in search of advice + support

[scoooter]

Hello,
I'm a 60 yo, male, who sits at a desk all day. Looking for support and advice on how to approach my weight loss.
Current weight 225lbs, %BF guess 25.
My issue is that I chase after a solution by guessing my over weight problem causes such as
High cortisol
High estrogen
parasites
bad gut flora
diet
bloat

I've just completed a 30 day 7000+ step challenge (210,000 steps) and the belly still hangs and weight didn't move ?

help

 

[AwakeningAlpha]

Track your meals with an ap of your choice. Increase fiber especially from broccoli and carrots to clear estrogen. Low carb, low fat, high protein diet. Lift 3+ days a week, accompanied by higher carb intake within one hour of workout. Do 30 minutes fasted walking every morning, ten minute walk after last meal. Sweat or sauna once a week.
Get blood work to determine if you need TRT or to manage Estrogen, thyroid, blood sugar, insulin resistance etc. Look into Retatrutide if you truly can't manage appetite or blood sugar via diet and habit. Manage cortisol with ashwaganda, laxogenin, magnesium, zinc and vitamin c & d.
Don't look at it as 30 day challenges, look at it as a the first year of a healthier lifestyle.
Not medical advice....

 

[Tiocfaidh]

Calories, calories, calories. What are you taking in vs what you are burning. You have to establish that first before anything else. You can walk 50,000 steps per day and if you're overheating, you aren't going to lose weight.

Track what you eat. There are a million apps out there you can use. Add it all up. What is it telling you.

 

[Smont]

I think you may have some insulin resistance, before I get into it tho, Total calories is a big part of it, if your weight stayed the same the whole time it means you are eating at maintenance calories. It means the total food you eat is just the amount that you eat to maintain that weight so if you started moving all those extra steps and your weight didn't go down, you probably started eating more food and didn't realize it.

With that being said, you do carry a disproportionately large amount of body fat in your stomach area compared to the rest of your body and for middle-aged and older men that is a very good sign of insulin resistance. If it's not something you normally pay attention to, you should look into getting your blood sugar tested

 

[Smont]

And if that is the case then metformin or a glp one would be super beneficial to you in reaching your goals and a doctor would probably prescribe you either or

 

[josh_fitcheck]

So I actually started sleeping deeper around week 3, and that was the first real "wait, something's different" moment for me. Training in the morning stopped feeling like a fight against myself. The alcohol thing was weird too—I'd pour a beer and just... not finish it? Never decided to quit, cravings just evaporated.

I chased every hormone theory too. Tested cortisol, got the gut tests, eliminated every inflammatory food under the sun. Lost maybe 3 pounds in six months of that misery. The step challenge you crushed? I did similar stuff, watched the scale mock me, and it broke my brain a little.

What actually moved the needle for me was retatrutide, but the point isn't the compound—it's that I needed something to interrupt the loop my body was stuck in. My guess? You're not broken, you're exhausted from fighting yourself. The walking built a habit, which matters. But if nothing budges, maybe it's time to stop guessing and try a targeted approach. Happy to share more if helpful.

 

[rico0902]

One thing that help me lose weight was going online and finding a TDEE calculator. On there you can put in your age, height, activity level, and so on to determine how many calories for your BMR. That way you know exactly how many calories a day you need to eat to lose weight. You can choose the aggressive approach or a slightly easier approach to where your calories are not too restricted and make it a little easier to stick to your diet. The next thing you really want to do is meal prep. Meal prepping is a huge deal and makes a diet way easier. I used to weigh almost 300lb and now I'm 180lb. I started seeing the biggest and most consistent weight lose when I started meal prepping. That way it takes the guess work out of it each day. Figure out what you will be eating that week. Make all your food on Sunday. Portion it out into cheap plastic bowl with 4 meals a day. Make enough for 6 1/2 days. That will give you one REASONABLE "cheat" meal a week only. If you need more help from that you can start a glp-1. I have tried all 3. Ozempic, tirzepatide and retatrutide. I would not recommend ozempic because it will turn your stomach into knots. But tirzepatide and reta both work great. Now that I'm trying to get the last bit of fat off of me and get to 10% body fat I actually use both at the same time. Right now I'm using a total of 7.5 mg. 5mg of reta and 2.5 tirzep. I know it sounds weird but with reta there really is not a point in going above 5mg because it's main use is glucagon and once you go above 5mg you get diminishing returns. So I started adding tirzep for the extra bump on my hunger which has been working great. Beyond that you need to start strength training at least 3 days a week if not 4. In the long run strength training burns more fat than cardio. In your picture you have a gut but your gut seems to be mainly viseral fat. Which unfortunately is the dangerous fat. It's the kind that wraps around your organs and can cause heart issues, liver issues, kidney issues and more. With all this you need to remember consistency is key. Lock in and just decide that this is the new you and don't let anybody stop you. If you do all this and give it about 3 or 4 months you will start to see a big difference which will push you to keep going even more. It sounds like a lot but once your going it will get easier over time. The hardest part is getting locked in.