Hi, It’s Rob Richley, Personal Trainer, helping men over 40 lose fat, build muscle, and look awesome no matter what their age! I want to address how a busy father can lose weight…
“As a general rule, a busy father can lose weight by prioritising nutrition ensuring you are in a calorie deficit, eating 500-600 calories less than your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) daily. Fill half of your plate with vegetables and the other half split evenly with lean protein and complex carbohydrates. Eliminate refined carbohydrates and sugar and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated and fuller.”
Nutrition is where this begins, in fact it’s the most important component to get right on your weight loss journey. The saying “you can’t out train a bad diet” is true. In fact, you could go crazy doing cardio, high intensity training, weights etc. but this won’t make any difference if you are eating more calories than what your body burns each day.
You need to be in a slight caloric deficit to lose weight, meaning eating 500-600 calories less than what your body burns each day to maintain its weight (BMR).
It’s important to note that a drastic reduction in calories is not recommended, going too low in calories will backfire, causing your body to think a famine is around the corner. When this happens, it holds onto stubborn belly fat and releases the stress hormone, cortisol.
But eating 500-600 calories less than your BMR is the sweet spot, you will still feel full off the calories you consume but cause the body to get the remainder (balance) of its calories from fat stores. So, this roughly translates to 1-1½ pounds per week, my recommended amount of fat loss per week.
Using intermittent fasting as a fat loss tool can help with this as it keeps things simple. By offsetting calories in the morning, eating a snack and then generally eating two meals per day, it makes it very difficult to go overboard with calories. In fact, this method is losing fat is so effective, I explain the whole system in my popular course, Ripped Abs Over 40.
Do one thing at a time, so you can stick to your new regime and not get overwhelmed by too many changes. For example:
Week 1 – Start to eliminate processed carbohydrates and refined sugar and replace them with complex carbohydrates and lean proteins.
Week 2 – Start to cut out snacking, eliminate junk foods and only eat your set number of calories.
Week 3 – Start to implement resistance training 2-3 times per week.
Week 4 – Try and walk 6000 steps per day as well as your resistance training.
Resistance Training
The next important component for a busy father is resistance training. The amount of muscle you have on your body largely determines the number of calories you burn each day. So, building and preserving lean muscle becomes even more important as we age.
If your primary goal is fat loss, begin with 2 weight training sessions per week, using 1-2 compound movements for each body part.
Compounds movements train 2-3 large muscle groups at once, burn more calories and increase testosterone in the body. They also save time, perfect for the busy fathers!
Some examples of compound movements are bench presses, front presses, squats, deadlifts, pulldowns, or pullups using dumbbells, barbells, or a combination of both.
I mentioned incorporating one thing at a time as this will start to teach you better habits, i.e., what could you incorporate this week?
Could you eliminate refined carbohydrates, sugar and junk foods?
This one change alone will get the fat loss ball rolling.
Get up earlier
Just by getting up 30 minutes earlier you could get a weight training workout in before work. Start by incorporating 2 resistance training workouts per week, perhaps on a Monday and Thursday. Upper and lower body workouts.
Eat healthy foods
I mentioned that one half of your plate should be full of vegetables, one quarter should be lean protein such as fish, chicken, grass fed beef, lentils etc. The remaining quarter portion should be complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, brown rice, sweet potatoes, etc.
Don’t shy away from fat too, avocados, extra virgin olive oil and polyunsaturated fats are good for the heart and keep you feeling full.
Lastly, reduce alcohol consumption. If you are serious about losing weight as a busy father, drinking lots of beers must stop. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, nearly double the amount of protein and carbohydrates at 4 calories per gram.
How can a lazy guy lose weight?
“As a whole a lazy guy can lose weight by prioritising nutrition. Start to eliminate refined carbohydrates and white sugar and replace them with lean proteins, fibrous vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. Incorporate intermittent fasting by eating 2 meals per day each containing lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and vegetables.”
The bottom line for losing weight is being in a calorie deficit. So, start with nutrition and even if you are too last to do any exercise, providing you are in a slight caloric deficit on a consistent basis you WILL lose weight.
Once you start to see progress happening this will motivate you to make the next change.
How can a man lose a big belly?
“As a general rule a man can lose a big belly by making nutrition a priority. Start to eliminate refined carbohydrates, sugar, and alcohol from your diet. Incorporate lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats into your nutrition plan eating 500-600 calories less than your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) per day. Increase your daily activity making resistance training a priority.“
In conclusion I hope you have found this article informative, take the next step and download my FREE guide, 40 Laws of Lean for Men Over 40.