The 3+3 Model of Optimal Fat Loss | Ep 326
Download my free Nutrition 101 for Body Composition guide to implement these principles with exact calorie and macro targets:
https://www.witsandweights.com/free/nutrition-101-guide
--
Tired of regaining the weight or losing muscle every time you diet? Sick of feeling like garbage during fat loss phases?
Today I'm breaking down The 3+3 Model, a science-based framework for optimal fat loss that separates what you absolutely need from what's just nice to have.
Learn the 3 foundational elements you must have in place for effective fat loss (the non-negotiables), plus 3 powerful enhancers that can take your results to the next level (the optimizers).
This isn't about suffering through chicken and broccoli or earning your carbs with cardio. It's about engineering a fat loss process that preserves your hard-earned muscle, maintains your metabolic rate, and actually feels sustainable.
Main Takeaways:
The 3 Non-Negotiables form the foundation of effective fat loss
The 3 Optimizers enhance your results once the foundation is in place
Weight loss is not the same as fat loss – this model ensures you lose fat while preserving your hard-earned muscle
A properly executed fat loss phase can actually improve your body's future muscle-building capacity through enhanced insulin sensitivity and nutrient partitioning
Timestamps:
0:01 - Weight loss vs. fat loss and The 3+3 Model
4:12 - Non-Negotiable #1
7:41 - Non-Negotiable #2
11:02 - Non-Negotiable #3
15:05 - Optimizer #1
17:55 - Optimizer #2
20:56 - Optimizer #3
24:36 - How to put everything together
27:42 - Why a proper fat loss phase improves future muscle gain
29:11 - Final recap and tips to implement
The Fat Loss Framework That Actually Works Long-Term
Why most weight loss methods fail
Too many people jump into a diet with good intentions, drop weight quickly, and end up looking and feeling worse: skinny-fat, tired, hungry, and frustrated. That’s because most fat loss approaches don’t actually prioritize fat loss. They just cut calories and hope for the best. That means losing muscle, tanking your metabolism, and almost inevitably regaining the weight (plus some).
This episode breaks down the 3+3 Model of Optimal Fat Loss, a framework I’ve refined over years of coaching, research, and helping real people get results that stick. It’s simple, evidence-based, and scalable. We’ll cover the 3 non-negotiables you need in place before any fat loss phase, and 3 optional optimizers that can take your results to the next level.
The 3 Non-Negotiables for Fat Loss
1. High Protein Intake
You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: protein is the cornerstone of a successful fat loss phase. Aim for 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of body weight. Here’s why:
Preserves lean muscle while dieting (anti-catabolic)
Reduces hunger and cravings (high satiety)
Increases calorie burn due to its high thermic effect
If you’re not tracking your intake, chances are you’re not getting enough. Most people overestimate how much they eat. Start tracking and aim for protein in every meal.
2. Resistance Training with Progressive Overload
If you're not lifting, you're likely losing muscle. And that means your weight loss isn’t fat loss. Your body will only keep what it’s told to keep. Send the signal to preserve muscle by lifting 3-5x per week, emphasizing compound movements and pushing for progressive overload: more reps, more weight, more intensity over time.
During a deficit, you might not always make gains, but you need to train as if you are. That effort is what tells your body to retain muscle while burning fat.
3. Recovery
Recovery often gets overlooked, but it’s the glue that holds everything together. You can’t build or preserve muscle, control hunger, or keep stress in check without it. Prioritize:
Sleep: Aim for 7-9 quality hours
Stress management: Avoid overtraining, manage work/life stress
Rest days and light activity (like walking)
Even a perfect diet and training plan will fall apart without proper recovery. Fat loss is a stressor, and too much stress means your body clings to fat and sheds muscle.
The 3 Optimizers to Enhance Results
1. Refeeds or Diet Breaks
Strategic refeeds (1-2 days at maintenance) or diet breaks (1-2 weeks) can:
Improve diet adherence
Replenish glycogen for training performance
Temporarily support leptin and thyroid hormone levels
This is especially helpful for leaner folks or anyone experiencing mental fatigue or stalled progress. You don’t need them all the time, but used wisely, they make dieting more sustainable.
2. Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is a well-researched, effective supplement to support:
Strength and performance in the gym
Muscle cell hydration (which may reduce breakdown)
Cognitive benefits over the long term
Take 5g per day, every day, and let your body stabilize before your fat loss phase to avoid scale confusion from initial water retention.
3. Fiber and Micronutrient Density
Most people think about calories, protein, and maybe carbs. But if your diet lacks fiber and micronutrients, you’re making fat loss harder than it needs to be.
Fiber (25-35g/day) improves satiety, digestion, and blood sugar regulation
Micronutrients support metabolism, energy, and hormonal balance
Start by adding colorful fruits and vegetables, legumes, and whole grains (as tolerated). If you're afraid of carbs or plants because of what you saw online, reconsider. Real food works.
Final Thoughts
Most people start with hacks, gimmicks, or extreme diets and skip the actual foundation. The 3+3 Model flips that: start with what matters most (protein, training, recovery), and only then layer in the extras if needed. That’s how you make fat loss work without misery.
And remember: fat loss is just a phase. When done right, it sets you up for long-term success, better muscle gain afterward, and a more resilient metabolism.
Have you followed the podcast?
Get notified of new episodes. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or all other platforms.
Then hit “Follow” and you’re good to go!
Transcript
Philip Pape: 0:01
Have you noticed how most people lose weight but they end up looking skinny, fat rather than lean and athletic? Or maybe you've tried to lose weight yourself and felt weak, exhausted, constantly hungry. You gain the weight back. That's because there's a massive difference between just losing weight and losing fat while preserving muscle, and most people get this wrong. Today I'm breaking down what I call the 3 plus 3 model. This is a science-based framework to simplify fat loss so it's effective and sustainable. You're going to learn three foundational elements you absolutely need for fat loss and then three enhancements or optimizers that can improve your results. It is about working with your body's physiology to shed fat while maintaining your strength, energy and sanity.
Philip Pape: 0:58
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, certified nutrition coach, and today we're tackling a topic that confuses and frustrates a lot of people Fat loss, just fat loss in general, not weight loss, but specifically fat loss while preserving lean muscle tissue. Because here's the problem Most fat loss approaches or I should say weight loss approaches focus on creating a calorie deficit without any regard for body composition, metabolic health or long-term sustainability. Meaning, can you stick with this diet for a long time, and that's why so many people end up losing muscle along with fat, whether they're doing this naturally or with weight loss medications, and that tanks their metabolism. It ultimately results in regaining everything that they lost, plus some extra, and having higher body fat in the end. But it doesn't have to be this way. By understanding the science and implementing a framework, you can optimize fat loss for the results you want with less suffering, and that is what we're covering today with the three plus three model of optimal fat loss a way to simplify three things you must do and three things you can do to optimize. For the folks who are brand new to this, or even if you need a refresher and wanna do it the right way Before we get into it, if you wanna take a deeper dive into nutrition for yourself and set up your calories, your macros, your meal timing and all of that, I created a free guide that complements today's episode perfectly.
Philip Pape: 2:30
It's my Nutrition 101 for Body Composition Guide, again totally free, gives you a breakdown of how to set all this up, whether you want to lose fat or build muscle. Download it using the link in the show notes or go to witsandweightscom. Slash free to get a copy of that and many, many other guides, but the easiest way is to click the link in the show notes to get my nutrition one-on-one for body composition guide. All right, let's break down the three plus three model of optimal fat loss. And this is just a fancy name for a framework that I've refined through the years of coaching clients and studying the literature and making this podcast. So I'm hoping this ends up being kind of a definitive episode for hey start here when it comes to fat loss.
Philip Pape: 3:11
So what makes this different is it isn't just a list of tips. It isn't, you know, random workout recommendations. It is a hierarchical framework that distinguishes between what's absolutely necessary versus what can enhance your results. So, right off the bat, I'm trying to simplify it for you so that you don't get bogged down in all the confusion, all the information out there, and you can stick with what matters the most. So I've got two categories.
Philip Pape: 3:35
First, we have the three non-negotiables, and these are the foundational elements that must be in place for optimal fat loss. If you skip these, you are setting yourself up for failure, regardless of what else you do, and you will not lose fat. You might lose weight, but you'll lose muscle too. So that's the important distinction. Second, we have the three optimizers. These are strategies to enhance your results once you have the foundation. Some people jump to these first. Do not do that. Wait till you have the three non-negotiables in place. These aren't even required, these optimizers, but they can improve, sometimes significantly, the outcomes for most people.
Philip Pape: 4:12
So let's start with the non-negotiables. The first one is maintaining a high protein intake throughout your fat loss phase. Now, you thought I was going to mention resistance training, but honestly, if you can't get your nutrition dialed in early on, you're going to get frustrated when you start training due to some lack of energy or a feeling like you're not making progress building muscle. So, even though I often go on podcasts and say everyone should be strength training, that's the thing people are missing, I think.
Philip Pape: 4:42
When you are setting yourself up right now for fat loss from step one, one of the most accessible and important steps is increasing your protein, and that means consuming between 0.7 and one gram of protein per pound of body weight. You can go above that, for sure. There's diminishing returns above the one gram per pound, but I would try to get within that 0.7 to one If you're very lean, or if you're deep into a deficit, or if you're training really, really hard, you might want a higher end of that range or even above that. Or if you just love protein, you can eat more than that. It's fine.
Philip Pape: 5:15
But getting that minimum of 0.7 is so crucial during fat loss. And it's crucial for three reasons. The first reason is that protein is anti-catabolic. It is, of course, anabolic, meaning it helps build muscle, but it's also anti-catabolic. It sends a signal to your body to hold onto the muscle tissue you have when you go into that calorie deficit. This is why you often eat more protein in fat loss than when you're not in fat loss, and it sounds counterintuitive to people and it makes it a little bit more challenging to hit your fats and carbs. But it's so important for your body to tell it hey, go ahead and burn through your fat stores, don't burn through the muscle, right? Because we're trying to avoid that. We're just trying to burn fat.
Philip Pape: 5:59
The second thing is protein is very satiating. Research consistently shows high-protein diets reduce hunger. They increase feelings of fullness. Anybody who's doubled their protein knows this. When you're eating fewer calories in fat loss which is where we're trying to go with this, managing hunger becomes one of the most critical things to stick with the diet, and protein is your best ally here. Besides fiber, I mean protein is it? Third, protein has the highest thermic effect of feeding of all the macronutrients. What that means is your body will burn more calories simply because you're consuming more. Protein burns about 20 to 30% of its calories just to be digested and processed, compared to only about 5 to 10% for carbs and close to 0% for fats, and this gives you a bit of a metabolic advantage and it adds up over time. So, again, we want to get that protein up to a reasonable level before you hit fat loss, so that during fat loss it's much easier to hold on to muscle.
Philip Pape: 6:55
And you know I can't tell you how many times I've met people who thought they were eating quote unquote plenty of protein. And then they track their intake, they use macro factor or really any way to track, and you see that you are probably dramatically overestimating how much you consume. And if you think they're getting enough, just log food for a week and get back to me and let me know what you found. Also, don't forget about distributing your protein throughout the day. It's not, I'll say, required for fat loss, but it slightly optimizes your results. But again, this is not required for most people. They're going to want to have protein in every meal anyway, for the satiety, for the balance, for the blood sugar, for everything else. So that's non-negotiable Number one is get that protein up to at least 0.7 grams per pound of your body weight.
Philip Pape: 7:41
Non-negotiable number two, of course, here it is Resistance training with progressive overload. All right, this is the second non-negotiable. And that means lifting weights three to five times. I mean you could lift six times a week too, but at least three to four, but up to five times per week, with an emphasis, initially at least, on compound movements like squats, hinges, presses, pulls, tracking your performance and striving to maintain or increase your strength over time. Now you're going to be doing this at first not in a calorie deficit, but then, when you are in a calorie deficit, you are still going to intend and train hard to do this, to increase your numbers, even if eventually they potentially stall out because of the lack of resources. That's okay. You're basically giving your body the signal to hold onto muscle, whereas if you were sedentary and not training, your body is going to say, well, fat protein or fat muscle doesn't matter, it's all energy I'm going to burn what I need to burn to lose the weight you're asking me to lose.
Philip Pape: 8:44
Muscle tissue is metabolically expensive for your body to maintain when you're in a calorie deficit. Your body is trying to conserve energy right. It downregulates everything down to the cellular level, including your hormones, and it will happily shed muscle if it doesn't perceive a need to keep it. So for those of you thinking, ah yeah, I train, it's not consistent, whatever, I just want to lose weight, you're going to be in a world of hurt because you're going to just get skinny, fat, fluffy. You're going to have more body fat. That's not what we're trying to do.
Philip Pape: 9:09
Resistance training provides that signal that muscle's necessary and should be preserved. But it is not enough to just go through the motions. Please listen to me on this. So many of you are not training properly or hard enough or consistently enough. Progressive overload is the term we use. Whether you like the term or not, whether it's a misnomer, what it means is the continuous challenge to increase weight, reps and or volume. So something is going up that represents the increase in strength, and I say strength even though we're trying to build muscle. Hold on to muscle whatever. Ultimately, it's expressed through the ability to do more in the gym and that will keep the signal strong.
Philip Pape: 9:48
One of the mistakes I see people doing during a cut, during weight or fat loss, is reducing their training intensity. They think, well, I have less energy, so I should lift lighter. This is exactly wrong. It's exactly wrong. While you might need to reduce overall volume for your recovery, if your recovery is compromised, and that's okay maintaining the load, maintaining the intensity, the signal to your body, high enough percentage of your max is absolutely needed, because your goal isn't to burn calories during fat loss with your training, it's to preserve your muscle mass and strength. That is the main goal. We use the diet to manipulate the calories right, it's an input and output side of the equation and we don't want to become weaker and weaker and then we still have to eat less anyway. Plus, we lose muscle right, and I've had clients who were surprised to find they could actually gain strength while losing fat. And if you're newer, that's not unusual to gain strength, to gain muscle while you're losing fat, especially if you keep the deficit reasonable just by maintaining that training intensity and ensuring adequate protein intake right, your body is very adaptable when you give it the right signals. That's what we're doing. We're telling it to adapt in the way we want, not the way just on a whim. All right.
Philip Pape: 11:02
So the third non-negotiable is recovery. Now, this is a big topic because it includes, I'll say, all the other things that I work with clients on Sleep, stress management, hormonal health, and I find that these are even more individualized only because everybody's lives are so different that, compared to, say, training and food, these have a lot more variability. Compared to, say, training and food, these have a lot more variability and that's why it's important to personalize this. So what we mean by recovery is getting enough high-quality sleep, managing stress to a level that doesn't overwhelm you, that doesn't wreck your sleep Actually, they go hand in hand or wreck your cortisol, make it harder to lose fat because your metabolism is lower than it could have been. It's avoiding overreaching and overtraining by monitoring feedback like, um, I should say, soreness, right, your energy, how does it feel when you go into the gym and come out of the gym, recovery days, et cetera. Right, and of course it should be obvious why this is important.
Philip Pape: 12:06
But just to jump into the science of it, we start with sleep right. Poor sleep is going to dramatically increase your hunger hormone, ghrelin. It's going to decrease your satiety hormone, leptin. So this is a perfect double whammy for cravings, for overeating. You're going to seek out high energy foods with lots of fat, sugars, carbs and not the beneficial kind for you, generally very calorie dense foods usually, and then it's going to be harder to stick to your diet. Or you're going to be sticking to it with lots of willpower and then feeling very, very hungry. Either way is not great. So that's sleep right and the hours of sleep. There's a lot of research on that. It varies significantly by person. Usually you hear seven to nine. Some people can do okay as low as six and a half. Some people need that eight or nine hours of sleep. But then the quality is important and that's a whole other topic.
Philip Pape: 12:57
Stress is the other thing. Chronic stress and your perceived stress is going to elevate your cortisol. Cortisol is great signal for your body to try to hold onto fat, especially around your midsection, and so where's your body going to get the energy from Breaking down muscle tissue? So even if you are doing the other things, if stress is really high and you're trying to lose fat, you can still potentially lose muscle because of that stress.
Philip Pape: 13:25
And then hormonal adaptation is a real thing. That happens during fat loss, and it gets, I'll say, more exacerbated the longer you go or the more aggressively you diet, because your body's really smart. It's going to adjust your hormone levels to fight back against what it perceives as starvation. You know the effect of what you're doing to it. You're depriving it of resources to maintain where it was, and so something's going to have to give. So your body says you know what? Let's save some energy here, let's save some energy there. Downregulate your thyroid, downregulate your reproductive hormones things that aren't as important, let's say. And there you go. So proper recovery helps protect against these to the greatest extent you can, knowing that some of this is inevitable. No matter what, even in a perfect situation, you're still going to have metabolic adaptation from hormones.
Philip Pape: 14:07
The key here is, though, we're trying to mitigate those. So in all of these I would say, if you had to pick one, it would be sleep. It's probably the most underrated factor in the entire fat loss equation, even training and protein, because I've had clients who've made more progress just by improving sleep quality than any other dietary invention or modifying their training. Now, they're usually already training consistently and they're eating reasonably well, but the reason here is that the sleep directly affects your hormone regulation, which directly affects your hunger, your energy for your training and then your recovery, and it all viciously or beneficially cycles together. So those are the three non-negotiables protein, training and recovery. Those are the three non-negotiables protein, training and recovery. Those are the foundation for fat loss. Honestly, you could end the podcast right here, if you've never done this before, and focus on those. Pick one, start with it, roll in the rest, keep going. That is how I help clients in the first couple months of our journey together, before we actually go into a diet.
Philip Pape: 15:05
Okay, now, once you then are in your fat loss phase, or preparing for it, and you've done this before, or you've got the foundational habits dialed in and you want to optimize further, I'm going to give you three extra things to consider. Okay, optimizer number one is strategic refeeds or diet breaks. Now, a refeed is just usually a one or two day period where you eat up to your maintenance by increasing your carbohydrates. A diet break is just a longer period of doing that, usually one to two weeks or even longer. I mean, it could be indefinite and then you're just at maintenance. And these strategies while, yes, they do mitigate some of the hormonal adaptation to your leptin, your thyroid hormones, your reproductive hormones, those are just temporary. More importantly, they reduce your perceived mental fatigue, which helps you improve adherence right, be able to adhere to the diet, and they can help you restore some of your training intensity during that refeed.
Philip Pape: 16:07
We also see that research like well, there was the Matador study and there's also a study that Bill Campbell did that I talked about recently on the show called I think it was called the Weekend Diet. Look for that in the podcast feed, very recent. It suggests that again, not the Matador, but that particular study suggests that your lean mass preservation may actually increase if you use two-day refeeds every week, the catch being you're going to eat even fewer calories on the other five days to stay in the same deficit or you can go to slower weight of loss. So anyway, just to simplify this whole optimizer, think about whether you would prefer to have the same calories every day and that would help you be consistent and adhere, or if you want to have a little bit lower calories on the weekdays and come all the way up to maintenance on the weekends Great strategy. You want to learn all about it? Go check out my recent podcast, the Weekend Diet.
Philip Pape: 17:02
This can be really helpful for leaner clients who are pushing into lower body fat. This can be helpful for high-stress periods when adherence is a little more challenging. These are not cheat days. This is a controlled, structured approach that can be really important. Now that's refeeds.
Philip Pape: 17:16
Diet breaks is the longer breaks you might need. Like someone posted in the Facebook group hey, I've been dieting for 15 months. I've had these great results. Should I take a break? And my immediate response is just a yes, not even a well, it depends. It's kind of she's reaching out with a little bit of a cry for help, saying how she feels fatigued. I'm like okay, that's your sign. Let's just take a break. There's no reason to be miserable and suffer and push it for longer than you need to just to get to a number, when the more sustainable way to do that is to take a break right now. So that's optimizer number one is refeeds or diet breaks. Optimizer number two is creatine monohydrate.
Philip Pape: 17:55
Now, creatine is a supplement and I was hesitant whether this would be in here, because to me, supplementation is just the very tippity top 1% after you've done everything else, and very individualized. But creatine specifically is helpful to just about everybody for training and almost everybody might benefit long-term from cognitive health as well, according to the latest research. And it's very easy to do. Most people have no symptoms or almost everybody is symptom-free. There's a very tiny percentage of people who are actually allergic to it and then there's some people that just don't respond like 10 to 20% of people don't respond. But it's worth attempting, it's worth trying. And this is taking five grams a day of creatine monohydrate starting trying. And this is taking five grams a day of creatine monohydrate starting basically now and just continuing to take it for the rest of your life.
Philip Pape: 18:45
Creatine is supposed to support strength and power output and that could be even more helpful when you're in a calorie deficit so you can maintain your intensity. It increases muscle cell hydration, right. That's why your muscles fill up a bit at first and you gain a couple pounds on the scale of fluid weight, which is totally normal. But that muscle cell hydration can actually reduce muscle breakdown, catabolism, and might help preserve fat-free mass and improve your recovery during fat loss. And that's why I wanted to throw it in here, because creatine does all these things, it may give you an advantage during fat loss and then, finally, it may give you some advantage during fat loss and then, finally, it may give you some improved mental clarity during the cut, usually on higher doses though that's the caveat usually up in the 15 or even 20 gram range.
Philip Pape: 19:29
It is safe. It is inexpensive. It's one of the most well-researched supplements out there. If you're not taking it already, it is definitely worth considering, but do so long before you start your fat loss phase so that you can experience the bump in weight early. Let things normalize, get through any minor bloating or issues with hydration early on, because you should drink a lot of water with your creatine and kind of. Let it normalize and now you're in a good place to know where you truly stand with your maintenance calories to go into the fat loss phase.
Philip Pape: 19:58
And, by the way, just another shout out to the guide that I have, because this episode is not about, uh, setting up your fat loss phase. This is more about the foundational habits you need for fat loss, the actual numbers like how do you determine your calories, macros, all that. I call that the easy stuff, even though some people, people, reach out every day saying I have no idea what to eat for my fats and carbs. I'm like well, it's because you need to track and become aware and then know what your goal is. And there's a way to get that. So download my guide attached to this episode, the Nutrition 101. That will walk you through those.
Philip Pape: 20:32
Today is the non-negotiables and the optimizers. Okay, optimizer number three fiber and micronutrient density. And I left this for last so that you remember it in your head as this podcast will wrap up afterward. It's the most fresh thing in your mind of the optimizers. So this third optimizer is getting enough fiber intake and micronutrient density in your diet.
Philip Pape: 20:56
Okay, and I'm sorry, carnivore and low carb folks, you are not optimizing for fat loss or for long-term health, longevity or performance on a extremely low carb diet generally and I say generally because the vast majority of people will improve, not in those restrictive diets. A tiny percentage of people might thrive on those diets because they have all sorts of intolerances or inflammation from eating those foods. But I'm saying in general that if you are fearful of consuming fiber or vegetables or plants, don't be. Don't be fearful for any of the claims you hear on social media. Don't avoid them just for that reason, avoid them, because it would make sense for you. If that makes sense, all right. So what does this look like? I would say females consuming at least 25 grams of fiber, males consuming 30 to 35 grams of fiber a day, keeping in mind that that gets more challenging when you're in fat loss because the calories are lower, but it also becomes even more effective and helpful in doing so.
Philip Pape: 22:00
Now let's talk about how and then why. So the how is just filling your plate with colorful, high-volume foods, all sorts of vegetables, berries, even legumes, even whole grains. Yes, grains are fine if you can tolerate them. You know, being aware of the calories and the calorie density for your goal, fiber. So the why? Fiber promotes satiety, keeps you full, but it also supports smooth digestion. It reduces issues like bloating that can make a deficit feel worse than it is.
Philip Pape: 22:33
Micronutrients found in all sorts of variety of foods, especially plant-based foods and, by the way, I'm a big meat eater. I love my protein and animal-based products. I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I love my plants as well, because the diversity is where it's at Magnesium, b vitamins, iron, potassium all the things that support thyroid function, your metabolism, your energy. Yes, you can supplement, of course. I mean vegans and vegetarians often have to supplement with things like B12. People on carnivore often have to supplement. In my opinion, everyone should supplement with magnesium, most likely because we're deficient no matter what you eat, given today's food environment. So if you can focus on nutrient-dense foods, it can reduce.
Philip Pape: 23:13
It can help with other things like food noise and decision fatigue, making your adherence easier. It can actually help with emotional eating and guilt and shame over foods. Believe it or not? Yes, it can, because what you're doing you're adding in things that make your body just feel so good and your digestion smooth and you feel full and satisfied on these whole foods. And this is in addition to the protein we already talked about. And, of course, fats are in there as well, naturally, as you're eating whole foods.
Philip Pape: 23:43
And when I talk to clients, they often report feeling initially hungrier after they go from a junk food type diet to a I shouldn't even use the word junk food. See, there's a label that we try not to use, but a food predominant with ultra-processed foods as opposed to whole foods, and then they switch to more whole foods, and that transition is important because you've got to give it a little time. What's actually happening is they're becoming more aware of their true hunger signals, because processed foods can mask your natural satiety cues the way they're designed and when you return to whole foods it's going to bring back your body's natural regulatory mechanisms. So do it before you go into fat loss. Again, a lot of this is prep work for fat loss. That's the irony of this whole thing is it is to make fat loss easier so that when you go into that deficit, all the things are dialed in to make it sustainable.
Philip Pape: 24:36
So how do we integrate all these components of the three plus three model? Remember the hierarchy. First, ensure you have the three non-negotiables in place High protein intake, resistance training with progressive overload, proper recovery. These must be consistent, and I'm going to say consistent every day. Obviously, you're not going to train every day and you're not always going to hit your protein. You're going to have some days that are less than others, but you want to do something every day for these. And again, training. You might only train three days a week, so the days you're not training, you're gonna focus on recovery in terms of getting enough sleep or walking enough, et cetera. But they've gotta be consistent. Then you're gonna layer in the optimizers as needed for your individual circumstances, your preferences, your biofeedback. Not everyone needs all three. I do have clients that don't take creatine. They're just fine, but they're nice tools to have in your arsenal.
Philip Pape: 25:29
And there's a few insights I want you to take away from this model that probably challenge the conventional wisdom. You've heard the first one. If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you've heard this. But if you're new to it, it's important. Weight loss is not the same as fat loss period. You can lose weight and lose muscle, which is not the goal at all. This is what happens when people go on Ozempic and they don't have any guidance with regard to training and protein and they just lose a ton and ton of muscle up to 30, 40% of the weight lost as lean mass or muscle. And so this model, this three plus three, is just a simple way in your head to say hey look, my goal is to protect against this scenario. I'm trying to lose fat, I'm not trying to lose weight, I want to look better, I want to feel better, I want a better body composition.
Philip Pape: 26:13
Second is you don't have to do traditional cardio to lose fat unless you enjoy it or you need it to create the well no, I shouldn't say it unless you enjoy it. That's all I'm going to say. Resistance training provides the extra, the stimulus you need for body composition. Walking provides the overall movement. Right, we didn't even really talk about that in detail, but getting your steps, walking, moving, is the priority when it comes to quote unquote cardio. And then only after that would I consider something like sprinting once or twice a week, if needed, if needed. The third thing here in terms of challenging conventional wisdom is that muscle retention is a skill, like many of the things we talk about. It's a skill, it's a process of personal improvement that's going to be developed over time.
Philip Pape: 27:00
Your fat loss phase does not have to feel like a collapse in your performance and health. It doesn't have to feel like a switch. When most people go on a diet, they think of it as this period of suffering. I'm going on a diet, I'm saying no, I can't do this, I'm not going to eat quote unquote bad foods. It's all these labels, morality behind it, judgment, guilt, fear, shame. But in reality, if you do it right, this can be an enjoyable process that doesn't feel like suffering at all, can be quite reasonably done, and you have to be patient, of course, but it's a strategically engineered period in a year or in a two-year period or whatever, where you're prioritizing fat loss.
Philip Pape: 27:42
Okay, the cool thing about fat loss itself, when you do it right, is it improves your body's future capacity to build muscle and maintain leanness. This is what I have seen and what I believe the evidence shows. When done properly, a well-executed fat loss phase, it yeah, it changes how you look, for sure, but it also rewires your metabolic machinery, for lack of a better phrase. There's research into muscle memory, for example. That shows that the neurological, the epigenetic adaptations from maintaining muscle during a deficit actually makes subsequent muscle building more efficient. You ever heard about that? It's pretty cool. Your body essentially becomes better at preserving and building muscle because you challenged it with fat loss the right way, and that's why I often see clients achieve their best muscle building results in the phase immediately following a properly executed fat loss phase. And if you have some excess weight to lose, I'm totally cool if you want to go with fat loss first, after you've prepped a few months for it, and then build muscle afterward, as opposed to because you know me, I talk about how everybody needs to spend time, at least once in a muscle building phase, but it might be best done after your fat loss phase, depending on where you're starting from. So we have things like improved insulin sensitivity, enhanced nutrient partitioning, optimized hormones. All of it will actually help in your muscle building phase coming up. So let's recap Three non-negotiables high protein resistance, training with progressive overload, proper recovery.
Philip Pape: 29:11
Three optimizers are refeeds or diet breaks, creatine and fiber slash, micronutrient density, and the overall picture here is we don't want to suffer. We don't want to suffer through bland, boring meals. We don't want to punish ourselves with cardio. We don't want to just cut out all these foods so that all we're thinking about are the foods we cut out. This is a physiological process that you can engineer to be efficient when you understand the requirements, and then you leverage what we know, the science that we know, and personalize it to you, and today's model provides you that approach to do that.
Philip Pape: 29:44
All right, if you found this valuable, if you wanna take your nutrition knowledge further, put this into practice and set up your fat loss phase, download my free Nutrition 101 for Body Composition guide. It expands on many of the principles we discussed today. It gives you the step-by-step practical approach to do it, and it also, I think, talks about fat loss and muscle building. Although if you're specifically focused on muscle building, go to witsandweightscom, slash free and get my muscle building blueprint. But if you're going to do fat loss, next, download the guide in the show notes for nutrition. All right, until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights, and remember fat loss doesn't have to be a mystery or a misery when you approach it with intelligence and strategy. I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.
