The belly is usually the thing that finally gets a man's attention. Not the blood pressure reading, not the breathlessness on the stairs. The belt going out another notch, or a photograph you were not expecting to be in.

The honest news is that belly fat after 50 does behave differently from belly fat at 30. The useful news is that almost none of the reasons are things you cannot do something about.

Why it settles around the middle now

Three things change with age, and they stack up.

• You carry less muscle than you did. From around 40 onwards most men lose muscle steadily unless they do something to keep it. Muscle is where a large share of your daily calorie burn happens, so as it goes, the same dinner starts to land differently.
• You move less than you think. Not deliberately. The job got more sedentary, the kids stopped needing ferrying about, the knee twinged once and you started driving the short trips. None of these feel like decisions at the time.
• Where your body stores fat shifts. In men, the middle becomes the default storage site as hormones change through the fifties. Same amount of extra fat, more of it parked at the waist.

Notice what is not on that list: a broken metabolism. The idea that your metabolism collapses at 50 is one of the most persistent bits of nonsense in this business, and it exists mainly to sell you something to fix it. The slowdown is real but modest, and most of it is the muscle you lost rather than the years you gained.

The kind that matters most

There are two sorts of fat at your waist. The soft layer you can pinch sits under the skin. The deeper sort packs in around the organs, and that is the one associated with the health problems that get men our age worried.

Here is the part worth knowing: the deeper sort tends to be the first to shift when you start moving and eating a bit better. You can be making genuine progress on the fat that matters before you can see much in the mirror. That gap between real progress and visible progress is exactly where most men quit.

What actually shifts it

You cannot choose where fat comes off. Sit-ups build the muscle underneath the fat, they do not burn the fat on top of it, and no exercise, food or supplement targets the belly specifically. Anything sold on that promise is lying to you.

What does work is unglamorous and it is the same short list every time.

• Keep the muscle you have, and build a bit back. Two sensible strength sessions a week is enough to change the direction of travel. This is the single highest-value thing a man over 50 can do, and it is the thing most men skip in favour of more cardio.
• Walk more than you currently do. Not as a workout. As transport, and as a habit after meals.
• Get the protein up and the liquid calories down. Protein at every meal keeps you full and protects muscle while you lose fat. Meanwhile the pints, the juices and the sugary coffees are the easiest calories in your week to lose without feeling deprived.
• Sleep. Badly slept men eat more, move less and make worse decisions at ten at night. It is not a small factor.

How fast is realistic

The NHS suggests aiming to lose no more than one to two pounds a week. There is a good reason for that ceiling: faster than that and you are usually losing muscle alongside the fat, which leaves you lighter, weaker and far more likely to put it all back.

That pace is unglamorous, and that is rather the point. It does not make much of an advert. It does tend to make a change you are still holding on to the following year.

What to do this week

• Measure your waist and write the number down. You cannot judge progress you never baselined.
• Add one strength session. Twenty minutes, bodyweight is fine to start with.
• Pick your one liquid habit and halve it. Not eliminate. Halve.
• Walk after your evening meal, ten minutes, most nights.

Do those four for a month and re-measure. The tape will have moved before the mirror does, which is exactly why you took the measurement.

Alex Jordan · Over 50 and Healthy