{"id":453763,"date":"2025-12-17T18:10:30","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/453763\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T18:10:30","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T18:10:30","slug":"how-i-transformed-my-lardy-middle-aged-body-to-this-in-ten-weeks-says-guy-adams-ive-lost-5kg-15cm-of-belly-fat-and-my-minds-sharper-than-ever-but-the-most-astonishing-part-its-simple-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/453763\/","title":{"rendered":"How I transformed my lardy, middle-aged body to THIS in ten weeks, says GUY ADAMS: I’ve lost 5kg, 15cm of belly fat and my mind’s sharper than ever. But the most astonishing part? It’s simple, easy… and ANYONE can do it"},"content":{"rendered":"

The celebrity midlife crisis is a glorious thing, and I think we can all agree that Sacha Baron Cohen<\/a>\u2019s has been one of 2025\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

It began, as these things often do, with the implosion of his marriage, back in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then the 54-year-old father-of-three began frequenting fashionable nightclubs. Recent weeks have seen reports of him \u2018getting cosy\u2019 with a series of twentysomething women who make a living via Instagram and, in one unfortunate case,\u00a0OnlyFans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There has been one bright spot, however. It occurred on July 24, when Baron Cohen graced the cover of Men\u2019s Fitness magazine.<\/p>\n

You may recall<\/a> the picture. Topless, clutching dumbbells, and seemingly covered in baby oil, the Hollywood actor was showing off an extraordinary physical transformation.<\/p>\n

Gone was the pigeon chest and pasty skin of his mankini-wearing alter-ego Borat<\/a>. In its place stood a sort of bronzed Adonis, complete with bulging biceps, shimmering pecs, and that holy grail of masculine self-regard, a walnut-cracking six pack.<\/p>\n

When a man does this sort of thing, he\u2019s sending a signal. One that can be summed up in a single sentence: I\u2019ve not lost it!<\/p>\n

Every midlife beefcake is a walking, talking symbol of defiance. Proof that, while no chap can entirely avoid the indignities of middle age (from receding hairlines to dodgy backs and knees, to failing teeth and eyesight), a certain amount of dedication can help us mitigate them.<\/p>\n

\"Guy <\/p>\n

Guy Adams\u00a0pumped iron, avoided carbohydrates, ran up hills and gorged himself silly on supplements for ten weeks to achieve this\u00a0physical transformation<\/p>\n

\"His\u00a0journey <\/p>\n

His\u00a0journey from couch potato to shirtless cover star dates back to mid-September when, feeling lardy after an indulgent summer, Guy decided to begin a vigorous wellness regime<\/p>\n

I say this with some confidence because I am about to tread in Sacha Baron Cohen\u2019s manly footsteps. On Wednesday, a different middle-aged father-of-three will grace the hallowed front page of Men\u2019s Fitness. And that pouting model will be… me.<\/p>\n

My journey from couch potato to shirtless cover star dates back to mid-September when, feeling lardy after an indulgent summer, I decided to begin a vigorous wellness regime. For ten weeks I pumped iron, avoided carbohydrates, ran up hills and gorged myself silly on supplements.<\/p>\n

You can see the results for yourself here. According to the Men\u2019s Fitness headline writers, I can officially now claim, at the grand old age of 47, to be \u2018seriously ripped\u2019.<\/p>\n

It has been a fascinating, and in some ways life-changing journey, which has been followed with mild amusement (and the occasional \u2018phwoar!\u2019) by my wife Katie.<\/p>\n

Along the way I have clocked up several big losses \u2013 5kg (11lb) in weight, 2in (5cm) off my waist, and about 6in (15cm) from my belly \u2013 and some notable physical gains, including 2in (5cm) on each bicep and thigh. My mind now feels as sharp as a knife, and my sleep patterns are better than at any time since I had newborn children to contend with.<\/p>\n

As we approach that time in the calendar when thoughts turn to self-improvement, this journey has also taught me priceless lessons about the male body and how we can either enhance or abuse it. The simple truth, I have discovered, is that any middle-\u00adaged bloke \u2013 and I really do mean any\u00a0\u2013 can regain the chiselled torso of their youth.<\/p>\n

With a bit of effort, you might even be able to make yourself look \u2013 and feel \u2013 fitter than ever.<\/p>\n

There is no great sacrifice required. Instead, the difference between owning a \u2018dad bod\u2019 and being a \u2018gym god\u2019 boils down to a handful of small choices we all make every single day.<\/p>\n

Making the right call, on these fronts, of course, requires a little bit of discipline and plenty of motivation. But it\u2019s nowhere near as difficult as you think, and at times can be rather enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In the summer, Sacha Baron Cohen was on the cover of Men\u2019s Fitness. Gone was his pigeon chest and pasty skin, replaced by a bronzed Adonis, complete with bulging biceps<\/p>\n

\"Guy <\/p>\n

Guy is prepared for his cover shoot – 24 hours earlier he had been\u00a0packed off for a spray tan, which involved standing in a tent, while his body was covered in chocolate-coloured paint<\/p>\n

In fact, despite the old saying about needing pain to achieve a gain, the only real agony I experienced during the entire process came in its final days, when I was required to undergo a pre-photoshoot chest wax at a London beauty clinic. It drew blood and left me looking, in Katie\u2019s assessment, like a newly plucked chicken.<\/p>\n

So how can every middle-aged man acquire a cover-star torso?<\/p>\n

The answer, I can reveal, is simple: to place yourself on this physical pedestal you must follow three interlinked regimes. One involves vigorous exercise; the other, a careful diet; the third, a daily dose of supplements.<\/p>\n

My ten-week journey began, inevitably, by acquiring an exercise guru. Having reached out to Men\u2019s Fitness, which kindly offered to oversee the process (and promised to put me on its cover if I made the grade), I was introduced to Jason Smith, the founder of an organisation called Fit In Midlife, which is devoted to whipping middle-aged fatties into shape.<\/p>\n

Jason is a \u2018personal trainer, life coach and black belt\u2019.\u00a0 And like many in the wellness industry, he boasts an inspiring personal story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For most of his adult life, he earned a shilling as a consultant, schlepping daily into London from his home near Horsham, West Sussex, to support a young family.<\/p>\n

By the time he hit 50, he was overweight, unfulfilled and, according to his doctor, pre-diabetic. In a \u2018before\u2019 photo he showed me he looked pale and puffy.<\/p>\n

\u2018I had a sort of crisis of confidence,\u2019 he says. \u2018I thought, I\u2019ve already lived more than half of the years I am going to live, and if I don\u2019t buck up I might not actually last many more. That\u2019s why I started going to the gym. I found it life-changing, so I decided to chuck in my commuter job and become a personal trainer.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jason is now a bona fide muscleman, with forearms like Popeye.\u00a0Yet his former career as a consultant in London helps him understand the competing demands on a middle-aged man\u2019s time in a way that other, younger trainers don\u2019t always comprehend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"According <\/p>\n

According to the Men\u2019s Fitness headline writers, Guy can officially now claim, at the grand old age of 47, to be \u2018seriously ripped\u2019<\/p>\n

\"In <\/p>\n

In the first week of his diet, Guy dropped 3.5kg. Over the next nine weeks, his weight fell a further 1.5kg, despite gym routines adding significant bulk to his chest and shoulders<\/p>\n

I therefore avoided the hassle (and expense) of having to attend his studio. Instead, he paid a single visit to a gym near the Daily Mail\u2019s HQ in West London, checked out the equipment available, then came up with a regime of basic exercises I could follow. These were then communicated daily to me via a nifty phone app.<\/p>\n

Since my family home is in South Wales (I commute to London for a few nights each week), Jason also instructed me to acquire a small set of dumbbells I could use in my bedroom at weekends. Again, tailored sessions, based on simple routines such as bicep curls, shoulder presses and press-ups, were sent to my device.<\/p>\n

So I began lifting weights four days each week. On two days I did cardio work (either running or on a bike) plus some abdominal routines. On the seventh day, usually a Tuesday, I was allowed to rest.<\/p>\n

At this stage you may be wondering how anyone with a full-time job plus a family and a vaguely functional social life has space to pump iron almost every day. But the clever thing about Jason\u2019s workouts is that none of them last more than 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

This is a game-changer. Visit any gym, and you\u2019ll realise that most users waste half their time fiddling with phones, hanging around the water cooler or walking very slowly on a treadmill.<\/p>\n

I had been as guilty of this as anyone else. Over the past few years, I\u2019ve managed more-or-less weekly trips to the gym to sharpen myself up for village cricket fixtures or club tennis matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rather than following a workout plan, I would fiddle around on whatever piece of equipment happened to be free, spend 20 minutes on an exercise bike, then call it a day.<\/p>\n

Jason\u2019s app, by contrast, makes visits to the gym short, sharp and invigorating. It bossily counts down the exact number of seconds you are allowed to rest between lifting particular weights.<\/p>\n

A typical session might involve ten to 12 exercises, each performed three times, with no more than 45 seconds in between.<\/p>\n

It was entirely idiot-proof. I quickly began lifting weights so heavy that I had to purchase one of those fat leather belts you see contestants on TV strongman shows wearing, to avoid putting out my back. Quickly, my personal bests improved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back in September, I struggled to bench press more than 60kg. Within a couple of months, I was lifting a whopping 80kg \u2013 more or less my own bodyweight.<\/p>\n

Once each week, I\u2019d send Jason a selfie, sans T-shirt, so he could track my progress.<\/p>\n

So much for exercise. The second area where relatively small adjustments could make a huge difference was, of course, diet.<\/p>\n

For this piece of the jigsaw, Men\u2019s Fitness placed me in the capable hands of Chris Baber, a former 800m runner and male model in his 30s, who achieved fame a few years back by winning a BBC cookery show called Yes Chef. Now a healthy eating guru, with a cookbook under his belt, he was previously a consultant for M&S.<\/p>\n

Having looked at a diary of the food and drink I consumed on a typical week (involving rather too many restaurant lunches), Chris told me there were four things he wanted me to completely cut out: all deep-fried food, fizzy drinks (I was putting away a full-fat can of Coke each lunchtime), anything processed and takeaways.<\/p>\n

Aside from that, my diet was judged to be OK. Though he insisted on a few other tweaks, mostly designed to replace carbohydrates with protein.<\/p>\n

At mealtimes, I was told to cut down on stuff like potatoes and pasta, in favour of extra portions of green vegetables.<\/p>\n

When I fancied a snack, which was pretty much every tea-time, chocolate bars were traded for sourdough toast covered in peanut butter.<\/p>\n

Breakfast was, whenever possible, to be Skyr, a high-protein variety of yogurt, mixed with fruit, plus a few spoons of chia seeds. Sugar, and most puddings, were to be generally avoided.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The only real agony Guy experienced during the entire process came in its final days, when he was required to undergo a pre-photoshoot chest wax at a London beauty clinic<\/p>\n

His instructions arrived as I was sitting down for dinner in a West London steakhouse.<\/p>\n

I somewhat dolefully traded in my frites for a portion of spinach, and shook my head when the waiter asked if I wanted dessert.<\/p>\n

But it was surprising how soon these sacrifices became routine, not to mention how little I really missed the empty calories of such old staples as chips and chicken wings, and my regular cocktail hour packet of salt and vinegar crisps.<\/p>\n

On the alcohol front, meanwhile, I negotiated a compromise.<\/p>\n

Chris wanted me to give it up completely (my food diary revealed I was getting through between 20 and 30 units per week). I agreed, instead, to limit booze to just a couple of nights each week.<\/p>\n

On paper, this felt like a big step. But in practice it proved weirdly easy. Once I began working out daily, my appetite for grog seemed to decline. Evenings where I\u2019d have historically ploughed through a couple of pints, before washing dinner down with wine, were instead revolving around a single beer.<\/p>\n

My preferred nightcap \u2013 single malt whisky \u2013 was traded in for mint tea.<\/p>\n

In my first week on this new diet, I dropped 3.5kg (7.7lb), from 92kg (14st 5lb) to 88.5kg (13st 9lb).<\/p>\n

Over the next nine weeks, my weight fell a further 1.5kg (3lb), despite gym routines adding significant bulk to my chest and shoulders.<\/p>\n

My belt was eventually tightened two notches, shirts no longer fit properly, and I have, on occasion, been forced to contend with jeans slipping down my hips.<\/p>\n

As Jason\u2019s app intensified workouts, I started feeling a touch sore.<\/p>\n

At this point, roughly three weeks into my fitness odyssey, it became clear that I needed to explore the world of fitness supplements.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of nonsense, not to mention a multi-billion-dollar industry, devoted to exotic powders and pills that supposedly transform your physical performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To cut through the noise, Men\u2019s Fitness packed me off to high-street chain Holland & Barrett. One of its in-house nutritionists (you can get advice for free online) recommended four relatively cheap products \u2013 one to be taken before exercise, one during and two afterwards.<\/p>\n

The most interesting was creatine, a powder that I mixed with water and drank each morning.<\/p>\n

First discovered by weightlifters, it helps your muscles perform more repetitions of a weight before collapsing, and is also purported to aid cognitive function.<\/p>\n

During workouts, I was told to take electrolyte pills, which prevent dehydration.<\/p>\n

And immediately after leaving the gym, I began quaffing chocolate-flavoured whey, a high-protein dairy product which allegedly helps muscles bulk up, plus a post workout powder containing amino acids that stop you feeling sore.<\/p>\n

What did this regime achieve? As with all supplements, there\u2019s doubtless at least some placebo effect. But the tape measure and weighing scales don\u2019t lie, so I kept quaffing them.<\/p>\n

A final bit of artificial help came 24 hours before the Men\u2019s Fitness photoshoot, when I was packed off for a spray tan, administered by celebrity make-up guru James Read.<\/p>\n

This involved standing in my underpants in a sort of tent, while he covered my body in a layer of chocolate-coloured paint.<\/p>\n

Two days after the photos on this page were taken, I returned from a sweaty gym session to discover my T-shirt was stained Donald Trump orange. Streaky white lines had appeared on my mahogany torso. I looked like a sort of grubby zebra.<\/p>\n

Did I care? Absolutely not. As Sacha Baron Cohen has so neatly demonstrated, every proper midlife crisis involves at least one loss of dignity. It\u2019s a small price to pay for showing the world that we haven\u2019t lost it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The celebrity midlife crisis is a glorious thing, and I think we can all agree that Sacha Baron…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":453764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[208122,211,3533,1198,210,563,1165,161832,59525,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-453763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-borat","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-femail","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-instagram","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-lifestylefitnesswellbeing","16":"tag-sacha-baron-cohen","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115736257410459249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}