June 14, 2025 • 16 mins
Can walking alone get you to your fat loss goals? Should you tweak your nutrition on heavy lifting days versus lighter training sessions?
This bonus Q&A episode tackles two questions in the Wits & Weights Facebook group in our monthly #AskPhilip live.
- Jasmine asked: “How long can I keep losing fat with walking alone, and how do I ease into strength training without tanking my energy or hormones?”
- John asked: “On heavy deadlift days, should I eat more fats or protein instead of carbs to recover better?”
Tune in to find out the answers.
And join our free Wits and Weights Facebook group to ask your question for the next Q&A!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:01):
Hey Wits and Weights family, welcome to a quick bonus
episode of the podcast.
Today I've got a special Q&Adropped from our Facebook group,
where we have a monthly AskPhilip Q&A.
This is actually fromyesterday's live in the Facebook
group, which you can join forfree using the link in the show
notes or look it up on Facebook.
One question is about walkingfor fat loss and the other is
(00:23):
whether you should tweak yourmacros on heavy lifting days.
And if you're not already inthe group, again, go to the link
in the show notes and you canask me questions and get a very
specific, contextual answer foryour situation.
It's free, lots of support.
You can get direct answers fromme and the community and maybe
even get featured on a futureepisode like this one.
All right, let's get into it.
So we've got two questionstoday, the first from Jasmine
(00:46):
and the second is from John, andif you want to see all the
details behind this and myrecommendations, jump into the
Facebook group.
If you're watching this videooutside the group or I share
this elsewhere, come into theFacebook group.
For those of you that are herealready, just go check out the
Ask Philip thread to see some ofthe details.
(01:06):
So we're actually going to startwith Jasmine's question here.
And Jasmine asks Hi, philip,I've been on a fat loss roll
since February, without formaltraining, just walking daily and
following a hormone-alignednutrition approach.
That's working really well forme.
I've read that walking helpskeep stress low and supports fat
loss, especially for women.
My question is how long can Irealistically continue seeing
(01:30):
fat loss results with walkingalone and when do I decide to
start strength training?
How would you recommend easinginto it in a way that supports
my cycle energy and doesn'tbackfire on my progress?
And I just realized nowherehere and nowhere in my notes did
I address the question oftraining for your cycle.
But I'll say you guys shouldfollow Lauren Colenso Semple of
(01:52):
Mass because she's constantlyposting about the misinformation
in the industry about trainingfor your cycle, where most women
don't have to do anythingdifferently and it's very
individualized to your specificenergy response and your needs
both for food and for training.
So that's all I'm going to sayabout that is, I generally don't
have to recommend anythingspecific because women are going
to respond individually, justlike men respond individually,
(02:16):
and that's what the sciencesupports.
But let's talk about theconversation that we had and
what I recommend and you wouldshare that.
You're a working mom, you'rejuggling toddler life, you walk
daily, you know all this stuffis down here.
I'm not going to go into thedetails.
You've seen progress.
You bought some resistancebands, you're thinking about
adding strength training intothe mix and then we mapped out a
(02:38):
realistic plan to get startedone gym session on the weekend,
one to two short workouts athome after your toddler goes to
bed.
And the first thing I want tosay is I just love the way
you're approaching this.
I feel the intention, I alsofeel the flexibility and you're
giving me context as to whatyour current limitations are.
And that's the mindset thatleads to results is making the
(03:00):
attempt, finding a way.
Sometimes it's making the time.
And I want to take a quicktangent on the making the
attempt, finding a way.
Sometimes it's making the time.
And I want to take a quicktangent on the making the time
thing, because we'll often getI'll often get comments on some
videos where people and it'sexcuses, let's just admit it,
excuses People say I just don'thave the time.
Or, in response to therecommendation to make the time,
they'll say well, that's,that's, that comes from an area
(03:20):
of privilege.
You know it's.
It doesn't work for people whohave two jobs or single moms or
whatever and I'm gonna argueagainst that because I've helped
a lot of people exactly inthose situations and oftentimes
it's not a zero sum game.
It is not trading one thing foranother.
It's not saying well, I have towork out three hours in the gym
every week, so three hours ofsomething else has to go away.
(03:41):
It's not always that, becausethere's elements of efficiency
and there's trade-offs andthere's um.
You know you can exchange ahalf hour and get an hour
elsewhere.
A good example of that istraining in the morning.
It tends to help people be moreconsistent, come up with a
consistent sleep scheduleSometimes you end up going to
bed a little bit earlier, if youcan and then, more importantly,
the productivity you get fromit and the consistency actually
(04:04):
gives you more energy andcapability and confidence for
the rest of the week.
Also, it leads to things likemore opportunities in your
career and job.
So maybe you do get more incomeas a result, which gives you
more time and or money, right?
So I never want to think of itas a zero sum game and, jasmine,
you have the right mindset tothis.
But I wanted to mention thatbecause sometimes people make
excuses when I say, look,ideally you've got to be
(04:26):
training probably three days aweek with access to some decent
equipment.
You know whether that's barbell, dumbbells, machines um, often
it's not body weight and bandsbeyond a certain point, because
you're just too strong for thoseto really challenge you
sufficiently.
So in that context, I want toanswer your original question
for everyone watching this live,for you as well, of course, and
(04:48):
that is that, first of all,walking is fantastic.
I love walking, not just myself, but the idea of it.
It helps manage stress, itsupports your recovery.
It even increases your calorieburn in a very sustainable way.
Right, I had someone reach out.
Actually, it was the man fromthe Philippines whose questions
I had, whose question I answeredon the podcast about spot
reduction.
He actually just got back to meand said you know what?
(05:10):
All I did was I added some moresteps.
He was getting like 5,000 steps.
Now he's getting 10, whichtakes intentionality for sure.
And he said, all of a sudden,this fat stop started flying off
, right, because for him he wasjust kind of at that threshold
where he wasn't moving enough.
And it's often a gateway habit,right.
Sometimes we think of that as abad thing, but this is a good
thing, a gateway habit to getyourself moving and being active
(05:33):
and thinking of your life asyou know, a functional, active
human.
When it comes to bodycomposition, however, and fat
loss, walking alone has aceiling for sure, and that is
because walking is not going todo anything to stimulate or
preserve muscle mass.
You know, beyond going fromsedentary to walking, it's not
(05:53):
going to do anything.
When you're in a weight lossphase or a calorie deficit and
you're not resistance training,you're going to lose fat and
muscle.
So it's not even a fat lossphase, and that could be some of
what you're experiencing, inthat you've lost some of the fat
, but you probably also lostsome of the muscle.
In somebody who's excessivelyoverweight, who just starts
getting moving and walking, itactually could still be net
(06:16):
beneficial, right, you couldstill net benefit, have an
improvement, and, and, and, and,and, and, and, and, and, and,
and, and, and, and, and, and,and.
You'll have a lower number onthe scale.
But the problem is very quicklyyou're going to start losing
muscle and you're going to havea higher body fat percentage.
You know, like skinny fat is oneof the terms we use, and that's
not the goal, right?
The truth, the truth is herethat strength training is
(06:36):
non-negotiable and I think youunderstand that, jasmine.
But just to answer the questionin general, if you want to lose
fat, if you want to keep astrong, healthy physique, if you
want to keep a strong, healthyphysique, if you want to improve
your insulin sensitivity, yourmetabolic rate, your bone
density, your hormonal healththe list goes on and on your
inflammation, especially theolder we get, after 30, after 40
(06:57):
, 50, especially for women, inmany cases during the menopause
transition, et cetera all ofthese things mean strength
training is non-negotiable andthe question is how do you ease
into it without draining yourenergy?
And so, consistent with kind ofthe recommendation that I gave
you, um down in the comment, andwe can see it here together.
I'm not going to go into thedetails, um, but at a high level
.
Start simple, start where you'reat start, with what you can do.
(07:18):
One full body session per weekis fantastic when you were doing
zero, and that one full bodysession has to be very efficient
and powerful.
So I recommend, in compoundmovements, squats, presses,
deadlifts, rows, pull downs,things like that, prioritizing
good form, you know, low tomoderate reps, progressive
overload, gradually increasingweight.
The challenge you're going torun into is you may not be able
(07:39):
to increase weight at a certainpoint because of the lack of
frequency, because of the lackof frequency.
And so then I said, well, useyour resistance bands or, if you
can get heavier dumbbellsmidweek for the other two
sessions, the shorter sessions.
They can reinforce the movementpatterns, right, the squatting,
the hinging, the pushing, thepulling, and at least try to
maintain your muscle andstrength until the next session
(08:00):
where you can potentially pushfor new maximums, right, and
continue to push it, um, and.
And initially that might workjust fine.
And there are arguments for,you know, single training
session a week, uh, approaches,there really are.
So if it works for you, awesome.
I would say that that's astarting point.
Starting small, working withyour schedule, being realistic
(08:22):
about your bandwidth, absolutelyis going to build consistency,
and then, once you start doingthat, your results are going to
accelerate, your body's going tostart changing and you're
probably going to find yourselfwanting to lift more and find a
way to do it, not just likefitting it in.
And so I get this mindset shifta lot where people are like,
well, I have to work out or Ineed to work out.
I heard Philip say it was sogreat, so I'm going to do it.
He's a decent guy that I thinkI trust.
(08:45):
I don't know, I'm stillfiguring that out and usually
you get the bug when you see theresults, when you're doing it
the right way.
And actually Nick Delgadillo onmy podcast just talked about the
fact that that initial phase isusually very motivating, but
there will come a time where alot of people don't just want to
lift for its own sake, and sothen they're going to use their
newfound strength in otherthings that are fun outside the
(09:08):
gym, whether that's a sport orother activity like hiking or
biking or something Right.
So think about all of that,jasmine, and anyone watching or
listening about eventuallygetting to a consistent gym
schedule, ideally three days aweek.
For many of you with you knowreally solid goals for body
composition, it might be fourdays a week.
For many of you with you knowreally solid goals for body
composition, it might be fourdays a week once you get to the
(09:30):
intermediate phase.
Uh, and then you're going to dogreat.
But you know, don't beatyourself up for starting small,
because it's a far, uh large.
It's a large improvement fromwhere you were.
So I hope that answers thequestion, jasmine, and we're
going to go to the next questionby John, and John is a
consistent poster in the group.
I really appreciate all of hisquestions and I love this one.
(09:52):
I love this one.
It's a nuanced macro, split,slash training, slash energy
question.
His question are there dayswhen you would increase fat or
protein over carbs for lifting,performance and recovery?
And I know why you're askingthis question because you know
how much I love carbs.
The scenario I'm thinking of isa more nervous system, taxing
(10:13):
day, such as deadlifts for sixsets of low reps, two to three
reps the main portion of thatday's lifting isn't going to
need a ton of carbs to helpperformance, I think from
experience.
Hold that thought, john,because there's some truth in
what you say, but it's not thewhole story.
Continuing, however, after I'mmuch more beat up than a day
where the main focus is on squatoh, after that sorry, go after
(10:36):
that deadlift session I'm morebeat up than a day where the
main focus is squat, withsimilar or more reps and sets.
I'm sure there's a person byperson difference here, of
course, along with if someone'sin a deficit maintenance,
surplus of calories.
I'm curious if you've seencases like stated or others,
where you might have someone eatmore fats or protein to recover
or perform better, whilelowering their carbs to keep
(10:58):
calories the same and I had avery short reply where I'm like
carbs are almost always morehelpful.
But I want to get into some ofthe details behind this and the
science.
So let's tackle it all right.
Your deadlift day low reps, highload, very fatiguing on the
central nervous system,systemically taxing we'd like to
say when you might feel likeyou don't need carbs during the
(11:21):
session because the reps are low, and that's your experience.
Right, you might feel that waywhile you're lifting and you
might even I mean, I know peoplethat train fasted, right, I
don't recommend it for almostanybody, but some people are
like, yeah, I do, fine, and it'stempting to think then what if
I shift some of those carbs tofats or proteins instead?
And we look at the evidence.
Here's what we see.
Okay, this is the startingpoint and then we need to use
(11:43):
your personal biofeedback toexperiment and deviate from that
.
Even though low rep strengthwork doesn't burn through
glycogen.
Glycogen is what's stored inour muscles from carbohydrate
consumption before the workout.
Even though it doesn't burnthrough as much the way like a
high volume hypertrophy sessionor cardio or endurance would,
(12:03):
carbs are still very, veryimportant for the recovery.
So you're thinking in terms ofperformance, which is a great
start, but then think about,after you work out, replenishing
your liver glycogen supportingthe recovery of your central
nervous system, even bluntingcortisol after a hard training
session, even serotoninproduction, which helps with
(12:25):
your sleep, which helps withyour mood.
So there's a lot of subtletieswhere carbs come into play.
I still haven't addressed all ofthese on my podcast because I
keep uncovering a longer andlonger list of how carbohydrates
are beneficial for human beings, whereas if you had a high fat
meal after your lifting session,it's not going to give you the
same benefits.
It might even delay recoverybecause it slows down the
(12:48):
glycogen resynthesis.
We know that fats, for example,slow down digestion and that's
what they end up doing.
It's why I don't like havingtoo much fat or fiber before
your workout either.
I want the glycogen to get inyour system from.
The should always be anchoredat a pretty high level anyway,
and we definitely know thatthere aren't really benefits to
(13:08):
going beyond, like the one ormaybe 1.2 grams per pound of
body weight.
Now, some people do use carbcycling, right?
You kind of are implyingsomething like that where they
have more carbs on the trainingdays and fewer on the rest days.
But I've looked into theresearch, I've listened to a lot
of shows on this and theexperts and really have come to
the conclusion, working withclients, that this is not
(13:29):
superior to consistent calories,like evenly distributed
calories, when the calories andprotein are not changing right
Like so calories and protein arematched.
Should you go up and down withyour carbs?
It's, I would say, more of abehavioral tool if you need it,
right, always comes down tolifestyle more of a behavioral
tool and it's not aphysiological tool, right?
(13:50):
So I like carbs.
Think about this, okay,everything I just mentioned
about recovery from carbs.
Well, when does that happen?
Well, it happens after you workout.
It also even bleeds into thenext day when you don't have a
training session, your recoveryday, which is one of the reasons
I don't like necessarilyrobbing Peter to pay Paul when
it comes to carbs.
So I would keep the carbs inright, regardless of your
(14:13):
training session.
Don't overthink it If you'retrying to manage calories, you
can shift carbs a little bitdown on your rest days and leave
them on all your lifting daysHeavy light, it doesn't, I don't
care.
Leave them in on your liftingdays around your workout, no
matter what.
But you can definitely up thema little bit and reduce them on
on non uh lifting days.
But don't do the extreme likeglycogen you know, protein only
(14:36):
and then glycogen, supercomposition and all this crazy
stuff you hear about Um, andthen, yeah, if you could always
bump up protein a little bit.
If you are um, if you want it,need it, like it, but don't
sacrifice carbs to do it.
Is my opinion.
Um, now, your observation aboutdeadlift days, beating you up
more than squat days, is usefulas a, as an individual, because
(14:57):
it tells you that your recoverydemand is higher.
And guess what?
Carbs are one of the best toolsto meet that demand and you're
going to fuel your lifting.
You're going to fuel therecovery, both sides of the
equation, all right.
So I hope that answers the thethe question.
Um, oh, I guess one more aspectof this is experiment, right,
you tell me?
I mean, that could have been myfirst question.
(15:17):
If you were my client, I wouldactually have said hey, let's
try it and let's see how youfeel and how the recovery is.
And you're going to be theproof, and you'll.
And if you tell me, if you tellme, that making this big shift
away from carbs on these atthese times is actually more
beneficial in some way, theneverything I just said doesn't
(15:37):
matter.
Does it Right?
Like the science is just astarting point.
It's just a population average,that's all.
It is All right.
And those are the questions fortoday.
Big thanks to Jasmine and Johnfor asking smart, nuanced
questions and sticking with thefollow-ups inside the Facebook
group, which is the kind of backand forth that makes our
community really so powerful.
So if you want to ask your ownquestion, if you want to share
(15:58):
your progress or just learn fromothers on the same path as you,
join our free Wits and WeightsFacebook group, use the link in
the show notes or just searchfor Wits and Weights on Facebook
.
Until next time, keep eatingsmart, training hard, living
strong.
We'll see you in the nextregular episode.
Hey Wits and Weights family, welcome to a quick bonus
episode of the podcast.
Today I've got a special Q&Adropped from our Facebook group,
where we have a monthly AskPhilip Q&A.
This is actually fromyesterday's live in the Facebook
group, which you can join forfree using the link in the show
notes or look it up on Facebook.
One question is about walkingfor fat loss and the other is
(00:23):
whether you should tweak yourmacros on heavy lifting days.
And if you're not already inthe group, again, go to the link
in the show notes and you canask me questions and get a very
specific, contextual answer foryour situation.
It's free, lots of support.
You can get direct answers fromme and the community and maybe
even get featured on a futureepisode like this one.
All right, let's get into it.
So we've got two questionstoday, the first from Jasmine
(00:46):
and the second is from John, andif you want to see all the
details behind this and myrecommendations, jump into the
Facebook group.
If you're watching this videooutside the group or I share
this elsewhere, come into theFacebook group.
For those of you that are herealready, just go check out the
Ask Philip thread to see some ofthe details.
(01:06):
So we're actually going to startwith Jasmine's question here.
And Jasmine asks Hi, philip,I've been on a fat loss roll
since February, without formaltraining, just walking daily and
following a hormone-alignednutrition approach.
That's working really well forme.
I've read that walking helpskeep stress low and supports fat
loss, especially for women.
My question is how long can Irealistically continue seeing
(01:30):
fat loss results with walkingalone and when do I decide to
start strength training?
How would you recommend easinginto it in a way that supports
my cycle energy and doesn'tbackfire on my progress?
And I just realized nowherehere and nowhere in my notes did
I address the question oftraining for your cycle.
But I'll say you guys shouldfollow Lauren Colenso Semple of
(01:52):
Mass because she's constantlyposting about the misinformation
in the industry about trainingfor your cycle, where most women
don't have to do anythingdifferently and it's very
individualized to your specificenergy response and your needs
both for food and for training.
So that's all I'm going to sayabout that is, I generally don't
have to recommend anythingspecific because women are going
to respond individually, justlike men respond individually,
(02:16):
and that's what the sciencesupports.
But let's talk about theconversation that we had and
what I recommend and you wouldshare that.
You're a working mom, you'rejuggling toddler life, you walk
daily, you know all this stuffis down here.
I'm not going to go into thedetails.
You've seen progress.
You bought some resistancebands, you're thinking about
adding strength training intothe mix and then we mapped out a
(02:38):
realistic plan to get startedone gym session on the weekend,
one to two short workouts athome after your toddler goes to
bed.
And the first thing I want tosay is I just love the way
you're approaching this.
I feel the intention, I alsofeel the flexibility and you're
giving me context as to whatyour current limitations are.
And that's the mindset thatleads to results is making the
(03:00):
attempt, finding a way.
Sometimes it's making the time.
And I want to take a quicktangent on the making the
attempt, finding a way.
Sometimes it's making the time.
And I want to take a quicktangent on the making the time
thing, because we'll often getI'll often get comments on some
videos where people and it'sexcuses, let's just admit it,
excuses People say I just don'thave the time.
Or, in response to therecommendation to make the time,
they'll say well, that's,that's, that comes from an area
(03:20):
of privilege.
You know it's.
It doesn't work for people whohave two jobs or single moms or
whatever and I'm gonna argueagainst that because I've helped
a lot of people exactly inthose situations and oftentimes
it's not a zero sum game.
It is not trading one thing foranother.
It's not saying well, I have towork out three hours in the gym
every week, so three hours ofsomething else has to go away.
(03:41):
It's not always that, becausethere's elements of efficiency
and there's trade-offs andthere's um.
You know you can exchange ahalf hour and get an hour
elsewhere.
A good example of that istraining in the morning.
It tends to help people be moreconsistent, come up with a
consistent sleep scheduleSometimes you end up going to
bed a little bit earlier, if youcan and then, more importantly,
the productivity you get fromit and the consistency actually
(04:04):
gives you more energy andcapability and confidence for
the rest of the week.
Also, it leads to things likemore opportunities in your
career and job.
So maybe you do get more incomeas a result, which gives you
more time and or money, right?
So I never want to think of itas a zero sum game and, jasmine,
you have the right mindset tothis.
But I wanted to mention thatbecause sometimes people make
excuses when I say, look,ideally you've got to be
(04:26):
training probably three days aweek with access to some decent
equipment.
You know whether that's barbell, dumbbells, machines um, often
it's not body weight and bandsbeyond a certain point, because
you're just too strong for thoseto really challenge you
sufficiently.
So in that context, I want toanswer your original question
for everyone watching this live,for you as well, of course, and
(04:48):
that is that, first of all,walking is fantastic.
I love walking, not just myself, but the idea of it.
It helps manage stress, itsupports your recovery.
It even increases your calorieburn in a very sustainable way.
Right, I had someone reach out.
Actually, it was the man fromthe Philippines whose questions
I had, whose question I answeredon the podcast about spot
reduction.
He actually just got back to meand said you know what?
(05:10):
All I did was I added some moresteps.
He was getting like 5,000 steps.
Now he's getting 10, whichtakes intentionality for sure.
And he said, all of a sudden,this fat stop started flying off
, right, because for him he wasjust kind of at that threshold
where he wasn't moving enough.
And it's often a gateway habit,right.
Sometimes we think of that as abad thing, but this is a good
thing, a gateway habit to getyourself moving and being active
(05:33):
and thinking of your life asyou know, a functional, active
human.
When it comes to bodycomposition, however, and fat
loss, walking alone has aceiling for sure, and that is
because walking is not going todo anything to stimulate or
preserve muscle mass.
You know, beyond going fromsedentary to walking, it's not
(05:53):
going to do anything.
When you're in a weight lossphase or a calorie deficit and
you're not resistance training,you're going to lose fat and
muscle.
So it's not even a fat lossphase, and that could be some of
what you're experiencing, inthat you've lost some of the fat
, but you probably also lostsome of the muscle.
In somebody who's excessivelyoverweight, who just starts
getting moving and walking, itactually could still be net
(06:16):
beneficial, right, you couldstill net benefit, have an
improvement, and, and, and, and,and, and, and, and, and, and,
and, and, and, and, and, and,and.
You'll have a lower number onthe scale.
But the problem is very quicklyyou're going to start losing
muscle and you're going to havea higher body fat percentage.
You know, like skinny fat is oneof the terms we use, and that's
not the goal, right?
The truth, the truth is herethat strength training is
(06:36):
non-negotiable and I think youunderstand that, jasmine.
But just to answer the questionin general, if you want to lose
fat, if you want to keep astrong, healthy physique, if you
want to keep a strong, healthyphysique, if you want to improve
your insulin sensitivity, yourmetabolic rate, your bone
density, your hormonal healththe list goes on and on your
inflammation, especially theolder we get, after 30, after 40
(06:57):
, 50, especially for women, inmany cases during the menopause
transition, et cetera all ofthese things mean strength
training is non-negotiable andthe question is how do you ease
into it without draining yourenergy?
And so, consistent with kind ofthe recommendation that I gave
you, um down in the comment, andwe can see it here together.
I'm not going to go into thedetails, um, but at a high level
.
Start simple, start where you'reat start, with what you can do.
(07:18):
One full body session per weekis fantastic when you were doing
zero, and that one full bodysession has to be very efficient
and powerful.
So I recommend, in compoundmovements, squats, presses,
deadlifts, rows, pull downs,things like that, prioritizing
good form, you know, low tomoderate reps, progressive
overload, gradually increasingweight.
The challenge you're going torun into is you may not be able
(07:39):
to increase weight at a certainpoint because of the lack of
frequency, because of the lackof frequency.
And so then I said, well, useyour resistance bands or, if you
can get heavier dumbbellsmidweek for the other two
sessions, the shorter sessions.
They can reinforce the movementpatterns, right, the squatting,
the hinging, the pushing, thepulling, and at least try to
maintain your muscle andstrength until the next session
(08:00):
where you can potentially pushfor new maximums, right, and
continue to push it, um, and.
And initially that might workjust fine.
And there are arguments for,you know, single training
session a week, uh, approaches,there really are.
So if it works for you, awesome.
I would say that that's astarting point.
Starting small, working withyour schedule, being realistic
(08:22):
about your bandwidth, absolutelyis going to build consistency,
and then, once you start doingthat, your results are going to
accelerate, your body's going tostart changing and you're
probably going to find yourselfwanting to lift more and find a
way to do it, not just likefitting it in.
And so I get this mindset shifta lot where people are like,
well, I have to work out or Ineed to work out.
I heard Philip say it was sogreat, so I'm going to do it.
He's a decent guy that I thinkI trust.
(08:45):
I don't know, I'm stillfiguring that out and usually
you get the bug when you see theresults, when you're doing it
the right way.
And actually Nick Delgadillo onmy podcast just talked about the
fact that that initial phase isusually very motivating, but
there will come a time where alot of people don't just want to
lift for its own sake, and sothen they're going to use their
newfound strength in otherthings that are fun outside the
(09:08):
gym, whether that's a sport orother activity like hiking or
biking or something Right.
So think about all of that,jasmine, and anyone watching or
listening about eventuallygetting to a consistent gym
schedule, ideally three days aweek.
For many of you with you knowreally solid goals for body
composition, it might be fourdays a week.
For many of you with you knowreally solid goals for body
composition, it might be fourdays a week once you get to the
(09:30):
intermediate phase.
Uh, and then you're going to dogreat.
But you know, don't beatyourself up for starting small,
because it's a far, uh large.
It's a large improvement fromwhere you were.
So I hope that answers thequestion, jasmine, and we're
going to go to the next questionby John, and John is a
consistent poster in the group.
I really appreciate all of hisquestions and I love this one.
(09:52):
I love this one.
It's a nuanced macro, split,slash training, slash energy
question.
His question are there dayswhen you would increase fat or
protein over carbs for lifting,performance and recovery?
And I know why you're askingthis question because you know
how much I love carbs.
The scenario I'm thinking of isa more nervous system, taxing
(10:13):
day, such as deadlifts for sixsets of low reps, two to three
reps the main portion of thatday's lifting isn't going to
need a ton of carbs to helpperformance, I think from
experience.
Hold that thought, john,because there's some truth in
what you say, but it's not thewhole story.
Continuing, however, after I'mmuch more beat up than a day
where the main focus is on squatoh, after that sorry, go after
(10:36):
that deadlift session I'm morebeat up than a day where the
main focus is squat, withsimilar or more reps and sets.
I'm sure there's a person byperson difference here, of
course, along with if someone'sin a deficit maintenance,
surplus of calories.
I'm curious if you've seencases like stated or others,
where you might have someone eatmore fats or protein to recover
or perform better, whilelowering their carbs to keep
(10:58):
calories the same and I had avery short reply where I'm like
carbs are almost always morehelpful.
But I want to get into some ofthe details behind this and the
science.
So let's tackle it all right.
Your deadlift day low reps, highload, very fatiguing on the
central nervous system,systemically taxing we'd like to
say when you might feel likeyou don't need carbs during the
(11:21):
session because the reps are low, and that's your experience.
Right, you might feel that waywhile you're lifting and you
might even I mean, I know peoplethat train fasted, right, I
don't recommend it for almostanybody, but some people are
like, yeah, I do, fine, and it'stempting to think then what if
I shift some of those carbs tofats or proteins instead?
And we look at the evidence.
Here's what we see.
Okay, this is the startingpoint and then we need to use
(11:43):
your personal biofeedback toexperiment and deviate from that
.
Even though low rep strengthwork doesn't burn through
glycogen.
Glycogen is what's stored inour muscles from carbohydrate
consumption before the workout.
Even though it doesn't burnthrough as much the way like a
high volume hypertrophy sessionor cardio or endurance would,
(12:03):
carbs are still very, veryimportant for the recovery.
So you're thinking in terms ofperformance, which is a great
start, but then think about,after you work out, replenishing
your liver glycogen supportingthe recovery of your central
nervous system, even bluntingcortisol after a hard training
session, even serotoninproduction, which helps with
(12:25):
your sleep, which helps withyour mood.
So there's a lot of subtletieswhere carbs come into play.
I still haven't addressed all ofthese on my podcast because I
keep uncovering a longer andlonger list of how carbohydrates
are beneficial for human beings, whereas if you had a high fat
meal after your lifting session,it's not going to give you the
same benefits.
It might even delay recoverybecause it slows down the
(12:48):
glycogen resynthesis.
We know that fats, for example,slow down digestion and that's
what they end up doing.
It's why I don't like havingtoo much fat or fiber before
your workout either.
I want the glycogen to get inyour system from.
The should always be anchoredat a pretty high level anyway,
and we definitely know thatthere aren't really benefits to
(13:08):
going beyond, like the one ormaybe 1.2 grams per pound of
body weight.
Now, some people do use carbcycling, right?
You kind of are implyingsomething like that where they
have more carbs on the trainingdays and fewer on the rest days.
But I've looked into theresearch, I've listened to a lot
of shows on this and theexperts and really have come to
the conclusion, working withclients, that this is not
(13:29):
superior to consistent calories,like evenly distributed
calories, when the calories andprotein are not changing right
Like so calories and protein arematched.
Should you go up and down withyour carbs?
It's, I would say, more of abehavioral tool if you need it,
right, always comes down tolifestyle more of a behavioral
tool and it's not aphysiological tool, right?
(13:50):
So I like carbs.
Think about this, okay,everything I just mentioned
about recovery from carbs.
Well, when does that happen?
Well, it happens after you workout.
It also even bleeds into thenext day when you don't have a
training session, your recoveryday, which is one of the reasons
I don't like necessarilyrobbing Peter to pay Paul when
it comes to carbs.
So I would keep the carbs inright, regardless of your
(14:13):
training session.
Don't overthink it If you'retrying to manage calories, you
can shift carbs a little bitdown on your rest days and leave
them on all your lifting daysHeavy light, it doesn't, I don't
care.
Leave them in on your liftingdays around your workout, no
matter what.
But you can definitely up thema little bit and reduce them on
on non uh lifting days.
But don't do the extreme likeglycogen you know, protein only
(14:36):
and then glycogen, supercomposition and all this crazy
stuff you hear about Um, andthen, yeah, if you could always
bump up protein a little bit.
If you are um, if you want it,need it, like it, but don't
sacrifice carbs to do it.
Is my opinion.
Um, now, your observation aboutdeadlift days, beating you up
more than squat days, is usefulas a, as an individual, because
(14:57):
it tells you that your recoverydemand is higher.
And guess what?
Carbs are one of the best toolsto meet that demand and you're
going to fuel your lifting.
You're going to fuel therecovery, both sides of the
equation, all right.
So I hope that answers the thethe question.
Um, oh, I guess one more aspectof this is experiment, right,
you tell me?
I mean, that could have been myfirst question.
(15:17):
If you were my client, I wouldactually have said hey, let's
try it and let's see how youfeel and how the recovery is.
And you're going to be theproof, and you'll.
And if you tell me, if you tellme, that making this big shift
away from carbs on these atthese times is actually more
beneficial in some way, theneverything I just said doesn't
(15:37):
matter.
Does it Right?
Like the science is just astarting point.
It's just a population average,that's all.
It is All right.
And those are the questions fortoday.
Big thanks to Jasmine and Johnfor asking smart, nuanced
questions and sticking with thefollow-ups inside the Facebook
group, which is the kind of backand forth that makes our
community really so powerful.
So if you want to ask your ownquestion, if you want to share
(15:58):
your progress or just learn fromothers on the same path as you,
join our free Wits and WeightsFacebook group, use the link in
the show notes or just searchfor Wits and Weights on Facebook
.
Until next time, keep eatingsmart, training hard, living
strong.
We'll see you in the nextregular episode.
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