Tips for my husband?

You could dehydrate fruits and veggies and send them to him. We just have a cheap dehydrator at home and I LOVE to do this - it makes a great, still healthy snack and will travel without perishing. You could also make beef jerky and send it to him the same way. Plus, you could get quite a bit in a flat rate box.

If he can control the volume he eats, nuts would be a good item.

Depending on his situation and what you can mail, there are some canned soups that are okay - lower in sodium and relatively healthy and definitely low in calories. You could also do beans this way.

HTH

Can he get a fat percent test (or something like that)? I had a friend that was over on the weight requirements, but was very fit and muscular. He was able to have a body composition test done to over ride the weight requirements. That was years ago, so I don't know if it is still an option.

Let me start with saying I am not a doctor, trainer, or gymrat. I am passing on my experience from last year and information I learned from my personal trainer.

I did the same thing and it took a while to figure out - I had to do a few things. In the end, it all comes down to confusing the heck out of your body - never let it know how many calories are coming in or how much you will burn them.


1. The main culprit for me was processed sugar - I was eating under my calories, but I would treat myself with a coke every day. The sugar hit spikes insulin, the insulin spike signals your body to hold on and send things to fat stores. So a coke with that lunch sent it straight to my love handles. Now, I am not diabetic, but apparently sugar sensitive so this may not be his case.

2. Confuse his body and zig zag his calories some - If he is trying to eat 1700cal, eat 1500cal one day, 2000cal the next, and 1700 the day after.

3. Absolutely DO NOT cut out meals and eat 1-2 times a day. It actually causes your body to go into starvation mode and it will hold on to everything you give it when you do eat. You actually want to increase meals to 5-6x a day if he can do it - Carry a snack bar in his flack jacked and pounded it down between breakfast and lunch, same between lunch and dinner. If you eat smaller, more times a day, you end up bumping your metabolism. A chewy granola bar is around 100cal, a cliff bar could be 200-300.

4. Send him a jug of protien drink if you can (I use this: http://tinyurl.com/cv7lgl) - it can be mixed with milk or water and provides much needed protien to rebuild after his workouts, it also acts as a snack or meal replacement (depending on quantity). It doesn't taste bad at all and comes in all sorts of flavors. A $14.00 jug lasts me close to 2 weeks at 2 times a day.

5. Change his workout routine and do it often. If he is in the habit of the same 4 workouts when he does "back and chest " switch from heavy weight low rep to light weight high reps. Better yet, do completely different exercises. Bounce between freeweights, pushing bodyweight (like pushups), machines, and resistance bands. I don't do the same exact exercise but every 2 weeks or so if I can help it. If you need some idea's let me know and I will look through my routine to see what I can beg, borrow, and steal.

6. Switch his cardio and strength training. Do "Strength Training" first, then cardio - new studies show this actually helps your fat burning capability kick in more efficiently and you burn more when you switch to cardio. I do about 30m of weightlifting and then 30 minutes of cardio.

7. Lower the heart rate and go longer when you do cardio. When you go "pound it out" and run as fast as you can for a mile you burn fat AND you burn muscle. If you want to concentrate on fat only - lower your heart rate (mine stays in the mid 120's) and go longer (like 60 minutes). To confuse your body, throw a minute or two every 5-10 where you elevate your heart rate on a hill or something.

8. There is a law of diminishing returns if you lift weights after an hour. After an hour you do a lot more work and get a lot less results. After an hour, switch to cardio - which you can do to your hearts content, there is no law of deminishing returns.


Finally - Patience. When you do it the "right way" of building muscle, slow controlled weight loss (.5-1lb wk) it gets frustrating watching your friends who shred 10lbs in one week. But what I learned is it STAYS OFF - I have been inactive 2 months recovering from surgery and I am maintaining or dropping. I have friends that go off diet for 2 weeks and can easily put on 15lbs. It also comes off very slowly the first 90 days as your body goes into panic mode and holds on to everything - but at that 90 days it gets in a rythem and starts burning much faster. (I started dropping 4-6lbs a week at that point and bumped my calories because I lost weight too fast).

To give perspective - it took me a year to lose 40lbs, but I also put on an additional10lbs of muscle which means I burn more calories just sitting now. I also lost 6in off my waist, another 6 off my belly, and gained inches in my biceps, legs, and chest from muscle. I went into two plateaus that year like your husband where I didn't budge for 4 weeks each time as I figured out the advice above.

As for food suggestions - send over the jug of protien mix I suggested, some high protien or meal replacement bars. He also needs to get fruits and vegitibles in him - makes a difference - I wonder if something like canned peaches can be sent.

Sorry for the long letter - but I learned a lot the hard way last year. If I can spare someone else the frustration, I 'll gladly pass the info. Please relay my thanks for you husband for serving our country and to you for being married to him and living with seperation, thats a sacrifice of your own.

i'm sorry, but is this not totally depressing or what. I have grandpas and dads and uncles I have seen come back from wars. It is a mess.Can we please take care of these women and guys? Jesus, this is really depressing. I feel like a dork even having to make this point. But really, we need to take care of these guys and gals. Please, please, contribute. Thanx

How about a jump rope? You could send a plain old jump rope or a "modern" one with a counter.

Another thought is to see if he can find anyone in his unit that trains in karate or other martial arts. Those traditions developed pretty good workout routines requiring nothing at all except the body! I could see that being a good activity in a number of ways.

And please thank him for me too!