Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / My Hardest Bulk Ever (The Hidden "Energy Drain" When Your Metabolism Fights Back) | Ep 284

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My Hardest Bulk Ever (The Hidden "Energy Drain" When Your Metabolism Fights Back) | Ep 284 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:02
  Philip Pape: Everyone talks about metabolic adaptation during fat loss, but no one warns you about what happens during an aggressive bulk.
• 0:08
  Philip Pape: Here's what's happening right now Despite eating in a clear surplus and hitting PRs in the gym, my metabolism has cranked up to burn through everything I throw at it, my maintenance calories have shot up multiple hundreds of calories in just a few months, and today we're uncovering the hidden ways your body fights back during a muscle building phase and why, even when you're doing everything right getting stronger, building muscle, eating more than ever the scale can suddenly stop moving If you're trying to gain some muscle or push past a plateau in a bulk.
• 0:38
  Philip Pape: You're going to learn exactly how to identify and overcome these metabolic roadblocks.
• 0:43
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that helps you build a strong, healthy physique using evidence, engineering and efficiency.
• 1:00
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Hape, and today we're examining a fascinating phenomenon that is happening right now in my current bulk and I just had to press record and talk to you about it I am at least 14, let's see as I record this 15 or 16 weeks into what started as a textbook gaining phase, the strength gains have been very consistent, doing great in the gym, about to hit new PRs, the muscle gains are there, based on all of my measurements, but my body has thrown me a metabolic curve ball that I guess I didn't quite see coming.
• 1:34
  Philip Pape: I've had situations in the past where I hit plateaus and hard gaining phases, but this one was quite persistent and I didn't wanna just record another podcast about eating more food.
• 1:45
  Philip Pape: I think I wanted to explain the complex ways that your metabolism adapts during a bulk, because we talk about metabolic adaptation during fat loss all the time, but there's this reversed way that that happens during a bulk for different reasons and in different ways.
• 2:01
  Philip Pape: That I think is important to understand, and these adaptations can sometimes derail your progress because they put you into what looks like a plateau and it could last for a long time if you don't know what to look for and what to do.
• 2:14
  Philip Pape: Now, before we dive in, I have created something for those of you wanting to maximize your muscle building results.
• 2:20
  Philip Pape: It's one of my most popular downloads.
• 2:22
  Philip Pape: It's called the Mus building nutrition blueprint.
• 2:25
  Philip Pape: It lays out the exact steps to optimize nutrition, training and recovery for maximizing your gains while minimizing fat, and I keep it updated with the latest evidence.
• 2:35
  Philip Pape: For example, what are the optimal rates of gain?
• 2:38
  Philip Pape: If you want to understand a little bit of the science behind effective bulking, if you want to avoid some of the common pitfalls and if you want to see an entire appendix of how a real bulk was actually done successfully, with all the numbers, download your free copy at witsandweightscom slash muscle or click the link in the show notes for your free muscle building nutrition blueprint Again witsandweightscom slash muscle, or you could always click the link in the show notes.
• 3:10
  Philip Pape: So I want to start with some real experience, some real data, and share that with you.
• 3:12
  Philip Pape: Because the numbers I'm a big numbers guy.
• 3:13
  Philip Pape: I'm always tracking as much as I need to to measure progress, and they always tell you a story about what's happening, and in this case it's a story about how our bodies adapt during what I'll call an aggressive bulk.
• 3:22
  Philip Pape: I started this gaining phase back on my birthday, october 26th, and I weighed about 175 pounds on the scale.
• 3:30
  Philip Pape: I'm 5'9", I'm 44 years old Actually, I turned 44 on that day, obviously and the first 11 weeks or so went pretty much according to plan or maybe not 11, maybe 9 or 10 weeks.
• 3:40
  Philip Pape: I went from 175 to about 189 by mid-January, and so I gained about exactly a pound per week.
• 3:49
  Philip Pape: Exactly what I was going for right at the upper end of the new sweet spot and I say new because I used to be more conservative.
• 3:57
  Philip Pape: Now I push things a little more aggressively for me and my clients, knowing that the science says it and reality says it, we could actually go at a decent clip to support real growth of muscle but avoid adding excessive fat.
• 4:10
  Philip Pape: But only if you're precise about it and you're tracking your numbers.
• 4:13
  Philip Pape: That's the key.
• 4:14
  Philip Pape: And if you just kind of wing it and lag behind what's actually happening, it's not going to work as effectively.
• 4:20
  Philip Pape: And so I would say the quality of my gains has been pretty solid this time around even more so than last time Based on body fat calculations using the Navy formula.
• 4:32
  Philip Pape: It's very simple For men that's just your neck and your waist, for women it's neck, waist and hips.
• 4:36
  Philip Pape: Plug it into a calculator online.
• 4:38
  Philip Pape: I actually have one in my website too, witsandweightscom, and the trend is what matters, not the actual numbers but the trend.
• 4:45
  Philip Pape: And if you go by that, I've added about nine pounds of lean body mass, which is about 58% of my total weight gain as lean tissue, which, for being an intermediate maybe advanced trainee, I guess I'll go with intermediate it's a pretty good ratio right.
• 5:00
  Philip Pape: Most would consider that pretty optimal.
• 5:02
  Philip Pape: If you're more on the beginner side, you would expect to gain a little more, Keeping in mind that that 58 or that 60% lean mass it's not all muscle.
• 5:09
  Philip Pape: There's a small percentage of that that is going to be fluid.
• 5:13
  Philip Pape: That will come off later on when I do a fat loss phase, but a lot of it is muscle.
• 5:17
  Philip Pape: So I'm happy with that and my measurements confirm this efficient gain.
• 5:22
  Philip Pape: My chest has gone up by about an inch and a half Um, and I'm not very good at developing my chest, I'll be honest.
• 5:27
  Philip Pape: I'm more of a back guy, arm guy.
• 5:29
  Philip Pape: Um, chest and legs are where I struggle and you don't have to work a little bit harder.
• 5:33
  Philip Pape: My biceps have grown by half an inch.
• 5:35
  Philip Pape: Thighs have added about one and a half inches.
• 5:37
  Philip Pape: You know some of you may say, oh, that's not a big deal.
• 5:39
  Philip Pape: Others may say, oh, that's great.
• 5:40
  Philip Pape: Keeping in mind I've been running primarily a strength-based program to build my peak, not a hypertrophy program.
• 5:47
  Philip Pape: So I'm not really trying to add visible mass, especially pumping it up with fluid.
• 5:53
  Philip Pape: I'm really looking to push.
• 5:54
  Philip Pape: My lifts and my singles are going to be tested in a few weeks and I'm very confident that I'm going to hit new PRs based on my progress so far.
• 6:03
  Philip Pape: My waist has only gone up an inch and a half at most, so that tells you.
• 6:07
  Philip Pape: I'm also having minimal fat gain around my midsection and I can see it in the mirror.
• 6:11
  Philip Pape: This is the first bulk I've ever done this aggressively where I don't see a lot of fluff, which is pretty cool.
• 6:16
  Philip Pape: It's kind of a validating thing where the more you do this and the more muscle you have, the less you have to be concerned about the fat that you add during a bulk.
• 6:23
  Philip Pape: Okay, so that's the setup, but then something interesting happened because, despite continuing to eat in a surplus in the proper aggressive surplus I'm tracking with Macrofactor.
• 6:34
  Philip Pape: By the way, guys, if you don't use Macrofactor, it's the only app that exists that can actually calculate your dynamic metabolism based on what you eat and what you weigh exists that can actually calculate your dynamic metabolism based on what you eat and what you weigh, and then it adjusts the gain or the surplus based on your true rate of gain, which is important in a surplus, because muscle and fat have different densities and everyone gains different ratio of muscle to fat, and so an app that can do that is incredible.
• 6:59
  Philip Pape: Of course, I'm an affiliate, so full disclosure.
• 7:01
  Philip Pape: You can support me using my code wits and weights, all one word macro factor, downloaded from the app store.
• 7:06
  Philip Pape: Anyway, I use it myself and despite consistently getting stronger in the gym and eating in, this surplus was a decent surplus my weight started to plateau, and by weight I don't mean my scale weight, I mean my trend weight.
• 7:19
  Philip Pape: My scale weight always fluctuates, but you can tell when it's starting to fluctuate and it's like up down, up down within the same range for a while.
• 7:26
  Philip Pape: That's telling you there's a plateau.
• 7:28
  Philip Pape: And we're talking about this happening for almost a month now, and I know what to do during a plateau.
• 7:34
  Philip Pape: I eat more food.
• 7:35
  Philip Pape: I get ahead of it.
• 7:36
  Philip Pape: I always advise my clients when I see this we just need to get ahead of it.
• 7:39
  Philip Pape: A hundred calories, 200, sometimes 300 calories, because your expenditure is starting to skyrocket, your metabolism is going up, and that's what I started to do.
• 7:47
  Philip Pape: I just started to eat a heck of a lot more food, and part of the challenge there is I eat a lot of whole foods.
• 7:52
  Philip Pape: So unless I add a ton more junk food or processed food, it's a challenge, right, but I'm not complaining about that I know to do that I can make it happen.
• 8:02
  Philip Pape: Now, the 189,.
• 8:03
  Philip Pape: We're still not near my target of 195 to 200, which I had almost planned to reach by now before I transitioned to the maintenance phase, and so that's why I wanted to make this episode for any of you struggling with gaining right now.
• 8:15
  Philip Pape: So here's where the story gets fascinating.
• 8:19
  Philip Pape: Now I want to talk about this hidden energy drain that I teased you about in the podcast title.
• 8:23
  Philip Pape: So I've been using Macrofactor tracking my nutrition and my expenditure throughout this bulk.
• 8:28
  Philip Pape: The app calculates your expenditure based on your actual intake and your weight trend.
• 8:33
  Philip Pape: As I mentioned, you know one of the most powerful ways that we have to understand metabolism in real time, short of getting measured with a mask and or doubly labeled water or something crazy like that in a lab.
• 8:44
  Philip Pape: So my expenditure started at 2,640, so 2,640 calories in October, and you might say, oh, that doesn't sound that high.
• 8:53
  Philip Pape: But look, this was after a long cut, so it had come down, and then, after a little bit of a roller coaster, it actually dropped up, went up and went down to about 2,550 in early December which, by the way, that can happen.
• 9:05
  Philip Pape: So don't get worried if your expenditure drops at the beginning of a bulk, um, that's normal.
• 9:10
  Philip Pape: Your body's becoming more efficient, some other stuff is happening.
• 9:13
  Philip Pape: But then the wild, uh, rocket launch occurred.
• 9:17
  Philip Pape: Okay, my expenditure started climbing steadily, week after week, until it hit nearly 3000 calories, and that's about a 400 calorie increase in maintenance, um, in a very short period, very, very quickly.
• 9:30
  Philip Pape: And oh, and, that's, that's a net, by the way.
• 9:33
  Philip Pape: So that's, it's more like 450, and it's actually above 3000 now.
• 9:37
  Philip Pape: So we're pushing a 500 calorie change.
• 9:39
  Philip Pape: So think about that for a second.
• 9:40
  Philip Pape: My body's now burning extra four or 500 calories every single day compared to when I started the bulk.
• 9:44
  Philip Pape: Even when I intentionally overeat by two to 400 calories above my target surplus, my body finds a way to burn through it all.
• 9:52
  Philip Pape: The metabolism is incredibly adaptive and right now mine is working overtime.
• 9:57
  Philip Pape: Right it's it's almost to my detriment.
• 10:00
  Philip Pape: And then what makes this more interesting is my diet quality is solid.
• 10:04
  Philip Pape: Is it better than ever?
• 10:05
  Philip Pape: I think it's pretty steady state, like generally.
• 10:08
  Philip Pape: I, you know, I want to be a good example for my clients.
• 10:10
  Philip Pape: I eat 80, 90% whole foods, a lot of fruits and vegetables, a lot of whole food based grains and, of course, lots of meat and dairy and fiber.
• 10:18
  Philip Pape: I try to get you know at least 30 grams of fiber a day and this is fantastic for health, for digestion, for metabolic health, for hormones all that and even for your hunger signals to an extent.
• 10:30
  Philip Pape: But it actually then creates another interesting challenge for gaining weight, in that they're nutrient-dense foods, so they're also higher volume foods and they're more filling.
• 10:40
  Philip Pape: They have a higher thermic effect, so you're burning even more calories and sometimes it makes it hard to reach the high calorie targets.
• 10:47
  Philip Pape: Now, like I said, that's not the fundamental issue that I'm having.
• 10:53
  Philip Pape: I'm willing to make that trade-off right For long-term health and performance, because I'm trying to push.
• 10:56
  Philip Pape: But what I wanted to talk about is what's causing this, what I'll call energy drain.
• 11:00
  Philip Pape: It's weird I know it's a weird phrase, but kind of, the way I see it is, the opposite thing happens in fat loss, where your body's clamping down.
• 11:07
  Philip Pape: It's getting super efficient, it's trying to conserve energy and you don't want it to do that.
• 11:12
  Philip Pape: You want it to burn calories.
• 11:13
  Philip Pape: But in the bulk it's almost like an energy drain, like a leak, like your body is just burning so many calories.
• 11:20
  Philip Pape: It almost seems impossible.
• 11:21
  Philip Pape: So I want to explain that.
• 11:23
  Philip Pape: The first thing that comes to mind is your training expenditure, and what I mean by that is we don't often give enough credit to the fact that the way we train burns calories, because even I often talk about the fact that that is not why we exercise right, we don't exercise to burn calories, but it does burn calories.
• 11:43
  Philip Pape: Now I've been running.
• 11:43
  Philip Pape: Shout out to Alex Bromley Okay, look him up on YouTube.
• 11:46
  Philip Pape: Really smart guy, uh, and I think he was just on Dave Tate's um table talk as well.
• 11:51
  Philip Pape: I'm running his bull mastiff program which, by the way, I think you could still get it for free in boost camp.
• 11:57
  Philip Pape: If you download boost camp, it's a really good workout logger app.
• 12:05
  Philip Pape: I use it.
• 12:05
  Philip Pape: Use my link in the show notes.
• 12:06
  Philip Pape: I get a little bit of a bonus for affiliate bonus.
• 12:07
  Philip Pape: It's very small, but just if you're looking to support me.
• 12:10
  Philip Pape: But you can get Bull Mastiff and run it yourself.
• 12:12
  Philip Pape: Now this is a I'll call it a high load, but also high volume strength building and then peaking program, meaning for about nine weeks you do three waves of ever-increasing volume, that reset for each wave and you're doing a lot of volume, more volume than I've ever done, maybe double.
• 12:28
  Philip Pape: Then you switch to a peaking phase where you reduce the volume but you start increasing the load.
• 12:33
  Philip Pape: You get up into fours and then triples and then doubles.
• 12:36
  Philip Pape: Now I'm finally in singles phase, which is going to lead to testing my one rep max for my squat, deadlift and so on.
• 12:43
  Philip Pape: And while you're doing this kind of training, especially the high volume training that I was doing even though each rep might be more efficient as you get stronger, your body's using less energy for the same movement, because my movement patterns are being executed so frequently.
• 12:58
  Philip Pape: I feel like there is a sense of efficiency there and then I'm able to push even harder.
• 13:05
  Philip Pape: And now the increased volume and intensity.
• 13:07
  Philip Pape: You multiply those together, you get higher energy demand.
• 13:10
  Philip Pape: So while the efficiency might save a little bit, the volume more than makes up for it, especially the program I've been running.
• 13:16
  Philip Pape: Again, I've never run this high of a volume program before.
• 13:19
  Philip Pape: I suspect that's part of it.
• 13:21
  Philip Pape: Now it's been at least six weeks since I was at level of volume.
• 13:24
  Philip Pape: It's been way less volume and it's still going up.
• 13:26
  Philip Pape: So you know it could be a cascade effect or just like kind of a runaway effect going on.
• 13:31
  Philip Pape: So as you get stronger, as you're handling heavier weights during a bulk, even if you're doing fewer reps, your total tonnage, your work capacity tends to increase.
• 13:40
  Philip Pape: You're able to push harder, push to that more effect, your effective reps get to a higher load, et cetera.
• 13:45
  Philip Pape: All of that burns a ton more calories and then it has that afterburner effect and so on.
• 13:49
  Philip Pape: So I think that's part of it.
• 13:51
  Philip Pape: I think that's part of it.
• 13:52
  Philip Pape: Just keep that in mind.
• 13:53
  Philip Pape: The second factor is NEAT, right, non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
• 13:57
  Philip Pape: You heard me talk about this.
• 13:58
  Philip Pape: This is everything you do outside the gym.
• 14:00
  Philip Pape: Primarily you're walking.
• 14:02
  Philip Pape: This is everything you do outside the gym primarily you're walking, but also you're fidgeting, unconscious movement, and it increases even if your step count doesn't change.
• 14:09
  Philip Pape: Your knee might increase, sometimes dramatically, when you're in a surplus because you've got all this extra energy now almost nervous energy, you might call it.
• 14:17
  Philip Pape: Your body unconsciously moves more throughout the day.
• 14:20
  Philip Pape: You fidget more, you tap your feet, maybe you shake around a little bit more.
• 14:24
  Philip Pape: Um, I stand working up most of the time and I catch myself.
• 14:28
  Philip Pape: You know, shifting around you might take more steps, you might pace more when you're pacing, you know, you just might pace more and all these small movements add up to hundreds of extra calories burned without you realizing it.
• 14:39
  Philip Pape: So that's my second theory here of supported by the evidence, is that your neat is unconsciously going up, even if your step count doesn't necessarily go up because of all these other unconscious movements.
• 14:50
  Philip Pape: The third factor is broader metabolic adaptation concept We've talked about a lot, especially during fat loss.
• 14:55
  Philip Pape: You know, just like your body fights to preserve energy during a cut, it can fight to prevent excessive weight gain during a bulk by ramping up various metabolic processes in your body, like increased body temperature.
• 15:09
  Philip Pape: You get a lot hotter, trust me, during winter now it's like the gap is even wider between what my wife thinks is cold and what I think is cold.
• 15:17
  Philip Pape: You get higher energy expenditure during digestion.
• 15:20
  Philip Pape: You're just eating a heck of a lot more food and digesting it a lot more frequently.
• 15:24
  Philip Pape: Subtle changes in your hormone levels right, your body's like, yeah, you've got, you're flooding me with energy, there's no need to conserve anything here, wrap it all up, which is a great place to be energy wise.
• 15:36
  Philip Pape: But then you become just less and less efficient with calories.
• 15:40
  Philip Pape: You're just wasting calories left and right and your body's just burning the heck out of them.
• 15:44
  Philip Pape: So those are the three factors I believe are important behind why you might have this runaway effect with your expenditure.
• 15:52
  Philip Pape: So understanding these adaptations has led me to think about how are we strategic with this?
• 15:58
  Philip Pape: If you're dealing with this, what do I do for this?
• 16:01
  Philip Pape: And three specific things came to mind.
• 16:03
  Philip Pape: Yeah, I'm just going to, I'm just going to jump into them and you're basically balancing the fact that you have this short-term goal of, like, eating a ton of food and keeping up and continuing to build.
• 16:13
  Philip Pape: I will say the one caveat before I get into any of these is I noticed that even though I have quote unquote maintained the fact that I've been eating more and more food has, ironically, still given me the feeling and performance of being in a surplus energy state.
• 16:30
  Philip Pape: So it's not like I've fallen behind, because that's another issue people face is they actually start losing weight in this situation?
• 16:37
  Philip Pape: But I've at least kept up with it and it's been more than enough, with a little bit of extra fat I have as well, to not make me feel like it's a problem, which I guess is a cool thing, right?
• 16:48
  Philip Pape: So the first thing I like to do as a strategy is what I call caloric dominance.
• 16:52
  Philip Pape: Like, you've got to dominate those calories, and that means not just eating more, right, that's the simple thing.
• 16:59
  Philip Pape: Okay, I need more food, great.
• 17:00
  Philip Pape: But eating smarter, like front loading your calories in the day and around your training sessions, like just you've got to get ahead of it and be smart and realize that if you don't, it's going to catch up to you by later in the day.
• 17:12
  Philip Pape: It's a little bit of a job.
• 17:14
  Philip Pape: It's a little bit of a job to do.
• 17:15
  Philip Pape: You got to understand that there's a trade off, there's a sacrifice, and that you have to be paying attention.
• 17:19
  Philip Pape: And on top of this stuff, you've got to be strategic and plan ahead.
• 17:27
  Philip Pape: Plan ahead, just like in fat loss, you want to plan ahead Same thing here to get all the calories in and eat around your training.
• 17:35
  Philip Pape: Eat a ton around your training when your body is primed to use them, not like right before you train, where it's going to give you digestive issues, but around the training, strategically.
• 17:45
  Philip Pape: Add liquid calories.
• 17:46
  Philip Pape: Whole milk is awesome If you can tolerate dairy.
• 17:48
  Philip Pape: Whole milk is awesome If you can tolerate dairy, excuse me.
• 17:49
  Philip Pape: Whole milk is fantastic.
• 17:51
  Philip Pape: It's for the price and the macros and the calories and everything.
• 17:54
  Philip Pape: It's a wonderful food.
• 17:56
  Philip Pape: Of course, you know protein shakes, adding higher calorie ingredients, processing things, nuking, not nuking things.
• 18:03
  Philip Pape: What am I trying to say, blending things together into smoothies and stuff, can definitely help.
• 18:06
  Philip Pape: That's more of just a general strategy to get it in.
• 18:09
  Philip Pape: But high meal frequency, calorie dominance, starting early, getting around your workouts, calorie-dense foods that don't kill your appetite but still maintain that base of nutrient-dense whole foods.
• 18:23
  Philip Pape: So, adding in extra olive oil to your meals, choosing fattier cuts of meat oh, extra olive oil to your meals.
• 18:32
  Philip Pape: Choosing fattier cuts of meat oh ribeye this is the time to go to town on ribeyes.
• 18:34
  Philip Pape: Man, that marbled fat there is like nature's butter.
• 18:37
  Philip Pape: Well, butter is from nature, but you know what I mean?
• 18:39
  Philip Pape: It's like the steaks built in butter, having lots of nuts and nut butters as snacks.
• 18:45
  Philip Pape: You know it's great and the key here is to to keep it consistent.
• 18:49
  Philip Pape: Like having regular meal timing.
• 18:51
  Philip Pape: While you're scaling everything up because you don't want to make, you don't want to get in a situation when you're just trying to catch up and you're stuffing yourself.
• 18:57
  Philip Pape: That is not fun.
• 18:58
  Philip Pape: Or you're like I'm gonna go Like uh gorge on rice crispy streets and pop tarts because I just need the calories.
• 19:04
  Philip Pape: That is not a sustainable situation you want to be in.
• 19:06
  Philip Pape: So again, think of things like dried fruit, granola, like homemade or even packaged granola.
• 19:13
  Philip Pape: They tend to be calorie dense as well, without giving you excessive fullness.
• 19:17
  Philip Pape: So that's calorie dominance.
• 19:20
  Philip Pape: The second thing here second strategy, is about mindset.
• 19:24
  Philip Pape: It's about maintaining perspective and resilience.
• 19:28
  Philip Pape: So, instead of just getting frustrated by the plateau, which you know, after a week I'm like, okay, it's not moving, what do I do, right?
• 19:34
  Philip Pape: I use this opportunity to learn about my body's response, and it might be different every time you do a bulk Like.
• 19:39
  Philip Pape: For me, this is a unique situation for the first time because it's it's persistent, but it also maybe tells me some good things that my body is really growing and really taking advantage of this caloric environment.
• 19:53
  Philip Pape: So your data, whatever data you have, like the data for macro factor, for example it's not just numbers sitting there, it's the feedback you need to close the loop right.
• 20:01
  Philip Pape: The control system.
• 20:02
  Philip Pape: It helps me understand how my metabolism adapts to different situations.
• 20:07
  Philip Pape: This is why I like people to keep tracking, even when they're sick or even when they have a surgery or whatever, assuming the tracking itself isn't stressful in those situations.
• 20:17
  Philip Pape: It helps you understand how your body reacts to those, and then that knowledge is super invaluable for future gaining phases or whatever situation and, of course, for me, helping others through similar challenges.
• 20:28
  Philip Pape: It's amazing.
• 20:29
  Philip Pape: So when you're facing a plateau, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers and just lose sight of the bigger picture.
• 20:35
  Philip Pape: And remember that your scale weight, your trend weight, is just one metric.
• 20:39
  Philip Pape: I mentioned this already.
• 20:40
  Philip Pape: My performance is really strong.
• 20:42
  Philip Pape: My energy is really high.
• 20:43
  Philip Pape: The quality of my training not only hasn't it suffered, it's continuing to increase, and through this I've been dealing with some of my legacy shoulder issues, having nothing to do with my bulk or anything else, and those gave me little setbacks along the way.
• 20:56
  Philip Pape: But the fact that I'm so well fed has actually been helpful.
• 20:59
  Philip Pape: So sometimes the best response to a plateau any plateau is step back, appreciate the progress you've already made, appreciate all the wonderful victories you're getting right now despite the plateau, and, of course, stay patient with the process, because it's data telling you that something might have to change.
• 21:22
  Philip Pape: You learn from it and you grow and you continue.
• 21:25
  Philip Pape: That's what I have to say about that.
• 21:26
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 21:27
  Philip Pape: The third strategy is I guess it's also mindset, but it's really being realistic about the timelines and the goals, because that can frustrate the heck out of you, like like it could have done to me when I said I needed to be, by one at one, 95 by this date, cause I'm going to be doing a cut like four weeks after that.
• 21:44
  Philip Pape: No-transcript will end naturally at that point.
• 22:12
  Philip Pape: And you know what?
• 22:12
  Philip Pape: That's perfectly fine.
• 22:14
  Philip Pape: Not only that, what are the advantages of that?
• 22:17
  Philip Pape: All right, maybe one advantage is I won't be as heavy as expected, so the cut is gonna be easier to get to my target weight.
• 22:22
  Philip Pape: Great, that's a great way to reframe it.
• 22:25
  Philip Pape: When I look at the bigger picture, I'm in a great place.
• 22:27
  Philip Pape: I've gained quality mass, my performance is solid, I'm maintaining better nutritional habits than ever before, even in a gain, and the fact that my maintenance calories have increased so dramatically is actually a sign of improved metabolic capacity.
• 22:41
  Philip Pape: Sometimes our bodies have different plans than what is up here in our brains, and learning to work with that because that's reality, that's reality rather than against it that is going to go a long way toward being a positive, optimistic person.
• 22:55
  Philip Pape: That will make you successful over the long term.
• 22:57
  Philip Pape: All right, so I hope you take away from all of this something super fascinating and also inspiring about building muscle, in that your body is very intelligent.
• 23:10
  Philip Pape: Also inspiring about building muscle in that your body is very intelligent when you understand that these adaptations occur not as obstacles, but as signals that you are pushing the boundaries of growth.
• 23:19
  Philip Pape: That is where you can say all right now, what do I do to work with that?
• 23:22
  Philip Pape: The fact that my maintenance calories have increased so dramatically is not a problem at all.
• 23:27
  Philip Pape: It is a sign my body has built the machinery to handle more volume, more food and ultimately, yeah, more muscle.
• 23:34
  Philip Pape: That's my takeaway.
• 23:36
  Philip Pape: Maybe I'm rationalizing, lying to myself, but I don't think I am.
• 23:39
  Philip Pape: This is like an increased metabolic capacity.
• 23:42
  Philip Pape: It means I'm more resilient.
• 23:43
  Philip Pape: It means I'm more capable of handling intense training.
• 23:46
  Philip Pape: It means I'm better equipped for long-term growth.
• 23:47
  Philip Pape: And guess what?
• 23:48
  Philip Pape: I know I can now do this kind of program in the future and get some pretty good gains, which means look out numbers.
• 23:56
  Philip Pape: Here we come, all right.
• 23:58
  Philip Pape: So we often hear about metabolic adaptation during fat loss, but the same mechanisms are working in reverse during a bulk, and that was what I wanted to talk about today.
• 24:07
  Philip Pape: So if you can understand this, it's not just going to help you gain weight, that's fine.
• 24:11
  Philip Pape: Eat more calories, that's fine.
• 24:12
  Philip Pape: It really helps you build a more resilient, more capable physique All right, a physique that you didn't have before.
• 24:18
  Philip Pape: That is a new person.
• 24:20
  Philip Pape: You've become a more athletic, strong, capable person.
• 24:23
  Philip Pape: Stop chasing skinny, start chasing strong.
• 24:27
  Philip Pape: What I've learned through this phase has changed how I approach muscle building now for the next time, as well as for myself and my clients.
• 24:34
  Philip Pape: And sometimes the hardest gains.
• 24:36
  Philip Pape: You know that these hard parts are the things that teach us the valuable lessons about how our bodies adapt and grow.
• 24:43
  Philip Pape: All right, if you want to build muscle more effectively and understand the science behind successful bulking, grab your free copy of my Muscle Building Nutrition Blueprint.
• 24:51
  Philip Pape: This guide gives you the exact steps and framework to optimize your nutrition to maximize muscle growth and minimize fat gain.
• 25:00
  Philip Pape: Head to witsandweightscom slash muscle or click the link in the show notes to download your copy 100% free.
• 25:06
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember when your metabolism fights back, it is not trying to stop you.
• 25:15
  Philip Pape: It is challenging you to get stronger.
• 25:18
  Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.