.. how fit can you get after 40?

Question

Could you loos some "alot" fat and build any muscles!!?

if YES, then HOW?

Answer 1

The human body functions dynamically. What you put in you get out! However, the degree of fitness you can achieve depends upon the individual. We're not all alike with different potentials. Likewise, with age our potential is limited compared to when we were younger or compared to a younger person.

Answer 2

Same way you do under 40 -- eat less and exercise more. It IS a good deal harder, though, so it's not just you -- I've been struggling for the past five years or so.

The main thing to remember is that physical activity is actually more important in preventing heart disease than weight. That is, you should (with your doctor's approval, of course) start a program of regular exercise even if you're overweight. It turns out that overweight people who exercise are at a lower risk of heart disease than, to put it bluntly, skinny couch potatoes. Sitting around, even if you're not overweight, puts you at higher risk of heart disease.

The other part of "how" is "more gradually than when you were 20." I'd suggest starting with 10-15 minutes of gradual exercise -- walking is good if you haven't been active in a while -- and then working up to an hour of combined activities. My standard workout is 30 minutes on the cardio machines followed by about half an hour of varied upper-body exercises on the weight machines and with free weights.

What surprised me was how much BETTER I feel when I'm working out regularly. Occasionally I run into schedule troubles where I can't get to the gym for a few days... and that extends into a week or two... and I start to feel tired and achy. The moment I become active again the aches stop and I have more energy. That alone is reason enough to keep working. Yeah, it's tiresome and you get sweaty and all, but the results are worth it.

Answer 3

This may be long and envolved since I have struggled with weight issues for many years. But no longer...........

You can be very fit at 40 and there after! Although some people's metabolism begins to slow down it may take a little extra effort to burn the calories.

Eating is important! Small meals and/or snacks 6 times a day. Try to stick to around 2000-2500 calories per day. Less if you don't find yourself getting weak or hungry.
(3500 calories = 1 pound of weight), thus at least cutting your intake by 1000 calories. Plus any exercise will burn additional calories. If you have excess weight most of it is probally due to "water weight" so the first couple of weeks will offer you the most weight lose. Be patient!

Begin a routine of regular meals. It isn't about "dieting", it's about nutrition. It doesn't have to be all grapefruit and yogurt! Eat regular foods, forego the crap: chips, donuts, whole milk products, fastfoods and frozen entree's are OUT!

Optimum calorie burn is 20 mintues after a meal. So after your "dinner" meal, wait 20 mintutes, go for a brisk "speed walk" (enough to break a sweat but still be able to breathe and carry on a short conversation) best done with a partner.

Not hard to do if you plan your meals Depending on your energy level and if you can manage at least a 3 mile "speed walk" you should be able to drop a significant amount within 3 months.

The "microwave" is our friend! To avoid the calories and common cooking or frying use your microwave.

Breakfast: Cooked oatmeal (not instant) add sugarless jam/jelly to sweeten, toast with Smuckers Sugar Free Raspsberry Jam (very sweet tasting, low calorie) coffee or tea, one fruit item.

Snack: dry cereal, (try Fruitloops) popcorn, apple, watermelon.

Lunch: Tuna salad, unsalted crackers, cranberry juice, a peach or pear. Add a dill pickle, vinegar burns calories.

Snack: Can of beets (eat the whole can, good for the arteries and also reduces cholesterol), strawberries, (also a cholesterol reducer), (add fat free non-dairy topping to fresh strawberries for a sweet treat) celery and peanut butter, excellent for protein and fiber.

Afternoon: Cezar salad or fruit salad, slice of pineapple with 2% cottage cheese, tea, (NO diet sodas), FYI...get a can of Great Value refried beans( on the International Isle) these are fat free and great as a dip or add-on to a Taco salad!

Dinner: Chicken/fish anyway you like it! Baked/roasted/grilled, add lemon pepper for taste, add a veggie (something GREEN: collards, spinash or kale) NO Bread! Roasted corn cob (use MOLLY MCBUTTER, a shaker type butter substitute)

Late night snack: Generic microwavable popcorn (shake some Macormick spice like 7 Blend or Molly Mcbutter and caramel spice, garlic butter. Read the novel you always wanted to read, start a journal, get a pen-pal, call a friend and have a long conversation, create a hobby, get a website, join a chat!

Do this for at least 3 months!

I can tell you that this absolutely works!

My sister was 22, 240 lbs.....lost 42 lbs in 3 months.
My diabetic Mother was 59, 212 lbs....lost 32 lbs in 3 months.
I was 29, 178 lbs, lost 27 lbs in 3 months.

We varied our meals with normal foods. Prepared without fats or sugars. Mostly we did our 3 mile "walks" every single day 20 mintutes after dinner. No other excersise was done.

After the 3 months I personally began to work out with small weights, then added some more vigorous routines. I went from 178 to 151 with this routine, to 127 with the added workouts!

I wish you well..........

DON'T FORGET THUMBS UP! If you like my anwer..........

Answer 4

Yes, with determination. Go for it! You'll be glad you did. Start moving, walking, being more active. Write down what you eat daily, and take a look for improvements. Don't go for fad diets. The best thing I did was start walking...started off small, worked up to longer distances. You can add more exercises as you go and build up some strength. May not get the body you had in your twenties, but you will look and feel better!

Answer 5

More fit than I was at 30. I'm 54. Here's how:

Losing weight really is as simple as basic addition and subtraction. If the calories you eat add up to more than what you burn in a given time period, you will gain weight. Conversely, if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. Depending on your size and activity level, the number of calories will vary quite a bit. The secret is finding your “break even” calorie intake level. For most people, the “ball park” figure will be around 1800 to 2000 calories per day. If you are larger than average, this number will be higher, lower if you are smaller than average. Metabolic rate can have an effect on these numbers as well. Exercise plays an important role also, as this can increase the number of calories you burn by quite a bit as well as increasing your metabolic rate.

If you want a generally healthy diet that’s easy to follow and avoids hunger, the one I recommend will do the job very well. You can fill up and still lose weight. Eat lots of fresh vegetables as they contain very few calories yet are full of good nutrition. The less you cook them, the more nutrition they retain. Stick with whole grains, as they tend to be better for you and don’t turn to sugar as readily as processed grains do. For example, whole grain bread is much better for you than plain white bread. Eat a variety of fruit on a daily basis. Avoid empty carbs, fats, and sugars…. Examples: junk food and soda. If you feel you need protein to build muscle, add some chicken or fish to your diet. Avoid beef and dairy products, the cons outweigh the pros.

If you can’t get your mind into the ‘eat to live; don’t live to eat’ mode, you should probably read this short article on the psychology behind overeating:
http://www.geocities.com/seabulls69/weightloss.html

Healthy links:
Calorie calculator:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/calories.htm
BMI calculator:
http://chetday.com/bodymassindex.htm
Protein, fats, and carbs info:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/changingshape5.htm
General health info:
http://www.drmcdougall.com
http://www.chetday.com
http://www.phifoundation.org
Sugar info:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2006nl/sept/sugar.htm

Answer 6

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The Critical Bench program is indeed remarkable that a large level of football coaches across the state embrace this kind of instruction for his or her athletes.
This program is not just used to help boost the benchpress but different compound pulls also, like the squat and deadlift.

Answer 7

Yes, it is possible to get fit after 40! It common knowledge that the human body's metabolism slows down as we age. I am over the age of 40 and former collegiate athlete. I have experienced some unwanted weight gain over time. Here's what has worked for me.

1. I committed to from light to high intensity cardio workouts for at least 3 days per week. For example I would walk for about 100yrds or meters and then sprint in short burst for 50 - 100 yards or meters for about 10-15 minutes. Recovery period consist of a 100 yard of meter walk ( please listen your body and measure your pulse). This particular cardio workout burns calories fast.

2. I start eating better meals more frequently; at least 5 small meals per day. Diet consisted of lean cuts of beef, chicken or other protein sources and of course vegetables with a high antioxidant profile to fight off free radicals.

3. I weight trained with high repetitions consisting of 3 sets 10 -12 reps at least 2 days per week to retain and recruit new muscle tissue.

The results have been more that satisfactory as I have lost three belt notches over a 90 day period. Here's great resource for more creative weight loss and muscle retention techniques for individuals struggling at age 40 and above. http://40plusbodysculpting.blogspot.com/

Answer 8

You can get and stay very fit well after 40. Here are some suggestions from my 360 Blog of September 10.

Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 9

you would have to really work hard to do that. Gravity really takes over after 40!

Answer 10

As fit as you want to get