Helping My Boyfriend..

[brazeneye]

My boyfriend wants me to help him lose some weight (about 50lbs).

He's 6'3 and about 280 right now, and has never really dieted before. I am trying to have him do the same meal plans as me, but to scale so they meet his caloric requirements. I just want to focus on the diet, first, then get exercise started for him.

What would be a good caloric intake for him? I asked some of the trainers at the gym I am at, and he suggested 2000-2200, but I just wanted to know what your opinions are. I felt that, that might have been a bit low?

 

[tucker01]

What is his current diet like for a typical day, not one where decides to eat better.

Samething for calories.

 

[KelJu]

It is impossible to tell. He will have to track his diet over a period of time and figure out what is body's maintenance caloric intake is. Even after that, so many other factors will change it from time to time. Check out the stickies in D&N, especially the ones on carb-cycling.

 

[brazeneye]

I had him do a food journal for me, and it was anywhere between 3500-6000 calories a day.

Lots of sushi, sandwiches, candy (he's diabetic, even more of a reason for both of us to 'fix' his eating habits).. good foods, but in large amounts.

 

[DOMS]

Is he really going to diet with you?

 

[brazeneye]

He wants to. We're moving in together tomorrow, and he said he likes what I eat, and wants to buy groceries with me.

 

[brazeneye]

I pack all my meals the night before, and we will do the same for him.

 

[Irons77]

Good luck! Tell him no sex if he falls off the wagon. lol

 

[tucker01]

I had him do a food journal for me, and it was anywhere between 3500-6000 calories a day.

Lots of sushi, sandwiches, candy (he's diabetic, even more of a reason for both of us to 'fix' his eating habits).. good foods, but in large amounts.

So on average where would his caloric intake fall 4000 a day? over a two week period? Is he currently maintaining his weight like this?

 

[brazeneye]

Right now, I would say on 4000 calories, he would be maintaining.

 

[tucker01]

Ok so for right now, lets try to keep those Cals, but implement better food choices. No more candy, then limit bread.... slowly eliminating shitty choices. Take that for a couple of weeks, and evaluate his progress. This is all assuming he is fairly active.

 

[nadirmg]

Good luck! Tell him no sex if he falls off the wagon. lol

 

[steuerwaldc]

Sorry I am not of much input seeing I am trying to get myself back on track. But good luck and I hope you find some good info on helping your boyfriend out!

 

[Biggly]

Simply changing to good food choices will probably lower his calories anyway.

He's been bloated so long he'll suffer major hunger if you just reduce the volume so stuff him full of veggies.

Regarding his calorie requirement I can only go on the figures you've given. You say he's about 50lb overweight, so you'd consider his correct weight would be 230? As such I'd be tempted to aim at the calories he'd need for 230lbs, which would be more like 3500. Obviously that's very rough, with no idea just what exactly his bodyfat percentage is, activity level etc.

Generally you can afford to lose a lot of weight quickly when very fat, so I'd even go as low as 3,000, while 2,500 would be absolute minimum over any significant timeframe.

At 2,000 he'd certainly lose weight - and water, and muscle, and testosterone and would suffer major moodswings along with rapidly becoming seriously miserable. 2,000 for a couple of days now and then to bust a flatspot sure but not as ongoing level.

As Ian said, start him off with better food, get that as a habit, then reduce over time. I suspect no matter how willing he may be beforehand if you slash his calories in half he'll dig his heels in and give up altogether.



B.

 

[Hoglander]

Change your focus to eating less. Talk about what he could cut back on. Start with 500 calories less a day. So maybe he likes soda drinks for example... he could drink zero calorie somethings. I would learn what he eats and ask what's easy to cut out or substitute for. Take away 500 or more from that a day.

You are making an easy math hard, IMHO and on a mission to make him unhappy. Don't try to feed him CRAP you like. Just get him to eat less of the food he likes and see what might be lower calorie alternatives that HE likes.

 

[quark]

I agree with IainD- just changing over to proper foods and ratios will dramatically cut back the calories. Figure out what to eat then work on the calories.