The Missing Key to Fat Loss Success

Philip Pape 0:00

Let's say you're tracking your calories and macros , you're hitting your training consistently , you're even trying to stay in that calorie deficit , but somehow the scale isn't really budging or it's slowing down . Maybe your energy is tanking , maybe you're thinking a lot about food and maybe even your physical results aren't coming along despite all of your effort . This one factor controls whether you can lose fat eating 2,000 calories with good energy and minimal cravings , or whether you're stuck at 1,200 calories , feeling miserable , with terrible biofeedback . It governs your hunger hormones , your total daily energy expenditure and your ability to stick to the plan . And today you'll discover why . The R word , recovery , is the catalyst that makes all of this work , and we're going to talk about how to implement recovery so you get the best fat loss results possible .

Philip Pape 0:55

Welcome to Wits and Weights , the show that helps you build a strong , healthy physique using evidence , engineering and efficiency . I'm your host , certified nutrition coach , philip Pape , and today we're talking about the possibly most overlooked variable in fat loss . It is not meal timing , it is not exercise selection or programming , it is not even the calories and the deficit . We are talking about recovery and why it might be the difference between losing fat efficiently and why it might be the difference between losing fat efficiently versus grinding away , losing muscle , seeing your metabolism tank and adapt really quickly and just being completely frustrated with getting the result you're looking for . Now . If you've ever wondered why some people seem to lose fat much more easily while others struggle , despite perfect adherence , this episode is going to connect the dots for you . We're going to look at how sleep , stress management , strategic rest days they don't get in the way . They actually are very supportive of higher energy expenditure , a greater metabolism , and that is what's going to help you maintain that appropriate calorie deficit , but without crashing , crushing your metabolism , feeling terrible , all the things where you feel like you have to white knuckle it through .

Philip Pape 2:08

Now I wanted to share some recent five-star reviews on Apple . If you ever have a moment to go into Apple and submit a review and tell us what you think about the show , that would be amazing , because that is how other people learn about the show . The first one is from AF listener always relevant , highly relevant , educational and inspirational . Keeps the compass pointed in the right direction with tons of information , suggestions for implementation and positivity . Thank you , philip . I love the last one especially . Positivity is what we are going for . Another one is Just A Dude Podcast .

Philip Pape 2:39

Be informed about your health Great show revolving around overall health and training . Great research and allows the listener to take it in and make informed decisions about their life Great show Again . Informed decisions Another great keyword that I love . And finally , I'm hooked . This is from I think it's Chem ZI heart emoji . I listened to the recent episodes on walking and inflammation . Philip , I'm hooked . I love your personalized , yet yet science-backed approach to health and I think everyone should give this podcast a listen . All right , so I always like to give shout-outs to folks . Again , if you send in a question at whitsandweightscom slash question or you go give us a five-star rating and review , you are very likely to hear yourself mentioned on the show in the future .

Why Your Deficit Isn't Working

Philip Pape 3:29

All right , let's talk about this whole thing with recovery , and I want to start by talking about why your deficit isn't working right now , like that's the premise of this episode and your body doesn't care about your fat loss timeline , okay , the schedule and your date that you have you know , three months from now or six months from now to be X pounds or lose X weight . Your body doesn't care . It cares about being and surviving and hopefully thriving and performing . And when you create an energy deficit but don't support the recovery , that's like half of the equation , and so your body is going to start interpreting that as some sort of crisis . It is not going to like that and this is why recovery is so important . But it is so underspoken about the traditional fat loss equation energy balance right , where we eat less to get into a calorie deficit and we , in many people's minds , move more . Now , you know , if you've ever listened to me , there's a backfire that occurs when you try to move more the wrong way . We want to be lifting weights , of course , to hold on to our muscle . We want to be walking using low-grade movement , but the pure fact of energy balance while it's true , right , you need to be in a calorie deficit and depends on how many calories you're eating versus how many calories you're burning , it's incomplete because it's completely taken out of context of how you drive those two variables Now , the input variables , of course , driven by calories , but you might've heard us talk about how you can eat more volume of food and have the same amount of calories , and so that's a way to eat more without eating more energy .

Philip Pape 4:51

On the other side of the equation , we have our metabolism , which today is going to focus more on that side . But they're all interconnected because sometimes the things you do that support your metabolism also contribute to the calories you bring in , including the say , for example , lower cravings , which means you're going to just naturally want to eat less . That's one example . So I know you want to drive faster and faster . I know you want to get the result as quickly and efficiently as possible .

Philip Pape 5:16

But if you were doing this in a car and you're like I'm going to keep pressing the gas pedal harder and harder , I have this little you know sedan , that max speed 130 or something and that's being generous and I just crank the pedal down . It's on a hot day and the radiator hose has a hole in it and your engine starts to overheat and you're not giving it any chance to recover . And maybe you forgot to change the oil , right ? This is what we're doing to our bodies . We're pressing that gas pedal and kind of forgetting everything else . So recovery is your body's machinery , your body's operating system that regulates all of this and without recovery , your , for example , metabolism , your total daily energy expenditure , is going to take a big hit and that's going to make all of this harder , and I really want to bring it down to that .

Philip Pape 6:00

When we talk about metabolism in the short term , that's what we're talking about how many calories you burn a day . We're not really talking about metabolic health and longevity and all that , which is great stuff that we care about and , by the way , all the practices we talk about support those but we're talking about a short term situation where you're just trying to get a reasonable calorie deficit , drop some energy from your body and get a little bit leaner , right , that's what we're trying to do . And so what happens is , if your metabolism isn't supported , well , you have to make up for it on the eating side and you're going to eat impossibly low calories . Most likely , it's just going to be a struggle and it's going to feel like every other crash that you've had in the past . And what's going on behind the scenes are a lot of things . With your body right , your hormones , such as your thyroid , right , your hormones , such as your thyroid , are going to get downregulated and these all control how many calories you burn . Down to the cellular level , your non-exercise activity thermogenesis might even drop unconsciously right , and those contribute significantly to the calories you burn just moving through your life . So , with proper recovery , you're going to be able to maintain a higher energy expenditure and then you're going to eat more calories and still be in an appropriate deficit . Your metabolism will stay reasonably high . Right , it's still going to drop during fat loss , but it's not going to drop as much . It might even be higher than it would have been in the past . Your energy this is important , guys . Your energy is going to feel a lot more stable . So your biofeedback , your digestion , your hunger , sleep and stress are better regulated , and all of this affects how much you can eat , how it feels to eat what you eat , and then whether you can lose fat consistently . Hence the title of this episode about losing fat faster , meaning you can go into either a greater deficit or at least be consistent with the deficit you're trying to maintain .

Philip Pape 7:41

Now I want you to consider two different people this will make it pretty crystal clear and both want to lose fat . They want to lose it at the same rate . Person A is sleeping just five hours , stressed out of their mind . They're skipping rest days because they quote unquote love to train and go to the gym . They love to work out every day . Their expenditure is crashing . It's crashing because they're too stressed , they have too much load allostatic load on their body . Allostatic meaning your body is using allostasis to try to get back to homeostasis and you're not letting it . And there is always some level of this during fat loss . But the more you push it , the more it's going to push back . So they have to eat a lot less calories let's say 1,200 , to maintain the deficit . Now , person B same size person , prioritizes their sleep , they're managing their stress , they're taking these strategic breaks right , they're not training every day , they're not exercising necessarily every day , or they're doing it the right way , like walking , and so their expenditure doesn't drop nearly as much . And so over the course of the fat loss , they're eating an average of several hundreds of calories more and able to lose fat at the same rate , but with better biofeedback . So they could either lose it at the same rate as the stressed out person , but it's easier , or they could even crank it up and lose fat even faster because they can handle the biofeedback , because they're recovering . So that's why the deficit might feel like it's not or not feel is not working for you right now . It comes down to all of the factors that push back against recovery and recoverability .

Philip Pape 9:13

So let's get into some of the key pillars here

Sleep: The Metabolic Game-Changer

Philip Pape 9:17

. Let's talk about sleep . We just have to talk about sleep , all right , sleep is not just time in bed and time for rest . It is when your body does things that are quite magical , like repairing your muscle or actually breaking down muscle . If you don't get enough sleep or restful sleep , believe it or not , whether to regulate your hunger hormones or crank them up and make you feel like you can eat an elephant . And the data shows us something important when you are vastly sleep restricted , we're talking about four to five hours a night .

Philip Pape 9:51

Consistently , people in a calorie deficit lose 55% less fat compared to someone getting adequate sleep in the same deficit . So it actually shifts the distribution of energy loss from losing fat to losing muscle and different fluids , for example , but mainly muscle . Whereas during quality sleep your growth hormone peaks , especially during deep sleep , and that's crucial for oxidizing fat and preserving muscle . Cortisol , your stress hormone , naturally dips , but again , only if you're getting enough deep sleep . For those of you who track your sleep stages , deep sleep is the one I'm talking about . Your hunger hormones also regulate , you know , ghrelin , the one that makes you hungry . It drops to normal levels . Leptin that's what signals fullness . It goes up . So if you don't have adequate sleep , the opposite happens right Grelin stays high , leptin crashes and now you're gonna have intense cravings , especially for calorie-dense foods , and that's gonna make adhering to the fat loss nearly impossible .

Philip Pape 10:53

Now , what about REM sleep ? So we talked about deep sleep . What about REM sleep ? That regulates glucose , control , blood sugar . So if you have poor sleep and REM sleep , you're going to have a little more insulin resistance . Now , chronically , over time , it can actually be a big contributor to overall insulin resistance , and so your body's going to have harder time accessing your fat stores for energy . You become what somebody might call metabolically inefficient , which basically just means your metabolism's gonna drop .

Philip Pape 11:19

And the practical takeaway here is that sleep the biggest thing you do outside the gym to support your metabolism is really a non-negotiable right . Getting that sufficient seven to nine hours of sleep that's high quality , with high , deep and REM sleep should be just as important to you as trying to hit your protein , for example . And then stress is the other big pillar here sleep and stress . Chronic stress is a big , big metabolic factor , more than a lot of people realize , because even if you're in a calorie deficit , having elevated cortisol beyond normal right . And cortisol is not a bad guy .

Philip Pape 11:53

Cortisol is just a hormone responding to the signaling in your body , responding to the conditions you put it in , the stress that you put it in . But cortisol , what does it do ? It elevates your blood glucose Again . That reduces insulin sensitivity and probably one of the worst things that we're all concerned about promotes visceral fat storage . That's dangerous and we don't like how it looks either . You know , kind of a double whammy , right ? That's the fat around your midsection , that's your belly fat . Cortisol increases water retention and so that could cause weird things to happen on the scale as well . It might mask fat loss in the scale and create an illusion that things are not working . And remember , stress doesn't just come from those life causes like your job and your relationships and your money .

Philip Pape 12:32

The deficit itself is a stressor , right ? Things you do like training are stressors too , but those are good acute stressors , right . Hard training is a stressor , but too much of it could go beyond the line . Poor sleep that we just talked about compounds the stressor . You know the allostatic load , and so if you're not recovering from that stress , you're just layering it on top , one on top of the other and your system is like slowly breaking down and the fact that you're in a calorie deficit just means it's never going to recover , and I hate to put it that way , but it's effectively what it is .

Philip Pape 13:00

Some people get to such a state of this . You can see it in their numbers . You can see that they've hit , you know , this massive weight loss resistance . Their metabolism has gone down hundreds of calories and it's just not going to recover until you get out of it .

Stress and The Nervous System Connection

Philip Pape 13:22

And they a calorie deficit because they want to lose fat .

Philip Pape 13:23

Well , guess what ? You're not going to unless you spend time recovering and or go in an even bigger , not deficit , but even lower calories , which is the thing we don't want to do . It's just a vicious cycle and you've probably heard how your nervous system has two modes . Right , you're sympathetic , which is fight or flight , and parasympathetic , which is rest and digest . Sympathetic dominance is a necessary thing as a human being . Right , it helps us when we train , it helps us in daily life , but the oxidation of fat actually happens primarily during parasympathetic dominance . So if you're always in the sympathetic mode because you have a lack of sleep and high stress and no rest days and these extreme deficits . Right . Again , the same things we've been talking about . Then what's going to happen ? Your metabolism , your total daily energy expenditure , is going to drop and you're going to be forced into unsustainably low calories . You're going to have terrible feedback and you're trying to lose fat , but your metabolism is tanky . Right , this is all temporary , this is all recoverable , but the fact is , you're not spending time on recovery , and so recovery practices , incorporated into your plan as a part of your training , are going to actively support a higher metabolism through better performance when you train , through higher NEAT and , of course , your metabolism functioning optimally . Again , I always say down to the cellular level , because it really comes down to your mitochondria and your cells clamping down to save energy or not , and we want them not to . We want them to burn energy like a gas guzzler . We want to be that .

Philip Pape 14:43

Hey , this is Philip , and you know that one spot in your home you were thinking about all day , the place where you can finally unwind and relax For me , that's my bed . I have a really good mattress , but I was still having trouble with getting too hot at night and not feeling fully rested . You know that feeling where you have your seven or eight hours , but you still feel tired in the morning . Well , it turns out that the missing piece was my sheets . So I tried some different brands and I finally settled on a really comfortable sheet set from Cozy Earth , made from viscose , from bamboo . They're temperature regulating , so they naturally wick away heat and moisture , which has made my sleep way more restful . So if you run hot at night , like I do , or your partner's always stealing the covers because they're cold , this could be a game changer for your sleep quality and recovery . Cozy Earth also gives you a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty , so you can literally try them for three months with your routine and still return them if you don't love them . Now think about this you spend 2,500 hours a year in bed and you're already investing in training and nutrition , so why not optimize your sleep as well ? Head over to witsandweightscom slash Cozy Earth and use my code WITSANDWEIGHTS for 20% off to try these for yourself , because sometimes it's the small upgrades that make the biggest difference . Again , go to witsandweightscom slash Cozy Earth .

Philip Pape 16:04

Now back to the show . So now let's talk about the recovery performance loop . I'm a big fan of understanding feedback systems , and our body is a feedback system . Poor recovery leads to decreased performance . Recovery leads to decreased performance . Decreased performance means less stimulus on your muscles when you train and lower calorie burn because you have lower quality training . And then this forces you into even bigger deficits to maintain I shouldn't say bigger deficits , but lower calories to maintain the deficit for fat loss . And then that further erodes your recovery . And so it's a vicious cycle . It's a downward spiral .

Philip Pape 16:40

Recovery is the thing that's going to break it in a good way . It's going to break the loop right . With recovery you're going to be able to maintain intensity in the gym , higher energy expenditure , keep your deficit moderate , and then it's sustainable , and then you can eat more while still losing fat consistently . So let's say , for example , let's put it in the context of calories , believe it or not , we can do this . Let's say you normally burn 300 calories in a strength training session . Now , we don't care about the calories burned . That's not why we do it .

Philip Pape 17:08

But it's an interesting proxy because with when you don't have recovery , when you're fatigued , you know , when you're sluggish , you know what this feels like . When you're like already going to the gym . I'm not sure about this now , I'm not . I'm not talking about when you just kind of feel that way and it's not . It's more perception I'm talking about when you really truly lack recovery and you've got this accumulated fatigue and now you're you're probably more or less going through the motions of trying to do your training session , but you're not really be able to perform optimally and so you're not going to get the stimulus , you're not gonna be able to train as close to failure , you're not going to get as many reps and you're not going to burn as many calories , all of those things . So you might burn , say , two thirds as many calories and that alone is going to cut out , you know , 500 to 700 calories from for the week just because you couldn't train as hard . I mean , it's just an interesting thought experiment I want to put in your head , at the risk of you thinking , oh , I should be tracking how many calories I burn . No , no , that's not what I'm saying .

Philip Pape 18:04

Now , factor in a much bigger piece of your metabolism that burns calories NEAT , non-exercise activity , thermogenesis , all the unconscious movement throughout your day . Well , poor recovery usually drops your neat in many , many ways , a lot of unconscious ways , but even cautious , because you're just too tired to do all the walks and do all the moving and really just stay spry and on your feet and bouncing around and active . Right , we know , you know you just want to sit and watch Netflix , let alone potentially eat more than you should . So suddenly your planned deficit based on your calorie intake if you're using macro factor , it says okay , you need to eat this it becomes an effective , real deficit of much less of , say , two or 300 , because you're burning way fewer calories that week because your lack of recovery and because of your lower NEAT . And that's not even to get into how all of this probably shifts and biases the tissue your body uses more toward taking it from muscle , which is absolutely what we don't want . Now , if you're lifting weights consistently , you're blunting that effect . But we know a lack of sleep , high stress , all of these

The Recovery-Performance Loop

Philip Pape 19:15

things can cause you to burn , to lose a little bit more muscle instead of fat as your body tries to protect it , protect that fat . So recovery essentially boosts your energy flux . The idea of moving more to eat more while still being in a deficit for fat loss , that's what we want . All right .

Philip Pape 19:33

So now let's connect this to the nervous system . I mentioned briefly the autonomic nervous system and it's like running the entire show behind the scenes , the things you don't think about , the unconscious , involuntary things your heart rate variability , your vagal tone , your parasympathetic activity right , these can be measured with different things , like we know . We can measure our HRV with wearables and they're indicators of your recovery state , your resilience , your fat loss potential and I know this is the first time I dropped the word resilience , I feel like I should do a whole episode about that but your ability , resilience is your ability to get pushed off of your homostasis via stress and then get back fairly quickly . But you are actually hampering that when you don't have enough recovery . So , for example , when your HRV is consistently low , your heart rate variability right , that's an indicator that your system is under stress and stuck in that sympathetic dominance , and then that's gonna directly correlate with the poorer outcomes that we've been talking about today .

Philip Pape 20:32

Right , strategic recovery practices need to be part of your plan . We talked about quality sleep and stress reduction , but we also have things like your rest days . Truly , looking at the number of days a week you're going to the gym for your programming that make the most sense given your recovery capacity , it might be only three days , so that you get extra rest days extra , sleep right , extra , you know , focus on your nutrition and quality nutrition and not feeling like you're starved or having to eat , you know , lower quality or calorie dense foods , and if you can measure all of these things in some way . There's different biomarkers . Yes , there's blood markers too , but in the short term , we have biomarkers , we have biofeedback and do the things you need to shift toward parasympathetic dominance . That's where you're going to have improved results . These markers will improve and you should notice your metabolism climb and also your ability to lose fat increase . So that's just the connection with your nervous system I wanted to mention . If you like to use those measures of tracking .

Philip Pape 21:37

Now I do want to say I want to be totally clear your body's very adaptable . Okay , it adapts and it can adapt the other way , and none of this is permanent . Your body adapts to the deficit , for example , by slowing your metabolism . Right , that's called metabolic adaptation , which gets compounded when you lose weight . But let's just focus on this piece of it where your thyroid hormones get downregulated , your metabolism gets downregulated , your NEAT goes down , your BMR even goes down because of all of this , and it's normal and expected . But if you're prioritizing recovery , I've seen that that can be a tremendous buffer with my clients , with our Physique University students who report really consistent recovery practices , whether that's just very solid , consistent sleep or they've incorporated something they really enjoy . Maybe it's yoga , maybe it's breath work , maybe it's something with their kids , a hobby , things like that , where they have not so ridiculously hectic lives .

Philip Pape 22:29

And I know we can't control everything , but there are things we can control . And you've got to get to a point where your body is trusting that you are supporting it rather than attacking it all the time with everything going , all the stimulus that's out of your control in your life . Otherwise you will pay the consequence with your metabolism and it's going to be hard to lose fat . Now , if you're in that state and you still want to lose fat , could you do it ? Sure , you could do it with a little more commitment and discipline , I suppose , and you can also do it by just taking longer and using a much smaller deficit right Now .

Philip Pape 23:00

Today's episode is titled Lose Fat Faster , and that's the point . But you could take you lose fat slower , and that's actually a option , albeit a less optimal one . You've got to tell your body that the resources coming in aren't scarce , other than the deficit so that you don't have a severe metabolic adaptation , you have an easier time of fat loss . So fat loss isn't going on a diet , overpowering your body white knuckling it through forcing yourself and restricting foods . It's not about pushing through , gritting through , grinding through fatigue all the time or pushing harder and harder and

Making Recovery Your Fat Loss Accelerator

Philip Pape 23:37

harder when things aren't working , thinking that's the thing that's going to help . Right , the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again , expecting different result .

Philip Pape 23:45

Effective , efficient fat loss is supported mostly on the energy expenditure side , the metabolism side , less so on the food side , although the food side's where you control the intake and your satiety . But once you've got that locked down which a lot of my clients and our physique university students they figure that out early . That's kind of the easy part . I think the harder part is what we're talking about today recovery , because it requires generally more discomfort in changing your behaviors and routines and sometimes your mindset right Of not doing so much . And you can tell this through your biofeedback . You could tell this because your expenditure's crashing when you use macrofactor and the orange line is going down and down right , and so you've got to be strategic . Every hour of sleep , every hour of quality sleep is going to compound here . Every rest day that you're strategic with your training schedule . For some people , that means training five or six days a week , but keeping them extremely short . Every stress management technique that you can practice to build the capacity .

Philip Pape 24:45

For those of you that went to our adaptive cardio workshop recently , that's exactly what we talked about . How do we make cardio help you during fat loss but be recoverable ? And if you missed that , you can still grab the replay . Go to livewitsandweightscom slash replay . But remember , this is all feedback loop . Better sleep leads to better workouts . Higher NEAT . Higher NEAT and daily expenditure means you can eat more calories and still lose fat . Better feedback means you're going to stick to that fat loss plan . That is the upward spiral of efficiency , right ?

Philip Pape 25:12

Most people out there are just fighting their biology . They're allowing their energy to crash . They're forcing themselves into unsustainably low calories with terrible feedback , despite everything I tell them , even when they reach out . Help , this is what I'm doing , but , but , but , and it's like well , all the buts are the things you probably need to be doing , right , but I only get five hours of sleep .

Philip Pape 25:31

Okay , I think that's probably your priority and for a lot of you , the answer is not fat loss right now . It's taking the time to work on yourself right , and that's really important too For a lot of you . When you do that , you're going to find you're going to start to lose fat naturally , without trying . That's kind of the intuitive approach that a lot of people claim you can do . It's not that intuitive , though . You have to focus on it and develop the skill .

Philip Pape 25:52

So here's one last kind of I don't know if this will blow your mind or this duh , but recovery is not the opposite of intensity , it's what makes intensity possible . Let me say that again Recovery is not the opposite of intensity , it's what makes intensity possible . It's an accelerator of targeted , efficient , purposeful intensity . It removes the friction , the resistance , the hidden barriers that have been sabotaging your progress all along . So the next time you're like , should I cut my calories further ? Should I add more cardio ? Should I skip another rest day because I need to move and burn those calories , remember the solution might not be , and is most likely not be , not doing more , but recovering more . All right , I hope that was helpful to you guys .

Philip Pape 26:42

I know I didn't get into a lot of specifics because sometimes I don't want to get lost in those weeds . I really want to talk about the philosophy and the principles . There's many ways to get there , but it's more of getting that message in our head of this is what I need to do . Right , we have lots of other resources that tell you how to do it , but this is what you need to do Now .

Philip Pape 26:59

If you're a new listener or new-ish , I'd love to hear how you found the show , and one cool way to do that is to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Spotify , you can leave a comment . Apple , you can leave a there , necessarily , but I can shout you out on the show and share your review , and it helps other people discover all the strategies and philosophies and principles we talk about today to be successful . So I hope that's why you're here . That's why I'm making this show . Until next time , keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember , sometimes the fastest way forward is making sure that your recovery matches that ambition . This is Philip Pape , and you've been listening to Wits and Weights . Talk to you next time .