Hello LupinThe8th and welcome to the forum.
Hopefully, you’ll find the advice and experiences contained within the various sections both helpful and intuitive, as you once again embark upon your journey.
However impossible you may consider your challenge, rest assured it isn’t. Your age isn’t even a factor in your ability to lose weight either. You may now be in your thirties but you’re still young, even if you don’t quite feel that way at the moment.
You’re right to question the use of slimming shakes over whey protein powder, particularly since you’ll gain far more from supplementation with whey powder in both the shorter and longer term.
As for which powder is best, in terms of avoiding unnecessary calories, opt for unflavoured whey concentrate or isolate, avoiding powders that are high in sugars/sweeteners.
Don’t worry about unflavoured whey being un-palatable, especially if you’re mixing it with almond milk and frozen fruit, for example.
As for other areas of your diet, aim to eliminate as many simple/refined carbohydrate as you can to avoid unnecessary secretion of insulin, since insulin will simply store the converted glucose as fat, particularly if your muscles aren’t sufficiently depleting their glycogen reserves on a regular basis.
Aim to consume around 1g of protein per lb of body weight. Not only will protein leave you satiated for longer, 210g each day will provide you with 840Kcal towards your daily calorie intake (something I’ll discuss shortly), in addition to providing more than enough for growth, maintenance and repair.
In addition to whey powder, obtain your protein intake from lean white meat, fish, eggs, seeds and nuts. Yes, you can also still treat yourself to a lean cut of red meat, if eating steak is something that you enjoy, just don’t consume excessive quantities of red meat throughout the week.
Concerning carbs, aim to obtain your intake from sources such as beans and legumes and wholegrains.
Quinoa and bulgar-wheat provide fantastic lower calorie alternatives to rice, in addition to being just as filling. The added benefit possessed by quinoa is that it’s one of only two plant based sources that can be considered a complete protein (where all amino acids are present).
As for fat (which is essential, particularly for healthy nerve and joint function), aim to obtain it from sources such as oily fish, seeds and nuts, whilst opting to fry off food in coconut oil, as opposed to other cooking oils.
Whilst it may be a saturated fat, coconut oil is a medium chain triglyceride, meaning that your body is able to utilise it in the same way that it burns off carbohydrate. It’s also extremely high in lauric acid and vitamin E. More pleasing, though, is the fact its subtle flavour doesn’t distort the taste of food. If you wish to include it in your diet, ensure that you purchase pure virgin/cold expelled, avoiding partially hydrogenated varieties.
Moving on to recommended intake, in order to ascertain how many calories you should be consuming in order to lose weight, if you’ve not already done so, research BMR calculators that use the Miflin St. Jeor method of calculating recommended daily calorie intake.
BMR calculators are largely accurate in determining daily calorie needs, based upon your measurements (age/weight/height) and level of activity. Once you know your numbers, achieving the goal of energy balance (and ultimately weight loss) becomes far easier.
Having obtained your both your resting and active BMR, you have a greater idea of the numbers required to maintain weight (active BMR) and the numbers required to ensure that your metabolism continues to fire (resting BMR).
By introducing a daily calorie deficit (from your active BMR), provided that deficit doesn’t take you excessively below your resting BMR, you’ll lose weight. The deficit can be achieved through a combination of calorie restriction and exercise.
As you currently possess excess energy (stored in body fat), by ensuring that the deficit introduced falls to around or slightly below your resting BMR, you will lose weight, since the energy stored in your body fat fuels your endeavour.
In terms of expected weight loss, don’t be too disheartened if you only lose between 1-3lbs per week.
Given that a lb of fat contains 3500Kcal, by consistently losing 3lbs per week, for example, you’ll have expended roughly 10,000 calories in order to achieve that level of loss, thus, attaining an energy exchange between calories consumed and those already stored.
Granted, there will be the odd fluctuation along the way, but a largely consistent weekly loss of the above figures will allow you understand that you’ve got balance and exchange of energy largely correct.
Most importantly, though, by accepting that the excess you may currently possess wasn’t gained overnight and that it’s not going to be lost overnight, either, you’ll hopefully develop a sense of perspective upon your journey towards attaining your goal. That sense of perspective also reduces the level of expectancy you may have placed upon yourself.
Lastly, concerning exercise. Although you’re walking every day, the activity is pretty low impact upon your energy expenditure, so it’ll not really make a huge difference to your levels of body fat in the longer term, as the activity doesn’t sufficiently deplete your glycogen reserves, allowing fat to be utilised as energy.
When it comes to cardio, I’d recommend that you hit the gym, using machines such the recumbent bike, rowing machine and StairMaster to accustom you to regular exercise.
As your level of fitness improves, aim to increase its intensity. I’m not immediately suggesting that you attempt HIIT, but by gradually introducing harder intervals into your cardio sessions (eventually progressing to HIIT), you’ll increase the uptake of fat and glucose throughout your endeavour, leading to increased levels of fat loss and improved levels of insulin sensitivity.
An improved level of insulin sensitivity means that the carbohydrate consumed in the hours after cardio exercise is broken down into glucose and stored in your muscles to replace depleted glycogen. As such, it’s less likely to be stored as fat.
The higher the intensity of your cardio, the longer your insulin sensitivity remains raised. On average, steady state cardio raises insulin sensitivity for 12-18 hours afterwards but begins to reduce, hence why regular exercise is recommended as a means towards reversing the effects of type II diabetes, since it repeatedly raises insulin sensitivity.
Following HIIT, however, insulin sensitivity can remain raised for up to 72 hours afterwards, largely due to the huge energy deficit that the strenuous activity creates. If you’d not guessed by now, the carbohydrate consumed during that period continues to be stored as glycogen as your muscles replenish their depleted reserves.
If ever you wondered how and why certain workout programs, such as Insanity and PX90, have proven so effective in transforming the bodies of so many in recent years, now you do.
Granted, I may have presented you with a lot to process. However, the key points to consider are that of obtaining your active BMR (allowing a daily calorie deficit to be introduced), eliminating as many simple carbohydrates from your diet as you can and increasing the intensity of your cardio exercise.
By all means, if you seek further clarification on anything I’ve written, feel free to respond in your thread.
Good luck (you can do it).
