2922: 5 Things Nobody Tells Men About Losing Fat After 40
from Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth ·
34m 56s
Losing body fat after 40 is more challenging not due to biological aging alone, but because of accumulated stress, lifestyle demands, and poor recovery habits. The body responds to stress by holding on to fat, and modern life—filled with work, family, and financial responsibilities—creates chronic stress that overwhelms recovery. Movement patterns from decades of sedentary work can also lead to pain and poor performance. Time is limited, so workouts must prioritize efficiency, focusing on foundational lifts like squats and deadlifts to build muscle and boost metabolism. A simple, whole-foods, high-protein diet naturally controls calories without needing strict counting. Meal prepping ensures consistency and avoids unhealthy food choices. Most impactful of all is sleep—maintaining a consistent sleep schedule significantly improves energy, hormone balance, and fat loss. The key is not just working harder, but being more intentional with recovery, stress management, and lifestyle. Programs like MAPS40+ and MAPS Power Lift are designed for men over 40, combining strength training, proper nutrition, and recovery principles to achieve sustainable results. With these changes, most men can reduce body fat to 13–18% without extreme dieting or excessive time in the gym.
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Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews.
All right, we're going to talk about five things nobody tells men about losing fat after 40.
You're going to love this episode.
By the way, when you listen to the episode, we're going to be referring to a couple workout programs.
Right now, if you buy one of them, you get the other one for free.
It's MAPS40+. You buy that, you get MAPS Power Lift for free.
So it's six months of workout programming planned out for you, and it's perfect for men in their 40s.
If you're interested, you go to MAPSbogo.com.
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Men over.
You may be finding that losing body fat is more difficult than it used to be.
Is it in your imagination?
It is not.
It is more challenging, but there are things that nobody tells you about losing fat after 40.
We're going to break it down for you.
We're going to give you the solution.
It can happen.
It will happen.
You just got to do what we say.
Justin feels attacked.
Let's go.
We're all over 40.
I'm already looking for more fuzzies all over me.
It's got me all self-conscious.
It is.
First of all, we're all.
We're all over 40.
The vast majority of our clients were in this age group, I would say, when we were trainers.
Yeah.
And the truth is, it is more difficult to improve your fitness and burn body fat or
lose body fat after 40.
Here's the big challenge, and this is what you might be experiencing, is that you might
have lost weight in the past.
You might have done it successfully a few times.
You're attempting it again, and what you did before, which you did before, you're attempting
to work, suddenly doesn't work. It's not working. What's going on? It's very frustrating. I had this
formula. I followed the formula and my body doesn't seem to be responding or I don't feel as good or I
feel burnt out. What's going on? By the way, I do want to add this, that the way that we as coaches,
okay, those of us who coach and train people for a living, the way we define if something worked
isn't whether or not you got your, to your goal result. The way we define did it work is if you
kept it, right? If you got the result that you were looking for and you maintain it. So I do
want to add that because although you may think what worked before, I'm going to try that again
because it worked before. It actually didn't work before. It worked halfway. It got you to lose
weight, but then you gained it back. So even if it did work like it used to, what would end up
happening is what always happens, which is you end up gaining the weight back.
Yeah, exactly.
Nonetheless, nonetheless, I want to speak to this. It feels different. Something doesn't feel the
same. What's going on? Why is it different? Is it just my age or am I, am I losing my mind? What's
happening? Let's talk about that.
I actually, I actually think this is almost every client that I trained because rarely ever did you
get a client that came to you at their first attempt at getting in shape. Like that was,
that was rare. I can't think of a case.
People typically try on their own.
Oh yeah. I mean, before they, and they've tried several times and normally what's happened is
exactly this. They've gotten a little bit older. There was a season in their life when they were
playing sports, when they were getting ready for that marathon or just young when they were in
their twenties working out where a modality of training or a method that they followed or a diet
they did worked really well for them.
They could get, they can get in shape pretty quick.
That's like their go-to method.
Yeah. And so they have already attempted this and applied this probably once or two or three times
already and it's just not working. And then they come to me and they go like, Hey, here's the deal.
I've been in shape before and this is what's worked for me in the past, but I can't, I'm seeing,
I can't seem to lose weight anymore. What's going on with me? How do you help me?
Yeah. And a big, a big part of this or a big part of the reason why this isn't working anymore,
uh, is it's not that you're older and yes, age plays a role, but it plays less of a role
than we think we didn't. We tend to place all of the blame on our age. And yeah, it is true that
as you get older, your body, your potential, like your ultimate potential starts to decrease in
terms of athletic performance, fat loss, and that kind of stuff. But a 40, you know, five-year-old
man has got pretty high potential. Uh, even when he compares himself to when he was 35 or 25,
age by itself doesn't start to play a major role until once you start to get your fifties and
sixties, then it starts to play a much bigger role. So what the heck's going on then?
It's your behavioral patterns, man. I mean, your whole lifestyle is different at this point.
I think it's like, I mean, you fondly look back at like when you got in shape and that,
um, you know, you just applied this one method that was like this intense form of training and,
uh, you know, sleep was, you know, okay, but like you could pretty much rebound pretty
easily.
And like, I mean, the, the real difference for me that I've seen now, I can actually relate like
before I was like, my clients would come in and they'd say these things and you kind of roll your
eyes and be like, ah, you know, you're just not sticking with it or consistent enough or whatever
it is. Uh, but really it's like at this point now you understand that it's, you have to be a lot
more intentional. You have these like smaller windows, you have a more, more stress that
accumulates, uh, the recovery process, a little bit more challenging to really like, you know,
implement that. And there's a lot more kind of factors that you got to consider like more
intensively. You, you hit the, the big one that I think that age plays a big role is just the
accumulation of, of stress. And we taught you on the podcast, we talk a lot about that in the
context of like a fat loss journey and exercise programming and diet and sleep in the context of,
uh, uh, like say like a three month window of a training, trying to get in shape.
Yeah. But I think the, the part that like,
we don't consider a lot too is like that there is that right. Like if, uh, if I have a stress bucket
and, uh, last night I didn't get very good sleep, I filled a lot of that bucket up. And if I got in
an argument with my wife before I went to work, I just add a little bit more to that on top of
that. And then I also am underfed because I've just didn't have time to make any of my meals.
So now I'm getting higher. And then I go to the gym and I just hammer myself. And then now,
now I'm over. So there's that, uh, accumulation of stress in the, the immediate.
And then there's accumulation of stress over years and decades that that's what I think is the real
differentiating thing between 40 years old and 20 years old at 20 years old, we tend to be able to
almost be able to dump that bucket out and start over so much faster. And because you've only done
it so many times, cause you're only 20 years old, uh, you, maybe it's not as bad. Whereas when you
had these behaviors to your point for decades of burning the candle at both ends, yes, it builds,
or another way to say that stress bucket shrinks, right? Like maybe when you were younger,
all those tolerate quite exactly. Your, your, your stress book, it was bigger. You dumped it out
faster. We're now that stress bucket seems to have shrunk in a sense and your tolerance for
all those things in, in, in, in addition to bigger life stresses on top of that.
Okay. To put it plainly, right. Um, the, the reason why exercise triggers changes in your body,
the reason why you get stronger or you build more stamina is because exercise is a stress.
It's actually a stress. In fact, if we, if you were to examine you, um, and take blood tests
and hook you up to machines and see what's happening during exercise, uh, all, all the
machines would register elevated stress. You'd see elevated stress hormones. You'd see inflammatory
markers go up. In fact, if we just looked at that, we would never have anybody exercise.
Cause it'd be like, this is terrible for you, but obviously it's not.
The reason why it's not is because your body, if you do it right,
that stress triggers, uh, uh, a cascade of, uh, of things that happens in the body.
which starts with recovery and then moves into adaptation.
And the reason why your body adapts is it's trying to become more resilient to that stress.
So if I lift heavy things, the way that my body becomes more resilient
to lifting heavy things is it becomes stronger, okay?
If I challenge my stamina, the way that my body becomes more resilient
is it increases my capacity so I have more stamina.
So it is a stress.
But what we don't realize, so a lot of us don't realize exercise is stress.
It is.
We also don't realize that lots of things are a stress.
You're in your 40s now.
You probably have bills.
You probably have a mortgage or rent and kids to take care of.
When you were 25, you didn't have any of those things.
And although now you're used to it, so if you ask the typical 40-something-year-old
about their stress, unless something big is going on, they're like, I'm fine.
But the reality is there's a lot of things on your plate.
And by the way, you can see this in the data.
When you look at how much men earn,
when men become married and have children, their earning goes through the roof.
Is it because all of a sudden they become smarter and more capable?
No, they got more things to take care of and more things to worry about.
And so you have in your 40s more stress on you, more worries, more responsibilities,
and your body has a limited capacity to recover from and adapt to stress.
So when you have all these other things happening
and then you throw exercise on top of it,
you better be judicious and precise with how you apply your work.
So that's the kind of workout programming and the kind of workout programming you apply.
Now, when you're 25, you could have the worst.
You could have programming that is excessive with stress,
but because you don't have other things in your life and other responsibilities,
and you can sleep in on the weekends and you can hang out with your buddies
and you don't need to take care of your kids.
You better have a mortgage.
You're going to school right now.
You got maybe a part-time job.
Like, it's not a big deal.
You can handle it.
You can recover from bad programming.
In fact, you get in shape in spite of your crappy workout program.
But now you apply that same crappy methodology,
on yourself in your forties with all this other stuff that's going on.
And you're like, why am I burnt?
Why am I not responding?
Why do I feel tired?
Uh, and why is my body not losing body fat?
One of the reasons why your body's not losing body fat is too much stress on your body.
Tells your body to hold on to body fat.
Now, why would it want to hold on to body fat?
Body fat is, uh, insurance against famine.
One of the major stressors of, uh, of all of humanity for most of the time.
Not now.
Right now we live in modern societies, not an issue, but our bodies have already, or
they're designed this way.
When you get stressed, it tries to hold on to body fat.
It's no different than it's like your bank account.
When things get stressful in the world, you're not sure if you're gonna lose your job.
Uh, maybe, you know, they're cutting back.
You're like, honey, we got to cut back on our expenses and we got to save this money just in case.
This is what your body does with body fat.
So the, one of the main reasons why this is so much more challenging for men has nothing to do with somehow the
aging process is changing.
Your body has much more to do with the fact that you've just got more stuff that you're dealing with.
And if you don't have proper, precise workout programming, the stress you're applying is either wasted or too much and your body won't respond.
I mean, I would add to that, uh, it becomes even more challenging sometimes when people don't realize all the things that you just like a lot.
You said like, you know, people that are like, why am I so tired?
Why is this?
Why sometimes, and I see this a lot.
Where our bodies are so resilient and they, they do such a good job of adapting people adapt to all that and they survive and they think they're okay.
And normal, this is their normal.
Yeah.
And so they think I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with somebody who's struggling with, uh, body composition change and they feel like they're doing a lot of the right things.
Like I'm doing this, I'm doing that on my body isn't changed.
And I'm asking the questions like, well, how's your sleep and how's your stress?
I'm fine.
I'm fine.
I'm fine.
Yeah.
And, and you, and they think they're okay.
And they think their energy is okay.
And what they don't realize is over the course of decades, it's just adapted lower, lower, lower, and they think they're fine because they don't know what good feels.
I have a great example of this.
So I have a buddy of mine.
Uh, he does, um, God, what does he do?
He's electrician.
So he's blue collar worker.
He's got four kids, great guy, great guy, um, uh, otherwise healthy.
And he wants to start working out.
He wants to start with guess what?
What time he has to work out in the morning for 30, because he goes to work, he's got to drive to work.
He's got these jobs and then he gets off at two or three o'clock, but then he's going to be, you know, with his kids and his wife and have dinner and then go into bed.
He's got a little one sometimes, you know, and his wife mainly handles it.
But look, if you're a man, your wife gets up with the kid, like your sleep's also getting broken, even though she's kind of handling it.
Uh, and that's in his case.
And so he's coming to me and he's like, oh yeah, I can work out, uh, you know, four days a week.
I'm like, oh, cool.
What time?
4:30.
Like, well, what time are you going to bed?
You better be going to bed at 8:30 at night.
He's like, well, I gotta go bed at 10 because I'm doing like, listen, that's not going to work, dude.
And so he's trying to apply his old methods and he's coming to me and he's like, why am I so tired?
I'm like, dude, you're that's too much for you right now.
It needs to be the right amount of stress, uh, considering what's going on in your life.
And we have a general idea of what this looks like for the average 40 something year old man.
There's also accumulated issues with, when you're with your movement.
Okay.
These are called movement pattern issues.
And a 45 year old man has a higher likelihood of poor recruitment patterns and potential pain than a 25 year old, just because he's been moving, uh, on earth for more movement or not moving.
Great example.
This is your, your engineer or somebody who's been sitting at a computer desk for 20 plus years locked in position.
Yeah, total challenge.
So you sometimes hear as well, I work out, but my shoulder hurts or I squat and I can't hurt.
Cause my, I can't squat cause it bothered my knee or my hip hurts.
And that's because, uh, your, you have this kind of accumulated movement pattern issues, either from sitting all day or from do the same thing all day or whatever that you might not have had in your, in your twenties, when in your twenties, you're kind of coming out of your teens when you're playing sports and moving all the time.
And so you got to consider that as well.
And then finally, here's a big one that you need to consider big one time.
You don't get all the time in the world to work out.
Uh, I, you know, I, I see guys in their twenties, go to the gym and it's usually, you know, mid.
Day or after school and they're in there for like two and a half hours.
Now it's cause they're not, cause they're not working out for two and a half hours.
They're hanging out.
They're working out and hanging out.
40 something year old dude doesn't got two hours to go spend in the gym.
Uh, he's got a family, he's got life, he's got work.
So the time that I do spend working out, it needs to be really, uh, effective.
And I don't have a lot that I can sacrifice.
Efficiency is everything.
So efficiency is very, very, uh, important.
Um, now here's the one thing.
That makes the big difference.
Uh, and we're going to get to kind of what this looks like, but here's the one thing, uh, building muscle makes all the difference in the world.
So when you build muscle, you're leveraging this active tissue in a way to burn more calories for you to improve your hormone profile.
So building muscle is great for man, for testosterone.
It's great for growth hormone.
It's great for insulin sensitivity.
And here's the good news with building muscle.
You don't need to spend a lot of time in the gym.
The data supports it.
You don't need to do a lot of crazy workouts to build strength.
Now building endurance and stamina, it takes a lot more time, but here's the deal.
If you're listening to this, you're like, look, I just want to get in shape and look better.
Uh, and I don't have a lot of time.
You don't need a lot of time.
You actually don't need a lot of time to build muscle.
If you approach it the right way.
It also lends itself really well to a calorie maintenance, the surplus type of diet, which also lends itself well to, uh, lowering or reducing stress, putting somebody who has got all kinds of stress has all this stuff going on.
Yeah.
So if you're listening to this, you're like, man, I don't have the energy to do this.
I don't have the energy to do this.
one with your strength training is get strong at the basic lifts basic fundamentals the fundamentals
your your bench presses your deadlifts your squats your overhead presses your rows uh don't mix it up
a ton stick to the basics and get strong at those and that'll give you the most carry well this this
is so important when we're talking about this this avatar specifically because time you are you made
is one of the major uh issues and this is the greatest roi you can get on on 100 like going in
the and there's there's nothing wrong with you know easy curl you know bar there's nothing wrong
with some tricep push-downs those are all cool exercises they have their benefits but when time
is the issue and you are trying to make major changes as fast as you can as efficiently as you
can uh the basic big lifts are the things that are going to give you the greatest roi 100 now let's
talk about diet a little bit we're gonna spend a little bit of time
here because diet is the uh the the hardest thing okay so getting into the gym you know
two days a week three days a week uh that could be difficult difficult alone to be consistent
but i'd be lying if i said that would be the most difficult thing you'd have to deal with
easily by far diet is far harder there's nothing harder than diet when it comes to your your your
health um exercise being consistent a couple days in a week difficult but i could almost always make
that work with my clients the diet part was a big one so here's what we're going to do we're going to
give you like a few things to do and and these the reason why we're only going to give you a few
things is there's two reasons one uh these are things you can stick to but two these are the
ones that make the big difference okay so there's like there's a lot of things you can do with your
diet to make it work better for you but if you just did the the couple things that we're going
to mention right now most guys listening to this most guys in their 40s listening to this who
exercise properly and we'll get to that who follow good workout programming for them if they follow
these next pieces of advice
for diet and they were just consistent with this the average 40 something year old man's body fat
percentage would fall somewhere in the mid-teens yeah now give or take right some guys can be a
little leaner some guys a little heavier but most guys over time without having to do anything else
without having to count things and track things and cut things or whatever will fall somewhere
around 13 to 18 percent body fat is where you'll end up falling for most people here's number one
this is a this is one rule that's it eat only whole foods
that's it stay away from things in boxes or wrappers stay away from fast food stay away from
candy eat whole natural foods now notice i'm not saying eat less notice i'm not saying you know
this many grams of carbs just stick to whole foods this will naturally bring your caloric
intake down to where it needs to be the studies on nutrition on whole foods versus heavily processed
foods are remarkable they're the best studies there are the best part about this is that you
it keeps it so simple especially for somebody who is busy and got so much going on it's just like
if you're hungry eat just eat whole foods you don't have to overthink this uh and your body
will it'll fall right where it needs to be where this gets difficult is when you know 50 is whole
foods and the other 50 process then this gets confusing then this gets challenging then that
throws it off and then this is where people overeat because every time i tell somebody this
but what about how much carbs and how much fat and how many calories and how many calories and
how many calories it's like just hit the protein intake and hit eat whole foods and that is that'll
take care of the rest yes and so here's why and i'll briefly cover this we've had whole episodes
on this but um processed foods are designed uh in a way that makes you overeat if you eat whole
natural foods your your natural satiety actually is uh quite remarkable at maintaining an appropriate
caloric intake there's this weird belief that if we're just eat as much as we want that we're all
going to be 350 calories
50 pounds that's only true with heavily processed foods with whole foods if you wait until you were
satisfied barring any you know eating disorder issues barring anything crazy like that right
if you just ate when you were hungry your calories will naturally fall in this place that allows you
to burn body fat and build muscle that's just where it goes you'll actually be satisfied in fact
here's the challenge with eating whole foods uh there's a couple challenges we'll cover the second
one here in a second but the first challenge i found with whole foods is my clients will eat
just whole foods and they're going to be satisfied with just whole foods and they're going to be
satisfied with just whole foods and then they'll say but i'm craving and i'll say eat a whole food
meal yeah but i'm craving the whatever and they know if they eat the whole food it's actually like
that doesn't actually don't want to eat that it's because you're not hungry you have a craving and
processed foods will do that so stick to just whole foods and then the second part what adam said
make it very high protein all of your meals protein centric every single meal you eat 40 50
grams in the meal of protein steak chicken fish eggs you know cottage cheese whatever eat it first
eat the rest of the meal and then you're going to be satisfied with just whole foods and then you're
high protein builds more muscle and causes more fat loss and by the way they've they're there's
new studies that are coming out on protein intake on the show we recommend about one gram per pound
of target body weight the old data showed a little less we always rounded it up to one because we
always found it worked better guess what the data supports fellows higher one gram yeah the data
supports one gram maybe even a little higher for building muscle so if you're a guy and you want to
weigh about 200 pounds you're going to have to weigh about 200 pounds and you're going to have to
aim for 200 grams that's 50 grams of protein in four meals aim for that the best part about this
too is you don't even have to overcomplicate what types of protein you can really enjoy yourself
you can you can eat fattier cuts you can enjoy ribeye tri-tip you can enjoy ground beef eating
things like this if you just stick to that rule of whole foods eat it first then everything follows
that's right it'll take care of the rest and so this idea of like even having because i think a
lot of times too people think high protein they think right away chicken breasts and fish boring
yeah that's a good idea i think a lot of times too people think high protein they think right away
i didn't say high protein low fat right i just said high protein that's right whole foods that's
right and you can really enjoy good cuts of meat that and just eat it first and then let the carbs
and everything else follow a second that's right and then here's the part that makes this all
possible if you don't do this eating only whole foods will be almost impossible okay so here's
what you got to do meal prep this is the one thing that made the biggest difference with my
male clients over 40 uh once a week or twice a week they would go out and they grill and they
a bunch of meat a bunch of chicken a bunch of whatever cook a bunch of ground beef
and and prep their meals for them because here's what happens yeah if you're trying to stick to
whole foods and you don't have a meal available it's just not there it's not there you're screwed
there yeah the environment just doesn't promote this enough to where you're going to go down to
your local store and it's going to be an easy option that's convenient never uh nothing's ever
convenient uh within the whole foods realm but you know you can control that by prepping ahead
of time and kind of making these uh last sometimes
we really over complicate this too like a lot of the times the challenge that people have with this
is just getting out of their way of thinking of like the way they've made dinner their whole
lives before right is this like just got to make them bigger you just got to be way bigger like
that's all it is it's just like if if you made you can actually meal prep every night that's what
that's that's exactly what i'm saying by over complicated because some people like man that
means i gotta spend all day sunday meal prep and all this stuff is like that's one way to do it
or just if you
say say just two or three nights out of the week you actually make home double up the serving just
double or triple up the serving like just get used to instead of making a pound of meat for
you and your spouse or family or whatever it's four or five pounds and instead of cooking one
or two cups of rice that's what i do it's five to six cups of rice and that gets you for the next
two or three days and then when you do it again you do it again so here's what i do on sundays
i meal prep and i make about five pounds of chicken thighs um or sometimes less chicken
thighs and i make about five pounds of chicken thighs and i make about five pounds of chicken
thighs and i'll do a big thing of ground beef i'll make a big pot of white rice um and then i'll
i'll cook a big thing of of broccoli or whatever choose your vegetable uh you can make uh ground
beef rice bowls you can do chicken thighs and rice whatever it's all good i enjoy it you can
choose different cuts and then in my fridge i got a bunch of meals ready to go by the time
wednesday thursday comes around i typically run out and that's when my wife will make extra dinner
yeah so she'll instead of making one tri-tip she'll make two and then i have more meals and
it's just a matter of time and then i'm like okay i'm gonna make another one and then i'm
just it's by the way fellas in your in your 40s look this has got a double there's a double side
to this is another side to this a value you save money oh yeah guys listen especially today you're
taking care of your family you got a job you want to take some stress off your life meal prep it
saves you money and it gets you lean it is both of those things now you're not eating out you've
got your meals birds it's that's that's pretty much it eat whole foods very high protein meal
prep diet part is done diet part is done here's the last part okay
the number one thing that will increase your resilience to stress
okay because there are stresses in your life and sometimes you'll hear people say this
i used to say this when i was a stupid young kid and i didn't understand what it was like to to
manage all these things sometimes you'll hear people say well you got to get rid of certain
stresses in your life like oh what my mortgage i got three kids like what am i going to get my
job like i can't get rid of these yeah what am i going to get rid of or i'm taking care of an
old parent like what am i going to get rid of well you can increase your uh your resilience
to stress and the number one thing nothing comes close to this nothing touches us no no recovery
hack no supplement nothing is better than sleep and so how do you do this as a man in your mid
40s you prep for your sleep you prep for it you know what your bedtime is an hour before you get
ready go to bed at the same time wake up at the same time every day if you do that consistently
by yourself yeah it makes in fact i had clients uh i had more clients uh than i can count on
right now i'm thinking i can think of many clients i had in this category where when we nailed down
sleep
It was like turbocharged.
Nothing else changed.
All we did was get their sleep done.
Everything else became 10 times more effective.
It was wild.
So let's list off something
because I've been helping some people
with getting better at their sleep.
And one of the things I'm starting to find,
it's very similar to the way
that we start somebody on a fitness journey
is we tend to build one or two good habits
and stack on that.
And what I'm finding with a lot of people
when it comes to sleep,
their sleep patterns or sleep habits
are so bad that telling them to do all these things
is too much at once.
And so my advice would be to,
and I'll give you a list of different things
that people tend to do to improve
and don't try and do all of them at once.
Find the thing that's most egregious
and try and get consistent with that one thing.
So it's like screen time past seven or eight o'clock,
you see all the time.
People on their phones and they're like,
I see that all the time.
I see late night eating.
I see doing work and eating
work email stuff late at night.
There's like these things are drinking
like right before like a bunch of water
or fluid like right before it.
There's like a handful of these things
that people all tend to do.
It's like pick if you're doing all of those,
pick one and get really good at eliminating it
and then stack another one on it
and just and then treat it the same way.
Like that's how powerful sleep is
that it deserves that much attention
to try and get better at it
because the ROI on that.
What I found is going to bed at the same,
and waking up at the same time every morning
makes the biggest difference.
But the challenge is always going to bed at the same time.
And the thing that gets in the way
from the people that I've worked with oftentimes is tech.
I got Netflix.
I got to watch the show.
I got whatever.
And so if you give yourself a hard and fast rule,
eight o'clock, everything,
I'm not going on any electronics.
Going to bed is a lot easier
because there's nothing to do.
It's actually a lot easier.
No, I agree.
It makes a big difference.
You got a way to get bored.
It's a hundred percent.
Let's go back to the workout.
So workout programming is everything.
It needs to be appropriate
for the avatar of a man in his forties
with responsibilities,
with more stress in his life,
who wants to build muscle and burn body fat.
Programming is everything.
There's a couple of things
you want to focus on with the programming.
We talked about this already, the basics,
but some of those basics
require a decent amount of skill.
A deadlift and a barbell squat, for example,
require a decent amount of skill.
They're phenomenal exercises.
But if you're listening to this,
you may be someone that's like,
man, when I deadlift,
I feel like my back,
I'm going to throw up my back.
Or when I squat,
I'm unsure or I feel at my knee,
like, what do I do?
You can replace those two exercises
with variations that are a lot safer
that have pretty much the same kind of value.
For example,
instead of a straight bar deadlift,
do a trap bar deadlift.
Instead of doing a traditional barbell squat,
do a box squat.
That's just a simple example of things
that you can do in your programming
to make the workout safer,
but not reduce the stress.
It doesn't reduce any of its effectiveness.
So here's what we have.
We have a strength training program
for people who are over 40,
and it's everything that we just said.
It's called MAPS 40+.
We also have a program called MAPS Powerlift,
which would be a great program
to follow up with after 40+,
because both of them are to build strength.
Build strength, build muscle,
combine it with the nutrition tips that we gave,
and you're going to watch yourself
have this nice, consistent pattern
of getting leaner
and building muscle.
Building more muscle.
And here's what we're doing right now
because this episode,
if you buy 40+,
you get MAPS Powerlift for free.
It's a buy one, get one free.
It's happening right now.
Go to mapsbogo.com,
get 40+,
and get Powerlift thrown in for free.
You can also find us on Instagram.
It's at mindpumpmedia.
We'll see you there.
Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.
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 five-star rating and review on iTunes,
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We thank you for your support,
and until next time, this is Mind Pump.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Losing fat after 40 is harder due to accumulated stress, poor sleep, and lifestyle changes, not just aging.
Exercise is a form of stress that triggers adaptation, but chronic stress from work, family, and responsibilities overwhelms the body’s recovery capacity.
Body fat increases during stress because it acts as an evolutionary “insurance” against famine.
Movement pattern issues from sedentary work habits (e.g., sitting all day) reduce joint mobility and increase pain during workouts.
Time constraints mean workouts must be efficient—focusing on foundational lifts like squats and deadlifts is more effective than high-volume, complex routines.
A high-protein, whole-foods diet naturally controls calorie intake and supports muscle growth and fat loss.
Meal prepping ensures consistent access to healthy meals, reducing temptation to eat processed or unhealthy foods.
Sleep is the most powerful recovery tool—consistently going to bed and waking up at the same time dramatically improves energy, fat loss, and performance.
Summary:
Losing body fat after 40 is more challenging not due to biological aging alone, but because of accumulated stress, lifestyle demands, and poor recovery habits. The body responds to stress by holding on to fat, and modern life—filled with work, family, and financial responsibilities—creates chronic stress that overwhelms recovery. Movement patterns from decades of sedentary work can also lead to pain and poor performance.
Time is limited, so workouts must prioritize efficiency, focusing on foundational lifts like squats and deadlifts to build muscle and boost metabolism. A simple, whole-foods, high-protein diet naturally controls calories without needing strict counting. Meal prepping ensures consistency and avoids unhealthy food choices.
Most impactful of all is sleep—maintaining a consistent sleep schedule significantly improves energy, hormone balance, and fat loss. The key is not just working harder, but being more intentional with recovery, stress management, and lifestyle. Programs like MAPS40+ and MAPS Power Lift are designed for men over 40, combining strength training, proper nutrition, and recovery principles to achieve sustainable results.
With these changes, most men can reduce body fat to 13–18% without extreme dieting or excessive time in the gym.
FAQs
Losing fat after 40 is more challenging due to increased daily stress, accumulated fatigue, and reduced body resilience. While aging plays a role, the main issue is the buildup of stress from responsibilities like work, family, and financial obligations, which signals the body to hold onto fat for survival.
Stress triggers hormonal changes that cause the body to conserve fat as a protective measure, similar to how a bank saves money during uncertain times. Chronic stress from daily life makes it harder to lose fat, even with exercise and proper diet.
Workouts should be safer, more efficient, and less intense for men over 40. Exercises like trap bar deadlifts or box squats can replace high-risk movements like straight barbell squats, reducing injury risk while maintaining effectiveness.
Building muscle increases calorie burn, improves hormone levels like testosterone and growth hormone, and enhances insulin sensitivity. This leads to better fat loss and more sustainable results without needing long gym sessions.
Focus on whole, unprocessed foods and maintain a high-protein diet—aiming for 40–50 grams of protein per meal. This naturally controls calorie intake and promotes satiety, without needing strict counting or restrictions.
Meal prepping ensures consistent access to whole foods, reduces impulsive eating, and saves time and money. It helps maintain a healthy diet despite busy schedules and limited time for meal preparation.
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