Let's say you started tracking your macros and hitting your daily calorie goals consistently, fat loss is happening, but something doesn't feel quite right. Despite the freedom to choose your foods, the relentless grind of meeting the same targets day after day is starting to wear you down. Your energy fluctuates, your mood isn't great, and your social life and eating out well, let's say they've seen better days. So what now? Do you grit your teeth and power through? Or do you throw in the towel risking all the progress you've made? What if there's another way to approach this one that could revolutionize your fat loss journey and all future dieting phases. In this episode, we're diving into a smarter, more efficient approach to dieting that breaks the monotony of daily targets, and might just make the whole process a lot more enjoyable. Get ready to rethink everything you know about flexible dieting. Welcome to Whitson weights, the show that helps you work smarter and more efficiently to build a physique you want. I'm your host, Phillippe. And today we're diving into a topic that could completely transform your approach to fat loss. Picture this, it's Friday night, you're out with friends eyeing that delicious pasta dish on the menu. You've been diligently hitting your calorie target every day this week. But you're torn? Do you stick to your usual macro budget and order something less appetizing? Or do you indulge and feel guilty about ruining your diet? We've all been there. That constant mental math the feeling of being trapped by your daily calorie goal, even when you're following a flexible dieting approach. But what if I told you there's a way to lose fat without feeling like you're constantly fighting against this fixed budget is fixed daily number, a method that allows for more flexibility, enjoyment, and even strategically planned higher calorie days. And that's exactly what we're exploring in today's episode. Now before we dive in, if you're enjoying the show, if you want more content on building muscle and losing fat efficiently, like today's dieting methods episode that you will not find anywhere else, hit that follow button right now or whatever it's called in your app, hit follow, hit subscribe, whatever it's called, so that you get notified of future episodes, and it helps people find the show and ensure that you never miss an episode. So let's just dive into today's topic. First, we're going to talk about the main and the glaring problem with traditional approaches to died. Second, we'll introduce the smarter, more creative approach that I've been teasing you about that solves this problem. And finally, I'm going to give you three specific instances specific methods that accomplish this just three, and you can come up with many others yourself to give some inspiration on how to apply this to your situation. So let's talk about the problem with traditional approaches. When most people think about flexible dieting, and by the way, if you're not familiar with that concept with that term, today's podcast is a little bit more advanced, because it assumes you know what I'm talking about. But really what it is, is setting calorie and macro targets using an app like macro factor and hitting those targets and then you can eat whatever you want to hit those targets. Okay? There's a lot of other nuance, okay, how do you hit your macros, your saturated fat, your fiber, all that good stuff, meal, timing, supplementation, all of that, of course, but the gist of it is hitting those macros. And when you think about flexible dieting, most people think about a consistent daily calorie target. You know, like, every day, I'm gonna hit 2200 calories. You know, you know the drill, if you've been there, right? You hit your macros, you stay in your deficit, if you're in a fat loss phase, you rinse and repeat day after day. And just be consistent. And you'll get there. And while that's true, you will maintain your deficit if you hit the targets, and the targets are aligned to your metabolism. The problem is that our bodies and our minds are not machines, we're not robots, as much as I've told coaching clients, Hey, you, you know you executed like a robot this week. It's not necessarily a compliment. It's just an acknowledgement that you've been altra consistent, but we can't always be that way because of life. Right? Our bodies, our minds are complex. They are adaptive systems. And I like to say body and mind because they they work together but they also independently create, you know, the challenges that we face during something like a fat loss phase. So they adapt and they respond to the change that's going on. They respond to variety. They respond to whatever is happening in your life, the stimuli and the traditional approach of just having your macros and calories and then tracking them can definitely work. It works for a lot of people, but it can lead to some issues. The first and maybe biggest one being mental fatigue, because you are you are constantly restricting yourself to an extent as much as I talk about not using restrictive dieting, I'm referring to not restricting the foods. You do have to restrict something like the calories the amount of energy coming into your body to maintain that day. deficit. Now, you may be doing other things like increasing your activity, reducing your stress that increase the amount of calories you burn, thus not having to restrict as much with the calories. But there is some level of restriction. And so even if you have this flexibility of your food choices, the calorie level, that is what can be exhausting for people, especially when it's day after day, the same thing. Then we have metabolic adaptation, which is your body just being smart and trying to do its thing and get you back to homeostasis, it starts to slow down your metabolism to match the lower calories coming in to match your reduction in weight to match your reduced you know, your hormones. Well, your hormones downregulating are the expression of that metabolic adaptation. Okay, and so there's that right, and so calories will continue to drop as you go through the fat loss phase. And then there's the whole social and life aspect of this, right? How many times have you turned down an invitation to go out to dinner, where he felt guilty about enjoying a meal, or you, you know, had, quote, unquote, had to say no to that cake, you know, at the party, because it didn't fit your calorie budget, which you might find is rigid in those situations, but like no ifs, ands, or buts about it, okay. And this is where something called nonlinear dieting comes in. And this is going to bring us to our second segment. So we talked about traditional dieting, traditional flexible dieting, I should say, we have calories and macros that are fixed every day. Now we're going to talk about the power of nonlinear strategies for addressing everything I just mentioned. So nonlinear dieting, sounds like what it is, it's not linear, you're not hitting the same number every day. All right. Instead, strategically varying your calorie intake, to work with your body's natural rhythms, and your lifestyle and your by your body. I also mean your mind, your minds natural rhythms. It's a smarter, it's a more efficient approach. That's what we're all about being creative, and finding things that work for you for fat loss. And this often leads to then better results. And, more crucially, an enjoyable, sustainable process, right. And even though fat loss is a restrictive process, by definition, you can make it more tolerable, more enjoyable, more sustainable, and quite a bit so. And so we're going to break down why nonlinear approaches can be very powerful. And there are six key benefits that I want to highlight today for you. The first one, as I've alluded to, is really the psychological flexibility. Alright, one of if not, the biggest reasons that diets fail is the mental strain of the constant restriction, especially if you're going too hard, too fast. Like that is a definite, but even if you're going at a moderate rate, it can still become mentally taxing right fatiguing, mentally fatiguing, especially have a lot of weight to lose. And even though you're flexible in the food choices, you're like, Okay, I gotta hit the same calorie every day, it can feel oppressive. And I've had clients and we have clients in our coaching program, who will say, you know, my goal this week is to hit my macros. And I'll say, Well, what do you mean by hit your macros? And they'll say, Well, I want to get it within plus or minus five. And I'll say, Well, why don't we expand that a bit, and be a little more flexible, knowing that on a given day, you Something may come up, and you can't hit it that rigidly right. And already, we're talking about more flexibility than just hitting the same number. But nonlinear dieting, dieting strategies are intentional, they build in planned breaks from something that feels too low, in terms of calories, and then it gives you something to look forward to. And it makes the process feel less restrictive a lot of is just perception. And the overall average for your fat loss phase is the same, but you make it feel less restrictive. And therefore you're, it's like you're releasing this pressure valve, right for your mind. So that's the big one is the psychological flexibility. The second benefit of nonlinear dieting, is metabolic adaptation. Right? This is where again, your body is an intelligent system. When you consistently eat less, it adapts by slowing down your metabolism. And when you use a nonlinear approach, you're not going to stop metabolic adaptation, let me be totally clear on that you can't stop it, okay. But you can go through phases of recovery from that adaptation temporarily. And then back into the adaptation, rather than just kind of hanging out in that fully adapted state all the time. So there again, more of it. It's more about perception than anything. But it definitely can have some physical and physiological benefits when you have periods of not dieting within your dieting phase. That gives us a little bit more performance. It gives you a little bit lower stress, more sleep, things like that, and that actually can accumulate into better outcomes. All right, the third benefit of of nonlinear dieting is the social life balance. Right? How many times have you struggled to fit social events into a dieting phase? It's a very big thing that comes up all the time. And one of the first resistance Chances are points of friction I get with people is like the, you know, men and women in the 40s 50s busy lives and professionals, you know, they don't want to change everything right? When they hear like, about my coaching program that like, do I have to change everything right? And they're kind of thinking do I have to do I have to live like a bodybuilder? No, absolutely not. Things like nonlinear dieting, right, which I use more often than not these days with clients, allow for more flexibility around social occasions, so that the diet fits your life, not the other way around setup, making life fit around your diet in this artificial way. You're just making your diet fit your life, you're thinking ahead and saying, This is what my life looks like, I've got periods of boring routine, and I have exciting moments where I want to go out to eat more food, right? That's life. And you can actually enjoy the dinner out with friends, and not derail your progress, which is really what we're trying to get to when we talk about sustainability. The fourth, I think it's the fourth, the fourth out of six here is the hormonal benefits. Now this is a little bit questionable. I'm gonna explain why. But when the metabolic adaptation we talked about earlier, you know, suppresses your hormones to an extent. And part of the hormonal changes are higher stress, higher hunger to reduce thyroid function, right. And all of these happen during prolonged dieting. But if you can have periods of higher calorie intake, you can just relieve some of the pressure on those hormones at least temporarily, which then creates a massive perceived benefit as well. Right. So again, we're we're working with our body's natural process, not against it. But again, you cannot permanently shift or undo metabolic adaptation, it's going to happen, you're just kind of moving around where it happens, so that it aligns better with your your rhythms. And then our next point, when it comes to nonlinear dieting, is just sustainability in general, long term, right? By having flexibility, you get better long term adherence to the diet, right. So it's not just a short term thing, it's okay, I need to I'm gonna die it for four or five or six months, because I have a decent amount of weight to lose, I have 20 3040 pounds of fat to lose. And that sounds like a grueling slog, right? Or I can go very much slower, but it's gonna take a lot longer. I don't want to do that either. But if I go too aggressively, then it's going to feel like really, really tough to stick to. So what do I do? Well, assuming you have kind of somewhere in the middle, you can make it even more easy to stick to with a nonlinear approach, you're not just going straight, as a straight line, you're mixing it up, right? You're not just white knuckling through, it's an approach that you can maintain for this long period of fat loss, but even shorter periods can benefit from it. And then the last benefit of these approaches is the personal personalization, the customization. Like to me, that's rule number one about all of this stuff, and fitness and training and nutrition is everyone is different, you know, yeah, we're all humans. But we have subtle differences, not only in our bodies and minds, but how we live our lives. And non nonlinear strategies let you tailor it to those to your preferences are there's a concept? What if you like to eat cake? Or you like donuts? You like pizza? Can we still fit those in? Yes, and it's not just fitting them in, you know, randomly, it's fitting them in in a way that doesn't feel like you're sacrificing the rest of your day, or you're like saving a bunch of a bunch of calories. So you have to have this or cheat meals, none of that, right. We're gonna, I'm gonna give you some examples, and you'll see what I mean. But being able to tailor it to those things into how your body responds, and heck, even to your menstrual cycle, if that makes sense. And we're going to give you an example that soon is what it's about. And this can make all the difference. It really can. You're not then forcing yourself in a one size fits all approach. I can't tell you how many clients had an aha moment, when after a few weeks of dieting, they're like this kind of hard. And I'm struggling a little bit to be consistent. We're like, well, we don't have to do it this way. We can have more calories here, less calories here. Oh, we can do that. Yeah, absolutely. At the end of the day, it's just math. It's just math. And now you're moving the math around. I talk about engineering and systems. And that's what I'm talking about coming up with a creative solution that works with your body. Right. So the key takeaway here, in this second segment about approaches or about nonlinear dieting is that you have options beyond the daily grind of hitting the same calories every day. You don't have to be machine you don't have to be a robot, right you can make you can come up with the smart, varied strategies and make the process more intelligent, more efficient, more sustainable. And dare I say more enjoyable? Yes, even though it is fat loss. Hey, this is Philip and I hope you're enjoying this episode of Whitson weights. I started with some weights to help ambitious individuals in their 30s 40s and beyond, who want to build muscle, lose fat and finally look like they lift. I've noticed that when people transform their physique, they not only look and feel better, but they also experienced incredible changes in their health, confidence and overall quality of life. If you're listening to this podcast, I assume you want the same thing to build your ultimate physique and unlock your full potential. Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your progress to the next level. That's why I created wit's end weights physique University, a semi private group coaching experience designed to help you achieve your best physique ever, with a personalized done for you nutrition plan, custom designed courses, new workout programs each month, live coaching calls and a supportive community, you'll have access to everything you need to succeed. If you're ready to shatter your plateaus and transform your body and life, head over to Whitson weights.com/physique, or click the link in the show notes to enroll today. Again, that's Whitson weights.com/physique. I can't wait to welcome you to the community and help you become the strongest leanest and healthiest version of yourself. Now back to the show. So okay, we've talked about the problem with traditional approaches, right, hitting those same targets every day. And then we've talked about the power of nonlinear dieting. For a final segment, let's talk about the three new dieting methods that I literally just invented for today's show. But they are inspired by the different ways that I've customized plans for clients in the past and just a caveat, these are just three specific examples of an infinite amount of permutations of possibilities. So don't just run with this and say, well, Philip said, there are three methods, I'm going to use one of those. The whole point is the customization that I just talked about. That's the principle, okay. And if you just apply a little bit of creativity, if you sit for a minute, and think about your life, and your schedule, and what you like to do on the weekends, what time of day you train, and how many days you train, the days that you're hungrier than other days. Ah, well, how many of you, does that resonate with? That? You've probably heard influencers, say, like, you got a carb cycle and eat more carbs on training days? And in reality, it depends, it depends on do you need more on a training day, maybe you're the type that actually has your appetite suppressed when you train, and you're hungrier on recovery days, right. So all of those types of things, those nuances for you, if you think about them, maybe write them down right now, you can arrive at a fresh perspective that aligns with both nutrition science and your personal psychology. So I mentioned calorie cycling, which is often called carb cycling, because you eat more carbs on training days and fewer on rest days. And then protein and fats are relatively constant, right? That is a basic form of nonlinear dieting. You're probably already familiar with that. But I want to dive into three creative strategies that I came up with for this episode. And then I even gave them some nerdy, maybe marketable names. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you an informal, you know, trademark on this, I don't even know if they exist out there. I didn't Google it. So hopefully, I'm not violating anyone else's. And for all of these, just so you know, how the how the numbers work, I'm going to be using percent bodyweight per week for the calorie deficit. So I'm not using a percentage calorie deficit. So you might have heard other people talk about like, a 15% deficit a 20%. deficit, I'm using, how fast you're losing the weight. So how much of your body weight per week are you losing? That's, and the best way to do that easily on your own is with macro factor, which is definitely my favorite food logging app, because it also lets you set a fat loss goal and a rate of loss. And then you can tweak the rate of loss. While your goal is still active and implement one of the strategies I talked about today or come up with your own, you could just easily tweak it, right. And that rate of loss will change the amount of calories you're eating. Okay, I'm going to link to a free YouTube video in this show. So under show notes on our episode resources, I have a free video about how to download and set up macro factor for your initial phase for your initial like body recomp phase. So again, go into the shownotes episode resources and click the link for that. But let's start with the first strategy of the three that I'm going to give you today. All right, I'm going to call this one the wavelength diet, or an alternative name, name I just thought of is riding the wave, okay. And this involves cycling between three different calorie levels over a three week period. And I got the idea because in strength training, we often cycle and there's something called 531 or eight, five to where you cycled a number of reps every three weeks, and then you reset, so you can do the same calories. And here's what it looks like Week One. Week one, you start in an aggressive deficit. I always like aggressive first, when you're fresh, you're mentally fresh, you're physically fresh, you've got a decent amount of calories to work with. I always like starting aggressive if you're going to start aggressive and and less aggressive rather than the other way around. So week one, start in an aggressive deficit. And you might aim for up to 1% of your body weight per week, right in Maybe it's a little bit less, it depends on how many calories you have to work. This is where again, working with a coach you can customize to what makes sense for you. So it's not too extreme. So let's say 1% body weight per week, you do that for a week, then in week two, you shift it down to a moderate deficit of, let's say, a half a percent. So like he dropped by half a percent a week. So if you started at 1%, now you go to half a percent. Or if you started at point seven, five, now you get to point two, five, right? You don't want to really go below 2.25, because then you're not really losing weight, are you. So that's we to moderate deficit, week three, you bumped the calories up to maintenance. So week one aggressive, we to moderate we three maintenance, then you repeat, aggressive, moderate maintenance, three week cycle, and you just repeat it. And the beauty of this approach is that it builds in regular week long diet breaks, right? It's like, it's like riding a wave, you've got the dips, but you have your picks to look forward to. And you're constantly kind of mixing it up, which is great for mental psychology for a lot of people where you're still consistent for an entire week. But then the next week is something new. And then the next week is new after that, and now you're ready to reset. So just to put it in simple numbers, let's say you weigh 200 pounds, you start at 1% or two pounds a week. And so your deficit is 1000 calories. Now some of you might be like, well, that's a huge deficit depends on your starting calories. That's why I said you don't have to go 1%, it could be a little bit less. So you get 1% or two pounds a week for a week, then the next week, you go down to one pound a week, right? And that's like a 500 calorie deficit. And then finally, you go to maintenance calories, which is no weight loss, right? You're just eating and maintenance. And then when you do the math, what does it average out to it averages out to half a percent body weight loss per week. So you did very aggressive at one moderate had half, very well fed it at zero. And when you average it out, it's still a half percent loss per week. And so you you plan that out to say, okay, assuming an average half percent loss per week, how many weeks I need to go to get to my goal, right? Or given a duration? How much am I going to lose over that duration. So aggressive, moderate maintenance, repeat every three weeks. That's the wavelength diet. Okay. So strategy number two is what I call the three to two split. And this is a weekly approach. So within the week, you're going to break it down like this, you're going to have three days aggressive. So again, let's say 1%, two days moderate, let's say a half percent, and then two days maintenance. So three to two, aggressive, moderate maintenance. Now notice that out of the seven days, three of them are aggressive, two are moderate, and two are maintenance. So this gives you more frequent variation in your intake within a week. And this can be great for those who struggle with, you know, longer periods of restriction. And yeah, even a week for some people can get a little taxing sometimes. And so it allows for even more flexibility in scheduling your, let's say, your higher calorie days can be the weekend, the last two days, the maintenance calorie days could be Saturday, Sunday, or maybe you shifted and it's, you know, Friday, Saturday, around social events, right, or maybe that's around your big workouts where you need to be really well fed for those leg workouts, right, and then kind of in the middle of the week, you're starting to get tired of the diet. So you shift to that moderate before we get to the weekend, kind of kind of glides you up into the weekend. Right? So maybe you choose Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for aggressive Thursday, Friday for moderate and then maintenance on the weekend. And you can just make it work however you want. Right? So if you do the math, in this example, it still averages out to about point 6% per week, because you got a little bit of that bias with the three days that are aggressive. So you got three days aggressive, two days moderate, it's not like evenly split. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I mean, that's, that gets you in the ballpark, you can shift it however you want, you can shift the numbers. So that's the second strategy, which I call the three to two split. And then the third strategy, the final strategy I want to share is the alternating fortnight right now, for those of you especially in the US who don't use that word frequently, or at all it means 14 days fortnight, right, two weeks, I see it definitely use more with people from the UK and Australia right from the Commonwealth areas. And I thought I would make this a nod to them. So the alternating fortnight not to be confused with the game fortnight operates on a two week on two week off cycle. So again, very simple. The first two weeks is your moderate to aggressive deficit. So you got some flexibility here, maybe it's point five, or maybe it's all the way to 1% It depends depends on what works for you. Okay, two weeks at a moderate to aggressive, then weeks three and four, the next two weeks are slight or even at maintenance. So slight deficit or if you're maintenance, so you've got very aggressive and very not aggressive at all. And then you repeat it every four weeks, right? So two weeks, two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. Now, this is an interesting strategy because it allows for longer periods at each calorie level creates that consistency. It can be beneficial for those who find like all the frequent changes disruptive and don't want to constantly be changing their app or their targets, right where As others really love to do that. And then interestingly, this can be aligned with women's menstrual cycle. And this is actually comes from a few of my clients who had very different hunger profiles in the two different parts of their cycle. And we did something like this. And it worked wonders, because the two weeks of the moderate to aggressive deficit can coincide with the follicular phase, when many women do find it easier. And the two weeks out on your maintenance aligns with the luteal phase when hunger and cravings usually increase, okay, but men can use this as well, again, it doesn't matter, it's just, you know, two weeks on two weeks off kind of gives you that break, the two weeks off, remember, doesn't have to be a maintenance, you can keep yourself in a diet, but just make it very slight. And it's still gonna seem like a lot more food than when you're in the more aggressive deficit. Now, the length and the symptoms and all that vary from person to person, like we were just talking about women with menstrual cycle, some women don't experience the difference, right. So again, you have to personalize this. But it's a great example of how we work with our body's natural rhythms. And we make fat loss more efficient, and less stressful. All right. So that's just three examples, I'm sure you can come up with a lot more. Because you know, the goal here isn't just to lose fat, it's to do so in a way that's sustainable a fit into your life. And as we wrap up this segment, I do want to emphasize that it's it's not about picking the best strategy. It's not about going with one of these three in particular, it's finding the one that aligns with you, your lifestyle, your preferences, your schedule, your goals, and it's fine to test and experiment, try one of these out, try one, if you want to try one of these, go for it. That's why I included them in here. Come up with your own right. The beauty of this, these approaches is by definition, their flexibility, so you can do whatever you want with them. Right? And maybe you can think of another one that would work better for you. And if so, if so, I'd love for you to send me a message on Instagram at Whitson weights, and let me know what you came up with. Or you could just say hello, just just say hello, say, Hey, I'm a listener of the show. Love the episode. Here's why. And if you have questions, send them my way, as well. So Instagram at Woodson weights. Okay, so now that you understand the power behind nonlinear dieting, I want to emphasize it's not about the strategies, it's the mindset shift that these represent. It's getting away from all or nothing thinking, which dominates so much of diet culture, it just does. It's like you got to do this and be on and go after and work hard and be disciplined and get after or else, you know, you're a loser. Right? Or maybe we do that to ourselves, let's be honest. Okay. And instead, it's flexible and sustainable. And that word, those words, like, they can't really be overused, because they mean what they mean. And that is what we want. And if your approach is not those things, if it is not flexible enough is not sustainable. Question it, question it? What can change to make that we don't just throw up your hands and say, Oh, well, it's just not going to work for me, right? Oh, well, maybe I am the unique snowflake. And I'm sorry to use that term, because it can be triggering, but still snowflakes are all unique. So there's a reason we use that. I'm the one that is not going to work for it. No, no, no, no, no, let's get creative, right? Because you're not just changing how you eat. It's not just a diet. Even though I use the word diet a million times today, you're changing how you think about food, how you think about your body, how you think about the process of transformation, which really is just personal and physical and mental growth. You're setting yourself up for long term success, not the quick fix. So next time, you're faced with a choice between this one size fits all restrictive dieting, even if it is flexible dieting with macros and calories and you're like this doesn't feel right. Maybe I should just eat intuitively before you do that, and give up. There's a smarter way, a way that works with your body, not against it. All right. And that's the power of nonlinear dieting. That's the power of channeling your effort and thinking about these things. Because yes, it can be hard. But it can be smart as well at the same time and that way you get something for your heart. That's what we want out of this game, isn't it, we want to get the result. And other people aren't thinking about this stuff. Right? I rarely hear about nonlinear dieting strategies or if I do they're like always the same ones. You've got a blank slate tabula rasa on this thing. And also, using your mental muscle will lead you to find other things in your fitness and health that you might be able to personalize. So there's that benefit. All right. If you are intrigued by these strategies, if you want to explore how they could work for your specific situation, if that's something that might interest you. In my Whitson weights physique university program, we do dive deep into customized approaches like this all the time. We tailor the nutrition plans, we tailor the strategies, we give you real time feedback, as these issues come up to your individual needs and your lifestyle. Right? We help you implement these smarter these more flexible methods for fat loss, right? Most of our clients are aiming to lose between 20 and 50 pounds of fat and we help them get there. Or maybe you're trying to build muscle many of our clients do both. All while giving you on Going support and adjustments and feedback. Yes, there's a community. Yes, there's courses, all that fun stuff. But at the end of the day, what you're looking for is how do I implement this for me. And if you want to learn more about how we could help you do that, how we can apply these concepts from today to your journey, click the link in my show notes to learn more about the physique University, or head over to Whitson weights.com/physique Because getting personalized guidance is exactly how you take your results to the next level and you stop spinning your wheels. Again, click the link in the show notes or go to Whitson weights.com/physique. Until next time, keep using those wits. Keep lifting weights and taking it one day at a time. I'll talk to you next time here on the wits and weights podcast.