“I like food! When I was in my 20’s I could eat and drink whatever I wanted and I would never gain an ounce. Now that I am in my 50’s I just have to look at a margarita and I gain weight. I would like an exercise program that enables me to eat and drink whatever I want. Where do we start?”
As a personal trainer, I don’t hear this exact phrase, but I hear similar messages regularly. My answer? If you want to do 5 hours of cardio every day plus an hour of weight training each day you may be able to eat whatever you want and not gain a lot of weight. The reality is you will likely still gain weight with that attitude.
When you are in your 40’s and 50’s and beyond, very few people can out-exercise a bad diet and still stay lean. Very few people can pull that off…Actually I haven’t met anyone in their middle age who can pull it off. That being said there may be a few people out there who are in their 50’s and eat fast food every day and love to drink alcohol regularly and they never gain an ounce. I just haven’t met them yet.
As we age our metabolism slows down partly due to hormones and partly due to our ever-increasing demands from career and family commitments. These commitments inevitably crowd out our daily exercise sessions.
To combat this, my best advice is to focus on a more healthy diet. You don’t have to have a perfect nutritional diet overnight. If we want to stay lean or lose weight and get back to how we were in our 20’s, to do this throughout our middle age and into our senior years, then each year we need to figure out how to make adjustments to our eating while increasing our activity levels.
A few tips to combat weight gain as we age.
- 20% of our meals need to come from fibre. Sure you can have a small steak, but then the rest of the meal had better have a lot of fibre in it. You either crowd out non-fibre foods and lose/manage weight or you crowd out fibre-rich foods and gain weight.
- Drink lots of water – Always have water on the go everywhere you go.
- Consume the majority of your calories between breakfast and 6 p.m.
- Don’t eat after 6-7p.m. Get creative. I drink tea in the evenings. Work on evening projects that keep your mind busy, find a solution but avoid boredom in the evenings.
- Exercise every day. When I can, I like to pay myself first. In other words, I exercise before I go to work. If you can fit in two short exercise sessions every day even better. I like to do one 15-20 minute cardio session and one 15-20 minute weight session every day…Sometimes I take Sunday’s off.
- Make sure you are getting your 7-8 hours of sleep every night. If you are having troubles sleeping, turn off the electronics an hour before bed and read or study.
- Count workouts. If you are a numbers person, track your workouts on your phone/smartwatch.
- Set Goals- I always have goals. Goals to swim a kilometer faster or run a mile faster or lift heavier weights. Strive to keep on improving your numbers. You don’t have to do it all at once. Even a goal to simply do some kind of exercise for 10-15 minutes every day is a good start for someone who doesn’t currently exercise regularly.
- Vegetable Goals- Eat vegetables in a variety of different ways each day. I have some cold, some in a soup, some in a sandwich, etc. I try to crowd out foods that I know aren’t as healthy for me by eating vegetables in a variety of different ways at each meal.
- Keep looking for new and delicious healthy recipes. As much as I used to love lasagne and ice cream and a lot of meat, I didn’t like having the big stomach that for me; accompanied those foods. Over the years I have found just as many low calorie, high fibre meals that are as equally delicious as the comfort foods that I used to eat when I was younger… And the more you eat these foods high in nutrition, the more you will want to eat them. Our palette changes and soon we crave healthier choices…We crave what we eat the most. When I was overweight I used to crave mushroom & swiss cheese double burgers. That is simply not what I crave now. Now I crave vegetables, lentils, beans, high fibre bread and other high fibre foods. And after I finish my meals I don’t feel tired or guilty like I used to feel after eating a big plate of a burger and fries.
Nutritionally sound eating and habitual regular daily exercise doesn’t always happen overnight. For most of us, it is a process. Do your best each day. Some days you will do great. Some days you will fall off the wagon. Each morning you start again with a clean slate and try again. Keep on trying until you find a system that works for you. Or you might consider help from a personal trainer or registered dietitian…Quick practical, but not necessarily politically correct tip? If your trainer or dietitian can’t lose weight for themselves, perhaps they aren’t the best role model for you. Choose someone who is educated, personable, dependable, professional and walks their talk.
