Philip Pape: 0:01

Should you count calories, track macros? Should you cut out carbs or specific foods? Should you avoid dieting altogether and just eat intuitively? Will any of these approaches get you the result you want? If you're confused about all of this, this episode is for you. We are going to dive into an engineering concept called design of experiments and tie it into why some level of restriction is actually helpful, but not necessarily the restriction you've heard about. By the end of this episode, you're going to have a more sustainable, enjoyable way to approach your nutrition while still being successful, achieving the fat loss that you desire.

Philip Pape: 0:52

Welcome to Wits and 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 are hitting on a controversial topic in the nutrition world, and that is restricting Dietary restrictions, restriction in general and just the word, the term, the language that we use around restriction. Now we are not talking about eliminating entire food groups or macros like carbs, or following any sort of extreme diet whatsoever. Instead, we are going to use an engineering concept called design of experiments to show why some level of restriction is actually beneficial but not what you think and then how to implement it in a way that's sustainable and enjoyable, so that you can hold two concepts in your head at the same time and realize that there is a way that these all work together. And before we get into it, if you've been enjoying the show, if you're a longtime listener, or maybe you've just checked out a few episodes and you want more content on what we talk about here building muscle, losing fat hit the follow button so that people can find the show and you don't miss an episode. And then, if you're willing to take an extra small step with your time and find value in the episodes, take a moment to leave a five-star rating or review in your podcast platform of choice Ideally the platform you're using right now to listen to this show.

Philip Pape: 2:24

All right, let's get into this concept, because there is an elephant in the room in the nutrition world with the word restriction. It's gotten a bad rap, right. We've heard all the influencers, all the coaches, myself included, have said you know, you don't need restriction or you can get your goals without dieting, without restriction. And you see, you hear people say that, like you don't need to diet. Uh, and sometimes it's taken to the level of not only do you not need to diet, you don't need to track anything, just eat intuitively with your hunger signals. And while, while every one of these approaches there's a rationale behind it, there there's a little bit of truth to whatever they're saying. It often then leads to a rigid approach that is overly restrictive in the way that prevents you from getting results. Does that make sense? Like you're restricting the wrong things? Let's just start with that premise.

Philip Pape: 3:16

And then, on the flip side, you have approaches that tell you you know, cut out entire food groups, follow rigid meal plans we're talking about traditional diets like keto and the like carnivore, what have you. And that doesn't seem to be working well either for people, because they might quote unquote lose a lot of weight and then they binge it right back. They gain it right back. You hear the very rare story of oh, my friend's been on keto for four years and loves it. Okay, great, 99% of people don't. They don't love cutting out a ton of possible foods from their diet. And so is there a middle ground? Or is there even a different ground that is not even on that spectrum that we're going to talk about today? Yes, okay, and I want to use something called design of experiments DOE from engineering, and this isn't a stretch at all.

Philip Pape: 4:05

This is actually a really good approach to think about this. This is a method to plan, conduct and analyze experiments. That's what it is Plan, conduct, analyze experiments efficiently. We all know I love efficiency, and the goal is to understand the relationship between the factors that affect a process or a system and then the output of that process or system, while working within the constraints that you have all the real world constraints and so I want to apply this to nutrition. Think of your body as the experiment, your nutrition, your diet as the inputs right, the input factors, the inputs, and then your goals your physique goals, body composition goals, whatever have you as the output. Your body is the experiment, the food is the input, your goals are the output. So, like in engineering, we have to work within certain constraints to get those results, and so, when we look at design of experiments, there are four elements that we can use and apply them to nutrition.

Philip Pape: 5:06

The first one is what I'll call controlled variables. In design of experiments, we select specific variables that we're going to change, while we keep others constant. In nutrition, this means what can you change, right? What variables can you change. We can change calories, we can change our macros, like protein, carbs, fats, right and then we can see how they affect our results. So there's certain variables that we keep constant. There's certain variables that we change. So, for example, in keto, you would keep something constant and that is the level of carbs. You cut out all carbs and that doesn't change. So that's an example.

Philip Pape: 5:47

The second element is the constraints. So, again, in engineering we operate within limitations, like time, resources, materials. In nutrition, our constraints might be our daily calorie budget, our macro targets, our food preferences, our lifestyle factors. Some of these might even be non-negotiables, some of them are just upper or lower limits or ranges right, you can even hear some flexibility in here even though they are constraints. The third element is optimization, because the goal of design of experiments is to identify the best combination of variables to achieve the results you want.

Philip Pape: 6:24

Okay, ah, this is where the magic's going to happen, everyone, because in nutrition, this means finding the right balance of all the variables whether it's macros, calories, food choices that lead to our goals while still being enjoyable and sustainable. That, for us, is that is going to be my definition of optimal, not that it's perfectly tuned to get you the results at all costs, but that it gets you the best result while being something you can live with and enjoy. And then the last element here is efficiency. All right, design of experiments aims to gain the maximum output or information with the minimal experimentation or inputs. Right, so get the most for what you put in. And in nutrition, this translates to making those little tweaks, those little strategic changes in our diet based on the data and the results, rather than thinking that an entire extreme approach or diet or rigid plan is going to solve it, and when it doesn't, you switch to an entire separate plan. That makes sense. So we're actually making these adjustments with all these variables along the way. Okay, so hopefully I haven't lost you just with that setup.

Philip Pape: 7:39

Here's where the concept of reasonable restriction comes in, and I don't remember what podcast I was I had a guest on and we were talking about restriction versus deprivation, and a light bulb went off for me when I realized, you know what, at some point, if you need to lose fat and go into calorie deficit and release energy from your body, there is some level of restriction, as in a constraint, as in a limit and it doesn't mean you have to restrict things that cause you to be miserable, however. So, just like how engineers they set parameters for their experiment, we can do the same thing and figure out what it is that allows us to do this in a sustainable way. We can set some guidelines not to deprive ourselves as a rule, like a carnivore, where you say, just cut out all plant-based foods and deprive yourself and tell yourself no and abstain from them, and deprive yourself of, and tell yourself no and abstain from them. In fact, it's not even about deprivation if you know that you have a trigger food for a craving and saying I'm just going to abstain from that. It's really creating a framework that allows us to achieve our goals efficiently, and my definition of efficiently includes not having to psychologically beat your head against the wall and feel like you're constantly depriving yourself of the foods you love, for example. So what does reasonable restriction look like in practice? Okay, this is really cool here.

Philip Pape: 9:02

The first one is about we'll talk about calories. Let's really get nuts and bolts Calories. We don't need to meticulously count calories, we don't need to weigh everything to the gram, but having a general target and awareness through some form of tracking right, kind of like having a budget for your finances so you know how much you are spending, in this case, how much you are spending on you know eating food calories, so that you can make informed decisions. Now I do like logging my food. I do like using an app like MacaFactor to log food so that you can see, in the ballpark of you know, a few hundred calories of what you're eating. But don't take it overboard to where you're obsessed about every little tenth of a gram. And you know you can do this with more generalities, you can do this at a higher level and still have a really good, solid awareness.

Philip Pape: 9:54

Then we have our macros right, protein especially, and we know that prioritizing protein intake is one of the most effective strategies for body composition. And if we just have a minimum like 0.7 grams per pound of our target body weight every day, right. So if your target body weight is I don't know, let's say, 200 pounds, I don't know if you're gaining or losing, let's just say it's 200 pounds for easy math, you'd be going for 140 grams minimum a day, right. And this is again, guess what. This is a form of restriction, because you are restricting what you eat to being at least 140 grams of protein, just like you are restricting what you eat to be within a certain calorie target. That leads us to number three food quality, again, another restriction. Now, no food is off limits, but if we have a constraint that says we're going to emphasize nutrient dense options most of the time so we know we get enough vitamins and minerals, so that we know we are more full right, we have the food volume and it tends to crowd out more ultra processed foods. Well, that's a form of restriction, but it's additive. It's adding in things that you need and want and making sure it's things that you like and that tastes good and that you love to cook and prepare. So you're adding a food quality restriction.

Philip Pape: 11:12

The next one is meal timing. This is another restriction, because you're saying, okay, I'm going to have I'm not going to train fasted, I'm going to eat some protein and carbs before I train. I'm going to have a post workout meal. I'm maybe going to spread my protein intake throughout the day you don't have to, but this is what I want to do for my goals and you are going to eat at certain times of the day. Well, that's a form of restriction. In fact, you could take that to the extreme and talk about fasting and intermittent fasting. That is a form of restriction and again, I'm not saying that's good or bad. It definitely doesn't have any more benefit than any other form of meal timing other than from a practical standpoint, from a logistical, schedule standpoint, adherence standpoint. But that is up to you to decide. What level of restriction do I want with my meal timing? Because if you just say I'm just going to eat whenever and I'm not sure how the macros are going to be balanced out, and maybe I'll train fast and maybe I won't, you're not going to hit your goals that way. So you have to have some guidelines for meal timing.

Philip Pape: 12:08

And then the last level of restriction, of reasonable restriction, is the tracking itself. Now, I already alluded to this when I talked about calories. But the actual act of tracking things in general, not just calories but progress photos and body circumference measurements and biofeedback, those are restrictions. Because you're saying I am going to put a constraint on myself, that I am going to take a moment, right A few minutes every day to identify these and measure these things. That is a form of restriction, reasonable restriction, versus just not doing it.

Philip Pape: 12:39

So now you might be thinking okay, this sounds like a lot of rules. This sounds kind of rigid to me. There, like a lot of rules. This sounds kind of rigid to me. There's a lot of things you want me to think about, but the key difference is these are not rigid restrictions. They're very flexible guidelines that give you a framework, a set of principles to work within, and you can actually have a wide range for all of them, like calories, for example.

Philip Pape: 12:59

If you're losing fat, you can lose fat at different rates of loss. You can go aggressive or not. You can shift your calories day to day. I mean, I could go on. There's a million ways to do this. I've had episodes in the past talking about the various ways to structure your fat loss plan so it fits within your life. Very flexible, very flexible. But what's nice about having a calorie target is you know you can control for energy balance and yet you can still eat a wide variety of foods. So, again, these are flexible guidelines. It's like having a map for a road trip. Right, you know the general route to get there, but you can still take detours. You can still enjoy the journey along the way. Right, You're not going to detour constantly, but in general, you've got flexibility to do that.

Philip Pape: 13:44

So if we were to make this very specific let's say you are in a fat loss phase, using the design for experiments approach, you might set a moderate calorie deficit right Of uh, uh what am I trying to say here? Half a percent of your body weight per week, and then you set up protein minimum, say that 0.7 grams per pound of target body weight. Then I'm going to basically eat whatever fats and carbs I want within my food preferences. After I hit the protein to hit that calorie target roughly within, say, 5%, 10% I'm going to track my food and wait for a while to see what's happening and I'm going to evaluate the results and then make adjustments. And so this gives you clear targets and minimums and ranges to aim for, but still allows for tons of flexibility in your food choices and your indulgences and having some cravings and those kinds of things that other dieting approaches tend to restrict that end up causing failure.

Philip Pape: 14:44

Dieting approaches tend to restrict that end up causing failure. So it is a far cry from the you know, eat whatever you want approach, but it's also a far cry from ultra restrictive diets that eliminate entire food groups. And so this method is what it is, adaptable. As you gather more data about how your body responds, you can refine your approach. Maybe you find you perform better with slightly higher carbs.

Philip Pape: 15:03

Yes, you might be one of the many, many, many people who want to be on a moderate to high carb diet because they perform and recover better. Or you might having a larger breakfast helps control appetite throughout the day. You know, it might be the opposite. Maybe you perform better on lower carbs. Maybe you don't want a big breakfast. You see what I mean. You have the flexibility to do that, and yet you still have some constraints. You are still restricting something so that you can remain within a big box, a big envelope, so to speak, to get to your goal, and then you can optimize the plan over time, like engineers refine their designs through multiple iterations.

Philip Pape: 15:40

So the cool thing about this the surprising perhaps thing about this is this approach of reasonable restriction actually gives you more freedom, not less. It gives you clear guidelines and therefore you eliminate the constant decision fatigue that comes with trying to be perfect all the time. You know your targets, which means you can plan for social events, for travel, the days and when you want a slice of pizza or ice cream which is my vice, or even, yes, alcohol. It's like having a budget for your finances which lets you spend on the things you care about, because you still know you're on track for retirement or your kid's education, and so, instead of viewing restrictions just as a blanket negative, think about the helpful guideline version of restriction that we talked about today, and this can kind of change the game for you when it comes to nutrition and health. So I just want to recap.

Philip Pape: 16:36

Number one design of experiments is a framework to approach nutrition where you have reasonable restrictions that act as your constraints they're your guidelines instead of rigid rules. This then allows for flexibility while still making progress towards your goals, and then you gather data and make informed adjustments along the way to optimize it, and so that makes it very individualized, very personalized. It's exactly what I do with clients and why it is not a one-size-fits-all, why I'm not a macro coach, why I don't provide a template. You can't just download this nutrition plan and run it. It's not a meal plan. It's very personalized, optimized, efficient way where you're like oh, this is way easier than I even thought it would be. I'm eating the food I love. I'm eating the food I love. I'm not very hungry most of the time and I can train effectively and just feel great, feel and look my best, all right.

Philip Pape: 17:27

So, again, if you got any value from today and you haven't already, take a moment to leave me a five-star rating in the app that you're using right now and then, if you're feeling generous in fact, this is coming out around my birthday in October, so a birthday gift to me would be a review.

Philip Pape: 17:42

That would be the best gift you can give me is giving me a review for my podcast. It would be incredible. It just takes a few seconds but makes a huge difference in helping people discover the show and it also gives me some feedback on what resonated with you. Your support you just listening to the show right now really means the world to me and it supports me so I can bring you the evidence-based and, like today's episode, the engineering inspired advice that I love making for you and I hope you enjoy receiving. So, if you found value in any of our episodes, including this one, head over to the rating section, leave that five-star rating and, if you're generous, a review, and I will be eternally grateful. It'll help us reach more people with our message. Until next time, keep using your weights, lifting those weights and remember a little restriction in your diet isn't deprivation, it's smart engineering. I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.