Helping a Friend

crystalflame

My friend's trying to lose weight, and I want to make sure I give him good advice. He's convinced he can't lose weight unless he's eating between 700 and 1000 calories. I highly doubt that's true, but in his situation I'm not entirely sure what an appropriate calorie goal is.

He's 43 years old, 6'0", and currently 220lbs. Not sure about BF% - probably somewhere in the 40s. He runs 12 miles a week, bikes at least 30 miles a week, and lifts 3x a week. TDEE calculators place him somewhere between 3200 and 3600 calories for maintenance, so he'd need to eat 2500-2800 for TDEE-20%.

However, three years ago he lost 120 lbs on a VLCD (750 cals/day), going from 305 to 185. Since he didn't increase his calories as he lost weight, I'm assuming there was and possibly still is metabolic damage. He's now trying to lose the weight he's regained. The study discussed in the NYT article "The Fat Trap" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) suggests his history of being morbidly obese may work against his weight loss efforts, and he may have to eat low-cal to lose. Also, from what I've observed (but not properly calculated or tracked), he seems to be maintaining somewhere between 2000 and 2500 calories right now.

Taking all of that into consideration, I was going to suggest 1500 calories as a starting point, but if anyone else has thoughts/advice/experiences I'd really appreciate the input. Thanks

Chief_Rocka

A guy that size with that activity level eating 1500 calories would be a very, very bad idea.

I think the first step with him should be to learn to track calories period. I would start him out around 2800 calories per day, and leave it there for 2-4 weeks, with the goal not being weight loss, but just learning how to stay consistent. When he feels he has a hang of how to manage things, then you can make adjustments from there.

The_Enginerd

I've seen some studies on metabolic changes due to diets, and the overall effect of lowered BMR plus lower NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis) amounted to a difference of about 200 calories/day. The studies did not go for that length of time on that individuals that were as obese as he was though.

I'm 32 and around 5'11" and went from 215-165 lbs in my weight loss phase. I never ate below 1750 calories per day plus exercise calories, an average of about 1950 calories per day. Even with metabolic changes, I think 1500 is low, especially with his activity level.

The_Enginerd

Link to one of the studies: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1038/oby.2007.354/full

Link to another study showing an even larger effect in free living conditions, largely due to adaptations in the amount of activity: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004377

Sarauk2sf

A guy that size with that activity level eating 1500 calories would be a very, very bad idea.

I think the first step with him should be to learn to track calories period. I would start him out around 2800 calories per day, and leave it there for 2-4 weeks, with the goal not being weight loss, but just learning how to stay consistent. When he feels he has a hang of how to manage things, then you can make adjustments from there.

^^good advice.

Also, get him to move more - increase his NEAT (non exercise activity) if necessary but do NOT take him down to 1,500.

crystalflame

He got back into dieting about a month ago and has been trying for 1000 calories with all that activity. Does he need to slowly increase his intake, or would he be ok just jumping into eating that many more calories?

Chief_Rocka

He got back into dieting about a month ago and has been trying for 1000 calories with all that activity. Does he need to slowly increase his intake, or would he be ok just jumping into eating that many more calories?

He needs to increase ASAP. He can seriously screw up his hormones like that. His testosterone has probably taken a dive already. Weight shouldn't even be an issue right now, 1,000 cals is downright unhealthy.

As my Grandfather used to say, "It's all fun and games until your **** stops working."

Sarauk2sf

He got back into dieting about a month ago and has been trying for 1000 calories with all that activity. Does he need to slowly increase his intake, or would he be ok just jumping into eating that many more calories?

He needs to increase ASAP. He can seriously screw up his hormones like that. His testosterone has probably taken a dive already. Weight shouldn't even be an issue right now, 1,000 cals is downright unhealthy.

As my Grandfather used to say, "It's all fun and games until your **** stops working."

^^yep. He has not been on it long enough to need to walk the calories up as so can jut jump back up. He can do it in 2 phases say, but get him up to a lot more than 1,500 asap, and then up to a more reasonable amount within a week or two after that. Just warn him that he may see a spike in weight but that will be due to water retention and food weight. On those calories he will have hormonal issues as well as other problems caused by deficiencies in his nutrition.

Make sure he uses a digital scale and logs accurately so he actually knows how much he is eating.