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
How to Lose 12 Pounds in 45 Days
Join the Get Lean in 45 Days Workshop TODAY at live.witsandweights.com to get the complete mini-cut protocol, training template, 8-week guided course, and your first month in Physique University. Workshop starts at 12pm Eastern (recording included if you can't make it live):
https://live.witsandweights.com/
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Want to lose 8-12 pounds of body fat in the next 6 weeks?
Learn the mini-cut approach: a shorter, more aggressive but "internally sustainable" fat loss phase that actually works because you can commit to a clear end date.
Discover how to set up your deficit, structure training to preserve muscle, and transition out without rebounding.
Plus, get the support and accountability that makes the difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it.
Episode Resources:
- Get Lean in 45 Days Workshop - TODAY at 12pm ET (includes replay)
π± Get Fitness Lab - Philipβs science-based AI app for fat loss, muscle building, and strength training for people over 40. It adapts to your nutrition, recovery, and training to improve body composition without guesswork.
π Try Physique University - Evidence-based nutrition coaching and strength training to help you lose fat, build muscle, and master your metabolism with support and accountability (free custom nutrition plan with code FREEPLAN).
π₯ Join our Facebook community - Free fat loss, muscle building, and body recomposition strategies for adults over 40 who want practical, science-backed fitness guidance.
π Ask a question or find Philip Pape on Instagram
Hey guys, I wanted to drop a quick one today to get my thoughts out about how to do a mini cut. If you want to lose somewhere, usually on average, eight to twelve pounds of body fat over about six weeks. It's one of my most common and I'll say popular forms of fat loss because it's a sweet spot for aggressiveness but also results. And I'm mentioning this today because we are running a workshop at Noone Eastern. Today is Tuesday, January 20. If you missed it, by the time you're listening to this, you can still register and get the replay and everything that comes with it. It's called Get Lean in 45 Days. And you can go to live.witsandweights.com to do that. But I want to explain this because maybe it's not right for you. Okay. This is a mini cut. That means it's shorter, it's more aggressive rather than dragging things out for let's say three or four months, where you're looking at about 0.8 to 1% of your body weight lost per week. So do the math, that's a little over 6% up over the six weeks. Some people can push it a little harder than that, but it's still a decent amount of fat loss, you know, around a pound and a half to two pounds a week for a lot of you, depending on your size, your metabolism, of course. And it's faster than the typical fat loss recommendation, but not as fast as something like a rapid fat loss phase. And there's a lot of reasons that's that this works really well for people, physically and psychologically. When you keep the timeline relatively short, okay, it's a month and a half. So you could usually squeeze that in somewhere in your year. You can push a little harder without the downsides. Your metabolism doesn't have all this time to adapt downward. Your hormones don't have all this time to downregulate. And psychologically, you can commit to something that has a clear end date, and that is the most important for some people. The key is you have to be ready for it, like any fat loss phase. And that means that you're probably been eating at maintenance for a while. You're not, you haven't been trying to diet constantly because you need to recover out of that first. You have consistent training, your sleep is decent, you're not already super run down or stressed. And if you're not there yet, the cool thing is I have a prep track for that. It doesn't take that long, it takes about four to six weeks anyway. So we're doing this in January because all of you want that summer body and you all wait too long. I wait too long, right? And because it's only January, you have time to do the cut and or do the prep and then the cut, just so you do it the right way and actually maintain your results because that is the challenge, is maintaining those results. So in the workshop today, again, go to live.witsandweights.com. I'm gonna walk through the whole thing. All right. I've got I've got slides, I've got a guide for you, I've got the numbers, I've got the step by step. It's how to set up your deficit based on your body weight and the percentage loss per week, plus based on your metabolism, how to structure your training to keep your muscle in strength. Everybody's confused. How do I train during fat loss? What to do if you need some flexibility, okay, in terms of the calories and in terms of like social events, and how to transition out at the end so you don't just rebound and gain all the weight back. But the cool thing is I decided a few weeks ago, I said, you know what? One thing that we don't often have is a guided companion course to go along with this. See, in physique university, where we give these workshops, it's a group program, but we have courses, right? We have all these different courses on physique development, on menopause, on calories, on burning fat, et cetera. But I said, why don't I actually create an eight-week course where the first week is setting everything up, six weeks in the middle is doing the fat loss, and then one week to kind of come out and celebrate and get your results and all that. So I did that. We just dropped it yesterday. It's in there. If you join, you get instant access to that. So it isn't just me teaching you the concepts in a single workshop today and sending you on your way. It's a week by week implementation. Now, we wouldn't send you on your way anyway. The whole point of where we do these workshops, Physique University, which you hear me talk about it a lot on the show, is the accountability and support at a community level with two great coaches in there, including myself and assist my assistant coach Carol. And honestly, that is the part I think that matters most. I think the information isn't super complicated. You know, eat in a deficit, keep your protein high, train hard, don't do it forever. I mean, that's kind of it. And if I'm downselling what we're talking about, I don't mean to do it, but I'm just being honest. There are a lot of intricacies though, and a lot of you don't really know how to calculate all that. Like, how many carbs do I eat? Like, how do I train? But even once you get that, the hard part is actually doing it consistently. And then even six weeks doesn't sound like a lot, but it's just enough where people often fall off track after like week three or four, and they're like, I can't keep this going, because life is happening. So having that structure and accountability is what makes it a lot easier. So when you register for the workshop today at live.wits and weights.com, you get access to all of that, including the new course, including the live calls we have, the community, all the other courses, et cetera. I know it sounds like a lot, but we make it very structured. And if you're just trying to lose fat, then join us today because you're gonna learn how to do that. You could ask questions. If you can't make it today, watch you can watch the replay and get everything. All right, go to live.witsandweights.com, the workshop's at noon eastern. Again, you can get the replay, live.witsandweights.com. And that's all I wanted to share today. That's what the mini cut is all about. That's how we do it effectively. And I hope to see you there today.
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