You've been training to build strength and muscle. But now you're ready to reveal that harder and physique. The problem is you've never successfully and permanently cut body fat before. And now you're looking to lose anywhere from 10 to 30 pounds. What if I told you there's a smarter, more efficient way to approach your first cut, other than what most people do, that actually preserves muscle and strength. It keeps your energy high and it doesn't require you to cut carbs, live off chicken and broccoli or ramp up your cardio. Today, you'll learn exactly that so you can execute your fat loss phase successfully, the first time. Welcome to Whitson weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique. I'm your host, Philip pape, and today we're discussing how to execute your very first cut, and lose 10 to 30 pounds of fat. Now, the process of dropping body fat is not that hard to understand. But the actual implementation is what usually holds people up. First are the basic questions. How many calories? How fast do I lose weight? How much protein? What about carbs? What about my training and cardio? But where people run into a wall is not just with the information? It's with all the what ifs for their personal situation? And their individual response? What are the mistakes people make? Why do cuts fail? And how can you be successful. And that's exactly what we're exploring in today's episode, your very first cut, lose 10 to 30 pounds of fat. Now if you want a detailed guide to help you set up your next cut and dial in your nutrition, I've got a free nutrition for body composition guide that gives you details on numbers like calories and macros, with sections on hydration supplements, how to eat and more, it's really a nice complement to today's episode that can help you follow along and fill in all those details. So to get your free copy, just click the link in the show notes. Or go to Whitson weights.com/free. You know, set yourself up for success here by downloading my free guide. It's for body composition nutrition, downloaded by clicking the link in the show notes or going to Whitson weights.com/free Alright, so today, we are covering three sections. First of all the mistakes people usually make during their first cut. This is what often holds people up and why people fail not only to properly complete the cut, but to maintain the results, then we're gonna go over some smart, efficient approaches to cutting body fat without sacrificing muscle or sanity. And then finally, I'll give you a step by step guide to implementing this approach for your own successful cut. So we're going to kick things off with what are the problems most people face when attempting their first cut. And after years of helping people and lots and lots of clients and listeners go through this process? I've definitely seen some common pitfalls come up over and over and over again. And I'm going to simplify them here into the top five that I think are most common. So the first one is this whole idea of a crash diet, a quick fix, or I just need to get the results, I'm going to do it fast, I'm going to slash my calories dramatically to get the results. Because on one hand, yes, energy balance is a thing. When you burn or when you consume fewer calories than you burn, you're going to lose weight. But when you do it too quickly, although it leads to rapid weight loss, a good chunk of that is muscle. Right. So this is this is like rule number one when it comes to dieting or fat loss is not doing it too quickly, because of the potential for muscle loss. But not not only that, also the hunger, the irritability, and then the inevitable rebound that happens that leads to what we call yo yo dieting. And even if you don't think you're necessarily prone to that, think of all the times you've tried to lose fat and maybe not maintain the results. Or you've gone on a quote unquote, diet. Maybe it's keto carnivore or something else. And it's a temporary situation. And then you're done with a fat loss phase. And then you go back to eating how you were before and gain the weight back. All of that's kind of tied into this crash diet trap that people find themselves in. So the antidote to that, of course is going to be not going to quickly we're going to get into that. But that's the first one. The second mistake people make is cardio overkill, right chronic cardio, you might have heard it called because there's this persistent myth not sure why it's still out there, that these endless hours of cardio are the key to fat loss. And I hear it in the language and people say well, I'm going to in a fat loss phase, so therefore I'm going to ramp up my cardio or ramp up even my even steps even walking. And I am a big fan of Addy movement where it makes sense and it's sustainable, and it will help but too much. Not only can be unsustainable, it can backfire because it can possibly interfere with your recovery. It can add stress and it causes your body sometimes to compensate and actually lower your metabolism and then all of This ties into the first one of okay, you're going too fast, you've got too much stress in your body. Now you're exacerbating that. And it's just a recipe for disaster, hunger, all the things poor sleep, and then you're done. Like, you don't want to finish the fat loss phase. So, too much cardio can be a problem, there's a strategic way to incorporate cardio. The third pitfall is food restriction. Now, this is somewhat tied to the first one of, of going too quickly. But in this case, I'm specifically talking about cutting out foods or entire food groups, or trying to subsist on what you think of as clean foods only. It's like your diet foods, it's like when I'm in a diet, I eat this or I cut these things out. And then when I'm not I go back, that is the opposite of sustainable, right? Not only that, it's it's pretty miserable. And let's be honest, to do that in any context, it can also lead to nutrient deficiencies, and it throws off your macro balance, it just makes it harder, rather than easier, which is kind of counterintuitive. But it really is. I like to think of it this way, a diet is very simple to understand, right? You eat this, you eat that. But then when you put it into practice, you realize that in your individual situation, it doesn't work at all, because the things they're telling you to cut are things that you would otherwise like to eat. And again, that is not sustainable. So food restriction, no, you know, reducing calories, yes, we're going to reduce calories, we're going to do it in a smart way and still have foods that you enjoy. The next pitfall is on the strength training side, basically neglecting your strength training, or not doing it properly to hold on to that strength and muscle. Some folks or a lot of folks think they need to switch to high rep low rep, sorry, high rep, low weight training during a cut, when in reality, keeping the load or the intensity high. Keeping that stimulus high is actually one of the most important factors for holding on to your muscle mass. And it really comes down to are you training close to failure? Are you training hard, it doesn't preclude you going to a higher rep type of program like a bodybuilding program. But by definition, you don't need to switch up your training entirely, you can usually continue doing the exact same thing, if the recovery is okay. So that's the fourth pitfall. And then the finally, is up here between your years is the impatience and the unrealistic expectations, okay. And that kind of all ties into an adherence and consistency and maybe even motivation, where you think you can lose more than you really can in a certain period. Right. And that leads you to go too quickly number, the first pitfall. And so you have these unrealistic expectations, like I need, I need, I need to lose 30 pounds, and I'm going to do it in two months, right or something like that. And then when it doesn't start to happen fast enough, you get impatient. Whereas the opposite of, of coming up with a very reasonable, moderate rate of loss where you may, you may lose half of what you thought you can lose in that period. But you can go week after week, and keep executing, and you can have your social events, and you can enjoy your foods. And it ties in to all the other pitfalls we talked about overcoming and now you end up losing a bunch of weight that you wouldn't have been able to lose otherwise. Because because of the impatience and the unrealistic expectations, right? You don't want to go too aggressive, overall with your approach, and harm yourself in the process mentally and physically. So what happens when you have any one or combination of these mistakes? That's where we have our failed cuts. That's where we have our yo yo dieting. That's where we have muscle loss, and ultimately, frustration. All right, so those are the classic big mistakes people make. Now I'm going to talk about principles that will help you be successful. And you're going to notice that these principles are often a an antidote to the pitfalls. So the first one is gradual calorie reduction, right, instead of slashing calories, massively, or cutting or whatever, or cutting lots of foods out so that you can cut calories significantly, we're going to create a moderate deficit that allows for steady fat loss while preserving muscle. Now outside of the scope of this episode, there are recent episodes I've done on my stairstep fat loss process, and also three new ways to do a dieting phase, which are basically nonlinear diets. And those are other creative ways to go at different moderate deficits for you, that help you get through the process because ultimately, the thing that's going to make you successful is can you stick with it to eventually get that result. Alright, so gradual calorie reduction. Next, we're going to focus on protein, right Protein Protein Protein, keeping that protein high, and I say high but in reality, it's balanced, but it's high compared to the general population. Most people are very underfed on protein, you are aiming for a much higher level more in that. We're going to talk about the numbers but it's point seven to one gram per pound of your target, excuse me of your target body weight, keeping that Protein high is going to preserve your muscle mass during the cut. The next principle is maintaining your strength. Now I put it that way on purpose because there's nothing you can do about how much muscle you maintain. In other words, you can't directly influence that. But indirectly, by thinking in terms of strength, in other words, pushing your progressive overload in the gym, pushing, getting more reps or more weight, even though you're in fat loss and mentally going after it that way is going to put you in the regime where you're you got, you have that signal to your body that it has to hold on to muscle, what you may find in reality is that as you're losing weight, let's say you've lost 510 pounds, and all of a sudden, maybe you miss a rep, right, or maybe you can't go up in weight, but you got the same reps or the same weight as last time, well, the fact you have five or 10 pounds lighter, and pushing the same weight as last time than you were five or 10 pounds heavier, means you're actually stronger in relative terms, right. And I don't know if what order the episodes are coming out. But I did an episode about scaling laws, where like, you have to think of relative strength, not just absolute strength. And when you're losing weight, the relative strength is important. Keep in mind from a mental perspective, because we're emphasizing, maintaining that strength, which then maintains that muscle. Alright, so the next principle is strategic cardio, which again, you see how these align with the other pitfalls I talked about. So instead of this, like I just need to be on the endless treadmill, you know, metaphorical treadmill, it could be running, it could be, it could be biking, it could be whatever. Instead of that, we're going to use cardio strategically. And the way I would do this is number one, incorporate walks, where they're enjoyable, you can use some habit stacking, like listening to a podcast while you walk something like that. Or if you've got a treadmill and you want to watch Netflix, or do some work while you walk, things like that you do it strategically if you're trying to add some activity, but you can also make your existing cardio a little bit harder. So you know, burn a little bit more calories, and take more advantage of the time you have but without pushing it. So this would be for example, going on an incline when you walk instead of flat, or adding a rucksack, right or hopping on a an assault bike that you've never done before. And now it's going to probably burn more calories because you're not you're kind of clumsy at it, you kind of inefficient at it. So these are strategic ways incorporate cardio. Having said that, if you enjoy these activities, any form of cardio and want to include it throughout your week, as long as you don't overdo it and it doesn't overcome your lifting in terms of quantity, then you're probably fine. Just got to listen to your body and listen to your recovery. 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 cleanest and healthiest version of yourself. Now back to the show. The next one is flexible dieting. So this one goes hand in hand with the food restriction. In this case, we are saying no food is off limits, right? We're focused on hitting our macros, enjoying a variety of foods, and listening to our body. Now that listening to our body part gets a little bit wonky, because people are like, What do you mean? Well, very simply, I would say hunger is going to be the big one. And then things like digestion, right? And just generally how you feel after eating things are going to be the other drivers. So during fat loss, if you're hitting all your macros, but you're still hungry, then you then you ask yourself, Okay, am I hungry? Because it's normal physical hunger because I'm losing fat in which case, I can reframe it as a positive like, Hey, I've got some hunger. Pretty cool. That means I'm losing fat. Let me go get a glass of water, go do some activity, whatever, or is it emotional hunger, which is a whole whole different situation that we have to analyze as well and it's okay to have both. And both can have different solutions, right like replacing a sweet tooth cream Been with fruit, or adding lots of veggies to your lunch and dinner to fill you up, or switching around your meal timing. So that, you know, your body doesn't think you've got this long stretch where you're just not eating, and now you get hungry. Because the calories are low. There's a lot of clever things we can do. There's no one right approach. But that's the part of the flexibility. It's the flexibility with food, but also how you arrange that food within your day to day. And then finally, of course, we have the antidote of impatience and unrealistic expectations is realistic expectations and patience, right? The long game is actually the fastest path. I've said that before. But I want to reiterate here, because like, just like the tortoise and hare right, slow and steady, when it comes to fat loss will definitely help you get through it. Because even if you ultimately don't lose as much as you want it to in a certain period, you're probably going to lose a lot more than you would have if you were impatient and try to go after it quickly. And our brains have a hard time reconciling that. But all you have to do is look to your past look to those times when you did a diet and either gave up, or you binge, or you lost a bunch of weight, and then you went back and quickly gained it back. Right? And I don't so I don't want you to say that, Oh, keto worked for me because I lost 40 pounds, and then you gained 50 pounds back, okay, then keto didn't work for you. But if you lost 40 pounds over, say twice as long of a period, and then now you're able to maintain the results, you know what your maintenance calories look like, you can kind of hold on to that physique for a while, ah, then you've done it, okay. And I fell into this trap many, many times, I went through many diets, some weird ones, I didn't even have names for where I'd have these small lists of strange foods that I put together, that I was basically just cutting a ton of calories by limiting my palette. And I was miserable, and I lose a bunch of weight, I lose a bunch of muscle. And then of course, I'm done and say, okay, thank God, now I can go back to what I was eating before, where's the pizza, right. And that is not what we're trying to do. So those of you thinking, I just need to cut carbs, oh, I just need to go on carnivore, I see it in my lifting communities, where kind of the advice that gets thrown around often is like, you just got to eat clean for a while, you just gotta cut this, this this and shake my head. And, you know, I hesitate to jump in and offer advice to people who don't want it. But I see that. And I'm thinking that's that's how people get into trouble. And for those of you who've reached out to me or like helped me out, because I don't want to do it that way, you find that you don't have to do it that way. So this approach allows you to lose fat, to maintain muscle to keep your energy levels stable. And here's the thing to enjoy the process. Like it's a process of growth, and mental and physical evolution. It's learning about yourself and learning what can actually work just like when you're lifting weights, okay, don't think of these as as, as distinct processes. They're all processes of growth, having a growth mindset, learning about yourself and not suffering through. Right, not thinking that this is a punishment, or a short term, terrible extreme situation I have to put myself through, it doesn't have to be that way. Alright, so we talked about common mistakes, and common principles, right. For this last segment, I'm just going to break this down into some basic steps that you can take to implement this approach. And of course, if you want more details, this is where you definitely want to reach out and check out some of my other content, because I break things down for different areas. You can't learn this on the day necessarily, but you can definitely understand the overall process pretty quickly. Alright, so step one is to establish your baseline. Well, how did you do that? Okay, when you're lifting weights, how do you establish your baseline for your squat? Well, you kind of test out your squat. On day one, you're pretty clumsy, you don't have very good form, you keep it light. And you learn a little bit about your technique. Okay, next day you go in, you're a little more confident, maybe add a little bit more weight, you get a little bit better technique. Basically, you go for a few weeks, maybe two to three weeks, right? And by the end of two or three weeks, you've got a pretty decent squat, assuming you've had some feedback, right? A coach form checks, whatever. And you kind of know where your baseline is, in terms of strength. Well, same thing with your diet and your body. If you can spend two to three weeks tracking your food, tracking your weight, and then you can kind of figure out how many calories is my body actually burning? Right? And I talked all about this in the macros are all you need episode. That might have been last week actually, and I talked about using macro factor to do this. But there's a lot of ways you can do it. You need to understand your baseline by tracking and measuring. Step two is now you can set your calorie target. And this is where you would say okay, I want to go into fat loss. And so forget about what target you want. Think about what rate of loss is sustainable, and let that determine what target you can hit when it's a different way than most people think most people put it the other way around, like I have to lose 20 pounds, and then they come up with a plan based on that and the plan ends up being not right for them. So set your calorie target for something like half a percent of your body weight a week, which for a lot of people is going to be about a pound a week, or a 500 calorie deficit a day. Like that's a really good ballpark for a lot of people. If you're bigger, if you have a lot more muscle, if you've done this before, you might be able to push it to pound and a half or up to two pounds. But that tends to be more on the aggressive side. I've rarely rarely had clients above that. But I've often had clients below the pound per week because of their metabolism, because their metabolism isn't that high. Because remember, whatever deficit you set, and the calories that results in for you to eat, you've got to look at that number and say, Can I eat this way day after day after day? For like 12 or 16 weeks or potentially longer, right? And if the answer is no, then it's too aggressive. Or you need a more creative approach, like shifting your calories around cycling, nonlinear dieting, all of that well beyond the scope of this episode. But that's how we make it sustainable. Then step three is is focusing on your macros, right, so you've got a calorie target, within that calorie target, you're going to keep the protein pretty high, the fats pretty moderate, say around 20 to 30% of your calories. And then the rest are carbs. Depending on your calorie level, this will probably result in a moderate to lower amount of carbs during fat loss. And for some of you smaller females or even smaller males who have a lower metabolism. This could result in fairly low carbs. And we're not doing a low carb diet. We're not doing keto, we're not doing this any anything intentionally like that. But we are trying to keep the protein high in the fats moderate, and it may result in fairly low carbs or fat loss. And it may look almost like a low carb diet in that sense. And so that's one of the trade offs we make. Alright, so you know what your baseline is, right? We know what our deficit is, we've got our macro set. What about training, I've mentioned it already, plan your training to just be the same. And if recovery starts to become an issue, or if you're always trying to push PRs, that may not be appropriate for fat loss, you may need to go to something different, moderate the volume, moderate the days per week, right. And then along with that as the strategic cardio, like we talked about before, and then all you're going to do is track and adjust, track and adjust. And this is where rapid prototyping comes into play. Another another principle I talked about on a recent episode, I look it up rapid prototyping, go to my catalog, you'll see only one episode with that term. And this really is about experimenting with yourself as you go along. Because whatever plan you had on day one, by day two, or by week two, it may need change. So that you can continue making sustainable progress. It's data driven adjustments. This is where having an accountability partner. Having a coach having a community is massive, it's a huge game changer. Because those people can look over your shoulder and say, Hey, did you do this? And how do you feel? And is this working for you. And if not, here are some ideas. Lastly, of course, be can be patient and consistent. And plan for your cut to last anywhere from eight to 16 weeks, on average, eight to 16 weeks. So if you know your rate of loss, and you assume eight to 16 weeks, because beyond that, it just gets kind of miserable. And I wouldn't recommend being in fat loss longer than that at any one time. Just do the math. And you can kind of tell the ballpark where you're going to end up with at a target weight. And you can reverse engineer that and say, Okay, now how many times I need to do that over the next say year to really get closer to where I want to be. So I think this is this whole episode is really all encompassing, it's a very sound blueprint, I didn't dive into too much of the weeds because I don't want to overwhelm you today. But you know, it's like when you build a house, and you find out that the lumber just went up in price, your wife actually wants a bigger laundry room, or the trusses you ordered have a vaulted ceiling that you didn't expect. Yeah, true story. Just like all of these unexpected things that might come up your fat loss journey is going to start popping up these little surprises along the way, based on your metabolism, your recovery, how you respond to training, and all of these things that you're going to need to adjust to. And that's a totally normal part of the process, right? If you return to this episode, and you just remind yourself of the mistakes people make, and the principles to adhere to. And then the steps, all of those can be applied to your situation and you're going to be successful. And then that brings me to the big reveal. All right, the real success of your cut is not about the pounds lost or the muscle revealed. It is about what you're going to learn through this process. I'm such a huge advocate of this being a process of personal growth. It's not about losing fat, it's building a better relationship with the things that nourish you the things that your body interacts with. It's doing hard things, but enjoying what comes out of doing those hard things and them not being suffering or painful. It's learning to listen to and roll with your body. Right? Understand how different foods affect your energy and performance. You're gonna learn all of that by taking this methodical approach. It's methodical, but it's highly adept. optimal, you notice I didn't tell you exactly what to do, I gave you a blueprint, right? So that you can build those skills, you can build the habits, and learn how to fuel your body properly, how to balance this enjoyment of it, but also the progress where you're pushing, and you're doing hard things, and then make adjustments based on data. And that's the power of this approach, right, not just changing your body, but changing your mind, building the confidence to know how this stuff actually works. And then you'll be able to maintain the results. And that is what less than 5% of people actually are able to do. So if you're still tempted by cutting carbs by food programs, like optive, via by weight loss, drugs, or some other extreme approach, remember this sustainable enjoyable progress beats short term miserable results every time, your very first cut, or your very first cut done right is an opportunity to learn and build something that lasts. And if you're consistent, if you're patient, if you're willing to learn, you'll become a more informed, capable individual. Okay, if you found value in what I shared with you today, and you're ready to take your fat loss to the next level, I want to invite you to check out Whitson weights physique university, that is our comprehensive semi private coaching program, where you get personalized guidance, accountability, to help you achieve your dream physique. And as this episode comes out, we just launched the Fast Track fat loss cohort, it's a private group within WWE within the university. And it's a way to save 15% off the normal price while getting even more personalized attention. To accelerate your fat loss phase, such as one on one calls personalized feedback on your data and so on. So that you can commit to the process, over 95% of people fail to maintain the results. And it's usually due to a lack of accountability and support. That is it. And if you want to be in the 5% of those who do succeed, I think it's a no brainer to join physique University, especially for what it costs. So to learn more, click the link in the show notes, or head over to Whitson weights.com/physique. Again, click the link in the show notes or head over to Whitson weights.com/physique. Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember that your first cut is just the start of a smarter, more efficient way to improve your body, your body composition, your mind and your physique. I'll talk to you next time. You're on the wits and weights podcast