Introduction to Fat Loss Myths

Philip Pape 0:01

Have you tried intermittent fasting ? Have you tried clean eating 100% of the time ? Have you tried cutting carbs completely because you heard they make you fat ? If you have , you're among the millions of people who might be struggling to lose fat , despite doing what the fitness industry says you should do , and these are among the many myths out there that could be holding you back . Today , we are exposing 10 of those myths with my guest , isaiah Mitchell , who transformed his own physique by losing 100 pounds and keeping it off for nearly a decade . We're going to share what works instead of what's being peddled by industry and influencers , such as why intuitive eating might be sabotaging your progress , the truth about hormones , about seed oils , and why that dream body might not solve all your problems after all . We want you to stop wasting time on strategies that don't work and focusing on the pillars that do .

Philip Pape 1:03

Welcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host , philip Pape , and today I'm bringing you a special collaboration with Isaiah Mitchell , owner of Relentless Pursuit Coaching and host of the Fat Loss Forever podcast . I want you to go follow that right now , because we are doing a collaboration in both feeds . Isaiah has a really powerful story because he lost 100 pounds and has maintained that loss for nearly a decade . But it was only after years of losing , regaining the same 20 pounds you know the yo-yo diet cycle that he learned the real science of fat loss , the inner psychological work required for change , just like we love to talk about on this show .

Philip Pape 1:51

So today we're discussing 10 fat loss myths that are being sold to you being sold to me and Isaiah by the fitness industry that you want to be aware of if you want to actually make progress and stop spinning your wheels . But wait , there's more , because we're going to discuss 10 more myths over on his podcast , fat Loss Forever , where he dropped an episode and had me on to discuss some myths about broken metabolisms , fasted , cardio , body fat building , muscle over 40 , among others . But in today's episode you are going to learn from him about strategies like intermittent fasting , the truth about carbs and sugar , and why even achieving your dream body might not solve everything . Isaiah , welcome to the show .

Isaiah Mitchell 2:26

Thank you , brother . Thank you , happy to be on , and it's crazy that , just with even these 20 myths that we've been able to come up with relatively quickly like me and you had our list put together so so fast and there's still so many more like we could , we could make this , you know , bi-monthly collaboration until the end of the year and we'd probably still have some , uh , some myths to sift through . But , yeah , I'm excited to get into this , especially , uh , the deeper psychological stuff which is really going to be , uh , more so for our last one on the , the dream body .

Philip Pape 2:59

but , yeah , I'm excited to dive in and happy to be here yeah , and I think , coming from this lens of myths and you're right , because we chatted back and forth and you came up with 10 in a minute and I said , oh , I like a lot of those . You took the ones I would have come up with first , but let me just think for another minute . Okay , here's 10 more . No big deal .

Philip Pape 3:17

It's a good lens , because the confusion and the copious amount of information on social media and the internet is often the first thing that makes people overwhelmed . Right ? They come to us as a coach or in a Facebook group and they're like what do I do ? There's just this guy's saying seed oils are bad . This guy says I should fast . What the heck do I do ? So let's

Myth 1: Intermittent Fasting Magic

Philip Pape 3:38

start with one of the biggest ones of all , man , which is intermittent fasting . Is this magic pill for everything ? It solves everything . It solves everything . It gives you mental clarity , it helps you lose weight . It's autophagy is going to clean up your cells . You're going to live forever . What's the reality , man ?

Isaiah Mitchell 3:54

Yeah , and what you said . There is a great place to start , because I think one of the most egregious parts about intermittent fasting is all of the ridiculous claims that get attached to it , and a lot of it's true for sure , but not to the degree that it's being sold to you . It's very , very largely blown out of proportion . And if we could just kind of summarize the myth in a sentence , it's intermittent fasting melts fat , boosts your metabolism and bypasses the rules of calories , bypasses the laws of thermodynamics . And now the reality here is intermittent fasting works because it helps you eat less . It's really not any more complex than that . Not because there's something magical about fasting in and of itself , and in my opinion , fasting tends to just lead to a worse relationship with food , and I really think it should be reserved for spiritual practices for you detaching from food and learning to just sit with yourself , learning how to be bored and not fill in that hole constantly with food . That's where I think the magic of fasting really shines is separating ourselves from food . Now to get into the bit of the evidence in 2020 , we had a randomized control trial published in JAMA Internal Medicine and they found no significant weight loss benefit for the fasting group compared to the regular meal timing group , and this is just one of hundreds of studies we have showing no benefit for fat loss or even autophagy , which is another thing that gets thrown out there in the whole fasting thing . The thing to understand about autophagy is it's not just an on or off switch . This is something that's always happening in the background . So when they equated calories and protein between the two groups group that ate all day , group that did intermittent fasting their results were exactly the same . All day group that did intermittent fasting their results were exactly the same . And in fact , some of the fasting participants actually lost a little bit more muscle mass , which is absolutely what we don't want .

Isaiah Mitchell 6:13

So here is what intermittent fasting does . This is the truth . It helps some people keyword some people control their hunger by shortening their eating window . So if you lock yourself into I'm only allowed to eat during this time for some people you're going to end up eating less calories and then you lose weight .

Isaiah Mitchell 6:35

But secondly , it can really help you create some structure and boundaries around meals and if you're someone that's just getting started , I don't think this is an absolutely terrible idea , but it's definitely not the solution to all of your problems and for some people it may improve insulin sensitivity and digestion , especially if you're someone that's used to just kind of eating all day and just kind of nibbling and grazing here and there . You establish some routine and some structure . Give your body a couple hours to not be eating food and not be digesting food , and we can see some health improvements there . Now what it doesn't do is override a calorie surplus . It does not guarantee fat loss and it does not work for everyone , especially women . It does not work for everyone , especially women , and a lot of them experience worse sleep , worse cravings and even menstrual cycle disruption . So for my ladies out there , I strongly recommend eating a balanced breakfast , so kind of our TLDR here for intermittent fasting . If you eat more calories than you burn , even in an eight-hour window , you will still gain weight Period , end of story .

Philip Pape 7:48

Yeah , I love that you got into the nuance because I think that is a recurring theme that's going to come up as we go through each of these that we want the listener to understand we're thinking through this , looking at the data , looking at the evidence and also trying to personalize this that there are potentially benefits to everything we talk about today . You have to understand the context for that . Just two things real quick .

Philip Pape 8:07

You mentioned , for the weight loss , for the calorie thing , I saw a post by I think it was the bodybuilding dieticians on Instagram today where they had a table and it had all the diets right Keto , carnivore , et cetera , et cetera and it had all the things that were unique with these check boxes . The last column was calorie deficit and every single one was checked , including the row that said energy balance , right , like a normal , flexible diet . So it's important people understand that's the main driver here . The thing you mentioned about spirituality and sitting with your hunger is a really good one , man , because I literally just got off a call with a client who's more of an advanced guy . He likes to experiment with different protocols and I actually suggested to him hey , have you ever tried fasting for a day to see what it feels like for your hunger .

Isaiah Mitchell 8:50

Yes .

Philip Pape 8:50

Because we were talking about psychological and physical and I used to fast . I don't anymore . But when I'm in a fat loss phase now , hunger is no big deal . When it happens I can kind of sit with it . You know , move on . So just maybe pulling that thread a tiny bit and then we'll move on to the next one , because we got , we got to tend to move , to get through , oh , this hunger thing isn't really that much of a challenge .

Isaiah Mitchell 9:31

It really doesn't have that much power and control over me , outside of the power and control that I'm giving to it and you know anyone that's done a 24 hour fast . You know there comes a point pretty early on in the day , maybe around like noon 2 pm , where it's just gone . The hunger is gone , the desire to eat is gone and the mental clarity just comes in and the presence with you and your environment , your ability to just show up for people around you . Better . That day , like everything just gets better . So I think that's probably the best way to use .

Isaiah Mitchell 10:00

Fasting is some sort of , you know , spiritual religious practice , whatever it is , but as a end-all , be-all solution to your weight loss problems from now until the rest of your life ? Probably not , and it's it's kind of the same thing with keto . We want to ask ourselves what am I actually going to learn from this if I actually end up at my goal ? So , for example , if you do keto and you lose 100 pounds , what did you learn ? To avoid carbs , that's it . You got nothing else out of that and now here you are , 100 pounds down , wondering how you're going to avoid carbs for the rest of your life .

Isaiah Mitchell 10:38

Same thing with fasting . If you lose 100 pounds fasting for 16 hours a day , what did you learn To not eat between this time and that time ? Nothing about portion sizes , meal building , macros . What's in your food ? How do certain foods make you feel ? So we want to get curious and actually ask ourselves am I going to learn something I can keep forever from this tool ? And then also , can I do this for 10 years ? Yeah , because if I can't , I probably shouldn't even do this for 10 years . Yeah , because if I can't , I probably shouldn't even do it for 10 days , let alone 10 minutes , because come day 11 , the inputs gone , so the output is gone , and this really is a game of inputs and outputs . We take away that input , we take away the output .

Philip Pape 11:21

Yeah , agree , and so you want that input to be sustainable , which is actually a perfect segue into the next myth , which is about intuitive

Myth 2: Intuitive Eating for Beginners

Philip Pape 11:28

eating . That it's a great weight loss or fat loss strategy for beginners Listening to your bodies , eating when you're hungry , stopping when full . However it's defined . Why is that a myth ?

Isaiah Mitchell 11:40

Yeah , yeah . So this is a really a really good one , and one that's been around for a long time and , just like the one we got into and the rest of them , there's a lot of good stuff here and there's a lot of truth , but the problem is people don't realize that intuitive eating is a final destination . It is not a great tool in the beginning , because most people's intuition tells them to eat pizza and ice cream . That's what most people's intuition is telling them . So in the beginning of most people's weight loss journey , we can't yet trust our intuition , and that's okay . So the myth is that all you need to do is listen to your body and you'll lose weight . But for most of us , listening to our body is kind of what got us in this position in the first place , and of course , there's probably a lot of deeper stuff underlying their trauma .

Isaiah Mitchell 12:33

How food was talked about and interacted with in your house as a child All of that plays a very significant role . But the reality is , this only works if your internal cues are calibrated , and for most people they're just not . So if you have spent years or even decades dieting , binging , skipping meals , emotional eating , your hunger and fullness signals are probably way off . You're probably always hungry and never really satisfied . So telling someone To just intuitively eat Under those conditions Is like handing them a compass that's been spinning for years . It's just not going to get you anywhere .

Isaiah Mitchell 13:17

So what most beginners need First Is a basic understanding Of energy balance . They need a consistent Meal structure structure and they need at least an awareness of protein , fiber and calorie intake . And then after that we can layer in those intuitive eating skills on top of that . And in fact my clients that are working on this stuff tracking their calories , getting an understanding of energy balance , bringing some awareness to protein , fiber , calorie intake Every time we are presented with an opportunity where we're in a social eating environment , we're outside of our house , we're at a restaurant , we're at a barbecue these are opportunities to sharpen that intuitive eating sword while still laying down the foundation of what we actually need . So in those moments restaurant , birthday , whatever it is I'll advise my clients to not even track that day . Let's just use the day to listen to our body and get better at that skill . So intuition is only helpful when it's been trained and most people need to get some reps in with structure before they can actually trust their instincts .

Philip Pape 14:32

Yeah , framing it as a skill is exactly the way to go . Right , and people often don't want to put in the time , the work , put in the patience to do that . It's kind of like with strength training , right ? You don't just go into the gym and say do what you feel , man . Just you know you're going to be fine . Just do what you feel . Pick whatever machine , do what you want .

Max 14:47

That's what I did in the beginning , you know , yeah .

Philip Pape 14:50

Or , hey , I'm going to give you a paycheck with your job . I want you to just you know , spend and save , don't track it , don't don't have a budget . Skill is great . And then , especially , what you said about practicing pulling away from the support mechanisms of tracking , for example , when you go on a vacation , having used the tracking long enough , that you've honed that skill and I'll tell you , people have been doing this for years and years still aren't going to be perfect at it and like , oh , I love to use tracking just to know that I can be precise , and then I can come off of it for a while and kind of go back and forth . So yeah , guys , you just intuitive eating , you can get there , but you have to start somewhere else before you can get there .

Max 15:32

So that's a good one All right man .

Philip Pape 15:34

Myth number three always love this one . Cardio for fat loss . Just so you know , we've talked about this a lot in the podcast recently . I'm a big fan of anaerobic sprinting and not chronic cardio and doing lots of walking and lifting , so people listening to the show are on board with that . But there's a lot that still say , hey , I'm doing the Peloton , I'm doing all the cardio , I'm running whatever . Why is that

Myth 3: Cardio Is Best for Fat Loss

Philip Pape 15:57

a problem for fat loss ? Aren't you burning a ton more calories ? Isn't it great for that ?

Isaiah Mitchell 16:02

Right , for sure , for sure . And this is where right what you said there is where a lot of the confusion happens , and this kind of goes back to having a basic understanding of energy balance , but also having some semblance of understanding of how the metabolism works , as well as adaptation and survival . So if we take an hour of cardio and compare that to an hour of strength training , is that hour of cardio going to burn more calories ? Absolutely , but not for long . So if you run a mile and that mile , you are burning 300 calories in that first week . Burning 300 calories in that first week . Not very long after that , the total caloric burn is going to significantly decrease , and this is because your body is getting better at that thing you keep making it do . And in the case of cardio , your body is becoming more efficient with calories , meaning it doesn't have to use as much energy as it used to to do that same amount of cardio . Now , in the context of survival , this is great . It'd be absolute disaster if we were hunter gatherers and burning four or five , six thousand calories a day . We wouldn't be here today . So thank goodness our metabolism adapts in both directions .

Isaiah Mitchell 17:24

Now the myth here is if you want to burn fat , just do more cardio . Now , by no means am I anti-cardio or saying cardio doesn't have a place in people's fitness regimes . It absolutely does , specifically for cardiovascular health and , like every exercise , cardio is just a tool , not necessarily a body sculpting strategy . So , yes , cardio absolutely burns calories , but it does not build muscle , it does not build your metabolism long term and it does not reshape your body in the way that you're after in that tone , lean , defined , athletic look . That's just not going to get you that and in fact , a 2012 meta analysis in obesity reviews showed that diet plus resistance training diet so calorie deficit plus strength training consistently outperform cardio for fat loss and body composition . So long low intensity cardio , minimal calorie burn , high intensity cardio going to be very tough to recover from and can also spike your hunger no-transcript .

Philip Pape 19:07

What are we trying to get here ? A strong , muscular , lean , healthy , functional body that only get there by lifting weights and , by the way , that supports fat loss , because we're not just trying to lose weight , right , we're trying to lose fat and get the better look and feel that we're going for . But you also mentioned the side effects of cardio , like your hunger signals , and that is a real phenomenon . It's , it's been studied , it's been supported and we all know it . Come on , we know it . If I go out for a short couple of sprints , you know . Or if I lift weights , uh , I feel great , but I don't feel I'm not starving , you know . I'm not going to go and crave carbs , sugar , fats , whatever , yeah , but if I run , you know , a 5k , it's like where I don't care , give me a beer , it doesn't matter , just give me some source of energy right now that I need to gobble down , to make make up for it .

Philip Pape 19:52

Um , yeah , so those are good points , man . I don't know if you want to say anything else about it . We could , we could get going . I know it's kind of like a list we have here .

Isaiah Mitchell 20:01

I guess what I want to leave the audience with here is just ensuring that cardio isn't the only thing that you're doing Now . If you're like a triathlete , if like cardio is your entire life , you're a cyclist , you're a marathon runner , whatever that makes sense , and this is very goal specific . But for most of you , you want that lean , toned athletic body and you want it to last forever in a way that doesn't make your life suck and had I lost that hundred pounds .

Isaiah Mitchell 20:35

Without strength loss , I would have been in a very , very difficult position to maintain that weight loss . Because when we strength train , when we go through a reverse dieting process , we're able to reset our baseline or our maintenance calories , and this is the first thing I do with every single client is we rebuild their baseline so we actually have room to cut from without making you absolutely hate your life . So to kind of put this in perspective , a lot of women come to me needing to lose 20 , 30 , 40 , 50 plus pounds and they're eating 1500 calories or less and nothing's moving . The scale isn't moving , inches aren't dropping . And I'll always ask them you know , are we strength training ? No , we get protein intake back . They're eating like 40 grams a day .

Isaiah Mitchell 21:32

And then also , the most important question is have you ever gone through a dedicated muscle building phase ? And the answer is always no . Flip it around . Have you ever gone through a dedicated fat loss phase ? And the answer is always no . Flip it around . Have you ever gone through a dedicated fat loss phase my entire life ? 10 , 20 , 30 times . And this is the problem Every time we go through that cycle we lose a bit of body fat , but we also lose muscle and then we gain the body fat back and we don't gain back the muscle and year after year , decade after decade , metabolism gets slower and slower and slower and you're just left feeling like your body is broken . So TLDR here is make sure strength training is at the center of your routine and cardio supplements around it in a way that you enjoy . So if you hate 5Ks , don't do 5Ks . If you love the rower , do the rower and you'll be more consistent .

Philip Pape 22:28

Cool man . I mean . That's why I wanted to have you on the show , and vice versa , because these are exactly the points of trying to get into , drill into people's heads , especially the one you mentioned about spending time in a muscle building phase . Many times , that's the thing that's missing from fat loss , because you've pushed , pushed in one direction and you haven't , uh , built up the boulder that can be sculpted versus the pebble you are right now exactly so no , it's good , and I stole that from someone else .

Philip Pape 22:52

Man , that's where I hear all these great metaphors from . So , um , so we talked about nutrition , we talked a little bit about dieting . The big boogeyman of course , besides seed oils , it's a different boogeyman . Of course , besides seed oils , it's a different boogeyman is carbs right . Carbs , not just carbohydrates in general , but the fact that they have some unique propensity to make you even fatter . And there's an entire school of , I'll say , belief out there , the Gary Tobes of the world , who

Myth 4: Carbs Make You Fat

Philip Pape 23:18

still push this lipid hypothesis . Or is it the lipid hypothesis , the fat you know what I'm saying ? The carb fat storage hypothesis that has been debunked . Where do we go with this now ? To just let people know they , they can eat carbs . Carbs actually may be great in certain contexts and they may not make you fat for the reasons you think , at least . What's the story ?

Isaiah Mitchell 23:36

for sure . So this is one I have talked about agnosium I never get tired of writing about , uh , this , and I'm honestly . I'm honestly kind of surprised it's still as prevalent of an issue as it is in 2025 . But we just continue to do the good work .

Isaiah Mitchell 23:52

So , of course , the myth here is that carbs equal storing body fat equals avoid at all costs . And the reality is carbohydrates are actually the body's preferred fuel source . The body , every single one of your organs and even your brain rely on glucose , which comes from carbohydrates . Now , weight gain , fat gain , happens when you eat more calories than you burn from any source , any source carbohydrates , dietary fats , protein although it's going to be very , very unlikely , you know , we see in like metabolic tracer studies . If any of them has a higher propensity to be turned into actual body fat , it's fat . Because it's already fat , it's really easy to turn fat into just stored fat . So low carb diets can work because they often reduce your calorie intake and also suppress appetite , but carbs themselves are not the issue .

Isaiah Mitchell 25:00

15 review in the Lancet compared low carb and low fat diets and found no significant difference in fat loss when the calories and protein were matched . And this , once again , as we talked about earlier is one of hundreds of thousands of studies . I can't even tell you how many low carb versus this , low carb versus that , low carb versus that , and every single time when the calories and protein are equal , the results are exactly the same . So what comes down to ? What do you prefer , what makes you feel the best and what can you actually stick to ? And for most people , the answer is definitely not going to be keto , but maybe somewhere in the middle .

Isaiah Mitchell 25:46

You know , not everybody is , you know , high performing athlete that needs three to four hundred grams of carbohydrates a day . But the TLDR is it's not the carbs , it's about context and calories , calories . So 100 grams of sweet potato isn't necessarily the same thing as 100 grams of donuts in terms of like , how you're going to feel nutrient content , how that's going to influence your food choices the rest of the day , and also , you know , pro differences in protein content , differences in fiber content , can vary differently between certain carb sources . But I think a lot of people just have an immediate reaction when they hear the word carbs and they instantly think of stuff like french fries and donuts and the cookies and the chips and not realizing broccoli is a carb source .

Isaiah Mitchell 26:39

All vegetables are a carb source . Fruit is a carb source quinoa , white rice , sweet potatoes , all of this different kind of stuff and not only do they have carbs , they also nutrients , and this is the . This is the context that gets ignored so often when grifters and gurus want to hone in and demonize a single ingredient in a food , be that , you know , like oxalates in sweet potatoes or something , or like the lectins and beans you know goitrogens and broccoli yes , yes , ignoring the fact that the dose makes the poison , and these things are dosed to be harmful for insects , not a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty pound human and also all of the other nutrients that come with it that counteract that .

Isaiah Mitchell 27:29

One little thing in there , and even in , you know , meat there's like the , the , any GU seven or something that's like potentially carcinogenic , like there's something in everything that we could hone down and be like oh look , that's bad for you , we can't eat that anymore . But if you go down this path long enough , if you read enough diet books that are written for my , you know physicians , you will be left with ice cubes and that's it .

Philip Pape 27:54

So you won't need anything . Exactly , exactly . Plants will kill you , meat will kill you , fats will kill you . You're done . You're done , you're done , you're dead and you're just suffering through life and you don't get to enjoy your next meal . Yeah , no , I mean , there's a lot there . Obviously , this is one of those that could be an entire episode itself . What I think you've been doing throughout this conversation is focusing on also the positives , though , both what we lack when we avoid these things , such as the nutrients , but also the positives of hey , your brain needs this as an energy source . Hey , energy balance is determined by the totality of your dietary pattern and your calories . It has nothing to do with the macros . These give people the permission that many folks don't think they have from having been conditioned , I think , through this industry . To say something is just so nefariously terrible for them , so I think that's good . What about just real quick carbs for people who are building muscle ?

Isaiah Mitchell 28:56

What's the benefit there ? Yeah , yeah , so , truly one of the best ideas because , as we just covered , it's your body's preferred fuel source and it's also its most efficient way to turn that food into actual usable energy . And when we talk about using fats as fuel , on average it's about two to four times slower . So absolutely not what we want . So when you have adequate carbohydrates and your resistance training and you're trying to build muscle , you're just going to have better workouts , you're going to have better pumps , you're going to feel better , You're going to be able to push yourself harder and then also recover better on the back end , which is where everything hinges on , because you only get the gains that you can recover from and then , not to mention , we're going to sleep better .

Isaiah Mitchell 29:37

Carbohydrates , of course , raise insulin , which they're supposed to . It's a normal physiological process , but insulin and cortisol work counter regulatory to each other . So this is why I encourage all of my clients make sure they get in some post post workout carbohydrates , and I typically recommend shifting their carbohydrate intake to have most of it in the back half of the day , when cortisol is usually going to be the highest . You're getting off work . You're already stressed from that . You got cut off in traffic . You get home , your kids are running all over the place . Let's bring down that cortisol with some carbohydrates . So net benefit really no negatives there for anyone wanting to build muscle . Now can you build muscle on a ketogenic diet ? Absolutely . There's

Myth 5: Lifting Makes Women Bulky

Isaiah Mitchell 30:25

plenty of people that are living proof of that . It's just not the most efficient way .

Philip Pape 30:29

It's going to be slower .

Isaiah Mitchell 30:30

And you're not going to have a pump like say goodbye to your pumps , for sure yeah , no , it's great .

Philip Pape 30:35

I mean we we did a whole episode on the um , the anti-catabolic effects of carbs but this idea of carbs for cortisol and hormone support and everything is also under um rated or not talked about enough , so I think I might do another episode on that . Thanks for the thanks for the inspiration with that answer .

Isaiah Mitchell 30:50

Yeah , um , yeah and another quick little blurb here before we move on to the the next one . I know a lot of anti-carb people will bring up the fact that carbs are not essential , and they're not . Neither is fiber . Right , and that's exactly what I'm about to get into , because that actually does make carbohydrates essential . Are they essential for survival ? For you ? Just stay alive ? No , you can eat zero carbs and stay alive , just fine . But we're not talking about just staying alive . We're talking about optimizing and thriving . So if we're talking about optimizing and thriving , no carbs means no fiber . Therefore , carbohydrates are essential for optimal health , in my opinion . Yep , I agree .

Philip Pape 31:39

I agree , man . All right , no argument here . We're just going to agree the whole time here , but I guess that's okay , since we're trying to help people break the myths and have some clarity . So myth number five , one of my favorites I've had a lot of women trainers and bodybuildersers on lately too , including Holly Baxter was on recently , and we're always hitting on this myth that lifting weights makes women bulky . I'm not even going to explain the myth I think people have heard it was like 30 women had done one workout and they woke up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger .

Isaiah Mitchell 32:07

That's right , man . When I got my driver's license , the very next week , nascar was calling me and trying to sign me onto their team , so hopefully you guys can realize that .

Philip Pape 32:24

I know man I'm totally joking . And all the jacked women at the grocery store yesterday . They're just everywhere . They're just everywhere .

Isaiah Mitchell 32:33

So the myth here here , of course , is strength training is going to make you look manly , it's going to make you look too muscular , it's going to make you look like a football player . And the truth is there are men with more advantageous genetics than you , more natural testosterone than you , a more anabolic internal environment in their body , that have been trying to get that body you're afraid you're going to get for decades and they're still not there . After meticulously training , dialing in their sleep , dialing in the nutrition , they're still not there and they're trying to get there . So you not trying to get there without the inner workings of a man ? That's absolutely not going to happen .

Isaiah Mitchell 33:16

So building visible muscle takes years , even with optimal training , eating , sleep , genetics , and women typically have 10 to 30 times less testosterone than men 30 times less testosterone than men . So most of the bulk that women feel when they start lifting is muscle being built underneath body fat inflammation and water retention . From being new to training changes in like glycogen stores as well . If we're building new muscle , that's just more storage . You now have to store those carbohydrates . So when we eat , carbohydrates comes in as glucose and then we store it as glycogen in skeletal muscle and also in the liver . It's actually pretty cool . You can store somewhere around like 2000 calories of carbohydrates just in the body to be used whenever it's absolutely crazy . And then also , what could also be happening is not adjusting nutrition to reduce body fat while you're building that muscle . So what most people call toned is just showing the muscle that you've built through lower body fat . So if you want curves , what you actually want is muscle .

Philip Pape 34:32

Yep , totally agree . And the way I like to illustrate that as well , isaiah right , is , you know , asking a woman to show me a physique that she admires from an athlete or someone you know , someone out there that looks lean in tone . Guess their weight . Look up their actual body weight and it's usually 20 to 40 pounds heavier than they think . That's the bulk you don't want . I doubt it . That's the bulk you don't want . I doubt it . That's exactly what you want . So let's just put that to bed . And if it's a fat gain , fat loss situation , it has nothing to do with the muscle . It has to do with the cross-sectional area of the fat , with the muscle or the fact you haven't revealed the muscle yet . So really good points .

Isaiah Mitchell 35:08

And it only stands to benefit you from a metabolism perspective , from a sustainability perspective , from being able to eat more while still losing body fat perspective . It's , it's everything you want , yep all right , man , let's keep going .

Philip Pape 35:22

Uh , you got to eat clean 100 of the time , don't you like clean eating it's , it's a religion for some people I used to be there , man , I did paleo , I did uh , you know , quote unquote clean , whatever that means . Um , I love whole foods , I love nutritious foods . Why don't we just eat 100

Myth 6: Clean Eating 100% Is Essential

Philip Pape 35:36

of those ?

Isaiah Mitchell 35:37

for sure , for sure . So I I saw a post yesterday by um steve craft coaching . If you know him , he's a he's a guy from the uk , absolutely hilarious . But he made a post on kind of how the fitness industry goes through this cycle . You know , every couple decades of like , oh it's , everything has to be clean . 100 percent of the time , calories don't matter . Then we go on to the next thing and ultimately we land back at . You know , it's calories in , calories out at the end of the day . And you should probably leave a little flexibility to enjoy the short time you have on this earth , because life is a lot more than your body . Life is a lot more than food .

Isaiah Mitchell 36:15

So the myth here is that results require rigid perfection , and I am living proof that's not true , because I absolutely was not rigidly perfect on my journey of losing 100 pounds . And here I am , almost 10 years later , and it ain't coming back . And I have a mini bag of Doritos Almost every day . I'm drinking a diet soda right here and it's showing no signs of coming back . On top of that , the over 400 clients I've worked with and I can show everyone their consistency trackers None of them were perfect . None of them have a From start to the end of our time , working together 100% across the board . They had some perfect weeks , maybe they had a couple perfect weeks in a row , but progress does not demand perfection , and consistency always , always , always beats perfection .

Isaiah Mitchell 37:13

And here's the kicker you can eat clean 100% of the time and still gain fat , and then , on the flip side , you can eat only cupcakes , only cupcakes , and lose fat steadily . Are you going to feel different on one versus the other ? For sure , are you going to feel different on one versus the other ? For sure , and of course , those are two extremes , which is I did that on purpose , because I boxes , it's probably good to eat , and then the remaining 20 percent goes to the things that make you happy , even if they're providing absolutely no nutritional content . We have to make room for these things , because the vast majority of you listening to this are not david goggins and do not want to live that life and really just don't read . And I honestly , I think the , the internet as a whole , is kind of getting tired of the whole red pill , super hardcore discipline , no days off , just keep grinding like . I think we're kind of getting tired of it .

Philip Pape 38:27

So we are man , yeah and yeah , I and I've , and I've never resonated with that . I love doing hard things , but , man , when somebody says I'm doing 75 hard or doing this extreme approach , I'm just like why ? My first question is why ? Because are you doing it ? Because you think it's going to instill some sense of discipline you didn't have before . That's fine , you want to try to do that , but good luck doing that the rest of your life and happiness and enjoyment from food . There's nothing to be guilty of regarding that .

Philip Pape 38:56

I've seen people comment , uh , to say , hey , if you think food's for enjoyment , you've got a problem . I'm like that's a problem with you , buddy . There's emotional eating . There's , you know , trigger-based , you know , things that we try to find from food . That's a different situation . You're not doing it because you're happy , you know . In that sense , I'm having my wife's birthday cake all week , you know , because it was her birthday and I'm in a fat loss phase , man , so on . You know 1,800 , 2,000 calories . That's slightly more challenging , but I am going to enjoy it and it's going to work and I'm going to lose the fat , just like you did , and I always have a box of Pop-Tarts in the cabinet for when I'm in the fat , when I'm in the muscle building phase , they do not look how they used to do .

Isaiah Mitchell 39:36

It's disrespectful at this point .

Philip Pape 39:38

And they're tiny too . They're smaller . Yeah , not having it , everything shrinks . Not having it , but what ?

Isaiah Mitchell 39:43

you got into there is , more often than not , that emotional eating , the trigger-based eating , the binge eating , aiming for 100% clean all the time .

Isaiah Mitchell 39:55

That is where this will lead to , exactly Because we go back to something called the forbidden fruit effect , in that humans only want what we tell ourselves we can't have is bad for us is off-limits . So quick thought experiment for everybody here anyone that's ever struggled with binging I will bet everything I have that none of you are binging on chicken salads . It's just not happening . It's the cake , it's the candies , it's the cookies , it's the pizza , it's the things you told yourself you're not allowed to have for xyz reason , because you think it's fat and because you think it's going to kill you , because you think it's poison , uh , because susan down the street told you , uh , to stop eating them . But this strict eating very often leads to an all or nothing mindset , the binge restrict cycle , which is absolutely nasty and very difficult to get out of , and then also nutritional deficiencies due to limited food variety . So I would rather you , the listener , eat 80 whole foods and 20 for your soul instead of burning out on 100 and quitting by week three , which is what happens every single time .

Philip Pape 41:15

That's the way to put it . So I'm wondering if we can segue into myth seven and nine , which is sugar and seed oils , based on this conversation , because it's effectively saying okay , you guys are talking about pop tarts and Doritos and I've heard that there's just sugar is toxic and seed oils are toxic and plants are toxic . We talked about it . So I think there's going to be some similarities , even though there's unique aspects to each . But sugar being inflammatory , unhealthy , fattening , seed oils being just terrible for you in every respect whatsoever , that we're trying to ban them . What's the reality ?

Isaiah Mitchell 41:46

Yeah , this is where

Myths 7 & 9: Sugar and Seed Oils

Isaiah Mitchell 41:48

we definitely get into the weeds and into the nuance . We definitely get into the weeds and into the nuance . So even early on in my coaching career , I was taught there are good fats and bad fats . Omega-3s good black and white , on-off switch . Omega-6s bad inflammatory , on-off switch . And nothing in nutrition is black and white .

Isaiah Mitchell 42:14

So let's start with sugar and the myth being that all sugar is bad and any amount is toxic . And the reality is sugar in excess , especially when it's combined with ultra processed foods and a sedentary lifestyle . That is what contributes to inflammation and disease , and it's actually from the surplus of calories . So if you kept your energy intake in check , if you were eating excess sugar but you were at a maintenance level of calories , it's ultra processed foods and you have a sedentary lifestyle . You are better off than the person that's ultra processed foods and you have a sedentary lifestyle . You are better off than the person that's simply eating more calories than you .

Isaiah Mitchell 42:58

So just being in a caloric surplus is one of the biggest culprits and drivers of inflammation and disease , regardless of the composition of your diet . If I follow a Mediterranean diet and , for the next year , eat more calories than I burn , I'm going to be in a worse place as far as my health . But a small amount of sugar in a nutrient dense diet is not a problem , especially when we control calories . 18 review in nutrients very , very reputable journal , found that moderate sugar intake did not independently increase any inflammatory markers when total calorie intake and other nutrients were managed . And then , on top of that , the who recommends keeping your added sugars under 10% of total calories , and this is typically my recommendation for clients . Same with saturated fats , both that and sugar . Keep it between 10% to 20% of your calories and you're going to be good to go , which does not mean elimination . So the poison is in the dose and in you know what else you're eating with it .

Philip Pape 44:15

But I can promise you fruit is not the enemy of anyone , but the 3 pm vending machine might be yeah , especially since the high levels of these things , especially added sugars or potentially seed oils , are generally correlated with high processed food consumption , ultra processed food consumption , which leads to , ad libitum , generally more calorie intake . If you're not tracking Now , if you are tracking , if you're following it , you can easily moderate those things . And if they're only part of a 10 , 20% , as you recommend , again even easier to flexibly moderate and include them .

Max 44:51

Shout out to Philly Pay . I know Philippe for a long time . I know how passionate he is about healthy eating and body strength and that's why I choose him to be my coach . I was no stranger to dieting and body training , but I always struggled to do it sustainably . Philippe helped me prioritize my goals with evidence-based recommendations while not overstressing my body and not feeling like I'm starving . In six months , I lost 45 pounds without drastically changing the foods I enjoy , but now I have a more balanced diet . I weight train consistently but , most importantly , I do it sustainably , If a scientifically sound , healthy diet and a lean , strong body is what you're looking . So we briefly touched on seed oils .

Philip Pape 45:38

Again , I'm just flipping two of these myths around . To continue on that line , seed oils have another unique concern in that people talk about the processing , which that really gets to me , because my philosophy is like I almost don't care how it's processed . If the outcome shows better health than something else , it's worst health that's . That's seems logical to me to think that way , but of course people have concerns . What's wrong with seed oils ? Why are they getting such a bad rap and what's the reality ?

Isaiah Mitchell 46:05

Yeah , so A little bit into like the conspiracy theory here , but I think one of the biggest reasons they're getting vilified and most things go back to money at the end of the day , they're very , very cheap . They're very , very cheap and inexpensive . So we're talking about like canola oil , soybean oil , sunflower oil , safflower oil . They're toxic , they cause inflammation , they're going to kill you , they destroy your metabolism , which isn't even really possible , and the data just doesn't support any of these claims . And I've talked to so many people on the Internet , back and forth , in comments on different podcasts , talking about seed oils and you can't find me any research to support their claims . And then , of course , we get into it's all . It's all bought and paid for . All the researchers are corrupt . We can't even trust science , and that's just a lazy argument in my opinion . And they never have issues with the study layout , the methods that were used . Maybe they want to attack , attack the funding , but we flip that around on them . Have you ever funded research ? Noble , someone's got to like , someone's got to pay these , pay these researchers . But even just to get into some of the evidence 2017 , there was a systematic review of 30 plus clinical trials , so a systematic review for anyone that doesn't know is basically a study of studies , so there were over 30 clinical trials included in this review published in circulation found that increasing linoleic acid , the main omega six in seed oils , did not increase inflammatory markers , and that finding this is the important part has gone on to be repeated and replicated year after year . Every time a new study comes out on seed oils , we find inflammation actually getting better . Especially with canola oil , we see improvements in inflammatory markers , improvements in lipids , improvements in insulin sensitivity in lipids , improvements in uh insulin sensitivity .

Isaiah Mitchell 48:17

So most of the fear comes from one charlatans and grifters on social media so quick , you know little breakdown of what to look for . If they're filming content shirtless in a grocery store , just hit that block button . If they're wearing blue light blocking glasses while not even looking at a screen , probably a good idea to just block them . And if their content is mostly based on fear , making you afraid of certain foods and vilifying specific chemicals , specific ingredients , probably not someone that's actually worth their salt . And most of the fear comes from rodent studies using absolutely absurd amounts of seed oils that you and I as humans could not feasibly obtain , especially on a regular basis . Or it comes from data of oil being reused over and over and over again at high frying temperatures .

Isaiah Mitchell 49:10

Now that , I will say , absolutely has some , you know , negative stuff that can come with it , but for most people cooking at home with canola oil , you use the oil once and you're done . You know , at a fast food place might be a little bit different , but when used in moderation , especially cold or lightly cooked , seed oils could actually support your heart health and even lower LDL cholesterol when replacing saturated fats , which is what people should actually be afraid of . If we're going to be afraid of anything , it's moderating our saturated fat intake . And the crazy part is the people that are the most vocal about villainizing . The crazy part is the people that are the most vocal about villainizing seed oils glorify saturated fat and deny the science we have .

Philip Pape 49:58

Yeah , cherry pick studies to death .

Isaiah Mitchell 50:00

Yep . It is directly linked directly linked to LDL cholesterol increasing , which is an independent , independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease . So if you're stressing over the seed oil in your salad dressing , but eating ultra processed snacks five times a day and walking around with a little carcinogen every single day , you're missing the forest for the trees .

Philip Pape 50:26

Smartphone . He's holding a smartphone , guys .

Philip Pape 50:30

So , yeah , I mean I couldn't have said it better , especially when you compare saturated fat . One other thing that has come up over the years that I think has been debunked is the omega three to six ratio . I think the general consensus is that adding in more omega three is beneficial , and that's really where it came down from . It wasn't even the ratio itself . And , like you said , omega six , like linoleic acid , is , especially when compared to saturated fat , an improvement in your health . So just look at the data , guys . It's all out there .

Philip Pape 50:58

And don't follow the people . Block all the people . Isaiah said to block , so grocery store .

Isaiah Mitchell 51:04

Once a quarter I'll repost my list of people to unfollow people lying to you on social media . That's good .

Philip Pape 51:12

All right , we got a couple to get through

Myth 8: It's All About Hormones

Philip Pape 51:14

here . Um , the second one or the ninth myth year . Now it's number nine . Uh , hormones , where do we start ? Because everything gets blamed on hormones . Everything gets sold as a hormone balancing or hormone fixing remedy . So just maybe keep . Let's keep this somewhat concise , cause I know it can go off into a crazy level of detail , for sure . But yeah , it's your hormones , right right , absolutely not your .

Isaiah Mitchell 51:39

Not your habits , not your lifestyle , not the lack of muscle , not the chronic yo-yo dieting .

Philip Pape 51:44

So that's it , you just , you just answered it , those other things are the reason , exactly , exactly .

Isaiah Mitchell 51:50

But that comes back to what I've noticed the majority of the population seems to be allergic to in 2025 , which is personal responsibility and accountability . The more we can point the finger to something else , the better we feel . But what we don't understand is when we point that finger , we are choosing where the power goes , where the control goes , and the day that you finally flip that around and realize it's me , you can finally start moving forward . So hormones like insulin , cortisol , estrogen , thyroid hormones absolutely play a role in metabolism and , most importantly , in appetite a very , very big role in appetite . But in most people , the real issue is not their hormones , it's chronic stress , it's poor sleep , it's low protein , it's low fiber , it's inconsistent or no habits and it's no or inconsistent resistance training .

Isaiah Mitchell 52:54

And now getting into some of the research back in 2020 , we've got a meta analysis from endocrine reviews and they found that why , while hormonal imbalances can contribute to weight regulation , they rarely cause significant weight gain on their own without lifestyle factors . So that was their actual conclusion from that meta analysis . So we have to fix the basics first , then check our hormones . But blaming them too early is often just a distraction from what we can actually control . And I always tell people go test them , go test them , because one of two things is going to happen Everything's fine and now we have to point the finger back at you , or everything's jacked up and we still have to point the finger back at you because they're jacked up because of you , because of our lifestyle , because of our habits .

Isaiah Mitchell 53:52

So , either way , it goes back to us and refocusing on the basics and what we can control .

Philip Pape 53:59

And I think that's powerful , like once people realize that you're not calling people victims . I mean , people might make themselves victims but you're saying look , you've got the say in this and the way that you take responsibility and accountability may require getting support , may require pharmacology , we don't know , but it's probably going to require starting with the pillars of lifestyle , like you mentioned , and honestly , you can expand that and generalize it to any boogeyman , any outside , like you said , external locus of control that you're pointing at Start with yourself , do it first and then check what's left . I love that approach . See

Myth 10: Dream Body Solves Everything

Philip Pape 54:32

what's left ? You don't know until you've eliminated those variables first . So 100% awesome . And so the final myth today is if you woke up tomorrow in your dream body , all your problems would go away , life would be perfect , it's sailing to the sunset .

Philip Pape 54:48

You die a happy person . You never have to worry about anything again . True right .

Isaiah Mitchell 54:54

I wish sunset , you die , a happy person , you never have to worry about anything again . True , right , I wish , I sure , I sure wish it was the case , and a lot of people seem to seem to think that's the case , and they tend to put off a lot of the uh , what I like to call inner work until they reach their destination . They're like oh , I'll just worry about that when I get there . Or even like how are we going to keep it off for the rest of your life ? I'll worry about that when I get there . Or even like how are we going to keep it off for the rest of your life ? I'll worry about that when I get there . Right now , I just want to get there so I can be happy , which is a whole other conversation .

Isaiah Mitchell 55:20

It's like wait , why are we putting our happiness on hold for this thing that we don't even know if it's going to make you happy for more than five minutes or a week ? But if you woke up tomorrow and you had your dream body , the excitement would last for all about five minutes , because you would very quickly get the reality check that you have no idea how to maintain it , because you're still a binger , you're still a stress eater , you're still an emotional eater , you still don't do your workouts , you still don't have a step goal set for yourself , you still don't have a wind down and sleep routine . So you've got the destination , but you don't have . You don't even know how you got there and you haven't become the person that can stay there . So the myth here is that weight loss is going to fix all your problems and fix your self worth . But the reality is losing weight can and usually does , boost your confidence , but it doesn't automatically erase insecurity , body image issues or emotional eating patterns . And in fact , research from the Journal of Health Psychology shows that body dissatisfaction often persists even after weight loss , unless deeper mindset and identity work is done . And this is 99% of my program and what I work on my clients with is the reason you became overweight in the first place , fixing that root cause deeper mindset and identity rooted issues , because nobody , myself included , becomes 100 pounds overweight because you felt like it , because it was fun , because it made life better . It doesn't . It makes everything about life worse . You are running from something , you are suppressing something . You are suppressing something or you are distracting yourself from something and the outer work losing weight , seeing the scale go down the inches , your clothes fitting differently .

Isaiah Mitchell 57:21

The outer work without the inner work does not work , and I don't want any of the listeners here to have to go through what I did because I made this mistake . I lost 100 pounds without doing the inner work . There I was 100 pounds down , no idea where to go from there . I had no idea what reverse dieting was . I knew very little about metabolism . I sure as heck wasn't going on a bulk because that scared the crap out of me . So there I was , 21 , eating 1500 calories , no sex drive , no libido . My hair was falling out and for the next four years I battled an eating disorder of that binge and restrict cycle because I never did the inner work . So trust me when I say the outer work without the inner work does not work , and if you hate yourself on the way down , you will find something new to hate when you get there . So you have to work on who you are becoming , not just on how much you weigh .

Philip Pape 58:27

Yeah , and that's an interesting one , because people are seeking the outward manifestation of what it takes to get there with the inner work . But you can get there with superficial outer work in some way , and that can be highly misleading . Going back to our early discussion about intuitive eating , of building the skills and the proactive systems and habits underneath , that gets you there , how do people then ? What should people be striving for ? They come to you and they say I want to lose weight . That's their number one top thing . You then have to drill that down . I've definitely seen people's mindset evolve as you work through these and they discover oh man , this is really not about my physique , this is really not about even my health , so to speak . It's perhaps what those things get me , but it's also getting there in the right way with the right process .

Philip Pape 59:20

So , just to kind of tie it off in a bow . How does someone listening ? What should they ask themselves now about what they really want to drive them to start the proper process ?

Isaiah Mitchell 59:30

Yeah , yeah , and I'm sure you ask this question a lot too . But one of the the first questions I'll ask people when they , when we get clear on the goal you know I want to lose 50 pounds , I want to lose a hundred pounds , why , why and what do you think that is going to do for you ? And then we just keep going deeper and deeper from there . You could follow that up with asking why ? Five more times that eventually we'll get to the actual , uh , the actual route . But what I definitely want to leave people with on this one is just kind of a brief understanding of identity and why it's so important , especially in the game of weight loss . So , for the easiest way for me to help people conceptualize identity in this context is think of a thermostat . So I set my thermostat to 70 degrees and it's 90 degrees outside , starts to heat up the inside of the house . Thermostat goes up , it realizes that , kicks in and cools the house back off to its set point at

Closing Thoughts and Takeaways

Isaiah Mitchell 1:00:34

70 .

Isaiah Mitchell 1:00:35

The same is true for your identity in the game of weight loss . So if you label yourself , if your identity is a binger , someone who's never motivated , someone who can't be consistent , someone who always gains the weight back . Someone who starts over every Monday and then you lose 5 , 10 , 15 , 20 pounds . That's a threat to the system . Thermostat kicks in , brings you back to your set point . I knew you'd gain the weight back . You're not motivated again , you're self-sabotaging again . That is the very thing that we have to fix , or you will struggle with weight loss for the rest of your life . There is no sugar code in it . There is no way around it . You have to fix the root . It's just like you know getting into like the functional medicine side of things , like we have to get to the actual root cause of what's causing these symptoms to manifest . Same thing here perfect usually a lot man .

Isaiah Mitchell 1:01:30

A lot of that usually comes back from childhood .

Philip Pape 1:01:34

Yeah , exactly . So every single one of these myths can spawn lots of discussion , lots of learning , lots of education . Guys , if you're listening to this , this is just 10 of 20 myths we're covering , because we're going to cover 10 more . On Fat Loss Forever Isaiah's podcast it should be in your feed right now . But each one of these , if anything , piqued your interest , if anything sound like a low-hanging fruit , an opportunity , something you're curious or skeptical about , please reach out to us but also dig into it further . Check out Isaiah's podcast , check out mine . We'll have links in the show notes . But , man , thank you so much for doing this , isaiah , we really covered a lot of ground , just you know , with those 10 minutes .

Philip Pape 1:02:10

So thank you , man .

Isaiah Mitchell 1:02:12

Absolutely , it was a pleasure . It was a pleasure . Hopefully the audience got something out of it . That's what we're here for .

Philip Pape 1:02:17

All right , man , so I'm going to include the link in the show notes to check out Isaiah's podcast and go check out the other 10 myths that we talked about there , and I'll see you next time , man , peace out .