Nutrition for a 55+ bodybuilder
Ok. I’ve lost weight on the Pritikin diet–was down to a 31′ waist and around 165 lbs. Remember Pritikin? The heart doctor and runner, I think. He advocated low fat and high carbs as the key to weight control. After a while I really missed protein and a good steak, really, so I didn’t find the Pritikin Diet sustainable. Next I tried the Aitkins Diet, you know high fat and protein and low carb, and lost a lot of weight, down to about 165-170, but similarly, I didn’t find that it was a diet I could live on. So, is it any wonder I was confused about nutrition? More recently, I tried the Cut Diet and variations, but didn’t find that sustainable either–I did lose some weight–back down to 175lbs. But the bf was still omnipresent–that band of belly fat that middle aged guys usually have–it really is a b____ to get rid of, and even a thousand crunches won’t melt that belly fat away–I’ve tried that and have done literally thousands of crunches trying. Ok, so I finally went to a bb’er trainer. He put me on the bodybug program, which is a 12-week electronic monitoring program that accurately measures caloric burn. I have to manually input caloric intake each day, but the program also provides templates for meals that fit your diet goals and objectives. Based on my goals, my trainer set up a program for me based on the following proportions: 60% carbs; 20% protein; and 20% fat. Can you believe that? I’m used to be afraid of carbs–and here he’s recommending a 60% ratio of carbs. He placed me on a 2350 calorie diet with a caloric burn target of 2800 per day, leaving a 450 caloric deficit. During this first week, I lost 4 lbs. We’ll do a bod pod body fat measure next week. So it will be interesting to see if and how much the bf dropped. I started at 15.8%, last week. The thing that is most interesting about this nutrition plan (notice I’m not calling it a diet) is that the food I’m eating (60% carbs; 20% protein, and 20% fats) are normal everyday kind of food that I can live on for the rest of my life–if this all works out as I think it will–I feel like I’ve discovered the Northwest passage for bf and weight loss for middle-aged guys like me. Stay tuned. I’ll post regular updates. In the meantime check out the bodybug website. It’s a cool devise I wear on my arm all the time, except when swimming or showering (it is not water proof), and it records all my caloric burn. I have to say that even just wearing such a devise is also a good reminder of my goals and objectives, and it serves as great reinforcement. So, middle-aged guys who are frustrated with all the diets out there, there is hope and some reasonable alternatives! 100%beef.
