Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good weekend. This post is for my dad, I want to help him lose weight.
He is in his early 60s, has been diabetic for over a decade, and has a pacemaker too. He is at least 30kgs overweight, he has been overweight for almost 3 decades now.
I really want to help him lose weight but he barely has the motivation or energy to workout most days, or even walk 30 minutes. He retired two years ago and before that he had an office job.
I have tried giving him the information and everything to help him, and he really does want to get fit, but lacks the motivation a lot.
I would highly appreciate any advice that I can implement so it betters his health. He’s also very much into food, once he starts, it’s hard for him to stop, so would appreciate any high volume, low calorie food options too.
Thanks!
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Ozempic. Takes no effort or changes to the lifestyle.
If you or he is set on making changes then start with the diet. Don’t reduce food, just replace it with healthier, less caloric alternatives. Diet coke or sparkling water instead of sodas, cook the food in an oven instead of frying, add more fibers during each meal.
Motivation comes from within. I don’t know what he needs to see or hear to truly desire a better healthy living.
Any movement is better than none. Help him find things he likes to do that gets him moving. If he’s retired, he’s got plenty of time, so don’t let him use time as an excuse.
Weight loss is 20% exercise and 80% diet. You need to consistently be on a calorie deficit for a long period of time. There are calculators online to determine your maintenance calories and how much you should eat in a day to lose weight. Remember that most overweight people mindlessly eat things throughout the day and forget to count it on their calorie counters, so they need someone to help them track these things. You typically want to be about 500 calories below your maintenance calories, but since he’s older and diabetic I would go lighter and stretch out the goal a bit so it lessens the strain on his body.
His situation is not typically reflective of the typical demographic you’d ask about weight loss advice. I’d strongly suggest consulting a doctor or nutritionist for an actual plan instead.
You can’t outrun a bad diet. If your dad is in his 60s and he’s 30 kg overweight the easiest way for him to lose weight is for him to stop eating so poorly.
Humans are ultimately biological machines and you can only use the caloric energy you intake. If your body is able to store 30kg of weight without any loss it means you’re dad ate himself fat and never trimmed.
For example – 1 330ml can of soda would take an hour of walking to burn off. If your dad was drinking 2-3 a day then you’ve got 2-3 hours worth of exercise you can skip by just buying diet soda. Expand that idea to what is being consumed.
For snackable foods any veggie, popcorn, peanut buttered rice cakes, anything that is big physically but not hugely dense. Most of these are made less healthy by added sugars, and fats, so avoid those i.e. non buttered popcorn is only 30 calories a cup.
Got fed up with what I was seeing in the mirror
Getting him to exercise probably won’t do anything if he’s that into food and refuses to eat less.
Appeal to his emotion. Stay healthy to be with his family for longer.
When I dropped out of highschool and was kicked out of my parents house, I had 1800 dollars to my name. I jumped trains from NY to Montana. Montana to Florida, then hitchhiked back up to NY. I ate egg sandwiches for 2 years. I went from being 320lbs to 220lbs over that journey. I grew up a lot mentally, lost a lot of weight, and kept it off by going into the trades where I get paid to tan and workout most days 😅
There is really nothing you can do to motivate someone else to live healthier
Discipline.
Understanding the bare minimum of what I needed to do, sticking to it. Being flexible and understanding of the moments that I failed. Weighing myself regularly. Holding myself accountable.
I had so many stretches of starting and failing and giving up. It took a lot for me to just stick with the routine and trust the process.
Self-efficacy.
I just woke up one day and said to myself, i’m tired of this and started hitting the gym everyday, tracked my diet like a hawk and before i knew it, i had dropped 67 lbs
A couple things helped me most.
I’ll say 1, is timing my meals. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at very specific times. No later, no sooner. Being strict about this rule made it a lot easier for me to push through.
If I was still hungry after dinner, I could tell myself, “Well, I’ll be able to eat again in about 10 hours.”
Think of it as like, if I was stuck in a jail cell, I have no access to extra food. I have no other option but to wait until the next meal.
Eventually, your body adjusts and gets used to the meal timings, and will be able to hold out until the next meal.
The other thing that helped me was having a friend diet with me. Having someone else to hold yourself accountable is really really helpful. Especially if you have a competitive mindset.
It just helps when someone is going through the same struggles you are, and is there to help you through it, and even share tips/advice. Similar to how, in dire situations, 1 person is generally going to be more level headed than the other, while the other could be on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.