Middle Age Spread?

Caballo Blanco

Afternoon All,

I'm male [EMAIL="6@0"]6'-0[/EMAIL]" 85kg and just about to turn 36

Married;
3 Young Kids;
Work Hard; + ALL the stress and strain that comes part of modern life.

Run - at least 10k per week - some weeks 15k
Excercise - Some light bell weights & core excercises 80mins per week.

My adult weight had always been approx 80kg or under up until late last year.

My issue is that over the last year I seem to have hit "middle age".
I've put on approx 5kg, have gone "soft around all the edges".
Weight is just appearing all around my middle third and my hair has
dramatically thinned out! Libido also not where I would like it to be.

Having played sport at a decent junior level all my life I took the hard decision to call it a day this year. I couldn't commit to training 2nts and my body and performance had dramatically dipped since the season started.

I'm eating healtier than ever - no takeaways, crisps, chocolate, caffine
run and try to tone but I cant shift a single Kg or change my body shape.
If i over-eat or miss a run I feel bloated and look like an old man!

Do I just accept this is part of life?

I'm not ready for middle age but I cant seem to tone up or lose any weight. I don't recognise myself in the mirror and it's starting to get me down.

Any ideas how to kick start my metabolism and start to feel young again?

Thanks, Caballo.

ps I've read a bit about excess stress & Cortisol production in the body
anybody any experience or insight into this?

Oryx

Do I just accept this is part of life?

No.

I can't help you with the stress/cortisol thing. But what I notice in your post is that you are doing the same exercise as normal, but with the exception of the two nights of training. So your actual activity level has dropped, which might explain some of the issues? You also say your diet is healthy. How long have you been working on your diet? And it would be a good idea to post it here and get feedback on whether others think it is good or not.

Im older than you, and I have to be honest and say that it does take hard work to keep the body in good shape. So I think maybe you need to reassess how much you are doing, and tweak it so you get more from your workouts, and thus see better results.

Tigger

Caballo Blanco wrote: »

Afternoon All,

I'm male [EMAIL="6@0"]6'-0[/EMAIL]" 85kg and just about to turn 36

Married;
3 Young Kids;
Work Hard; + ALL the stress and strain that comes part of modern life.

Run - at least 10k per week - some weeks 15k
Excercise - Some light bell weights & core excercises 80mins per week.

My adult weight had always been approx 80kg or under up until late last year.

My issue is that over the last year I seem to have hit "middle age".
I've put on approx 5kg, have gone "soft around all the edges".
Weight is just appearing all around my middle third and my hair has
dramatically thinned out! Libido also not where I would like it to be.

Having played sport at a decent junior level all my life I took the hard decision to call it a day this year. I couldn't commit to training 2nts and my body and performance had dramatically dipped since the season started.

I'm eating healtier than ever - no takeaways, crisps, chocolate, caffine
run and try to tone but I cant shift a single Kg or change my body shape.
If i over-eat or miss a run I feel bloated and look like an old man!

Do I just accept this is part of life?

I'm not ready for middle age but I cant seem to tone up or lose any weight. I don't recognise myself in the mirror and it's starting to get me down.

Any ideas how to kick start my metabolism and start to feel young again?

Thanks, Caballo.

ps I've read a bit about excess stress & Cortisol production in the body
anybody any experience or insight into this?

drop the jogging for intense sprinting
start lifting heavy and compound and get a punchbag

you will feel much better

a few of us here are doing a defranco programm with an unfortunate name

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056380718

here is a log from a newbie your age who seemed to like it

http://ontheapron.blogspot.com/

smcgiff

Hi op,

3 years older than you and got into a rut and built up a bit of a middle . 10 weeks ago the car had to go into the garage. Started taking a half hour each way walk to work. Very soon saw some good changes. The incentive was there to eat health and then started a nightly exercise regime.

I've lost a stone in weight and toned up a lot - but, while my waist has disappeared I've still a belly - albeit reduced. When I crunch I can see the shape of the abs, but relaxed they disappear. In time I think that will disappear too.

I think you may need to look at a more varied exercise regime - it can be done ! :-)

Caballo Blanco

Thanks All,

Will be a 9-5 poster at very best.

Yes, was thinking of ditching some of the jogging and doing some more sprinting.
I have an old pre-season drill in mind that involves combining periods of jogging with
short, medium, long stretches of sprints - it's fairly tough.

With regards to heavy gym work - pressing, dead lifting etc - I won't be in a position to
do this as I'm not a member of any gyms and have no plans to join one.
Although I know it would be beneficial to me - I'm just not a gym person.

I will however be taking up Thai Boxing again, one night per week - (previously started and did about 6 classes which I thought were excellent - had to temp fall out due to family).

These changes plus a few tweaks and improvments with the diet should hopefully make
a difference. I just wanted a bit of opinion and motivation to hammer home to me that
Yes, I am getting older but I dont have to look and feel old... just yet.

Cheers,

CB

Tigger

buy a barbell and plates second hand somewhere

heavy lifting is the answer to your issues

in my opinion

Tefral

Id agree with the weight lifting.. its not a cure all but it certainly helps. The added incentive is that you can see your muscles develop over a short period of time and that is addictive, so it makes you want to do more.

Most people stop in on the gym on the way home from work. maybe with the kids you'll have to go home straight away to help with homework and all that but when they are gone to bed you could go? (im just going to assume you have a partner at home to mind them and your not away with work)

The other thing you could do is look on adverts.ie or donedeal for a weights bench and weights. I think for €200 you could buy all you need and you could do it all at home if you had the space? If you had a partner at home, you never know they might want to get involved too.

Personally speaking I like to go the gym on my own with my own thoughts and just do my thing, but it helps if you have support.

The hard thing about going home first and then the gym is once you hit the couch it can be hard to get up and go. But you seem like a dedicated person with the running.

Ive been doing the defrancos training also and to be honest its great in the sense it encourages you to meet your goals for the next week.

You've lost out on two days training, so you need to match that with something else.
You know it might be no harm to visit a doctor, the stress could be fecking up your Hormone levels and that would explain the Libido drop. Having regular sex helps with the Testosterone levels and heavy weight lifting can help with that also and raises natural growth hormone levels.

Main thing is not to accept it and meet the problem head on!

Kadongy

It sounds like you have lower levels of testosterone than before.
Some approaches to trying to eat healthy can exacerbate this rather than help, especially if they involve great reduction in consumption of saturated fat and/or meat.
Jogging won't do much for this directly and neither will light weights.
Heavy compound lifting will help this significantly. You can improvise without a gym or even without weights.
Zinc and magnesium are very important for this. Make sure you are getting enough, and avoiding consuming at the same time as calcium, which blocks absorption. Zinc and magnesium supplements might be a good idea.
36 is not middle aged

Caballo Blanco

Thanks again all...

It's really hammering home the fact that I need to "lift heavy".
Also need to work on an explosive sprint session.

Gym is not an option at present due to family/work and other commitments. Don't have space for a home gym but will work on an alternative.

I came across this guy, Mark Sissons and his ideas on Paleo excercise
and diet hit home to me. Plan to use some of his ideas on excercise
and diet and adapt them to a system that suits and benefits me.

Will not be excepting these lumps and bumps... just yet!