Wits & Weights | Fat Loss, Nutrition, & Strength Training for Lifters
For skeptics of the fitness industry who want to work smarter and more efficiently to build muscle and lose fat. Wits & Weights is one of the best fitness podcasts for evidence-based nutrition and fitness strategies. We cut through the noise and deconstruct health and fitness with an engineering mindset to help you develop a strong, lean physique without wasting time.
Evidence-based nutrition coach Philip Pape explores efficient strength training, nutrition, and lifestyle strategies to optimize your body recomp and metabolism. Whether you're focused on weight loss, muscle building, or both, you'll get simple, science-based, and sustainable info from an engineer turned lifter (that's why they call him the Physique Engineer). This show serves both women's fitness and men's health goals, with special attention to strength training over 40 and hormone health.
From restrictive fad diets to ineffective workouts and hyped-up supplements, there's no shortage of confusing information out there. Getting in the best shape of your life doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming! By using your WITS (mindset and systems!) and lifting weights efficiently, you can build muscle, lose stubborn fat, and achieve and maintain a lean physique through sustainable body recomp.
We bring you smart and efficient strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle, and mindset. You'll learn:
- Why fat loss is more important than weight loss for health and physique
- Why all the macros (protein, fats, and yes even carbs) are critical to body composition
- Why you don't need to spend more than 3 hours in the gym each week to get incredible results with proper hypertrophy training
- Why muscle (not weight loss) is the key to medicine, obesity, and longevity
- Why age and hormones (even in menopause) don't matter with the right lifestyle
- How the "hidden" psychology of your mind can unlock more personal (and physical) growth than you ever thought possible, and how to tap into that mindset
If you're ready to separate fact from fiction, learn what actually works with evidence-based training and nutrition, and put in the intelligent work, hit that "follow" button and let's engineer your best physique ever!
Popular Guests Include: Mike Matthews (author of Bigger Leaner Stronger), Greg Nuckols (Stronger by Science), Alan Aragon (nutrition researcher), Eric Helms (3D Muscle Journey), Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (Doc Who Lifts), Eric Trexler (Stronger by Science), Bill Campbell (exercise science researcher), Jordan Feigenbaum (Barbell Medicine), Andy Morgan (Ripped Body), Karen Martel (hormone optimization expert), Steph Gaudreau (women's strength and nutrition), Bryan Boorstein (hypertrophy coach)
Popular Topics Include: hormone health, metabolism optimization, hypertrophy training, longevity and healthy aging, body positivity, best protein powder selection, strength training over 40, women's fitness, men's health, muscle building, body recomp, macros and nutrition tracking
Wits & Weights | Fat Loss, Nutrition, & Strength Training for Lifters
The 2-Minute Metabolism Test
We challenge the myth of a “broken metabolism” and show how results improve when your plan matches your current physiology, lifestyle, and recovery.
Take the 2-minute quiz that identifies whether you’re facing metabolic adaptation, lower insulin sensitivity, or a recovery mismatch along with a 15-page personalized fat loss blueprint with macros, movement, and recipe recommendations: witsandweights.com/quiz
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Tired of blaming a “slow metabolism” for stalled fat loss or flat training?
Let’s fix the real issue: the mismatch between your plan and where your body stands today.
Learn about the most common roadblocks to fat loss and how to turn each into a clear path forward.
Go to witsandweights.com/quiz to take the free 2-minute metabolism quiz
🔥 Take a 2-minute Metabolic Quiz for a personalized fat loss report (strength training & nutrition strategies)
🩸 Book a Performance Bloodwork Analysis to find out what's slowing your metabolism and weight loss (20% off - code VITALITY20)
🎓 Lose fat + build muscle in Physique University with evidence-based nutrition coaching (free custom nutrition plan - code FREEPLAN)
👥 Join our Facebook community for fitness & body recomp strategies
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape on Instagram
📱 Try MacroFactor 2 weeks free with code WITSANDWEIGHTS (my favorite nutrition and macros app for lifting weights)
Hey, I've got another quick bonus episode for you today about metabolism. Most people are blaming their metabolism for lots of things. I talk about metabolism being the source of much strife when it comes to fat loss and building muscle. But to be honest, metabolism is not really the issue most of the time. What you're actually dealing with is one of a few common scenarios. Maybe you've been under eating for so long that your body has adapted and your maintenance calories have dropped. That is just a temporary change in your metabolism, but it's not the root cause. The root cause is the under-ating. Maybe your insulin sensitivity is lower than average and you would do better with more movement, different training, better carb, more carbs, and better carb timing. Maybe you're just not matching your approach, your current lifestyle and recovery capacity right now. The problem is often that you don't know where you are in that journey, right? You're following a plan designed either for someone else's situation or maybe even for you six months ago or a year ago. And your friend who does intermittent fasting or keto and says, oh, this is great, or does carnivore or trains in a different way, and then they get results, you look at them and you're like, oh, I should try that. They might have different work schedules, stress level, training demand. They're probably not doing something sustainable anyway. You can't really peer behind that curtain. And so you really have to find out what works for your performance goals. And I say performance as a catch-all for feeling good, looking looking good, better health, better longevity. So I put together a short quiz. I wanted to share that with you. It's free. It helps you identify which of these scenarios you're actually in right now. It asks you about specific things right now, like your energy patterns, how you respond to different foods, your training recovery, sleep quality, dieting history. It's very short. It's not like a big, you know, coaching intake or anything like that. And then based on your answers, you get a sense of whether you're dealing with metabolic adaptation or insulin resistance, suboptimal recovery, or maybe things are actually functioning well. And it tells you that, it validates that and says, you know, maybe you just want some better structure and we're going to give you some ideas on that. And then after you take the quiz, you can go one level deeper if you want, request a more detailed, personalized report, provide a little bit more information so it knows how to do that. And by it, I mean the software that I've written that will send you the report because you get it instantly. And then you get macro ranges based on the evidence, training recommendations that match your recovery, practical tips, even some recipes. And I want to be clear about something. This isn't gonna tell you that you have some special metabolism that's unique and requires a different approach you've never heard of before, some you know, secret to unlocking your metabolism. The fundamentals are still gonna work for everyone. What it does do is help you figure out where to start with those fundamentals based on your situation right now. So it just helps you target it in, like a decision tree. It's that you know, if you've been chronically under-eating, you might have to focus on recovery in your diet before you push for fast fat loss. If your insulin sensitivity is lower, you might benefit from a different approach to your carbs and timing. And the report gives you ranges, it doesn't give you rigid or restrictive prescriptions. It suggests approaches, not rules. It recommends how to track on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. And a lot of people are just guessing at this stuff. You know, random calculators and macro splits online, random programs. They don't think about their volume or recovery, constantly hopping around, constantly changing, and never quite knowing what's actually working. Maybe you did something that works, but you don't know it works, so then you move on to something else. And this instead gives you a systematic starting point. You know, you'll have data on where you likely are, you'll get recommendations based on that assessment, and then you'll have a framework for some of this tracking to see whether what you've been recommended is actually working. So just go to witsandweights.com slash quiz, take the free quiz. It's two minutes. That's it. You're gonna get results immediately. And then, as I mentioned, if you put in a little more information to personalize it, you can get a detailed 15-page report, will be sent by email. So you can save it and keep it for yourself, totally free with the macros and the training and the recipes and all that. But even if you just want to know where you stand in general, the quiz results are gonna help. So go to wits and weights.com slash quiz. It takes two minutes, totally free. Your metabolism is probably not the root cause. You probably just need a better starting point given where your metabolism stands today. Go find out where that is. Witsandweights.com/slash quiz, and I'll see you tomorrow.
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