Losing weight in late 30s is hard

[FlexpertHamilton]

I think the only reason people claim it gets harder to lose weight as they age is they haven't yet identified the problem foods they're eating and their habits are finally catching up to them.

I lost about 10-15 lbs during Covid lockdowns despite only doing very basic exercise. Last year I was the most ripped I've ever been.. I'm finding it much easier to stay fit than I did in my 20s .

Three things are key: limit your daily eating window to <12 hours (ideally fast about about 18+ hrs per day), avoid sugars/excess carbs, and avoid vegetable oils. The latter one is something most of society is completely in the dark about and will take decades before it gets mainstream attention. Good luck finding food that doesn't have soybean/canola oil, it's almost impossible. Grocery shopping is so easy for me now, I walk past 99% of the stuff I see since I've read about every food label in the store. Everything is hyper palatable processed junk.

Another thing, I don't count calories, don't even macro track, and still have plenty of cheat days, if that helps convince you.

 

[EyeBRollin]

Quick guide summary I use for clean eating:

Foods to avoid:
-All beverages (except for water, tea, black coffee)
-Sugar
-Refined carbohydrates (I.e desserts, candy, packaged goods, white bread, white rice, breakfast cereal, white pasta)
-Butter, Margarine, vegetable oils
-Full fat dairy
-Fatty meat and processed meat

Enjoy these foods:
-Raw vegetables
-Raw fruit
-Whole Grains
-Nuts
-Seeds
-Legumes / Beans
-Lower food chain Fish (Salmon, Sardines, Herring, etc)

 

[jafman]

I’m currently cutting my winter bulk. 5 days a week I eat only chicken, beef,eggs, carrots, peas, spinach. Bananas. 2 days I add in oats, oat milk, nuts, sweet potato’s. Brown rice.

Roughly 3800 a day. Which is around a 500 a day reduction. I will increase that deficit as time goes on.

I only drink black coffee and water.

I also do a very physical job early morning till noon and I do the first 3 hours of that job fasted. My eating window is 8 hours per day.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Full fat dairy

I agree with your list, but fwiw some dairy products don't have much fat in the first place. I eat full fat cottage cheese every day as a first meal. For yogurt I like skyr and Greek, and the "low fat" labels on those products are usually a sneaky way to mix in more sugar.

I can live just fine off cottage cheese, beans, peanut butter, and a few vegetables. I weighed 170 this morning, down from 200 last year, and at six two and 47 y/o, I'm happy to not be a typical fat American.

 

[jafman]

I agree with your list, but fwiw some dairy products don't have much fat in the first place. I eat full fat cottage cheese every day as a first meal. For yogurt I like skyr and Greek, and the "low fat" labels on those products are usually a sneaky way to mix in more sugar.

I can live just fine off cottage cheese, beans, peanut butter, and a few vegetables. I weighed 170 this morning, down from 200 last year, and at six two and 47 y/o, I'm happy to not be a typical fat American.

Serious question how do you get amino acids? Do you eat any meat?

 

[Bible_Belt]

Serious question how do you get amino acids? Do you eat any meat?

I was a vegetarian/vegan for 7 years. Then I started mma training, and getting my ass kicked every night led me back to eating meat. I'm not a strict vegetarian any more, but usually only eat meat in a social setting. You don't need it to live. Most of the world's people are vegetarian, simply because they can't afford meat.

 

[Bible_Belt]

And let's tag my friend @corrector because he needs to read our discussion here about nutrition.

 

[EyeBRollin]

Serious question how do you get amino acids? Do you eat any meat?

I am pescatarian now however I don’t even eat fish every day. You can get all the protein needed from a variety of plant foods. Legumes, nuts, and seeds are high in protein. Legumes + whole grains in combination are “complete” proteins.

 

[LARaiders85]

I totally relate to this. Somehow there's a connection between depression (especially mid 30's depression) and gaining weight. I lost the most weight when I was the most happy.

same, in mid 30s. 50lbs worth, crazy. To be fair, it was during covid so no working out for 2 years.

 

[Pedrito0906]

Getting lean in your late 30s is so much harder than when I was even in my early 30s. I work out alot. Do martial arts at least 2 times a week and regular gym atleast 2 times a week.

It seems that I have to not eat ANYTHING at night time in order to get lean. You have to starve yourself.

The issue is that I work the night shift on the weekend. I am also very hungry after training so it is very difficult not to eat at night.

I was in the same position as you, have you had your test levels checked? When your test is not optimal it will be very difficult yo lose weight and have the motivation to diet down and do basic stuff. A lot of people disregard those but a hormonal imbalance can be destructive to ones well being.

Diet, diet, diet. Cut out all added sugars and refined carbs, cut out butter and oil, eat more fruit and vegetables, and drink only water, tea, and black coffee. The pounds will fly off.

While that's the right approach, combine that with gym, work and women, depending how lean one wants to be, the lack of energy will be a lot late 30s.

 

[zekko]

The best way to lose weight is to not put it on in the first place. Have you seen guys who were obese and then later lost weight? A lot of times they don't look right, they look frail or sickly, or have loose skin or stretch marks. Best to just stay in shape in the first place. But losing weight will never be easier than now, it will just keep getting harder as you keep getting older.

 

[jaymbrs]

I’m dealing with it too and it’s taken longer than usual. I’ve managed to lose 20 lbs twice and it was the easiest when I was 22 - took maybe 3 or so months, took about 4 months when I was 28 and taking the longest now that I’m 36. I’ve tried applying the same methods when I was 22 and 28 and I’m only down 12 lbs and have been focusing on it for 5 months now.

 

[Fruitbat]

On the subject of Keto. I loose a LOT of weight on it. In lockdown I lost a hell of a lot of weight on dirty Keto.

I ended up on the acute ward with reactivated glandular fever. My liver was 20x out of range and my spleen 30% enlarged. They thought initially lymphoma or leukaemia.

Id just had my daughter so you can imagine the waiting period for my viral tests, when at that point they were breaking it to me that blood cancer is possible. Doesn’t help that I have these diseases right through my family.

Anyway,I put this down to Keto. Few vegetables and fruit. Any diet which limits fruit and veg in favour of processed meats, butter etc can not be good for you.

In recovery I ate med diet. Tons of veg. Felt amazing

 

[BackInTheGame78]

In general, following this template will help you shed pounds relatively quickly:


Diet(HC is high carb, MC medium, LC low)
HC-MC-fast-LC-HC-fast-LC

Example paired with workout:
Legs-chest-off/cardio-back-shoulders/arms-off/cardio-off/cardio

Combines carb cycling with fasting. High Carb days are used to reset Leptin(your body's fat burning thermometer) and boost thyroid with fast days that follow to optimally burn fat when your body is primed to do it most efficiently.

Both fast days are off or cardio days and 1 of the LC days is as well.

High carb days are 50-60% carbs, 30-40% protein, 10% fat

Medium carb days are 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat

Low carb days are 15% carbs, 50% protein, 35% fat

 

[Murk]

Anyway,I put this down to Keto. Few vegetables and fruit. Any diet which limits fruit and veg in favour of processed meats, butter etc can not be good for you.

The diet doesn't limit fruit and veg and doesn't promote processed meat. You said you did dirty keto, so you yourself were to blame.

I eat plenty of vegetables, just not starchy ones, I miss carrots and sweetcorn but I eat pretty much everything else. The only meat I eat is salmon, cod, tuna, chicken, beef, lamb, all organic and/or grass-finished. 4 eggs per day, lots of salad and vegetables, lots of quality meat and cheeses.

Butter is actually very healthy, one of the best things to cook with.

I'm glad you're ok now though anyway

 

[jafman]

I’d like to add that organ meat like liver, heart and kidneys are under-eaten by almost the entire western world. My fathers generation and all before ate all of the animal because intensive farming did not exist.

If the taste is not to your liking then mince small amount’s into meatballs, burgers etc.

There is a very good reason that the hunter got the choice of organs after the kill. Nutrition…

 

[Fortune_favors_the_bold]

Diet, diet, diet. Cut out all added sugars and refined carbs, cut out butter and oil, eat more fruit and vegetables, and drink only water, tea, and black coffee. The pounds will fly off.

I fully support 90% of this as a solution for op's prolem but I disagree on butter and oil.

We need those fats to boost our testosterone, by oil I mean olive one not the crappy vegetable like sunflower or seeds.

 

[typical]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that any diet can work and can also fail. As long as you're getting the correct Macro's and Micro's youll be fine.

Keto is an excellent way of dropping the pounds quick BUT if you fail to change into a more sustainable diet you're just gonna go into "Yo-Yo" mode.

Most "Newbies" struggle with controlling their diet and need to do a few "Cookie cutter" diets to workout their own body's pattern.

Right now I'm hardly eating any meat apart from when we go out once a week and then I'll get a steak and chips and a few beers, been on pea protein buzz for a while and loving the ease at which it digests (Lactose intol and even WPI is becoming hard now). Still get in a few eggs a day and eat all my starchy and fibrous veges, nothing wrong with sweet potato and corn ...... just don't eat a whole kilo of it every day.

Punishment for day's when I've had too much carbs is 30-60 mins on the row machine the next day

 

[EyeBRollin]

Butter is actually very healthy, one of the best things to cook with.

No, butter is not healthy to cook with. It is loaded with saturated fat. Saturated fat should be be <10% of calories.

 

[Fruitbat]

The diet doesn't limit fruit and veg and doesn't promote processed meat. You said you did dirty keto, so you yourself were to blame.

I eat plenty of vegetables, just not starchy ones, I miss carrots and sweetcorn but I eat pretty much everything else. The only meat I eat is salmon, cod, tuna, chicken, beef, lamb, all organic and/or grass-finished. 4 eggs per day, lots of salad and vegetables, lots of quality meat and cheeses.

Butter is actually very healthy, one of the best things to cook with.

I'm glad you're ok now though anyway

Thank you.

So, this is what I see as the limitation of the diet. Credit to you if you can manage that. With the myriad responsibilities of parenthood and career, I may be able to eat clean Keto for a while but not long term. Eventually I’m going to get disorganised and I’m going to end up buying convenience food. Also, my job requires a lot of eating out and good luck doing Keto that way.

it’s a shame as it’s weight loss properties are amazing but I can’t sustain Keto.

I do find that if you just limit carbs to 100g or thereabouts you get a close approximation.