December 29, 2023 • 36 mins
(This is a re-run of Ep 69. Originally aired on May 12, 2023.)
Today, I answer a common question many people have when starting their fitness journey: What should you do first to get results on your body recomposition? Should you focus on losing fat, building muscle, or doing both at the same time?
I discuss seven common scenarios and share a 6-12 month plan for each scenario. You can choose the best approach based on your goals, starting point, and personal preferences. Plus, I'll share some common mistakes people make when pursuing their fitness goals, so you can avoid them and stay on track. I also recommend an app that is particularly helpful for tracking your macros, making it easier to manage your nutrition goals.
Today you’ll learn all about:
- Six to ten weeks maintenance phase, establishing your habits
- Common mistakes
- Scenario 1: You need to lose 10-20 Lbs
- Scenario 2: You need to lose 20-40 Lbs
- Scenario 3: You need to lose 40-50-60 Lbs or more
- Scenario 4: You're at the lower end of skinny-fat
- Scenario 5: You're untrained and lean
- Scenario 6: You're trained and lean
- Scenario 7: You're trained and hitting the upper limit of your body fat
Episode resources:
- Ep 25: Lose 30 Pounds (or More) the Right Way and Keep it Off
- Download the MacroFactor app to stay on track with your diet and achieve your fitness goals. Extend your free trial using the code WITSANDWEIGHTS.
🎓 Build muscle, lose fat, and train smarter in Physique University (tap here for exclusive early access + a FREE custom nutrition plan for just $27/month)
👥 Join our Facebook community for live Q&As & support
👋 Let's connect! Ask a question, get my FREE newsletter, or find me on Instagram
📱 Try MacroFactor for free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS
🏋️♀️ Download Boostcamp for free for evidence-based workout programs
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm taking the last week off of the
year to celebrate the holidayswith my family, so I'm dropping
two surprise Rewind episodesfrom way back in the archives
this week.
These are among our mostpopular episodes back by popular
demand and I think you'll findthem educational and motivating
heading into the new year,because they are all about body
(00:23):
composition, one of our favoritetopics.
These episodes originally airedon May 12, 2023 as episode
number 69, titled what to DoFirst Lose fat, build muscle or
body recomposition.
Sit back and enjoy Overall, arewe pursuing a healthy dietary
pattern?
Are we maintaining our weight?
(00:44):
Are we lifting properly?
Are we getting enough sleep?
All the things Okay.
So if you need to lose a littlebit of weight, I wouldn't
actually lose weight.
I would actually go for bodyrecomp, take advantage of being
in a sufficient energyenvironment and take advantage
of those newbie gains forbuilding muscle and losing fat,
and then, after you do that, youcan decide what to do next.
(01:04):
Welcome to the Wits and Weightspodcast.
I'm your host, phillip Pape,and this twice a week podcast is
dedicated to helping youachieve physical self mastery by
getting stronger, optimizingyour nutrition and upgrading
your body composition.
We'll uncover science-backedstrategies for movement,
metabolism, muscle and mindsetwith a skeptical eye on the
fitness industry, so you canlook and feel your absolute best
(01:28):
.
Let's dive right in.
Wits and Weights community.
Welcome to another solo episodeof the Wits and Weights podcast
.
I hope you enjoyed our lastepisode, number 68, with Adrian
Moreno, where we talked abouttapping into your deepest
emotions and telling your powerstory to unlock your potential.
So go check that out.
(01:49):
Today, for episode 69, we areanswering a question that I get
all the time from listeners,potential clients, current
clients, and that is what shouldyou do first to get the best
results with your bodycomposition?
Should you lose fat, buildmuscle?
Aim for that magic of bodyrecomp or body recomposition,
(02:09):
where you lose fat and buildmuscle at the same time, and
today I'm going to dive intoscenarios that the vast majority
of people fall into.
I'm going to explain what yoursix to 12 month plan would look
like if you want the bestresults.
That balances your health,physique and performance.
We're not talking about theextremes here.
We're just talking about thegeneral population, what most
(02:31):
people are looking forward tolook and feel great.
Now, having said that, theseare all designed to focus all of
your energy at one goal at atime so that you can do the
whole process more efficiently,get to that finish line, get the
quick wins and then be in aposition a really good position
to go after the next goal.
Now, before we get into thetopic, I do have an announcement
(02:52):
.
You can now send me an audiovoicemail directly to the show
very easily.
Whether you have a question,feedback, you just want to say
hello, just go to podinboxcom,slash witsandweights.
Or, even easier, just click theQ&A voicemail link in my show
notes Again, the Q&A voicemaillink.
(03:13):
You can send me a question andI will play it live on the next
episode and then answer thequestion.
Or if it's just feedback, I canplay it as well.
Speaking of listener feedback, Idid want to take a moment to
read a few of the recent fivestar reviews from listeners who
I'm very, very grateful for.
In fact, I'm just grateful forthe opportunity to have this
(03:36):
show and this platform to beable to share all of this same
information.
That's helped me and I knowwill help you as well.
So just three short reviews Iwant to read.
The first is from LadyBlackwood quote I've struggled
with my weight for many years.
One yo-yo diet after another,I've been searching for hope and
a way out of the endless spiraland I'm so glad I found this
(03:59):
podcast.
I mean, I see something likethat and it gives me hope that
at least something of what weare sharing here is making a
difference out there.
And that's what we're all about.
We have a review from BrianMontes, who says the host is
extremely knowledgeable aboutfitness and weight loss.
The episodes provide actionablesteps that you can implement
(04:19):
immediately to help on a weightloss journey.
Even if you're not looking tolose weight, this podcast helps
you maintain a healthy lifestyleand I want to recognize that,
the detail, the nuances of thatreview, because this is
definitely not a show aboutweight loss.
In fact, I try not to use thephrase weight loss very often.
I usually use the term fat loss, but this listener definitely
recognized that the things we dohave a pleasant side effect of
(04:43):
helping with our weight, if thatis something we struggle with
and need to reduce for ourhealth, as part of overall
health and improving our bodycomposition.
And finally, nicholas Nataliwrites Philip is knowledgeable
in this space andenthusiastically provides
strategies to shred fat and getjacked.
I enjoy his excitement aroundthe topic most and again, I love
(05:05):
it because everybody getssomething a little bit different
and I am excited about this.
I'm very passionate and if itcomes through too much I don't
apologize because that's me, andI hope you really enjoy that
aspect of this podcast.
So I am truly grateful for thisopportunity to create the show,
let alone impact the lives ofanyone listening for the better,
(05:26):
and I always, always appreciatehearing from listeners, whether
it's through these reviews, byemail, by social or now by
voicemail.
So with that, let's get intotoday's topic what to do first.
Should I lose fat?
Should I go into that caloriedeficit and lose fat right away?
Should I spend some timebuilding muscle and being in a
(05:47):
surplus, or should I try forbody recomposition?
First things first.
We're going to assume thatyou've already gone through a
roughly six to 10 weekmaintenance phase where you
establish your habits, habitslike tracking your food, getting
sufficient protein, strengthtraining at least I would say,
(06:07):
three days a week, getting adecent step count so six, eight,
10,000 steps, improving yoursleep hygiene and managing
stress.
If you haven't gone throughthis foundational phase yet, I
wouldn't even consider goingafter a specific body
composition goal until you do,because it is that important to
(06:28):
being successful.
And if this is the first showyou've ever listened to with me
and this is a surprise or you'rewondering what this is all
about go back and check outepisode 25.
Now the title is Lose 30 Poundsor More the Right Way and Keep
it Off, which maybe it's notreally about.
It's not just about losing alot of weight, even if you don't
(06:49):
have a weight to lose.
I actually spend a good amountof time in there going into
detail about this metabolic prepphase, or primer phase, or
pre-diet maintenance, whateveryou call it.
So you don't have to listen tothe whole episode, but listen
for that section and how Idescribe it and the steps to get
there.
And this is what I do with allmy clients.
When we start, we don't goright into a diet.
(07:10):
We don't go right into a musclebuilding phase.
We get things normalized first.
Now, once you know yourmaintenance, calories and you
have solid practices in placefor training steps and recovery,
you're ready to go after yourtransformation.
So first I want to address notfirst, I've said first multiple
times today, but let's quicklyaddress some of those mistakes,
(07:32):
the general mistakes that peoplemake when going through this
kind of transformation.
And, by the way, I've beenthere for years and years and
years.
I try to transform my body andit was always either random, it
was an extreme, it wasrestrictive, or I just didn't
know what I was doing.
So I would get two pieces rightand I would miss the third
(07:55):
piece, or something like that.
So these are the big mistakesthat I see, and the first one is
setting an unrealistic goal.
I'm all for ambitious goals,for sure, and once we go through
all the scenarios andexpectations today, you'll know
what I mean by unrealistic.
I'd rather you achievesignificant progress within the
(08:19):
realm of possibility, even ifthat possibility could still be
a far reach from where you aretoday.
I'd rather you do that thanoverreach for some massive
progress and then be unable tostick with the process to get
there, and then that sets youback even longer.
So it's that fine balancesetting the unrealistic goal.
(08:41):
Second, being inconsistent withyour training.
While you're going for buildingmuscle, recomp or muscle or fat
loss, the training is one ofthe key principles that have to
be in there the whole time.
So you have to be consistent.
You can't do it three days thisweek, take a week off, then two
days and take a week off andthen some random timeframe and
(09:01):
then finally you're back at itand so on, because you're going
to leave gains on the table oryou're going to lose muscle
during fat loss without thatconsistency.
The next mistake people make isnot tracking your numbers, and I
say it that way because I don'thave to be dogmatic about which
(09:21):
numbers you track.
If you're working with me as aclient, we're tracking
everything.
Basically because I feel thatthe more numbers you have, the
more data you have, the betterdecisions you can make.
At the cost of a little bitmore inconvenience, I get it,
but we're talking calorie andmacro intake, scale and weight
trend over time, your bodycircumference measurements, your
(09:42):
lifting progression.
I want to see are you going upin weight every session on your
squat?
Biofeedback, like hunger,energy, stress, sleep and so on,
how you look and feel, whichcould be measured by photos by
the mirror, and how your clothesfit.
So all of these are objectivemeasures.
Yeah, even how you look, thatis objective because it's
(10:07):
something that can be quantifiedvisually and then compared to
over time.
And then last mistake peoplemake is well, I guess that was
the last mistake, but basically,if you are consistent and you
continue to adjust your planbased on all of this, including
your numbers, you willinevitably make progress.
And to hit those precisely, inmy opinion, you'll need to track
(10:31):
your food.
Now, if you're listening tothis, you should like I don't
track macros, I don't track food.
Either you've done it beforeand you've developed intuition
where you can do it pretty well,like good enough for a fat loss
or muscle building phase, oryou're just refusing to accept
that this is necessary to makeprogress, and it is.
(10:53):
If you don't like this, if youdon't want to do this, you can
still make progress, but itcould be inconsistent, it could
take longer than you'd like andit might result in a less
optimal final body compositionand then require you to go
through multiple phases oriterations to get there.
You're just going to lack theinformation you need to make
those adjustments and decisions.
And if you're cool with that,knowing that it might take
(11:14):
longer, fine.
But I highly recommend trackingyour food and the app that I use
all my clients use.
It's called Macro Factor.
I would look for it in the appstore and you could use my code,
wits and WAITS all one word andthat'll extend your free trial.
You don't have to use it, butif you do, it supports me.
So I thank you for that Again.
(11:34):
The code is WITS and WAITS.
In my opinion, macro Factorblows away every other app and
I've tried them all, I've lookedat them all my Fitness, pal,
chronometer, carbon, rp, all ofthem and it's just it's far
superior in my opinion.
So feel free to pause thisepisode right now.
Go download Macro Factor, entermy code, wits and WAITS, and
(11:55):
start tracking your food andwait.
I mean literally do it rightnow.
Pause the episode and godownload it, check it out, even
take some time to play aroundwith it.
You can send me a message witha question.
I'll point you to resources andhelp you get it going, because
this is going to give you a tonof helpful data to make progress
, okay, and you're going to hityour goals more quickly and more
(12:17):
easily.
All right, with all that out ofthe way, let's get into it,
unless I mention otherwise this,the scenarios I'm going to talk
about.
The first five of the sevenscenarios assumes you're either
untrained, so you've neverlifted weights properly or
intelligently before.
Okay, that was me for like 10years.
(12:38):
I lifted weights, but I wasn'tdoing it the right way, and this
assumes you've never done it,you know, with progressive
overload, to properly buildmuscle.
Or it assumes that you aredetrained, which means you used
to have some muscle and used totrain but you've regressed after
months or probably years of nottraining.
And then I'm going to covertrained individuals in the last
(13:00):
two scenarios, okay.
So scenario one is when you havesome weight to lose, like 10 to
20 pounds.
I think that's a good range, 10to 20 pounds and this is a lot
of people who maybe maybe you'vedieted multiple times over the
years or maybe you're getting alittle bit older and that fat
starting to creep up becauseyour metabolism is slowing down,
(13:22):
because you don't quite havethe muscle mass anymore.
And I would say, if you'rethere or at the higher end of
skinny fat, right, and you kindof know who you are, where you
don't really look quote unquoteheavy on the outside while
you're wearing clothes, but youknow you've got some soft spots
and you want to get rid of them.
Okay.
So in this scenario where youhave a little bit of weight or
(13:44):
you're a higher end of skinnyfat, I would go for body
recomposition.
Okay, this is the only scenariowhere I'm going to say that.
So body recomposition is whereyou don't gain any weight or
lose any weight, but you buildmuscle while losing fat at the
same time, and to do this you'llhave to stay at your
(14:04):
maintenance calories.
So all this stuff I just wentover and spent all that time
talking about, with the pre-dietmaintenance, with tracking your
food, with using Macro Factorthat needs to all be set up and
cranking along for about six to10 weeks so you know what your
maintenance calories are, andthen you could precisely go
after body recomp, because evenbeing at maintenance still
(14:26):
requires some precision to makesure you're not going in the
direction you don't want to go.
So in this phase, what I woulddo is I would monitor things
like my circumferencemeasurements photos and how your
clothes are fitting, becauseyour scale weight is not going
to change.
You're actually intentionallytrying not to go up or down in
scale weight, but you're tryingto improve how you feel in your
(14:48):
clothes, the fit, your strength,your lifts and your biceps, all
these other things.
Your lifts should progress.
They may not be crazyprogression, like they might be
if you were eating more, butthey shouldn't stall.
They should definitely progressif you're a newbie.
The other thing is hunger,digestion, things like that
shouldn't really be an issue,because you're getting
sufficient calories, you're atleast at main inch.
(15:10):
You're in that mildly anabolicenvironment.
If hunger and digestion are anissue, we want to look at our
food selection and pay attentionto things like volume and fiber
.
But I don't want to chase hacksto fix these things.
I want to look at the wholepicture.
Are we overall?
Are we pursuing a healthydietary pattern?
(15:32):
Are we maintaining our weight?
Are we lifting properly?
Are we getting enough sleep,all the things?
So if you need to lose a littlebit of weight, I wouldn't
actually lose weight.
I would actually go for bodyrecomp, take advantage of being
in a sufficiently high energy,sufficient energy environment,
and take advantage of thosenewbie gains for building muscle
and losing fat.
And then, after you do that,you can decide what to do next.
(15:53):
Okay, because you may find thatyou look great, you're
perfectly where you want to beand you're actually 10 pounds
heavier than you thought youneeded to be.
Scenario two is you have evenmore weight to lose.
We're going to say between 20and 40 pounds.
Okay, so you have a decentamount of weight to lose, but
you're not considered in thatobese level of excessive,
(16:17):
unhealthy weight 20 to 40 pounds.
I would go for conservative fatloss.
Okay, conservative meaning forabout 12 to 16 weeks you want to
lose between a quarter to 0.75%of your body weight per week.
So you may have heard me talkabout on the show.
The range of fat loss that'sconsidered acceptable without
(16:42):
losing muscle is 0.25 to 1%.
So I'm kind of clipping thatupper end to 0.75%.
So basically you're lookingaround a half percent body
weight a week.
So if you weigh 200 pounds,that's a pound a week.
All right, this is a balancebetween consistency and progress
, because if you go tooaggressive you're just not going
to be eating very much, you'regoing to be a little bit.
(17:04):
I'm not going to say miserable,but I mean it's going to be
tougher on yourself, which risksyou falling off the wagon and
not being consistent and notmaking progress.
So we want to make progress butwe want to go aggressive enough
so that the fat also comes off.
So this is where 12 to 16 weekplan quarter to 0.75%, so around
a half percent of body weight.
(17:25):
Now here's what might happenwhen you start this.
You might initially see aweight plateau because you're
getting body recomp.
Just like in scenario one,you're actually getting body
recomp in the early phases.
You're not really even tryingto.
You're actually trying to losefat, trying to make the scale
weight go down, but yourBuilding up, your muscle
(17:45):
building, is outpacing your fatloss and your scale weight
starts to plateau Again.
This is where we need to haveour body measurements our
Clothes, how they feel, how welook, all those things because I
have to deal with clients withthis all the time, where they
have 30 pounds Of 30 pounds oflose and the first few weeks
when we start the fat loss phaseit doesn't go as fast as we'd
like.
But then all of a sudden theirwaist circumference comes down
(18:08):
and they're getting new PRs onall their lifts for weeks, if
not months.
That's a good sign.
Okay.
So your lifting will probablyprogress modestly.
If you're beginner, it mayplateau after a while, but I
wouldn't expect a big plateauEarly on because you're new to
it.
Okay.
So this is kind of anothersweet spot where you're getting
a little bit of recomp andyou're getting some fat loss and
(18:30):
if you see plateaus goingbeyond that, I would make sure
your step count is high enough,right?
We sometimes forget about that,as we go into a diet, our
Natural movements and tend toslow down our unconscious
movements and we just move lessto make up for it without even
thinking about it, and so wehave to consciously track our
steps and keep that expenditurea little bit higher.
(18:51):
Okay, so that's scenario twolosing 20 to 40 pounds,
conservative fat loss.
Hey, this is Philip and I hopeyou're enjoying this episode of
wits and weights.
If you're looking to connectwith like-minded listeners on
their health and fitnessjourneys, come join our free
Facebook community.
It's a supportive space whereyou can share your experiences,
ask questions and access freeguides and weekly trainings.
(19:14):
Just search for wits andweights on Facebook or find the
link in the show notes.
Now back to the show.
Scenario number three is if youhave a lot of weight to lose.
So we're talking 40, 50, 60pounds or more, and this is a
pretty simple scenario.
It's aggress.
We want to go for aggressivefat loss.
So, similar time frame to startas the last scenario, we're
(19:35):
gonna say 12 to 16 weeks, but Iwould keep it up to the upper
end more of a half to 1% of yourbody weight per week, because
you're at a much higher bodyweight.
You can probably.
You're probably at a higherexpenditure.
You can handle Roughly the sameamount of calories as somebody
lighter than you, but that'sgonna put you into a bigger
(19:55):
deficit, meaning you'll lose fatmore quickly.
Now, not always.
This is why I give you a rangeof a half to 1%.
If your metabolism is prettylow, it's gonna be a little more
challenging.
But what I would do is I wouldplan for 12 to 16 weeks, monitor
all the things, stay on top ofyour expenditure.
You know if you're using macrofactor, you'll know exactly what
you need to eat every week andthen use diet breaks if you have
(20:17):
to break it up into longerphases.
So if you're 200 pounds and yougo at 1% a week after 16 weeks,
you're gonna lose roughly 16 orroughly 32 pounds.
That's still not 50 pounds,right?
So taking a break, bringingyour carbs up and getting back
to maintenance For several weeksor even months is is really
(20:37):
good psychologically.
Okay, psychologically.
Don't believe the hype aboutrefeeds, about taking three days
or a week and you cranking upyour leptin and everything
recovers and all of a sudden youcould continue your diet at a
healthier state with morecalories.
It doesn't quite work that way.
As soon as you start dietingagain, you're gonna readapt back
(20:58):
to where you were.
But here's the thing a refeedor a diet break can give you a
mental boost and there issomething to be said about the
extra performance in the gym andthe recovery and the sleep and
the lack of stress.
That does give your body alittle bit of a reset so that
when you continue the dietyou're fresh when you start and
(21:19):
there is that to be said for it.
Okay, so, when we're losing 50pounds or more, it's all about
fat loss.
We have to use our biofeedbackand track our hunger.
We don't want to let ourselvesget ravenous.
We're all the sudden, we binge,we overeat, we emotionally eat.
We have to do all thestrategies and planning that we
like to talk about on this show,like meal prepping, meal
(21:40):
planning, eating lots ofvegetables, fruits, whole grains
and so on, and Tracking,tracking, tracking, tracking
their numbers and making beingaware of what adjustments you
need to make.
Now here's one thing that mighthappen and this could have
happened in the last scenario aswell, but I especially see it
here when you're just on aprolonged fat loss phase is the
car.
The calories can start to getsomewhat low and You're trying
(22:04):
to keep your protein high andall of a sudden you're like huh,
I really don't have much roomfor fats and carbs.
My carbs are down like ahundred grams or even less, and
I'm feeling sluggish and I'mfeeling sore and I'm not
recovering and my sleep is alittle bit restless.
This is where we can say,alright, we don't need that many
, that much protein.
If you're at like a gram perpound, we can go down to point
(22:25):
eight, point seven, even pointsix If we have to, and give all
that to carbs and maybe a littlebit of fats.
Sometimes it's the fats that'stoo low.
To be honest, especially forwomen, is what I found.
Just getting that extra 10grams a day could make all the
difference.
So we have to make thesecompromises and these trade-offs
.
The idea here is to beconsistent, make progress, lose
fat, period Okay, and a littlebit of compromise between some
(22:48):
of these variables goes a longway.
So this is a mind game.
We have to get ahead of issueswhen they come up and Don't be
afraid to take a break.
Maybe it's for a holiday, maybeit's for a trip, something else
, where you plan in the extracalories rather than it being
something you didn't that.
You lost control of All right,and then along the way you're
(23:09):
also probably gonna get somerecomposition because you're new
at this.
Okay, I've had clients who are50, 70 pounds overweight and
when they started because theyhadn't been training or moving
and now they are.
They start losing weight and allof a sudden their expenditure
starts going up at the same timeand their calories don't have
to change, like they start at2000,.
Let's say 2200 calories andthey start losing 1% a week.
(23:33):
And all of a sudden they orlet's say not 1% a week, let's
say they're going 1.5% a weekand all of a sudden their
expenditure comes up and theystart losing at a faster rate
without changing their calories.
Or they increase the rate bybarely changing their calories,
or I'm sorry, that's what I justsaid the same way in two
(23:54):
different ways, apologize.
So you could go at a fasterrate by staying at the same
calories because yourexpenditure is increasing, or
you could increase your caloriesand eat more and stay at the
same rate.
That's where I was trying to go.
Okay, so you might be eating2000 calories and then all of a
sudden you could eat 2200calories and continue losing at
(24:17):
the same rate, that's a reallynice place to be.
Okay.
So that was the third scenario.
That was a large amount of fatloss.
And, by the way, the reason Isuggest these specific
directions has to do with thatbalance I mentioned before
between health, performance andaesthetics or physique right.
(24:37):
We're trying to balance themall, but going after one goal at
a time, so I'm sort of givingyou the most efficient goal to
go after, based on your startingpoint.
And, by the way, when you dothat, eventually you will end up
in another scenario, mostlikely the trained scenarios
that I'm gonna get to All right.
So scenario four is you're atthe lower end of skinny fat.
(25:02):
This is where you really don'tneed to be any lighter on the
scale, right, if you have yourclothes on, you kind of look
skinny.
You know, none of these wordsare meant to be judgmental, it's
just our language.
We understand what we mean bythem, and you don't need to lose
any weight, but you need to addmuscle.
So in this case, I would go fora conservative muscle gain.
(25:23):
Okay, some people mightrecommend trying for a body
recomp here, but honestly, Ithink you can stand to push it a
little bit on the gaining sideand you're still gonna have some
body recomp while gaining,which would should be awesome,
meaning you might actually losesome fat while you're gaining
weight.
You may not, but the amount offat gain should be pretty darn
(25:43):
minimal if you're doing it inthis conservative fashion.
So we wanna go for a six tonine month plan, gaining around
0.1% body weight per week.
This is as lean gains as we get, because I would recommend
between 0.1 and 0.25% when yougain, and here I'm talking about
the lower end of that 0.1%.
So you're barely gonna gain anyweight, but you'll be in an
(26:05):
anabolic environment to feedthat muscle building for your
newbie gains.
Okay, so it's like a lean gainslash body recomp and you're
maximizing muscle growth.
You're limiting fat gain tonear zero, or at least behind
the pace of your muscle gain,meaning the muscle to fat ratio
is actually higher than one toone.
For somebody like me who's beentraining for a while, it's the
(26:25):
opposite, right, I tend to gaina little more fat than I do
muscle as I gain, just becauseit's hard for me to add
additional muscle in absoluteterms.
But if you're skinny fat andyou've never trained, you're
gonna like pack on that muscleand not much fat, and that's
what we wanna go for.
And throughout this process,you just gotta enjoy learning to
eat more, which can be achallenge for some people.
(26:47):
Especially if you're a hardgainer which we'll talk about in
a second and you can enjoylifting more, you should be
making really steady progress,session after session, week
after week, on your lifts.
Okay, so the next scenario isyou are lean and untrained.
Which is lean is different thanskinny fat.
Skinny fat is lightweight onthe scale, but your body
(27:09):
composition is a fairly highbody fat percentage, which is
what most people are after, onceagain into their, let's say,
40s or 50s.
They've dieted a bunch of timesand haven't really trained
properly, but they keep dietingand getting their scale weight
down.
This scenario scenario five iswhen you're lean and untrained
and it's because you eitherhaven't dieted very often maybe
(27:31):
you've just sat at that weightfor years with no muscle or
you're young, like in your lateteens or early 20s, and just
haven't had the opportunity togain much fat.
This could also include hardgainers Okay, hard gainers
people who, on the surface, seemto have trouble gaining weight,
and I'll explain why that is so.
In this scenario, if you're leanand you're untrained lean, you
(27:52):
don't have much body fat andyou're light and you haven't
trained, go for aggressivemuscle gain period.
So if you're a 20 year old maleand you just are skinny, go for
this.
Go for all the gains you can.
Six to nine months gaining 0.2to 0.4% body weight per week
this is not a dreamer bulk.
(28:13):
This is not try to gain 1%every week, because that is
gonna gain too much fat, but itis going on the more aggressive
side.
So 0.3, 0.35, 0.4% of your bodyweight per week.
0.4% body weight per week iswhat?
1.2, 1.3% per month.
So that's a decent amount ofweight gain.
You know, after nine monthsyou're talking over 10%.
(28:34):
So you have to be okay withgaining some fat.
When you do this and in fact Iwould welcome it that extra fat
is gonna allow you to move moreweight and it's gonna allow you
to lift more.
All right, enjoy the progresson your lifts, enjoy filling out
your shirt, like.
Those are the things you oughtto pay attention to.
If you're talking about bodyrecombiners hey, my biceps are
filling out my shirt.
Now.
If you're a hard gainer, if youhave trouble gaining weight,
(28:57):
it's a very real thing whereEvery time you eat more food.
Every time you eat another 100calories, your body might
actually up-regulate and burn 50more calories.
So your metabolism is catchingup to your intake, not all the
way, but enough where you feellike man, I have to keep eating
more and more just to gainweight.
In that case, the reality is,yes, you're going to have to eat
(29:20):
more and more.
This is why we want to track,use something like Macro Factor
where it gives you the surplus.
You need to stay in that rateof gain.
Now you have to start lookingat strategies of how to do that
right Eating more fats, eatingmore calorie-dense foods, things
like that, without going intothe processed foods all the time
territory or eating fast foodsor milkshakes or whatever.
(29:41):
There's a good balance.
There's foods like nuts oil,adding oil to your foods, things
like that.
That are nice little.
I don't want to say tricks.
They're just ways to scale upthe calorie density to gain more
.
If you're in that scenario, thebig thing here is to optimize
things like your workout,nutrition and your performance
(30:04):
so that you could maximize thatmuscle growth lifting really
hard, heavy training properlyand getting that recovery.
Scenario six and seven are ifyou are trained.
Scenario six is if you'retrained and you're lean.
You've been training and you'vegone through a cut or a fat
(30:26):
loss phase and now you're at thelow end of where you'd like to
be.
You're basically.
You might see your six pack,you might see your muscle
definition.
It all depends on who you are.
For a male, this might be 10%,12% body fat, something like
that.
Maybe it's eight.
It really depends on you, butit's that lower limit you've set
for yourself.
In that case, we're going to gofor moderate muscle gain.
This is just a standardbuilding phase, which you know
(30:50):
what scenario seven is going tobe.
It's going to be the oppositeof that.
I always recommend, if you'retrained, if you're getting back
to a new building phase, six tonine months, 0.1 to 0.25% of
your body weight per week, thestandard range.
Monitor your numbers, use yourmeasurements, monitor your look
and feel, your photos.
I like to use the Navy formulaalong with my photos how I look
(31:14):
in the mirror to track my bodyfat.
Once I'm doing this, it'spretty consistent.
I know my limits at the top endand the bottom end.
How much body fat do I want toallow myself to get to and then
how low do I want to go when Itoggle back and forth between
this quote unquote lean buthealthy range Not so lean that
you're unhealthy or that bodybuilding range and not getting
(31:38):
to where you're an unhealthylevel of fat for things like
your blood pressure, restingheart rate and so on.
Again, you just want to alwaysbe training hard.
You want to use periodization.
This is where you can starthaving fun as you become an
intermediate trainee andincorporate other modes of
programming like conjugate rightWest side or body building
training, four and five daysplits, power building and so on
(32:01):
.
Okay.
And then scenario seven is justthe opposite of that.
You are trained and now you'rehitting that upper limit of your
body fat, which, for some of us, it's higher than we think,
meaning well, it goes in bothdirections.
Either you're the type ofperson that feels like, oh no,
I'm getting too fat and you'rereally not that fat.
You just might have a littleextra belly there, which is not
(32:22):
a bad thing when you're tryingto lift a lot of weight and it's
healthy to have a little bit offat there or you might be the
type of person that's okay,getting way up into the safer
for males 20% of body fat beforeyou cut.
Guess what?
It's all okay.
It depends on your priorities.
For me, I want to keep myhealth markers in a good place.
(32:43):
I tend to live a little bitlighter than some of my lifting
buddies would want me to stay,but that's just me.
I'm in my 40s, I've had backissues, I've had minor health
issues and I like to keepeverything in check.
However, I am in the middle ofa nine month building phase and
I'm going to push it a littlebit when I get to the end, but
(33:04):
then I'm going to probably pushit back the other way with my
cut.
So if you're the upper limit ofyour body fat, here's where
you're going to go for a fatloss phase at your preference.
This is the only one where Ileave some wiggle room.
So you're either going to dosomething like 12 or even 16
weeks at a quarter to 0.75% perweek or you're going to shorten
(33:26):
that and do an eight to 12 weekmini cut at the full 1% per week
.
So if your expenditure is niceand high, if you've built a lot
of muscle, I'm finding more andmore flexibility now that I can
eat more.
So when I go on a diet it'sreally not that much of a
struggle anymore.
I can go really aggressive andget it over with quickly.
You've done this before.
Keep everything consistent,scale down your meals, focus on
(33:50):
volume.
Don't change anythingdrastically, just hit those
targets, those calories, theprotein and so on.
So let's recap the sevenscenarios.
Scenario one a little bit ofweight to lose body
recomposition.
Scenario two a little moreweight to lose 20 to 40 pounds
conservative fat loss.
Scenario three a lot of weightto lose 50 or more pounds
(34:12):
aggressive fat loss.
Scenario four is skinny fat Iwould gain muscle conservatively
.
Scenario five is you are leanand untrained.
I would gain muscleaggressively.
Scenario six is you are trainedat the lower limit of your body
fat.
You want to do a typicalstandard muscle building phase.
And then scenario seven you aretrained and you're hitting the
(34:35):
upper limit of your body fat.
I would just go for fat loss atyour preference, as
aggressively as you want.
All right, I hope you now havean exact starting point based on
your current body compositionfrom those scenarios.
But if you do still havequestions and there always are
specific questions for yourcircumstance I'm always happy to
jump on a free 30 minute callto go over your individual case.
(34:58):
Come up with a six to 12 monthplan that works for you.
Just use the link in my shownotes for that free call.
My goal with these calls is toget you answers.
It's not to sell you anything.
I really want to get you ananswer, because I know how
frustrating that is for me tonot know what to do.
I don't mention my services, Idon't mention my pricing, unless
you ask me.
So.
(35:19):
My mission here is to impact asmany lives as possible, and if
you're educated about evidencebased fitness and nutrition,
this rubs off on everyone aroundyou.
It makes us all healthier andhappier.
This is where my passion comesfrom, and I hope it does for you
as well.
Listening to this this week, forepisode 70, I'm having a
conversation with none otherthan Cody McBroom, where we dive
(35:41):
into topics related to lookinglike you lift, from using data,
like we talked about today, tobalancing aesthetics and
performance, to overcomingplateaus.
Make sure to follow orsubscribe to the show, to the
Wits and Wates podcast, rightnow in your favorite podcast app
, so you don't miss it.
As always, stay strong and I'lltalk to you next time here on
(36:03):
the Wits and Wates podcast.
Thank you for tuning in toanother episode of Wits and
Wates.
If you found value in today'sepisode and know someone else
who's looking to level up theirwits or weights, please take a
moment to share this episodewith them and make sure to hit
the follow button in yourpodcast platform right now to
catch the next episode.
(36:24):
Until then, stay strong.
Hey everyone, I'm taking the last week off of the
year to celebrate the holidayswith my family, so I'm dropping
two surprise Rewind episodesfrom way back in the archives
this week.
These are among our mostpopular episodes back by popular
demand and I think you'll findthem educational and motivating
heading into the new year,because they are all about body
(00:23):
composition, one of our favoritetopics.
These episodes originally airedon May 12, 2023 as episode
number 69, titled what to DoFirst Lose fat, build muscle or
body recomposition.
Sit back and enjoy Overall, arewe pursuing a healthy dietary
pattern?
Are we maintaining our weight?
(00:44):
Are we lifting properly?
Are we getting enough sleep?
All the things Okay.
So if you need to lose a littlebit of weight, I wouldn't
actually lose weight.
I would actually go for bodyrecomp, take advantage of being
in a sufficient energyenvironment and take advantage
of those newbie gains forbuilding muscle and losing fat,
and then, after you do that, youcan decide what to do next.
(01:04):
Welcome to the Wits and Weightspodcast.
I'm your host, phillip Pape,and this twice a week podcast is
dedicated to helping youachieve physical self mastery by
getting stronger, optimizingyour nutrition and upgrading
your body composition.
We'll uncover science-backedstrategies for movement,
metabolism, muscle and mindsetwith a skeptical eye on the
fitness industry, so you canlook and feel your absolute best
(01:28):
.
Let's dive right in.
Wits and Weights community.
Welcome to another solo episodeof the Wits and Weights podcast
.
I hope you enjoyed our lastepisode, number 68, with Adrian
Moreno, where we talked abouttapping into your deepest
emotions and telling your powerstory to unlock your potential.
So go check that out.
(01:49):
Today, for episode 69, we areanswering a question that I get
all the time from listeners,potential clients, current
clients, and that is what shouldyou do first to get the best
results with your bodycomposition?
Should you lose fat, buildmuscle?
Aim for that magic of bodyrecomp or body recomposition,
(02:09):
where you lose fat and buildmuscle at the same time, and
today I'm going to dive intoscenarios that the vast majority
of people fall into.
I'm going to explain what yoursix to 12 month plan would look
like if you want the bestresults.
That balances your health,physique and performance.
We're not talking about theextremes here.
We're just talking about thegeneral population, what most
(02:31):
people are looking forward tolook and feel great.
Now, having said that, theseare all designed to focus all of
your energy at one goal at atime so that you can do the
whole process more efficiently,get to that finish line, get the
quick wins and then be in aposition a really good position
to go after the next goal.
Now, before we get into thetopic, I do have an announcement
(02:52):
.
You can now send me an audiovoicemail directly to the show
very easily.
Whether you have a question,feedback, you just want to say
hello, just go to podinboxcom,slash witsandweights.
Or, even easier, just click theQ&A voicemail link in my show
notes Again, the Q&A voicemaillink.
(03:13):
You can send me a question andI will play it live on the next
episode and then answer thequestion.
Or if it's just feedback, I canplay it as well.
Speaking of listener feedback, Idid want to take a moment to
read a few of the recent fivestar reviews from listeners who
I'm very, very grateful for.
In fact, I'm just grateful forthe opportunity to have this
(03:36):
show and this platform to beable to share all of this same
information.
That's helped me and I knowwill help you as well.
So just three short reviews Iwant to read.
The first is from LadyBlackwood quote I've struggled
with my weight for many years.
One yo-yo diet after another,I've been searching for hope and
a way out of the endless spiraland I'm so glad I found this
(03:59):
podcast.
I mean, I see something likethat and it gives me hope that
at least something of what weare sharing here is making a
difference out there.
And that's what we're all about.
We have a review from BrianMontes, who says the host is
extremely knowledgeable aboutfitness and weight loss.
The episodes provide actionablesteps that you can implement
(04:19):
immediately to help on a weightloss journey.
Even if you're not looking tolose weight, this podcast helps
you maintain a healthy lifestyleand I want to recognize that,
the detail, the nuances of thatreview, because this is
definitely not a show aboutweight loss.
In fact, I try not to use thephrase weight loss very often.
I usually use the term fat loss, but this listener definitely
recognized that the things we dohave a pleasant side effect of
(04:43):
helping with our weight, if thatis something we struggle with
and need to reduce for ourhealth, as part of overall
health and improving our bodycomposition.
And finally, nicholas Nataliwrites Philip is knowledgeable
in this space andenthusiastically provides
strategies to shred fat and getjacked.
I enjoy his excitement aroundthe topic most and again, I love
(05:05):
it because everybody getssomething a little bit different
and I am excited about this.
I'm very passionate and if itcomes through too much I don't
apologize because that's me, andI hope you really enjoy that
aspect of this podcast.
So I am truly grateful for thisopportunity to create the show,
let alone impact the lives ofanyone listening for the better,
(05:26):
and I always, always appreciatehearing from listeners, whether
it's through these reviews, byemail, by social or now by
voicemail.
So with that, let's get intotoday's topic what to do first.
Should I lose fat?
Should I go into that caloriedeficit and lose fat right away?
Should I spend some timebuilding muscle and being in a
(05:47):
surplus, or should I try forbody recomposition?
First things first.
We're going to assume thatyou've already gone through a
roughly six to 10 weekmaintenance phase where you
establish your habits, habitslike tracking your food, getting
sufficient protein, strengthtraining at least I would say,
(06:07):
three days a week, getting adecent step count so six, eight,
10,000 steps, improving yoursleep hygiene and managing
stress.
If you haven't gone throughthis foundational phase yet, I
wouldn't even consider goingafter a specific body
composition goal until you do,because it is that important to
(06:28):
being successful.
And if this is the first showyou've ever listened to with me
and this is a surprise or you'rewondering what this is all
about go back and check outepisode 25.
Now the title is Lose 30 Poundsor More the Right Way and Keep
it Off, which maybe it's notreally about.
It's not just about losing alot of weight, even if you don't
(06:49):
have a weight to lose.
I actually spend a good amountof time in there going into
detail about this metabolic prepphase, or primer phase, or
pre-diet maintenance, whateveryou call it.
So you don't have to listen tothe whole episode, but listen
for that section and how Idescribe it and the steps to get
there.
And this is what I do with allmy clients.
When we start, we don't goright into a diet.
(07:10):
We don't go right into a musclebuilding phase.
We get things normalized first.
Now, once you know yourmaintenance, calories and you
have solid practices in placefor training steps and recovery,
you're ready to go after yourtransformation.
So first I want to address notfirst, I've said first multiple
times today, but let's quicklyaddress some of those mistakes,
(07:32):
the general mistakes that peoplemake when going through this
kind of transformation.
And, by the way, I've beenthere for years and years and
years.
I try to transform my body andit was always either random, it
was an extreme, it wasrestrictive, or I just didn't
know what I was doing.
So I would get two pieces rightand I would miss the third
(07:55):
piece, or something like that.
So these are the big mistakesthat I see, and the first one is
setting an unrealistic goal.
I'm all for ambitious goals,for sure, and once we go through
all the scenarios andexpectations today, you'll know
what I mean by unrealistic.
I'd rather you achievesignificant progress within the
(08:19):
realm of possibility, even ifthat possibility could still be
a far reach from where you aretoday.
I'd rather you do that thanoverreach for some massive
progress and then be unable tostick with the process to get
there, and then that sets youback even longer.
So it's that fine balancesetting the unrealistic goal.
(08:41):
Second, being inconsistent withyour training.
While you're going for buildingmuscle, recomp or muscle or fat
loss, the training is one ofthe key principles that have to
be in there the whole time.
So you have to be consistent.
You can't do it three days thisweek, take a week off, then two
days and take a week off andthen some random timeframe and
(09:01):
then finally you're back at itand so on, because you're going
to leave gains on the table oryou're going to lose muscle
during fat loss without thatconsistency.
The next mistake people make isnot tracking your numbers, and I
say it that way because I don'thave to be dogmatic about which
(09:21):
numbers you track.
If you're working with me as aclient, we're tracking
everything.
Basically because I feel thatthe more numbers you have, the
more data you have, the betterdecisions you can make.
At the cost of a little bitmore inconvenience, I get it,
but we're talking calorie andmacro intake, scale and weight
trend over time, your bodycircumference measurements, your
(09:42):
lifting progression.
I want to see are you going upin weight every session on your
squat?
Biofeedback, like hunger,energy, stress, sleep and so on,
how you look and feel, whichcould be measured by photos by
the mirror, and how your clothesfit.
So all of these are objectivemeasures.
Yeah, even how you look, thatis objective because it's
(10:07):
something that can be quantifiedvisually and then compared to
over time.
And then last mistake peoplemake is well, I guess that was
the last mistake, but basically,if you are consistent and you
continue to adjust your planbased on all of this, including
your numbers, you willinevitably make progress.
And to hit those precisely, inmy opinion, you'll need to track
(10:31):
your food.
Now, if you're listening tothis, you should like I don't
track macros, I don't track food.
Either you've done it beforeand you've developed intuition
where you can do it pretty well,like good enough for a fat loss
or muscle building phase, oryou're just refusing to accept
that this is necessary to makeprogress, and it is.
(10:53):
If you don't like this, if youdon't want to do this, you can
still make progress, but itcould be inconsistent, it could
take longer than you'd like andit might result in a less
optimal final body compositionand then require you to go
through multiple phases oriterations to get there.
You're just going to lack theinformation you need to make
those adjustments and decisions.
And if you're cool with that,knowing that it might take
(11:14):
longer, fine.
But I highly recommend trackingyour food and the app that I use
all my clients use.
It's called Macro Factor.
I would look for it in the appstore and you could use my code,
wits and WAITS all one word andthat'll extend your free trial.
You don't have to use it, butif you do, it supports me.
So I thank you for that Again.
(11:34):
The code is WITS and WAITS.
In my opinion, macro Factorblows away every other app and
I've tried them all, I've lookedat them all my Fitness, pal,
chronometer, carbon, rp, all ofthem and it's just it's far
superior in my opinion.
So feel free to pause thisepisode right now.
Go download Macro Factor, entermy code, wits and WAITS, and
(11:55):
start tracking your food andwait.
I mean literally do it rightnow.
Pause the episode and godownload it, check it out, even
take some time to play aroundwith it.
You can send me a message witha question.
I'll point you to resources andhelp you get it going, because
this is going to give you a tonof helpful data to make progress
, okay, and you're going to hityour goals more quickly and more
(12:17):
easily.
All right, with all that out ofthe way, let's get into it,
unless I mention otherwise this,the scenarios I'm going to talk
about.
The first five of the sevenscenarios assumes you're either
untrained, so you've neverlifted weights properly or
intelligently before.
Okay, that was me for like 10years.
(12:38):
I lifted weights, but I wasn'tdoing it the right way, and this
assumes you've never done it,you know, with progressive
overload, to properly buildmuscle.
Or it assumes that you aredetrained, which means you used
to have some muscle and used totrain but you've regressed after
months or probably years of nottraining.
And then I'm going to covertrained individuals in the last
(13:00):
two scenarios, okay.
So scenario one is when you havesome weight to lose, like 10 to
20 pounds.
I think that's a good range, 10to 20 pounds and this is a lot
of people who maybe maybe you'vedieted multiple times over the
years or maybe you're getting alittle bit older and that fat
starting to creep up becauseyour metabolism is slowing down,
(13:22):
because you don't quite havethe muscle mass anymore.
And I would say, if you'rethere or at the higher end of
skinny fat, right, and you kindof know who you are, where you
don't really look quote unquoteheavy on the outside while
you're wearing clothes, but youknow you've got some soft spots
and you want to get rid of them.
Okay.
So in this scenario where youhave a little bit of weight or
(13:44):
you're a higher end of skinnyfat, I would go for body
recomposition.
Okay, this is the only scenariowhere I'm going to say that.
So body recomposition is whereyou don't gain any weight or
lose any weight, but you buildmuscle while losing fat at the
same time, and to do this you'llhave to stay at your
(14:04):
maintenance calories.
So all this stuff I just wentover and spent all that time
talking about, with the pre-dietmaintenance, with tracking your
food, with using Macro Factorthat needs to all be set up and
cranking along for about six to10 weeks so you know what your
maintenance calories are, andthen you could precisely go
after body recomp, because evenbeing at maintenance still
(14:26):
requires some precision to makesure you're not going in the
direction you don't want to go.
So in this phase, what I woulddo is I would monitor things
like my circumferencemeasurements photos and how your
clothes are fitting, becauseyour scale weight is not going
to change.
You're actually intentionallytrying not to go up or down in
scale weight, but you're tryingto improve how you feel in your
(14:48):
clothes, the fit, your strength,your lifts and your biceps, all
these other things.
Your lifts should progress.
They may not be crazyprogression, like they might be
if you were eating more, butthey shouldn't stall.
They should definitely progressif you're a newbie.
The other thing is hunger,digestion, things like that
shouldn't really be an issue,because you're getting
sufficient calories, you're atleast at main inch.
(15:10):
You're in that mildly anabolicenvironment.
If hunger and digestion are anissue, we want to look at our
food selection and pay attentionto things like volume and fiber
.
But I don't want to chase hacksto fix these things.
I want to look at the wholepicture.
Are we overall?
Are we pursuing a healthydietary pattern?
(15:32):
Are we maintaining our weight?
Are we lifting properly?
Are we getting enough sleep,all the things?
So if you need to lose a littlebit of weight, I wouldn't
actually lose weight.
I would actually go for bodyrecomp, take advantage of being
in a sufficiently high energy,sufficient energy environment,
and take advantage of thosenewbie gains for building muscle
and losing fat.
And then, after you do that,you can decide what to do next.
(15:53):
Okay, because you may find thatyou look great, you're
perfectly where you want to beand you're actually 10 pounds
heavier than you thought youneeded to be.
Scenario two is you have evenmore weight to lose.
We're going to say between 20and 40 pounds.
Okay, so you have a decentamount of weight to lose, but
you're not considered in thatobese level of excessive,
(16:17):
unhealthy weight 20 to 40 pounds.
I would go for conservative fatloss.
Okay, conservative meaning forabout 12 to 16 weeks you want to
lose between a quarter to 0.75%of your body weight per week.
So you may have heard me talkabout on the show.
The range of fat loss that'sconsidered acceptable without
(16:42):
losing muscle is 0.25 to 1%.
So I'm kind of clipping thatupper end to 0.75%.
So basically you're lookingaround a half percent body
weight a week.
So if you weigh 200 pounds,that's a pound a week.
All right, this is a balancebetween consistency and progress
, because if you go tooaggressive you're just not going
to be eating very much, you'regoing to be a little bit.
(17:04):
I'm not going to say miserable,but I mean it's going to be
tougher on yourself, which risksyou falling off the wagon and
not being consistent and notmaking progress.
So we want to make progress butwe want to go aggressive enough
so that the fat also comes off.
So this is where 12 to 16 weekplan quarter to 0.75%, so around
a half percent of body weight.
(17:25):
Now here's what might happenwhen you start this.
You might initially see aweight plateau because you're
getting body recomp.
Just like in scenario one,you're actually getting body
recomp in the early phases.
You're not really even tryingto.
You're actually trying to losefat, trying to make the scale
weight go down, but yourBuilding up, your muscle
(17:45):
building, is outpacing your fatloss and your scale weight
starts to plateau Again.
This is where we need to haveour body measurements our
Clothes, how they feel, how welook, all those things because I
have to deal with clients withthis all the time, where they
have 30 pounds Of 30 pounds oflose and the first few weeks
when we start the fat loss phaseit doesn't go as fast as we'd
like.
But then all of a sudden theirwaist circumference comes down
(18:08):
and they're getting new PRs onall their lifts for weeks, if
not months.
That's a good sign.
Okay.
So your lifting will probablyprogress modestly.
If you're beginner, it mayplateau after a while, but I
wouldn't expect a big plateauEarly on because you're new to
it.
Okay.
So this is kind of anothersweet spot where you're getting
a little bit of recomp andyou're getting some fat loss and
(18:30):
if you see plateaus goingbeyond that, I would make sure
your step count is high enough,right?
We sometimes forget about that,as we go into a diet, our
Natural movements and tend toslow down our unconscious
movements and we just move lessto make up for it without even
thinking about it, and so wehave to consciously track our
steps and keep that expenditurea little bit higher.
(18:51):
Okay, so that's scenario twolosing 20 to 40 pounds,
conservative fat loss.
Hey, this is Philip and I hopeyou're enjoying this episode of
wits and weights.
If you're looking to connectwith like-minded listeners on
their health and fitnessjourneys, come join our free
Facebook community.
It's a supportive space whereyou can share your experiences,
ask questions and access freeguides and weekly trainings.
(19:14):
Just search for wits andweights on Facebook or find the
link in the show notes.
Now back to the show.
Scenario number three is if youhave a lot of weight to lose.
So we're talking 40, 50, 60pounds or more, and this is a
pretty simple scenario.
It's aggress.
We want to go for aggressivefat loss.
So, similar time frame to startas the last scenario, we're
(19:35):
gonna say 12 to 16 weeks, but Iwould keep it up to the upper
end more of a half to 1% of yourbody weight per week, because
you're at a much higher bodyweight.
You can probably.
You're probably at a higherexpenditure.
You can handle Roughly the sameamount of calories as somebody
lighter than you, but that'sgonna put you into a bigger
(19:55):
deficit, meaning you'll lose fatmore quickly.
Now, not always.
This is why I give you a rangeof a half to 1%.
If your metabolism is prettylow, it's gonna be a little more
challenging.
But what I would do is I wouldplan for 12 to 16 weeks, monitor
all the things, stay on top ofyour expenditure.
You know if you're using macrofactor, you'll know exactly what
you need to eat every week andthen use diet breaks if you have
(20:17):
to break it up into longerphases.
So if you're 200 pounds and yougo at 1% a week after 16 weeks,
you're gonna lose roughly 16 orroughly 32 pounds.
That's still not 50 pounds,right?
So taking a break, bringingyour carbs up and getting back
to maintenance For several weeksor even months is is really
(20:37):
good psychologically.
Okay, psychologically.
Don't believe the hype aboutrefeeds, about taking three days
or a week and you cranking upyour leptin and everything
recovers and all of a sudden youcould continue your diet at a
healthier state with morecalories.
It doesn't quite work that way.
As soon as you start dietingagain, you're gonna readapt back
(20:58):
to where you were.
But here's the thing a refeedor a diet break can give you a
mental boost and there issomething to be said about the
extra performance in the gym andthe recovery and the sleep and
the lack of stress.
That does give your body alittle bit of a reset so that
when you continue the dietyou're fresh when you start and
(21:19):
there is that to be said for it.
Okay, so, when we're losing 50pounds or more, it's all about
fat loss.
We have to use our biofeedbackand track our hunger.
We don't want to let ourselvesget ravenous.
We're all the sudden, we binge,we overeat, we emotionally eat.
We have to do all thestrategies and planning that we
like to talk about on this show,like meal prepping, meal
(21:40):
planning, eating lots ofvegetables, fruits, whole grains
and so on, and Tracking,tracking, tracking, tracking
their numbers and making beingaware of what adjustments you
need to make.
Now here's one thing that mighthappen and this could have
happened in the last scenario aswell, but I especially see it
here when you're just on aprolonged fat loss phase is the
car.
The calories can start to getsomewhat low and You're trying
(22:04):
to keep your protein high andall of a sudden you're like huh,
I really don't have much roomfor fats and carbs.
My carbs are down like ahundred grams or even less, and
I'm feeling sluggish and I'mfeeling sore and I'm not
recovering and my sleep is alittle bit restless.
This is where we can say,alright, we don't need that many
, that much protein.
If you're at like a gram perpound, we can go down to point
(22:25):
eight, point seven, even pointsix If we have to, and give all
that to carbs and maybe a littlebit of fats.
Sometimes it's the fats that'stoo low.
To be honest, especially forwomen, is what I found.
Just getting that extra 10grams a day could make all the
difference.
So we have to make thesecompromises and these trade-offs
.
The idea here is to beconsistent, make progress, lose
fat, period Okay, and a littlebit of compromise between some
(22:48):
of these variables goes a longway.
So this is a mind game.
We have to get ahead of issueswhen they come up and Don't be
afraid to take a break.
Maybe it's for a holiday, maybeit's for a trip, something else
, where you plan in the extracalories rather than it being
something you didn't that.
You lost control of All right,and then along the way you're
(23:09):
also probably gonna get somerecomposition because you're new
at this.
Okay, I've had clients who are50, 70 pounds overweight and
when they started because theyhadn't been training or moving
and now they are.
They start losing weight and allof a sudden their expenditure
starts going up at the same timeand their calories don't have
to change, like they start at2000,.
Let's say 2200 calories andthey start losing 1% a week.
(23:33):
And all of a sudden they orlet's say not 1% a week, let's
say they're going 1.5% a weekand all of a sudden their
expenditure comes up and theystart losing at a faster rate
without changing their calories.
Or they increase the rate bybarely changing their calories,
or I'm sorry, that's what I justsaid the same way in two
(23:54):
different ways, apologize.
So you could go at a fasterrate by staying at the same
calories because yourexpenditure is increasing, or
you could increase your caloriesand eat more and stay at the
same rate.
That's where I was trying to go.
Okay, so you might be eating2000 calories and then all of a
sudden you could eat 2200calories and continue losing at
(24:17):
the same rate, that's a reallynice place to be.
Okay.
So that was the third scenario.
That was a large amount of fatloss.
And, by the way, the reason Isuggest these specific
directions has to do with thatbalance I mentioned before
between health, performance andaesthetics or physique right.
(24:37):
We're trying to balance themall, but going after one goal at
a time, so I'm sort of givingyou the most efficient goal to
go after, based on your startingpoint.
And, by the way, when you dothat, eventually you will end up
in another scenario, mostlikely the trained scenarios
that I'm gonna get to All right.
So scenario four is you're atthe lower end of skinny fat.
(25:02):
This is where you really don'tneed to be any lighter on the
scale, right, if you have yourclothes on, you kind of look
skinny.
You know, none of these wordsare meant to be judgmental, it's
just our language.
We understand what we mean bythem, and you don't need to lose
any weight, but you need to addmuscle.
So in this case, I would go fora conservative muscle gain.
(25:23):
Okay, some people mightrecommend trying for a body
recomp here, but honestly, Ithink you can stand to push it a
little bit on the gaining sideand you're still gonna have some
body recomp while gaining,which would should be awesome,
meaning you might actually losesome fat while you're gaining
weight.
You may not, but the amount offat gain should be pretty darn
(25:43):
minimal if you're doing it inthis conservative fashion.
So we wanna go for a six tonine month plan, gaining around
0.1% body weight per week.
This is as lean gains as we get, because I would recommend
between 0.1 and 0.25% when yougain, and here I'm talking about
the lower end of that 0.1%.
So you're barely gonna gain anyweight, but you'll be in an
(26:05):
anabolic environment to feedthat muscle building for your
newbie gains.
Okay, so it's like a lean gainslash body recomp and you're
maximizing muscle growth.
You're limiting fat gain tonear zero, or at least behind
the pace of your muscle gain,meaning the muscle to fat ratio
is actually higher than one toone.
For somebody like me who's beentraining for a while, it's the
(26:25):
opposite, right, I tend to gaina little more fat than I do
muscle as I gain, just becauseit's hard for me to add
additional muscle in absoluteterms.
But if you're skinny fat andyou've never trained, you're
gonna like pack on that muscleand not much fat, and that's
what we wanna go for.
And throughout this process,you just gotta enjoy learning to
eat more, which can be achallenge for some people.
(26:47):
Especially if you're a hardgainer which we'll talk about in
a second and you can enjoylifting more, you should be
making really steady progress,session after session, week
after week, on your lifts.
Okay, so the next scenario isyou are lean and untrained.
Which is lean is different thanskinny fat.
Skinny fat is lightweight onthe scale, but your body
(27:09):
composition is a fairly highbody fat percentage, which is
what most people are after, onceagain into their, let's say,
40s or 50s.
They've dieted a bunch of timesand haven't really trained
properly, but they keep dietingand getting their scale weight
down.
This scenario scenario five iswhen you're lean and untrained
and it's because you eitherhaven't dieted very often maybe
(27:31):
you've just sat at that weightfor years with no muscle or
you're young, like in your lateteens or early 20s, and just
haven't had the opportunity togain much fat.
This could also include hardgainers Okay, hard gainers
people who, on the surface, seemto have trouble gaining weight,
and I'll explain why that is so.
In this scenario, if you're leanand you're untrained lean, you
(27:52):
don't have much body fat andyou're light and you haven't
trained, go for aggressivemuscle gain period.
So if you're a 20 year old maleand you just are skinny, go for
this.
Go for all the gains you can.
Six to nine months gaining 0.2to 0.4% body weight per week
this is not a dreamer bulk.
(28:13):
This is not try to gain 1%every week, because that is
gonna gain too much fat, but itis going on the more aggressive
side.
So 0.3, 0.35, 0.4% of your bodyweight per week.
0.4% body weight per week iswhat?
1.2, 1.3% per month.
So that's a decent amount ofweight gain.
You know, after nine monthsyou're talking over 10%.
(28:34):
So you have to be okay withgaining some fat.
When you do this and in fact Iwould welcome it that extra fat
is gonna allow you to move moreweight and it's gonna allow you
to lift more.
All right, enjoy the progresson your lifts, enjoy filling out
your shirt, like.
Those are the things you oughtto pay attention to.
If you're talking about bodyrecombiners hey, my biceps are
filling out my shirt.
Now.
If you're a hard gainer, if youhave trouble gaining weight,
(28:57):
it's a very real thing whereEvery time you eat more food.
Every time you eat another 100calories, your body might
actually up-regulate and burn 50more calories.
So your metabolism is catchingup to your intake, not all the
way, but enough where you feellike man, I have to keep eating
more and more just to gainweight.
In that case, the reality is,yes, you're going to have to eat
(29:20):
more and more.
This is why we want to track,use something like Macro Factor
where it gives you the surplus.
You need to stay in that rateof gain.
Now you have to start lookingat strategies of how to do that
right Eating more fats, eatingmore calorie-dense foods, things
like that, without going intothe processed foods all the time
territory or eating fast foodsor milkshakes or whatever.
(29:41):
There's a good balance.
There's foods like nuts oil,adding oil to your foods, things
like that.
That are nice little.
I don't want to say tricks.
They're just ways to scale upthe calorie density to gain more
.
If you're in that scenario, thebig thing here is to optimize
things like your workout,nutrition and your performance
(30:04):
so that you could maximize thatmuscle growth lifting really
hard, heavy training properlyand getting that recovery.
Scenario six and seven are ifyou are trained.
Scenario six is if you'retrained and you're lean.
You've been training and you'vegone through a cut or a fat
(30:26):
loss phase and now you're at thelow end of where you'd like to
be.
You're basically.
You might see your six pack,you might see your muscle
definition.
It all depends on who you are.
For a male, this might be 10%,12% body fat, something like
that.
Maybe it's eight.
It really depends on you, butit's that lower limit you've set
for yourself.
In that case, we're going to gofor moderate muscle gain.
This is just a standardbuilding phase, which you know
(30:50):
what scenario seven is going tobe.
It's going to be the oppositeof that.
I always recommend, if you'retrained, if you're getting back
to a new building phase, six tonine months, 0.1 to 0.25% of
your body weight per week, thestandard range.
Monitor your numbers, use yourmeasurements, monitor your look
and feel, your photos.
I like to use the Navy formulaalong with my photos how I look
(31:14):
in the mirror to track my bodyfat.
Once I'm doing this, it'spretty consistent.
I know my limits at the top endand the bottom end.
How much body fat do I want toallow myself to get to and then
how low do I want to go when Itoggle back and forth between
this quote unquote lean buthealthy range Not so lean that
you're unhealthy or that bodybuilding range and not getting
(31:38):
to where you're an unhealthylevel of fat for things like
your blood pressure, restingheart rate and so on.
Again, you just want to alwaysbe training hard.
You want to use periodization.
This is where you can starthaving fun as you become an
intermediate trainee andincorporate other modes of
programming like conjugate rightWest side or body building
training, four and five daysplits, power building and so on
(32:01):
.
Okay.
And then scenario seven is justthe opposite of that.
You are trained and now you'rehitting that upper limit of your
body fat, which, for some of us, it's higher than we think,
meaning well, it goes in bothdirections.
Either you're the type ofperson that feels like, oh no,
I'm getting too fat and you'rereally not that fat.
You just might have a littleextra belly there, which is not
(32:22):
a bad thing when you're tryingto lift a lot of weight and it's
healthy to have a little bit offat there or you might be the
type of person that's okay,getting way up into the safer
for males 20% of body fat beforeyou cut.
Guess what?
It's all okay.
It depends on your priorities.
For me, I want to keep myhealth markers in a good place.
(32:43):
I tend to live a little bitlighter than some of my lifting
buddies would want me to stay,but that's just me.
I'm in my 40s, I've had backissues, I've had minor health
issues and I like to keepeverything in check.
However, I am in the middle ofa nine month building phase and
I'm going to push it a littlebit when I get to the end, but
(33:04):
then I'm going to probably pushit back the other way with my
cut.
So if you're the upper limit ofyour body fat, here's where
you're going to go for a fatloss phase at your preference.
This is the only one where Ileave some wiggle room.
So you're either going to dosomething like 12 or even 16
weeks at a quarter to 0.75% perweek or you're going to shorten
(33:26):
that and do an eight to 12 weekmini cut at the full 1% per week
.
So if your expenditure is niceand high, if you've built a lot
of muscle, I'm finding more andmore flexibility now that I can
eat more.
So when I go on a diet it'sreally not that much of a
struggle anymore.
I can go really aggressive andget it over with quickly.
You've done this before.
Keep everything consistent,scale down your meals, focus on
(33:50):
volume.
Don't change anythingdrastically, just hit those
targets, those calories, theprotein and so on.
So let's recap the sevenscenarios.
Scenario one a little bit ofweight to lose body
recomposition.
Scenario two a little moreweight to lose 20 to 40 pounds
conservative fat loss.
Scenario three a lot of weightto lose 50 or more pounds
(34:12):
aggressive fat loss.
Scenario four is skinny fat Iwould gain muscle conservatively
.
Scenario five is you are leanand untrained.
I would gain muscleaggressively.
Scenario six is you are trainedat the lower limit of your body
fat.
You want to do a typicalstandard muscle building phase.
And then scenario seven you aretrained and you're hitting the
(34:35):
upper limit of your body fat.
I would just go for fat loss atyour preference, as
aggressively as you want.
All right, I hope you now havean exact starting point based on
your current body compositionfrom those scenarios.
But if you do still havequestions and there always are
specific questions for yourcircumstance I'm always happy to
jump on a free 30 minute callto go over your individual case.
(34:58):
Come up with a six to 12 monthplan that works for you.
Just use the link in my shownotes for that free call.
My goal with these calls is toget you answers.
It's not to sell you anything.
I really want to get you ananswer, because I know how
frustrating that is for me tonot know what to do.
I don't mention my services, Idon't mention my pricing, unless
you ask me.
So.
(35:19):
My mission here is to impact asmany lives as possible, and if
you're educated about evidencebased fitness and nutrition,
this rubs off on everyone aroundyou.
It makes us all healthier andhappier.
This is where my passion comesfrom, and I hope it does for you
as well.
Listening to this this week, forepisode 70, I'm having a
conversation with none otherthan Cody McBroom, where we dive
(35:41):
into topics related to lookinglike you lift, from using data,
like we talked about today, tobalancing aesthetics and
performance, to overcomingplateaus.
Make sure to follow orsubscribe to the show, to the
Wits and Wates podcast, rightnow in your favorite podcast app
, so you don't miss it.
As always, stay strong and I'lltalk to you next time here on
(36:03):
the Wits and Wates podcast.
Thank you for tuning in toanother episode of Wits and
Wates.
If you found value in today'sepisode and know someone else
who's looking to level up theirwits or weights, please take a
moment to share this episodewith them and make sure to hit
the follow button in yourpodcast platform right now to
catch the next episode.
(36:24):
Until then, stay strong.
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