Helping my dad to lose weight

[ejnrule]

Dear Jordan,

First of all, thank you so much for all the information you & Austin have disseminated. It has really been life changing for me in terms of how I view training, pain & nutrition.

I'm trying to help my dad lose weight and I wondered if you could look at my plan for him and see if it sounds reasonable? I'm an ophthalmologist so have no real expertise in this field other than from reading your stuff.

His current stats:
Age: 60
Height: 6ft
Weight: 250lbs
Waist: 50"

Basically my dad's been overweight for a long time and is fairly sedentary. I've managed to convince him of the need to lose weight but he's not interested in strength training, although I've managed to talk him into doing LISS. He rejected the idea of tracking calories on MFP but hopefully I can bring him round to this eventually.

Given my lack of expertise, I advised him to see a dietician to oversee things but basically I think he should be following the fat loss macros from TBAB with some sort of meal plan. I was also planning to gradually introduce LISS starting at 25 mins weekly then increase to 30 mins 3+ times per week.

Goal would be for a sub 40" waist and BMI < 25. Does that sound reasonable as a starting point?

Thank you again,

Ed

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Ed,

Thanks for the comment and hope you had a good holiday.

I think it's difficult to suggest someone follow macros if they're unwilling to track calories, you know? I would 100% recommend seeking more professional guidance to preserve your relationship with your dad and potentially help him buy-in a bit more. Happy to hear about the LISS, though I would encourage him to strength train 2x/wk per the current activity guidelines for adults. He would likely benefit tremendously from doing so and handling his concerns one-by-one would be helpful to get him into the gym.

As far as goals go, we're looking for 5% weight loss in a month to reap a good amount of health benefits. So initially I'd be aiming for ~15lbs in a month and then maintaining that for a few months. In a few months I'd revisit getting under a 40" waist for sure.

[ejnrule]

Thanks, that's really helpful

[jab]

As far as goals go, we're looking for 5% weight loss in a month to reap a good amount of health benefits. So initially I'd be aiming for ~15lbs in a month and then maintaining that for a few months. In a few months I'd revisit getting under a 40" waist for sure.

Hi,

Jordan, is your math correct?

I just looked up what the maintanance kcal is for 60yrs old and 250lbs. The calculator i used said: ~2800kcal (no sport), lets make it an even 3k.

You are suggesting 15lbs a month - lets make it an even 16lbs for calculation purposes. That 4 lbs a week. As far as i know, roughly speaking, "deficit in kcal a day is weigh loss in gramm a week", which would be: -2k kcal. His dad would only eat 1000 kcal a day. That sounds very low calories and not maintainable.

Am i wrong with my estimations?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Hi,

Jordan, is your math correct?

I just looked up what the maintanance kcal is for 60yrs old and 250lbs. The calculator i used said: ~2800kcal (no sport), lets make it an even 3k.

Is what math correct? I doubt that he needs that many calories.

You are suggesting 15lbs a month - lets make it an even 16lbs for calculation purposes. That 4 lbs a week. .

Yes, or faster.

As far as i know, roughly speaking, "deficit in kcal a day is weigh loss in gramm a week", which would be: -2k kcal. His dad would only eat 1000 kcal a day. That sounds very low calories and not maintainable.

Am i wrong with my estimations?

Yes. Those calculations don't work very well in practice.