The quick answer no matter what anyone else tells you about removing any fat, not just belly, is that you must consistently average less calorie intake than the calories you burn. That said, the types of foods you eat (including ratio of protein, fats and carbohydrates -see below) within your allowed calories necessary to lose weight, can be a performance factor in how you feel thus how many calories you will end up burning for the day, week, month, etc. When you average a daily calorie deficit you will consistently lose body fat. Where you lose is largely determined by genetics. Later in life, age can be a factor of where fat first goes on the body and where it leaves the body (you won’t have to worry about where fat goes on the body if you’re in a calorie deficit).
There is some evidence that aerobic exercise may draw fat from the abdominal region more than simply cutting calories and therefore, should be a part of your weekly exercise routine. 30 minutes 5-days a week of you favorite aerobic type activity will work – just make it somewhat vigorous but something you can maintain. Your resistance training program sounds fine.
Your testosterone levels will always be an factor in the amount of work needed to attain fitness/body composition goals but, increasing it, is not necessarily a good idea UNLESS approved by a doctor that doesn’t promote testosterone injections. We have literally millions of clients well into and past their 60s (including me) that attain fitness goals without hormone therapy. Attaining them naturally with a good diet, exercise and supplement program is always the healthiest, best and long-lasting road to success. On that note I’m giving you all the information below and tools you need to accomplish the goals you state.
Here are your options for help and/or self-help:
1. You can visit one of our licensed health clubs using the club finder . The expert fitness professionals in our licensed health clubs can give you direct service for all your fitness goals including nutrition needs (non-clinical).
2. Alternately, if a club visit is not a viable option, you can receive all your diet, supplement and weight loss (or muscle gain) needs online from the dotFIT program. Go to the dotFIT home page register for free. From there simply follow instructions creating your program and setting your goal (set your goal in 10 LB increments losing 1-2 LB/wk, and then next 10 as necessary and so on till you get to your goal weight or body fat). The dotFIT program will give you the meal plan outlines, with the proper calories and protein to get started, track intake and monitor results. It will also give you your supplement recommendations and exactly how to use them (I placed a simple one below you can order now). Every week when you enter your weight and/or bodyfat, the program will tell you what to do until you reach your goal including recreating menus as necessary. There is also a complete exercise program you can use to create the proper program to accomplish your goal – and again, just answer the simple questions and your exercise program will be created. However, if possible, we recommend one of our trainers to help you get started. If for any reason you choose not to use the program, I included basic nutrition weight loss directions below, which is analogous to what the program would do for you including a detailed supplement recommendation. On the dotFIT website you’ll also see a category called “Learn” where you will find many frequently asked questions and answers.
3. Reply again to this email or call us at 877-436-8348 and we will put you together with one of our phone coaches.
Weight Loss & Health Supplement Program
Daily:
• dotFIT Multivitamin & Mineral (based on age and gender)
o Take 1-daily with your first larger meal of the day
• LeanMR
o Use as directed within daily meal planning (see below) and to make sure you get ~1gm of protein per pound of lean body mass (or weight if not overweight) daily from all sources divided 4-5 times daily
o Can also be used as a supplement to a meal or by itself (or mixed with desired supporting contents) to shore up total daily protein needs
As needed
• Super Calcium
o Use if you do not meet the daily needs of calcium (~1000-1200 mgs) from food intake
Females take 1 or 2 daily with meals; if you need to take 2, take one with AM meal and the 2nd with PM meal; Males take 1 only if necessary
• SuperOmega 3
o Take 1 daily with meal if not consuming 2-4 svgs/wk of fatty fish
Meal Replacement Integration
Weight loss phase:
• Meal Replacements (MRs) generally supply two small meals a day and allow freedom of choice from traditional foods for the remaining allotted foods/calories. Therefore, use as two small meals within any calorie restricted meal plan of 4-5 meals since it's been shown that frequent small meals are better for weight loss than fewer larger ones especially as it relates to satiety, preservation of lean body mass (LBM) and energy levels. Get great LeanMR recipes here: https://www.dotfit.com/category-cid-1868.html
Maintenance phase
• Continue to consume 4-5 small meals daily within caloric allotment that include 2 MRs for convenience and to help ensure overall diet quality while reducing food costs
Basic Dieting (fat loss) Guidelines
Use the dotFIT program to get the starting calories based on personal input including the goal date (the date you wish to arrive at goal – i.e. 20LBS body fat loss in 10weeks). As you lose fat/weight, keep on target by adjusting calories in and out as shown below. Incorporate the Supplement Program shown above to support lean body mass and performance especially during restricted energy intake.
Overview
• Start at ~500-1000c below your current maintenance and keep adjusting so that you lose ~1% body fat every 2-weeks (the leaner the slower) or 1-2LB/wt./wk., whichever you’re measuring
• This is the ideal rate of fat loss but if you plateau or get behind schedule, the best solution is to increase movement such as aerobic or interval training
• If or when you begin to plateau, try to adjust your workload before reducing calories to continue to feed muscle and starve fat. There may be times you do both to stay on schedule, especially if training is already long and intense. As calories remain restricted, make sure you stay true to your supplement program to feed muscle while losing body fat
• Consume 4-5 small meals daily with the program starting calories made up as depicted in table 1. When reducing calories, reduce predominately CHO unless performance is compromised in which case reduce fat calories
Table -1 Dietary recommendations
• Protein: ~1gm per pound of body weight
• Fat: 15-30% of total calories
• Carbohydrate remaining allowed calories
• Weekly weight loss (% of body weight) 0.5% or 1-2LBS
If training performance declines, it may help to decrease the percentage of calories from dietary fat and increase the proportion of carbohydrate within the ranges. Some people have found they respond better during weight loss to diets higher in fat and lower in carbohydrate as shown here. However, if you are an active athlete you may need to lower fat calories instead of CHO to continue body fat loss while maintaining performance. Therefore, monitoring of individual response is recommended to adjust as needed.
Monitoring: weigh/measure in the same clothing, at the same time and on the same scale. Take care to also use the same method or device for body fat measurements. If necessary (see below) only adjust calories in or out every seven days in order to experience the change.
Adjustments: a measurable or visual reduction in body fat and/or weight should take place in a consistent manner such as a decrease in circumference inches, and/or the desired average decrease in body fat per week. If progress stops or slows dramatically, one or a mixture of the following adjustments will be necessary to re-start the process:
• Increase daily activities (e.g. daily steps or other non-athletic/exercise activities)
o Standing and pacing burns ~2 times more calories than sitting for the same time period
o There are approximately 2000-2500 steps (depending on stride length) in a mile. Walking 2000 steps will burn ~75-150 more calories (depending on individual size) than sitting for the same time and only takes ~20-30min and can be done anywhere, even in the office, while on the phone or watching TV
• Increase workout time and/or intensity and include interval training if necessary
• Decrease food intake approximately 200 to 300 calories per day or remove a small portion of your largest meal
• Add dotFIT fat loss supplements as necessary and described below
Repeat the process any time body fat is stable for at least one week. Always remember if you stop losing fat, you need to eat less, move more or a combination of the two regardless of what you read or hear from others. Once you have achieved your body composition goals, increase your calorie intake and/or decrease activities to maintain desired body fat