Geezer Desperate for Help

[DavidCC]

A nutritional forum on Starting Strength? Hell musta done froze over.

Background:

Male; 60; 6’0”; 225lbs.; 25 – 30 BF% 43” waist with a big ole load of visceral fat. Heart disease on one side of the family, diabetes on the other. I’ve always thought of myself as being semi-athletic due to the fact that I ran track in high school (they measured the distances in yards back then) and play the occasional game of tennis. No strength training until I began Starting Strength two weeks ago. Due to the fact that I am what Rip would refer to as “titty baby weak,” I started with just the bar. While I would certainly like to get strong (at least as strong as someone my age can), it’s obvious that I am flirting with obesity and, given my age and family history, a long, slow decline and an unpleasant departure from this cruel world. I occurs to me that perhaps I should address this before I begin my powerlifting career.

I typically eat three meals which provide about 2500 kcal/day. My downfall, however, is late afternoon/evening snacking which provides at least an additional 1500 kcal. Whole milk, chocolate milk, full-fat yogurt, bread, nuts, and ice cream are my snacking foods of choice. While looking at this list of snack foods it is obvious where I should start. However, there is so much contradictory nutritional info out there that I don’t really know how to put together an effective, healthy eating /training plan.

1. Where would be a good starting place for calories and macronutrients for someone like me? Given the limited information you have, I know you can’t give me anything definitive. I would, however, appreciate a starting point to work from.

2. Should I continue with Starting Strength as written? Add some conditioning? Replace a day of SS with some conditioning? I have access to an elliptical machine (hate it), a stationary bike (hate it even more), and an old-school NordicTrack ski machine (can tolerate it if someone put a gun to my head). I like walking and cycling (outside in good weather, which it is not now and won’t be for a few months). I could also get into some kettlebell swings or complexes.

Thanks for any help you could provide, and for making time for this much-need forum.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

1. Where would be a good starting place for calories and macronutrients for someone like me? Given the limited information you have, I know you can’t give me anything definitive. I would, however, appreciate a starting point to work from.

2. Should I continue with Starting Strength as written? Add some conditioning? Replace a day of SS with some conditioning? I have access to an elliptical machine (hate it), a stationary bike (hate it even more), and an old-school NordicTrack ski machine (can tolerate it if someone put a gun to my head). I like walking and cycling (outside in good weather, which it is not now and won’t be for a few months). I could also get into some kettlebell swings or complexes.

Good questions, David.

1) The precise (yet useless) answer is your calorie/maco totals should be enough to help you recover but not so much that you're gaining fat. In fact, you should be losing a pretty good bit of fat. This tells me that if your cal measurements are correct, that you're current level of intake is a bit too high. If you're not gaining weight currently however, you're probably not that far off from where you should be to get the ball rolling, i.e. you would only have to reduce cals a bit to start moving the other direction. That being said, perhaps you might gain a compliance benefit by trying to shift most of your calories later in the day? A lot of people seem to really do well at eating a lighter breakfast and lunch and then getting a pretty big dinner. This, of course, won't allow you to take down ice cream and turn them into abs, but it's one option. If you were my client, I'd have you start with being consistent eating a meat/animal protein at every meal, keeping any non-veggie carb out of the diet unless its before or after training, and cutting back on the milk by a couple glasses a day.

2) Keep doing SS, although you'll probably have to switch over to advanced novice pretty soon. I don't think you should replace a day of SS with conditioning, but on your last session of the week add in some high intensity intervals afterward. You could do these on any type of cardio modality you like (think 20-30s ALL out effort w/ 1:30 rest x 6-10 rounds). Kettlebells may work too. Keep this level of frequency, i.e. 1x a week, for 2 weeks and then think about adding an additional conditioning workout at the end of one of your sessions provided recovery is going well.

[DavidCC]

Your assertion that I cannot turn ice cream into abs is most disheartening. Other than that, thank you for the simple, straight forward advice. Although I have gained about 10 pounds over the last year, my weight has stabilized over the past few months. You're probably right that a few small changes would get the ball rolling in the right direction - and probably without too much pain and anguish. I especially like your idea of consuming most calories later in the day. I was never much of a breakfast eater until I finally bought into the idea that "a big breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Which leads me too a related question: What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? (Feeding window between noon and 8:00pm.) It occurs to me that if I simply skipped breakfast and didn't eat until noon, that would be a giant step towards my goal of moving most calories until later in the day. Additionally, I would move my training time from morning to late afternoon. My consumption of non-veggie carbs would then naturally fit around my training time.

Your thoughts are appreciated.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? (Feeding window between noon and 8:00pm.) It occurs to me that if I simply skipped breakfast and didn't eat until noon, that would be a giant step towards my goal of moving most calories until later in the day. Additionally, I would move my training time from morning to late afternoon. My consumption of non-veggie carbs would then naturally fit around my training time.

I don't think there's anything special about IF outside of increased compliance w/ macros and calories for those having a hard time regulating their intake. Outside of that, I think if you "like the idea" of IF you could just shift the majority of your calories and bigger meals towards the end of the day but I would still having something for "breakfast" like a protein shake + medium chain triglycerides and instant coffee or some sort of animal protein and fat. I don't think you need to arbitrarily cut your feeding window off either. Just focus first on getting your protein sources in 4-5x a day, starches around the workout (could be at night if you train then) and sticking to mostly vegetables the other times of the day. Just my 0.02.

[DavidCC]

Sensible advice. Much appreciated.

I'll report back in 6 - 9 months and let you know how it went. Hopefully I'll be a healthier and stronger 61 year old.