Explanation: male, 38, 130 pounds. Skinny, low muscle mass but have a beer keg belly.

My day is 7am wake up. Get kids to school. Work until 5. Get kids from school. Cook, shower and then I’m exhausted AF.

I’m semi fit? I’m a mechanic professionally and spring til summer I mountain bike regularly. So my calves are monsters.

But would like… basic at home sit ups. Push ups etc like on a Saturday, would that help at all?

  • @beerclue
    0•7 hours ago

    sorry for hijacking, i am also interested in the subject, commenting here to hopefully get some info. i’m 174cm / 84kg. i wear medium clothes, but my beer muscle shows up, it’s quite big. even through a sweater.

    i don’t exercise (i work in it, from home mostly), but also, i barely eat. today i had 3 coffees (no sugar, little milk), some leftover stir fry (veggies, chicken, mie noodles) and an apple, and that’s common. i don’t eat sweets or junk food.

    i cook almost every day, usually curries & rice, stir fry, pizza/pasta, soups and stews, but i rarely eat myself. i switch daily between chicken/pork/seafood/tofu/legumes for protein, but there’s always rice or pasta or bread.

    i drink a couple beers in a week (on average), i drink very little water throughout the day, maybe half a liter.

    i sleep very little too, about 5h on average (less during the week, more on weekends).

    where should i start? what’s the most blatant issue on my list? i know, all, but… what would be the first?

    • osaerisxero
      3•6 hours ago

      The most blatant issue is the low water intake and the low sleep. Increasing the sleep and the water will help dramatically.

      • @beerclue
        1•1 hour ago

        thanks! i am trying to, i got a large refillable bottle, but “i can’t be bothered” to refill it when it’s empty, my hyper focus keeps me glued to my chair… if i’m thirsty, i just take another cold coffee sip… 🤦‍♂️

    • @[email protected]English
      3•6 hours ago

      The most blatant issue is not exercising. You don’t have to do anything drastic but adding an evening walk to your routine and changing nothing else would be really beneficial for you. If you added a few hours of walking per week and dropped the beer completely that would definitely tip the scales in your favour and you would see the weight dropping.

      I would expect those two changes would benefit your sleep too

      • @beerclue
        1•2 hours ago

        thanks! i commute once or twice per week to the office, and that’s some train, some walking. i average 5k steps per day, but with 10k when I go to the office. yesterday i did just under 1k.

        i did check in with a specialist regarding my sleeping issues. it’s… complicated, but i’m working on it, part medication, part cpap machine :)

    • @baldingpudenda
      2•6 hours ago

      You should go to your doctor so they’ll run some tests. It could be something medical and not just your diet and exercise. Plus you’ll get a baseline to compare later.

      Write down what you actually eat in a day and look up roughly how many calories it is in total. You can search ‘chicken calories’ and there are websites that will tell you how many in say 100g of chicken breast or thigh. You can use those sites to look up calories for each food item. Sometimes we don’t realize how much we actually eat. Or It could be a gland or hormonal problem which again needs medical attention.

      If you’re eating high carb, you can be building visceral fat. beer is just fermented bread. If you’ve been eating high carb, cut down to 100g of carbs per day or less. For me just cutting out the rice and making sure I had some sauce, salsa, etc to make sure the dish isn’t dry worked for me. I tried to stay closer to 50g of carbs per day, but unless you want to be a robot and eat the same dishes for 6 to 12 months, use it more as a guide line than a hard rule.

      Since your lowering your carbs, you can raise your protein and fat to feel full. No rice, bread, pasta will make your plate looks sad and empty. Fill it with veggies. I always sautee my veggies.

      As you lower your visceral fat, you’ll sleep better, which lowers your stress, which lowers your accumulation of visceral fat, which makes you sleep better, in a positive feed back loop which will give you energy and you can start taking walks. Which adds more positive feed back…

      TL;DR go to your doc. Eat more protein and veg. very little rice, pasta, bread. Try it for a month and see if you feel better

      • @beerclue
        1•1 hour ago

        i did have some blood tests back in december. everything was within parameters for someone my age & gender.

        i’ll try the calories / carbs counting. based on how much i eat, i should be able to add it all up at the end of the day. i remember 10-15 years ago i dropped the sugar from my coffee and also stopped eating bread for a few weeks, and i dropped a few kg. i do eat veggies, it’s not just protein with rice. my kids love a salad with olive oil and lemon juice, and my stir fries and curries also have plenty of them. but noted!

        thanks a lot for the tips!