Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / How This Athlete Stays Lean After 40 (Without Low Carb) | Ep 379

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How This Athlete Stays Lean After 40 (Without Low Carb) | Ep 379 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:01
  Philip Pape: If you're in your 30s, 40s or beyond and think your best physical days are behind you, think again.
• 0:05
  Philip Pape: My guest, brian, is a 46-year-old medical professional and former college athlete who was stuck in the low-carb trap watching his performance decline while everyone told him this was just getting older.
• 0:17
  Philip Pape: After six months of us working together, he's not only transformed his physique but discovered that things like adding back the carbs everyone told him to avoid were keys to feeling and performing better than he had in years.
• 0:28
  Philip Pape: You'll learn why the eat less, move more mentality that works in your 20s fails you after 40, how to use your analytical mind to cut through fitness industry nonsense, and why getting a coach for something you're passionate about isn't weakness, it's wisdom.
• 0:43
  Philip Pape: Plus, brian gets raw about the struggles men don't usually discuss Scale obsession, restrictive eating habits, and how physical transformation became part of his improved mental health.
• 0:59
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that helps you build a strong, healthy physique using evidence, engineering and efficiency.
• 1:05
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape, and today I'm very excited to bring you what is an incredible transformation story that I think is going to challenge a lot of what you've been told about fitness after 30.
• 1:16
  Philip Pape: Now my guest is Brian Kopka.
• 1:18
  Philip Pape: He's a 46-year-old medical professional and former college athlete who found himself trapped in that same cycle that many people and many men face in their 40s and beyond Declining performance, restrictive eating, the false belief that physical decline is inevitable with age.
• 1:34
  Philip Pape: And after working together for six months, brian has really transformed not just his physique but his entire relationship with food and fitness.
• 1:42
  Philip Pape: What makes Brian's experience very compelling is he has an analytical approach very much like mine.
• 1:48
  Philip Pape: We love to get into the weeds and we also like to step to the big picture and discuss those struggles that many people, many men, won't admit to having, and his discovery that a lot of what he thought he knew about nutrition especially carbs potentially was holding him back, and he recognized that and he sought out the information so that he could improve.
• 2:07
  Philip Pape: Today you're going to learn why your assumptions about nutrition and training might be sabotaging your goals right now, how to use data to better guide your fitness decisions, and why investing in coaching for something you're passionate about and trying to improve is one of the smartest moves you can make.
• 2:22
  Philip Pape: Brian, thanks so much for doing this man, thanks for being a client and thanks for coming on the show.
• 2:27
  Brian Kopka: Philip, it's great to be here and it's been an incredible experience with you so far and I really learned a lot from you, so it's really great to be here, thank you.
• 2:35
  Philip Pape: Yeah, man, people are always asking for these case studies.
• 2:37
  Philip Pape: They're like I want to hear from real people.
• 2:38
  Philip Pape: You talk a lot, philip, but let's hear from the people that you've been helping and it's been fun working with you because your background is very unique.
• 2:46
  Philip Pape: You've been an athlete, you've been a fitness enthusiast your whole life.
• 2:48
  Philip Pape: You know a lot about this stuff.
• 2:50
  Philip Pape: When we started, I was very impressed.
• 2:52
  Philip Pape: I could tell you're really smart and been following podcasts and all that, and yet you still decided to hire a coach.
• 2:58
  Philip Pape: So let's start there.
• 3:00
  Philip Pape: What made you realize that what got you to where you were wasn't all that you needed to get where you wanted to go?
• 3:07
  Brian Kopka: So you know, I feel like I made really good progress and I got to the point to where I started to question things and wonder, like you know, okay, so I got to where I am, does that mean that this is what I'm going to do forever?
• 3:19
  Brian Kopka: I started to wonder, maybe there is a better approach.
• 3:23
  Brian Kopka: And I knew, based on my biofeedback, that, you know, while my results I was happy with, I wasn't very happy with how I was feeling and my energy level.
• 3:32
  Brian Kopka: And you know, a big part of my life is challenging things and when I started to work with you, you know I remember sometimes I would make comments and sometimes you would stop me there and you say well, wait a second, where does that come from?
• 3:43
  Brian Kopka: You know, have you tried this?
• 3:45
  Brian Kopka: And you know being able to challenge, you know this societal idea that you know carbs make you fat and this internal fear of consuming carbs.
• 3:54
  Brian Kopka: This was a big part of, I think, some of the changes you know that we made together.
• 3:59
  Philip Pape: So you're saying that we have a lot of assumptions, not just assumptions.
• 4:03
  Philip Pape: There's something they call the illusion of obviousness, I think it's called, where we just hold something that's true for years and that's all we hear, and then all of a sudden something challenges it, would you say, it falls in that bucket of, or it's more of you know?
• 4:15
  Philip Pape: This is not quite right, and Philip seems to be one of the guys that may have an answer, so let me talk to him.
• 4:20
  Philip Pape: Which is it?
• 4:21
  Brian Kopka: I think it's a little bit both and.
• 4:23
  Brian Kopka: And I think when you, you know, when you, when you realize that you know, maybe things could be more optimal, and then you seek out somebody who's an expert in it, you know, I think part of it is being vulnerable and listening to new information, and then part of it is have to be willing to look at yourself and say you know what I don't know, that you know, while things are good, are they optimized?
• 4:43
  Brian Kopka: Could they be better?
• 4:44
  Brian Kopka: Could I feel better?
• 4:45
  Brian Kopka: Could I get better results?
• 4:46
  Brian Kopka: And those are some of the questions I was asking myself.
• 4:50
  Brian Kopka: And that's a big part of my life is looking at different areas of my life, wondering if it could get better and then asking myself how am I going to do this?
• 4:56
  Philip Pape: Yeah, and so rewind the clock.
• 4:58
  Philip Pape: Try to understand how you got there right, because we all have different backgrounds.
• 5:00
  Philip Pape: I was not from an athletic background.
• 5:08
  Philip Pape: You were, you were.
• 5:09
  Philip Pape: You have an athletic background, a different identity that's yours.
• 5:10
  Philip Pape: That shaped your approach to fitness and how you saw all of this.
• 5:11
  Philip Pape: So, maybe just 30,000 foot level.
• 5:12
  Philip Pape: How did that identity evolve through your life and shape what you thought you knew up to the point we started working together?
• 5:18
  Brian Kopka: Yeah.
• 5:18
  Brian Kopka: So, you know, what I discovered early on in life is that, you know, basically through sports is there's a threshold that I was able to push myself and some of it was being self-driven and some of it was, you know, from coaching and I found it to be very rewarding and fun to be able to experience that process of achieving, you know, physical accomplishments, whether that's on the field or the weight room, and that's, you know, one of the things that I didn't want to stop once I stopped sports.
• 5:49
  Brian Kopka: So what I did is I transitioned that desire to continue to, you know, achieve things physically into my fitness, into my 20s, my 30s and now my late 40s, and that's kind of how I got here, you know, and I think one of the things that I've taken from this experience is look as a college athlete, or you know, and I think one of the things that I've taken from this experience is look as a college athlete or, you know, even a professional athlete.
• 6:09
  Brian Kopka: One of the things you do in the weight room is you track everything Like there's no walking in and saying you know, I think I'll do a little this, a little of that.
• 6:16
  Brian Kopka: I think I did this last time.
• 6:17
  Brian Kopka: I'm not feeling that good today and one thing you got me back to, which I think has transformed my fitness, is tracking everything and getting back to progressive overload and whether that's, you know, two and a half more pounds, one more rep with better form, like that's the proper way to train, and getting away from that, I think, was something that I regret, because you spend a lot of time in the weight room.
• 6:44
  Brian Kopka: You might as well make it as profitable you know as possible.
• 6:47
  Brian Kopka: So you know, and that, for getting back to tracking, help bring back that satisfaction of those, you know, those physical accomplishments that I felt earlier on in life.
• 6:57
  Philip Pape: Yeah, because you can see what's happening, and this is part of the surprise, even for me when we started working together.
• 7:02
  Philip Pape: I want the listener to pay really close attention, right?
• 7:05
  Philip Pape: So when I met Brian, it was already really shredded.
• 7:08
  Philip Pape: Okay, Like if you just saw him, you'd say, okay, 8% body fat, for sure, plenty of muscle mass.
• 7:14
  Philip Pape: Like, obviously he's doing something quote, unquote, right and yet Brian's telling you here it wasn't necessarily optimal or efficient, or maybe the way that he got there could have been done a different way, or it's even not as much as he wants.
• 7:24
  Philip Pape: There's all these things going through your head.
• 7:25
  Philip Pape: Also, we're going to talk about nutrition in a bit.
• 7:28
  Philip Pape: But there's a lot of things that he was doing unoptimally, non-optimally when it came to nutrition as well, that we've since worked on together and made things, I'll say, a lot easier for him to feel like, hey, I can sustain and grow this.
• 7:40
  Philip Pape: But it's really important to understand, like you joke, cause you hear me talk about you on a podcast and you know it's you, but I don't necessarily say it to you all the time and I'm like well, I have this client who you know, who's really shredded, and people are like well, I want that, but you know the way he got to, the way you got to it.
• 7:54
  Philip Pape: Brian wasn want to be on the inside.
• 7:56
  Philip Pape: You know, in however you get there.
• 8:08
  Brian Kopka: Yeah.
• 8:08
  Brian Kopka: So you know.
• 8:09
  Brian Kopka: Well, let me give you a specific example.
• 8:11
  Brian Kopka: And you know, when I started working with Philip, you know my my pre-workout was some black coffee with some MCT oil.
• 8:18
  Brian Kopka: And Philip made the joke.
• 8:19
  Brian Kopka: He's like, well, what is this like a holdover from?
• 8:21
  Brian Kopka: You know the bulletproof days?
• 8:23
  Brian Kopka: Is this like a holdover from you know the bulletproof days?
• 8:25
  Brian Kopka: And I said yeah.
• 8:25
  Brian Kopka: And then I thought to myself I'm like, well, what is the evidence that is supporting this and could there be something better?
• 8:32
  Brian Kopka: So Philip challenged me.
• 8:33
  Brian Kopka: He said I want you to have a half of a banana.
• 8:36
  Brian Kopka: I had a half of banana and my eyes lit up during the workout.
• 8:39
  Brian Kopka: And so you know what that led to is having a full banana.
• 8:44
  Brian Kopka: And so you know what that led to is having a full banana.
• 8:46
  Brian Kopka: What that led to is having a big bowl of rice, puff cereal and some fruit and 250 calories and usually 45 carbs before a workout.
• 8:53
  Brian Kopka: And I'll never go back to fasted workouts.
• 8:55
  Brian Kopka: And what I realized is I was continuing to do something, without questioning it, and when new information came, I mean it's something that I brought in and changed my workouts.
• 9:06
  Brian Kopka: It absolutely changed my work.
• 9:08
  Brian Kopka: I don't see myself doing fasted workouts unless I was on a desert island for some reason.
• 9:12
  Brian Kopka: But so that's an example of, you know, one of the things that's really changed for me.
• 9:18
  Philip Pape: Yeah, you know, I laugh because you got used to asking me questions over our chat and usually if you said how much should I, whatever, or ask for a specific number, what was my answer usually?
• 9:29
  Brian Kopka: Yeah.
• 9:30
  Philip Pape: What was my answer usually when you asked me like how many grams of carbs should I eat, or how big of a banana, or whatever?
• 9:35
  Brian Kopka: And I love this answer.
• 9:36
  Brian Kopka: It's self-experimentation, try it out, start with something, and you know what I love about this and I I think in in this field, you know of fitness and nutrition.
• 9:50
  Brian Kopka: Sometimes it could be a little bit and I say that joking a little bit dogmatically like you gotta have this, but what works for you, brian and that's one of the things that I learned from you, phillip, that I'm going to continue to bring into my fitness and my workouts is I'm going to tinker things, and what works for me might be different from you or different from somebody else.
• 10:08
  Brian Kopka: So your answer was usually like try it and assess.
• 10:12
  Brian Kopka: You know which is good science and uh, and so you know I've done quite a bit of that and we've done quite a bit of that, so I've enjoyed that process as well.
• 10:21
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, and I will say, like every client's different as well at the way I communicate to client, right?
• 10:26
  Philip Pape: Because another client, let's say, I have a female client who's really uncertain and maybe not as confident about things and she's never been through before I might literally say, hey, eat this many grams and do that, and then not even tell her she's experimenting, and then a week later I'll be like how did that feel, right?
• 10:48
  Philip Pape: So it's the same process just through different ways.
• 10:49
  Philip Pape: So another one of those is training, which this was even a bigger surprise for me with you, I think, was again, if somebody just saw you visually they'd be like, okay, this guy knows how to work out, he knows how to build weights and we know that at least beginners can do anything in the gym and they're going to build muscle.
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: And then intermediates can do some things and others are going to be less efficient and the more advanced you get, the harder it becomes.
• 11:04
  Philip Pape: But if you're like you, a guy who likes to go to the gym and is consistent and committed to it, you could still have a pretty good result, even when it's not optimal, which is, I guess, heartening to a lot of people.
• 11:15
  Philip Pape: It's more about the consistency than necessarily the approach, but you wanted both.
• 11:19
  Philip Pape: So when we said hey, when I said I just want you to log your workouts, and this was like, did you say this is something you got back to, that you used to do, or was this kind of new in the way we were doing?
• 11:29
  Brian Kopka: it.
• 11:29
  Brian Kopka: No, it's a.
• 11:29
  Brian Kopka: It's a great question and I, for anybody listening, I think logging workouts is absolutely transforming, and so this is something that we did in college.
• 11:38
  Brian Kopka: As an athlete I mean, look, college sports, you don't just walk in the weight room.
• 11:42
  Brian Kopka: You know you're given a program you're given, you know how many reps, you know what to do and then where they want you to be and you've got to.
• 11:49
  Brian Kopka: You know you want to show progress and you just got away from it.
• 11:53
  Brian Kopka: As you know, I say this in quotes, like as a civilian, you know, and so this is something I got back to and you know what I took from it is that you know this changes workouts, this changes results, this changes accountability and you know what it's enjoyable.
• 12:08
  Brian Kopka: You know depending on.
• 12:10
  Brian Kopka: You know which app you're using to see that little.
• 12:12
  Brian Kopka: You know PR, you know sticker come up or you know to see how many you got at the end of the workout.
• 12:17
  Brian Kopka: It's showing you a, an indicator that what you're doing is helping you progress, and that could be your biometrics with your sleep, it could be your nutrition, it could be.
• 12:26
  Brian Kopka: You know what you're doing in the weight room, but it's actually data that's showing you that you're getting better, so I I love that I will probably.
• 12:34
  Brian Kopka: I'm always careful about using the words always, but I will probably always be tracking my workouts in some fashion.
• 12:41
  Philip Pape: Yeah, I agree, I love tracking and the fact that you said it can be fun because of the result you get, but even the process.
• 12:46
  Philip Pape: Like you, and I use Boost Camp, which I tell people about all the time and almost every workout.
• 12:51
  Philip Pape: Right now I'm in a six week bodybuilding cycle, so I'm always when I start a new six week cycle, I start with some fresh lifts and I'm always pushing PRs too, and you're right, the little sticker comes up it's orange, it's like Zoom PR and you're like man that feels good that gamification.
• 13:04
  Philip Pape: So if you're listening, you're like well, I'm not very data-driven, I'm not very analytical.
• 13:08
  Philip Pape: It can still be a fun way to learn about yourself.
• 13:11
  Philip Pape: What are your thoughts on that, brian?
• 13:12
  Philip Pape: We're going to get into your analytical mindset, which is very much aligned with me.
• 13:15
  Philip Pape: What if somebody's just not like that?
• 13:17
  Philip Pape: What would you say to them?
• 13:28
  Brian Kopka: You know, what I'd say is try it.
• 13:29
  Brian Kopka: If you hate it, guess what?
• 13:29
  Brian Kopka: You could erase the app.
• 13:30
  Brian Kopka: You may, and you know, one of the many things I learned in this process is to be open to the things you haven't experienced yet.
• 13:32
  Brian Kopka: And you may be.
• 13:34
  Brian Kopka: When I say you, it's the person that's trying tracking.
• 13:36
  Brian Kopka: You may enjoy it, you might.
• 13:38
  Brian Kopka: Maybe you'll be having a bad day and you know you'll hit.
• 13:41
  Brian Kopka: You know, two PRs in the gym and it'll.
• 13:43
  Brian Kopka: It'll boost your confidence and you know, you'll feel better about yourself.
• 13:48
  Brian Kopka: I'd also challenge somebody and to me this is very connected to other things in my life when, when you start seeing physical accomplishments in games, I intrinsically ask myself where else in my life can I put together a plan, track something and do that as well?
• 14:07
  Brian Kopka: And tracking is more of a process that I reinforce in the gym, that I'm looking to bring in other parts of my life, to better other parts of my life, because I think this is a foundational part of making lifestyle and life changes.
• 14:23
  Brian Kopka: So, even working in corporate America, like nobody puts together a plan and doesn't track it, or they put it on a cocktail napkin, like you put together a plan and you come up with you know smart and measurable and actionable things to track it over time so you know whether it's working.
• 14:39
  Brian Kopka: And so what I challenge somebody in the gym is just try it for a day or a week, see what you think.
• 14:45
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, and there's different levels that you can do it at, cause, I agree, like in the corporate world, it always frustrates me when people aren't tracking.
• 14:51
  Philip Pape: Or if they are tracking, I'm like are you tracking in a way that is objective, or is it kind of a thumb suck, you know guess, because that also is not going to be very helpful.
• 15:12
  Brian Kopka: So because you're in the medical field, right, you're trained to kind of look at data and evidence.
• 15:17
  Brian Kopka: I suspect I don't know we haven't talked too much about the details of your career, but how has that influenced how you to fitness?
• 15:22
  Brian Kopka: Very much so, and this is one of the reasons why you know I wanted to work with you specifically.
• 15:27
  Brian Kopka: I listen to so much of your content.
• 15:29
  Brian Kopka: So look, in the medical field, if you're talking to a medical professional and you say something as definitive as a claim like this is this you know most astute medical professionals want to understand.
• 15:41
  Brian Kopka: Well, could you tell me you know what it is you read or heard that makes you feel that way?
• 15:44
  Brian Kopka: You know what's the data behind that, what?
• 15:46
  Brian Kopka: What's the key value?
• 15:48
  Brian Kopka: What's the statistical significance?
• 15:49
  Brian Kopka: How many people are we talking about?
• 15:51
  Brian Kopka: And I think, when bringing it to the fitness field is when we see some information, we hear some bro science, we see something on a magazine, our neighbor tells us something.
• 16:01
  Brian Kopka: You know, I kind of take that same approach sometimes and I wonder so what does the data say?
• 16:07
  Brian Kopka: And so so to me it's kind of a combination.
• 16:10
  Brian Kopka: In fitness it's like what does the data say?
• 16:12
  Brian Kopka: But also there's some self-experimentation, and so what I've learned in this process is to kind of combine them both.
• 16:18
  Brian Kopka: But I do weigh heavily on the, the analytical mindset of evaluating things based on data.
• 16:25
  Brian Kopka: And you and I have had a lot of these conversations, you know, like I mean, I know that when we started, you know, I told you I said, philip, I want to learn 10 new things from you a week.
• 16:34
  Brian Kopka: And you're like, oh my God, this guy's crazy.
• 16:36
  Philip Pape: But you know, did I say that, I said yeah, let's do it.
• 17:00
  Brian Kopka: But you know, but, even one of them.
• 17:00
  Philip Pape: You know we talked about the role of collagen.
• 17:01
  Philip Pape: You know we talked about the role of meal timing.
• 17:02
  Philip Pape: You know, and, and so you know, and then you know.
• 17:03
  Philip Pape: One of the things that I really get out of this is you say, hey, look, this is what the data shows.
• 17:04
  Philip Pape: So to me there's a big crossover between, you know, my, my work life and my fitness life.
• 17:06
  Philip Pape: That makes sense, yeah, it does, and my brain goes a million miles an hour here Thinking of tangents that are relevant.
• 17:08
  Philip Pape: I thought of two that you might be interested as a listener of the podcast as well, and anyone listening.
• 17:10
  Philip Pape: The first is Alan Lazarus.
• 17:12
  Philip Pape: He's one of the two guys at Next Level University Shout out to them because they're behind the podcast team that edits the podcast Kevin Palmieri as well, who's been on the show a couple of times.
• 17:21
  Philip Pape: Alan Alan is a very much numbers driven analytical business guy to almost to a I don't want to say to a fault, but like to an extreme where he's he's a utilitarian right Like if it doesn't have the maximum utility, it's not worth it.
• 17:32
  Philip Pape: So he goes all out.
• 17:33
  Philip Pape: He's going to be on the show, it's gonna be a lot of fun, but I think about that because you know there.
• 17:39
  Philip Pape: There we talk about the hierarchy of evidence.
• 17:44
  Philip Pape: The evidence about yourself is the best evidence, because that's the one now that checks you on whatever the science says.
• 17:51
  Philip Pape: And then the other guy is coming back, dr Eric Helms.
• 17:53
  Philip Pape: We all love Dr Eric Helms.
• 17:55
  Philip Pape: He's going to come on to talk about epistemology, which is the philosophy of knowledge.
• 18:00
  Philip Pape: How do we know that?
• 18:00
  Philip Pape: We know something and I know you're going to eat that up, brian, because that's really important.
• 18:04
  Philip Pape: I hope everybody listens to that podcast we're going to get into in the fitness world how do we make sense of all of that and know that what we're saying is true, which is relevant to what you just said?
• 18:14
  Philip Pape: So, yeah, that's good.
• 18:15
  Philip Pape: So how about this then?
• 18:16
  Philip Pape: What's another truth that everybody accepts?
• 18:18
  Philip Pape: You get old and stuff declines, and aging is the cause of all our problems, cause of our metabolic decline.
• 18:27
  Philip Pape: We lose muscle mass.
• 18:28
  Philip Pape: You're never really going to be bent over and frail, get to a nursing home and then die with a short health span.
• 18:33
  Philip Pape: That's like the dire outlook of a lot of millions of people in the world.
• 18:36
  Philip Pape: What are your thoughts on that truth?
• 18:43
  Philip Pape: And I got to tell you that is one.
• 18:45
  Brian Kopka: Well, first of all, when you say truth, we both have to laugh.
• 18:46
  Brian Kopka: It's a joke.
• 18:53
  Brian Kopka: Yeah, of course it's fantastic.
• 18:54
  Brian Kopka: That is one of my main drivers and passions is that, you know, guys, our age late 40s, you know 50s, you know 30s this idea that you get to this age and you have to have a dad bod, you can't be in shape, you can't look like you did in your twenties, these are all things that just, you know, people say.
• 19:08
  Brian Kopka: So I would question that.
• 19:09
  Brian Kopka: Well, you know, why do we accept that?
• 19:11
  Brian Kopka: You know, why do we think that that's bad?
• 19:13
  Brian Kopka: You know, why do I see so many guys our age that are not like that?
• 19:17
  Brian Kopka: Why do we see guys like like Mark Sisson and even like I, like I look at Joseph Pilates, like this guy was an incredible Jack Lane?
• 19:27
  Brian Kopka: There's so many guys.
• 19:27
  Brian Kopka: You can go on and on.
• 19:28
  Brian Kopka: You look around the gym.
• 19:28
  Brian Kopka: This is not.
• 19:29
  Brian Kopka: This is not.
• 19:30
  Brian Kopka: You know, have to be, you know destiny.
• 19:33
  Brian Kopka: So I asked myself you know, why can't I do that?
• 19:35
  Brian Kopka: You know what approaches, techniques and lifestyle am I going to do?
• 19:39
  Brian Kopka: That will support that.
• 19:41
  Brian Kopka: And you know, and I and I shared this, you know, and I have it kind of on the wall when I walk in my house.
• 19:50
  Brian Kopka: It's, you know, it's it.
• 19:53
  Brian Kopka: Basically, it says right, fucking at it.
• 19:55
  Brian Kopka: And and the the?
• 19:57
  Brian Kopka: The story behind it is anything in life that that's hard, that's challenging, that you're scared of go right into it, not away from it.
• 20:04
  Brian Kopka: And so, when it comes to fitness, I think that this idea that we inevitably have to age, not look good, not feel good this is just things that people say, and I think if we go right at it and dive into it and invest in it and make it part of our life and surround ourselves with people and circumstances and coaches that support that, that we can look and feel the way that we want to, even into our fifties.
• 20:27
  Brian Kopka: So that's something I'm real passionate about.
• 20:29
  Philip Pape: Yeah, and not that we judge people by looks, but if anybody's watching YouTube and seeing you here, I know they're not thinking you're 46, you know I don't even see gray hairs, but besides that, you know, and we've had a lot of guests, like you said, surrounding yourself with people.
• 20:43
  Philip Pape: You know, I just talked to Zora Benamu.
• 20:45
  Philip Pape: I think she's in her fifties.
• 20:46
  Philip Pape: I've talked to a bodybuilder who's in his 80s.
• 20:55
  Philip Pape: Every time I see one of these people I'm surprised that they're 20 years older than I thought they were.
• 20:57
  Philip Pape: It's because they're living this fit, healthy lifestyle.
• 20:58
  Philip Pape: There's something to be said there, because physical expression is an expression of what's inside and our overall health.
• 21:02
  Philip Pape: But guys might be thinking okay, that's fine, brian, but where do you find the time?
• 21:05
  Philip Pape: How about when I'm dealing with personal situations?
• 21:08
  Philip Pape: What about if I've got kids or I'm going through divorce or this or that?
• 21:12
  Philip Pape: I have the terrible boss?
• 21:13
  Philip Pape: You've had some difficult personal transitions.
• 21:15
  Philip Pape: What are your thoughts on the connection between physical and mental health and your personal life to make it all work?
• 21:23
  Brian Kopka: That's a great question and I think I'll tackle the first part, about physical and mental health, and then what my advice would be.
• 21:29
  Brian Kopka: First of all, I think these things are, are, are very much connected, and I think one of the things in my life that helped rededicate me to fitness is I went through a really, you know, really difficult breakup in my life.
• 21:44
  Brian Kopka: I wasn't showing up in life as as the person that I wanted to be.
• 21:48
  Brian Kopka: You know, I wasn't the partner I wanted to be.
• 21:51
  Brian Kopka: I wasn't, you know, I just just wasn't the person I wanted to be.
• 21:58
  Brian Kopka: And I'm very open about it because I think it's important.
• 22:00
  Brian Kopka: You know, I I got into therapy, which I think is, is, is life changing, because I don't think that our mental health and our physical health are separate, and I rededicated myself, you know, to my physical health and I think these things are, are, are, are very, you know, you know, synergistic.
• 22:14
  Brian Kopka: I don't think that you know one of these things can.
• 22:17
  Brian Kopka: I think they compliment themselves very well.
• 22:20
  Brian Kopka: And then you know the second part of the question.
• 22:22
  Brian Kopka: Look, it's hard and I get it.
• 22:24
  Brian Kopka: You know, in their circumstances, in life time, family stress, doubt, frustration, the slowness sometimes of gains or loss these things are hard and what I would encourage somebody to do is, you know, to find ways to incorporate in your life and for some people that's maybe waking up a little bit earlier.
• 22:44
  Brian Kopka: Some people it's doing air squats in between conference calls.
• 22:46
  Brian Kopka: Some people it's walking during conference calls.
• 22:48
  Brian Kopka: Some people it's, you know, doing meal prep half the time.
• 22:51
  Brian Kopka: You know, maybe you know working out, you know, you know, during, during lunch, whatever it is.
• 22:57
  Brian Kopka: But ultimately I think for most people that do this, it's not something they have to do.
• 23:03
  Brian Kopka: They learn that once they start to do it, they feel so damn good that they don't want to not do it.
• 23:09
  Brian Kopka: It's not I don't.
• 23:09
  Brian Kopka: I have to go to the gym.
• 23:11
  Brian Kopka: It's you know what I'm looking forward to doing this workout because I want to see where my body is.
• 23:15
  Brian Kopka: It's not I have to eat this food.
• 23:18
  Brian Kopka: It's you know what this food makes me feel so good and nourished.
• 23:22
  Brian Kopka: I can't wait for that meal.
• 23:23
  Brian Kopka: So I would try to find ways to make it a feel-good thing instead of a have to thing, and for everybody that's different.
• 23:31
  Brian Kopka: I don't know if that answers your question.
• 23:33
  Philip Pape: Man, this is great.
• 23:34
  Philip Pape: You should do your own fitness podcast, like a mindset podcast, because the way you express things is spot on, because you're getting at the essence of sustainability and also not making the excuse but not that you have to make an excuse because you're not.
• 23:45
  Philip Pape: It's not a hard thing to do, it's not a thing you have to do.
• 23:47
  Philip Pape: It's a thing you want to do because that's who you are and ultimately, that you become that person.
• 23:51
  Philip Pape: Right?
• 23:52
  Philip Pape: It's also what I'm hearing from you.
• 23:54
  Philip Pape: When I go on a show and someone asks me hey, you know people who say they don't like to work out my first thought is, wow, is that possible?
• 24:00
  Philip Pape: Right, Like?
• 24:00
  Philip Pape: It's so far from my brain now, even though I know, working with clients every day that there's that mentality of this is hard, it's uncomfortable, it's new, it's different, and the way I've done it before in the past has maybe been some level of miserable, whether it's I've been doing cardio or lifting weights and didn't like it.
• 24:18
  Philip Pape: There's a way to like it and get the result and then like it even more.
• 24:21
  Philip Pape: Go ahead, say something.
• 24:23
  Brian Kopka: No, I totally agree, and I think there's a lot of internal dialogue here that it's really important.
• 24:27
  Brian Kopka: It's not I have to do it, but I get to do it.
• 24:29
  Brian Kopka: You know, back in the day when I was doing P90X and eating like crap, I felt like I had to do it.
• 24:35
  Brian Kopka: But now you know I know how to eat and I enjoy weight training.
• 24:39
  Brian Kopka: So you know it's something I get to do, even when I think about diet.
• 24:43
  Brian Kopka: Philip, I don't even like to me if somebody says oh well, what kind of diet are you?
• 24:47
  Brian Kopka: Wait a second, this is not a diet, this is a lifestyle.
• 24:50
  Brian Kopka: I don't feel deprived, I eat the foods that I really like and, for me, I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything at all.
• 25:00
  Philip Pape: Yeah, if anything, I've been forcing you to eat more of things, right?
• 25:04
  Philip Pape: No, but let's talk about that, because you were doing a low-carb approach before, so there were aspects of that that we've changed.
• 25:11
  Philip Pape: So let's go.
• 25:13
  Philip Pape: Let's go down that path.
• 25:14
  Philip Pape: What were you doing?
• 25:15
  Philip Pape: What did you think was helping you?
• 25:18
  Philip Pape: And then what changed?
• 25:18
  Philip Pape: You already mentioned the pre-workout, but there's a lot more behind it.
• 25:21
  Brian Kopka: Yeah, so what I was doing which was, I would say, effective in building a physique and getting to a place where I wanted to do, wanted to be, but not where I wanted to feel was, you know, limiting carbs, having super high protein I mean, I was sometimes maybe double my body weight in protein, depending upon the day, even though I wasn't even tracking that much.
• 25:43
  Brian Kopka: You know, that's what I was doing.
• 25:44
  Brian Kopka: And then what we started to do is have a more balanced approach.
• 25:49
  Brian Kopka: I learned how to, you know, really strategize consumption of carbs around workouts and the different types of carbs used at different times.
• 25:58
  Brian Kopka: You know, based on how, you know, quickly, they would, you know, give me energy and what I found is that, overall, I felt better, my performance was better, and you know.
• 26:10
  Brian Kopka: So that's kind of the, the, the transition.
• 26:12
  Brian Kopka: You know.
• 26:12
  Brian Kopka: That I made.
• 26:13
  Brian Kopka: You know, and also, I'd add, and you know, and I think this was really important I'm thinking back to your previous question about you know somebody who's making this transition.
• 26:21
  Brian Kopka: But you know, for me, learning how to cook and I've always I've been, I've been a food network junkie for 30 years Like I've always loved food, I love good food, but learning how to cook to me is paramount with this, and if it's not you, then it's somebody in your house.
• 26:38
  Brian Kopka: But having that skillset and understanding macros to me is important, and the deal I made with myself is if anybody asked me, how did you become a good cook?
• 26:48
  Brian Kopka: I would say I've ruined thousands of meals, thousands.
• 26:52
  Brian Kopka: And the deal I make with myself and I to this day is I'm going to cook and if I ruin it, I'll go out to eat, no problem.
• 26:59
  Brian Kopka: And what I've learned is that I can find you know some of the most like fueling foods and I can season them and prepare them in a way to where I don't feel deprived.
• 27:10
  Brian Kopka: This is not a diet, so to me that's been a huge part of my physique.
• 27:15
  Brian Kopka: That makes sense.
• 27:16
  Philip Pape: It does it's.
• 27:17
  Philip Pape: It's like it reminds me of a conversation I had with Dr Mickey Willidon I think our episode comes out right before this one talking about how this is all about skills.
• 27:25
  Philip Pape: It's really it is about behavior change.
• 27:27
  Philip Pape: It is about knowledge but ultimately it's skills because I mean, that's where the behavior sticks right Is through the skill and, like you said, the skill of cooking food, the skilled meal, skilled meal prep, even the skill of, like, balancing your macros, like they're all just little skills that add up and they take the knowledge, they take the application and experimentation and then see what works for you.
• 27:45
  Philip Pape: And we're going to.
• 27:46
  Philip Pape: I want to get a little more into the cooking side of things because I know that's an area of expertise and maybe some entrepreneurship areas that you're looking at as well.
• 27:53
  Philip Pape: But let's set back to the carbs and the macros and things.
• 27:55
  Philip Pape: So this is a source of a lot of our conversation over the months of your metabolism and your expenditure, how many, how much protein you should eat, how much, and these are important things.
• 28:05
  Philip Pape: So the listener we I know they want to get into some of these details.
• 28:08
  Philip Pape: Because you said you ate a lot of protein.
• 28:10
  Philip Pape: I mean you ate a lot.
• 28:11
  Philip Pape: You were up in like 300 grams or something right, of protein and very, very low carb and we were trying to shift that and it was like there was a little bit.
• 28:19
  Philip Pape: I can sense a resistance from you of wanting to shift it, which makes sense that we all have our like the ceiling where we are now and like there's a step too far for some people and we had to make it manageable.
• 28:29
  Philip Pape: So maybe tell us about that process of inching up the calories, inching down the protein and up the carbs, like kind of what that process was like for you.
• 28:38
  Brian Kopka: Yeah, and I think that process very important.
• 28:41
  Brian Kopka: I don't know that I would have gotten there without a coach.
• 28:44
  Brian Kopka: In fact, I wouldn't have gotten there without a coach because I would have done it a long time ago.
• 28:49
  Brian Kopka: So what that process was like is, anytime you do something in life that's new and that has a lot of, you know, fear mongering around it, like carbs make you fat, it could be a little bit scary, and so I think one of the things that we did really well together is, you know, we started with a banana and next thing, you know, I'm at the store and I'm looking at oatmeal.
• 29:10
  Brian Kopka: I'm like oatmeal I've never cooked oatmeal in my life.
• 29:12
  Brian Kopka: And then I started to have sweet potatoes and you smell the house when you're cooking sweet potatoes and you're like, oh, my God, this is like the holidays.
• 29:28
  Brian Kopka: And then I start thinking about fruit and rice puffs, like slowly bringing in more carbs and paying attention to biofeedback.
• 29:30
  Brian Kopka: What I realized is that there's a better way for me and there's another, more balanced approach.
• 29:38
  Brian Kopka: So that's one of the things you know that I took from it.
• 29:41
  Brian Kopka: But I think one of the things that worked for me as far as you know us working together is, you know, you were, you were very understanding in that.
• 29:49
  Brian Kopka: Hey, okay, this is where I'm at.
• 29:51
  Brian Kopka: You know, this is where we're trying to go, but we're going to go there in a way that that, you know, that makes sense for the person, like we didn't go from.
• 29:57
  Brian Kopka: Okay, you're eating a hundred carbs a day, we're going to go right to, you know, 300 immediately, like it was a process, and I think that's one of the things that worked for me here.
• 30:06
  Philip Pape: Yeah, cause in some cases I did sort of push you to a level that maybe you weren't ready for at the time and then you just told me you said, hey, I'm not eating that many calories, like you know.
• 30:19
  Philip Pape: Or I want you to 20, 2300, you're at 2100.
• 30:22
  Philip Pape: It feels good and, by the way, your expenditure seems lower than we expect.
• 30:26
  Philip Pape: So it's okay.
• 30:26
  Philip Pape: Like we don't want you to gain a bunch of weight unnecessarily and we don't want you to be under recovered.
• 30:30
  Philip Pape: So it's this fine dance back and forth and you needed a coat and I'm not saying you had to have a coach, but you almost did, like anybody listening.
• 30:37
  Philip Pape: That extra pair of eyes is going to give you that feedback and also challenge you and also support you and kind of hold you as you if you fall or whatever.
• 30:46
  Philip Pape: You know what I mean.
• 30:47
  Philip Pape: Like it's all of it pushing you, holding you.
• 30:49
  Philip Pape: And so let's touch on a few of those specific areas.
• 30:53
  Philip Pape: Right, carbs, fiber.
• 30:54
  Philip Pape: You eat a lot of fiber.
• 30:56
  Philip Pape: So because you cook at home and because you eat a lot of whole foods, you have a lot of fiber.
• 31:00
  Philip Pape: Like 60, 70 grams of fiber, which for most guys I'm asking them to get at least 30 or 35, right, so you're plenty in there.
• 31:06
  Philip Pape: But we had this conversation about the macro math, how, like, a normal gram of carb is four calories but a gram of fiber is like two and a half or less.
• 31:17
  Philip Pape: It could be zero depending on the type of fiber.
• 31:19
  Philip Pape: And you're like, so you're telling me to eat more carbs than macro factors telling me, and how is that not going to go over the calories?
• 31:24
  Philip Pape: And we had that conversation like it's because of all the fiber, you actually need more grams of carbs because it doesn't add up to as many calories.
• 31:31
  Philip Pape: That's just one example because of my, I don't know if you want to comment on that.
• 31:34
  Brian Kopka: No, it's a great point.
• 31:35
  Brian Kopka: I remember looking at my macro factor one day and I said you know what?
• 31:38
  Brian Kopka: Let me just check the app.
• 31:40
  Brian Kopka: And I started to do the math and I thought to myself I think I found a glitch in the app, you know.
• 31:53
  Brian Kopka: But you know what?
• 31:53
  Brian Kopka: What I took from that is look, there's different kinds of carbs.
• 31:54
  Brian Kopka: And what I took from that is you know, pre and post workout there's certain carbs that work better for me.
• 31:57
  Brian Kopka: You know, at lunchtime and at dinnertime there's different, slower acting carbs, slower digesting carbs that work better for me.
• 32:03
  Brian Kopka: But I think one of the many things I got from you know tracking is you get to see.
• 32:08
  Brian Kopka: You know what you're eating.
• 32:10
  Brian Kopka: You know, and I think a lot of people could speculate, you know I'm definitely getting my body weight and protein.
• 32:15
  Brian Kopka: What?
• 32:16
  Brian Kopka: How do you know?
• 32:16
  Brian Kopka: I mean, do you weigh the chicken breasts, like, do you count?
• 32:20
  Brian Kopka: You know, do you count this stuff?
• 32:22
  Brian Kopka: If I went to a financial advisor and if he said to me he goes, you know, I think you're, you're probably going to be good to retire around this age.
• 32:27
  Brian Kopka: I'm just guessing tire around this age.
• 32:28
  Brian Kopka: I'm just guessing, I'm thinking I don't know, but I would be like, wait a second, how do we measure this?
• 32:37
  Brian Kopka: You know, I want to be really, you know, really specific about it.
• 32:39
  Brian Kopka: So, getting to your question, you know, when it comes to carbs, you know, you know, that's one of the things that I took from that.
• 32:42
  Philip Pape: Yeah, and then another one was weight gain.
• 32:45
  Philip Pape: Right, like we should talk about that, because I definitely have mentioned you on the podcast a few times again without saying your name, saying, like I have this client who's he's a guy, not a woman, because we always talk about women and weight gain and a bit afraid of gaining too much weight, and it makes sense.
• 32:59
  Philip Pape: You know you're lean, you worked hard for it, you don't want to, like just gain fat unnecessarily, and it's true that leaner folks have a different propensity for gaining fat, for example, than someone with more body fat who has the energy stores on their body.
• 33:13
  Philip Pape: Well, we worked on that and we kind of had a bunch of variables changing at once.
• 33:18
  Philip Pape: That's kind of what I wanted to talk about, and you're welcome to be open with whatever you're willing to share regarding any medications or whatever.
• 33:26
  Philip Pape: But one of the things we did is we introduced creatine, which for most clients, when they do creatine, they might get a couple pound weight bump and then things level out in a few weeks and I feel like for you it just kept ballooning up your water retention and weight for like weeks and weeks and weeks, and so you went off of it and it kind of came back proving almost that that was what it was doing.
• 33:44
  Philip Pape: Anyway, tell us your thoughts on all that.
• 33:47
  Brian Kopka: Yeah, you know.
• 33:47
  Brian Kopka: So, first of all, you know I want to acknowledge, you know I don't know how many guys are, you know, open about it, but you know when it comes to weight, you know sometimes it's it's it's not easy for people, especially if they have a family history of obesity or they have a history, you know, being heavier.
• 34:01
  Brian Kopka: And when you're making lifestyle changes and they're stacking each other and they're compounding, you could see variations in weight, especially when you're doing it daily.
• 34:10
  Brian Kopka: And variations in weight especially when you're doing it daily.
• 34:14
  Brian Kopka: And I know that if you ask most people about weighing themselves daily, they probably don't want to, because you know they don't want to see that number daily.
• 34:19
  Brian Kopka: And I think the big learning from it is that it's natural to have variations in weight daily based on a lot of things.
• 34:26
  Brian Kopka: So for me personally you know, philip, to answer your question you know when you're doing a low carb diet and you introduce carbs and one of the things that I got from you is you help you know me really understand the science behind what happens when you ingest carbs in terms of you know the water storage and the muscle and what that means in terms of weight, especially the next day and then you add on, you know, creatine, I mean you could see large fluctuations in weight and I think you know being able to, to understand the science behind it, and one of the things you always said that I loved and it always stick with me it's natural for somebody to step on a scale.
• 35:04
  Brian Kopka: It's not natural, it's very.
• 35:05
  Brian Kopka: I would say it's a.
• 35:06
  Brian Kopka: It's common for somebody to step on a scale in a day and have one, three pounds different.
• 35:13
  Brian Kopka: I've done it.
• 35:13
  Brian Kopka: And then you would say to me did you overeat by 7,000 calories yesterday?
• 35:19
  Brian Kopka: And obviously I didn't, you know.
• 35:22
  Brian Kopka: So what are the other factors?
• 35:24
  Brian Kopka: So this is the course of questions week.
• 35:26
  Brian Kopka: So what are some of the other factors that might contribute to this?
• 35:29
  Brian Kopka: And that's really helpful in understanding the fluctuations in weight, and I know a lot of guys might not talk about it.
• 35:36
  Brian Kopka: I'm sure it's important to you know a lot of people, including women, but it's important to know that for me.
• 35:41
  Brian Kopka: So that's one of the big learnings I got from this.
• 35:44
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, exactly, I mean, otherwise you're.
• 35:46
  Philip Pape: Even when you're measuring and tracking, you may misinterpret the data, which is important too.
• 35:51
  Philip Pape: You got to understand why it's changing, and I do always love throwing that back at people of like.
• 35:55
  Philip Pape: You know, a pound of fat is 3,500 calories, so unless you over-consume by that, you didn't gain a pound of fat.
• 36:03
  Allan: It's a pound of something else, something else that's not fat.
• 36:05
  Allan: Hi, my name is Alan and I just want to give a shout out to Philip, Pape of Wits and Weights, for being a huge part of the foundation for my continued health and well-being.
• 36:14
  Allan: Philip exemplifies a nutrition coach who demonstrates how much he cares.
• 36:23
  Allan: Philip works tirelessly and with dedication to provide coaching, support and major content for us to use.
• 36:29
  Allan: He creates a practical approach from research and Philip empowers all of us to use food as quality for our health.
• 36:34
  Allan: He is skilled in how to assess and direct nutrition.
• 36:39
  Allan: Philip creates a community full of wisdom, support and camaraderie.
• 36:43
  Allan: In summary, philip Pipe is the real deal.
• 36:46
  Allan: He knows how to assess and direct nutrition and he continues to steer me in the right direction.
• 36:52
  Allan: Thank you, philip All right.
• 36:56
  Philip Pape: So you know we can go all day about the details of that, but let's talk about the coaching philosophy in general, or your philosophy about coaches for things you're passionate about, because you've already mentioned something earlier, not about coaching, but you said the process that you use in physical fitness is the same process you can use anywhere else in your life, and I love that because I think people do need to think about always improving and always.
• 37:18
  Philip Pape: Not 1% a day, but I was listening to a podcast today.
• 37:21
  Philip Pape: They were talking about 0.1% a day because that's more achievable for most people.
• 37:24
  Philip Pape: But, regardless, expand on that thought about your philosophy of getting coaches for things that you're passionate about.
• 37:31
  Brian Kopka: Yeah.
• 37:31
  Brian Kopka: So I'm a big believer in investing in oneself and I want to be the best employee, the best son, the best partner, the best friend.
• 37:41
  Brian Kopka: I want to be the best in the gym and for me, in order to do that, I got to surround myself with people that are supportive and that challenge me.
• 37:49
  Brian Kopka: I made a joke with my therapist.
• 37:50
  Brian Kopka: I'm know one of the things that really worked for me in the gym is progressive overload.
• 37:53
  Brian Kopka: I don't see any reason why that's not applicable in therapy.
• 37:57
  Brian Kopka: You know you keep pushing yourself, you keep digging, you keep, you know, do a little bit more than last time because it's going to yield.
• 38:02
  Brian Kopka: You know, personal development.
• 38:04
  Brian Kopka: You know.
• 38:05
  Brian Kopka: So like for me in my life, like I think about it, it's like I want to have this board of directors around me.
• 38:11
  Brian Kopka: You know I have a therapist for mental health.
• 38:13
  Brian Kopka: You know I decided to work with Phillip because I wanted to.
• 38:17
  Brian Kopka: You know, upskill myself in fitness and nutrition.
• 38:20
  Brian Kopka: You know most people you know might have some kind of financial person that they work with.
• 38:25
  Brian Kopka: They don't freelance that on a yellow notepad.
• 38:28
  Brian Kopka: I'm working on becoming a storyteller, so I'm reading a book and taking a course on storytelling.
• 38:34
  Brian Kopka: There's a mobility and a stretch coach at our gym.
• 38:36
  Brian Kopka: You know I'm going to do a session with him because I want to better incorporate that in.
• 38:40
  Brian Kopka: So I think the point is that you know, especially as, as you know, as I've gotten older is I want to surround myself with people that help me upskill myself in every aspect of my life, and I think some of it is just looking at myself saying you know what?
• 38:56
  Brian Kopka: I have a gap here.
• 38:57
  Brian Kopka: I need to know more, I need to know better, and that's part of the philosophy, if that makes sense.
• 39:04
  Philip Pape: No, it makes a lot of sense now that you say it, because I think about all the coaches in my life who aren't.
• 39:08
  Philip Pape: They're not, like you know, coaches that I hire for a six month contract, necessarily, but they're a mentor, a coach, an expert, even if it's a friend who you know.
• 39:16
  Philip Pape: I'm not paying them, but I can go to them because I know they know way more than I do, and talking to them for five minutes is going to teach me something that would have taken me five years.
• 39:24
  Philip Pape: It's kind of like the joke about the guy who went to Picasso and Picasso drew the picture on the napkin and he said that'll be like $500.
• 39:32
  Philip Pape: I don't, I don't remember the exact deal.
• 39:33
  Philip Pape: And he's like why is that $500?
• 39:35
  Philip Pape: You just drew, took you two minutes on a napkin.
• 39:37
  Philip Pape: He's like you're not paying for the napkin, you're paying for my entire.
• 39:41
  Philip Pape: You know history of my experience, right?
• 39:43
  Philip Pape: That kind of idea.
• 39:44
  Philip Pape: So like when I learned to squat, I was stubborn about it for like a year and then I went to coach an hour away.
• 39:57
  Philip Pape: I drove an hour, spent an hour, got an hour back home, paid him a hundred bucks and my squat was beautiful from that point on and just think about how much frustration I say.
• 40:00
  Philip Pape: So, even if you don't have a lot of money, you can still find experts, help, support right.
• 40:05
  Brian Kopka: Totally.
• 40:05
  Brian Kopka: You can go online.
• 40:06
  Brian Kopka: I mean, you can learn how to cook online, you can do everything online and that's you know.
• 40:10
  Brian Kopka: The one thing I want to say about the gym, you know, in relation to this subject of coaching, you know most gyms, when a guy you know is in great shape and if you go up to him and I'm comfortable doing this hey man, you, you look great I'm curious.
• 40:22
  Brian Kopka: You know what's your workout routine, what do you eat?
• 40:25
  Brian Kopka: If you don't mind me asking what's your lifestyle, like you know, number one, they're going to be flattered that you're admiring them because it's true.
• 40:31
  Brian Kopka: But, number two, most people are really eager to share with you what's worked for them because they're really passionate about it.
• 40:37
  Brian Kopka: So I even encourage people, you know, to ask people at the gym.
• 40:41
  Brian Kopka: I've learned a lot from and look, some of it is you know things.
• 40:44
  Brian Kopka: I have to go home and fact check and Google, but a lot of stuff has been very helpful.
• 40:49
  Brian Kopka: So I think that's another avenue you know that people could use.
• 40:54
  Brian Kopka: You know that's free.
• 40:56
  Philip Pape: Yep, which is another form of surrounding yourself with the best and the knowledgeable.
• 41:01
  Philip Pape: So all right For guys who are listening and women, because this is everything we're saying is relevant to human beings in general.
• 41:07
  Philip Pape: But you know, they're in a similar position you were in.
• 41:10
  Philip Pape: Maybe they don't have to be a former athlete, but maybe they're in their 40s and 50s.
• 41:13
  Philip Pape: We have a lot of listeners who are kind of in that demographic and stuck in old patterns or listening to the show because they want to get inspired to take action.
• 41:20
  Philip Pape: I talk all the time let's don't binge the content.
• 41:23
  Philip Pape: As great as Wits and Weights is, you're now over 500 episodes.
• 41:26
  Philip Pape: You'd have to binge.
• 41:27
  Philip Pape: Take action now.
• 41:28
  Philip Pape: What?
• 41:29
  Philip Pape: Take action now?
• 41:29
  Philip Pape: What would you tell them about making this kind of change like you've made?
• 41:33
  Brian Kopka: I would say get uncomfortable, you know, be vulnerable, be open to different information, think about how it's going to feel when you're able to achieve certain things and feel better, and what that might look like for you.
• 41:48
  Brian Kopka: And I think this you know, this subject we're talking about, about getting a coach, no matter what fitness level you're at.
• 41:54
  Brian Kopka: I mean, there's so much information out there that's constantly changing, and to have access to somebody who has a pulse on all that, I think is something you know life enhancing.
• 42:06
  Brian Kopka: And I think that when you enhance your physical life, think about you know how it bleeds over into everything else.
• 42:12
  Brian Kopka: A lot of people are so busy with kids and work they don't have the time to get into the fine nuances of all the fitness trends and what's real and what's not, and to be able to talk to somebody and be in an environment where you have access to that quickly or quicker than you have time for I think it's life-changing.
• 42:35
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, I think it is.
• 42:36
  Philip Pape: It's an accelerator.
• 42:37
  Philip Pape: A time efficiency accelerator is what you're getting at, because you're a busy guy and I know you carve out the time for these kinds of things.
• 42:44
  Philip Pape: You're very passionate about it.
• 42:45
  Philip Pape: I've had clients who are like I just kind of want the result, I'm committed to it, but I really don't have the time to dig into the science and everything.
• 42:52
  Philip Pape: They have curiosity, but they just don't have the time.
• 42:54
  Philip Pape: And that's an accelerator, because you'd be like okay, here's your next two steps Go do those, report back.
• 42:59
  Philip Pape: Now you have to do the work.
• 43:00
  Philip Pape: You have to be committed.
• 43:02
  Philip Pape: Step one is commitment.
• 43:03
  Philip Pape: Step two is do the work.
• 43:04
  Philip Pape: And then you have to do the tracking to see whether it's working or else a coach can't help you right, they're not going to know without the data.
• 43:10
  Philip Pape: But I think everything you said today is tremendously valuable, brian.
• 43:14
  Philip Pape: It really is like encapsulated into one conversation.
• 43:17
  Philip Pape: I'm going to ask you my $60,000 question, which is is there anything you wished I had asked, and what is your answer?
• 43:24
  Brian Kopka: I guess the only thing is you know, when it comes to food, you know what are some of the things you've learned that have made, I guess, the physique building and fitness process easier for you.
• 43:41
  Brian Kopka: And the reason why I like that question is because I've spent a lot of time trying to find really good recipes or I don't like the word hacks, but things that help enhance our nutrition.
• 43:52
  Brian Kopka: So, like you know I've told you this I've eaten a pint of ice cream every night for three years, every night, unless I'm on vacation and I don't have it.
• 44:01
  Brian Kopka: You know, with my Ninja Creamy, I've learned, you know, that I dare somebody to eat 300 calories of strawberries because I've learned, you know what foods are high volume and tasty and fill you up and feel satisfied, you know.
• 44:15
  Brian Kopka: So you're not eating six almonds and then feeling deprived.
• 44:18
  Brian Kopka: So I think this, this subject around, you know food and what things and choices can make this process enjoyable.
• 44:28
  Brian Kopka: I you know.
• 44:29
  Brian Kopka: I really want people to know this doesn't have to be a a a difficult thing where you feel deprived.
• 44:35
  Brian Kopka: There's a lot of things out there that people can do and learn to make this fun, make it enjoyable.
• 44:41
  Philip Pape: Yeah, that's a good point, because people are in different situations with their metabolism.
• 44:46
  Philip Pape: And there's a lot of, for example, women or people who've had bariatric surgery, for example, who have lower metabolisms.
• 44:51
  Philip Pape: Right, and Brian's is not exceptionally high at the moment.
• 44:55
  Philip Pape: It's not like 3,000 calories, but some people's might be 1,500, and they feel like they're dieting even when they're not.
• 45:03
  Philip Pape: And what you're talking about is there's a way to eat based on volume, based on whole foods, based on cooking your own meals and making things delicious that you would normally avoid because they're like well, that's nice and filling and healthy, but it's kind of boring.
• 45:15
  Philip Pape: Now you can make it delicious.
• 45:20
  Philip Pape: That will go a long way toward feeling like you're eating 2000 calories when you're only eating 1500.
• 45:23
  Philip Pape: And your 60 gram fiber is a good example of that.
• 45:24
  Philip Pape: Brian, If somebody literally adopted your diet right now, they probably would feel a lot fuller.
• 45:28
  Philip Pape: I just know it.
• 45:30
  Brian Kopka: Yeah, cool man, and that's one of those things that you know I've learned has helped me in different ways, and I've learned when to use fiber, how to use fiber, so, yeah, yeah, but you know people on Carnivore say you don't need fiber, but that's a different topic for another day.
• 45:44
  Philip Pape: Brian, where do you want folks to look you up?
• 45:46
  Philip Pape: I know lot of things happening.
• 45:48
  Philip Pape: What do you want people to connect with you personally?
• 45:50
  Brian Kopka: So I'm going to, I'll share with you my email and I'm always I'm a big proponent of helping others.
• 45:55
  Brian Kopka: I would have never got to where I am in life professionally or personally or or fitness wise without the help of others.
• 46:01
  Brian Kopka: So I'll give you my email and they can reach out to me directly via email for help or in any way I could support somebody with any of the subjects we talked about.
• 46:10
  Brian Kopka: I'd always be happy to.
• 46:11
  Philip Pape: Cool.
• 46:11
  Philip Pape: Yeah, we'll throw the email in the show notes.
• 46:13
  Philip Pape: We'll make it so that it's not clickable in the show notes to avoid the spammers and get people reaching out to you, brian.
• 46:20
  Philip Pape: So, man, this has been fun.
• 46:21
  Philip Pape: Again, people love these case studies and we really covered a lot of the interesting things we did together and, honestly, we scratched the surface.
• 46:27
  Philip Pape: There's a lot we didn't cover today, but thanks again, man, for doing this and coming on the show.
• 46:31
  Philip Pape: Thanks for having me, phil.
• 46:33
  Brian Kopka: Appreciate it.