Fitness Regime & Diet For My 50S?

[justthisbloke]

I'm late 40s now - so a few years before my next big birthday. But I'm really heading into the last chance phase of life when it comes to fitness and fatness. And I'd like to have some sort of regime going soon.

I'm not too bad; clock up 100 miles a week or so cycling, spend a lot of time outdoors, and am generally not too sedentary. Diet's OK; mainly veggie and very little alcohol.

I could just carry on like this but I'd like something a bit more focussed. So, any recommendations for diet, fitness programmes, etc. Preferably something interesting as I really find gyms boring.

[Craig_]

I'm late 40s now - so a few years before my next big birthday. But I'm really heading into the last chance phase of life when it comes to fitness and fatness. And I'd like to have some sort of regime going soon.

I'm not too bad; clock up 100 miles a week or so cycling, spend a lot of time outdoors, and am generally not too sedentary. Diet's OK; mainly veggie and very little alcohol.

I could just carry on like this but I'd like something a bit more focussed. So, any recommendations for diet, fitness programmes, etc. Preferably something interesting as I really find gyms boring.

Sounds like you're doing just fine, relatively at least. I'd try mixing up the cycling with some running. Sure, the first month or so will be hell, but once you get into a groove, it's almost meditatory. Honest.

Or do some swimming if that seems a bit full-on!

[council dweller]

As you move into your 50`s you need to keep your weight down....yes I know it`s obvious but this needs to be done if you don`t want to turn into some kind of old wreck . Two meals a day is enough.

Exercise ? 30 to 40 push ups / sit ups should do it.

Btw, how much to you weigh at what height?

[justthisbloke]

Bit porky, I'm afraid. 5'11 and 13 stone 6. Ish - I'm not a girl so probably weigh myself once a year at most.

I do find I lack stamina. I can cycle for 30 mile bursts without stopping if I don't hack along too fast and it's not too hilly. I think I can ride up to 100 miles a day - but it's been a few years since I've done it (need to try soon).

[Alberta Tatlock]

Agree with Craig_ on the running. It shouldn't be too onerous if you build up slowly and steadily.

Another time-effective method of keeping in shape is jumping rope. The skill takes a while to learn if you are new to it but once you stop messing up it becomes a real workout.

All this and maybe trying to follow a lower carb higher fat diet.

[the gardener]

Agree with Craig_ on the running. It shouldn't be too onerous if you build up slowly and steadily.

Another time-effective method of keeping in shape is jumping rope. The skill takes a while to learn if you are new to it but once you stop messing up it becomes a real workout.

All this and maybe trying to follow a lower carb higher fat diet.

What? You mean skipping? Like a girl?

[JoeDavola]

I'm late 40s now - so a few years before my next big birthday. But I'm really heading into the last chance phase of life when it comes to fitness and fatness. And I'd like to have some sort of regime going soon.

I'm not too bad; clock up 100 miles a week or so cycling, spend a lot of time outdoors, and am generally not too sedentary. Diet's OK; mainly veggie and very little alcohol.

I could just carry on like this but I'd like something a bit more focussed. So, any recommendations for diet, fitness programmes, etc. Preferably something interesting as I really find gyms boring.

Sounds like you're doing everything right.

If you're open to a vegan diet look into the dietary advice from the big vegan doctors, McDougall, Ornish, Esselstyn, Michael Greger. All evidence based.

The biggest killer is heart disease; you're reaching the decade where some of your contemporaries will die from heart diease that they didn't know they had. Esselstyn and Ornish have run research that shows prevention and reversal of heart disease.

If you don't wanna trawl through the videos/books, then the advice simply is - eat all plants, and don't eat oils.

One of the things noted in Dan Buettner's 'Blue Zones' book with looks at the longest lived populations out there is that none of them have gym memberships or take part in 'formalized' exercise - instead they move plenty during the day. So your current exercise regime is probably a good one.

[council dweller]

I`m 72 kg 182cm.

I was 82kg 4 years ago. (I fasted a bit)

What to do ?

[The Knimbies who say No]

100 miles a week is a decent amount, most people will not get near it, sadly. Never mind a 40 something. Well done.

If you want to boost your fitness, I would thoroughly recommend taking up something like cross country running. Lower impact than road and your strength as a mariner would help too. The season is not far off, and you may absolutely love it. Possible a local league exists for free or nominal sum, maybe you might have to join a club, there are plenty of running clubs which are very casual and receptive to newbies. My wife did her first season of cross country last year and absolutely loved it.

Bike based stuff like a turbo trainer allied to a PC for virtual road races etc might be up your street too, or if you'd prefer 'the real thing' why not get a road or mountain bike and take yourself off for several hours. The off road stuff can be cross country, ie not too technical.

[reddog]

I don't think you need to change your exercise, but I would advise lossing weight. I would say 11 stone 7 should be you goal.

I recently hit 40 and I am examining what supplements I need to take, one of the big ones is vitamin d3, but also now taking c and magnesium.

[council dweller]

Yep, here`s another vote for 11 stone 7 (72 kg)

Get your weight down while you`re still in your 40`s, don`t leave it too late.

Btw, I do weight myself every day when I get up. Part of my routine .

[Turned Out Nice Again]

I'm late 40s now - so a few years before my next big birthday. But I'm really heading into the last chance phase of life when it comes to fitness and fatness. And I'd like to have some sort of regime going soon.

I'm not too bad; clock up 100 miles a week or so cycling, spend a lot of time outdoors, and am generally not too sedentary. Diet's OK; mainly veggie and very little alcohol.

I could just carry on like this but I'd like something a bit more focussed. So, any recommendations for diet, fitness programmes, etc. Preferably something interesting as I really find gyms boring.

Look here:

http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/index.php?/topic/205401-the-road-to-10-body-fat/

I've settled on Callisthenic (body-weight) exercises, low-carb and intermittent fasting as the way for me - you may differ.

[Unexpected]

Get one of these:

www.bkool.com

Join the online cycle races and leagues. That'll keep you focused while your fitness increases dramatically.

[Sledgehead]

lotta stuff on here about cardio.

However, fitness is a very personal thing, and age has a strong bearing on what you should consider doing.

It sounds to me like you do a reasonable amount of excercise, yet you are still carrying too much body fat, describing yourself as "a bit porky" (weight is irrelevant as I have no idea how much is fat and how much muscle).

It strikes me that more cardio might be exactly what you don't need, especially at your age.

More cardio is likely to destroy muscle mass, a process that happens naturally anyhow as we age.

The destruction of muscle mass could have a very negative impact on your blood sugar levels, as muscle mass allows you to store blood glucose as glycogen (ready for use), rather than dump it as fat in your liver. By buffering blood glucose it also stops your insulin response getting out of whack, thus keeping diabetes at bay. Moreover, less muscle mass means a lower metabollic rate, so destroying muscle might actually lead to more of the food you eat being laid down as fat.

Remember, you will lose muscle as you age anyway, so be careful how you treat it now. And if you want to keep muscle, don't skimp on the proteins. An increase in dietary protein will also suppress your appetite. Do however steer clear of processed meat like bacon. Also an increased protein intake has been linked to increased cancer susceptibility, so don't go all Atkins on us.

Another point : calesthenics are great if you are up to it. Because its all body weight stuff, it can be quite stressful: for instance, people wishing to work their lats might turn to chin-ups, but if they've never done a chin-up b4, might only manage a handful. Middle aged folk trying to get beyond that handful might injure themselves, setting back their training. A few free weights would, on the other hand, have allowed them to build strength gradually. The same can be said of push-ups where shoulder injuries could have been avoided by building strength with free weights.

So in summary, yes, try to improve your fitness, but don't neglect muscle mass, and don't ignore the possibility of injury: both become more important as we age.

Here's an article that describes the importance of muscle as we age : the importance of muscle

[workingpoor]

Just clean your diet up, i'm te same height as you and i was the same 13.5st+ weight.

Sedentary 1700 cals per day (this is sofa lounging all day)

With your cycling i would shoot for 2200 daily.

You will drop 1lb+ a week.

Buy 4 tupperware boxes and cook you food for the day (chilli con carne etc)

divide it up into 4 meals of 550cals

or 5 meals of 450 cals.

Weight out all portions on kitchen scales

Be meticulous with tracking calorie intake

like log 25 cals per cup of tea (milk) strict!

Get MyFitnessPal app and use ot to log calories, exercise expenditure and track progress.

Diet is 90% of it (seriously)

You can do all the cardio you want but if your overeating your overeating.

Also cardio can make you more hungry.

Try a week lounging around and you'll get by on 1500cals a day add exercise and it wont be enough.

3500 calories is equal to 1lb of bodyfat create a 3500 calorie deficit over 7 days every week,

cut food or do more cardio but create that deficit and it WILL come off.

See <10%fat thread

[StainlessSteelCat]

I'm in my mid 40s (just under 80kg and 5 11). Personally, I think you are doing pretty fine.

I run and cycle. Cross country running is a good suggestion - but be careful of rolling ankles on uneven ground etc. I find running an appetite suppressant - much more so than cycling so could be worth experimenting with on that basis.

Walking - perhaps up to an hour a day might be kinder than running and will also do more for your core than cycling. I try to do this on days I'm not running or cycling.

I am now considering some weight training (to build muscle mass) as well as regular yoga. I do the 7 mins routine on the days I go running to warm up - but make some elements of it harder (e.g. legs raised well above head when doing press ups).

I am also beginning to experiment with intermittent fasting (basically reduce eating to a 8 hour window each day). Been doing it this week, and found it really easy (I finish eating by six and then my next meal is after 10 am next morning). But there are other variations e.g. 5:2. The goal is not weight reduction, but rather to reduce insulin resistance etc.

Consider one day a week as a cheat day.

I do multi-vitamins - now all year around, and D3 in winter.

Found meditation really helpful this year. Headspace is a good way of getting started.

Also work on getting appropriate amounts of good sleep.

Good time to think about your health. Now is the time to invest for the future.

[winkie]

Here's an article that describes the importance of muscle as we age : the importance of muscle

The points you made and the article very informative.....

Just a point about running, as we get older we do lose muscle mass, but also our bones can weaken, so very important to care for our joints such as knees and hips not putting too much strain on them or will suffer the effects later.

[Hail the Tripod]

Have sex twice a day. A hatrick of the finest effects: cardio, muscle builing and hormone balance. Ideally, once with your wife and once with a callgirl while she's at work. So long as the wife never finds out you'll live forever.

[Fully Detached]

Conclusions I've come to over the years are:

1. Whatever exercise you do, make sure you enjoy it, and preferably do something where you inherently compete with yourself. Otherwise you can end up just going through the motions and hating every minute of it.

2. Understand that everybody's dietary needs are different, so you need to experiment to find what works for you, and as with the exercise, find a diet that you enjoy; it needs to be a life change if you're going to make it stick, so eating cabbage soup for 3 weeks to get your beach body is a waste of time.

3. Understand the interplay of your exercise and diet regime together. By this I mean understand your best times to eat, to train, and how different foods affect your body. A friend of mine spent months cycling 17 miles to work every morning and 17 miles home again, yet managed to put on weight. When I asked what he ate for breakfast, he said he didn't have time for it, so grabbed a Mars Bar that he'd "earned" when he got to work. So he cycled 17 miles in a fasted state, then filled his body full of sugar, setting himself up for a series of peaks and troughs throughout the day, during which he ate more crap, and felt like crap. Eating a decent breakfast and cycling 5 miles would have done him far more good.

Apart from that I genuinely think you just have to get into it and find what works for you. It sounds like you're doing plenty of exercise, but presumably it's fairly low intensity - maybe try some more power based stuff and see if you enjoy that at all?

[Isambard]

I really think eating a good breakfast is key. I am 37 and have put on a beer belly (slight) so I am trying to cut down the drink. I now walk to work (30mins x2) but do no other exercise - dont really have the time unfortunately.

I generally eat grilled chicken breasts on the foreman grill at the moment with grilled veg on it asparagus\courgette\mushrooms\onions\peppers with olive oil and salt and pepper - delicious

Also got some dorset cereals have that with yoghurt.

Still got a bit of belly though - maybe it will do down in time

[jfk]

Look at the training kickboxers do, high intensity interval training, body weight exercises (all stuff you can do with minimal gym equipment ), hill sprints, pushups, situps, dips, resistance work. This will build and maintain your muscle mass, core strength and burst strength. Your cycling and running will build the endurance. Could join a local kickboxing / kali class for movement / agility /strength building

[Isambard]

also trying to give up the cigs- only a social smoker but its going to f*cking kill me. I dont want one of those blowers either. wish me luck

[ccc]

As others have said - looks like you are doing pretty well as it is. So many suggestions already - but one that seems to be missing. Short high intensity training. Interval type stuff. Great for fitness and if done after a short fast amazing for fat burning too - I am informed.

Because it is shorter it also puts less strain on your body in general - and you will really feel your overall fitness increasing quickly. Should not cause any issues with muscle loss either.

And the best thing about this - you can do it with almost every type of exercise. Just choose the one you want - and go for it.

On a specific note - if you cant do it properly - learn to swim properly. Get group lessons. If available in your area.

And learning to swim 'properly' doesn't just mean how many lengths you can do. I have sat and watched some of the worst swimming techniques I have ever seen go up and down doing numerous lengths.

Enjoy !!

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

Running is something to be careful of. I would not run unless my weight was down to a reasonable level. Even if you carry a stone extra in fat it will increase your tendency to injury dramatically. If you want to run best thing to do is shed most of the weight first, then start slowly. Running for me is a lot of fun, the clubs are very social and if you live on the edge of a city there are normally loads of interesting routes to go down. I wouldn't recommend it as a way of losing weight, it's better as a way of maintaining fitness after you get close to your ideal weight.

As for weights, you will gain a lot from doing these. I think people who don't do weights generally have the impression that weights is about massive guys down the guy lifting giant piles of iron and swallowing fistfuls of pills, but the vast majority of people who do weights aren't into this at all. Weights do something for me. I don't know what the medical terms are, but they make you move more freely, give your body better support and posture and just generally help you feel physically a lot better. You don't have to do massive ones, just reps with medium light weights will do the same job. Make sure you get someone to help show you how to use the machines properly and be careful with free weights.

The final thing I would say is that you also have to get into a regime with exercise. I reckon 6 months tends to be the period where exercise is a chore. After you have done it for 6 months it starts to flip round. It becomes that if you don't do it it becomes a pain. Running is very much like that. After a time you become addicted to it and if you don't go out a couple of times a week you feel like you are missing something major and get restless.

[crashmonitor]

And learning to swim 'properly' doesn't just mean how many lengths you can do. I have sat and watched some of the worst swimming techniques I have ever seen go up and down doing numerous lengths.

That would be me then, actually I gave up on swimming years ago....could probably swim up and down all day because of my general fitness but the legs on the breast stroke were all over the place and tbh it was all a bit of an embarrassment. I do a lot of walking and endurance is my thing, covered 4,000 miles last year. Ideal weight for that is 10 stone 7 lb. Having taken my foot off the gas this year that is closer to 11 stone (5'11") . A lot of those miles come about through getting from A to B on foot as opposed to the car

Guess it real comes down to what you want to do, endurance or strength; endurance...Froome 6' 1"...11 stone, Farah 5' 9 "..... 9 stone or a sprinter like Wiggins at 13 stone (but he was less than 11 as a long distance performer).

Don't think ageing on the fitness front is that inevitable in your fifties...still not really noticing any decline..anybody up for 90 minutes of football You know on my head son for a diving header in the penalty area and a few sliding tackles not that walk football stuff we are prescribed.