Philip Pape: 0:00

For the final episode this Christmas week, while I'm recharging with family, I wanted to share what has become one of our most referenced guides for anyone starting their very first cut or their very first fat loss phase, and these are timeless principles that have helped countless listeners navigate and make it sustainable, because your first successful fat loss phase is the one that teaches you the most about how this can be done for the rest of your life, and this episode became an instant classic because it addresses the primary questions and concerns that keep most people from achieving lasting results, and that's what we want is lasting results. We don't want to continue the yo-yo cycle, and the blueprint we lay out here will help you navigate this without the pitfalls like significant muscle loss or metabolic adaptation to the extreme or rebound weight gain. So, whether you're planning your first cut or you want to do the next cut the right way, these evidence-based strategies will help you reveal the physique you've been building and trying to build and approach it in a smart, sustainable way. You've been building and trying to build and approach it in a smart, sustainable way. 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're discussing how to execute your very first cut and lose 10 to 30 pounds of fat.

Philip Pape: 1:21

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 compliment 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 witsandweightscom slash free. You know, set yourself up for success here by downloading my free guide. It's for body composition nutrition. Download it by clicking the link in the show notes or going to witsandweightscom slash free.

Philip Pape: 2:36

All right, 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 going to 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.

Philip Pape: 3:26

So the first one is this whole idea of a crash diet, a quick fix, or I just need to get the results. So 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 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 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, carnivoreivore or something else, and it's, it's a temporary situation. And then when you're done with the fat loss phase and then you go back to eating how you were before and you gain the weight back, all of that's kind of tied into this crash diet trap that people find themselves in. So, um, the antidote to that, of course, is going to be not going too quickly. We're going to get into that, but that's the first one be not going too quickly. We're going to get into that, but that's the first one.

Philip Pape: 4:47

The second mistake people make is cardio overkill. Right? Chronic cardio you might've 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 when 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 steps, even walking, and I am a big fan of adding 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 on 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.

Philip Pape: 5:49

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 pretty miserable, 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, but we're going to do it in a smart way and still have foods that you enjoy.

Philip Pape: 6:56

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 weight 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.

Philip Pape: 7:46

So that's the fourth pitfall, and then the finally is up here between your ears is the impatience and the unrealistic expectations. Okay, and that kind of all ties into 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 one, the first pitfall. And so you have these unrealistic expectations, like I need to lose 30 pounds and I'm going to do it in two months or something like that. And then, when it doesn't start to happen fast enough, you get impatient, whereas the opposite of coming up with a very reasonable, moderate rate of loss where, yeah, you may lose half of what you thought you could 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 into 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 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.

Philip Pape: 9:13

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 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 are 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 stair-step 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? All right, so gradual calorie reduction.

Philip Pape: 10:09

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 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of your target body weight. Keeping that protein high is going to preserve your muscle mass during the cut.

Philip Pape: 10:36

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 onto muscle. What you may find in reality is that as you're losing weight let's say you've lost five, 10 pounds and now 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 that you're five or 10 pounds lighter and pushing the same weight as last time, then you're five or 10 pounds heavier means you're actually stronger in relative terms. Right, and I don't know what order the episodes are coming out, but I did an episode about scaling laws, where you have to think of relative strength, not just absolute strength. And when you're losing weight, the relative strength is important to keep in mind from a mental perspective, because we're emphasizing maintaining that strength which then maintains that muscle.

Philip Pape: 11:51

All right, so the next principle is strategic cardio, which again, you see how these align with the other. Uh, the pitfalls I talked about. So, instead of this, like I just need to be on the endless treadmill you know, metaphorical treadmill could be running and it could be um, 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, 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're kind of inefficient at it. So these are strategic ways to incorporate cardio.

Philip Pape: 13:02

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. And then 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, the listening to our body part gets a little bit wonky because people are like what do you mean? Foods? And listening to our body? Now, the listening to our body part gets a little bit wonky because people are like what do you mean?

Philip Pape: 13:38

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, a 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 craving with fruit, or adding lots and 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.

Philip Pape: 14:34

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.

Philip Pape: 14:57

I've said that before, but I want to reiterate it 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 wanted to in a certain period, you're probably going to lose a lot more than you would have if you were impatient and tried 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 binged, or you lost a bunch of weight and then you went back and quickly gained it back, right, and 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.

Philip Pape: 15:55

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'd put together, that I was basically just cutting a ton of calories by limiting my palate, and I was miserable and I'd lose a bunch of weight. I'd lose a bunch of muscle. And then, of course, I'm done and say, okay, thank God, now I can go back to how I was eating before. Where's the pizza? Right? And that is not what we're trying to do. So those of you thinking, oh, I just need to cut carbs, oh, I just need to go on carnivore Um, 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 got to cut this, this, this, and I'm like shake my head. And you know I hesitate to jump in and offer advice to people who don't want it, but but I see that and I'm thinking that's, that's how people get into trouble. Um, and and and.

Philip Pape: 16:42

For those of you who've reached out to me or like, help 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 level 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 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, all right. So we talked about common mistakes and common principles, right?

Philip Pape: 17:29

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 all in a day, necessarily, but you can definitely understand the overall process pretty quickly, all right. So step one is to establish your baseline. Well, how do you do that? How do you start, 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 you 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 you kind of know where your baseline is in terms of strength.

Philip Pape: 18:31

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, which I think was um that might've been last week, actually, excuse me, um and I talked about using macro factor to do this. But there's a lot of ways you could 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'm in fat loss, 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 based on that and the plan ends up being not right for them.

Philip Pape: 19:32

So set your calorie target for something like a 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 a pound and a half or up to two pounds, but that tends to be more on the aggressive side. Okay, I've very rarely had clients above that, but I've often had clients below the pound per week and because of their metabolism, because their metabolism isn't that high Cause, 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, all right.

Philip Pape: 20:31

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 fat's 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 can result in fairly low carbs. Intentionally like that. But we are trying to keep the protein high and the fats moderate, and it may result in fairly low carbs during 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. All right, so you've got your um. You know what your baseline is, right. We know what our deficit is. We've got our macro set.

Philip Pape: 21:26

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, is the strategic cardio, like we talked about before, and then all you're going to do is track and adjust, track and adjust.

Philip Pape: 21:54

And this is where rapid prototyping comes into play. Another another principle I talked about on a recent episode. All right, look it up rapid prototyping. Go into 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 to 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.

Philip Pape: 22:34

Lastly, of course, 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 of where you're going to end up with as a target weight. And you can reverse that, engineer that and say okay now, how many times do 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 cause 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 gonna 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.

Philip Pape: 24:13

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 going to learn all of that by taking this methodical approach. It's methodical but it's highly adaptable.

Philip Pape: 24:46

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 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 Optivia, 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.

Philip Pape: 25:49

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 wanna invite you to check out Wits and 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 WWPU, 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.

Philip Pape: 26:31

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 witsandweightscom slash physique. Again, click the link in the show notes or head over to witsandweightscom slash 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.