My Journey From Strict Keto to Carbs

Philip Pape 0:01

If you feel like you are stuck eating low carb , even though you know deep down , carbs might not be evil , this episode is for you . Today , I'm sharing my personal journey from strict keto and paleo to eating hundreds of grams of carbs daily . You'll learn exactly how I overcame the biggest obstacle to change , which wasn't information . It was really about my identity . I'll reveal the physical changes I experienced as I reintroduced carbs , the mental obstacles I had to overcome and the practical strategies that finally helped me break free , so you can do the same . 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's episode's a bit different because I am actually interviewing myself , which I'm always hesitant to do in terms of sharing my personal journey . But people are always asking and I think it's important to understand that we all struggle with the same things , just in different ways . I personally used to have very strict diets . I've done everything from SlimFast and Atkins way back in the day to strict keto , paleo , various low-carb diets and even other weird diets that are probably outside the scope of today's episode , and today I eat easily over 300 grams of carbs every day , with better performance , with more muscle , with zero guilt . I love to eat food now and I can enjoy it and make progress , and I've worked with hundreds of clients who are able to do the same , some of whom were very , very hesitant to introduce carbs , some of who even introduced more carbs and said whoa , what is going on with you ? On with bloating or quick weight gain , or things that are explainable but very frustrating and hard to wrap your head around until you understand how carbs work in those transition periods , and I want to try to touch on those different things today . But what I did is I posted in our Facebook community , which is free . You guys can join it , use the link to join anytime . And I asked you all hey , what would you ask me ? Facebook community , which is free . You guys can join it , use the link to join anytime . And I asked you all hey , what would you ask me if this was an interview about that topic ? And you sent me a ton of questions and effectively going to ask myself those questions today and answer them more or less off the cuff , as if it was an interview .

Philip Pape 2:17

I would be remiss if I didn't say this episode wasn't inspired by one person in particular and that was a listener , alex B , who asked a really insightful question that resonated with me and I actually sat on it for a few months before I recorded this episode , because it sounded like a heavy topic for me to tackle and she wrote about struggling to bridge that gap between knowing the science behind carbs right , many of you know the science , or you've heard the show and you know it . Many of you don't . You're new to the show , or you're new to evidence-based nutrition and maybe still think there's a problem with carbs they're evil , they make you get fat , whatever and kind of having that knowledge , but then still finding it difficult to break your old habits or let yourself give into it and experiment with these because of these old habits , whether it's keto , paleo or something else and honestly , this could apply to any restrictive diet carnivore , veganism , vegetarianism , whatever that you've imposed on yourself because you think it's the right thing to do from a health perspective Not from a values-based perspective that's a different topic but just from a health perspective because of what you've heard or read . Or maybe you've gotten some short-term results or others have gotten some of those results , and so today isn't about spewing more information at you . I have plenty of shows that do that . It's actually about how you change your behavior despite the fear , despite the identity you've built , despite years of conditioning . Sometimes we condition ourselves , sometimes our upbringing and society and the content we consume has conditioned us , and so that's what we're going to do today . Right , and again , I reached out to our Facebook group and they sent me some fantastic questions . We're going to cover those .

Philip Pape 3:58

So , before we get into it , if you enjoy the show in general , if you want to connect with people who like these sorts of topics and really to dig in and understand their identity , who want to know what works for them , who want to personalize in and not just be given macros or templates , that's what we do in our community . It's a free community . It's called Wits and Weights . In Facebook I will give you the link to click in the show notes , and that is a place where we have these conversations . We support each other through our transitions of nutrition experience right , we share our wins , we get our questions answered , we deal with some tough , vulnerable topics as well and in a I hate to use the word safe space , but effectively it's a nonjudgmental place where you know anybody who's negative and doesn't need to be , generally gets the boot . So if you're looking for a supportive place , that's it . If you want to get away from the politics and the negativity , that's where it happens and that's where this stuff came from for today's episode . So just head to Facebook and search for Wits and Weights , or just click the link in the show notes request to join , and I'd love to see you in there . All right , so we're going to start with the origin story . Right ? Every hero's journey and I'm not calling myself a hero , I just love the idea of the hero's journey from , for example , star Wars or really any great story arc starts with the origin story .

Philip Pape 5:14

What first attracted me to low carb diets and there are a lot of them out there . When we say low carb , what do we mean ? We mean that control for calories , or maybe maybe sometimes you have no idea what the calories are . You're trying to reduce the amount of carbs you eat and increase your protein and or fats . Right , the three macros carbs , protein

The Origin of My Low-Carb Obsession

Philip Pape 5:35

, fats was throw it on the wall and see what sticks and see if it works .

Philip Pape 5:49

Based on the content I was consuming , which tended to be in the early days , you know , diet books from Barnes and Noble or random forums on the internet , maybe some influencers here and there , although I was never really into social media , so that wasn't a thing for me . You know , five , 10 years ago we're talking , we're talking from the early two thousands to like the late 20 teens , and I also I never really had a concrete goal , other than I'm unhappy with my body . I'm a little bit fluffy at times or skinny , fat , frumpy . Didn't like how I looked in , you know , at the pool without my shirt on and I just had a bunch of insecurities around that , and so I would primarily be focused on losing weight . Let's just put it that way . Like many of us are , I didn't think about energy , health , any of that , especially when I was younger and so in the early 2000s , the first diet experience I could remember is during college , on my internship .

Philip Pape 6:40

This is around the year 2000 . I was , I believe now in hindsight , emotionally eating due to some things that happened that I'm not going to go into details on some personal relationship things that happened at a young age , and I wouldn't say I was depressed , but I was definitely finding comfort in food and it would be things that had a lot of calories , like uh , you guys know friendlies there . They started up here in Massachusetts , I'm in Connecticut , and they have these , um , ice cream Sundays . Right , I love ice cream still to this day and I now I still enjoy ice cream . But I would get these massive Reese's peanut butter cup Sunday things , which you look at the calories Now , they're probably like 1500 calories and I would have that just about every day .

Philip Pape 7:18

I like I'll put it this way , I couldn't help myself , right ? You guys know that experience and I gained a lot of weight , let's just put it that way . I went from about averaging 165 at 5'9 to about 210 pounds . Okay , totally unchecked , no training , no exercise , none of that . And a lot of the gurus I had been following at the time were around the Atkins community , and so when I got back to college for my junior year , I said I'm going to do this thing and I out all fruit , vegetables , anything that was a carb . I basically ate meat without a bun and , oh man , I can't even remember it was like literally just meat . Okay , it almost reminds me of carnivore .

Philip Pape 7:57

And what would happen is I started to lose a lot of weight . Of course you do , because what happens when you cut out carbs . What happens when you cut out most processed foods , you lose a lot of water weight because of the carbs , but you also cut your calories significantly and so I lost a lot of weight , but I also had some very unpleasant digestive side effects , let's just say . And the other thing is , when you have a higher fat diet , we do know that it can help with satiety , even though today I recommend using protein and fiber for satiety . That is fullness . We do know from the keto community , for example in carnivore , that fat can be satiating as well , and so I was able to go through my day not feeling too hungry , suppress my appetite , I had a lot of water , weight loss , a lot of scale drops due to the lack of calories and , you know , I gradually brought it down to where my scale weight was maybe in the 170s again and I definitely felt better about myself , finding that something could work and I knew something was behind it .

Philip Pape 8:53

But I never . I didn't know calories , I didn't know macros , I didn't know any of that stuff back then . And also , um , the other thing that comes to mind is how we defined the carb . So back then , to me any carb was bad right , like carb equated to sugar , equated to bad , equated to , that's how you get fat . I believed it to the extent that I didn't even know about calories or energy . Right Now we're much more educated on that , given social media , and people will still say , oh no , it's not about energy balance , it's about the types of calories or it's about carbs specifically , regardless of energy balance , and that's just false . Like we know , energy balance is behind whether you gain or lose weight . Macros and nutrients come into play with a lot of other factors like body composition , energy , digestive health , all the other things , right . So that was my first foray into low carbs . I didn't know why it worked , I just know it worked and I probably sustained that for a couple of years and then I realized I didn't like to eat just hamburger patties right , and I'm kind of oversimplifying , but effectively was that simplistic of a diet , which means it was that highly restrictive of a diet .

Philip Pape 9:54

Going into my twenties and even thirties , new diets started to pop up . Okay , and I want to say , for about a five to 10 year period , I didn't even diet at all , I just ate whatever . And I gained a bunch of weight . And this was into when I got married in the mid , that was 2006 . And then around 2000 , I want to say eight , nine I discovered paleo . I think that was around the time I discovered primal paleo and I just jumped in whole hog into that world , the idea of ancestral health , of , okay , well , our ancestors didn't have access to grains or dairy , so of course they couldn't eat those things they also ate . They were opportunists . So they hunted and gathered and they they had this feast or famine approach and I basically went all in on no grains , no dairy , which basically means little to no carbs . Because , yeah , you can can quote , unquote eat fruit , but I didn't eat a lot of fruit or veggies at the time .

Philip Pape 10:50

I was very picky , see , that's the other part of this but I did , I did that's what they say I did paleo and I did that for probably five to 10 years and that was the most dogmatic , I'll say religious zealotry that I got into when it came to a diet . I had probably like 20 books on paleo . I had all these recipe books and I have to say you can make a lot of great meals when you're thinking paleo , because it's a lot of meat and vegetables . During that time my wife helped me get past my pickiness when it came to vegetables , let's say , and that's a whole other story , but it was helpful that I was incorporating those and I was eating a lot of whole foods and it was .

Philip Pape 11:29

There was a lot of things I was adding in as a result of payload . That , I would say , is a good thing . I would say it's a good thing that is lean meats and vegetables and fruits , you know , whole foods uh , eggs , I believe , but I wasn't eating dairy and I wasn't eating actually I forget about eggs , but I know it wasn't eating any grains whatsoever which , in my mind , was carbs . And I want to take a little side tangent here , because carbs are highly misused as a term . Carbohydrates are found in apples and they're also found in Snickers , but you know , what else is found in Snickers Is lots of fat and sugar . Now , you could say , well , sugar is a carb , yes , but lots and lots of added sugars in a form that has been engineered beautifully to look good , to taste good , to have a multi-sensory , time-based , almost orgasmic experience when you eat it . And I'm serious , you guys know what I'm talking about .

Philip Pape 12:22

Pick your most favorite delicious , indulgent thing , I don't care how processed it is . Okay . I use Snickers as an example , because of the way it's designed . The way it's designed with layers of chocolate and caramel and peanuts nugget I don't even know that's in there , maybe not , but different layers to and it's pre-processed . Now , this is the disgusting thing about a lot of ultra-processed foods is they're effectively ground up ingredients that are smushed together in an engineered way to be highly palatable , delicious and easily consumed , and then you're still hungry and you want to eat more , and hence the slogan you can't have just one .

Philip Pape 12:55

So when you think of carbs , do you think of pizza and ice cream and donuts and Doritos , or do you think of oats and rice and apples and potatoes ? Big difference , right ? However , the anti-carb groupthink lumps them all together , and when people say I cut carbs , I'm like what do you mean ? So I want you to ask yourself that question what do you mean ? So for me , they were all poison , they were all lumped together , they were all like sugar in my mind , including fruits , and we know that's not the case today . So I did that and at the same time , I started CrossFit .

Philip Pape 13:27

I've talked about CrossFit before early on in one of my earliest podcasts . I did that for about eight years , from like 2010 to 2018 . And throughout that , most of that time , I also stuck with some version of paleo or low carb , eventually getting more into the keto side of things , which there's not a lot of differences , I'll be honest . It's basically a high fat approach that didn't really account for protein or calories . It was just what can't you eat , what can you not eat , what do you have to cut out ? And so I , and throughout this whole time I more or less maintained my weight , but I was also doing CrossFit and a lot of cardio and I was kind of stressed out from the workouts a bit , didn't really look forward to them usually and it didn't do anything for my physique at all . Right , like I could lift . When I started , I probably could squat , you know , 95 pounds or something small like that . And then by the time I was quote unquote done with CrossFit , I was only up to 225 on my squat . That . And then by the time I was quote unquote done with CrossFit , I was only up to 225 on my squat .

Philip Pape 14:20

And I hear stories like this all the time Unless you focus on strength , you're not going to get it up . You know , currently my squat is over 300 . My deadlift is over 400 . My bench is well over 200 , right , just the numbers you would expect from even average strength for somebody who's doing strength training , and I wish I started earlier , but I didn't . But that's a whole different thing .

Philip Pape 14:36

When we talk about training , however , it's important because I wasn't training the right way and therefore I wasn't thinking of eating to train the right way , and I never knew that carbs could be beneficial , nor was I training in a way where they were going to be that beneficial , if that makes sense . In other words , the vast majority of the population is either sedentary or they're active , but not in a purposeful way , such that they're not utilizing carbs in the way that

Breaking Point and Changing Mindset

Philip Pape 15:00

carbs can be highly effective , which we're going to get into in this episode and why I wanted to do this . So that brings me to the next part of the story , which is the breaking point , and here's my first question from a listener , where Tony asked , after essentially being anti-carb , what cracked that shell ? So in late 2019 , I would say the breaking point is ironic . And it's ironic because it happened around Halloween , which is around the same time as my birthday , and I decided yet again to go cold turkey from carbs , and I did it by avoiding the candy drawer .

Philip Pape 15:37

So I had gotten into a habit of I don't want to say sneaking , but those of us who understand emotional eating , you do it in a way that you feel guilty , right , you feel like I know I shouldn't be doing this , but I'm going to do it anyway . I can help myself F it , I'm already doing it . And then each day it's like you think you're going to reset and you don't right . Can you relate ? So for me it was all sorts of snacks , but especially candy , which you know people say that's like eating like a kid . Well , yeah , a lot of us . That's what we're doing , the way we eat , right . So I would take the candy out of the candy drawer and of course that means I was deliberately going out and buying it to put there .

Philip Pape 16:15

I didn't have the restraint like my wife did in terms of eating , just eating anything in moderation . She's great at that , she's really good at that . Just , I'll say , naturally she's always been that way and I'm not , so I can overeat . And that Halloween slash birthday . I said , okay , I'm done , I'm not going to have the candy for Halloween , I'm going to go cold turkey . And I did that for about two or three months Again thinking I need to cut out carbs . That is going to be the solution . But oh , did I feel miserable , did I feel awful not being able to eat all the things during the holidays . I didn't have energy , I didn't feel like doing my CrossFit , like the whole thing .

Philip Pape 16:51

And so the turning point came and this is to answer Tony's question . It took time , right , it wasn't like a black and white is , with the mental fatigue and the performance stalls and being unhappy about my body and the social rigidity and like all of this stuff . I said , man , there's got to be something better , because I see people out there succeeding . I even see guys in what was the CrossFit gym and now is more of a strength and conditioning gym with great physiques . They seem energized , like maybe it's just genetics . I had always thought that to that point , like it's just genetics .

Philip Pape 17:20

So I asked my trainer again . I've I've talked about this story before , so I'm not going to get too far into it , but I asked my trainer , andrew , like what do I need to do to get a better physique ? And kind of figure this out . And that's when he turned me on to . He's like you just need to lift for strength , big lifts , progress over time . Let's forget all the wads , you know the workouts of the day , forget all the conditioning , just go for strength . And that got me down the path of going to Google and YouTube and podcasts and learning about strength . And it turned me on to guys like Eric Trexler and Annie Morgan with their muscle and strength pyramids , to starting strength , of course , and to that whole world , eventually into the nutrition side of it about a year after that , which I'm getting to . So what shifted is I started to train for strength .

Philip Pape 18:05

The pandemic hit . That's kind of a almost an afterthought at this point , but it did cause me to have to build my home gym for the first time instead of go to the gym , which is cool because to this day , that's what I have . I got a power rack , I got a bar , I got a plate it's all that fun stuff and started to train Squats , deadlifts , presses , overheads , just cranking the numbers up , and I heard that you had to eat a lot of food . So I just said forget this low-carb stuff , forget any diet , I'm just going to try to gain weight . It sounded really liberating actually to just gain weight and not care about it , because I thought , well , now , this is a purposeful gain , even though it was not done optimally by any stretch of the imagination . So , yeah , a lot of whole milk in there .

Philip Pape 18:45

I started consuming a lot more protein because that was part of it was oh , I actually need that much protein . You guys know what I'm talking about . You know that one gram per pound , or even 0.8 grams per pound , when you are not paying attention to your protein your whole life , you realize you are woefully under eating that stuff . So , adding more protein , in adding more , I had more whole milk , more fat , more carbs , more everything , and I started to gain . I started to gain , gain , gain started to grow , but my girth started to grow as well . Okay , and I always tell this story on other podcasts but , like after , I gained a bunch of strength and muscle during that first newbie phase of about a year .

Philip Pape 19:22

That's when I realized well , now I really need to understand even more about nutrition , because there's got to be a way to lean out . And that's where I learned about macros , flexible dieting and the fact that we don't eat to lose weight . We eat to support our energy , we eat to support our metabolism , we eat to perform , to feel great , to manipulate our physique , at times right To lift optimally in the gym all of that stuff . And so again , shout out to you , tony , because you were there from early on when I got into the coaching side of things and to this day , push me and also and you will admit this are one of the people who are a little bit afraid of carbs yourself , and it took a while even to convince you right that they would be helpful . You had to experiment with it back off a bit and then experiment again back off until you realize wait a minute , when I have more carbs I tend to perform better .

Philip Pape 20:14

They're the body's preferred fuel under load . They're the body's stress reliever . They provide you the glycogen you need . They are anti-catabolic , they prevent the breakdown of muscle tissue All the wonderful benefits of carbs that I've talked about on multiple episodes . Just go search my podcast feed for carbs and , like once I realized that I could eat and lose weight on the scale , which I still was fixated on early on .

Philip Pape 20:40

I didn't quite understand fat loss versus weight loss and body composition . It wasn't until I read a book by Elaine Norton I think it's called Fat Loss Forever where I learned all about body fat overshooting . You looked at the studies about the biggest loser , all of it started to come together . I said , oh wow . So now that I'm strength training and focused on muscle and strength , now that I'm eating for fuel and for how I feel and perform , and now that I know calories are the dial to gain and lose weight , it all came together . Keep the protein high , manipulate the carbs lower , because carbs do get pretty low depending on your calories and fat loss and that is how I could get the physique that I want and I started to improve .

Philip Pape 21:26

I'll say quickly but don't be misled that you can totally change your whole transformation in six months . It doesn't work that way . It does take time . I would say your first year , though , you're going to see a meaningful change , but then the real like kind of looking a little bit jacked or having that six pack , whatever that starts to happen more in the years two and three , like just to be realistic , unless you already have a good starting point or you have a history of this . You know you're pretty lean , whatever , so kind of answer the question .

Philip Pape 21:52

The aha moment took me a year and a half to realize that carbs were just a great tool and they were useful and they were helpful , and it took me like two or three more years of doing this podcast , researching and coaching clients , to be able to express that right , to be able to talk about it in a way that made sense . So that's why a lot of you are listening and I wanted to do this podcast , because it's not necessarily easily accepted by society or even by you listening right , and I'm not here to convince you , I'm just trying to hear it tell my story . So then this brings me to the next part of the story , where I'm going to answer Alex's original question to me , and she said hi , you've mentioned our previous , or your previous keto paleo adherence and how you've since learned better and , more importantly , done better . My question is how you bridge the gap between knowledge and implementation . I'm someone who knows the science behind carbs , but I still really struggle to break my old keto paleo habits and include anything more than non-starchy vegetables and a little fruit . So there's a lot in that question , alex , and this is why I wanted to talk to you and everyone today ,

Identity, Fear and Psychological Flexibility

Philip Pape 23:00

and I kind of answered it somewhat already .

Philip Pape 23:02

But I would say first of all , the habits that were hardest to break were thinking of food with like a moral judgment that anytime I saw anything with carbs that was a no-no right , that I had to avoid it . And so I think the biggest game changer for me and this helps a lot of people that I work with is the idea of additive nutrition , of adding in the things you need along with the things you want . So both In other words , being intentional In the past and many of you listening you're not intentional about it , and by intentional I don't mean you're intentional about cutting out a bunch of foods . No , I mean you're intentional about it . And by intentional I don't mean you just you're intentional about cutting out a bunch of foods . No , I mean you're intentional about why you eat what you eat and including those in , and so for me that was okay .

Philip Pape 23:45

I know that I need to eat more carbs before and after I train , along with protein , because that's going to support my training . I'm going to feel better . I know it might help to have carbs at dinner because it's going to help me sleep better , and I know that I only need so much protein and fat , and if the rest of the calories come from carbs , then carbs may be a lot higher than I used to eat . And now I have to find how to get them right , like it's those kinds of anchors , I would say . And I still had anxiety around carbs for a while , I would say , because I had gained all that weight while lifting properly . I was wondering how much of that was associated with carbs . And I hear guys still on podcasts say well , you just got to cut out carbs , that's how you eat better . And again , they're not talking about carbs , they're talking about carb , sugar , fat combinations , like processed foods , like pizza and whatnot , and but instead of thinking that I have to cut them out , I think what do I need to add in ? And then what's left ? And I can still enjoy other foods .

Philip Pape 24:43

And so where I'm going with all this , alex , is you know you said it's hard for me to break my old habits , including anything more than non-starchy vegetables and little fruit . I would reflect on your like , the psychological flexibility and your identity around that . For example , what are you avoiding ? What are you avoiding and why ? So ? When I think about your struggle to break old habits , what comes to mind is things like habit loops . I don't know if you're familiar with Atomic Habits by James Clear , but the reward , the trigger , reward type cues , the loop , the habit loops and instead of thinking of carbs as this generic blob of a thing out there , be intentional . Ask yourself first , alex , what is it about keto and paleo that you are still sticking to ? Like , think about the habit that you are still doing Because you said you don't want to include more than non-starchy vegetables and a little fruit .

Philip Pape 25:34

So like , excuse me , does that mean grains ? That you don't want to include grains for some reason ? And I had to break that loop when it came to paleo because I always thought grains . And then I would tie it into this whole rationale or justification about how ancestors didn't have access to that . And they have phytonutrients and they have anti-nutrients , blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . And then I had to slowly learn about the science of carbohydrates and the fact that consuming grains is perfectly acceptable if you can tolerate it . Some people can tolerate gluten , some can't , some people tolerate other grains , some can't , right , and that for me , when I consumed those things , I didn't seem to feel any worse , like didn't seem to affect my digestion , but it gave me an extra flexible source of energy that I needed for my goals .

Philip Pape 26:14

So part of the cue or the trigger could be like not about eating more carbs , but you know I'm a person who values evidence-based training and sources of energy . I know that carbs give me the glycogen I need to train really hard and rice is a great source of carbs . I like rice , I like to prepare rice in this way and that way and therefore I'm going to include half a cup of rice with my next meal . And again , I'm just kind of spitballing it here with you about how to approach this for you . Like when I work with clients , alex , everybody's a little bit different and I know you and I talked about having accountability meal planning , meal prepping , pre-logging .

Philip Pape 26:54

For some people it's just like doing it , just saying , okay , I'm going to plan these things into my diet and I'm going to give it a shot and see how I feel and then , if I notice that I actually feel better , that's a good reinforcement of that loop guilt . Right now , you may feel guilty when you grab something else that's not on your list of approved things that you used to think were bad with keto , and it might require just adding one of those things in and seeing what happens and noticing that the sky doesn't fall and , if anything , you'll realize , ooh , I really enjoyed my food a little more because I had this extra ingredient . Ooh , it gave me some more energy , you know , better sleep . Some people report better hormones or less stress , like all of those things . If you can lean into usually the non-scale victories they call them and tie them to these choices , you can gradually break the loops and build them in again . Working with a coach can be helpful because they can be someone you fall back on and you can transfer some of that emotional stress over . Um , and I love , I love to help people do that , because they might just not do it on their own and they need that push . But I'm hopefully giving you that little bit of a push here and you could always jump into our Facebook group and just post your experience , say , look , I brought this up with Philip . He had the podcast . It wasn't a good enough answer , so I'm posting for you guys to help me out and be specific and we could do that . So that's just kind of my thoughts on habits . Right , like any habit , you're going to have to break it , but you break it in a positive way by adding in the thing you need and then tie it into a loop of a reward .

Philip Pape 28:29

Which leads me to the next question , which is from Christy L , and she said what part of your identity or belief system did you have to confront or let go of when you shifted away from keto , and how did that affect your relationship with food and your body ? So the thing I didn't realize for years , christy , was that I basically had disordered eating , without admitting it or knowing it right . It was disordered . It wasn't to the point of like , like orthorexia is an obsession with clean food . Obviously there are . There's eating disorders , nothing like that , but more of a disordered eating of tying so much of who I was with what I ate .

Philip Pape 29:06

And the irony , as you know , is I talk about this stuff all the time . Now I talk about food all the time , I track my food and everything , and yet I feel free from food , if that makes sense . In other words , I know the fact that I have dietary and psychological flexibility now is so empowering and it gives you this sense of confidence knowing that you can manipulate your health , your physique , your activity , your whatever , get a result you want and do it eating anything and I say anything with quotes because , again , this is not licensed to just literally eat anything whenever right . It's in a controlled , structured way . So again , your question what part of my identity or belief system that's part of it is the moral judgment on food , the disordered eating , the fact that there's a right , there are good and bad foods , the fact that science somehow supports that you can't eat a whole and bad foods , the fact that science somehow supports that you can't eat a whole class of foods , like to this day and you know this from Dustin's work as well . He talks about it all the time .

Philip Pape 30:07

It's like seed oils and artificial sweeteners . There are so many boogeymen out there and the general default response I have to any of those , until proven otherwise , is no , the dosage makes it the poison and almost anything can be consumed in moderate amounts without any . You know negative effects and therefore I don't worry about those . What I do think about is how do I feel myself as an athlete ? So I guess my identity and my belief system was that I could even be an athlete , that I can perform and lift weights and , heck , look good . I mean honestly , and I'm still working on it . Like we all have insecurities , it's not really about that , so much as I see the result from it .

Philip Pape 30:49

And once the food freedom kicked in and I was doing the right things , which is important , right , because some of us are not training the right way , or training at all , or training consistently , and that's a big piece of it . Once I was doing that , it all started to click and then my relationship with food became very objective , I'll say like it's not emotional anymore , right , even hunger . Now , when I experienced hunger and a fat loss phase , it's like an objective feeling of , okay , I understand what that is like physiologically , physically , psychologically . I understand what it is now and it takes work to get there . Right , it takes a lot of work for some of us , myself included , and this is what I work with clients every day , and I'm sure you've experienced that yourself . And then it translates to your relationship with your body Because , let's be honest , when you actually get a result , when you start , when you're able to lose fat and build muscle and , like , improve your physique , your hormones , your metabolism , it gives you tons of confidence and it makes you walk upright , it makes you have less anxiety among people , let's say , if that's your thing , it makes you more confident to take action throughout other areas of your life , and all of that is tied up to our identity . So that's kind of what comes to mind for me . Hope it answers that question . So shout out to you , christy , for that .

Philip Pape 31:56

I think I addressed what you were asking . And then , when we get to the practical side of things ,

Practical Carb Reintroduction and Results

Philip Pape 32:00

I love these questions as because they're kind of easier for me to answer . But Jimmy Q asked how many carbs did you go from and to ? So how many carbs did I go from and to , and was there an immediate weight gain , even if superficial , like water weight or glycogen ? Let's see . He had other questions too how long did it take to regulate and get used to high carb ? How much more energy did you end up having at the gym , assuming you were strength training during both diets in similar fashion ? Good question , so . The first one once I learned about macros and energy balance , it was actually pretty easy .

Philip Pape 32:30

Number one anchor my protein . Okay , 0.8 to one grams per pound . Number two peg my fats at around 30% of calories , give or take 10% . Number three the rest goes to carbs . So by definition , you are now anchored by calories , protein and a little bit by fat . I mean , the fat is flexible , right . So you're kind of anchored by calories and protein , meaning trying to gain weight versus lose weight , you're going to have much different level of carbs or much different level of calories , but because the protein is anchored , the fats and the carbs are going to swing around a lot .

Philip Pape 33:00

So , in actual numbers , if I'm at maintenance , eating , say , 2,800 , or it depends on what my maintenance is at the time , but 2,600 to 3,000 calories , I'm still going to be eating 350 grams of carbs . Maybe If I'm gaining , I'm going to eat a lot more than that . So , like crazy amount , maybe 500 . And if I'm losing for me most of my diets I'm eating around 2,000 calories , maybe 1,800 . Then I'm down to like a couple hundred grams , maybe less , which , as you know , none of those are low carb . Now , having said that just caveat I have plenty of clients who have much lower metabolisms . They're smaller , or you know a petite female or somebody who just happens to burn fewer calories , and they might burn , let's say , 2,000 calories as their maintenance and when they go to a diet they're at like 1,400 calories . Well , their carbs are now probably going to drop to 120 grams , 100 grams , maybe less than 100 , maybe 80 grams , maybe even 60 .

Philip Pape 33:56

And then we get into what we think of as low carb or even VLC , very low carb or keto , right . So it's going to depend on the calories and then the protein , where trade-offs can always be made , and that gets into the nuances we're not going to get into today . Trade-offs can be made Now , the keto and carnivore worlds when they think of carbs , they think of just making it as low as possible because they care about being fat adapted and they care about ketosis and all of that , none of which matters , because the glycogen is the first source of energy your body's going to seek . If it doesn't , it's going to go to fat . At the end of the day , calories are calories , like , based on how much you consume and how much you burn . You're going to store energy , whether it's consumed from glycogen , glucose or fat , right , and I've talked about that many times as well .

Philip Pape 34:41

So the caveat is , if you've been low carb for a long time and I did the math recently if you've been like , say , 50 grams of carbs for the last two years , you know keto and all of a sudden you jump to 300 grams of carbs or 400 grams of carbs , right , and I don't recommend doing that overnight , you know . Take take a week or two to do it regularly . I mean incrementally . When you make a jump like that , every gram of carbs results in almost a gram of glycogen stored in your liver and your muscles , which draws in about three to four grams of water . So if you did the math , you could easily gain two to five pounds with a big jump in carbs just from water weight . And that's like at almost like any body weight . So a lighter person will see that as a massive weight change and get freaked out .

Philip Pape 35:30

Conversely , when someone goes on keto and they had been consuming lots of carbs , whether it was on purpose or not , they'll say oh my God , I just lost five pounds in the first week . Water weight , it's all water weight . It's water weight Because the only way you lose fat is to be in an energy deficit , a true energy deficit . Okay , a pound of fat , roughly 3,500 calories of an energy deficit . Now , to be fair , if someone goes on keto , they probably are cutting out a whole bunch of foods and a whole bunch of processed foods and thus a whole bunch of energy or calories , and they might lose fat as well as water weight . And they're probably also going to lose muscle , because most of those people are not lifting weights . Some are . That's a whole separate discussion .

Philip Pape 36:09

Now , as far as how long it took to regulate and get used to high carbs , it took me like a day , you know . And no , I say that in jest , but remember , when I talked about how I started lifting , I started following starting strength and I started just eating whatever . I switched my mind at that moment to saying , look , I'm a lifter right now and I need to fuel myself and I don't know , I don't care what it takes . And so I actually didn't put any governors or regulators on how much of whatever I was eating and I tolerate foods . Well , like I'm lucky Maybe is that the word Like , no matter how badly I've eaten in the past , my gut seems to be , seems to handle things . Well , I don't seem . I don't have any allergies , I don't have any intolerances .

Philip Pape 36:51

Now a purist or a functional doctor or somebody might say well , you don't know , until you go on a elimination diet and like , get all those toxins out of your system to see what you really tolerate . Well , guess what ? I've done that before and I didn't notice much of a difference . So we're not all the same folks Like some of us can tolerate a lot of these foods and , by the way , the science says most of these foods are perfectly edible , perfectly healthy , in moderation . So going back to the dosage is the poison . So how long it takes to regulate and get used to high carbs , I would say within a few weeks for most people . That's my short answer .

Philip Pape 37:21

If I have a client who all of a sudden needs more carbs , it doesn't take long before they do it and they start to enjoy it and they start to say , whoa , like you're right about this stuff , like I have more energy , I can lift more , I got , I got . I was stuck on my bench for months or years and all of a sudden I'm up . You know , five pounds on my bench last week , or 10 pounds , whatever . Same thing happened to me . I mean , I did them both at the same time . So it's kind of tough to tease out the variables . But because I was actually eating more on purpose and for years and years and years I had been like restricting , restricting , restricting . I did that combined with strength training exactly what I do with my clients now when they get started and it was just like oh , everything started to take off like never before . Right , all my lifts just went up five , 10 pounds every time for a few weeks and then it kind of leveled off a little and then kept going for a while after that before I had to go to more intermediate programming .

Philip Pape 38:09

So , yes , you'll get an immediate weight gain . It's all fluid because energy balance is the only thing that should be taken account when it comes to fat and you can do the math and you can see that if you're eating your maintenance calories , then anything you're gaining is probably not fat , it's probably fluid period . Same thing when you take creatine . So , jimmy , thanks for the question Shout out to you I'm trying to see if I missed anything . You get a better pump . You get a much better pump in the gym . I mean you will lose that altogether . If that's important to you and for a lot of us that's like a great feeling . What else you ? What else you get ? Better energy , sleep , mental clarity . In many cases I did a whole episode recently about cortisol , the connection between carbs and cortisol . Like so many things improve just because of the increase in carbs that you wouldn't realize until you do it , let alone the performance in the gym for sure . I mean I know this because as soon as I go on a diet , even if the calories aren't that low . The carbs come way down . You know I take a hit . Or if I forget to not forget to , let's say , I don't have as much or any pre-workout , for whatever reason because of my circumstances , I'll notice it . Right , don't get enough sleep , you'll notice it . I think I covered your question , so I'm going to move on to the next one .

Philip Pape 39:18

The next one is from Luke P . He says what benefits do you get from low carb versus high carb ? High carb is not always better , I'm assuming . So I was thinking of how to answer this question . I already talked about how the carbs are the main thing that changes when you go from gaining to maintaining , to losing , right . So my approach , my philosophy , is as long as you've got your protein , the fats and carbs are pretty flexible and there's no reason to lower the carbs just to lower carbs . Does that make sense ? In other words , even when you are in a fat loss phase , we don't lower the carbs because low carbs better . We lower them because we don't have space for enough carbs , right , we're having . We need our protein and our fat . In some cases I actually want somebody to slightly lower their protein and increase their carbs if it gives them just that burst of energy they need . I guess what I'm saying is that all things equal . I would generally never want to lower carbs for the sake of it for any reason , but I would want to increase carbs for many reasons .

Philip Pape 40:19

So when we say low carb and high carb , it's kind of like protein . It's very misleading . Like people talk about high protein . Well , most people are eating extremely , extremely low protein and I want people to eat moderate protein , but it looks high compared to the average population . I mean , whoa 25% of your calories has protein . That's huge . Well , it's only 25% . So is that really high protein or is it just much higher than the population ?

Philip Pape 40:42

Similarly , with carbs , like to me , if I'm getting a lot of protein and plenty of fat and then I'm eating 400 grams of carbs , is that high carb or is it just what I need and like filling in the rest of the energy equation right ? So when you say high carb is not always better , I would agree with that statement when we are talking about the context of other macros . So if the carbs are taking away from your protein or fats in a detrimental way , then it's not better , but there's no case where I would say you need to lower your carbs , just to lower your carbs ? Does that make sense ? So hopefully I answered that the research definitely supports higher carbs for muscle building across the board .

Philip Pape 41:21

Any study we see comparing low carb , comparing a low carb to a moderate high carb the moderate high carb wins out for sure when it comes to muscle building . So like that to me is not a question anymore and I see it anecdotally all the time . Having said that , if you just don't like to eat a lot of carbs , and it doesn't hurt you to lower the carbs and it gives you more protein because you're a big protein eater , that is a scenario I can get behind , and I know plenty of lifters like that who want to eat 250 grams of protein or 300 grams of protein and kind of moderate carbs . I like 200 something grams of carbs . I'm like , yeah , you got a lot of flex there and that's okay , that's okay . So that's my thoughts on that is , what are the trade-offs ? What are your goals ?

Allan 41:58

Hi , my name is Alan and I just want to give a shout out to Philip , pape of Wits and Weights , for being a huge part of the foundation for my continued health and well-being . Philip exemplifies a nutrition coach who demonstrates how much he cares . Philip works tirelessly and with dedication to provide coaching , support and major content for us to use . He creates a practical approach from research and Philip empowers all of us to use food as quality for our health . He is skilled in how to assess and direct nutrition . Philip creates a community full of wisdom , support and camaraderie . In summary , philip Papers the real deal . He knows how to assess and direct nutrition and he continues to steer me in the right direction . Thank you , philip .

Philip Pape 42:50

Emily asked a question about timing and travel . She said timing overall . What is your timing of carbs ? Do you eat more in the am or pm ?

Carb Timing and Nutritional Strategy

Philip Pape 43:00

So I'm going to answer her questions one at a time .

Philip Pape 43:02

So , timing of carbs carbs , I distribute them evenly when I'm not Dieting . When I'm in fat loss , however , I shift them to the morning because that's around my workout . If it's a Non-training day , I tend to eat them spread out evenly as well . Simple , right , it's as simple as that . Now , if you are the type of person who trains first thing in the morning and doesn't want to eat which there's a small percentage of people that do that you want a lot of carbs with your dinner . If you're the type of person that sleeps better with carbs at your meal , you want them at dinner . If you're the type of person that needs the carbs after your workout to recover from being drained of your glycogen , you might want more carbs after your workout . Get what I'm saying Depends . So me personally , distribute it evenly , except on training days , then , or except during fat loss , in which case more percentage of it like up to 50% of my carbs are going to be around training , and that's what I recommend .

Philip Pape 44:04

When your carbs are tight . Put more of them are your go-to pre or post-workout snacks and or meals . I am super boring and simple . I eat a banana and a protein shake beforehand , and then I have some oatmeal with peanut butter afterward , and then lunch is not far behind to get more of my protein . I like to have a lot of protein with my lunch and dinner and because I'm having a nice big protein shake before my workout , I don't need a lot of protein right after it . Right , there's no such thing as the anabolic window anymore . You could distribute your protein however you want . The carbs are a little bit more important . So when we're talking carbs specifically , I love fruit before the workout because I can have it as close as like half an hour before my workout , very fast digesting , and then after my workout I like something a little more fiber , a little more tasty and comfort food style which is where the oatmeal comes in and plus a little bit of fat and taste from the peanut butter . I will say if I am gaining , I need even more calories . I will also add in HBCD , highly branched cyclic dextrin . It is a extremely digestible , very easy on the stomach form of carbs powder form that pretty much anyone can tolerate and it is a great intro workout as well . You can sip it or have it before your . I actually put it before , during and after when I'm gaining and trying to eat like 4,000 calories Carbs on travel , you asked .

Philip Pape 45:19

This is still , emily . It's so easy to lose track when working and not controlling meals . Also , buffets at meetings tend to be carb heavy . What are your strategies ? And , socially , how do you track without a scale next to your boss ? Okay , there's a lot of questions here .

Philip Pape 45:34

I guess it could be a whole topic on its own , and it's funny because I think , emily , you and I just talked about this on a group call in Physique University and I think that was about going to track meets or something right , where you didn't have enough time between traveling and everything to to have the food you wanted , um , and it was like four hours and they had hot dogs and other stuff staring you in the face , right . So it really does come down to meal planning , meal prepping and the logistics of it all . So you've got to just think ahead , use if-then strategies . If you know this is going to happen twice a week , then what is your strategy ? Is it to have a cooler , ready to go , and then you pop it in your car . Is it to have snack-type foods in your purse ? That is it For me . I know what you're talking about .

Philip Pape 46:16

Buffets and meetings tend to be carb-heavy and they're not always the carbs that we want . They're often like muffins and stuff , maybe they're bagels or something . So if you know you're going to eat the meaty food , just again you got to plan for it and say maybe I'm going to bring my you know first four meat sticks or something for my protein or protein bar or something to go along with it . If they don't have meat options , you know sometimes there'll be sandwiches and you can like grab a bunch of the cold cuts and maybe eat half the bread . If you don't , if you're not trying to get that much , that many carbs , but it's it's planning . It's planning and like having if , then strategies . That's really all it is .

Philip Pape 46:53

Your last question about tracking without a scale and next year boss . So two options . One is just take a picture or eyeball it and estimate . I mean , I do that all the time now . It's a skill that you build over time . You're like okay , this is a turkey sandwich and this is pasta salad , right , or whatever the buffet food is , or if it's just a lunch you packed and you didn't pre-measure it , which you could pre-measure it if it's at home , but if somebody cooked for you . Again , just estimate each of the main ingredients that have calories and put them in as grams . Macrofactor has a new AI feature where you can take a picture and it'll do it for you . It's like 90% accurate , which is plenty good enough for most people and you could . There's a text box so you can tell it generally what's in there , like no-transcript , all right .

Philip Pape 47:40

Next question this is from Alan F . All right , mr Alan , everybody knows him from the Facebook group , for sure , and also Physique University . He says did you give thought to the glycemic index of the carbs you were utilizing ? And then another question did you have a priority list of carbohydrate foods you were incorporating ? I'm going to answer that one because it's easier . My priority list is just the simple list of foods that I like . That's it . So like if I were to provide some nuance on that , because this could be why you're asking somewhat is different foods have different levels of macros , right ?

Philip Pape 48:13

So rice is pure carbs , just like shrimp is pure protein , essentially . Beans , however , are carbs and protein . So if I were to prioritize , if I'm absolutely trying to have pure carbs , I'm going to have things like fruit and oats . Well , oats have protein too , but never hurts that protein . You know , rice , simple starches they could be refined , whole grains , but I mean simple , you know , like breads and pastas and whatnot . And I'll just , basically , it's just like I would do if I was trying to have dairy that was more protein than not . I would look at the protein density . Same thing with carbs what's the carb density ? And then I don't stray from that . I'm fairly boring . I like to explore occasionally in the grocery store , but usually I just stick to okay , here are my five favorite fruits , here are my five or six favorite vegetables . I like oats , I like rice . Keep it simple . And I know you are . You are very , um , I'll say you love to explore the variety of foods out there and do lots of fancy recipes , um , just like Carol does in the group , and that's awesome too . Right , that's what you love to do .

Philip Pape 49:12

But going back to your first question , did you give thought to the glycemic index of the carbs ? Uh , the answer is no , but I used to . So I'm glad you brought that up , because I fell prey to a lot of these silly little things . Like I say silly , like I was going to say blood sugar and that's going to offend a lot of people . I think blood sugar is important but I don't think I don't think it takes a lot to do it right and then not have to think about it . In other words , like if you eat balanced meals and you have a lot of fiber , you're going to take care of your blood sugar as long as you're training right , as long as you're lifting weights and walking , so I don't want to give too much thought to it . I know some coaches and some folks even I've had on my show like they focus on that and and it can be a valuable tool for people who aren't aware of it , because then it says , okay , how do I , how do I improve that ? But glycemic index has to do with you know as well . That's why I bring this up Insulin sensitivity , all of that it doesn't matter .

Philip Pape 50:08

Once I discovered through learning the science that if you're lifting weights and you're walking inactive , that you're going to be highly insulin sensitive , it didn't matter . I could even eat a carb meal . My blood sugar will spike and it's fine when I'm low on calories . I don't do that , though , because what will happen is I'll get like an energy crash , and many of you listening if you feel that like 3 pm energy crash . Sometimes you go for a high energy food , like a candy bar , right , or chips or whatever for that reason , because your body's craving the energy .

Philip Pape 50:34

But if you have balanced meals that are always protein and fiber first , you don't have to worry about glycemic index at all , and for anybody who knows GI , you know that it's like averaged out for the meal . So if you're having protein and fiber in there and some fats or whatever , it's going to bring the whole GI down for the meal . If you're diabetic , it's a different situation . You may have to be more conscious of it . So the answer is I didn't really . I went down those rabbit holes sometimes , but I was just trying to avoid carbs in general . I wasn't like oh , give me the low GI carbs , not the high . Now , I didn't do that . If that's a concern for you , I'm not the guy necessarily to talk to , because I don't think it's necessary for most people . Or if you're training , walking , eating , balanced meals , yeah , and then nutrient density , yeah .

Philip Pape 51:14

So I think that's it . I think glycemic load is what we call it , right , the context of the whole food matrix . That's more important . Okay , next question is from Alex B .

Philip Pape 51:22

So this is going back to the original listener who wrote in and this is another part of her question . She said I think it's a combo of habit and learn , fear or anxiety response from years of indoctrination . I know better , but knowledge only gets you so far . I've done the prepping , but not logging ahead . There are basically always potatoes , beans and bread ready to go . In any case , I think you're right . I don't have a knowledge gap , but an accountability one , and I and many others default to maladaptive habits and systems even when we know better . So I wanted to throw this in and kind of close the loop on all of this , because for many of us , myself included , no matter how much we know , the right thing is to do . We need that accountability , and accountability comes in so many ways , right , you can even build self accountability by using an app , like I use macro factor initially for my first year and a half of nutrition . I just use that . Then my accountability came in the form of getting a coaching certification , having clients and I have worked with coaches , like informally , for my nutrition as well . I haven't actually worked one-on-one with a nutrition coach for a period of time . I've been thinking about it for some of the advanced things , but , at the same time , I'm confident in my nutrition and this is the thing you got to assess . Like , if you really enjoy something and you love learning about it and you're able to be consistent with it , then you're good . You're good . If , however , something like strength training , you're constantly missing your training sessions , constantly moving things around , never sure what to follow , like you just have all this uncertainty and lack of confidence around it , or you feel frustrated and inconsistent , that's where you need something , whether that is a free Facebook group , a friend or accountability partner , a coach , a community , paid free , it doesn't like they're all different forms . Obviously , I provide various forms of this because everyone has different budgets and needs and whatnot , and some people can shift between them , right ? I've had folks that came into the Facebook group link in the show notes totally free . They saw what things were about , they started to learn , they started to listen to podcasts and they're like okay , interesting .

Philip Pape 53:20

Well , I had this really big goal and I'm kind of struggling to get there , even though I know what to do . Let me join Physique University and get motivated by people , but also be able to reach out to Philip and get some more personalized guidance . You know , have a plan , have a way to diagnose issues along the way , and they'll do that and they'll get a great result . Or they'll do that and they'll say , all right , I'm getting a result , but I had these very specific issues for me related to my hormones , my thyroid medications , my age , my equipment access . Maybe I'm kind of shy and I don't want to be sharing everything with a group , right , like there's different reasons and they'll say , okay , I want to work with you one-on-one . Or , again , there are things in your life where you may be able to hold yourself accountable . It's all different , it's a spectrum .

Philip Pape 54:07

So why I brought this up Alex is because she acknowledged that she has the knowledge but has a lot of habits and they're hard to break sometimes without that accountability . So I just signed up a couple of clients , this week in fact , who are very much like that . They are advanced clients . They have been training and learning and applying nutrition and tracking macros and everything for years and have gotten great results . Some of them have competed . You know bodybuilding and stuff like that , but they know that they can learn more . There's always subtle things that they need to to reach out to someone else for . Okay . Anyway , behavior changes is is is so important in this space . The role of like cognitive dissonance where what we believe doesn't match what we're experiencing and we're trying to resolve that when it comes to shifting our diets is really , really important , along with the role of community and accountability .

Philip Pape 54:53

All right , I think this episode is way past the time I wanted it to be . Hopefully , I'm able to

Finding Food Freedom and Breaking Habits

Philip Pape 55:00

edit it to be shorter , but I think the big thought from all of this and I don't even know if I covered half my story , to be honest is that what I finally learned around 2021 , when I launched the podcast , was that the sustainability and the flexibility are the main driver of all of this , like your ability to adapt and go with the flow and go with life , and if what you're doing does not have that flexibility , it's going to be a problem at some point . It's going to be a problem I guarantee it If you're following strict keto or any other highly restrictive approach . And don't tell me carnivore is like just wonderful and it works for you and it solved all your problems and I could do this the rest of my life . Maybe , 0.1% of people maybe . But in reality you come to me a year later and tell me that you're still eating only these three foods and I'm using a little exaggeration , I realize , but it's kind of what it is . You know , it's kind of like a kid who only eats like six things , right , doesn't eat their fruits and vegetables . That's carnivore .

Philip Pape 55:59

But any of these approaches are highly restrictive and when you're living that way , you know what it's stressing you out . You are in this state of like , constant vigilance , like what can I eat ? What's the next poison or toxin lurking around the corner that I have to avoid ? Man , isn't that stressful ? Doesn't that sound awful , like an awful way to live ? And if you're living right that way right now , why do it to yourself , right , every single time you eat ? You're like it's this Machiavellian calculation combined with extreme discipline and willpower . You know , social events are these minefields where it's all temptation . Like every social event , all it feels like is constant temptation and saying no , and the mental bandwidth that you have to have to maintain that is just enormous . It's enormous .

Philip Pape 56:41

So I'm getting my soapbox here , because it's a call to action to anyone listening that you can have it all . You can balance your approach to all of this . You can include carbs , you can get nutritional freedom . You just have to have the flexibility and you can still track macros , prioritize protein , make whole food choices , but without rigid rules that govern every bite . It's guardrails , it's structure , it's targets , it's ranges , it's not eat this , not that it is very different . If you want to argue with me that it's the same , I'd like you to try them both out and tell me that they are the same , and if they are to you , then that's your experience . And even with that , I would say that there are other ways to have those guardrails and flexibility , just with a slightly different approach or method that doesn't require cutting foods out .

Philip Pape 57:30

And so , instead of thinking , okay , I need to follow this diet , think how do I build a sustainable lifestyle that supports my goals , that enhances what I'm doing ? Doing ? Quality of life is so important , it's so important , and you got to live with what you're doing and be happy with it . You don't want to just tolerate with misery what you're doing . Think about it . Are you just tolerating your diet right now ? Are you miserable or are you living with it happily ? You know , I don't mean the roses and sunshine and it's perfect every day , of course . I don't mean that . I mean you're satisfied , you're like , yeah , I can do this the rest of my life . There's always a little effort involved with everything , of course , but this is way more freeing and flexible than the other approaches .

Philip Pape 58:10

So I guess , as we wrap up this self-interview but I guess it ended up being a Q&A what I want to emphasize is that I was looking for a diet like the one true diet for years Keto , atkins I didn't even mention SlimFast , but I did that Paleo and at the end of the day , it wasn't about the right diet , it was about the right approach for me , which means your diet itself evolves . So it's principle-based rather than method-based , and that means you can have multiple nutritional approaches , not only for different people but for you , at different stages , for different times of the year , for different contexts and objectives and goals . That's the power of all this , because now you're not fixed into one approach . So let's say you're currently thriving on a low-carb approach and it aligns with your goals Fantastic , like . I'm not going to judge you for that , but if you're staying low carb because of fear rather than like preferences or results , even , I hope this gives you the permission you want to experiment , to evolve your approach .

Philip Pape 59:11

That's what we are all about , because the social media world , the nutrition world , is just full of zealots who promote their preferred diet as the only way to eat . They do it for views , for clicks , for engagement and for money and I'm not against money . I'm a capitalist through and through . I love money , just like you but I wouldn't do this shameful self-promotion and something that actually harms people for that . Now , I've been the person who talks people's ear off about how great low-carb is . This was before it ever became a business for me and in hindsight it was exhausting and isolating .

Philip Pape 59:50

And I think there's tremendous freedom in letting go of dogma of any kind dietary dogma , training dogma and embrace the idea of flexibility . Not that we're all special snowflakes or anything like that . We're all like super , super , super unique that what works for you doesn't work for me . The principles are there . Principles are universal . It's the dogma of fixed methods and approaches .

Philip Pape 1:00:13

I think that your relationship with food should be a great part of your life , like it should just be a good , fun part of your life and something you enjoy , not constraining . Your diet serves you . It's not the other way around . Your knowledge is going to continue to grow as your experience grows , as you listen to podcasts , get involved in communities , learn , learn , learn . The evidence is going to keep changing as well . You know what we know about the evidence , I should say , and that's to me very exciting .

Philip Pape 1:00:41

So if you found value today , if you stuck through this long , if you want to continue the conversation , just join our Facebook group . That's all I'm going to ask today . Just search for it in Facebook or click the link in the show notes , and that is where questions like the ones we covered today get discussed . All the time you can share your journey with carbs or any other diet

Final Thoughts on Nutritional Flexibility

Philip Pape 1:01:00

you want . You know some people are there who are doing carnivore and they're like yeah , I love it , that's great .

Philip Pape 1:01:04

Come in there . We're not going to judge you . We're going to present all the evidence and let you decide for yourself . As long as you experiment , promise me that you will try , that you will make an attempt and not just assume something will or won't work until you've tried it . And if you haven't tried it you . You're going to find support there , you're not going to find judgment . That's my point . So Wits and Weights Facebook group link in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you there . Until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember the best diet isn't the one with the most zealous following . It's the one that works for your body and your goals and your life . I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast .