Need Advice For My Dad

Training Over 35 Lifter
1

I’m writing in for my old man.

First of all, he wants good shape and lose some bodyfat. He’s a shiftworker with a law enforcement agency which can throw his body clock around. His stats are:

Height: 5’11"
Weight: 96 kgs
Age: 47
Bodyfat %: Roughly 22%

His goal is to drop down to 90 kgs (hopefully dropping a majority of bodyfat).

He has been practicing judo for the last 20 years. He has been lifting weights since he was sixteen. Due to knee and shoulder injuries and other minor sports injuries he now mainly skips/bikes for cardio and mostly bodyweight exercises, even though we have a good set of Olympic weights, Olympic bar, Power rack, dip station, pull up bar (the only thing we’re missing is a big set of dumbbells). He uses this about twice a week (cardio/bodyweight) and goes to judo once a week (helps teach because of a lack of numbers for adults to have a workout with).

His diet generally consists of the following:

Breakfast: Muesli or oats w skim milk and fruit and 1 scoop protein powder

Snack: Piece of fruit or toast w honey

Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich or baked beans and egg on toast

Snack: Fruit or toast

Dinner: Generally what my mum cooks (pasta or potato bake or roast dinner, all generally with a source of protein chicken or steak etc)

No bedtime snack

He drinks plenty of water, two cups of coffee a day with skim milk. He takes two fish oil caps before breakfast and dinner and a joint formula twice a day. He gets dry skin on his nose and scalp. He also stretches almost everyday.

So, after all that, does anyone have any good ideas/full body routines to help his goal of dropping some bodyfat, improving general fitness and wellbeing?

Any help/feedback/articles would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

2

The advice is the same as for younger people.

There are 3 things to work on, nutrition, restistance training and cardio.

Nutrition should be high in non-starchy vegetables. Bread, Oats, Pasta, potatoes and beans are for people trying to gain weight. Read the “7 habits” article.

Resistance training is key to keeping weight off. It will also improve his performance on the job. Pay particular attention to power exercises, especially Olympic lifts. “Starting Strength” is always a good program for beginners of any age. (I know he’s not a “beginner” but if he hasn’t been lifting heavy in years, a beginner program is called for.) Add in the Olympic lifts after. You should also look at Crossfit for other ideas for increasing power production.

It appears that cardio is partly taken care of by the martial arts but it would be wise to do some HIIT. He may need to work up to it depending on his current condition.

Stu

3

I highly recommend he read the book “Younger Next Year.” I learned a lot from it and since I’ve been following the recommendations, my health and well being have improved dramatically.

Your body composition is the result of your lifestyle and if you want to permanently change your body composition, you have to permanently change your lifestyle and this is an extremely difficult thing to do. It is literally impossible for most people. Some do better at easing into it and some do better making a clean break. You/He will have to decide which approach is best.

First off, as stuward says, his diet is starch based and this simply has to stop. Mom is killing him. He’s setting himself up for diabetes later in life. Throw out the muesli, oats, bread and pasta. Complete protein at every meal and preferably from a different source. Every day I eat chicken, beef, eggs, fish and lean pork. Fresh veggies and some fruit for carbs at every meal. His diet needs to shift from carb based to protein based.

I consider weighing my food and counting my calories essential. It’s far too easy to underestimate how much you’re eating.

To drop the fat, he’s going to need to go into calorie restriction and when you do that, your metabolism tries to slow down to match your intake. The only way to fight that is with cardio. Weight training preserves muscle in calorie restriction, but it doesn’t keep your metabolism up and so he should be doing 20 mins of Intensity Interval cardio every day.

As someone who went from obese to lean, I know how difficult it is. The biggest problem I see people having is that they don’t go into it with the understanding that it is going to be extremely difficult and require real dedication. There’s a reason that every weight loss ad on television showing people who have lost weight includes the “results not typical” fine print.

I wish him the best of luck and you/he should read the “Get Your Blood Tests” thread.

4

Can you get him logged in here? He may find hangin out with “Like minded” people helps motivate and inspire you.