Wits & Weights | Strength Training & Fat Loss Over 40

By Philip Pape | Strength Training & Fat Loss Over 40Health & Fitness Nutrition Education Self-Improvement Fitness

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Wits & Weights | Strength Training & Fat Loss Over 40 episodes

September 06, 2022Ep 25: Lose 30 Pounds (or More) the Right Way and Keep it Off
What if you have significant weight to lose—around 30 pounds or more?

Most people have no problem losing weight . . . in the short term. What usually follows is a rebound, usually because calories or the diet itself were so restrictive that they were impossible to maintain for more than a few months.

In this episode, we discuss a completely different approach. Instead of “weight loss,” we want to achieve FAT LOSS. We want to improve our body composition over time and actually become leaner.

Our topic is how to lose 30 pounds or more the right way…and keep it off.

Not how to lose 30 pounds in 30 days, or how to lose weight now and then…good luck!

Those approaches to dieting are completely myopic. They’re short-term. Just cut calories and lose weight. Then you’ll be lean.

The problem is, every time you lose weight this way, usually without enough protein or resistance training, you lose some muscle and then regain mostly fat. This bodyfat overshooting phenomenon causes your body fat percentage to rise over time, even if your weight stays in the same range, but most likely you gain even more weight each time you rebound.

Does this sound familiar?

Here’s the reality. Losing weight is the “easy” part. The challenge is the 95% of skills, behaviors, and metabolic recovery we need to address BEFORE losing weight.

In this episode, we cover how to lose mostly fat, do it sustainably, and have the knowledge to do it whenever you want for the rest of your life. We’ll discuss what happens when you lose weight through chronic dieting, what I would do with a client who needs to lose significant weight, and step through the entire process to get successful, long-term results.

RELATED LINKS
Join our Facebook community if you'd rather watch the video and to access the nutrition blueprint PDF for this episode
MacroFactor food logging app (use discount code WITSANDWEIGHTS)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
44 min
August 30, 2022Ep 24: How to Distribute Protein for More Muscle Mass
This is our first "Science Says" episode, where we break down a single recent article relevant to the fitness (lifting, nutrition, health) industry and strategies you can apply right away based on what the science says.

Today's article is "Evenly distributed protein intake over 3 meals augments resistance exercise–induced muscle hypertrophy in healthy young men" by Yasuda, et al. (2020).

The main question is, can we build more muscle mass by evenly distributing protein throughout the day (primarily by increasing protein at breakfast if it is low to begin with)?

RELATED LINKS
Yasuda, J., Tomita, T., Arimitsu, T., & Fujita, S. (2020). Evenly distributed protein intake over 3 meals augments resistance exercise–induced muscle hypertrophy in healthy young men. The Journal of Nutrition, 150(7), 1845-1851.
Body by Science (Bill Campbell, PhD)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
12 min
August 23, 2022Ep 23: How to Minimize Fat Gain and Get Lean with Cuts and Bulks
If you could be in a calorie surplus for three-quarters of the year and constantly get leaner, would that appeal to you?

Today’s topic is something that ended my many, repeated unproductive cycles of crash dieting and changed my mindset to one of abundance, performance, improved body composition, a better relationship with food, and sustainable results.

You’re going to learn how to periodize your nutrition with cut and bulk cycles to get leaner and leaner by minimizing fat gain while maximizing muscle gain.

Why do we periodize our nutrition anyway? Why use so-called cut and bulk cycles

Why not just lose a bunch of weight and then maintain? Or gain a bunch of muscle and maintain? Or gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (the holy grail known as body recomposition)?

Because our biology has thrown us a curveball. When you lose weight, you DO lose fat but you ALSO lose some muscle. Conversely, when you gain weight, you do gain muscle but also gain some fat.

Therefore, why don’t we focus intelligently on ONE GOAL AT A TIME and MAXIMIZE our results for that goal?

That’s exactly what today’s discussion is about!

Topics discussed in this episode:
What happens when we lose and gain weight
What is body fat overshooting?
Using cuts and bulks for body composition
Eating in a surplus while training to gain muscle
Not spending long enough in a bulk
Identifying your start and end points
Identifying your goal weight
and more!
RELATED LINKS
Join our Facebook community if you'd rather watch the video
MacroFactor diet sidekick (use discount code WITSANDWEIGHTS)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
34 min
August 09, 2022Ep 22: How to FINALLY Achieve (and Keep) Your Fat Loss and Fitness Results
This episode is all about achieving LASTING results: finding that place where you no longer have to yo-yo diet, jump from one program to another, or feel like the only way to success is severe calorie restriction, excessive cardio, or short-term transformations.

If what you’ve tried before just has NOT worked, maybe it’s time to engage the help of another person.

Someone who can hold you accountable, give you some extrinsic motivation to help you build momentum and develop new, sustainable habits, so you can finally achieve the weight loss, muscle building, and body recomposition goals you desire and MAINTAIN them for the long term.

Yes, I’m talking about working with a coach, especially one who understands nutrition.

We are going to make the distinction between effective and not-so-effective coaching and why you might (or might NOT) actually need a coach for your particular situation.

RELATED LINKS
MacroFactor diet sidekick (use discount code WITSANDWEIGHTS)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
40 min
July 26, 2022Ep 21: 21 Ways to Measure Progress and Crush Your Fitness Goals
How do you know when you’ve reached your goal?
If you’re trying to lose 20 pounds, do you just instinctively change your eating behaviors and eventually magically arrive at your target weight? If you’re trying to build muscle, do you go to the gym without a program and randomly hit up different weights and machines, rep ranges, rest periods, and muscle groups?
Chances are, when you’re committed to a goal, you come up with a plan and then measure progress along the way. Otherwise, how do you “close the loop” between desire and outcome?
In this episode, we dive into 21 specific ways to measure progress toward your health and fitness goals, categorized into six areas: biometrics, biofeedback, nutrition, physical activity, behaviors, and self-awareness. We want to select the right measures for the job so we have clear, objective feedback that tells us whether we’re on track.
With these tools at your disposal, and strategies to use them that I’ll talk about, you can crush any fitness goal with the certainty that you know how and when to adjust course.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
03:09 - Biometrics
11:32 - Biofeedback
22:23 - Nutrition
29:18 - Physical activity
34:37 - Behaviors
37:19 - Self-awareness
RELATED LINKS
MacroFactor diet sidekick (use discount code WITSANDWEIGHTS)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
42 min
July 12, 2022Ep 20: Hitting Your Fitness and Nutrition Goals While Traveling or Busy
In this episode, we’re talking about what to do with your carefully-honed, consistent, so-far-successful training and nutrition plans when you go on vacation!
Summer’s here, and despite exorbitant gas prices and airfare, we can’t help but get away from it all, even for just a week or even a long weekend. Vacations are the perfect time to shut off those devices, relax with a drink in your hand, and enjoy that well-deserved leisure.
But that raises the question, should I continue my current health and fitness behaviors when I’m off jetting about in faraway lands (or even a road trip to the next state over)? If so, to what extent?
What do I do on vacation?!

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
04:13 - Establishing a routine and planning ahead
05:25 - Nutrition while on vacation
09:09 - Tracking macros while on vacation
15:28 - Activity and training while on vacation
19:32 - What I did on my recent vacation
RELATED LINKS
MacroFactor diet sidekick (use discount code WITSANDWEIGHTS)

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
25 min
June 28, 2022Ep 19: Integrating Martial Arts for Functional Strength and Lifelong Fitness with Ken Caputo
Today we have another special interview guest!
Ken Caputo is a lifelong athlete who eventually found his way to strength training in his late 30s—something he and I have in common!
From an early age, he competed in swimming, track, cross country, and even pole vaulting and spring board diving at the University of Connecticut, eventually becoming an expert in martial arts.
I invited Ken on today because of his passion for lifting and nutrition, and how they can keep someone healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally, as well as recover from injury.

RELATED LINKS
Ken Caputo at [email protected]
Ken Caputo's Linktree

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
56 min
June 14, 2022Ep 18: 25 Ways to Improve Sleep (The Missing Ingredient to Nutrition and Recovery)
Today’s topic may not seem exciting, but it could be the critical missing ingredient to your nutrition and recovery, whether everything else is dialed in or not.

I’m talking about sleep: too little sleep, low quality sleep, irregular sleep, and poor sleep habits.

Many people suffer from insomnia or a sleep disorder, and a lack of sleep can lead to terrible consequences like medical errors and car accidents. A lack of sleep can increase hunger, reduce your metabolism, impair memory, affect hormone balance, and even accelerate aging.

Yet there is hope. In a paper published in 2019 by Vitale et al., called Sleep Hygiene for Optimizing Recovery in Athletes: Review and Recommendations, the authors reviewed the effects of sleep deprivation and extension on athletes to see how applying sleep hygiene methods could improve their performance.

In this episode, I am shamelessly borrowing from their list of sleep hygiene recommendations. First, we talk about the tremendous benefits of improving your sleep, even just a little bit. Then, I review the list of 25 ways to improve sleep recommended by the authors, sharing some of my personal anecdotes and strategies along the way.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:56 - Benefits of sleep
03:49 - Mindset (changing just one habit)
06:02 - Top 10 ways to improve sleep hygiene
13:41 - 15 more tips and tricks to improve sleep

RELATED LINKS
Sleep Hygiene for Optimizing Recovery in Athletes: Review and Recommendations

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
25 min
May 31, 2022Ep 17: How to Get Stronger and Smarter in Less Time with Powerlifter Tyla Serro
I have the honor of hosting a very special guest, Tyla Serro, for the first ever interview on this podcast. Tyla is not only an engineering colleague of mine—we work for the same aerospace company—she finds time to train and compete as a raw powerlifter, placing second this March in the 2022 USPA Connecticut state championship in her weight class…and only missing first in a close tiebreaker against her training partner.

I invited her on the show because I think her story is very relatable to those of us who are working professionals with busy lives, maybe a full-time job and a family, who still want to find a way to get “big, strong, jacked, swole, ripped, fit, tone, lean, healthy” whatever term you want to use. Tyla juggles work, family, and the challenges of life using a sustainable approach to training and nutrition, so I wanted to pick her brain on how she makes it all work.
RELATED LINKS
Tyla Serro on Instagram @tylaserro
RTL Powerlifting Training

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
57 min
May 17, 2022Ep 16: Overcoming Pain, Injury, or Surgery to Build Strength and Recover Quickly
Last year, I went under the knife for a microdiscectomy, a type of minimally invasive spine surgery where a portion of a herniated disc is removed using microsurgical tools.
In this episode, I share my story of what happened, how I dealt with low back pain in the context of health and fitness, the surgery and recovery process, and lessons I learned along the way.

I hope my story sheds light on some productive ways to think about pain and injury and even inspires you to consider multiple options when faced with a situation like this.

Medical Disclaimer
One last thing. I am NOT a medical practitioner and am NOT dispensing medical advice in this podcast. Everything I say is my personal opinion and experience. Do NOT use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition. Consult your own physician for any medical issues!

Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
06:18 - Different types of pain
10:18 - Book recommendation for lifters dealing with pain
12:10 - Things to try before considering surgery
13:53 - My surgery process
19:27 - Movement is the key to recovery
20:51 - A surprise surgery two months later
21:48 - One year after back surgery

RELATED LINKS
Book about dealing with pain through screening and corrective movements:
Rebuilding Milo: A Lifter's Guide to Fixing Common Injuries and Building a Strong Foundation for Enhancing Performance (by Dr. Aaron Horschig)
Starting Strength article about "pin firing" for elbow tendinopathy:
Elbow Tendonitis: How It Occurs and What to Do About It

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - a 26-week evidence-based strength training for men and women over 40 and fat loss program to build muscle after 40, lose fat, and maintain your results (even in perimenopause and menopause)
📱 Get Fitness Lab - AI-powered coaching app for strength training after 40, body recomposition, and evidence-based nutrition. Daily coaching that adjusts to your energy, recovery, and schedule. No calorie counting, no guesswork.
👥 Join our Facebook community - Build muscle after 40, improve body composition, and lose fat with evidence-based nutrition. Support for lifting weights, hypertrophy, fat loss, and hormones.
👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape (strength training & fat loss nutrition coach) on Instagram & thanks for making us one of the best fat loss podcasts for men & women over 40! 🙏
25 min

About Wits & Weights | Strength Training & Fat Loss Over 40

From the publisher's feed

Strength training and fat loss for men and women over 40 is the foundation of this show. In every episode I put a popular piece of fitness advice under the microscope, find the hidden reason it…

doesn't work, and give you the deceptively simple fix that does. For skeptics of the fitness industry who are tired of following the rules and still not seeing results.

If you've been lifting weights, tracking macros, and doing "all the right things" but your body composition hasn't changed, you're probably overcomplicating it. Wits & Weights shows you how to build muscle, lose fat, and achieve real body recomposition by focusing only on what the evidence actually supports. The show centers on women over 40, but plenty of midlife men listen for the same approach.

Evidence-based coach Philip Pape brings an engineer's approach to strength training, nutrition, and metabolism. Instead of another generic program or meal plan, you get specific, science-based strategies for body recomposition, whether you're focused on building muscle, losing fat, or both. The focus is on strength training over 40, body recomposition for women over 40, perimenopause and menopause fitness, metabolism recovery, hormone health, and longevity.

You've seen the conflicting advice, even on other nutrition podcasts. One expert says cut carbs, the next says eat more. One says train six days a week, another says three is plenty. Building the body you want doesn't have to be this confusing or time-consuming.

By using your wits (systems plus identity-based behavior change) and lifting weights, you can build muscle, improve your physique, and maintain your results for life without rebound weight gain. You'll also learn about metabolism recovery, and why years of dieting can lead to metabolic adaptation that makes fat loss harder than it needs to be.

You'll learn smart, efficient strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle, and mindset: why fat loss matters more than weight loss, why all the macros (protein, fats, and yes even carbs) are critical to body composition, how just 3 hours a week of proper hypertrophy training can outperform twice that time, why building muscle is the single most powerful thing you can do for metabolic health and longevity, why perimenopause and menopause don't have to derail your progress, and how shifting the way you think about fitness drives more growth than any program alone.

Looking for fat loss podcasts, nutrition podcasts, or strength training podcasts for women and men over 40? Wits & Weights brings the science-based answers without the conflicting noise. If you're ready to learn what actually works, hit "follow."

Popular Guests: Greg Nuckols (Stronger by Science), Alan Aragon (nutrition researcher), Eric Helms (3D Muscle Journey), Dr. Spencer Nadolsky (Docs Who Lift), Bill Campbell (exercise science researcher), Jordan Feigenbaum (Barbell Medicine), Holly Baxter (evidence-based physique coach), Laurin Conlin (physique coach), Lauren Colenso-Semple (nutrition researcher), Karen Martel (hormone optimization expert), Steph Gaudreau (women's strength and nutrition), Bryan Boorstein (hypertrophy coach)

Popular Topics: strength training for women over 40, strength training over 40, women's strength training, body recomposition for women over 40, body recomposition after 40, body recomposition, muscle building after 40, muscle building, hypertrophy training, fat loss for women over 40, perimenopause fitness, menopause fitness, menopause metabolism, metabolism recovery, metabolic adaptation, protein for women over 40, nutrition for lifters over 40, hormone health, longevity and healthy aging, lifting weights for fat loss, macros and nutrition tracking