As a man over 30, I found out that the key for me, is to stay physically fit and healthy is consistency and balance. It’s important to make exercise a regular part of routine and to find activities that you enjoy and that challenge you. Whether it’s running, weightlifting, swimming, or yoga, finding an activity that you look forward to can help you stay motivated and committed. I also believe that, at least for me, finding a more “mental” activity was super important for my mental health.
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Socialising the activity; football with friends is the equivalent of 60 minutes of sprints, but you don’t notice.
Sleep.
Discipline to prioritize it. Maybe it’s soccer on Sunday. Maybe it’s the gym every morning on 5. You have to turn people down when they ask you to do something that interferes.
Have a solid backup. I’m slightly burnt out from deadlifting in the 400s right now, so I’m just doing tabata workouts while waiting to get back into it. 15 min in and out of the gym twice a week and still making good progress is quite nice.
To stop drinking or drink very moderatly. The drinking never went off the rails for me, but I would typically drink two nights a week. I did watch a game, go out for dinners, after work or parties. Most of the time I would have between 4-10 drinks, e.g pints of standard lager beer. Occationally it would be less, so I would not allways feel anything after. But in general not only would I spend quite a few hours drinking in the evening, but the next day I would to some degree be tired or hangover. If it was a proper party like a wedding I could feel the effects for two days after when I got into my 30s. Working out without drinking is also much more rewarding as your progress faster.
I still go out as normal when not drinking, it is different, less fun and some people will question your choice of not drinking poison anymore, but the trade offs seem to be worth it.
What helps for me are a couple of different things:
– Cook meals yourself, preferably 2 veggies or 1 veggie and 1 bean type with rice/sweet potato and a protein source. Since I’m vegetarian, this is often one of these veggie burgers. Spice it up.
– Drink more water
– Be disciplined and guard your exercise time. I practice judo on Tuesday evening, and do crossfit on Thursday evening and Saturday morning. These evenings are often non-negotiable.
– I try to get as much often the full 8 hrs of sleep but this doesn’t always work.
– ‘Active resting’, which for me translates to work on my balcony with plants and flowers, put up an album and really listen to it, read a book, take a walk, call a friend, etc
– Social time – I try to have Saturday and Sunday for social time. Seeing friends, family, that old aunt I really should see soon, etc.
Good lick!
I just had a baby in January, so had to switch my routine up from team sports to pounding the pavement and getting in 10k steps a day. It’s not difficult, and I get to listen to audio books, night pick up the pace and give jogging a try soon.
Diet and exercise – proper balance and focus you’re good to go.
Consistency
Severely limit eating meat. It’s not hard to eat healthy and get plant protein to maintain a decent body + adding in 2-3 workouts a week.
Consistency as you said is the key. You can’t brush your teeth many times a day for 6 months and expect this to make up for the other 6 months in the year when you don’t brush them at all. I think this is the way many people approach fitness.
Looking in the mirror one day, “Dam, I need to get back in shape”. Then they start the journey of trying to get into shape.
There is a massive disconnect between the results people feel they should have achieved and what they actually see in the mirror when they start working out/exercising properly. Usually, you will have done a huge overhaul on your life which often includes exercising 4-5 times a week, giving up or at least massively restricting alcohol, a huge diet overhaul, and trying to get more sleep. If you have lived an unhealthy life prior to this point it takes a massive amount of self-discipline to stick with this even for the first few weeks, and after months it will feel like an eternity and most people looking in the mirror won’t see much change.
Now the reality is that a huge amount of change will have happened. We are though really bad at seeing that day to day which is why you should take pictures but even if you have a good grasp on the progress made, after 3 months you will most likely be still nowhere near the body, fitness level, or look you want because the body change happens really slowly. I feel like instead of understanding the body changes very, very slowly this is when most people turn to trainers, youtube channels, etc because they think they are doing something wrong. I’ve ended up in this place a few times before giving up and returning to my old way of life.
What changed things for me is when I started working out without any particular goal that I want to be fit in 3 months or I wanted to be this weight in 1 month etc. I started adding exercise into my week just knowing it would be beneficial, I make better food choices but am not neurotically tracking calories. I do think that having tried to eat healthy a number of times over the years I have a good idea of understanding protein needs, calories, etc so if this isn’t something you are familiar with when I would suggest you track for a short period to gain that understanding.
The goal or point though was to make it a small part of my life rather than a huge focus in my life which made it far easier to stick with and avoid burnout. The compounding effect of spending years working out means you get in shape and stay in shape.
Working out, eating healthier, and making better choices around my fitness/health are now just something I do like brushing my teeth.
Walking every day.
Not overdoing it is the key to consistency. I don’t work out everyday, only 3-4 times a week. If I’m sore, I don’t go. However I never take more than 3 days off in a row. I’m not a pro athlete and there’s no reason for me to push myself to injury or burnout at the gym.
Sleep, eat enough, move my body. That’s it. Quitting alcohol has been great, don’t miss it at all.
Eating healthy that’s the main thing cut back on fast food junk food eat small portions don’t gain a lot of weight
Learning that diet is a far bigger component of health than I wanted to believe. Many people eat largely what they want and use exercise to balance that out. That works largely because you are young but it actively works in your best interest. So looking back even though I was very active in my adult years I was as actually overwheight from the time I was 25 on. It was the guy saying BMI was BS for example. Now overweight in terms of 20-40 pounds. Now it doesn’t sound like much but when you are 30+ and you want to run it just doesn’t work. So it why me and many people switch to another activity that we still can do. For me it was cycling. So here I am in my early 30s doing mountain bike races and still hauling too much weight around because I refused to face I had to fix my diet. Then I really started drinking heavily in my mind 30s and that was the beginning of my spiral up in weight and my health starting to fail.
What I figured out is that I needed to get all that sorted. So in my early 40s I started to fix all those things. Stopped drinking and got my diet sorted out and lost the weight. And then one day I woke up and put on running shoes on and ran again when I hadn’t done they seriously in 2 decades. And today at 47 I could easily beat 27 year old me at running. So I found out that much of what I thought was middle age was self inflicted and that we can fix those things. I never thought I would actively run again but here I am thinking about running an ultra marathon. It is hard that look back and realize I could have been far healthier in my younger years if I just ate in reasonably ways.
I was 30-35lbs (13-16kg) overweight in my twenties when I realized I needed to make a life change. The two things that resonated with me were: a) consistency is more important than intensity and b) adopt good habits.
For consistency I exercise frequently and try to stay moderately active most days rather than go all-out less frequently. And I’ve made some habits part of my lifestyle – less alcohol, sleeping earlier, intermittent fasting.
Just getting into a consistent routine where you regularly get your heart rate up and have a generally healthy diet with a variety of nutrients.
Don’t try to break yourself when working out or playing sports. I find myself to be a lot more injury prone now compared to when I was younger.
Hear me out…
Once you get fit, you have a tendency to stay fit.
If you aren’t fit, you need a lot of consistency and discipline until you feel that natural tendency.
There’s many ways to make it fun too. Give yourself challenges, do team sports, try new exercises/sports, keep experimenting with your body.
For me, weight lifting is boring but foundational. For the mental aspect of exercise, I like to play basketball as it is more like a puzzle every-time I play by myself or pick-up.
I have motivational issues. For me the what works is playing some sports casually. Whatever is available and you can enjoy, I have dabbled in Football(soccer) and Table Tennis.
And always grab opportunities to do anything physical as a blessing- taking stairs, walking instead of taking a cab for places under 3 KM, lifting heavy objects to move, playing with kids matching their energy.
Do basic stretches, educate yourself about protecting your knees.
The best is if you can join a fitness regime if not above things are better than not doing anything at all.
Edit: not eating packaged stuff esp if they have sugar whenever possible. Replacing them with fruits and other stuff
Sleep number 1. Diet. Cut out sugar. Find sports and activity you enjoy. Don’t fall into comfort trap, driving, sitting for long periods and food treats.
It gets harder the further you get from the mid to late 20s weight gain we all experience. Some guys gain the weight at that age,and fast fwd ten years, that’s going to be their body type for the rest of their lives.
I think it’s critical for men in their early 30s to begin a workout routine if you want any chance at doing something about it. Cardio has to be included along with weights if you’re seeking to lose the weight.
Effort.
If you don’t have kids then I find that diet is the key. Finding time for the gym is no problem, staying motivated is no problem, but getting the diet on point is work.
Watch your food and drink portions. If you’re anything like me, I could eat anything and everything until a few years ago. Became less active through the pandemic and gained 15 lbs. I actually like the weight I’m at now since I always felt a little thin but I’m certainly noticing things are getting larger in the mid-section but it’s easier for me to put on muscle mass now.
I try to lift weights and walk a few days a week. I think I’m going to be in maintenance mode the rest of my life because I don’t have the desire to go harder at working out.
Routine & consistancy. Being physically fit & healthy is a lifestyle, it’s something you do daily.
Routine. Make it priority
Stick to your fitness regimen. The “secret” isn’t different for a 25 year old vs. a 35 or 45 year old.
Weight training to failure, cardio sprinkled in, and don’t eat more calories than you’re using. That’s it
You gotta be motivated or your won’t show up. It’s hard enough to find time to do the things you want to do.
Stay active. Don’t stop for lunch. Eat less junk.
I like to do CrossFit 3-4 times a week been working out well, I’m actually 37
Doing bjj with me and beating the fuck up out of everyone cmon
Water, 100oz per day. Control calories/carbs in. Get lots of protein. Be active, be it formal exercise or just regular physical work/play, preferably a combo of both.
Consistency is key. Get an activity you enjoy and make a realistic plan that you can stick with. I love running so I know if I want to excel at it I should do it a few times a week, I don’t want to be one dimensional so I lift weights as well, I know I need stretching and mobility so I do that every couple of nights while watching Netflix and I need rest so I make it a priority
The wife and I recently started cutting out carbs, sugar, dairy and booze (in moderation — mostly ditched beer).
Massive difference. Energy better. Lost weight. Gained some overall body tone. It takes a month or so to really get into the habit of dropping those things, but we’ve both lost about 20 pounds. We are both pretty active people with a Peloton and weight bench at home so that helps. But man, the difference diet makes is absolutely huge.
Eat better, drink more water, get more sleep. Most people would be much better off if they did those 3 things no matter their age.
Get your hormone levels checked…and interpreted by someone competent. Example: if your total t is in the 400’s (considered normal range) and you have low free test and are showing symptoms of low t, some intervention may be warranted. Some people feel fine at that level (or even lower) but others like myself have debilitating symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy is giving me my life back.
If you can’t perform in the gym or recover well it’s something to consider.
Lift weights, long walk everyday. Eat CLEAN. Cheat a little bit here and there.
Since last May I’ve lost nearly 25lbs. Abs now. It’s straightforward, and you will see results if you are consistent.
BJJ. Good sleep and water.
If you lift weights, low weight high rep. You can still stay looking fit and it’s way easier on your body
Resistance training for sure. Obviously a diet where you’re able to maintain a lower % body fat. Tracking calories every now & then to see where you’re at is a useful tool.
For me it was realizing that fitness isn’t a destination…and the most important days to get up and do something are those when you would prefer to be lazy.
“Self-care” means pushing through mental blockers and challenging yourself daily when no one is watching…not succumbing to what would feel the best in the moment. Instant gratification fizzles out quicker as we age, and giving yourself excuses will only impede life progress.
A lot of people expect to see their progress in the mirror, which can be motivating for some…but ultimately we should be striving for consistency, discipline, and resiliency.
The benefits of making good choices daily are far greater than just looking fit when you make it habitual and part of your lifestyle.
You can’t out exercise a bad diet. Eat clean, workout regularly, never take up smoking and don’t get drunk. Picking a sport that’s low impact to cut down on usage injuries helps too.
I’ve been a life long cyclist and in my mid 50s still put in 400 hours a year on the bike. For me the key is targeting events every year and working my plan to be super fit when I do them. 50 miles with 7000 feet of elevation on my mountain bike, no problem. 100+ mile fondo, no problem.
I’ve found that the e racing on Zwift is a great way to get hard sessions in all year long and it makes it bearable when the weather doesn’t cooperate. My wife calls all of it my type 2 fun and is fully supportive.
IDK man, I exercise 7 days a week for the past 3 years and I’m still obese. I had lost a decent portion of weight for a while by restricting calories to 1400/day, but as soon as I stopped I put all the weight back on.
I’m going to try TRT soon — given the amount of weight lifting I do already, I’m hoping that will let me actually build some muscle. I would take ozempic but that’s too expensive for me.
Consistency as well. All the other comments are great as well.
Nutrition, getting enough (7k+) steps, and working out. In that order.
Watching what you eat will become increasingly important. As someone who could eat whatever I wanted for most of my life, I’ve had to make quite a number of compromises now. Exercise can no longer compensate for excessive eating, for example.