How long before results?

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My husband is in Air Force and needs/wants to see results. He has been at this (granted) a week but been under calories everyday and no weight change. He is very discouraged right now. He is 18yrs in and AF is considers him obese. But his height is 6'4 and they only care about bmi. What they do not consider is his wide shoulders and chest with the height. An off base "fat" dr said he didn't look obese. He had shoulder surgery and during recovery he began to hurt in his back and we found out he had 4 bad discs. So that limited extremely his exercises as ordered by dr but the AF still requires physcial training testing even if its waist measurements. The AF wants to kick him out with less than 2 yrs left. Yes, he should have gone to medical board years ago but that didnt happen. I am doing this with him to help him along but he is feeling discouraged b/c he isnt seeing the results as fast as he wanted so I was curious as to how fast or slow everyone else might have seen theirs. I just don't want him to give up. Thanks!

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  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    What is your husband's bodyfat percentage and waist to hip ratio? BMI does take build into consideration to some extent because it is a wide range, there are plenty of active people who can be in the overweight category yet a healthy bodyfat but not nearly so many that are in the obese category yet a healthy bodyfat. Wide shoulders and chest can offset the appearance of the waist area, I have the opposite I have no boobs so if I gain much on my waist I get asked if I am pregnant.

    It's possible to see results in a week but not everyone does, depends what you are eating and what exercise you are doing. If he has too much salt/ sodium he may continue to retain a lot of water, if he adds in a new strength routine he may add glycogen fuel to his muscles and water with it. Is he eating a balanced diet containing the nutrients associated with reduced fat mass such as calcium from dairy and omega-3s from oily fish? How much sugar, white refined carbs, saturated animal fats, omega-6 polyunsaturated fats? All can encourage fat gain or retention. Sorry to be gross but could he be constipated?
  • kslibbin
    kslibbin Posts: 29 Member
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    Good points. He eats the same as I do. I watch the calories and I do not look too much at the fats and sugars. We do not eat a lot with sugars with it but the others.. not so sure to be honest. I think his diet will definently need to be changed from mine. He is on a higher calorie diet than me though. I'll have to get with him on this. It's already hard to make our meals seperate from our kids but looks like I'll just have to make a 3rd.
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
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    Why do adults need separate meals from the children? A balanced wholefood diet is a balanced wholefood diet, children may need more fat depending on their age but that is easy to add in a healthy way - avocado, olives, unsweetened dessicated coconut, nuts and seeds, hard cheese.

    You all need minerals, vitamins, fibre, essential fatty acids, protein. So everyone in the household should be eating low sugar fruits, a ton of non starchy vegetables, oily fish, other healthy fats like nuts and seeds, dairy, mineral rich/ fibrous carbs. Higher calorie = different serving size, you are making this way more complicated than it needs to be IMO.
  • kslibbin
    kslibbin Posts: 29 Member
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    I respect your opinion but I respect my way of choosing to go with my way of feeding my children. They are not overweight and far from it so I will not change their diet. My husband however has had this issue awhile.
  • SteAnnMui
    SteAnnMui Posts: 129 Member
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    Just because your children aren't overweight, doesn't mean you shouldn't feed them healthy food.

    Eating right and exercise is core to living healthy, thin or fat.
  • SteAnnMui
    SteAnnMui Posts: 129 Member
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    And losing weight takes time and patience.

    If he's under a serious time crunch to lose the weight, have him try low carb because he will drop some water weight quickly and that might keep them off his back as he works towards a healthier weight. Whenever I do low carb I drop around 5 lbs of water weight the first week.
  • strawmama
    strawmama Posts: 623 Member
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    Just because your children aren't overweight, doesn't mean you shouldn't feed them healthy food.

    Eating right and exercise is core to living healthy, thin or fat.

    Exactly.