Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / The Surprising 4th Macro That Stalls Fat Loss (and Increases Belly Fat) | Ep 275

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The Surprising 4th Macro That Stalls Fat Loss (and Increases Belly Fat) | Ep 275 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:01
  Philip Pape: There are three macros, right Protein, fats and carbs and you might be tracking them.
• 0:06
  Philip Pape: You're tracking your calories, your training, but something's off.
• 0:09
  Philip Pape: The fat loss has stalled, maybe around your midsection, and the culprit might be a hidden fourth macro that's wreaking havoc on your body composition.
• 0:19
  Philip Pape: This often overlooked factor is doing more than just adding calories it's actively interfering with your metabolism, muscle growth and fat storage patterns.
• 0:29
  Philip Pape: Today, we're uncovering the science behind how the fourth macro disrupts your progress and what to do about it.
• 0:35
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.
• 0:54
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape, and today's episode comes from an important question in our Facebook community.
• 0:59
  Philip Pape: Jerry asked about alcohol's impact on body composition beyond just calories, and it's a really good question, because we are always obsessed over protein, fats and carbs, and alcohol does act like a fourth macronutrient in some ways.
• 1:16
  Philip Pape: That might surprise you, and the truth is, most of us, myself included, have been pretty misled about alcohol's effects on our physicals especially, and if not misled, then maybe the information just isn't out there.
• 1:30
  Philip Pape: We've heard everything from you know it's no big deal as long as it fits your macros to even unhelpful information now that can be damaging, like red wine is good for your heart.
• 1:40
  Philip Pape: So today I'm going to break down what the evidence actually says about alcohol's impact on the things that we really care about here fat loss, muscle gain, body composition so you know you can make an informed decision.
• 1:52
  Philip Pape: Now, before we dig into that science I mentioned, this question comes from someone in our Facebook group.
• 1:58
  Philip Pape: If you want to connect with Jerry or anyone else who's trying to optimize their nutrition and training, they're sharing their progress.
• 2:04
  Philip Pape: They're sharing their progress.
• 2:05
  Philip Pape: They're sharing tips.
• 2:05
  Philip Pape: They'll answer your questions.
• 2:07
  Philip Pape: You can get form checks, all this fun stuff using the evidence, using good, solid training methodologies.
• 2:14
  Philip Pape: Join our free Facebook group.
• 2:16
  Philip Pape: Just search for Wits and Weights on Facebook or click the link in the show notes and you will find a supportive community, like-minded people just like you, most of whom listen to this podcast and just want to help each other succeed.
• 2:28
  Philip Pape: All right, let's start by breaking down what makes alcohol unique compared to other macros.
• 2:35
  Philip Pape: Alcohol is definitely a macro.
• 2:37
  Philip Pape: It has seven calories per gram in terms of its density, its energy content.
• 2:42
  Philip Pape: In terms of its density, its energy content.
• 2:43
  Philip Pape: And so it sits between protein and carbs, which those have four calories per gram, and then fat has nine calories per gram, so it's in between, but that's where the similarities end.
• 2:54
  Philip Pape: Okay, I don't want you to think of it as like the other macros, because your body handles alcohol completely different from any other nutrients, and understanding that is really important.
• 3:05
  Philip Pape: First, let's talk about what happens when you consume regular macros.
• 3:09
  Philip Pape: When you consume protein, carbs and fats, your body can store all of those nutrients.
• 3:13
  Philip Pape: Carbs get stored as glycogen in your muscles and liver.
• 3:17
  Philip Pape: Fat gets stored in adipose tissue.
• 3:19
  Philip Pape: Protein gets broken down and used to build or repair tissues.
• 3:23
  Philip Pape: So your body has options and it can process these nutrients at its own pace.
• 3:29
  Philip Pape: Alcohol is a completely different story.
• 3:32
  Philip Pape: Listen up, okay.
• 3:34
  Philip Pape: Your body does not have a storage mechanism for alcohol Zero.
• 3:37
  Philip Pape: It views alcohol as a toxin that must be cleared from your system immediately.
• 3:43
  Philip Pape: Right, and this isn't about preference, it's a biological imperative.
• 3:46
  Philip Pape: Your liver drops everything else it is doing to deal with the alcohol first, and this metabolic priority then creates a cascade of effects that directly impact your body composition.
• 3:59
  Philip Pape: Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that alcohol suppresses fat oxidation.
• 4:05
  Philip Pape: That means fat burning by up to 73% for four to six hours after you drink.
• 4:12
  Philip Pape: Think about that.
• 4:13
  Philip Pape: For up to six hours after having drinks with your dinner, your body basically stops burning fat.
• 4:20
  Philip Pape: But it gets worse Because during that time, guess what happens to all the other calories you consume, all those carbs and fats that you're eating alongside your drinks, or even just your regular meals.
• 4:31
  Philip Pape: They are more likely to be stored as fat because your body's too busy dealing with the alcohol.
• 4:37
  Philip Pape: So it's like having this traffic jam in your metabolism where everything backs up while there's one priority vehicle alcohol.
• 4:43
  Philip Pape: Maybe, know, maybe Elon Musk owns the alcohol company, I don't know, but it has priority everything, everything else, and it gets through.
• 4:49
  Philip Pape: Now you might be thinking, okay, but what if I account for the calories from alcohol in my daily target?
• 4:56
  Philip Pape: Right, if I, I should just track it right.
• 4:58
  Philip Pape: And that is a great question.
• 5:00
  Philip Pape: And it leads us to the next point point, because even if you could perfectly account for the calories, alcohol still affects your body composition through multiple other mechanisms that have nothing to do with calories.
• 5:13
  Philip Pape: So let's get into that and talk about kind of the triple threat here between muscle, fat and hormones.
• 5:20
  Philip Pape: As it relates to alcohol.
• 5:23
  Philip Pape: We're going to start with muscle protein synthesis.
• 5:24
  Philip Pape: That is, the process of building and maintaining muscle mass.
• 5:30
  Philip Pape: You might have seen it abbreviated MPS, right, and that's all it is.
• 5:31
  Philip Pape: It's building muscle.
• 5:32
  Philip Pape: And there was a landmark study in PLOS1, I never know how to pronounce it, plos1, that found that alcohol consumption decreased exercise induced muscle protein synthesis by about 24% when subjects consumed alcohol post-workout.
• 5:49
  Philip Pape: Now I know we're not all just like chugging down a glass of whiskey or a beer right after a workout although I have done my share of obstacle course races in the past and got my free beer and I can tell you that was a pleasurable experience but still, we're not all doing that.
• 6:03
  Philip Pape: But regardless, 24% drop in muscle protein synthesis after having a drink after exercise like that's a huge reduction in your body's ability to do the thing that you just trained for build and repair muscle, even when you're eating enough protein and training Like that's crazy.
• 6:19
  Philip Pape: So put that in perspective.
• 6:20
  Philip Pape: Imagine you just finished a training session.
• 6:23
  Philip Pape: You spent 90 minutes with your squats, with your deadlifts, with, with your, all your accessories, right, and you you even hit your protein target for the day.
• 6:32
  Philip Pape: You're eating plenty and you're feeling great.
• 6:34
  Philip Pape: Then you have a few drinks with dinner, so maybe you're training in the afternoon, even though you did everything else right, you've just cut your potential muscle gains for that session by nearly a quarter, according to this research Um, you research, and I know we're not.
• 6:52
  Philip Pape: I mean, it depends on how often you do it right, how much you drink and all of that.
• 6:54
  Philip Pape: But the impact goes beyond and I want to kind of stack on top of that it's beyond just the protein synthesis, because it also affects your hormones.
• 6:59
  Philip Pape: It affects your testosterone levels and, as you surmise, not in a good way.
• 7:03
  Philip Pape: Research shows that regular alcohol consumption can suppress testosterone production by up to 23% in men, and then for women, even though the impact is a little bit less dramatic, it still interferes with testosterone, as well as other hormones that affect body composition.
• 7:21
  Philip Pape: And then let's look at fat storage, because it gets interesting here as well.
• 7:24
  Philip Pape: There's research in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition that shows that regular alcohol consumption has a dose-dependent relationship with visceral fat, that is, the dangerous fat around your organs, your belly fat, and men consuming more than 14 drinks per week had 30.7% more visceral fat volume compared to non-drinkers.
• 7:50
  Philip Pape: Right, and that is not just the subcutaneous fat that you can pinch, it is the deep belly fat that is associated with serious health risks.
• 7:59
  Philip Pape: It isn't just a function of these guys gaining more weight.
• 8:03
  Philip Pape: It is a separate variable that is very important to get into your brain, like I've.
• 8:08
  Philip Pape: This is one of the primary reasons I've all but cut off alcohol.
• 8:12
  Philip Pape: I admit I still have a drink every now and then.
• 8:14
  Philip Pape: Once a month I'll have a drink.
• 8:16
  Philip Pape: I mean it is so rare compared to what it used to be for many of these reasons.
• 8:20
  Philip Pape: And then there's something that doesn't take.
• 8:22
  Philip Pape: It doesn't get talked about enough how alcohol impacts your stress response, because when you drink, your body produces more cortisol, the stress hormone.
• 8:30
  Philip Pape: We think of alcohol as this downer.
• 8:32
  Philip Pape: It like relaxes you and everything, but it actually makes you more stress on the whole.
• 8:36
  Philip Pape: High cortisol levels are associated then with guess what?
• 8:40
  Philip Pape: Increased belly fat storage and reduced muscle mass.
• 8:43
  Philip Pape: Double, triple, quadruple, whammy.
• 8:45
  Philip Pape: I mean you do the math.
• 8:46
  Philip Pape: You're not just dealing with direct effects of alcohol, but then this hormonal cascade that creates an environment perfect for fat storage and muscle loss.
• 8:57
  Philip Pape: Come on, guys, are you getting the picture?
• 8:59
  Philip Pape: That is not what we want, right?
• 9:01
  Philip Pape: And I did this episode because I didn't want to say, hey, alcohol's poison, it's toxic, you shouldn't drink it.
• 9:07
  Philip Pape: I actually wanted to come to it from the other direction of no-transcript.
• 9:14
  Philip Pape: If you care about these things, it's up to you how much.
• 9:16
  Philip Pape: Or if you want to drink alcohol, right, that's it.
• 9:18
  Philip Pape: I'm not coming to it from the judgment or shame perspective, but from the physiology, the anatomy, the biology perspective, all right.
• 9:25
  Philip Pape: So what do we do with all this information?
• 9:26
  Philip Pape: Right, I'm not here to tell you never to drink again.
• 9:29
  Philip Pape: I know that's not realistic for most people and, quite frankly, it's not necessary for the vast majority of us to achieve our goals.
• 9:37
  Philip Pape: Oh boy, I said it.
• 9:38
  Philip Pape: Yes, I said it, and I know I've had some guests on who've talked about total abstinence from alcohol and that is totally an option for you, absolutely an option.
• 9:47
  Philip Pape: I would totally encourage that if you want to do that.
• 9:49
  Philip Pape: But I'm talking realistic pragmatism here and I know not everybody's going to do that.
• 9:56
  Philip Pape: So instead, let's talk about strategic approaches to minimize alcohol's impact on your physique goals.
• 10:01
  Philip Pape: We'll start there and if you decide you want to totally abstain because at the end of the day that will get you the most benefit, that is up to you.
• 10:08
  Philip Pape: So first, let's talk about timing.
• 10:10
  Philip Pape: If you're going to drink, do it on rest days, don't do it on training days.
• 10:14
  Philip Pape: If we're to believe the 24% reduction in muscle synthesis.
• 10:18
  Philip Pape: You don't do it on training days, right?
• 10:19
  Philip Pape: If we're to believe the 24% reduction in muscle synthesis, you don't want that happening right after a good workout.
• 10:24
  Philip Pape: Now, it's going to happen whenever you drink.
• 10:25
  Philip Pape: So just know that on the net it's still going to have an impact.
• 10:26
  Philip Pape: But if you train on your off day, that might be a little bit better than training right after you work out or on your training day.
• 10:32
  Philip Pape: But not only that your performance in the gym is going to suffer if you're training while your body is still processing alcohol.
• 10:38
  Philip Pape: So don't do it on, like the evening before your training day either.
• 10:42
  Philip Pape: If you train in the morning, just be smart about it and separate it.
• 10:46
  Philip Pape: And I see this with clients, right?
• 10:47
  Philip Pape: They hit a great workout, a great training session on Friday.
• 10:50
  Philip Pape: Then they go out for drinks that night and then they're like I'm kind of weak and unmotivated on Saturday.
• 10:56
  Philip Pape: Well, what the heck?
• 10:57
  Philip Pape: You just had a bunch of drinks Friday night, right?
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: It's not just in your head.
• 11:00
  Philip Pape: Your body is literally still dealing with the metabolic aftermath of the drinks.
• 11:04
  Philip Pape: Um, which, by the way, it doesn't necessarily happen if you have like a massive buffet or Chinese food.
• 11:10
  Philip Pape: Many times you go into the gym next day and you're like super energized from that.
• 11:13
  Philip Pape: So that's why there's a difference between these things.
• 11:15
  Philip Pape: Um, the second is the amount, the quantity.
• 11:18
  Philip Pape: Right, we know that there's a clear dose dependent relationship with the negative effects and, by the way, I should have put this disclaimer early on.
• 11:27
  Philip Pape: If you struggle with alcohol, if there's alcoholism in your family or yourself or any, I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.
• 11:33
  Philip Pape: It is outside my scope to deal with actually alcoholism and alcohol dependency.
• 11:37
  Philip Pape: This episode is not for you.
• 11:45
  Philip Pape: This is about just understanding the relationships between moderate alcohol consumption and your body.
• 11:48
  Philip Pape: Okay, so the dose dependent relationships.
• 11:49
  Philip Pape: So every drink that you don't have is a win for your physique.
• 11:55
  Philip Pape: I want you to remember that Every drink you choose not to have.
• 11:58
  Philip Pape: So if you were gonna have like five beers in a row but you decide every other beer is an alcohol-free beer, count those as wins for your physique, and you might be rolling your eyes at this point thinking, okay, again, here's the lecture about never drinking again.
• 12:14
  Philip Pape: But that's not what I'm suggesting.
• 12:15
  Philip Pape: I want you to set some reasonable limits based on your goals.
• 12:19
  Philip Pape: So if you're serious about body composition, I would limit yourself to one to two drinks per month.
• 12:24
  Philip Pape: And if that sounds crazy, if that sounds extreme for you and I've been there I used to have a glass of wine every night and I used to have like five, six beers on the weekend and I gradually weaned myself off and started to swap things out.
• 12:36
  Philip Pape: So what do you do?
• 12:37
  Philip Pape: Well, you start by cutting your current intake by a percentage of that, like maybe in half, and observe the changes, and then you might be surprised how much better you feel and perform Right, and the way I would do that is I wouldn't just say, okay, if you drink two drinks every day, drink one drink every day.
• 12:51
  Philip Pape: I might want to drink, like you know, half the days or something like that, but do whatever makes sense to you.
• 12:58
  Philip Pape: Um, you know, one of our, one of our members in our in um, my group program, the physique university, had some struggles with drinking and and you know I see this a lot, right, I see this a lot it's like everything else starts to get dialed in and drinking still is a challenge, and so she simply moved from drinking every weekend every other weekend.
• 13:17
  Philip Pape: So she still accepted the fact that she wanted to go out with her girlfriends to the pub and really enjoy the craft beers, but it would be every other weekend and the weeks where she didn't drink she was like holy moly, I have way better recovery, my walks feel great, I feel like just more up to doing things, my training's consistent, I'm hitting PRs, I'm actually I can lose weight, my metabolism goes up, and then it kind of slides back a little bit on the weeks where she would drink.
• 13:42
  Philip Pape: So that's what I mean by kind of alternating, to see the contrast in your own self and let that data drive you to your decision-making.
• 13:50
  Philip Pape: And then as far as the social strategies, I think that's where most people struggle the most, because it's rarely about that physical craving for alcohol, right, or the physical hunger, whatever you wanna call it.
• 14:00
  Philip Pape: It's the social pressure, it's the habits that we built around drinking.
• 14:05
  Philip Pape: So what do we do about that?
• 14:06
  Philip Pape: All right, first have a go-to non-alcoholic drink ready to go right, and it could be something, not even in the realm of alcohol, like sparkling water with lime or a seltzer or something you know, not hard seltzer, but a regular seltzer, diet soda, something that looks like a drink.
• 14:26
  Philip Pape: No one questions it.
• 14:26
  Philip Pape: You're at the party, they think it's a rum and coke, whatever.
• 14:29
  Philip Pape: Who cares Not that it should matter, but I know a lot of us care.
• 14:32
  Philip Pape: So that's where I'm starting from.
• 14:33
  Philip Pape: And then, guess what?
• 14:35
  Philip Pape: You stay hydrated too, so probably makes things.
• 14:37
  Philip Pape: You could maybe have the food.
• 14:40
  Philip Pape: You stay hydrated, you enjoy yourself.
• 14:46
  Philip Pape: Don't get as buzzed if if it's mixed in with alcoholic beverages and you're cutting down, um.
• 14:47
  Philip Pape: But here's the thing there are also lots of options with the rise of these non-alcoholic uh, craft beverages, beers and mixed liquors and even wines.
• 14:55
  Philip Pape: So, uh, going with a non-alcoholic beer is a great option these days.
• 14:58
  Philip Pape: Seriously, it tastes, they taste pretty good.
• 15:01
  Philip Pape: So if you just like the ritual and the taste of beer, that alone could be enough for you to say, ah, this is pretty close to it.
• 15:06
  Philip Pape: I'm just not getting that buzz, but I'm also not getting all the terrible after effects and effects on my body composition later either.
• 15:12
  Philip Pape: Um.
• 15:13
  Philip Pape: The second thing is you don't have to explain yourself to anyone.
• 15:15
  Philip Pape: You just don't write a simple like hey, I'm good with water tonight is enough.
• 15:20
  Philip Pape: If someone's pushing you to drink, it's.
• 15:23
  Philip Pape: It's more about them.
• 15:24
  Philip Pape: It's about their relationship with alcohol, their insecurities.
• 15:27
  Philip Pape: It's not you.
• 15:28
  Philip Pape: Right now you can be strategic.
• 15:30
  Philip Pape: You can volunteer to be the designated driver, and then you know, they know you can't drink or say, hey, I have, I have an early morning training session, like that's important to me, I'm just not drinking.
• 15:38
  Philip Pape: Cause that if you have to give a reason there's, there's a strategic way to do it.
• 15:41
  Philip Pape: And then the third thing here is you know why don't you build connections with people and activities that don't revolve around drinking it and activities that don't revolve around drinking it might sound obvious, but I think that's powerful, right?
• 15:52
  Philip Pape: Instead of meeting friends for drinks, suggest going on a hike or doing a training session together, or a lunch where you're having food but not drinks.
• 16:02
  Philip Pape: I mean, you be the judge.
• 16:04
  Philip Pape: And then you'd be amazed at how many people are actually relieved to have social options that don't involve alcohol.
• 16:10
  Philip Pape: It's funny part of my wife's family.
• 16:12
  Philip Pape: They stay away from alcohol because there's a history there, and so when we go to parties with them, it's just I remember early on being a little frustrated.
• 16:19
  Philip Pape: I'm like, where's the cooler with the beers?
• 16:21
  Philip Pape: Where where's the wine?
• 16:22
  Philip Pape: And after a couple of those I just didn't think about it and I would go and guess what.
• 16:26
  Philip Pape: We have fun, it's no big deal.
• 16:28
  Philip Pape: You enjoy it.
• 16:28
  Philip Pape: You have diet soda, you have the cake.
• 16:30
  Philip Pape: Right, you throw the football around, whatever, and you have fun.
• 16:33
  Philip Pape: You don't need the alcohol, um, so so that's kind of.
• 16:36
  Philip Pape: Hopefully I didn't get too judge judgmental there.
• 16:38
  Philip Pape: Hopefully that was a reasonable take on this subject.
• 16:41
  Philip Pape: Uh, and I think if, if you, if you think about alcohol and training, um, it's if you link them together, I think it's going to be helpful, because we know the research shows that regular exercise changes how your body even processes alcohol.
• 16:59
  Philip Pape: Like you actually become better at clearing it, which is not an encouragement to drink more, but it does potentially reduce the negative effects on body composition.
• 17:08
  Philip Pape: It might explain why some, like active, healthy people, seem to handle alcohol better than others.
• 17:12
  Philip Pape: And again, it doesn't mean you should drink more.
• 17:15
  Philip Pape: It suggests that maintaining your training routine becomes even more important.
• 17:20
  Philip Pape: If you choose to drink occasionally, right, you're building a better defense system against the negative effects of really anything you put into your body.
• 17:27
  Philip Pape: It's like having a better cleanup crew right, better, better detox crew in your body.
• 17:31
  Philip Pape: And it like having a better cleanup crew, right, better detox crew in your body.
• 17:32
  Philip Pape: And it explains something that I've noticed with clients over the years that those who maintain consistent training schedules they go to the gym, they put in the work.
• 17:42
  Philip Pape: Even if they do keep drinking moderately, right, they tend to maintain better body composition.
• 17:48
  Philip Pape: They can lose fat.
• 17:49
  Philip Pape: Yes, they can have a-pack abs.
• 17:50
  Philip Pape: Then those who are intermittent with their training but strict about alcohol Now, process that.
• 17:56
  Philip Pape: It's not that the alcohol becomes harmless, it's that the positive adaptations from regular training provide some protection against the negative effects, because you're, overall, a healthier person on the net, which again is a good theme to remember when we talk about moderation and balance, and even when it comes to your food and your indulgences, that, yes, you can have some vices in there.
• 18:15
  Philip Pape: I'm not going to tell you one way or the other, just know the impact and also prioritize being a healthy, fit person, all right.
• 18:21
  Philip Pape: So this episode is getting long in the tooth, but I think it's a really important topic and I want to help you create a practical framework for managing this while pursuing your physique goals.
• 18:31
  Philip Pape: So three phases I wrote down here.
• 18:34
  Philip Pape: First one is you want to do an audit, an assessment, take an honest look at your current health.
• 18:39
  Philip Pape: Just be honest with yourself, right?
• 18:40
  Philip Pape: How many drinks per week?
• 18:41
  Philip Pape: When do you typically drink?
• 18:43
  Philip Pape: What triggers the desire to drink?
• 18:46
  Philip Pape: Do not judge yourself, just gather the data like we would with anything else we do here.
• 18:50
  Philip Pape: It's data tracking.
• 18:52
  Philip Pape: Phase two is strategic reduction.
• 18:55
  Philip Pape: Right, this isn't going cold turkey.
• 18:58
  Philip Pape: It's making those intentional choices that are really easy, like switching one drink per week to a non-alcoholic or moving your drinking days away from your training days.
• 19:05
  Philip Pape: Phase three is then building the new habits.
• 19:08
  Philip Pape: Right, and this may be a little harder for some of us, but it's where things get sustainable.
• 19:12
  Philip Pape: Find the go-to non-alcoholic drink that you identified in phase two.
• 19:16
  Philip Pape: Build connections that don't revolve around alcohol so you don't have as much temptation, and then create routines that don't involve drinking, just in general, things that help you relieve stress, because a lot of you are like well, I drink to relieve stress.
• 19:27
  Philip Pape: There are a million ways to relieve stress that don't have super negative effects that ultimately increase your stress, and remember that one Alcohol actually increases your cortisol.
• 19:35
  Philip Pape: So the key to all of this is progress, progress, progress.
• 19:39
  Philip Pape: It's not perfection.
• 19:40
  Philip Pape: Every drink you don't have is a win for your physique goals.
• 19:42
  Philip Pape: Remember that Every time you choose water instead of wine, you're giving your body a better chance to build muscle and burn fat efficiently, if that is your goal.
• 19:49
  Philip Pape: So the fourth macro remember that this is the fourth macro, alcohol.
• 19:54
  Philip Pape: It is unique, right, especially if you're trying to be fitter and leaner and more healthy and live a long life.
• 20:00
  Philip Pape: Understanding the mechanisms empowers you to make informed choices.
• 20:04
  Philip Pape: It's not about complete restriction, at least not off the bat.
• 20:08
  Philip Pape: Ultimately, if you want to do that for alcohol specifically, I don't think that's a bad idea.
• 20:12
  Philip Pape: But it's really aligning your actions with what's important right now, right.
• 20:16
  Philip Pape: And when you understand how alcohol affects your body at a biological level.
• 20:19
  Philip Pape: By the way, share this episode with somebody else who needs to understand this or maybe just doesn't know or thinks that there's something good about alcohol.
• 20:28
  Philip Pape: Then you can make decisions that support your goals, just like anything else where we try to get more educated.
• 20:33
  Philip Pape: And then you find that you know, as your physique gets better, your training progresses.
• 20:38
  Philip Pape: Guess what's going to happen?
• 20:38
  Philip Pape: This happened to me, happens to so many people.
• 20:40
  Philip Pape: The drinks become less appealing.
• 20:42
  Philip Pape: You just want them less Again.
• 20:44
  Philip Pape: The occasional whiskey or whatever you enjoy.
• 20:47
  Philip Pape: I still do that.
• 20:48
  Philip Pape: I get it.
• 20:49
  Philip Pape: But it's not because you're restricting yourself that you avoid those things.
• 20:55
  Philip Pape: It's because you're prioritizing what really matters to you above that.
• 20:56
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 20:57
  Philip Pape: If you found value in today's episode and again you want to connect with others like Jerry on their fitness journey.
• 21:02
  Philip Pape: Join our Facebook group.
• 21:03
  Philip Pape: Just search for Wits and Weights or click the link in the episode notes and hop on into the group Once I approve you in there, which is usually pretty quickly.
• 21:13
  Philip Pape: Share your thoughts on this episode, right, Say hey, I found you through the alcohol episode and it was interesting and I want to continue the conversation.
• 21:20
  Philip Pape: Right, and hey, I'd love to hear your strategies for managing alcohol, if that's specifically what you're looking for.
• 21:25
  Philip Pape: Uh, but there's lots of other topics we cover in the group, so join to check those out.
• 21:29
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember, sometimes the best gains come from what you choose not to consume.
• 21:39
  Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.