I'm 37. Here's How I Got In The Best Shape Of My Life

How It Started

Since I reached my 30s, I’ve assumed that it would become harder and harder to get into great shape again (if I’ve ever really been there in the first place). I’ve always gained weight easily, which made getting stronger and competing in strongman for over 12 years the natural direction I headed in once I started working out. This helped me transform from an overweight teenager into a bigger and stronger athlete. Strongman built mental and physical confidence for me. It shaped my identity for over a decade too. But with recurring back injuries leading me down a slope I no longer wanted to keep going down, I was forced to stop lifting heavy and shifted away from that phase of my life.

So I’ve tried to lose weight and keep it off several times in the past couple of years. Last year, I even managed to lose about 20 pounds, but I regained all of it when I stopped paying attention to that goal.

This year, a couple of changes clicked into place much more dramatically for me.

First, I had a trip to Mexico coming up, and I wanted to get in better shape for that. When the end of October rolled around, and I had 2 months to diet, I felt that was a sustainable time frame to apply more discipline and take action.

Keeping this goal in mind got me through the first phase. Then, as I got hooked on biking on Zwift, I became motivated by the idea of getting a new bike before the outdoor season started up. But carbon frame bikes have a weight limit to them and I wanted to make sure I was well within the limit if I was going to invest in a better bike. This kicked off the second phase of the transformation.

The Science of Fat Loss

Short and sweet, there’s no magic or mystery to fat loss.

It’s all about energy balance. Calories in versus calories out.

If you expend more calories from activity and the daily minimum to live and breathe than you consume from food, you will lose weight.

Our bodies like to hold on to body fat, though, because it means survival. So the battle becomes one of consistently maintaining a manageable deficit. That’s where setting out on a long-term goal becomes more important if you have a lot of weight to lose.

People will go to all kinds of extremes to explain why the laws of thermodynamics don’t apply to human metabolism, but if you try it for yourself, you’ll see that it’s undeniable.

Sure, certain foods may be better or worse for us, and some people struggle with holding onto weight longer or having issues that impact metabolism, but the same rules still apply; they just might need tighter control.

How I Found Consistency

There’s nothing more important than consistency when it comes to a sustainable weight loss plan.

I didn’t try to starve myself, and honestly, I’ve rarely felt devastatingly hungry through the process. I started by pushing my first meal of the day back a little to tighten my eating window and cut one meal out of my typical schedule. This was where I felt the hungriest at first, but I’m used to working out fasted and have preferred that for almost twenty years, so the mornings didn’t change a whole lot. Plus, I found that by not interrupting my morning for a few more hours by having to eat, I was better able to focus on work for the first few hours of the workday.

I’ve always known that protein is crucial to an effective weight loss diet, and I think that’s the other reason why my diet has never felt like torture. I wanted to maintain the same protein consumption throughout the process, to hold onto muscle as much as possible, allow me to continue to train the same, and to feel more satiated.

This was also going to be important because I got hooked on indoor cycling, and my calorie expenditure on most days ramped up by 600-1000 additional calories burned per day (or more on some longer ride days). It’s important to note the extra cardio because my baseline calorie intake didn’t have to reduce quite as much, so I was still eating close to the same amount of food I normally would.

Then, to bring it all together, tracking what I ate is how I knew objectively that my diet was working or not. If I failed to lose weight, I was either lying to myself and not recording in a food log, or I needed to reduce what I was eating by a little bit.

Keeping a food journal is not everyone’s cup of tea. That’s why I got off track last year after losing 20 pounds. I stopped tracking and assumed I could stick to roughly the same diet and be ok. But we’re very good at deceiving ourselves, and I learned that lesson this time. In addition to finding the meals that worked to fit my macros, I have given myself the rule that I can eat anything I want, as long as I record it in my food journal app (I like using MacrosFirst because it’s super fast and simple for tracking without taking a lot of time). The rule works really well because at least for me, I don’t want to see that I’m going over my total calorie goal for the day, so even if I eat something like pizza, burgers, ice cream, etc. that we wouldn’t normally think fits into a diet, I am able to adjust my intake at other times of the day, or increase activity if I know a cheat meal is coming up.

The One Meal That Changed Everything

I never thought I could handle eating the same thing every day and not getting tired of it, but my breakfast that I have throughout the week changed everything. Half a tub of Greek yogurt (325-375 g) and a scoop of whey protein with creatine (it’s the easiest time of day for me to remember to take it). That’s it. I’ve eaten that almost every day since the end of October for breakfast. Some people don’t like the acidic tang of plain yogurt, but I enjoy it. This “Progurt” meal gets me a good quarter of the way through my protein goals for the day. Taking a protein-first approach to a diet is one of the most important factors. Protein is satiating, making the caloric deficit more tolerable, and it’s necessary for preserving muscle mass and recovering well from training. I struggled to hit a daily protein goal of 250 g before I established this meal as a staple of my diet.

The other benefit of it that makes sense, but I didn’t consider at first, was how great my digestion has become by eating this daily dose of probiotic foods. I’ve never felt my gut health to be as great as it is now, and that leads me to notice the days when I skip my Progurt and come to crave keeping it in place.

While slamming a couple of protein shakes each day could also serve the same benefit for protein goals, I don’t like doing that as much, as it certainly isn’t as filling as having the more solid volume of yogurt added to the protein powder.

Holidays are notoriously hard for people to diet. Days of big meals can bleed into weeks of leftovers at a caloric surplus, and next thing you know, you’re up 5-10 pounds and feeling like your diet has failed. Starting a diet at the end of October is a bold move for this reason. At least in Canada, this was following our Thanksgiving weekend, so the only obstacle becomes the week of Christmas and the aftermath that ensues. I think something else that somewhat saved me from the holiday weight gain this year was being on vacation in Mexico right after. You might think that would lead to even more of a dietary disaster, but I didn’t gain a single pound while away on vacation. The extra movement each day helped to make a difference, but the freshness and quality of food at the resort as well lent to choosing lots of protein and veggies. I also found that I didn’t really like most of the desserts, so I didn’t have as much of a problem avoiding overeating at night as I thought I would.

Another thing I’ve noticed at this stage of my life is that I can’t stand feeling too full at night anymore. It messes up my sleep big time to feel the level of discomfort from overeating at big holiday dinners that used to be my M.O., so I just don’t push it the way that I used to. If you’re lucky enough to feel this way as well, it’ll make surviving the holidays on a diet much easier. Otherwise, use other strategies like filling up on protein or veggies first before the higher-calorie and higher-fat/carb options at holiday dinners. Also, try drinking zero-calorie carbonated beverages to get through snacking too much prior to big dinners, or as a way to pace yourself better through the meal.

The Final Phase

Approaching the final phase is an exciting time. While I had received compliments all along the journey and people noticed the progress I was making, people were now questioning if I was even the same person. Thinking that I have a twin really makes you appreciate just how much work you’ve put into a physical transformation.

That and you also actually start to notice the results once into the final phase. You see the numbers change throughout the entire fat loss journey, but when you’re really getting close to the end goal, you actually notice it in the mirror and with how your clothes are fitting. This reinforces the progress that’s been made and makes it desirable to keep going.

Putting together one of the most sustainable, consistent, and enjoyable plans for both my diet and fitness during this journey has made it highly rewarding and motivating to keep it going until I can truly say that I’ve gotten into the best shape of my life.

And then the goal becomes staying there.