Can you realistically build muscle in your 50's?

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If you lose the weight you will look better. Forget gaining muscle mass. Just keep most of the mass you have now and lose the weight and you will look far better than you think.

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I was going to say the same thing. If he keeps his strength steady and loses 60lbs, that’s a huge win

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Can you realistically build muscle in your 50's?

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Absolutely. I got a bad case of Covid in 2021 at 49yo. It was real bad. Like in ICU and on a vent bad. I was in maybe the best shape of my life natural prior to this. 5'11" 220. Maybe in the mid teens BF. I went from this to about 170. Just about all of the weight loss was in muscle mass. I literally lost my arse and quads. All upper body size just about left. I didn't even look remotely the same. It was tough to digest and I thought I would never get back to that level since I could barely breath at the time. Walking across a room was like an accomplishment. Well fast forward a few months and once I got my appetite back I started eating protein like I was back on gear back in the day. I tracked my macros and just forced myself to train harder than I honestly ever trained. It has been a mountain I didn't think I could climb again but I am back to my pre-Covid size and strength (all natural too, not even TRT either). My only issue is my cardio. It still hasn't come back to 100% and I guess I am ok with that since I am now 51. So, the answer to your question is yes.

Fasting to lose the gut and heavy lifting on the other days. You won’t lose muscle

Just saw you are on insulin. Would have to talk with your doc about fasting.

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A healthy 50 year old can gain muscle but, no offense, that isn't you. Your 1st, 2nd and 3rd priority has to be losing fat and getting in better shape metabolically. At this point you are insulin resistant enough to be requiring insulin, which means your metabolic health is terrible. And because of that, it would not be at all surprising for your body to not be able to build muscle.

You need to focus on fat loss and metabolic health. That means your focus has to be calorie control (for fat loss) and exercise (for metabolic health). Eat 500-600 calories under your estimated maintenance calories, eat a good amount of protein (at least 150g a day, it will significantly help with weight loss and muscle retention), set a goal to get to at least 150 minutes a week of low to mid intensity cardio (zone 1 and 2) which would include walking at different paces, bike riding, etc. I don't think running at this point would give you much if any benefit over walking. With this, you should see about 2 pounds of weight loss a week and you will be at your goal in about 8 months.

Consider asking your doctor about Mounjaro or Ozempic for your diabetes to help you lose weight and get off insulin. Also monitor your uric acid levels and make sure those are under control with meds so you can eat enough protein. After you lose weight, your gout will likely improve

To retain strength and muscle mass during this, lift twice a week or maybe even just once. I would recommend 1 compound leg movement, 1 pulling movement, and 1 pushing movement each workout with a weight that challenges you to get 6-10 reps for 2-3 sets. That's enough to maintain or even build strength without a lot of time or fatigue, which will allow you to focus mainly on the cardio.

Once you get healthy, then you can focus on building muscle and will be much more successful doing so.

Weightlifting is just as important if not more so in your 50s. Men have trouble keeping muscle at this age, and I think you will find that you didn't retain quite as much muscle as you thought once the pounds come off. Weightlifting is an important part of exercise and will help with weight loss, reduced stress, and restful sleep. You might find that the old 8 hours a night is not quite enough on days when you lift. Create a balanced exercise lifestyle for yourself that includes cardio and weightlifting and be sure to include compound movements.

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The one comment I would make is that bulking/cutting cycles aren’t the same for older dudes. I feel like I gain lean mass a little slower and drop fat a little slower too just because of recovery. So if I’m not careful I overgain and then spend a long time on deficit to fix it.

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This is what I'm slowly coming to realize. I wasn't drastically overweight, but for my height it was showing. I'm 5'7" and was hovering in the high 190s to 200 lbs. When I started a diet program, back at the end of 2021, I was at 189. I had cut back some and lost a little before going all in. I got down to around 155, looked sickly, and started exercising, trying to gain a little back.

I'm around 170 now, and the struggle is that little bit of extra around my waist. Strength wise and cardio wise, I'm probably in better shape than I was in my late 20s and early 30s. I'm 42 now. It is nothing for me to ride my Peloton 45 minutes 2-3 times a week and tack on a 60, 75, or 90 minute ride on the weekends. Strength training 3-4 days a week as well. My arms look great, my legs look good, slowly working more resistance training in there. Like most men though, I'd like more size in my chest and less size in my stomach.

I just can't shake that extra fat like I used to. I've never had a 6 pack, and mine isn't really love handles, it is more on the front lower abdomen. Would I like to lose it, of course. Do I have the discipline in the kitchen to do that, not so much. I've thought about supplements, but not sure if it is just snake oil and money down the drain. The only thing I'm currently doing outside of a good diet is creatine, BCAAs, and whey protein.

Yes.

I’m getting up there in age but stronger than ever. I’m too lazy to stick with a diet to get ripped, though.

Sitting around 16% BF at 200

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Muscle memory is real.

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Obviously I am a true believer in that statement now. I never really put a lot of thought into it since I haven't really fluctuated size wise much since probably 2008 when I had a pretty nasty neck injury from doing BJJ and I pretty well lost a lot of upper body size from having a pinched nerve since I couldn't really train upper body.

I will be turning 66 in three weeks. I lost 50 pounds about five years ago. I am 5 foot eight and I went from 223 to 173. I did it by eating six small meals a day while keeping my simple carbohydrate intake as low as possible.

It took me about five weeks to get it going but once I did I lost over 20 of the pounds in two months. No starvation as I believe that halts the fat loss but I ate very soon after I felt hungry never letting myself get ravenously hungry as there is a danger of over eating. I did no exercise at all.

I never ate an amount more than the size of my fist. If I had a four course meal I would eat one course every two or three hours. I used this method about 30 years ago and got the same kind of results. But at the end of it due to not having done resistance training in years I was emaciated however I was healthy.

Since then I put back on about 20 pounds of fat and have developed arthritic conditions and bone spurs in my joints.

I had an idea that I needed to increase my muscle mass and strength to support my joints.

I tried working out with weights like I used to do and found that I would injure myself and experience a lot of pain.

So I stopped and reset and at that point I remembered the bodybuilders at the health club when I was a teenager who were lifting light dumbbell weights and pumping particular muscles and they were getting jacked.

Of course us kids laughed at them because we were power lifting and squatting 400 pounds and dead lifting almost as much. But they were getting huge and we were getting strong.

So I decided to try that because I figured my joints with the lack of muscle mass and strength were getting strained lifting heavy weights which due to the arthritic conditions and bone spurs was causing the pain.

I went to the doctor and had x-rays and compared them to X-rays from 15 years ago that confirmed that I was developing arthritis and bone spurs.

So I started out doing the same weight lifting exercises but with no weight or just enough weight to activate the muscle that I wanted to develop much like the bodybuilders of my youth did.

I incorporated an appropriate amount of protein as recommended to maintain or build muscle mass.

I started taking creatine monohydrate and a pre-workout and a recovery protein drink.

Well long story longer I have been successfully doing this since around Mardi Gras and I have never in my life put on muscle mass like I am now. I can’t believe it. I should’ve done this a long time ago.

Anyway I could go on and on and have left out a few key details but that’s the gist of it yes an old man can put on muscle mass even with arthritis. It just takes patience and persistence and focus. You can do this as well.

I’m figuring I will need to do this for the rest of my life if I want to stay pain-free. But I really enjoy it as well so I don’t see it as a burden.

As much as it benefits me physically it benefits me mentally maybe more. I am caring for my wife who is terminally ill and according to the doctors has about 15 months left. This provides a much-needed diversion. It also motivates me to live a healthy lifestyle so I will be here to care for her until the end.