Husband Dieting Advice

shaydon80

My husband just started his weight loss journey a few weeks ago. In two short weeks he lost 18 lbs, just by reducing his food consumption and running/walking 2 miles on the treadmill every night.

This week he's feeling disappointed because he has only lost 1 lb in three days.

He has quite a bit of weight to lose. He's 6'4" and started out at 343 lbs. He doesn't have a goal weight at this point.

Yesterday we calculated and he had only eaten about 1400 calories for the whole day. If you deduct the calories he burned while running he ends up with a Net of about 900-1000 calories. I know that this isn't enough for a man of his stature to sustain but he just really wants to lose weight. Is this sustainable or is he doing more harm than good?

paxbfl

Here's my take on this... I think you should eat at least your BMR (or 1,200 calories), whichever is higher. If you end up netting under your BMR, that's not terrible as long as you feel ok. When I had 50 pounds to lose, I did this regularly and felt fine. But now that I'm pretty lean, I feel like crap if I don't eat enough.

Many will say eat TDEE - 20% which is good advice, but really eating anywhere between your BMR and TDEE is ok for weight-loss. From there you have to decide how you feel - you want to have plenty of energy for your workouts and not be so hungry and miserable that you just say "screw it" and go back to eating like you used to eat, which is how you got into this problem in the first place.

Tell your husband to get his own MFP account and start doing it (and send me a friend request). The biggest leverage is controlling calories in, and accurate logging is the best way I've found to do that. Exercise definitely helps, benefits your health and makes you feel really good, but controlling those calories is priority #1 especially in the beginning.

_EndGame_

If he continues to net under 1200 calories, he's not going to leave himself any room for further reduction as the weight comes off. I started off around his weight, and I have lost 100lbs since May. I exercise quite intensely 5 times a week, I usually eat some of my exercise calories back, and I lose (usually) at least 2lb a week.

Tell him to weigh himself fortnightly or monthly, being a slave to the scales can be disheartening when you don't see a loss (remember, your body isn't linear) one day you'll weigh yourself and be 250 lbs, the next day you could be 247lbs, as long as there is a healthy deficit, he'll lose the weight.

Get him to take measurements, where the scale might not reflect his hard work, the inches he's losing will, which may motivate him more.

Hope this helps.

jkowula

I am soooo in the same boat. This happens to me every time, and I want the solution. So I started about 2 weeks ago and I am down over 10 lbs. Its a great start. I just seem to lose my motivation when it slows down or when I step on the scale and nothing! I need to stay away from the damn scale but can't. Also when things slow down and I lose a pound a week after working my *kitten* off I get discouraged... I want to keep it going this time as I seem to do really well 17 lbs last time, 24 the time before that.. then I quit. I will be watching this thread closely.

msf74

Yesterday we calculated and he had only eaten about 1400 calories for the whole day. If you deduct the calories he burned while running he ends up with a Net of about 900-1000 calories. I know that this isn't enough for a man of his stature to sustain but he just really wants to lose weight. Is this sustainable or is he doing more harm than good?

That's fine given his high starting weight. The rules of the game are a little different as a result (obese people are able to handle sharper calorie deficits and lose a greater % of fat to muscle in this scenario in comparison to their slimmer peers.)

He needs to manage his expectations however. Expecting huge losses week after week simply will not happen.

In addition, he will have a broad workable calorie deficit so he can eat a little more if he so desires.

Finally he needs to ensure he is getting sufficient nutrients from his current diet. That may be a challenge on 1,400 calories although it certainly can be done.

howardheilweil

Yesterday we calculated and he had only eaten about 1400 calories for the whole day. If you deduct the calories he burned while running he ends up with a Net of about 900-1000 calories. I know that this isn't enough for a man of his stature to sustain but he just really wants to lose weight. Is this sustainable or is he doing more harm than good?

That's fine given his high starting weight. The rules of the game are a little different as a result (obese people are able to handle sharper calorie deficits and lose a greater % of fat to muscle in this scenario in comparison to their slimmer peers.)

He needs to manage his expectations however. Expecting huge losses week after week simply will not happen.

In addition, he will have a broad workable calorie deficit so he can eat a little more if he so desires.

Finally he needs to ensure he is getting sufficient nutrients from his current diet. That may be a challenge on 1,400 calories although it certainly can be done.

That may be true, but eating that way is not going to be sustainable for him and eventually he will fall off the wagon and possibly to the point of becoming discouraged and reverting to his old ways. Even with a lot to lose, it makes sense to form healthy eating habits that will be sustainable for him as he loses. He should probably be eating (at least) 1800 - 2000 kcals per day. Good luck!

Mokey41

He can do that with as much as he has to lose but he's probably going to crash and burn at some point. He has lots of fat stores to draw from right now but he loses weight he's going to need to re evaluate his plan and eat more.

ehorn625

I am soooo in the same boat. This happens to me every time, and I want the solution. So I started about 2 weeks ago and I am down over 10 lbs. Its a great start. I just seem to lose my motivation when it slows down or when I step on the scale and nothing! I need to stay away from the damn scale but can't. Also when things slow down and I lose a pound a week after working my *kitten* off I get discouraged... I want to keep it going this time as I seem to do really well 17 lbs last time, 24 the time before that.. then I quit. I will be watching this thread closely.

This is normal. I lost 11 lbs the first month but only 4 the next and 3 the next after that. The main thing is that I continue to lose. Don't be in a rush.