1. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables 

To lose weight, you need to take in fewer calories than you expend. But instead of focusing on what to eat less of, let’s talk about what to eat more of. First up, fruits and vegetables. In a study from Harvard, people who increased their intake of fruits and vegetables lost weight, especially if they ate more berries, apples, pears, soy, or cauliflower. Fruits and vegetables are low in calories but rich in important vitamins and minerals you need more of as you age, including fiber, which can keep you feeling full between meals. 

2. Use All Those Beans You Bought 

Beans are packed with filling fiber and protein, and their resistant starch feeds the good bacteria in your gut. A study review from Canada found people who ate a serving of legumes every day as part of a weight-loss effort lost a couple pounds in just six weeks. Make beans or lentils in an Instant Pot, which allows you to stew legumes with vegetables and other flavorful components.

3. Befriend Your Bathroom Scale

Weigh yourself each morning so you notice right away if the number is trending up instead of down. “If you gain weight, and if you focus on it early and it’s only a few pounds, you can lose it quickly, but if you let it stay, basically it reprograms your body at a higher weight and it makes it hard to lose because you get hungry.” Especially if you want to lose weight over 40, it’s useful to jump on any gain right away.

4. Focus on Your Food 

Between work meetings, personal appointments, family responsibilities, and all the other obligations facing men these days, you might not be giving your meals all of the respect they deserve. “People on the go tend to overeat,” says Bettina Mittendorfer, Ph.D., a research associate professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, but eating slowly and mindfully can help your weight-loss efforts. Instead of shoveling in lunch between meetings, plate your food, take a seat at the kitchen table, and chew your meal slowly so that you enjoy each bite. 

5. Stop Drinking Sugar 

Sugary foods and drinks fill you with calories—about 150 calories in a can of Pepsi, for example—but they don’t satisfy your appetite. “Eat the equivalent in a salad, and you’ll stay full longer,” says Mittendorfer. (You’d have to eat more kale than you can stomach to hit 150 calories.) Among the benefits: People who stop drinking soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages gain less weight over time than those who do, a study review from Australia suggests. “Even smoothies and juices can contribute lots of sugar to your body,” says Holly F. Lofton, M.D., director of the Medical Weight Management Program at NYU Langone Health. (Unless it’s one of those healthy weight-loss smoothies, but you still have to plan for them.) It’s better to have the whole fruit than just the juice.

6. Mix Up Your Workouts 

If you’ve been leaning on one type of exercise up to this point, now is the time to mix it up. In a recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Iowa State University, older people who did a combination of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise and 30 minutes of resistance exercise three days per week reduced their body fat percentage and gained muscle. (They also showed improvements in blood pressure and cardiorespiratory fitness; important boosts to an aging heart.) For strength, focus training on the legs and large muscle groups of the upper body with compound lifts, such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, and pull-ups. These lifts engage more muscle groups than isolated lifts and typically lead to a greater increase in muscle gains while stimulating fat metabolism. For cardio, find something you enjoy, whether it’s running, cycling, swimming, or walking.

7. Start a Yoga Practice 

Yoga can help you enhance and maintain mobility when you’re over 40 or 50, and its calming effect can be beneficial when you’re trying to lose weight. You probably won’t meet your weight-loss goals with yoga alone, but it can be a helpful habit in tandem with others. Researchers in China found that older people who practiced yoga for a year shed about a centimeter off their waist circumference—a key marker of belly fat.

8. Swap Junky Snacks for Nuts 

Make nuts your go-to snack, and you might fend off age-related weight creep, suggests research from Harvard. “What we observed was that on average, adults tend to gradually gain weight over time,” said Deirdre K Tobias, Sc.D., an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. “However, those who added nuts to their diet had less long-term gradual weight gain and were ultimately at a lower risk of developing obesity.” For every half serving of nuts people ate per day, they gained less weight over the next four years and had a lower risk of obesity over the next 20 to 24 years. 

9. Check Your Medicine Cabinet 

“Many men over 50 are on some type of medication,” says Dr. Lofton. “It’s good to review the weight gain potential of medicines you are taking with your health care provider,” she says, if you feel you’re doing everything and still not losing. Sometimes, your meds can be changed to avoid that side effect.