June 27, 2026
25 Questions I Got Asked To Help Men Over 40 Lose Fat Part 2 - 119
YouTube An A1C above 6.2 makes you diabetic, by definition. Plenty of men running six and seven figure businesses cross that line years before a doctor ever says the word out loud. This episode is for that man, the business owner who builds his whole calendar around everyone else and never blocks time for his own health. This is men's health built for men who run things and rarely slow down.
(Doctor flag something on your last blood panel? See how men are moving those numbers in the right direction at www.thecalltorise.com)
Coach Brian answers fifteen real questions from men over 40 about fat loss, blood work, and energy. He breaks down what to do when your A1C creeps up and what drives high blood pressure underneath the surface. The episode also gets into what happens in your body after a GLP-1, and why a single work trip can add five pounds you never planned for. Stress, sleep, and nutrition all show up here too. All three drive the energy and focus you bring to your business every day, and that energy turns directly into productivity at work and patience at home.
Your business and your health run on the same fuel. The discipline that built your company can rebuild your body too. Whether you run a local company or an online business, the energy you have at 6pm decides how you show up for your family and how you perform at work the next day. Good fitness and good nutrition fold directly into your business performance, your stress management, and your work-life balance. This episode gives you a clear path to better energy, better focus, and a body that matches everything else you have built.
Main Topics in This Episode
- A1C creeping up and what to fix first
- Coming off a GLP-1 without regaining the weight
- Reading a bad cholesterol panel without panic
- Staying on track while traveling for work
- Fat loss on five or six hours of sleep
- Getting in shape after 48
- Building strength and capability for your 60s and 70s
- Breaking the cycle of losing the same 20 pounds
The Call To Rise is a 100-day fat loss challenge for driven men ready to take their body back. It combines strength training, personalized nutrition and real accountability. Most men drop 20 to 30 pounds and rebuild the confidence that comes with it.
This program also works if you are dealing with high blood pressure, high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes. It was built for those men too. Many men see those numbers move in the right direction alongside their weight loss.
Inside the program you also join a Brotherhood of men doing the same work. Together you build a body you're proud of and start leading like the man you already are at work.
This is your wake-up call to rise. Learn more and apply at www.thecalltorise.com
Want help applying this to your own health, weight, energy, or lab numbers?
Coach Brian Parana offers Health Hot Seat coaching segments for men who want a clear next step with nutrition, fitness, weight loss, blood pressure, cholesterol, A1C, or daily consistency.
Learn more about The Call To Rise, a 100-day coaching program for driven men over 40 who want to lose weight, improve their health, and rebuild confidence:
To connect with Coach Brian:
brian@brianparana.com
Disclaimer: This podcast is for education and coaching support only. It is not medical advice. Always work with your physician before changing medication, treatment, or medical care.
- By definition, an A1C above 5.7 makes you pre-diabetic. And at 6.2, you're diabetic. A man and a lot of men out there cross that line years before the doctor even says a word about them being diabetic. The last episode 118 covered nutrition and fitness. This one picks up with the remainder 15 questions that are left from blood work, chronic illness, the stress and travel, how to figure it out in your lifestyle, and how to stay strong while you age.
- A couple of the questions that we're going to go over are going to be on labs and chronic illness. Number one, what to fix when you have your A1C start climbing. Number two, whether blood high blood pressure is just genetics. Number three, what happens to your body when you come off GLP1? Number four, how worried should you be about a bad cholesterol number? Number five, how long does it take for your labs to improve? on the front about lifestyle and stress.
- Question number one, how to travel for work without gaining it back. Number two, what to do when you're too stressed to care. Number three, why your weekends end and undoing your whole week's worth of progress. Question four, whether fat loss is possible on five hours of sleep. and five, what to do when you have no time to meal prep.
- And lastly, the five questions that are about staying strong as you age. This is really important as we get into the 50s60s. Question one, whether it's too late to get in shape at 48, why do you still not feel confident at a lower body weight? Question three, what keeps you capable at 70? Question four, why you keep losing the same 20 pounds? And number five, what separates the guys who keep it off for good? Those are 15 questions today. Let's jump into them.
- My A1C is creeping up. It's well past just being pre-diabetic. It's actually over seven and eight. The question is, my doctor said my A1C is headed in the wrong direction and he's concerned once put me on medicine, metformin and all. What's the first thing I should actually change? Your A1C didn't move because of just a bad food choice or a bad year.
- It's been moving in the wrong direction because of thousands of small choices over the last one to five years that no one ever told you to change or you never decided to improve your health or you kept eating the fast food or drinking the sugary drinks. The first place I look is liquid calories and sugar because they move glucose fastest in your blood sugar levels.
- They go straight up and they're the easiest to cut without overhauling a whole diet overnight. Things like soda, sweetened coffee, think of Frappuccinos and such or lots and lots of pumps in your Starbucks juice. Desserts after dinner are usually the biggest single levers that you can pull out to have a dramatic impact on blood sugar levels quickly.
- Right alongside that, I like to build every plate around a protein first model. Guys, we need to have ideally six or seven ounces of protein in a meal. Then we want to pair that with fiber. This is so important because the fiber and the protein together slowed down how fast the sugar hits your bloodstream after the meal.
- And if we stack it a third time with adding a 10-minute walk right after you eat those meals throughout the day, this starts to pull glucose out of your blood levels as well and into your muscles because that's how the body works. You squeeze your muscles through exercise and it uses gasoline like gas in a tank.
- So then your body can then replenish and refuel you there. None of this replaces a doctor or medicine. And if you're on medication, work with your doctor for any changes. Of course, this isn't medical advice, but these are things that I have done consistently to help a lot of people improve their health, their fitness, and their their overall lifestyle in this process.
- Now, if you are struggling with high blood sugars in the morning, you have high A1C, I have an improve your blood panel scorecard I would love to share with you. All you have to do is say scorecard below and I can send that right over to you. Is high blood pressure just genetics? Uh the question was is I have high blood pressure is it's 145 over 92.
- Is it just genetics or can I actually do something about it? Genetics certainly loads the gun so to speak but all of our other say we have nature verse nurture. nature. Yes, genetics has a big role, but nurture, how you treat and take care of your body and and what food choices you have and what you do with yourself, those are big issues that can influence what happens with your body.
- So, especially if you say have a desk job, family history matters a lot for people to consider and make sure that you pay attention to that. But most men I coach with borderline blood pressure are also eating high sodium foods, low potassium diets full of restaurant foods, onthe-go packaged snacks and crinkly containers or boxes and they sit most of the day.
- They end up carrying extra weight around their midsection for even years. Those four things are controllable even if family history isn't. We take the first step is literally steps since walking lowers your blood pressure on its own within weeks for most people. Then we look at sodium sources. What are you eating in the food? It could be sauces, deli meat, restaurant meals, and and then we look for added potassium richch foods like vegetables, fruits to help balance out your diet and increase fullness on lower calorie, higher
- filling foods, which is so important. One client had his home readings drop from a consistent 145 over 92 into a normal range 120 over 80 within 10 weeks of doing exactly this. Alongside the medication, his doctor also already had him on. So this is important with working with your doc. This isn't medical advice, but with working with your doctor with those changes and actually undergoing daily habits that improve your health every day, it will get better.
- If your numbers keep going in the wrong direction with your blood pressure and you're really concerned about it or you're already on blood pressure medications and you don't want to feel like a walking heart attack, I do have an improve your blood panel scorecard. All you got to do is drop the word scorecard and I can send it right over to you.
- I'm scared to come off my GLP1 ompic tepide all these wgoi mangjaro. I lost weight on GLP1 but I'm scared of what happens if I stop. What do I do? Have no fear. I work with a lot of clients that are on GLOP1s. It can be a really good way if you are in a diseasel-like state or have a lot of weight to to lose.
- It could be a really good jump start. Now, if you're only looking at 5, 10, 20 pounds, you might want to look at behavior changes and lifestyle changes and education around nutrition first before you do a GOP1. That's my opinion. I don't think you need to be on it if you have that much weight to lose. But if you're in say 50 100 pounds overweight, it can be a dramatic first start to help overcome some of the challenges that you face.
- The GOP1 can, as I say, get you out of the hole, but it can't teach you how to stay out of the the situation. I had a client lose over 40 pounds on GOP1 and then they came off because insurance reasons and started regaining it within a year. That's when they showed up on my door. They were really sad and heartbroken that all the effort that went into the change had just nothing changed.
- The body just slowly started gaining back that he ate, he trained while he was on it. The medication made him less hungry and he ate less without building the habits underneath it. And that's the biggest challenge with the ozics and such. Once the appetite suppression went away, the old pattern started to come back. They're just sitting there waiting for him on the sideline in a timeout.
- Again, this isn't an argument against these medications. In fact, as I said in the beginning, it might be a good way for you to jump start if you have a massive amount of weight or need to make real progress for yourself. But for a lot of men, it can be that useful tool to get them out of that dangerous spot. But what matters most is using that time window while you have what one guy calls is a rocket powered roller skates.
- And for him, we work a considerable amount on building better habits around getting adequate protein throughout the day. say 30, 40, 50 grams at each time that he eats, drinking his water consistently, 100 ounces or more, increasing his steps and overall activity to 10,000 steps a day and two to three strength training workouts.
- And this really helps him build these habits in daily life. Certainly talk to your doctor about a specific plan, but you might need some extra help in the process to be able to have tools and resources available. If you're worried about life after GOP1s, now's the time to build habits. And that's what I do in the call to rise. It's a 100 day fat loss challenge that obviously works on nutrition and fitness, but crazy amount of energy is put into sustainable lifestyle behavior changes so that five years from now, you do not have to worry about weight ever
- coming back. My cholesterol is bad. How worried should I be? I got the question was my cholesterol numbers are coming back over 240 which is the borderline for having really bad high total cholesterol and they're worried about what they should actually do. Sure, bad cholesterols can feel like a verdict as you're next in line for a heart attack or a stroke.
- And that's because the total plaque buildup in your arteries and veins can start to add up over time. And that is a challenge if you've been eating higher fat foods or foods that cause cholesterol numbers to rise. A bad lipid panel is information for you to take action on. For most men, the same things that drive fat loss also move cholesterol and triglycerides down in the right direction back toward normal.
- Of course, we have a calorie deficit, having more fiber, less processed foods, less fatty foods, and more movement that consists around exercise, ideally two or three strength training workouts in a week, and getting in activity from walking to more than that. Triglycerides especially respond fast to cutting out sugar from liquid and and just processed foods, cutting out alcohol.
- Sometimes within a matter of weeks, you can see a response from one blood panel test to another. And I have seen this multiple times throughout the last 23 years doing this with clients struggling with cholesterol and triglycerides and high HDL numbers and uh excuse me, high LDL numbers and low HDL numbers. I had a client once whose triglycerides dropped over 100 points in three months just from cutting out some beers, making better choices when it come to junk food and cutting that stuff out, cutting out the fried foods, and not necessarily a lot change
- otherwise. Some cholesterol issues are driven more by genetics and lifestyle. So, you certainly have to have a conversation with your doctor about that. Again, this isn't medical advice and you do need to consult a physician on this, but these are the things that I see consistently when working with guys for the last 20ome years.
- Now, if your blood panels read like a red flag, a giant red flag, then maybe you definitely need to schedule time with your doctor. But also, I have an improve your blood panel scorecard and it gives you very simple, easy nutritional resets. So, you eat the right foods at the right times in the right amounts to help pick better choices and start to lower your cholesterol.
- Just comment scorecard and I'll send it right over to you. How long until my labs actually improve? If I start making changes today, how long does it actually take my labs to actually show improvement, my blood to improve? That was the question. Most guys want their blood panels to change in the next week or three. And that's just not how it works, unfortunately.
- weight and blood pressure move down first inside the first 14 to 30 days if you're consistent with being active and getting 10,000 steps and working out. Having enough protein, I like guys have 150 grams of protein or generally about 30 to 50 grams of protein per meal, whether it's a meal or a snack.
- Cutting out liquid calories and sugars and really decreasing the extra calories that come in. Yes, you can be 80 to 90% healthy and still have a little bit of wiggle room to have something enjoyable, but it doesn't it doesn't have to be restrictive, but we do need to make a considerable big choice. And I hope you would if you have blood panels that are looking like a giant red flag.
- A1C and cholesterol move a lot slower because they reflect averages over several weeks, not yesterday or the the week prior. I tell every client to plan their lab work and have a go-to plan on how they're going to take action. So, we're looking to not just schedule it every month, but it might need to be scheduled every 8 weeks or 12 weeks for a blood panel if you are trying to improve your numbers.
- We have to certainly improve sleep to help with lowering inflammation in the body, getting more active recovery. We reduce and eliminate alcohol to not have to deal with that causing any challenges with the body. You need to lower sodium, of course. And once we start doing this consistently, those basic things and eating more protein and vegetables, then you will see things show up.
- I had one client after about 12 weeks, he lost he dropped a point in his A1C. It went from 8.3 to 7.2 and he lost 15 pounds in that time frame as well. and we are doing it in a sustainable way which is super important and really exciting and it's something that is going to consistently do it. So he still needs the better part of this year remaining year to be able to take action and be able to lower his A1C back down to a 5.5 as a more normal amount.
- As long as he stays consistent and keeps doing the things that are working, he will see that months later and he will then not be a diabetic because by definition your A1C is above 5.7 and you become the pre-diabetes and if they're 6.2 you are a diabetic. So if we can get it down then by definition you are a not a diabetic and you don't have to worry about metformin, insulin or any of that.
- Now, if you have your labs are coming back, you want to drop your cholesterol, your A1C, your blood pressure, I've got an improve your blood panel scorecard that you can get. It really simplifies what you to eat, how to move your body, and it gives you a really easy 3-day protocol to start and get moving in the right direction and start creating some base level behaviors that are going to improve your overall life.
- Just comment scorecard below and I'll send it right over. How to travel for work without gaining weight by the time you get home? That's the question here. How do I stay on track when I'm traveling for work three or four days in a week and doing that even once a quarter or beyond? Just think about if you gained a pound every time you left the your state or you went on a work trip and you had four you had won a quarter that could be four pounds in a in a year that just start gaining because you never course corrected. But
- over five years now you're 20 pounds overweight. And that's how it happens. It's a slow creep. [clears throat] Guys gain weight on the plane. And they gain weight from overindulging and having a really enjoyable time while eating out and entertaining and having burgers and beers and and whatever else happens or the dessert cart comes by.
- And this is how they gain that. And what happens is uh I'll give you example. I coach a guy Ryan. He's actually in one of my podcasts. I off the top of my head, I think it's 87. But Ryan, he traveled a considerable amount, lots of conferences, lots of work, travel, client entertainment, and we talk about his level of success to lose 45 pounds and a time where he always looped back to the yo-yo diets or restriction diets.
- And I gave him a better way to operate and better systems so that he can not gain a pound every time he leaves. So he's in the the industry and and he always has to travel for two to four days at any given stint. There's of course buffet breakfast, open bar receptions, and snack carts that just walk the floor all day when you're there.
- You used to come home even five pounds heavier. And of course that's not necessarily five pounds of body fat, but that's five pounds of inflammation, weight gain, water, and body fat that can accumulate over time. What we did is we start deciding what his approach is, looking at what the options are instead of just grabbing what looks best.
- In the breakfast, we're starting off the day with just eggs and some fruit. Why? Because he can control his calories, get protein in, and not overdo the calories there or carbs because he knows carbs and fats are going to come later in the day. He'll also maybe even add a lean meat in there. He skips the pastry station completely, passes on the bagels, of course.
- Lunch and dinner, we have to follow the same rule. I love a protein double vegetable approach. And you have to think anytime that you're eating out, there's always going to be more calories available for you and you can't just stack it up in your favor. It will work against you. And usually calories will keep adding. They multiply in this type environment.
- So, if we do the protein double vegetable, that will help. If we're going to have drinks, you have to make sure you flag those for how many calories are you actually eating or excuse me, drinking in this process so that you can account for those calories. It's just basic math. You have to make sure that you don't over consume calories because once the drinks start flowing, they they keep going.
- the the actual mistake most guys have on these work trips is they just don't have a plan. They just let the environment and the the decisions happen as they come and go. Whoever's around them, whoever brings them a drink or whatever walked right past them on the dessert cart, they just make their way.
- Now, if you travel a lot and you keep undoing progress and even months of progress because you leave for a couple days and come back heavier, then I've got an eating onthe-go guide that is just right for you. It'll give you simple strategies to be able to eat while you're out at conferences, on the road, in airplanes, fine dining, fast, casual, and beyond.
- All you have to do is comment on the go, and I will send that guide over to you. >> [clears throat] >> What to do when you're too stressed to care? I call this aware but don't care. The question is when work stress is just super high and there's deadlines and all this. I just want to eat whatever is in front of me.
- What do I do? Stress doesn't make you hungry. It makes you want to check out of whatever's happening. It's that fight orflight type response. And food is the fastest way to exit that because it's [snorts] fun. It's happiness. It's sadness. It's stress. It's anger. It's food can be whatever you want it to be. And humans are really good at stressing about things.
- And and they put a lot of stress on themselves anyways, unfortunately. or the workplace does or the markets do or having to make money or pay bills and all these responsibilities that you have as an adult cuz adulting is not that fun. Whoever said adulting was when you were young lied. [laughter] Now, stress raises cortisol. Cortisol drives cravings for fast carbs, sugar, things that will help with the dopamine hit and give you elevated blood sugar levels and allow you to have that quick energy to deal with the threat.
- Even when the thread is your inbox and not an actual tiger hunting you in the jungle, that mechanism in our brains, our crocodile brains, is real and most men I coach beat themselves up over it and time and time again instead of just finding better ways to work around it. The fix is a food window that causes a set time every night.
- So, there's a hard boundary instead of an open-ended decision every day. Example, a lot of guys struggle with late night eating. Well, if we have decided that you and you most importantly decide that eating after 9:00 is not in your best favor and you're constantly derailing yourself, ending up in a a ditch in a sense with a bag of chips and and a row of Oreos and all crusted around your mouth, then we need to stop eating that.
- And so it can be a specific rule that you can follow and not have to bend or break. One client used to raid the pantry every night after his kids went to bed during stressful weeks of work. And we set the food window to be end at 9:00 and there was just no exceptions. And he followed that because it became this ingrained rule. And for him it worked.
- And within 10 days, the desire to and the decision to even eat late or go to the carbs and stuff stopped. Why? Because we had what we call a pattern interrupt. You're able to actually stop doing this ingrained pattern behavior without paying attention to anything else. Now, stress keeps leading you straight to the pantry and you need a food window to help you outlast those cravings, then I have a health hot seat on my Driven for Health podcast.
- I actually bring you on for a free coaching call. And what we do is we're going to understand what your situation, analyze it to its fullest, and then give you an actual walk away plan live on the call itself and on the episode. So, you'll get a free coaching session to help start figuring out what are great ways to block that pattern of behavior and start getting you healthier because you you don't you ultimately don't want to do it.
- Just comment the word hot seat and I'll send you over a link and we can schedule a call for a free blueprint. >> [clears throat] >> Why weekends undo your whole week. Oh my gosh, this one. I've talked to a lot of people on Monday and they so I didn't change or nothing happened and then a week goes by and another Monday comes and they didn't change and nothing happens.
- And the question is I do great Monday through Friday then the weekend wrecks everything. Why does this keep happening? Five good days are awesome, but two reckless ones really will round down your averages on how well you're doing and you don't lose weight. Plus, also, I have this just very basic general rule of however many days you're off is however many days it takes to get back on.
- Meaning, if a Saturday and Sunday get away from you, then it might cost you Monday and Tuesday to recover from that to then get back into a healthier spot. What does that mean? Let's do simple math. Four out of seven days is not a good passing grade. Ask your kindergarten teacher what she thinks about that or he thinks about it and you'll get a below average result, right? Not even 50%.
- So, what happens is the weekend has such a crazy whirlwind with restaurant meals, eating out, drinks with friends, birthday parties, you name it, something's happening. Next thing you know, 3,000 plus calories start adding up and it just fell into your mouth. And then you can actually erase the calorie deficit all week long. Example, you had a 200 calorie deficit every single day, Monday through Friday.
- That would be a,000 calories. You could eat 1,000 calories on Saturday extra than you should and you're at zero again. That's literally how it works. All right. Now, one thing that we've done with a lot of clients is we keep the weekday routine really scheduled and tight and then we end up changing subtle things on the weekend of what's happening in his breakfast, how he starts the day.
- and but even more importantly looking at the schedule so he understands what's ahead of him and what choices he needs to make ahead of time because that's when you have the most empowered decisions and not just choosing whatever we don't want to do that because you will not make the right choice when you're staring at pizza, ice cream, and birthday cake at a kid's birthday party and you're hungry because you didn't eat enough food or have a plan on what it is.
- Now, if your weekends constantly get away from you and you are in this loop of losing weight, gaining weight, that's what I do in the call to rise 100 day fat loss challenge. It's 100 days. We work on a couple different big levers of a of course nutrition, eating the right foods at the right times and the right amounts.
- We work on your exercise habits and behaviors. And we start changing the identity and the mindset, the way you think about who you are, what choices you make and how you make them so that you become a healthier, happier version of yourself. Super important. The call torise.com. Check it out. I have wild success having guys lose at least 20 pounds or more.
- There's multiple podcasts on driven for health. Episode 34, 43, 53. uh we've got uh 93, we've got 113 and 117. Those are just to name a few of guys coming out of the program that have lost 20 to 30 pounds or more and have been successful. So check it out. Can I lose fat on 5 hours of sleep? Sleep. Oh my gosh. If I had one kryptonite, sleep would be it.
- I do a pretty good job with food and moving my body for sure. I'd just take care of myself or I think about taking care of myself pretty well. That's why I do what I do and lead the guys that I do in the call to rise 100 day fat loss challenge. But here's the question. I'm getting five to six hours of sleep most nights with three kids in the house.
- Is it is fat loss even possible? And that is tough because under six hours of sleep, your body is fighting you on fat loss in the first place. Even if you are doing everything in quotations right and doing your best, sleep under six hours raises your cortisol levels, your stress hormones, and increases your hunger hormones the next day.
- Which is why a rough night is so often followed by strong hunger, sugar cravings, or weak impulse control around food, you just want to grab whatever you can and put it in your mouth. For a man with three small kids, a young family, working, and having to juggle so many responsibilities, of course, eight hours would be perfect, but that's not necessarily realistic.
- So the the bottom that we need is definitely at least six hours, but ideally seven. And don't say six or seven around your kids because you know what'll happen. I've got four kids, so I Yeah, it happens. Now, we have to make sure that you set a consistent bedtime 30 minutes before you need to be asleep because laying in bed for seven hours doesn't mean you slept for seven hours.
- Certainly, you can check any sleep data tracker. You're not going to get it. It'll be 6:15 hours. Like, wait, I was in bed for seven hours. Well, that's just not how the body works in sleeping. Certainly, we need to make sure that there's no screen in bed, guys. Only two S's happen when you are in the bedroom and screens is not one of them.
- So, put that across the room or I even personally leave it in another room. And we need to have a windown routine. One of my clients [clears throat] with two kids under five couldn't add hours to the night because kids were waking up early or staying up late or in the middle of the night or all these things.
- And and we focus on setting a solid time frame that he was actually in bed. He shut down at this time. He was in bed at this time. And he loved my challenge to do some Suduku puzzles and which were awesome because he's not thinking about whatever's happening in the day. He actually just thinks of numbers. When he thinks of numbers, then he can actually then get away from the worry brain and the overactive brain when he's laying down.
- And it actually puts him to sleep pretty quick. If you are struggling with your sleep, episodes 110 and 111 of my Driven for Health podcast episode will be very enlightening for you. I would send you over there to check those out. Why? because we talk about sleep in great detail and give you some really actionable ways to actually set these simple ideas that you probably already know but aren't doing.
- Put them in action. No time to cook. No time to plan. Here's the question. I don't have time to meal prep or plan anything. What am I supposed to do? You don't need a meal plan. You you need three meals you can make without thinking about them at all. Decision fatigue, guys, it's a real thing.
- It's a big problem for most some of the busy clients I have. They are timetight, packed to the gill with their schedules. And even episode 117 of Driven for Health, Chris, you lost 20 pounds in my 100 day fat loss challenge called the call to rise. And we talk about decision fatigue and how important it was to simplify his food.
- So you can literally hear him talk about what we did to simplify his food and and in quotations meal plan. I don't work off meal plans because nobody follows them, but I work off sciencebacked nutrition implemented into the easiest way possible for your day-to-day life. So, what happens is if you're super busy, by the time dinner rolls around and after a full day of decisions at work, the last thing you want to do is eat healthy and make another decision in the day.
- And instead of that, we have to find two or three go-to meals that you can rotate through the week that have easy access to foods that are in your house that you enjoy in the right combinations and the portions of them. So, think eggs and turkey sausage with some fruit or a protein shake and a piece of fruit to be super easy.
- Lunch could be I I love I absolutely love this guys. If you took a sandwich with low calorie bread, six ounces of protein on that with a piece of fruit and it's like two handfuls of vegetables, that could be a forever lunch that you had every single day, Monday through Friday. It takes a two to three minutes to make and you're off to the races.
- It will be a calorie appropriate portion control to give you enough fullness for ideally 3 to 5 hours of your day. And then we got dinner. Of course, we just have to send her around a protein, a fibrous carb, a starchy carb. Fibrous carb being fruit or vegetables, mainly vegetables at this point.
- Just think of what your grandma would have served you. She had it right. Three squares a day of a protein, a vegetable, and a starch in portions was sufficient for you. I had one client, Brett, with a 60-hour work week. kept falling off complicated plans for years. And he and I had to talk about this and he became very specific with simple, tasty, repeatable meals that he was able to do that checked the box on what his needs are.
- Total calories, gave him enough protein, and kept him full for hours. And that's the whole point of anything I've ever done. If you are struggling with meal plan and actually never stuck to it, there's we we do not want to rely on decision fatigue or any of that. I have a what food should I eat PDF that helps you build these basic meals.
- Just send me the word what food should I eat that phrase and I will send it right over to you. And you can see the simple way that I have my clients design repeatable meals that they actually enjoy. Is it too late to get in shape for me at 48? That's the question. And I'm feeling that myself. Little bit. 43. Uh, the average age of a man is 76.
- That's the average life expectancy of any guy on this earth. At 48, you still have nearly 30 years left to decide what kind of body you want to spend it in. I had a client start with me at 53, two grandkids already, never lifted a weight intentionally in his life. His name is John.
- And you can listen to John's story on Driven for Health episode number 10. When you listen to that, then you will be able to hear how he by the age of 60 has lost the weight and kept it off for years and has been thriving in his life. And people are that he hasn't seen in a while are astonished and constantly complimented. Dude, you look really fit.
- What's going on? So what we have is when he is focused on planning his workouts, getting the right support and accountability, doing the right type of exercises, and yes, you do need to do more stretching and mobility because that's important. Then you will be super you you'll be feel like you're Superman by the time you're 60, which is the point. All right.
- Now, if you want to hear how John did it, episode 10 of Driven for Health podcast, check it out. And yes, you should be taking care of yourself by 48 so that you don't feel like you're 75 when you're 60. Feeling strong while you age. question is, why you why don't I feel as confident as I want even though I'm not overweight anymore? Well, [clears throat] you can weigh less than you think and still not recognize yourself in photos.
- And that has to do with a lot of muscle or posture. And those are there's a real story that shows up behind that. Weight and body composition are two different things. And most guys only track the first one. A guy can be 180 pounds with very little muscle and look soft everywhere, squishy, or he could have 195 pounds with real muscle and look completely different in the mirror and enclosed.
- I have clients all the time show up in unfortunately they say a skinny fat situation where their height and their weight sounds good on paper but they do not like or feel comfortable or even taking the shirt off at the beach in a sense because of the way their body is carrying the weight. And so he was carrying the weight in a little bit of belly fat.
- his he had no definition in his shoulders or his arms and his posture. He had a rounded shoulders leaning forward with a forward neck posture because he'd been staring at a computer working at a desk for 15 to 20 years. We started adding strength training twice a week and obviously improved his posture with sitting up more straight.
- It's very subtle things, but within 10 weeks, he stood up differently. He had this more presence about him because he was felt like he was an inch taller than he was. And you know what I mean? If you're 5'11 and you want to be six foot, [laughter] uh my oldest son, he's 5'11 right now and he's not six foot.
- Hopefully he does get to six foot so he can be with me and my second son. Simple things like this can really boost your confidence in your body and how you carry yourself. And it doesn't have to be any crazy hard routines in the gym, but we do need to change your body fat percentage. Now, if you're looking to change your body composition and look dramatically different in the mirror over time, not in the next week or three, but I do have a 100 day fat loss challenge called the call to rise, and it's challenging men to rise up to lose 20 plus pounds of
- body fat or to build muscle on their frame and do it in a sustainable way so that they look and feel as strong as they should be and match their body to other areas of success in their life. The calltorise.com is the place to go check that out and see if you're a good fit for my 100 day challenge. What actually keeps you strong, capable, and functional at 70 years old or young? Well, the question is what's actually going to matter more long term? being skinny at 45 or being strong at 70.
- Skinny doesn't carry your grandkids up the stairs. It doesn't get you to go exploring in Europe for those bucket list trips you've been wanting to do. But strength does. Muscle mass is one of the strongest predictors of how independent, capable, and even how long you might live in your life as the years go by.
- It's more than the weight on the scale has ever been important. After 40, we naturally lose two to 3% of your muscle every decade unless you're actively working against it with strength training and enough protein in the day. That compounds more and more and as you age in your 50s, 60s,7s, think of our good old friend Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- He's not quite the Austrian oak he once was from his youth to where he's at now. He's still strong because he works out, but he's not super duper muscle bodybuilder. Now, when you're in your 20s and 30s, it it's not as important to you. Just you just do whatever you want. You fall down, you get back up.
- But as we get into our 60s, if you fall down, you're like, "Ouch, that hurt." But you also still have so many other responsibilities to do later in life. and you want to explore and actually live life as well throughout. So I tell my clients in their 40s that the lifting weights is things that we need to do now.
- It's a deposit for how they're going to move, feel, and function when they're 65, 70, 75. When the bill is skipped for decades, when it comes to paying it off for strength training and being consistent with doing some form of strength building and muscle building, it will come due when you're 70 and you fall and you can't get up or you break a hip or you can't function.
- You have to constantly ask for other people to help you do things that you once used to do. The guy said a coach played the long game and that's super important. Sure, we want to look good in the mirror. Uh, but we need to make sure that we are actively engaging in form some form of strength training so that you get healthier and happier.
- If you want to feel strong and capable by the time you're 70 and have real habits that stick with you for decades, then consider the call to rise. It's a 100 day fat loss challenge for guys and it's built around eating the right foods at the right times in the right amount. also strength training. There's a lot of fun exercising that happens in there and building the right type of program just for you. So check out the calltorise.
- com to see how that might fit to give you support, accountability, and direction to being healthier and happier in the next 5 years than you have in the last 10. Why you are keep losing the same 20 pound hamster wheel? Yo-yo. Question is, why do I keep losing the same 20 pounds over and over and over and never actually keeping it off? One study tracked dieters for five years and 80% gain the weight back.
- It's unfortunate. It's not a weight loss problem that we have in this country. It's a a weight maintenance problem. How do we maintain it? That's the challenge and the failure that happens on a massive scale for our population at this time. And it it happens and and no one really pays attention there. It's all weight loss, weight loss, weight loss.
- How about weight maintenance? You do not want to have to lose I think I had a guy recently, he'd lost over 200 lb and he was still 270 pounds. This is not good for your overall health and quality of life. and muscle mass because every time you restrict a diet and if especially if you did hard and you do it in a way that causes weight gain, you will gain back fat, not muscle.
- A large analysis pulling almost 30 studies they call metaanalysis found that within two years most people regain over half the weight they lost and five years around 80% of it comes back. This is a really sad truth for humans because habits, lifestyle, challenges, stress at that point, this the scale is is h at this scale then the the maintenance phase is never being taught.
- And every program on the planet teaches about the losing phase. But I purposely do what I call the the long-term bias approach. what we do in two weeks, we do in two months, we do in two years. We're stacking behavior changes, developing skills around what's missing. Say food preparation or food planning or paying attention to what you eat and having a protocol of and a plan of how you eat in a busy day.
- When you have structure, focus, and education, that means that five pounds weight range you live will uh stay permanent. And that's something that I teach every guy that I've ever worked with. We want to get to a 5 pound weight range and stay there the rest of your life. Sure, you're going to oscillate up and down, but guess what? If you gain 10 pounds, that's four to eight weeks of focused effort trying to lose weight that you do not want.
- If you're having trouble losing the same 20 pounds all and you go down and you go up, you go down and you go up. Well, I'm gonna invite you to a health hot seat on Driven for Health podcast. What that is is it's a free coaching call. You're going to walk away with a very simple plan that's specific catered to you individualized that focuses on your nutrition, your exercise around your lifestyle, and you will have a complete professional blueprint that you can take with you.
- Just comment the word hot seat and I will send over the details and we can get that set up for you. What separates the guys who keep it off for good? Well, what's actually different from the guys who lose the weight and keep it off and not gain it back? That's the question. The men who keep it off all share one thing.
- And the workout isn't always the main focus. That's where people want to go. Oh, guys want to go to the gym first, but that's not truth and doesn't need. It comes down to what happens at 9:00 p.m. on a Tuesday night when nobody's watching and you're stressed out and everything's calling you from the kitchen.
- Every man I coach long term who actually keeps the weight off has the same patterns of behavior. What we do is we've built strong standards for them to run and make decisions on. This is important because once we have a higher standard for yourself, you elevate to that in the way you operate, the way that you you think, feel, and act, which is so important.
- The guys that keep 30 pounds for off for three plus years and and they can continue doing that. They understand having control around when they eat in a day and when they don't. They understand control around how to have some flexibility built into it. It's a MBF protocol is what I call moderation, balance, flexibility has to be built into the process so that they can have some fun on a date night or a client eating out meal or something when they travel.
- But we have to make sure that we stay in a five pound weight range for long-term success, which is also important. Now, that's something that I teach in my brotherhood with big accountability in the call to rise program. It's a 100 day fat loss challenge that can help you create a system of process around you being healthier and happier and be able to stay consistent doing the things you need to over a very long period of time and staying successful.
- That is the calltorise.com for the 100 day fat loss challenge to lose weight, build muscle, and uh redefine your body and be healthier than you've ever been in your life. That's five questions on chronic illness, five on lifestyle with travel and stress, and then five on aging while staying strong.
- I hope that you really enjoyed these episodes. Keep the DMs and the questions coming. You can hit me up for any of the things I talked about inside the calltorise.com brianpraana.com or sending me an email brianbrian.com and I can send over any of the resources that you want that you heard as a solution to some of the challenges and problems that you might be facing and you want a little extra help on.
- Off we go to the next one.
