WEIGHT LOSS ADVICE
How To Copy Steroid Users To Lose Weight After 40 (Without The Steroids Obviously)
Overcome the diminishing returns from your diet efforts
Addressing the elephant in the room, please don’t think I’m telling you to start injecting yourself in the butt every Monday morning.
I’ve never touched steroids in my 30 years of working out. But even if I disagree with their use, the sheer scale of knowledge that steroid users have on hormonal balance, training loads and calorie intake is impressive.
So it was a real Light Bulb Moment for me when I read of a common dosage protocol popular with users: Blast & Cruise. Because we can apply the same protocol (without having to talk to that sketchy guy at the gym about his pills and potions) to losing weight after 40.
Blast & Cruise 101
By ‘blasting’ with a large dose of Testosterone in the short term, then backing off and ‘cruising’ on much lower dosages (similar to TRT for older men) in the long term, steroid users are always ‘on’ steroids with a Blast & Cruise approach.
This contrasts with the other common protocol of Cycling, being ‘on’ then ‘off’, when users have to contend with their body’s natural Testosterone production having been completely shut down.
During a short-term Blast the body is under a lot of stress, adversely affecting liver enzymes, lipids, cholesterol. The Cruise allows the body to recover while still giving it a smaller dosage of Testosterone to avoid complete shut-down.
OK — How Does This Relate To Fat Loss After 40?
Losing weight is tougher after 40, and we’ve all experienced diminishing returns from our diet efforts. Something that once worked seems to no longer do so, right? This is normally when we grumpily come off the diet we were on.
What happened?
Well the body adapts to this kind of mid-level dosage of calorie restriction and our metabolism slows down (this is where increasing activity levels can help).
Similarly if we try and stick with a super-restrictive diet, we will lose weight pretty fast to begin with, but then we get higher Cortisol and hormonal imbalances, and our metabolism slows right down.
That’s right, despite trying harder, nibbling on a lettuce leaf for lunch, we are left feeling tired, hating everyone and everything around us and, cruelly, no longer losing weight despite our efforts. So to recap:
- Trying a medium-level amount of calorie restriction long-term gets diminishing returns, while
- We can’t cope with higher levels of calorie restriction for long…
But we could Blast at a high level of calorie restriction for a couple of weeks, then Cruise at a much easier level longer term.
Wait. What’s Wrong With Slow & Steady Fat Loss?
Losing weight after 40 sounds simple in theory, indeed I’ve written article after article where I try to make this all as simple as possible. The main drums I beat are:
- Eat 80/20-style, healthy and calorie-restricted Mon-Fri, messy and at calorie maintenance at weekends.
- Take a slow and steady approach to fat loss, as we’re too busy for anything higher maintenance.
This is all well and good. It works.
But plodding away doing the same thing can get boring AND there are some limitations with a slow and steady approach:
- We’re only human and we want proof at the beginning that eating more healthily and dealing with hunger is worth it. Losing a half lb in Week 1 is underwhelming, even if that would be 25–30lbs in a year.
- At certain times we are able and willing to lose weight faster and do something a bit weird or hardcore, even when we know it’s not a good long term strategy (see most diets-with-a-fancy-name).
For these reasons I regularly now use a Blast & Cruise approach with coaching clients. We alternate:
- a more restrictive, higher maintenance approach in the short term, with
- A lower maintenance, eating ‘normally’ approach in the longer term.
A Typical Blast & Cruise Fat Loss Cycle
First we’ll Cruise, because if you haven’t restricted calories before or in a while, doing a Blast right off the bat is masochistic and unnecessary.
Let’s get your mind and body primed for fat loss first, by:
- Calculating your BMR
- Deducting just 200 kcals from that as your target daily calorie intake
- Calculating the calories in your breakfasts and lunches
- Using those figures to manage your dinner portions
- Not snacking between meals
- Having a few managed indulgences at weekends (takeout, booze, meals out).
Cruise like that for 3–4 weeks.
You’ll lose some body fat because you’ll be in a slight calorie deficit. But we can do more for a while…
So we Blast, for 2 weeks only, before your metabolism catches on and adapts, and before your Cortisol levels tank and before you get fed up and grumpy.
We do this by:
- Following the 16:8 protocol for Intermittent Fasting, essentially dropping one meal a day (probably breakfast), so you could break your fast at 11am then stop eating by 7pm.
- Sticking to this over weekends too (remember it’s only for 2 weeks).
After 2 weeks, you should have lost several pounds of body fat, between 3 and 5lbs in my experience.
Now, although you may be tempted to surf this Fat Loss Wave forever, thinking you’re a genius, you shouldn’t, because you’ll get diminishing returns.
So we go back to Cruise-ville.
You can eat breakfast again, or if you realise you don’t miss breakfast (I really don’t feel like eating before midday) you can up your portion sizes at lunch and dinner and not sweat any calories after 7pm.
Fat loss will slow right down but that’s part of the plan remember.
Because after 3–4 weeks, if you still have weight to lose, you can do another 2-Week Blast.
This will work again as your metabolism is running as if your Cruise level of calories is the norm. So fat loss will happen immediately upon Blasting with an increased level of restriction for 2 weeks.
And you can repeat this protocol for as long as you need to, eating pretty normally for 4 weeks, blasting for 2 weeks and losing a chunk of weight, then pulling out before your metabolism and hormones start to suffer.
Why This Works For Busy Folks Over 40
We can learn from the bodybuilders who alternate mega doses of steroids with a slow and steady approach, by taking a similar approach with our ‘dosage’ of calorie restriction to lose weight after 40.
Essentially we’re talking about:
- 4 weeks of being OK with 0.5–1lb fat loss per week, then
- ramping things up for 2 weeks to knock off another 3–5 lbs.
7–10lbs of fat loss every 6 weeks adds up quickly, and most of the time you’re eating pretty normally and not having to give up the foods and drinks you love.
And for me 2 weeks of restriction is doable, even if I’m sticking with Diet Coke on a night out instead of beer, or having to suck up some hunger — it’s just 2 weeks.
And by our age we can suck up some extra discomfort for a couple of weeks, because God knows after 40 the rest of our lives is pretty f*cking uncomfortable already ;-)
As a coach I help Men over 40 get in shape by keeping them motivated, accountable and supported, while following customized programs that slot easily into their hectic lives. Grab my FREE No-BS Supplements Guide for Men 40+ here.
