7 Steps to an Abs After 40 Diet Plan
When it comes to getting abs, nutrition is critical, but you don’t need to resort to eating extremely bland diets to get abs.
Here are 7 steps to getting abs with your nutrition for men over 40:
1. Set your calories
Setting the correct number of calories is the first key step, without getting that right you’ll fail to lose fat and get abs.
Even if you stick to “clean foods” you’ll still fail to get abs if you eat too much of them.
You need to be in calorie deficit, that means eating less calories than what your body burns per day so that it draws upon your fat stores as the remainder of those calories and this needs to be done consistently and long enough to lose enough fat to reveal your abs.
That’s the problem with just randomly following a cookie cut diet plan, it’s not based on how many calories YOU need and how best to eat those calories from the foods you enjoy.
Losing fat is a relatively slow process, to ensure you’re losing primarily fat and not lean muscle or water, aim to lose 1-1½ lbs of fat per week.
2. Get the correct macros
Once you have your calories the next part of the equation is breaking up those calories into the correct proportion of protein, carbohydrates and fats.
This step is also very important as eating 2500 calories all coming from carbs and fat will have a dramatically different effect on your body composition than eating 2500 calories coming from protein, carbohydrates and fat.
To get abs, you need enough protein to support lean muscle, enough carbohydrates to support training and enough fats to support healthy testosterone production.
If you go too high on protein then carbohydrates and fats will suffer, meaning you’ll feel weak, lethargic and destroy your testosterone production.
On the other hand, if you go too high on carbs, you won’t give your body the best potential of tapping into it’s fat stores as it will always turn to carbohydrates first.
Trying to get abs by eating too many carbohydrates is hard, think of carbs as an energy source, you want to supply enough of them for your workouts and to fuel your day, but not so many that they spill over into your fat stores.
I recommend eating slightly more carbohydrates on your training days and slightly less carbohydrates on your non-training days.
Fat doesn’t make you fat, providing you eat the right kind of fat. Fat’s that are liquid at room temperature such as olive oil and coconut olive are much better for us than fats that are solid at room temperature.
Totally avoid trans-fats and anything heavily processed, this will wreak havoc on your body and destroy your chances of getting lean.
3. Eat 3 main meals
Eating 3 main meals per day is much more manageable than eating 5-6 smaller meals per day to lose fat, it also has the most dramatic effect on testosterone production.
The research is clear that eating bigger meals, less frequency uses more of the bodies sympathetic nervous system, skyrocketing growth hormone and testosterone when calories are introduced to the body following not eating for several hours.
It was once thought that eating little and often was the key to fat burning, the premise was by eating more frequently the body would super charge its metabolism.
But it’s been proven that its NOT how frequently you eat, but the total number of calories you eat over the course of the day that really matters.
Eating 5-6 small meals per day is a nuisance and comes with no added benefits.
4. Get enough protein
Protein is the one macronutrient your need to get right, but neither should you eat too much or too little.
Protein keeps you feeling full and is harder for the body to digest meaning it will expend additional energy just digesting it.
I recommend getting up to 0.8 g of protein per pound of lean body weight per day to get abs and recover properly from your workouts.
This is obtainable through solid food, don’t waste your money on expensive supplements or protein powders.
5. Eat the right foods
While its totally possible to lose fat by eating some processed foods, it’s far more effective to stick to healthy foods that offer added vitamins and minerals.
Think of abs foods as anything in it’s natural state. Anything that’s in a bag, box or has been heavily processed should be avoided.
The less ingredients the better. For example, salmon is salmon, broccoli is broccoli etc. You need to eat a variety of foods that supply enough daily protein, enough healthy carbs and enough healthy fats each day.
Here are a few examples of great abs foods:
Abs protein sources
- Fresh Fish (Tuna, mackerel, salmon etc.)
- Chicken breast
- Lean beef
- Turkey
- Ground Beef
- Pork Tenderloin
- Cottage cheese
- Greek yogurt
Abs Carbohydrates Sources
- Whole Grain Pasta
- Whole Grain Rice
- Potatoes
- Oats
- Sweet Potatoes
- Fruit and Vegetables
Abs Healthy Fats
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Avocados
- Coconut oil
- Nuts
- Nut butter
6. Get your meal plan
When designing your meal plan try to eat a balance of protein, carbohydrates and fats with each one, for example:
Meat Source
Potatoes
Veggies
Eating protein with carbohydrates will prevent insulin spikes, provide steady energy and provide your body with a constant supply of protein to repair and rebuild damaged muscle tissue.
The key is to break up your daily calories into 3 main meals (and a few healthy snacks) that are balanced and add variety to your nutrition plan.
Stick to healthy foods that you enjoy, I like to keep things simple, I never eat anything I don’t enjoy.
It’s a myth that you’ll store fat if you eat before bed, but for your last meal of the day I recommend having a protein-based meal only.
It makes sense that just before bed, your energy requirements are going to be much less, but supplying your body with a slow release protein source before going to sleep is a good rule of thumb.
7. Keep a food log
Really the only way to get abs with your nutrition is to log everything down for at least 3 months. If you just “eat less” you’ll never know if you’re eating enough, or too little calories each day to get abs.
Getting abs is all about monitoring your nutrition and ensuring that you’re losing fat gradually from week to week. If it’s not happening then something isn’t right, you’re either eating too many calories or your nutrition isn’t split into the correct macros.
Finally, you’re never too old to get abs and even if you’re only interested in losing fat, learning how to train and eat to get abs is the fastest route there.
If you would like a complete course for getting abs over 40 that covers everything from training, all the way to designing and structuring your own meal plans then you’re going to love my new program, Abs Over 40.