Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2535: Seven Steps to Go from Dad Bod to Fit at 40

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

If Someone Wants to Go from Dad Bod to Fit at 40, What Are the First 7 Steps They Should Take? If someone wants to go from dad bod to fit at 40, what are the first 7 steps they should take? #1 - Lift weights. (1:08) #2 - Eat ONLY real food. (6:11) #3 - Eat protein first. (8:20) #4 - Eat veggies second for every meal. (13:18) #5 - Get consistent sleep. (16:37) #6 - Check hormones. (19:38) #7 - Ignore scale and mirror, focus on health and performance. (23:25) Questions (Diet, Training, & Lifestyle):  How do I build a simple meal plan that helps me lose fat without feeling like I’m starving all the time? (26:06) Do I need to completely cut out beer and junk food, or is there a way to enjoy them in moderation? (29:32) What’s the best workout plan for someone in their 40s who hasn’t exercised regularly in years? (32:50) How often should I train each week to lose fat and build muscle without overdoing it? (34:31) Should I be lifting heavy weights at 40, or is it safer to stick with bodyweight exercises? (36:06) I feel stiff and sore after workouts. How can I improve my recovery and flexibility at this age? (38:28) How do I stay consistent with my fitness goals when work and family responsibilities take up most of my time? (40:29) What’s the best way to involve my family in this fitness journey so I don’t feel like I’m doing it alone? (43:29) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Transcend for this month’s exclusive Mind Pump offer!  February Promotion: MAPS Anabolic & No B.S. 6-Pack ** We are offering them both for the low price of $59.99, which is a savings of $114! ** Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump #2437: What Happens to Your Body When You Quit Ultra-Processed Foods for 30 Days Mind Pump #2450: The Smartest Way to Use Protein to Burn Fat & Build Muscle Use the 3-2-1 Formula for Best Sleep Results | Cabral Concept 2526 Mind Pump #2320: Throw Away the Scale! Mind Pump #2235: Ten Tips for a Leaner, Fitter Body After Age 40 Mind Pump #2402: The 5 Reasons Why Walking is King for Fat Loss (Burn More Fat than Running & How to Do it Correctly) Why Your Tempo Matters When You Workout! – Mind Pump TV Sore muscles…what does it mean? – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump #2312: Five Steps to Bounce Back From Overtraining Mind Pump #2112: Is 15 Minutes Enough Time for an Effective Workout? Mind Pump #2152: How to Convince Friends & Family to Work Out Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dr. Stephen Cabral (@stephencabral) Instagram Dr. William Seeds (@williamseedsmd) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, go from dad bod to fit. If you're 40 or older, we give you everything you need to do this. Now this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, mphormones.com. Work with doctors on checking your hormones and seeing if hormone replacement therapy is for you.

They also work with peptides, so go check them out, mphormones.com. We also have a sale this month on some workout programs. MAPS Anabolic and the No BS 6-pack formula have been bundled together, discounted heavily. $59.99 gets you both. Both of those. That's a huge discount. Go check them out. Go to mapsfebruary.com. Alright, here comes the show. You're 40 years old or older and you want to go from dad bod to fit. Here are the first seven steps you need to take. In fact, these are the only seven steps you need to take to get fit. Number one lift weights to get strong. Don't run, don't do group exercise classes. Lift

weights, get strong. Nothing will give you faster results, better results than that alone. You want to add this stuff later you can do that but lift weights. I love this. I saw when you were mapping this out and we first started this, I was like, this is literally the steps that I kind of went through when I redid my thing where I just documented on the YouTube channel. A lot of people ask questions about what that process looks like and there's kind of like a a stair step or ladder approach that I do of things that I'm focusing on. Obviously the very first one is I got to get in the gym and start lifting weights, you know?

So that's the very first thing is, and focused on getting strong, not going in there and burning a ton of calories, sweating like crazy. In fact, my first couple of weeks of working out, I didn't even break a sweat. It was really like, I'm weak right now. I haven't been lifting, so I'm going to go in here and start lifting weights to get stronger. I don't have to do very much since I haven't done anything in the past and so literally

anything is gonna send that signal to build strength and so you slowly apply it that way and then turn the knob every week you start adding these. Yeah so lifting weights the primary result you'll get from that through right is strength which results in muscle gain, which results in a better ability to burn body fat. It tends to balance out hormones, or at least it makes your testosterone at the very least more effective. Other forms of exercise, although they improve health, they don't do this nearly as effectively. And when I'm talking to the 40 or older crowd, they typically have more time constraints

and responsibilities, so they don't get the, they don't have the privilege of being able to add all these different forms of exercise. And one of the mistakes that they make, and most people make this, is they go to the gym and they think, I'm going to go do the most high calorie burning form of exercise. So they run or they do these group workout type classes like orange theory or whatever, and thinking that this is going to give them the best results. It's not your best bet is to lift weights Specifically to get strong and then like you said Adam if you are getting stronger you're moving in the right direction It's the best thing to measure like am I doing can I do two more reps?

I did last week. I'm able to add a little bit of weight Do I feel more stable is my form better because I stronger? As you continue down that path of strength gains, especially in the first year of this routine, it results in results, results in muscle gain. So lift weights to get strong. That's the first, absolute first step. Now, why do you think that is? Do you think that we're still holding on

to like the early 70s and 80s of, you know, run to get in shape. And like, cause obviously you're talking about middle-aged men. Most of them, even if they want to build muscle and look a certain way, muscularity wise, most of them have weight to lose. And so do you think that's why there's still a large percentage of them that will gravitate towards this high intensity class or go for run as a mode of losing weight. Yes. If you lose weight, some forms of exercise protect your muscle better than others.

Strength training obviously is the best one. Other forms of exercise don't really do that. When you get weight loss with other forms of exercise, like group exercise classes or running, what you see is muscle loss along with fat loss. You don't want that. That doesn't set you up very well long term. Plus most men would like, what would you rather have? Like less body weight with less muscle or less body weight with more muscle or the same muscle, right? I think most men would pick the muscle one. So strength training does that. Um, and it's just very effective.

So when you look at the studies on different forms of exercise, it results in pure fat loss, whereas other forms of exercise don't protect against the body's adaptation to losing weight, which tends to be slow the metabolism down. It does this by, by pairing muscle down. Yeah. So you have to explain why this is so important, because I think the thought process that I think that they are having is, oh, let me get this weight off first

and then I'll go build the muscle. I think that's what leads people to do that, is they've got this beer belly, and even though they wanna build muscle or they want a muscular physique, they, I think they go, let me lose the fat first and then I'll build muscle. And now can you do that?

You can, but you're picking the hard way to do it because the muscle helps with the fat loss. So building muscle helps with the fat loss. Losing the muscle makes fat loss more difficult to maintain or even continue. That's what I think is the most important point to make is that you could do it that way, but it's much more difficult. And the cool part about focusing on building the muscle is you'll actually lose the body fat and lean out

while you're building the muscle. The other is not true. If you're catabolic, right, if you're in a calorie deficit, you're running, you're burning calories, you could burn body fat, right? You can lose body fat that way, but you're not gonna simultaneously also build muscle. So you're far better off focusing on building the muscle cause you're

going to get to leaning out, uh, losing body fat while also building muscle and building the metabolism. That's right. That's right. Next is to eat only real food. All right. What am I talking about? Uh, when I say real food, all avoid ultra processed foods, avoid foods

that are created or engineered, uh, in a laboratory foods that are created or engineered in a laboratory. Foods that have multiple ingredients, right? Foods that come in boxes and packages. Now why would you avoid those? Is it because they're unhealthy? Not necessarily. It's not necessarily because they're less healthy than whole natural foods. It's mostly because those engineered foods are specifically engineered and very well so to make you overeat. When you avoid ultra processed foods, you start to eat appropriately for your body naturally. It is not a struggle where you're fighting the urge to overeat. You feel like you're eating less calories.

When you eat whole natural foods, your body's systems of of satiety your body will tell you when you're full In a much more accurate way and the data on this is crystal crystal clear The multiple studies have been done on this and when you consume a diet that's majority ultra processed foods like most Americans You're gonna eat about five to eight hundred more calories a day. Just listening to your body So if you cut them out boom you automatically eat less eat less calories. You're eating nutrient-dense whole natural foods. In other words, you'll lose fat, you'll build the muscle through the strength training, and you don't feel like you're dieting like you would if you still stuck to those foods and just tried to cut your calories. Yeah, what you listed right

here as steps two and three is the main thing I just focus off. Once I start lifting to build muscle, all I do is focus on those two things. And what is so nice about this is all I'm doing is making better food choices. So I'm avoiding eating out, I'm avoiding all the packaged foods. And then your third step, which is the tracking the protein,

just doing that through whole foods, I don't have to count a bunch of calories yet. I don't need to go that far. Like eventually we get real granular and when I try to get shredded, eventually of course I'll start to measure out all the macros, the calories, but I don't think at first it's necessary at all.

At first if I just follow these rules of eating whole foods, going after my protein intake, a lot of the other stuff kind of takes care of itself. Yeah, so you mentioned the third step which is eat a high protein diet, but eat the protein first in all of your meals. Now to be more specific, how much protein? Eat your target body weight in grams of protein.

Here's what happens in my experience most of the time when men at the, in this age group, so I'll stick to this age group, when men in this age group lift weights properly, eat only whole natural foods, hit their target body weight and protein and eat it first in the meals. And I'll tell you why in a second, but when they do that, here's what happens naturally, this is what you're talking about, Adam, without tracking, without getting crazy with what I need to eat or whatever, just doing those steps right there. Most men will fall within a body fat percentage that's between 12 and 16% by itself.

Yeah. So between 12 and 16%, which is athletic body fat percentage. Now you're not going to have a ripped six pack, but who cares? Uh, you can get that later, but most men, especially in their, in their forties, if they sat between 12 to 16% body fat, I mean, you're fit, you're strong, you can move and you're not like counting everything that you're eating. It's not the stressful process just from doing those things now Why eat the protein first?

Protein is the most satiety producing of the macronutrients proteins fats and carbs So on top of eating whole natural foods eating high protein eating at first also naturally controls your appetite and helps you eat more appropriately So it's like you follow those three steps You almost don't have to worry about anything else and three steps, you almost don't have to worry about anything else. And in fact, most people don't have to worry about anything. Well, I know people are listening right now and they're probably going like, well, what proteins? Is that protein powders?

Is that only chicken? What I love about, this is why I love this tip and why this is one of the first steps in this process for me, is that you don't even have to overcomplicate that. Eat whatever meats you want. Eat like, and that can be rib eyes and tritibs And you think like what I can have stuff like that

Yeah If you focus on I'm going to hit my protein target so the and that's another thing that I love that you say too Is like to keep this simple You're it's just one gram per pound of body weight that you want to weigh So if you're male and you're trying to lean out and you want to weigh whatever your weight is that you want to be and you're trying to lean out and you want to weight, whatever your weight is that you want to be, say you're 220 pounds now and you feel like 190 is what you look best at, you go for 190 grams of proteins.

You keep it very simple. You don't have to challenge, you don't have to measure and weigh and do all the math to figure out the 2.2 gram per lean body mass. Just literally go one to one on what your target is. Eat whatever meats you want, so long as you eat them first, right? So as long as you eat the protein first and go after that,

and then everything else seems to fall in place, I think you get easily down to 12, 15%. I mean, I can get down to like 10% eating this way. Just doing that without even tracking calories yet. And so, and this has been the same thing for all of my clients, this is why, and I love this because I don't, most of the people that we've trained our career are not fitness fanatics.

They're people that they want to be healthier. They're at middle age right now. They know their doctors either told them something or they felt they were playing with their kid in the backyard. They got winded from just a few things and they have that moment of like, okay, I need to take care of this. They're not trying to step on stage. They're not, they're not trying to Tu on stage. They're not trying to be aware and weigh everything,

every single thing they eat going forward, but simply following these steps right here, and you're gonna get to a body fat percentage. 90% of men are gonna be very, very happy with it. That's right, and what it'll feel like, by the way, is you'll feel like I'm eating a lot. That's what it's gonna feel like. Because it makes you feel full so quickly.

In fact, probably 70% of the people, the men that I've worked with in this age group who were targeting this protein, eating whole natural foods, you know, you use the number of 190 grams of protein. I mean, that's like 45 grams of protein for, was that four meals? They would come back to me and say, I can't

eat that much protein. I'm full. It's very difficult for me. Now that's a great place to be if you're trying to lose a bunch of body fat. Like, isn't that a great place to be to feel like you can't eat any more food versus I'm starving myself, this is so hard?

And that's exactly what happened. And again, they would fall into this nice body fat percentage that was maintainable, fit, and healthy versus this struggle where, oh, this is not sustainable. I might be able to do this for five months, but I'm going to go back to what I was doing before because this is an absolute nightmare. That's not what we're talking about. You can't overstate to the psychological benefits of approaching it this way too.

I mean, you and I both have experienced this for so long where you tell somebody you can't do something and that inner rebellious child in you is that's what you're thinking about all the time. If you tell me I can't do something all I'm thinking about is that thing that I want to do versus telling a client I'm not going to tell you what what meats or what things you can't have. I'm going to say go hit your protein intake, eat that first, just follow that and just watch what happens and then exactly what you said. The most difficult or the biggest challenge that I would have is the clients coming back and saying like this is hard to eat all this food and it's like like you said what a great place to be when we're trying to lose body fat. That's right. Next is to eat vegetables and eat them second in the meal. So you

have your meal, you have your protein, okay here's my 30 grams of protein, my 50 grams of protein, whatever your number is from whole natural foods. I'm gonna eat that first, then I'm gonna eat my vegetables. Eat that second. Now why? Well vegetables tend to have more fiber, they're less calorically dense, they help with digestion, and it's hard to overeat vegetables, especially after you've eaten your protein and you get the nutrients that you need. Now, why is this so important? Because the third step you'll notice as we go through this doesn't exist.

You know what you eat for the third one? Whatever you want. Now, as long as it's not processed foods, like I'm not saying your third thing is potato chips or candy or ice cream, still whole natural foods, but you want to eat more, you want to eat some potato, you wanna eat some rice, you wanna eat fruit, you wanna eat something else afterwards if you feel like it, go for it, go for it. So long as you eat the protein first,

eat your vegetables second, eat as much as you want afterwards, and you won't overeat, you definitely will not, over the vast majority of people listening to this, you'll eat in a calorie range that's gonna be appropriate for your body, and again, it's gonna bring you that nice body fat percentage range that's considered athletic.

This is so wild how well this works, and I used to love this with the clients that would come to me and tell me how much they love carbs. Like a lot of times they would attribute all the fat that they put on their body from their love for carbohydrates. And somebody who tells you that as a client, one of the things you don't want to do is to go into this thing where I'm going to tell that client you can't do these things

because they're already admitting how much they love those things. And so telling them that, oh, well, you can still have that. So long as you do this and this first, go for it. It's such a wild experience to see one, them look at you kind of confused, like, wait a second, you're not saying I can't have that, or there's not a certain amount?

No, so long as you go hit your protein and take in that meal, you eat it first, then you get to take care of the vegetables and the greens and stuff that are on your plate, then go ahead, have what you want till you're satisfied. It is wild how well this works. But what happens to us is, and you know this if you've anyone's been in a restaurant anytime recently, what do they serve to you first? Bread, chips, it's all the

carbohydrates. They load you up and so we've actually been trained to eat our carbohydrates before we eat the meats. And how many times, and I'm guilty of this too, nothing worse than filling up on appetizers, chips, and bread, and then my expensive steak gets there, I don't even finish the steak. You always feel so guilty. So if you just discipline yourself to eat the meat first, then go to the veggies, most of the time, your body's natural signals of satiety kick in,

and you don't even eat that much. It feels like you're not trying to eat less necessarily and you again I've done this so many times like the vast majority people have done this with they through this process their body fat percentage falls in this nice sustainable range and then later if they want to get down to like 10% 9% although I'll tell you what right now some people have the genetics where this is me like this is how I eat I don't count a single thing and I'll tell you what right now, some people have the genetics where this is me, like this is how I eat, I don't count a single thing. And I'll walk around around 10% body fat and some clients would do that as well.

But most men, 12, 15%, it's a great place to be, or 16% is a great place to be without feeling like you're trying really hard. Next up, this is a tough one, is to get consistent, good sleep. Oh, now I know when people listen like, yeah, great. What does that look like? What are you talking about? What are my strategies? What supplements should I take or whatever?

It's, it's actually the first step to this is prioritizing it. Okay. Most people, but especially most men in our forties, but most people in general, we've used sleep as this thing that happens at the end of the night. And I just tired of them hit the pillow and then it's gonna happen. And if I'm exhausted I'll sleep and I'll wake up when I'm supposed to and that's just the way it works. And in the morning I'm exhausted and groggy but I need my caffeine, my coffee and I feel better. If you simply prioritize it a little bit and say to yourself, every night I'm gonna go to bed at this time and every morning I'm gonna wake up at this time.

And it's the same, seven days a week week which let me get into that for a second If it's if you know you need eight hours of sleep or to be in bed at a certain time that gives you eight hours before You wake up and you do that Monday through Thursday, but then Friday go to bed late So you can sleep in Saturday same thing Saturday night to Sunday You've actually changed your circadian rhythm and you are gonna give yourself jet lag every Monday So you actually lose a lot of the benefits of sleep even if you're still getting eight hours because you sleep in because you've shifted your circadian rhythm. So the key with this is bed at the same time, wake up at the same time

and prioritize it. Oh I know you know I got to be in bed by 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. or 11 whatever. Do it every night same time, wake up same time. That takes care of good 70%, 80% of people's sleep issues and sleep has a profound impact on your body's ability to burn body fat, energy, strength, injury prevention, that's one people that know about. If you want to dramatically increase your risk of injury as proven by lots of studies, get terrible sleep and then go work out. So just get consistent good sleep makes everything else so much easier. You know I know there's all kinds of you know supplements that are out there. I know we can talk about magnesium. I know we can talk about

hormones and how they play a role in stress and cortisol. But the point I think of this episode is to give you the least amount of things to get the greatest return. Make it simple. And make it as simple as possible. And I can't, I mean, literally it is just that simple as making it a priority. I mean, there must be thousands of books dedicated to a morning routine, but very rarely do we ever talk about the importance of a night routine. Or does anyone even say they have a night routine? What was the what is a I love what cabral the three two one method? The it's the three hours three hours don't eat before three hours

Don't drink two and then lights one right lights off to that right there to me is I love Simplifying it with something like that with three two one you making that a priority and not over complicating this and again just focusing on it the same way you focus on your morning routine to get ready for work. I think that covers 80-90% of my men that I was trying to get in shape just by simply doing something like that. Totally. Next up and this is more important obviously for the age group that we're talking to and that is to get your hormones checked. Now, typically what you want to do is you want to embark on this health journey for at least a couple months, a few months before getting your hormones checked because oftentimes that regulates hormones in a positive way.

But then get your hormones checked and see if you are off, if your testosterone is low, if cortisol isn't looking so great, if you have an inverse cortisol response where it's high at night, low in the morning, that could really affect your sleep. Look at your insulin sensitivity or your fasting glucose. Look at these things and then you may be a candidate for hormone replacement therapy. Hormone replacement therapy, really the attitudes around it, the medical community have shifted so dramatically recently because what we've really seen now through the data is if you, if you regulate your hormones, if you get, go do

hormone replacement therapy in combination with a healthy, healthy lifestyle in a way to optimize hormones, right? So we're not talking about bodybuilders. We're not talking about, you know, going crazy with performance and it's like literally just let's optimize your hormones. What we see is an improvement in quality of life and a skewing towards improved longevity or as Dr. Seed like to say, health span, right? So he hates the word longevity because that just means you're alive or you're not dead. He says, I want to see how long you're alive for, right? How long are you healthy for?

And hormone replacement therapy, when appropriate for men in this age group, it just improves your vitality. So now you're exercising, you're eating right, you're getting good sleep, check your hormones. It looks like my testosterone is, could be optimized. You use testosterone and what you'll notice are improvements in vitality. Now, many of you won't need this, but the the ones that do you'll see a big difference for sure. Now this is the fact you said that it obviously clears up why you put it this

step. This is the one that I would have argued that I would have put first or earlier on in all these steps and I know why you didn't because you just covered it right there which is majority of people should be okay. Majority of people should be able to follow each one of these steps and see massive change and improvement in their physique just by following those steps. Personally, with my own personal experience with hormones

and with clients that I've dealt with, if I can get you to go do your blood work and get a blood panel right out the gates, I'm always gonna do that first. Just because I know that if we have any hormonal imbalance, it just makes all the other things that we just listed far more difficult. And it just makes those, if they're aligned and optimized, it makes all those things twice as powerful. I mean, a man with suboptimal hormones could go through all those steps and they're going to see positive

change guaranteed. No matter what you'll see positive change in your physique. But a man with optimal hormones that does all those things are going to see two to three times the difference in it. So when I get a client in a perfect world, I'm like, no matter what they think, I'm like, go get a full panel. Let's see where you're at. That way I know as we're going through this,

plus I like to show them as we're doing all these healthy lifestyle things, how much that in itself could potentially make an improvement. I'm glad you said that, because that's what I used to do too, Adam. And it wasn't like, oh, your hormones are off, let's get on hormone replacement therapy. It's like, okay, your hormones are off, but you're inactive.

You don't need a healthy diet. Let's start those steps first first and let's see how much we improve your hormones. And nine out of 10 times, everything looks so much better 90 days later. Yes. And that one out of 10 times though, sometimes you don't see a response.

Sometimes this is becoming a little bit more common now, and that's a whole nother discussion. And then hormone replacement therapy can really be a total godsend. We have partners at nphormos.com by the way, if you're looking for a place, go there and you can work with doctors to check that out. But that's definitely more appropriate. Once you start to hit your forties, this is when you start to see this

become an appropriate thing for men. Lastly, ignore the scale, ignore the mirror, focus on your health, your vitality and your performance in the gym. Now here's why. It's not cause the scale and the mirror aren't giving you potentially valuable information, but if you're becoming healthier, if your vitality is improving, your energy, your mobility, your libido, and you're getting stronger, you have more stamina, you have better flexibility, those will make the scale and the mirror change.

They will move the scale in the right direction and they will change what you see in the mirror for the positive now If I just focus on the scale in the mirror oftentimes what happens is we ignore health signals you know we ignore performance and You can sacrifice health and performance and then the scale doesn't matter who cares if you lost 30 pounds on the scale of 25 of it was muscle and who cares what the mirror shows because your view may be a little skewed if your vitality is terrible and you're weaker and your athletic performance is dropped. So health and performance, move those in the right direction, the mirror and the scale will move in the right direction. Scale and mirror don't necessarily move health

and performance in the right direction. I love this final step. And it was something that I didn't fully understand this or grasp this until later in my career. So definitely the first 10 years, I fell victim to utilizing this as the primary source of our gauge on how well we're doing, not realizing how misleading it could be for so many people and not realizing how many times I had a client on the right path or doing something well, but because the scale didn't reflect what they thought it should reflect or the mirror didn't reflect what they wanted to reflect at that time, changing the course and yet we were right on track. And so I love that.

Not only that, but we talk about this a lot, that if I'm gonna get a client like this in really good shape, and I want them to maintain that for the rest of their life, it's so important that I help them attach their success to all the other markers that are gonna show improvement through this journey, their hormones, their energy, their libido, their sleep.

That's what's gonna keep this client fit forever. And if all I do is I measure body fat percentage or scale or look in the mirror, look how much better you look, that is fleeting and eventually that person will fall off the wagon again, versus if I can show them as we're going through this process and attach to all the other positive benefits it has in their life, they're far more likely to maintain it,

not to mention how misleading the scale and the mirror can be. Totally. We've got some questions here related to diet training and lifestyle. Oh, let's start with diet, Doug. The first question is, how do I build a simple meal plan that helps me lose fat without feeling like I'm starving all the time? You know, literally what we just talked about, and what'll help with this by the way, is a little bit of meal prep makes a big difference with this. So you know we talked about eating your protein first, you have your vegetables, then afterwards you can eat your your starches or whatever. If you cook once or twice a week, you have a grill, most men like to grill, grill a bunch of chicken thighs or a bunch or cook a bunch of

ground beef. Cook yourself a big you know get a big frozen bag of a bunch of chicken thighs or a bunch or cook a bunch of ground beef, cook yourself a big you know get a big frozen bag of broccoli or whatever and boil that. Now you've given yourself three days of food set up for yourself so that it's easy to plan. This is true for everybody but I find this especially true for the men that I worked with. When you make it kind of simple it's easier for them to stick to you. Like when they have their food prepped, I mean people tend to stick to it. I mean I can't agree more that that's as simple or that's as complex as we need to get right now. Like we're at a

place right now if you just want to get to the point where you're lean, fit, muscular and you're coming from a place of a higher body fat percentage, say higher than 20%, this is gonna get us extremely far. I mean, probably to where you're completely happy with the way you look. And by the way, even if let's say you're the man listening right now and you're like, I do wanna get six-pack shredded, 7% body fat,

this is still the first step. This is still the first step. Like, we don't need to get that, and you're not getting more granular earlier doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get there any faster. So you may as well still follow these tips, take it as far as you can. And then if you want the next level, you can get to weighing and measuring and do all that stuff.

But I agree, simply being prepared and having the meals and honestly, primarily it's the meat. Finding carbs is pretty easy even, or you can do rice or potatoes in bulk. You can do a ton of that. It's typically how we do it. I cook, you know, six cups of rice and we put it in a big tub inside the refrigerator. It stores really well. And then it's really about prepping all the meat. So I have a good source of protein that I can grab that's already prepared for me. That's the main thing is being prepped for that.

This is also where I do recommend like a protein shake as a, as an emergency, right? Whether you do the ready-to-drinks or you have a protein powder that you like Having it but not our goal is always to not have to use it is how I'd coach my clients Our goal is to try and get it through meat through Whole Foods But if you don't you still have that as a possibility or an option But that's how we want to treat it is like it's there in case of emergency in case you didn't, you still have that as a possibility or an option, but that's how we want to treat it. It's like it's there in case of emergency in case you didn't have time to prep meals,

but the goal is always to prep the meals. Yeah, men with a higher target body weight, typically 170 or higher, typically would need a shake to be able to actually hit their protein. Yes. If you want to weigh at 200 pounds, that's four 50 gram protein meals.

That's not easy to do. And so typically men in that, you know, target weight, uh, I would have them add a 30 gram shake at the end of the day, just cause they couldn't get there. This is exactly why I brought that up. Cause earlier we were saying how the most common feedback you get if you follow these tips is, Oh my God, I have a hard time still hitting my protein intake. I'm so full at them. And that's where I say, listen, at the end of the night, add a protein shake and that would normally solve

that problem and the client's completely satisfied with food all day long and then we just add the shake at the end of the night. Do I need to completely cut out beer and junk food or is there a way to enjoy them in moderation? You know, the term moderation depends on what you think moderation is, I mean, do you need to cut them out? No. But how often do you really need to have them? The way I used to

coach my clients when it came to things like alcohol and junk food is there is value to those foods but the value is extremely narrow. The value is simply in the enjoyment of the experience. Now if you're enjoying the experience by yourself, I don't think there's a ton of value. If I'm just sitting there by myself drinking beer, eating junk food, I think those are better saved for when I'm connecting with my buddies or my friends and that typically looks like once a week at most. So I think you can enjoy them, but enjoy them when they're important. Don't enjoy them when they're not important. If you look at the way people consume junk

food, it tends to be on their own, on the run when they want something super tasty, they're stressed or they're you know or just whatever. It's typically not like, hey you know my buddies and I like to get together you know twice a month and you know play poker and so they'll have a couple beers and two slices of pizza and if that's the only time you have those things you're doing great. There's a real art to answering this question. I think if I had a client that asked this question because they love this part right they every Sunday they go out and they have pizza and beer or they they have these rituals they've created around these foods. They know aren't serving them,

but they have a major attachment to them. There's a real art to getting them to move away from this addiction that they have to this without ripping it off and selling them. They can't ever have it. So my answer to that client would be like, yeah, we can have that. So long as you do those things I told you first. So long as you hit your protein intake, eat your vegetables first, and then if you still feel like a beer afterwards, or you still feel like you need to have a dessert afterwards, then go ahead.

And what I would find is that most of them would get through those foods in that order, and they wouldn't. And the ones that really wanted that pizza, really wanted that beer, they weren't doing that after they hit their protein intake. They were doing that in replace of these high protein meals.

And so if I were to tell them, yes, they still can, so long as they do this first, what I know ends up happening is they end up getting full, they don't have those cravings for those things, and we're fine. And then I also know that if I tell them, no, you can't because, or no, if you don't do that, because that's gonna slow down our progress,

which it will, right? The more of these cheat meals or beers or junk food that we introduce in the diet is only gonna slow down our process. If I tell them that, then they're like this, I can't have it, I can't have it relationship with it. And I know better than to put them in that position. So I would always tell them they can't.

Even though deep down, I know my goal is to try and move them away from that being such a regular part of their life and saving it for those special occasions like Sal's talking about, for the birthday or the rare occasion they get together for a reunion, things like that so they're enjoying the social aspect of it and it makes sense to do that

and get away from the habits that they've created of every Friday night or every Sunday they do these things and so I would tell the client they could so long as they did those things knowing what would happen. Next up training questions what's the best workout plan for someone in their 40s who hasn't exercised regularly in years? Oh Maps 40 plus we have a program specifically for people in this age group and it's strength training focused. Now generally speaking, if you don't have the program, you're like, okay, I could get that program,

but what are you loosely kinda talking about? Full body workout twice a week, strength training is great. That's it. If you haven't worked out, especially if you haven't worked out regularly in years, but by the way, if you have worked out regularly in years, two days a week, full body workout is also, still an incredible workout routine and plan. Now I know there's a

lot of bodybuilding routines out there with splits where you hit two body parts to stay three body parts that way you're training five six days a week. Most people would get a fit healthy body with good vitality with two days a week. Now on the other days that doesn't mean you shouldn't be active so I'm not saying do nothing on those other days. On those other days just try to move. Just walk, walk throughout the day. If you strength trained twice a week and you did a decent amount of walking, eight to ten thousand steps on the other days, you're gonna do absolutely great. But to be specific, we have a program, Maps 40 Plus, that is literally lays it out, tells you what exercises, sets, reps, gives you the exercise demos, everything.

Oh, not only that, but it's loaded with all the lifestyle stuff too. So you've heard us talking about sleep routines. There's a ton of that in that. I mean, that lays it all out. If I was just answering this question generic, I would tell someone two to three days full body. Like if you're doing your own thing

or you don't have the means to financially invest in the program or something like that, then the generic simple answer is if you follow the steps that we laid out, you follow a two to three day a week full body routine, that's going to get you there. How often should I train each week to lose fat and build muscle without overdoing it? Yeah, I mean we just said it. Yeah, we just said it. Be active every day. Walking is the best form of activity. It's the least likely to injure you. It's the one that requires the least prep or whatever. Walk after your meals, that's a great way to

do it. Ten minutes after breakfast, lunch, dinner, there's 30 minutes of walking right there or a little more if you want. Aim for about eight to ten thousand steps a day. The data shows that majority the results, the benefits you'll get from walking happen right in that bit. So you can get a pedometer, you could use if you have a Apple watch or whatever, it'll count the steps for you. Strength training two days a week, three days a week max. And monitor the intensity, that's the most important thing to monitor.

So make sure that the workouts feel appropriate. In other words, you're not like hammered, you don't feel super, so you feel better at the end of the workout than you did before you got started. That would be it. And not only that, is that not overdoing it, that's also effective for years.

Yeah. It's optimal. I mean, if you want even more specific advice, it would look like three days a week, full body routine, follow the seven steps that we laid out, walk for 10 minutes after every meal. Done. That's it. Like literally just that and you're going to get probably shredded. You're going to get pretty ripped and looking pretty good following everything that we've laid out. And if you also include being active in walking, because we didn't really dive into the, the walking aspect, but the average person only steps three to 4,000 steps a day. And if I can just get you walking for 10 minutes after every meal,

we're going to significantly improve that. That paired with two to three days a week of full body routine, we're building a killer physique. Should I be lifting heavy weights at 40 or is it safer to stick with body weight exercises? Yeah it's a common question heavy is relative heavy just means challenging so what may be heavy for one person is too light for another person is too heavy for another person also body weight exercises can be extremely heavy like pull-ups as a body weight exercises can be extremely heavy. Like pull-ups is a body weight exercise. One arm push-ups is a body weight exercise.

Handstand push-ups is a body weight exercise. So body weight, bands, machines, free weights, all resistance. The key is to train with a weight that is challenging. That's what gets the body to adapt and improve, but appropriate. In other words, don't sacrifice form and technique for intensity but that's pretty much it. I mean I used to train clients in their 80s quote-unquote heavy but heavy for them is relative right? It's all about what's appropriate for your body. I'm so glad you said that. I can make 135 pound squat heavy for me.

So it's not about how much weight you put on the bar. I think that's the misconception, especially with a lot of men, right? That's a lot of our ego dating back to when we were kids and we were trying to impress each other with our bench press, our squat, our deadlift, those movements. And so we think, you know, here we are, 40 years old,

getting back into shape again. I wanna get back to what I was lifting when I was in high school or college or whatever. It's like, it's not necessary. Yet you hear all the benefits of lifting heavy weights and how beneficial that is. Well, yeah, but you can again, make 135 pounds extremely heavy.

You slow the tempo down, you pause, you focus on the form. And at this point in this stage of our life, especially if you haven't been training for a really long time, I'm always gonna push a client on a lighter weight they can control, but if it isn't intense enough, it doesn't feel like they're struggling enough,

I slow the tempo down. Slow it down, focus on the technique, and make it heavy without actually necessarily putting load on the bar. That's how we build this and we lay a good foundation. Down the road, we can talk about stacking more plates on and really moving weight, but for this initial first month or two, I mean, man, you again, if you refer back to the series that I did on the YouTube channel where I documented all this,

I mean, I definitely was not lifting what would be relatively heavy to what I could do in the past, or just say a year or two ago, and so yet getting incredible results. So you do not have to stack tons of weight in order for something to be heavy. I feel stiff and sore after workouts. How can I improve my recovery and flexibility at this age? Well, for your forties. Yeah. You know what? Here's the deal.

Uh, you you've worked out too hard and you've used, uh, you've done an inappropriate for your body workout. and you've used, you've done inappropriate for your body workout. Trying to improve recovery after the fact is okay, but it's like trying to put out a fire with a 16 ounce cup of water. If you feel really stiff and sore after your workouts, it was just too hard. Too much. Too much and too hard. You should probably feel no to little, little to no soreness

the day after your workout. You should feel more energy after your workout than you did before you got started. If after your workout, the day or two afterwards, you're moving funny, people can tell, you're sore to the touch, you overdid it. And that is not a good indication of a good workout, it's actually an indication of a bad workout,

and you'll get slower results as a result. Listen, the goal is to do the least amount possible to elicit the most amount of change. And if that's the case, then what I'm looking for after a workout, I want to feel like I worked out, like I want to move that muscle and go like, oh yeah, I could tell I worked out today, but I don't want to be sore to the touch

or feel limited on how I can move that muscle because I'm so sore. That's a gauge of overtraining. And I wish I understood that as a young kid lifting. I think I would have progressed so much faster. I also would have been able to help clients so much better when I was a young trainer trying to do this because this was a mistake I made a lot of times. It was pushing to a client to soreness or using soreness as a gauge of the

effectiveness of the workout when in fact it's the opposite. I'm wanting them to get a good workout. I want them one, to leave the workout refreshed, energized, like they could do more. So that's how I want them to leave the workout. The next day and the next two days, when they feel from, what they feel from the workout should be this, if they're sore, it's very mild. So mild, they feel totally fine to come in

and do another workout. If they feel like, oh my God, sore to move that muscle or sore to touch, that means you overdid it for sure. We have some lifestyle questions now. How do I stay consistent with my fitness goals when work and family responsibilities take up most of my time? God, you know what's funny is, you know,

we said two days a week, you know, strength training. You could also work out every day for 15 minutes. You could literally do two strength exercises, training exercises a day, which would take about 15 minutes and you would be set. And what I found, what we found is that it's far easier to stay consistent doing it that way than to take out 45 or an hour, you know, twice a week. So what does that look like? Well if you have access to a barbell you could do that at home or you could use a

suspension trainer. We have another program called Mass 15 specifically designed for this right here and what's cool about this is you might miss a workout or two but you've worked out four or five days that week. When it's two days a week and something happens on that day and it's your hour workout and you miss it you've missed a lot. So one of the best ways to be consistent is to take your workouts and do a little every day instead of a lot some days. It's far more effective at staying consistent though. I mean this is the protocol I followed in the series. So the series where I did this, you know, getting back in shape in

my 40s, I did two exercises. Two exercises a day, five to six days a week is what I did for this entire process to get in shape. So I love that protocol, especially when this is the challenge, right? You want to spend a lot of that time with family or you're really busy with work. But one of the things you hear me communicate this in the series too, and I said, I don't care how long I've been doing this, how many times I've fallen off for a little while, gotten back into shape, but I know that I always have this concern of like, man, I just got so much going on

in my life right now with work and this and that. And it's just like, how am I gonna fit this training session and never fails. Every time I build this routine into my life, it's almost like I gain back double the time that I spend in the gym. So if I'm spending a half hour, an hour in these workouts, it's almost like I get an hour to two hours more in the day.

So it never feels like I'm taking away from, I'm more productive as a business owner, I'm more productive as a partner or relationship partner, I'm more productive as a father, like I'm just, more productive as a father. Like I just I'm better energy I'm better in all those things. It's just it's wild how it happens and I totally understand this Feeling and thought process because I feel that way every time also and then every time I'm Reminded when I get back into the routine of like shit for some reason. I've got more time. I'm getting more done in my day I'm spending more time with my family yet I'm dedicating this time to the gym and it's just you move at a when you're healthy you're fit

You move at a faster pace. You're far more productive. You have so much more energy And again, it's I'm reminded every time I go through this So you but there's ways to do this 15 minute workouts or the two in a week doesn't matter I don't care which one you choose. I guarantee you get the return on that time times two to three. What's the best way to involve my family in this fitness journey? So I don't feel like I'm doing this alone. Oh God. You know, one thing that dads are, you will look at the data on dads in particular

and some of the value that they bring to their families. A lot of value, right? That fathers bring to their family. But one thing that's unique to fathers is how we play. If you look at the data on the benefit we bring children, there's lots of benefits, but among them is play. So play more. This is huge.

Take your kids outside and do something active. Play actively. Take them on a hike. Take them somewhere that requires movement. Now instead of tracking your steps, you're spending time with your kids and you guys are outside throwing a physicality, running around playing hide-and-go-seek or whatever and it's like, and by the way you end up moving more doing this. So when I track steps the most steps I ever take is when I take my kids to the park once or twice a day because I'm out there just having fun with them. It's so much more enjoyable and

I'm connecting with my kids. So that's the best way. Now could you include your family in your workouts? You can but be careful with this because if it becomes work and force you'll make them hate it. But if you go play with them, I mean kids love that. This is such a leadership question to me. Like if I'm trying to incorporate my family into this health and fitness journey, I'm trying to lead them, right? And it reminds me of when I got my first leadership role. I was only 21 years old and I was responsible for a staff of 20 people that were all older, that were all wiser, more experienced, more educated, and now I had to lead these people. Probably one of the hardest things to do, right?

And I remember learning the hard way what I had to do, which was actually just focus on what I was good, what I was great at, and then get them to ask me questions about how I did said thing. It was a far better way than me coming over and be like, now that I'm the boss, do this, do that. Same thing goes for leadership in my house, right? When it comes to health and

fitness. Instead of telling my family, you have to eat this way or you do this or come with me to come do this thing, I'm far better off by exemplifying it at a level so good that people go like, man, what are you doing? Or I want to try that. Or how come you do this? And they ask me questions. Then it allows me to lead the family. And then I take that on as a competitive thing with myself. It's like, man, if they're not asking me questions, I could do better. I could do more. I could be better at what I'm doing. And so I first focus on myself and being a great leader first. And then that is what will eventually bleed into the rest of the family. Leading from that way, I think is far more successful

than trying to tell or coerce the family into doing the things that you're doing. Agree, now we mentioned two programs in this. If you're looking for access to those, you go to mapsfitnessproducts.com. That's where you have the Maps 40 plus and Maps 15. You can also find us on Instagram at Mind Pump Media, and you can also find me at Mind Pump DeStefano

and Adam at Mind Pump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and Maps Aesthetic, nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos,

the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump.