Good afternoon all,

Just wanted to throw this out there and get this 200lb weight off my chest. I am currently dealing with a lot of stress in my life and wanted to discuss it and help me get back a better training regimen. First of all my stats are as follows: 40 years old, 175lbs, 6'0" and around 20% body fat. What I typically am doing is working out 3-4 days a week, varying from upper and lower body. Seeing some results, but not enough with my mid section and eliminating some of the body fat. I eat a low calorie, high protein diet. I do have a cheat day once a week and take a break. Stress has been hitting me hard with work, personal and spiritual.

Work has been a ton of changes and new responsibilities. I travel 5 days anywhere from 5-150 miles depending on where I am headed for work. I have a gym membership which allows me to workout in almost every city I travel to which is great. Anyway, the work load is a little overwhelming right now and my "alcohol of choice" is caffeine. It comes from coffee or diet coke all day long. Nightime is all water after around 6-7pm. I'm working a lot and exhausted by the time I am in bed between 10-11pm every night and up by 7.

Personally and Spiritually I am having a lot there. I was in a homosexual lifestyle for 20 years and 10 in a relationship. We both rededicated our lives to Christ and now live as roommates with absolutely nothing more. It has been a great transformed friendship and we are truly moving forward with our spiritual relationship. To make it short, it has many struggles to move forward from that life and really has its mental challenges which I am working on spiritually and with counseling.

Why I am telling you all this, is for some feedback to get my but focused more on my health and less on my stress. Working out helps with clearing my mind but I know being at he gym 7 days a week isn't healthy. I'm sure the stress is affecting my body and why I can't get rid of the back fat and "slabs" not abs that I would like. I'm not asking for a 6 pack workout, just want to be rid of the fat, it annoys me and that's the last thing I need added to my plate currently. If nothing else, thanks for allowing me to vent and I hope you all have an awesome day.

Hey 37 lifts, you have a really neat story. I myself first discovered Lift4life and got interested in training, and then I became a trainer, and now I'm continuing my education to become a licensed dietician. I'm not one yet, but in about a year and a half hopefully I'll be able to pass the test. The only reason I say that is because I'm about to point you towards a direction that may seem off to you, but if you do the research for yourself I think you, and just about anyone else reading this will agree.
First off, you mention a low calorie, high protein diet. We need protein, all of us do and to build muscle you need more of it, that's fair. But what we all need a lot more of is carbohydrates. The USDA is really making a push to get healthier Americans right now because just this past week the 2012 obesity report came in, and it has once again grown with some states reporting over 60% of their population overweight or obese, so you would think USDA would tell us "eat less carbs." But that's not the case. Looking around the world the leanest nations are the ones eating the most carbs, China - Rice, Kenya, Millet/corn Ireland - potatoes, Isreal - Bread. These nations must surly be full of fat obese people, right? Nope, they are not even close to America. The standard American is eating less carbs AND!!!! Less calories than many of those nations, and they are fatter. It's true, you know it is, it's common sense.
If you cut out carbs you lose weight, really quickly. Why? Because a Carbohydrate is Carbon and Water molecules (CH2O). If you aren't getting them, then your muscles aren't being fueled properly, not even with protein.
So if you want more information about carbs I would be glad to share, but lets just say that you'll take my word for it and I'll give you a few opinions without telling you exactly what to eat. Use an online calorie counter like Cronometer.com, or myplate.org, or whatever, most of them are free. Find out what calories you are eating right now. I generally eat 80% of my calories from carbs. I don't think that's a bad idea, but you might ease your way into it, start out at something like (60% carbs, 20% fat and 20% protein) That's what Steve Reeves advocated. Fat's have 9 calories per gram, where as carbs and proteins have only 4 calories/gram, so a little fat will take over your diet really quickly. We generally assign foods by there nutrient ratio, like rice is a carb food. But Rice also has protein and fat, so that still should be counted.

Carbs you might enjoy - Fruits (as much as you can handle), Sweet Potatoes, Fruits, Brown Rice (Those skinny Chinese people are mostly eating white Rice though, so it can't be that bad), Oats, Whole Grain Bread, Fruits, Quinoa, Corn, potatoes, spaghetti
Fats - Avocados, Almonds, Pecans, Cashews, Flax Seed, Natural Nut Butters, Most meats (especially red meat) are really high in fat
Proteins, I'm a vegan, so I can't really comment too much on the standard protein sources, but beans, lentils and many of the carb/fat sources I mentioned above have proteins in the calo-nutrient ratio's I mentioned above.

Just a few other notes,

1. sleep is really important to our health in terms of hormones, recovery and the intensity with which we can train, so do your best.
2. Stress taxes our adrenal glands which play a large part in the same ways that sleep do.

And lastly, I'm also a Christian and I just want to say it's awesome to see a brother draw closer to Jesus. It must be a very difficult situation living with someone that you once knew in that capacity. Good luck, and keep posting.