3 Tips for Men Over 40 to Help Lose Weight
Mar 24, 2023 mindpumpLosing weight when you are past 40 doesn’t change much different than any other age. From a physiologically perspective, sure things may run a little less efficiently, but the foundational rules stay the same. If you focus on moving the big rocks, the rest usually takes care of itself. While there are definitely many tips I can give to help lose weight after 40, here are the 3 biggest tips to start with.
Eat Less Processed Foods
As we get older, it’s not losing weight that’s hard. It’s that easier barriers pop up to prevent you from sticking to your plan consistently. At this point in your life you probably aren’t on your own. You have a wife, and kids who may eat whatever they want. You are going out with coworkers who drink whatever they want. Your schedule is so busy you’d rather get take-out then cook food. All of these things can set us off course even if you are lifting consistently and trying to stick to a caloric deficit.
The simplest way to combat this is to eliminate processed foods. I know, easier said than done (especially if you have kids in the house). It’s not that processed foods are inherently bad (from a body fat standpoint). It’s that these foods make it way too easy for you to overeat, and thus remove yourself way above your caloric deficit. The easy example I like to give is potatoes vs a bag of chips. A bag of chips equals about 4-5 whole potatoes. Now, if I told you to just eat 4-5 plain boiled potatoes, you’d probably stop after 3. Why? Because as a whole food, it’s very satiating and filling. It isn’t overly flavored to trick your body into eating more. On the flip side, I’m guessing you could probably crush that ENTIRE bag of chips right? So here we have the same exact amount of potatoes being presented, yet in one scenario you eat HALF as much. Not only is that half the calories already, but chips also have fats added to them for flavor, which adds even MORE calories (boiled potato has no fat). So you could be potentially eating more than double the amount of calories for the same amount of food. This is why people can’t lose weight.
These foods are designed for you to over consume them. I realize it’s easier said than done to completely eliminate, but by at least now being aware of how easy it is to double your intake, let it take you one step closer to leaving it out of the house. If it is in the house (because, let’s be realistic), try to limit your intake. Maybe spread the bigger bag into smaller single serving ziploc bags so you have an end point and awareness to being one and done. For most people, simply eating less processed foods is enough to put them back at the deficit needed to lose the weight they want.
Eat More Protein
Now that we’ve eliminated a major food group in your diet, we can’t leave you hanging! Let’s ADD more protein. Chances are you aren’t hitting the .82-1g/lb bodyweight. It’s harder to hit than you think. Eating more protein isn’t just great from a muscle building standpoint, but so many other processes.
-As you get older, you will need more and more protein to fuel your gains because your body isn’t as efficient as it used to be. So it becomes more important than ever to hit your protein goals
-Protein helps with so many enzymatic processes in the body necessary for every day function. You aren’t just fueling gainz bro.
-Protein is VERY satiating. Try eating 8oz of chicken breast vs that same bag of chips. You will notice a difference
-While it’s not a huge difference, protein takes calories to digest. Meaning, you actually burn calories when you eat it. No other macro provides that benefit.
-With processed foods getting eliminated, and as you start lowering your carb intake as your diet continues, you’ll want to replace that volume somewhere so you don’t feel like you are just losing food.
Create More Movement
One thing a lot of folks like to say as they get older and start a diet is “I want to get back to the weight I was when I was young”. While there are several things to note about that, the biggest one worth mentioning for this article is to think about what you were doing at that age. Would you say you got more movement/steps back then compared to now? Do you move more today? I’m going to guess that you moved a lot more back then. This is the other big factor for any individual at any age really. When I get most clients starting a weight loss journey, one of the big underlying factors (other than their eating) is the fact that they just don’t move a whole lot.
I like to use step count because it is easy to track these days. Find out on average how many steps you are moving. Now, make it a goal to add 3,000 on top of whatever that average is. During covid, I was working out at home as much as normal, and eating as much as normal. Yet I was still gaining weight? How is this possible? When I finally tracked my steps, I realized before Covid hit, I was averaging 10-12,000 steps a day! During lockdowns, I only averaged 4-6,000. That’s half as much movement! So here I was feeling like I was doing all the same things yet gaining weight, and the only change I needed to make was increase my movement.
Adding movement throughout your day will go a long way in helping hit your deficit to lose weight, but also be a sustainable practice you can keep long after your diet is done.
Big Takeaway
The biggest point to takeaway from all these tips is to choose things that are sustainable. Even though you are temporarily on a weight loss journey, you need to make behavior changes you can see yourself doing 6-12 months from now. The reality is, these tips above are going to be lifestyle changes you need to keep up with on some level long after the diet is gone. After all, it was your lack of these habits that got you here in the first place.
