Any advice for my hubby a Big Guy?

I can maintain at 2400-2500 so a male more than twice my size sure can lose on 2900. The bigger you are the more calories it takes for energy to make your body work. Just let him know it's OK the change isn't going to happen over night. It's great he is trying to get his health in order. There will be struggles but it can and will be done. Good luck to you and your hubby!

I started at 412. The initial calorie totals that MFP gave me was over 2500, from day one I have reduced that number further for myself. Currently, I am able to have 2250 and I try to stay below 2000 per day. If I can give a little advice, do not restrict particular foods, just budget for them. I still have ice cream occasionally and beer almost daily. I pay close attention to serving sizes and if I am not sure, I guess conservatively.

Good luck to both of you.

First - baby steps. For God's sake don't let him think he has to eat nothing but lettuce leafs and carrots to lose weight. And he needs realistic goals. He will not be Brad Pitt in a month. Losing at about a pound a week is manageable, and not too taxing. If he throws exercise into the mix, he'll be amazed how much he can eat while still losing weight.

I lost 60 pounds eating whatever the heck I wanted to - I just learned portion control.

To start with, he needs to learn to love the scale - the kitchen scale. Everything dry must be weighed, everything liquid either weighed or measured in a measuring cup. Then log it all. Everything. No matter what. Doesn't matter if he's proud of his food diary or not - it's for him only, and cheating is only cheating himself.

Once he knows how to measure, he'll know what he's consuming. If it's hugely over maintenance levels, he may want to reduce slowly over time. Once he gets his calories consistently under maintenance, he'll start losing weight. If he's not losing weight, he's not under maintenance, period.

Once he's got the hang of that, he'll want to learn about macro-nutrients. Macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates, and they are all sources of calories. By upping his protein and fat he'll feel less hungry and lose more fat v. muscle while he's dieting. Most people use the rules of thumb of - 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, 0.35g of fat per pound of total body mass.

Now you can make sure he's getting enough vegetables, fruit, etc... That'll check the micronutrients box.

If at this point you want to go the 'lifestyle diet' route, of veganism, eating clean, paleo, etc... then have at it. But know that it's not necessary for weight loss.

Exercise is not necessary for weight loss, but has massive other benefits. Personally I recommend at least regular walking, and/or taking up a sport like tennis, basketball, etc that keeps him moving. Running not required unless he wants to. Lifting heavy weights will allow him to further improve the ratio of fat/muscle that he loses while dieting, and he will look much better at any given goal weight. I suggest StrongLifts, but that's just because that's what I do. There are loads of good beginner barbell programs out there.

I think that about covers it.

giddy up
do it together

He will be amazed at the calorie, sugar and sodium counts in the most benign foods and THAT is a big motivator for many of us. I am a very clean eater, but was astounded this week to find that a small cup of broccoli & cheddar soup from a nice cafe had 480 calories and 700 grams of sodium. Totally blew my macros for the day with one small bowl of soup. Another motivator is "don't deprive." You can still eat tacos, or pork roast, just heed the portion sizes. Even the most blah veggies can be souped up by splashing some olive oil on them w/salt, pepper and herbs and grill them or toss them in a sauce pan and cook down until they are carmelly brown - onions, brussels sprouts, mushrooms, sugar snap peas. Try roasting broccoli, cauliflower and/or sweet potatoes w/a splash of olive oil, salt/pepper and a sprinkle of parm cheese. It really is very easy to make very tasty, healthy whole foods. Use whole grains and I promise he will feel fuller on less.

Another really good book is Michael Pollan's "Food Rules" and/or "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Not preachy, just telling it like it is. If you cannot pronounce it, don't eat it.

First - baby steps. For God's sake don't let him think he has to eat nothing but lettuce leafs and carrots to lose weight. And he needs realistic goals. He will not be Brad Pitt in a month. Losing at about a pound a week is manageable, and not too taxing. If he throws exercise into the mix, he'll be amazed how much he can eat while still losing weight.

I lost 60 pounds eating whatever the heck I wanted to - I just learned portion control.

To start with, he needs to learn to love the scale - the kitchen scale. Everything dry must be weighed, everything liquid either weighed or measured in a measuring cup. Then log it all. Everything. No matter what. Doesn't matter if he's proud of his food diary or not - it's for him only, and cheating is only cheating himself.

Once he knows how to measure, he'll know what he's consuming. If it's hugely over maintenance levels, he may want to reduce slowly over time. Once he gets his calories consistently under maintenance, he'll start losing weight. If he's not losing weight, he's not under maintenance, period.

Once he's got the hang of that, he'll want to learn about macro-nutrients. Macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates, and they are all sources of calories. By upping his protein and fat he'll feel less hungry and lose more fat v. muscle while he's dieting. Most people use the rules of thumb of - 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, 0.35g of fat per pound of total body mass.

Now you can make sure he's getting enough vegetables, fruit, etc... That'll check the micronutrients box.

If at this point you want to go the 'lifestyle diet' route, of veganism, eating clean, paleo, etc... then have at it. But know that it's not necessary for weight loss.

Exercise is not necessary for weight loss, but has massive other benefits. Personally I recommend at least regular walking, and/or taking up a sport like tennis, basketball, etc that keeps him moving. Running not required unless he wants to. Lifting heavy weights will allow him to further improve the ratio of fat/muscle that he loses while dieting, and he will look much better at any given goal weight. I suggest StrongLifts, but that's just because that's what I do. There are loads of good beginner barbell programs out there.

I think that about covers it.

Good advice.

i've weighed over 400lbs before and currently weigh around 345 if he is anything like me tell him to get his cardio in on the bike and eliptical these will take some of the pressure off the knees and ankles. take it slow set small goals each working towards a bigger one. don't skip meals and if you have a bad day oh well forget about and try to have a good day on the next one. like everyone else said once he's logged for a little bit he'll see it on paper what he's been eating and the facts of it and if he is serious he'll cut some of those foods out. good luck

My hubby is a big guy - started at 365 lbs. He shoots for 2700 calories per day & is sedentary. He IS losing weight! What's really helped motivate him is to see the changes in ME! He's a stubborn guy, so no amount of bugging or nagging or trying to control what he eats is going to work in our house (and he's the cook & the primary grocery shopper!), so I talk about what I'm doing a lot, and essentially lead by example. And yes, you can lose weight on more calories than you think,especially if your metabolism has been slowed to a crawl by not eating enough. That's what happened to me & I was up to 250 lbs! The less I ate, the more my metabolism shut down, and the heavier I got. I don't think of it as a diet... I think of it as "eating"! I don't use MyFitnessPal to help keep me BELOW 1700 calories, it's a target for me to get as close as I can TO 1700 calories without going over! And with no exercise I've lost 20 pounds in 10 weeks! And I'm eating like a horse! All along I wasn't eating enough & throwing my body into starvation mode! It's strange because it goes against everything I was ever led to believe about weightloss!

I hope that little bit of info helps you! YES, he CAN lose weight on that many calories, and leading by example has helped to motivate my husband who's been seriously overweight for over 10 years.

Best wishes!

He has to want to do it.

The good news is, if he logs everything, he should begin to drop weight very soon because he has so much to lose.

Yeah,

step one, don't diet.

Its a lifestyle change. Get him on the calorie deficit and logging.

Get active. Lifting, running, anything really.
I did couch 2 5k and strong lifts 5x5

give him anything he wants in the bedroom.

I was 340 lbs.... and female... but the advice i'd give is just take it easy at first. Switch out the bad with the good over time. make kind of time periods in the day in which you eat said amount of foods. And just really test the grounds. Don't force yourself to do it all at once, thats why a lot of people fail. Just make sure to push yourself a little bit each day to do better, to be healthier. Hold your girl and know its for you both

if he's on MFP he will find the answers that suit his particular personality and set of challenges on his own. you just do you. it's enough to keep you busy. just be patient, smile, and support whatever his choices may be, even if they differ from yours and his progress does as well. good luck to both of you. :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:

I was wrong there is a much nicer way to say it. This is great advice.

First - baby steps. For God's sake don't let him think he has to eat nothing but lettuce leafs and carrots to lose weight. And he needs realistic goals. He will not be Brad Pitt in a month. Losing at about a pound a week is manageable, and not too taxing. If he throws exercise into the mix, he'll be amazed how much he can eat while still losing weight.

I lost 60 pounds eating whatever the heck I wanted to - I just learned portion control.

To start with, he needs to learn to love the scale - the kitchen scale. Everything dry must be weighed, everything liquid either weighed or measured in a measuring cup. Then log it all. Everything. No matter what. Doesn't matter if he's proud of his food diary or not - it's for him only, and cheating is only cheating himself.

Once he knows how to measure, he'll know what he's consuming. If it's hugely over maintenance levels, he may want to reduce slowly over time. Once he gets his calories consistently under maintenance, he'll start losing weight. If he's not losing weight, he's not under maintenance, period.

Once he's got the hang of that, he'll want to learn about macro-nutrients. Macronutrients are protein, fat and carbohydrates, and they are all sources of calories. By upping his protein and fat he'll feel less hungry and lose more fat v. muscle while he's dieting. Most people use the rules of thumb of - 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass, 0.35g of fat per pound of total body mass.

Now you can make sure he's getting enough vegetables, fruit, etc... That'll check the micronutrients box.

If at this point you want to go the 'lifestyle diet' route, of veganism, eating clean, paleo, etc... then have at it. But know that it's not necessary for weight loss.

Exercise is not necessary for weight loss, but has massive other benefits. Personally I recommend at least regular walking, and/or taking up a sport like tennis, basketball, etc that keeps him moving. Running not required unless he wants to. Lifting heavy weights will allow him to further improve the ratio of fat/muscle that he loses while dieting, and he will look much better at any given goal weight. I suggest StrongLifts, but that's just because that's what I do. There are loads of good beginner barbell programs out there.

I think that about covers it.

I forgot something, dangit. Constantly compare actual with predicted results, and correlate with behavior. This will help him find if he's doing something wrong, and fix it.

Example - over the summer my weight loss stalled. Because I track consistently, and compare actual/predicted results, I could spot this easily. I then compared to my food and exercise diary and found that it coincided with swim season. Conclusion - I was overlogging calorie burns from swimming, resulting in me eating too much. As soon as I reined in the cal burns on swimming, my loss started again.
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I was going to reply, but... I agree completely.

Nice post.

Personally, I honestly didn't want my wife to cheer me on. I didn't want her to think i needed it micromanaged. She has enough on her plate, and while an acknowledgement from time to time is nice, I wanted to change my lifestyle and eating habits in a way that she didn't have to change hers, or make concessions for me. I don't think she even knows how i am doing it, because I am super quiet about it. but that is my personal preference. i didn't want to make a production out of it.

so, that's just one perspective.

Sounds like my husband. He still wont' really exercise but he is finally watching what he eats since going to the doctor and having her tell him he needs to lose weight to help his blood pressure among other things. I think the fact I have lost about 20 lb recently helps but the doctor seems to be what was his turning point.