked about on width to
(14:11):
weight, which is anevidence-based approach where we
calculate your energy needs, wemake sure you have enough
protein, we emphasize resistancetraining consistently and, most
of all, we use flexibility withyour food, with really, really
the whole process is got a lotof adaptability and flexibility
built in, because it shouldconform to your constraints and
(14:33):
your life, your ability toadhere and maintain beyond just
a short-term dieting phase andactually be able to eat for life
.
And so this is why contextmatters so much in nutrition and
why I love to help people getto that next step of.
Okay, I've listened to thepodcast, or I listened to a
(14:53):
bunch of physique.
You know fitness podcasts and Iknow the science and I know the
general idea here.
But how do I do that for myself, right?
So that's why I createdPhysique University.
We don't use arbitrary numbers.
We actually help you determineyour actual needs based on your
body size, activity level,biofeedback.
We then work backward to createthe plan that has the right
(15:16):
aggressiveness for you.
So, again, it's not just hereare my calories and macros.
It's what is your goal?
Is your goal moderate fat lossor body recomposition?
Is it a bit more aggressive?
Are you actually trying tobuild muscle?
And then, what is the rightlever?
And then, beyond that, shouldyou be eating the same calories
every day or should you cycle?
Should you have more on theweekends, right?
All that's what I'm talkingabout when it comes to making it
(15:39):
fit your life, so that thenumbers are the same, but the
way that it's structured mightvary drastically, right?
So it's not just.
Here's a template.
So, anyway, if you're lookingfor something like that, check
out Physique U, use the speciallink in the show notes.
I'm going to keep mentioningthis because that link is going
to give you a special bonus.
You're going to get a freenutrition plan from me and
(16:01):
that's going to unlock anaccelerator that'll help you get
even faster to your goal.
Not quick fix, fast, butefficiently fast to your goal to
lose fat, to build muscle, foryour situation.
So let's address the elephant inthe room metabolic adaptation.
Right, you've heard me talkabout this, or, if you're new to
the show, I want to contrastmetabolic adaptation with terms
(16:25):
like metabolic damage orstarvation mode that are used by
people to claim that eitheraggressive deficits are harmful
and permanently so, or that youare permanently harmed because
of something you did in the past, and I'm sorry, but we're going
to have to fix that, and here'smy special protocol to do it.
(16:45):
The truth is more nuanced andalso more empowering, I would
say, in that metabolicadaptation look at the word
adapt.
Adapt is something that isflexible, right, it can adapt
one way and then it could adaptback.
It's a real thing.
It's a real phenomenon where,when you eat less, your
metabolic rate decreases beyondwhat you'd expect, just from
(17:07):
losing weight.
So if you're losing weight, ifyou're in a deficit, the fact
that you weigh less is going toburn fewer calories, yes, but
beyond that, your metabolismgoes down due to what's called
metabolic adaptation.
It's kind of a protectivemechanism.
It's an efficiency mechanism.
We've talked about the biggestloser study and I know there's a
big Netflix documentary aboutit I haven't seen it yet but
(17:29):
they had massive metabolicadaptation.
It persisted years later andit's recoverable, but it's
recoverable only on a similartimeline as it was adapted in
general right.
And in that study they hadextreme deficits combined with
excessive cardio, combined withinadequate protein.
They had muscle loss and theyhad metabolic adaptation.
So part of their metabolicdecline became permanent, not
(17:53):
because of adaptation, butbecause of things like muscle
loss that they're going to haveto build back.
When we talk about just run ofthe mill metabolic adaptation,
this is driven by a fewdifferent things.
Now, if you're losing lean mass, to me that is not a source of
metabolic adaptation.
That is a source of burningfewer calories due to having
(18:14):
less muscle.
That's different.
But the hormonal changes thatcome in from metabolic
adaptation, like a decrease inthyroid and reproductive
hormones, those are real andthey cause you to burn fewer
calories and that's normal.
And the more aggressive you go,the more that's gonna happen, to
the point where you're alsogetting the lean mass loss.
You're getting the hunger thatgets ramped up.
You're getting the fancy termslike hyperphagia, which is just
(18:38):
massive hunger, but if you're inthe right window, you're gonna
have some metabolic adaptation.
But you're going to have somemetabolic adaptation, but you're
also going to preserve yourmuscle by eating protein, by
training, and the adaptation ismuch less severe and more, I'll
say, reversible in a shortperiod.
That's the way I'm going to putit.
It's always reversible.
It depends on how aggressivelyyou did the diet.
(18:58):
And again, this connects to thistopic of like 800 calories or
whatever.
So I guess the silver lining ofthat is that an aggressive
deficit, in some ways it'sreversible.
And because the time is short,the reversibility is also short.
But if you go aggressive for along time, then that's where the
problem comes in.
(19:18):
You're not gonna permanentlydamage your metabolism, which is
the thing that couldsensationalize.
Okay, I hope all that madesense.
So I like to think like anengineer.
Right, every diet involvestrade-offs between three main
factors the speed of yourresults, the sustainability of
the process and, I'll say,preserving your metabolism,
(19:41):
that's.
I'm not talking about the costschedule, quality triangle, the
iron triangle, fat loss that's adifferent thing that I talked
about in another episode.
This is more of a the threethings that are going to get
impacted the most when you do adiet and how you can optimize.
So you can optimize for speedand you can go very aggressive
with a deficit, but you're goingto sacrifice sustainability and
(20:04):
that's where you have to keepthe time short.
Right, you're going to increasethe risk of muscle loss.
If you don't, you're going toincrease the risk of severe
metabolic adaptation.
So that's one thing.
You could also optimize for howsustainable it is, how much you
can adhere to it, by making itmore conservative, but of course
, your progress is going to beslow.
And then you can optimize forpreserving your metabolism by
(20:25):
going at a reasonable level ofaggressiveness, but also having
diet breaks and refeeds, andthat's going to extend your
timeline.
Extend your timeline.
You're not actually on the netincreasing your metabolism,
you're just taking breaks alongthe way and it's going to take
longer, but it's going to feelmore sustainable while still
being somewhat aggressive, ifthat makes sense.
So the key here is to understandthese trade-offs and then to
(20:47):
choose intentionally,consciously, not accidentally,
falling into usually what's anextreme approach because someone
said you know these are theamount of calories you should or
shouldn't go above or below.
So let's talk about biofeedbackfor a second, because that's
another thing I had in my noteshere.
That is extremely helpful as aguide.
(21:10):
All right, we fixate a lot onnumbers and, when it comes down
to it, numbers like yourexpenditure, like how many
calories you have to hit, likeyour macros, are just starting
to scratch the surface, right?
What's really below all of thatis what's in your body.
It's your biofeedback, it's theconstant information that you
get about whether your approachis actually working or you're
(21:32):
pushing too hard.
Now, it's hard for many peopleto read those signals when they
first do this, because they'reso screwed up, they're so
misaligned and miscalibratedfrom years of doing this the
wrong way, and that's okay.
When you start to do thingsintentionally, you also start to
regulate your biofeedbacksignals.
Your energy levels, your sleepquality, your strength in the
(21:53):
gym, your recovery, your hunger,your mood all of that starts to
get more regulated and thentherefore more trustworthy.
So it's kind of a chicken andegg, right.
So that's why it helps to notbe pushing anything too hard
initially, to not be in a dietand to let things regulate while
you're improving yoursustainability part of the
equation and improving your foodquality and things like that,
(22:17):
and then you can challengeyourself.
And then, once you challengeyourself with something like a
diet, the goal is not to feelmiserable.
Right, we don't want to bemiserable, and so the warning
signals will be there inaddition to the numbers.
The numbers are one thing, butif I say, go and eat 800
calories and you do it and youactually feel great during the
process, who am I to tell youthat that's unsafe or too low?
But if I tell you to eat 1500calories for a diet and you're
(22:40):
you know you normally burn 3000calories chances are you're
going to get fatigued from thatpretty quickly.
You're going to have troublesleeping, you're going to have
potentially a loss in yourstrength and muscle.
You might you might be in a badmood, you might get hangry or
actually lose hunger, you mightlose hair.
I mean I don't know.
There's going to be a lot thathappens in women.
There's a lot of hormonalimpacts, right with not only
(23:02):
thyroid but, you know, menstrualcycle.
I mean everything.
So when you get that kind ofbiofeedback, that indicates
you're pushing beyond what yourbody can handle sustainably, and
that's where it gets into theword potentially unsafe.
You know again, what does safemean?
That's questionable.
Now, the beauty of biofeedbackis it is completely personalized
(23:22):
to you, by definition.
Right, the more petite womaneating 1200 calories, she might
have excellent biofeedback,being in this moderate deficit,
and the weight just comes off,no problem done with, the diet
moves out.
But then you got that biggerman, let's say the 200 pound man
.
He's eating 1800 calories.
My show warning size For me.
My biofeedback can fluctuate,and so that's another, more
(23:45):
advanced way to handle thosesignals, in that you can push
sometimes and pull back othertimes.
So, regardless of your calorietarget, two factors are critical
that we've mentioned alreadyno-transcript, very low calories
(24:22):
.
Maintaining those priorities oftraining and protein is going to
dramatically improve yourresults and reduce the negative
consequences that come fromaggressive dieting.
All right.
So I had some other things.
I had some other things to talkabout it, but I think we're
going long winded here.
My, my message to you if you'reconsidering a very aggressive
(24:42):
approach, obviously if you haveunderlying health conditions, if
you're taking medication,something like that, working
with a health provider, right,that's outside my scope, that's
medical.
If you're considering it forsomething like rapid fat loss
and I get people come to me allthe time.
Hey, I want to follow yourrapid fat loss protocol and I'll
say, okay, are you training?
Are you tracking?
Are you eating enough protein?
Do you have a good body image?
(25:03):
Do you have a good relationshipwith food?
If any of these answers are no,sorry, don't do rapid fat loss,
because that's just recipe fordisaster, you know, is your
stress high?
Is your right sleep bad?
All that stuff has to be dialedin right.
So if you're considering a veryaggressive approach, it is
perfectly safe, if it's rightfor you, if it's controlled and
structured and if yourbiofeedback is solid for the
(25:26):
duration of that deficit.
So I want to leave you with whatI consider the most important
insight from today, and that isthat the fitness industry,
they've conditioned us to thinkin absolutes, and maybe
conditions not the right word, Imean, I think it is, but it
could just be that they have,you know, blasted the message
that there are dichotomies, thatthere are false dichotomies.
(25:50):
I should say, you know, safeversus unsafe, you see it all
the time Fear mongering all thetime, good versus bad, right
versus wrong.
But your body doesn't operatethat way.
Right, it has context, it hasconstraints.
So it's not whether X number ofcalories is inherently safe or
unsafe.
It's whether a specific targetmakes sense for your unique
combination of all the thingsyour body size, your activity,
(26:11):
your goals, your lifecircumstances.
So, instead of asking whatshould everyone do which is, by
the way, a very common questionto podcasters is what?
What is the answer to this?
What should I do here, withoutthe context?
It's what makes sense for meright now.
Okay, what makes sense for meright now?
In fact, I was just thinking inour, our Facebook group, which
you can join for free anytime,which, in which Facebook group,
(26:34):
we actually have an Ask Philipthread that I do once a month,
and the whole point of thatthread is for you to ask the
question what makes sense for meright now, right.
And then you stop being a victimof arbitrary rules Yep, I said
it trigger word victim and youstart being the intelligent I
was going to say designer, butisn't that referred to a
creationism and stuff, theengineer of your own approach,
(26:57):
right?
And this is the mind-blowingshift in your brain that I think
separates people who actuallyget this thing, that make it
last, that sustain those resultsthat they're walking around one
year, five years, 10 years fromnow, having lost the fat,
having improved their bodycomposition and they're living
an enjoyable life from those whobounce and yo-yo between the
(27:17):
extreme approaches, hoping thatthe next solution is going to
work for them.
So the next time you hearsomeone online say that a
specific calorie number isuniversally safe or unsafe,
number one, unfollow them.
And then number two, you'llknow that you're missing the
bigger picture, or that they'remissing the bigger picture, I
should say, because ofeverything we talked about today
.
Right, and you know better.
You know better.
So, instead of searching forthe magic number, focus on
(27:39):
developing skills, skills theskills to understand your energy
needs, your biofeedbackstructure, your nutrition for
your goals.
Make informed trade-offs basedon what matters most to you
right now, which only you know,only you know, and if you need
to share it with someone else toget some accountability and
some help, that's what we'rehere for.
(27:59):
That is how you make itsustainable.
That is how you achieve yourgoals.
And look, if you want to connectwith others who understand this
.
You don't want to join PhysiqueUniversity yet.
You're not ready to take theplunge there and accelerate your
results to that level.
You can still join our freeFacebook community.
I that level, you can stilljoin our free Facebook community
(28:20):
.
I already mentioned it once.
You can search for it onFacebook or click the link in
the show notes, and that iswhere we share experiences, we
ask questions, we support eachother without judgment, without
oversimplified advice thatyou're going to find everywhere
else.
All right, until next time,keep using your wits lifting
those weights and remember yourphysique is built through
evidence, not arbitrary rules.
This is Philip Pape, and you'vebeen listening to Wits and
Weights.
Talk to you next time.
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