Losing Weight At 40 Male

When you're a busy 40-something with two kids, sometimes weight sneaks up on you. Even when you’re an active Lieutenant Paramedic, the daily grind and demands of looking after a family makes exercise and smart eating lapse. So it went for Adam Hurford, a 41 year old from Avon, Indiana. Despite being a peer fitness trainer for his fire department, Hurford was never armed with nutritional training that keeps you sated and energized to the job, without putting on excess weight. “If I’m doing the correct functional movements without good nutritional habits, well, then you just have a fat guy working out, ” he says. “And there’s always so much food in the firehouse. If you put a bag of chips out, it’s gone in an hour.” At 6’1”, Hurford’s weight had peaked at 275 pounds, while still taking on 6, 000 emergency calls a year.

Add to the challenge that in your 40s, sarcopenia--the natural loss of muscle due to aging-- begins to work. That means not only trying to shed fat, but up your muscle gain. To make a plan that fit with his schedule and fitness goals, he started a weight-loss-oriented program with a trainer and nutritionist at Life Time North Meridian.

The first two months were “extremely slow, ” says Hurford, as he underwent blood testing to figure out which foods were causing him internal inflammation, and to fine-tune his diet. But after those early struggles, Hurford settled into a workout routine as best as he possibly could and has since dropped around 25 pounds. The tweaking is proof that every body is different, and finding what works not only with your lifestyle but your physiology, is part of the challenge.

Losing Weight For Men—at 40, 50, And 60

To stay accountable throughout the process, while still keeping to his demanding work and family schedule, Hurford and his trainer, Jack Sorrels checked in virtually. “Through calls, emails, text messages, food journals, blood work, and accountability check ins, we've had to roll with the punches through this process, ” says Sorrels. “I've gone to his fire station to train him before as well. I've rewritten his plan three times, changing the structure to be more advanced and move him from a conditioning phase to more hypertrophic and weight-loss focused.”

Now, that Hurford has shed some initially weight, Sorrels says, “We are now able to work safely on large compound movements that will take his physique and performance to the next level.”

If you’re looking to incorporate a combo of weight loss and muscle gain in your 40s, consider these tips from Hurford’s trainer, Jack Sorrels of Life Time North Meridian.

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Hurford needed to build muscle to stave off sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle that hits many men by 40. But before that, he needed consistency, so Sorrels focused on low-volume work. Your first step when training after a long layoff shouldn’t be intense: Aim for light or body-weight exercises with higher rep ranges—12 to 15 for just 2 or 3 sets.

The key difference between 20-year-olds and the 40-plus crowd: After four decades, your body has bad habits that can lead to injury. Hurford spent 10 to 15 minutes warming up, stretching tight tissues (think hiplexors and pecs if you sit often) and awakening dormant muscles (the rhomboid muscles in your mid-back)with resistance-band drills.

After four weeks of low-volume work, Hurford was ready to accelerate his quest for strength, doing 8 to 12 reps per set, a range that helps build muscle. He also started doing supersets and circuits, pairing, say, bench presses with 30 seconds of cardio rowing to increase his heart rate.

Best Diet For Men Over 40: Five Changes You Need To Make

Managing your intake for weight loss and fueling workouts is a fine-tuned combo that takes tweaking. Use this advice from Kristen Cohen, personal trainer and certified nutrition coach, LifeTime North Meridian to start your own nutrition plan:

Tackle everything all at once and you’ll easily feel overwhelmed.One week Hurford focused on drinking 120 ounces of water each day; another week he tried to cutback on added sugars in his diet.As the weeks go by, you accumulate the beneficial behaviors with far less stress than if you took on multiple goals.

Hurford works in a fire hall where high-carb foods are abundant(baked ziti, anyone?). But by envisioning himself choosing a more nutritious option early in the day, he’s more likely to stick with it later. Same goes for family gatherings and weekend parties with friends.

Ways To Take Control Of Post 40s Weight Gain

The number on the scale isn’t your only marker of progress. Even if that number hasn’t changed, what else about you has? Are you sleeping better? Feeling more confident? More energized? More motivated?

Adam’s routine now is working through two upper-body days and two lower-body days in each workout. He and Sorrels keep the reps high, around 15 to 20 reps for most exercises, and typically do two sets of each move.

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I always thought I was in pretty okay shape. I would intermittently go to the gym, sometimes getting into fad workouts—my waist was at 31 inches and I figured I was doing fine. One day my daughter said to me, “I love you, papa, and you’re squishy!” I realized I had the infamous “dad bod.”

It was an eye-opening moment. I thought I was in generally good health. That said, I don’t really think I ever appreciated what “good health” meant, since I was not surrounding myself with people who were in excellent health. I’d never had obvious issues, and I didn’t lack confidence in myself. At the same time, my sleep was terrible; I had an overactive mind and I was constantly stressed out. So overall I hadn’t really been taking care of myself, even as I thought getting to the gym occasionally was enough.

I signed up for a transformation program with Ultimate Performance in Los Angeles. One of the first things that happened was meeting my trainer, Chris, who checked my body fat. I thought it would maybe be 20%. It was pretty crushing when Chris told me that actually, I was at 30.1%.

Weight Loss For Men

I’m from a big foodie family; I actually trained informally in Italian cuisine. Revamping my diet, then, meant cutting out all starchy carbs: no more rice, bread, pasta, or potatoes. I started in November, and dodging comfort foods around the holidays was challenging. I learned to monitor my macros, something I hadn’t paid attention to before. I aimed for 160 grams of protein, 50 grams of carbs, and 65 grams of fat per day.

So on a typical day, I’d start with eggs with smoked salmon or cottage cheese, or other protein alternatives. Lunch and dinner would be lean protein like chicken or white fish and veggies; I had veggies with every meal while still watching my macros. I really love to cook, but I also recognized that Costco was a real help for getting pre-marinated chicken, fish, meats (cooked and uncooked), and bulk veggies—it makes it so much easier to through together a meal. For snacks, I had Epic Bars and nuts. Or protein shakes, a perfect dessert fix for my sweet tooth.

That was a big change from my previous diet, where I’d usually have cereal or eggs and toast, a sandwich for lunch, and often rice with curry or pasta for dinner. Three or four nights a week would be a restaurant dinner, which I thought was healthy. I cut back on all of that and revamped my diet. I also cut out alcohol, which I know can have a big effect.

A Realistic Diet And Workout Plan Helped Me Lose 40 Pounds

The closest UP gym was almost 70 miles, so I was doing 140 miles round-trip to get there. I’d work with Chris once a week in person, then four more times using his workout plan. We made it work! Chris really helped me understand good form and the importance of being careful with your exercise. Whatever habits I’d made in the gym were things I’d picked up from other people around me, and I realized that’s not the best way to go. Tempo and form are so important.

Chris is also very strict about doing pure reps. There is no such thing as impure reps, bouncing, or cheating. If you can't do a pure rep then it doesn't count. You either