Question for the men who have lost the pounds :)

Losing weight takes time. Just like when he put on weight. It didn't happen over night. It's a gradual process. Being patient and consistent is the key. Also, does he exercise? Diet and exercise goes hand in hand.

I do workout along with dieting. I had a month where I lost nothing and I did all of the right things. Then I noticed my pants were loose and I had to move to a smaller belt notch (but zero pounds lost). I also had a week where I dropped 8 pounds. Both situations concerned me but it was just part of the journey.

You are disappointed and concerned because you are expecting weight lose to be linear. Most people who have done it say it was not linear for them. There is a good chance it won't be linear for your husband.

I think it will be beneficial to reset your expectations. He is 5 weeks in and lost 11 lbs. That is more than 2 lbs a week, the higher limit of what is recommended, and yet you two are frustrated that it is not enough. He is doing it! Be happy!

It's already been said, but weight loss isn't linear. Also, look up the woosh effect. Basically it's a theory that claims as you loose weight your body stores more water (maybe this is a defense against starvation since water's more important than food, don't know for sure). When I started in lost very quickly at first then slowly then I'd gain a little and then lose more. I've stayed on the same eating plan and exercise plan the whole time. Ultimately I don't have a time line like a lot of other people do so maybe I don't have the same pressure on me as others feel. Slow and steady, stick to it and don't expect it to be a straight slide for the weight to come off.

I have currently been eating around 1000 calories a day for the last month. The past week I gained 2 lbs. I started at 270, and have plateaued at 250 for the past 8 days. Woke up today and lost 4 lbs. I am just in it for the longer term, and have noticed my sodium intake varying bits by bits. But my first week was 8 lbs (I am guessing water), 4.4 lbs, 3.8 lbs. 3 lbs, and then the plateau.

In my experience (I've dropped 20-30 pounds in 5 weeks twice), when calorie counting and taking in about 1000 calories, I plateau after about 3 weeks. I'll lose about 10-12 pounds in those first three weeks. I'm currently down twenty in five weeks. I started off down at 1000 calories per day and didn't take that many in on a lot of days. When I plateaued, I UPPED my calories to 1400 because my body had slowed down its metabolism due to the low caloric intake. When I reach my goal, I'll probably settle around 2000 to maintain the weight. I'm no doctor, by any means, and am only speaking from my own experience and Internet "research." Here are some recommendations:

- First two weeks, drop caloric intake to 1000-1200. You need to be careful though, one's ability to do this can vary. I'm 5'7 and started off at 184 pounds. My goal is 155ish. Bigger guys shouldn't go so low. Feel yourself out for getting dizzy (I never did) and have something on standby in the event you need it. Don't be weak though.
- Cutout carbs in the evenings
- Don't intake "good" fats and similar high- calorie foods in the beginning
- Go heavy on egg beaters in the morning
- I cut out rice, nuts, etc.
- I eat a lot of steamed chicken, baked fish, broccoli-cauliflower mash (don't add cream! or butter), fruits, cottage cheese, spinach, dry toast, etc
- NO ALCOHOL!!!!
- EXERCISE! There are several days I burn as much as I intake but I have a job where I must stay physically fit.

After the first two to three weeks, you can start working in rice, sweet potatos, etc, more regularly. For example, I upped my breakfast calories by 100 by adding a Wholly Guacamole mini to my omelet. Everybody will be different.

THE ABSOLUTE KEY FOR ME when I dropped weight the first time back in 2012 was COUNTING CALORIES. It is eye-opening seeing how many calories are in certain foods. Get him to log his foods. It made me stop having creamer with my coffee and led to many other changes. Encourage him, he can do it. Anyone can. Get him excited about it. That's why I like the extreme start because the results are evident right off. Good luck!

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Just tell him to stick to it and trust the process!! Weight lifting and then some cardio can really kick it in to gear. 3-4 days a week at an hour each time. I would like to see his progress!!

I'm a tall guy, started at 296 and I'm down to 235. My daily and weekly weight loss has fluctuated a lot despite the fact that I'm extremely consistent with my food logging and calorie intake - it's just the way our bodies work. However, when I look at the weight loss month to month it is very steady. My advice to him is to be very consistent for three more weeks and see what happens. By consistent, I mean try to hit the same calorie and macro goals (within +/- 100 calories) every day. Do the same amount of weekly exercise, preferably the same amount he plans to adopt as his new routine. It doesn't matter what it is (but recommend heavy lifting ASAP). Weigh in every day when he first wakes up, after he pees, but before he drinks anything. If he does all those things, he'll be able to calculate what his actual TDEE is. Once he knows that, he can customize his calorie deficit to establish a maintainable weight loss rate.

For example, by the end of my 6th week, I'd determined that I was losing 1.4 pounds per week on 2700 calories and a lightly active lifestyle (office job, heavy lifting 3x/wk and walking 5-10 miles per week). So my calculation for my TDEE was 2700+1.4*500=3400 calories per week. I set my new calorie goal to 2400 to try to lose 2 pounds per week. Then I re-evaluated again 3 weeks later and calculated TDEE as 3500. 3 weeks later 3200. Eventually, I settled into a routine of 2400 calories and a reduced level of exercise that has given me a TDEE of around 3100 per week and a consistent weight loss of roughly 5-6 pounds per month.

I treated the entire thing like a giant lab experiment, only changing one variable at a time to really understand how things affected me. I now know my body better than ever before and have completely taken back control of my life. And I no longer need to be super consistent because it all averages out over the long haul if I stick to my weekly and monthly goals.

He can do it, too and the fact that you are supportive is a huge help.

I'm sorry, but some of the advice above scares me. Please ignore anyone talking about 1000 - 1200 calories. That's dangerous for his health. Minimum is 1500 and he should probably be in the 2000 range.

I'm 6'. Started at 330 and am down to 261 as of this morning. I'll be more tomorrow based on what I had for dinner today. Not a true weight gain, but more sodium than normal so I will be retaining water. If it doesn't hit tomorrow, it will hit Tuesday. And that is just the way it is. I'll be down again by the end of the week, but my weight yo-yos based on what I eat. Again, not actual fat gain, but water retention.

It's frustrating. I hit my calorie goals so I should be down 0.2857142857142857 lbs tomorrow (2 lb / 7 days). Life does not work that way.

If you can open his diary, some here can have a look. Feel free to look at mine if it helps. I'm targeting 2000 cals per day and doing cardio to make sure I can eat that much. I'm also doing light lifting twice a week, but that is not for the calorie burn. That is to be sure most of my weight loss is fat and not muscle. I should do more, but I hate lifting and enjoy the treadmill.

I haven't stalled as bad as 2 weeks, but this last week frustrated me. Weighed 263.5 Sunday. Enjoyed Superbowl and was 265.9 Monday. That was fine. Back to 263.5 Tuesday through Friday with no movement, and a 2 lb woosh Saturday followed by a 1/2 lb this morning. It is just the way it is for guys, except we can't blame it on the time of the month.

Also, be careful with the scale. It may be hiding a small weight change. I learned that one the hard way. Read http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10485204/dumb-scale-question-weight-watchers-scale to see what I learned about my dumb scale.

I started at 305 lbs, I'm 6'2" tall, 47 years old. MFP set me at around 1600-1800 calories a day, and I started out walking 2 miles a day and worked my way up to 4 miles a day. I managed to probably average 2lbs a week loss but it definitely wasn't linear at all. Some weeks I lost more, some nothing. It depended greatly on whether or not my body decided to retain water, be constipated, or just plain be mean. I'm serious though, there were weeks I gained weight even though I was on nearly a 1000 calorie a day deficit. It made no sense at all. But overall it worked out, and although I could not help but get discouraged I kept it up and was successful.

Here are a few things to watch:

1) Salt/Sodium intake. You can track this on MFP easily by swapping the sugar category out for it on the diary page. Too much sodium will make you retain water, and I've even seen it be as much as 7lbs, or as little as 1lb.
2) When you're logging, make sure you're weighing everything. Don't use diary entries like "bbq chicken", use the "usda cooked boneless skinless chicken breast", weigh it after it's cooked, then add in 1 tbsp or two (depending on how much you believe is on the chicken breast and made it to the plate) of bbq sauce. Condiments, salad dressings, drinks, oils (for cooking) all make a HUGE difference, and are the first things people forget to log. When he's 300 lbs it isn't as critical, but as he loses weight it'll be much more critical to be accurate.
3) Make sure he's drinking plenty of water. Near a gallon a day or more. If he works construction this is likely a no-brainer for him, but just keep it in mind.
4) Are you certain he's not snacking and just not saying anything? Don't beat him up about it, if he works a physically strenuous job it requires calories for energy. But not logging it throws things off.
5) Don't expect him to live on salads (not saying you are, but most men won't enjoy them daily), consider lower calorie dressings, sides, main dishes rather than just less of a specific dish he likes. Sometimes volume matters to be satiated, and most things can be prepared differently, but taste the same, to reduce calories.
6) Last but not least, make sure he's getting adequate fiber. This mixed with adequate water intake is a huge factor in keeping things regular. Not just digestion and waste, but weight loss in general (because when things get backed up, weight loss looks like it stalled).
7) As far as lifting, if he's not doing it now, I wouldn't require it of him. It's not required for weight loss. He likely keeps enough of that going while working on a daily basis, unless he's more of a manager and less of a worker. Just keep his protein levels up (more than what MFP suggests) and he should be fine on retaining muscle. There are people who love to lift weights, and those will be the first people to tell you to have him lift heavy right away (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, and if you want to do it, I think it's great). Those same people will argue in other threads that you can't build muscle while in a deficit. I did just fine by keeping my protein levels up, and I managed to build muscle just doing body weight training regularly (no heavy lifting). I won't look like Arnold Schwarzenegger any day soon but I didn't lose any muscle, I managed to gain muscle but lose fat. I kept my protein at around .8g/lb of my target body weight or more.
8) He should be eating back at least 50% of his exercise calories gained unless you used some calculator that already figures that into his daily goals. MFP does not figure in exercise calories, so purposeful exercise is meant to gain you calories to eat.

Good luck!