Becoming deliberately less bulky in middle age.

[popeyewhite]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet. There aren't enough hours in the day.

You can, and there are. It's not easy, and obviously a really really bad diet would take an enrolling in the army-type lifestyle change, but there's huge amounts of people who exercise regularly that don't pay that much attention to their diet. Broscience.

[popeyewhite]

Louis Balfour said:

Has anyone else tried to skinny down in middle age and encountered resistance?

Lots of people, I've trained a few. Slash carbs and think about a lightweight 5/2 diet. You seem to know enough about exercise. Good luck.

[Louis Balfour]

popeyewhite said:

Louis Balfour said:

Has anyone else tried to skinny down in middle age and encountered resistance?

Lots of people, I've trained a few. Slash carbs and think about a lightweight 5/2 diet. You seem to know enough about exercise. Good luck.

Thank you for the good wishes.

I have reduced carbs. I am not decided whether to go back to keto for a while. I don't like it as a lifestyle choice and personally I find it is bad for my gut.

I also think fasting is good news. It is a lever that I am saving for later.

[gregs656]

popeyewhite said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet. There aren't enough hours in the day.

You can, and there are. It's not easy, and obviously a really really bad diet would take an enrolling in the army-type lifestyle change, but there's huge amounts of people who exercise regularly that don't pay that much attention to their diet. Broscience.

Not paying attention to your diet is neither here nor there.

There are lots of people who don't exercise regularly that don't pay much attention to their diet and maintain a healthy weight.

[JeffreyD]

gregs656 said:

Not paying attention to your diet is neither here nor there.

There are lots of people who don't exercise regularly that don't pay much attention to their diet and maintain a healthy weight.

Are there?

All the people I've ever met who say "I can eat and drink whatever I want and I never get fat" are
A) young
B) exercise freaks
C) people who don't actually want to eat or drink very much.

[popeyewhite]

gregs656 said:

There are lots of people who don't exercise regularly that don't pay much attention to their diet and maintain a healthy weight.

"..middle age"

[mattuk89]

https://tdeecalculator.net/

Be honest as you fill it in, work out maintenance calories and drop 300/500.


Download MyFitnessPal, and track food for a week weigh yourself, see if you have lost weight, if you have carry on, if not drop calories/increase cardio, repeat eat week..

It’s that simple

[Louis Balfour]

mattuk89 said:

https://tdeecalculator.net/

Be honest as you fill it in, work out maintenance calories and drop 300/500.


Download MyFitnessPal, and track food for a week weigh yourself, see if you have lost weight, if you have carry on, if not drop calories/increase cardio, repeat eat week..

It’s that simple

I disagree, I don't think it is that simple. Though monitoring calories is important.

[Fore Left]

I'm 57. I've lost 7 pounds in the last 4 weeks simply by eating less. No cakes or biscuits, no outside meal time snacking and much less refined carbs. I have done no additional exercise. I have another 8 pounds to go.

It's not rocket science.

[Louis Balfour]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I have two.

One is a jump bike and a gentleman of my age should not jump anything other than queues. The other is a Roberts that I had built of lightweight tubes when I was 12 stone. I would feel guilty imposing myself upon it these days.

[didelydoo]

Same advice as all these threads- change your lifestyle- eat healthy whole foods, exercise doing what you enjoy (some resistance, some cardio), keep hydrated.

It needs to be sustainable- so it needs to fit your lifestyle. Diet without fitness, and fitness without diet, both lead to nowhere long term. You don’t need to do anything amazingly drastic- Lift a bit, do something that gets your heart rate up, don’t eat crap.

[usn90]

I went from 16 stone 6 to 12 stone 12 last feb- august, no exercise just calorie control, I aimed for 1500cal intake a day

Losing weight is all about the mind, it took me 10 years of failed dieting to realise that.

I didn’t cut anything out of my diet, I wasn’t interested in carbs/fat/sugar, just the calories.

Download MyFitnessPal and track your intake, it’s a very useful tool

[gregs656]

JeffreyD said:

Are there?

All the people I've ever met who say "I can eat and drink whatever I want and I never get fat" are
A) young
B) exercise freaks
C) people who don't actually want to eat or drink very much.

That is a different claim to 'not paying much attention to your diet', but I expect most of them would fall under 'C'.

popeyewhite said:

"..middle age"

Makes no difference. There must be billions of people globally who are not fat and don't think about their diet.

I also expect those people are good at making small changes and catching them selves if they do start to feel things declining. At some point people who are putting on weight decide to go and buy jeans in the next size up or what ever, where as people who better maintain their weight just take a tightening waistline as a cue to make a couple of changes.

Edited by gregs656 on Thursday 11th March 17:55

[popeyewhite]

gregs656 said:

popeyewhite said:

"..middle age"

Makes no difference.

80% of middle aged people in the UK are overweight, regardless of either exercise and/or diet.

[ORD]

People’s metabolisms vary by only a small amount. And exercise burns surprisingly few calories. People differ hugely in how much high calorie food they eat.

Drop the junk food and you’ll likely lose weight.

[Louis Balfour]

popeyewhite said:

gregs656 said:

popeyewhite said:

"..middle age"

Makes no difference.

80% of middle aged people in the UK are overweight, regardless of either exercise and/or diet.

Define overweight.

When I was 13st and 13%bf the fat nurse doing my over 50s health check said I should be 10.5 stone.

[gregs656]

popeyewhite said:

gregs656 said:

popeyewhite said:

"..middle age"

Makes no difference.

80% of middle aged people in the UK are overweight, regardless of either exercise and/or diet.

What was that figure 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 etc years a go

What is that figure in Italy? Or in any Scandinavian country? I wonder what that figure is globally.

Britain is currently fat, historically it hasn't been and nor has anywhere else. Using it as 'proof' that middle aged people get fat is ridiculous.

[Louis Balfour]

ORD said:

People’s metabolisms vary by only a small amount. And exercise burns surprisingly few calories. People differ hugely in how much high calorie food they eat.

Drop the junk food and you’ll likely lose weight.

I don't eat junk food. The closest I come to it is a Chinese meal very occasionally from a quality takeaway and I usually stick to the meat and vegetable dishes. No sugar, cakes, sweets, processed food (outside a rasher of bacon on Saturday).

But anyway, the main thrust of my post has been lost. I don't have a problem with losing fat. The problem is that my body seems to consider 14 stone my "natural" weight. If I exercise a lot, which keeps me stay fit and strong, that is where I end up. No doubt as I age and my test drops that will change somewhat. But I'd rather it was a controlled process.

I may bin the weights entirely for a bit and stick with various forms of cardio. I row a lot, so I probably don't NEED the weights.

[ORD]

You don’t seem to want to hear anything other than ‘You’re a unicorn’. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. I lift 3 times per week and row 2-3 times per week. I can can 1kg per week or lose 1kg a week by tweaking a few hundred calories per day. That’s how it works.

[Louis Balfour]

ORD said:

You don’t seem to want to hear anything other than ‘You’re a unicorn’. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. I lift 3 times per week and row 2-3 times per week. I can can 1kg per week or lose 1kg a week by tweaking a few hundred calories per day. That’s how it works.

It really isn't. There is more to it. As I said previously, I think it is a sort of hysteresis.

But you can call me a unicorn if you want. If I can call you Dorothy.