Advice/expertise needed

D

DoF

New member
Hi and sorry for long first post!

Looking for some advice for my wife and I. We are trying to lose weight as we have been obese most of our lives. I understand that losing weight too quickly is not recommended or healthy, but at the same time we are not exactly healthy being obese and all.
I gathered some research and would like to run it by everyone here. It would be great if you can double check the #s and make recommendations.

Me/M/37 - 6'1" was 247lbs /is 243 BMI 32.6 BMR 2082( Goal : 180
Wife/37 - 5'4" was 210lbs/is 203 BMI 36 BMR 1623 Goal : 140

Q1- Last time wife and I weigh "healthy BMI/Goal" weight was when we were in 6th grade. How accurate are these BMI calculators and are they a good indicator of healthy weight.

Realistically, we are probably shooting for 200 and her 160. that was our weight in 10th grade.....but that puts us in "overweight" based on BMI calculator?

Q2 - We are tracking our food intake and exercise and want to make sure below math is correct.

Me - BMR - 600 = 1500 calories per day diet
Wife - BMR - 500 = 1100 calories per day diet

We are currently burning about 500-600 calories per day with exercise (which is heavy).

Should we be consuming total allowed calories + calories burned? (so about 2100 calories for me and 1700 for wife)? From what I understand we need to offset # we burn correct?

Q3 - Our current exercises include:

200 sit ups per day (10 min), 200 squats per day (10 min) and 3 miles of brisk walking per day. Same for wife. We also go Hiking at least once a week.
Please recommend other exercises. From what I understand we need to build muscle as we loss weight?

We will most likely be incorporating running few months down the line.

Q4 - We are completely staying away from any junk. Our diet has been mostly made of Veggies, Fruit and Chicken/Turkey/Fish and occasional steak for protein. We drink coffee/1 cream/1 sugar once or twice a day and water rest of the day.

Q5 - Noticed I've been doing about 1100 calories a day (after intake minus exe). I'm feeling ok/not hungry.....but I have a feeling it might not be healthy to do this/continue it?

Today for example, I already burned 600 calories from exe today, and ate 1000......it tells me I need to consume another 1000 today?

Please let us know if I'm doing anything wrong or what you would recommend/all comments are welcome.

Much appreciated! Thanks
 
hi

First off BMI
 
Hi Dof

First off i don't use BMI as an indicator of physical health / state as it doesn't really take into consideration the composition of the body, i.e. fat and lean body mass. My brothers BMI is mid 30's however he's extremely lean, muscular and close to 300lbs.

Anyway... consider getting a professional to take skin fold measurements and then work out your body fat percentage. Then aim to get it within a healthy range 15 - 20 for a male, female 20 -25.

Could you tell me if after working out your BMR, did you factor in the amount of activity daily / weekly you do on top as 2100 seems low for a guy your size. BMR is the amount of calories thats needed by the body at rest just to carry out its normal functions (Living and breathing). You then factor in your daily / weekly activity and multiply your BMR by this number to give you the true amount of calories needed to live, breath, exercise and pretty much remain the same. Not going up, not going down (in weight).

When you have this value create a 20% calorie deficit. So if you need 2800 cals for example, start your diet with 2250 calories per day (roughly 20% deficit).

Your current daily intake is too low and your activity seems fairly high. This is bad news in a few weeks down the line. When weight loss stalls, which it will as the body adjusts to the amount of calories, exercise etc a further reduction in calories or increase in activity is needed.

Therefore you'll end up eating next to nothing or doing an insane amount of exercise.

Hope this makes sense. With regards to exercise, 4 x 30 min walks per week and 3 sessions where you undertake weight bearing activities is a good realistic place to start.

I can go into more detail, just lt me know

gym-pat
 
gym_pat said:
Hi Dof

First off i don't use BMI as an indicator of physical health / state as it doesn't really take into consideration the composition of the body, i.e. fat and lean body mass. My brothers BMI is mid 30's however he's extremely lean, muscular and close to 300lbs.

Anyway... consider getting a professional to take skin fold measurements and then work out your body fat percentage. Then aim to get it within a healthy range 15 - 20 for a male, female 20 -25.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I'm finding out.

Would my primary doc be able to do that?

gym_pat said:
Could you tell me if after working out your BMR, did you factor in the amount of activity daily / weekly you do on top as 2100 seems low for a guy your size. BMR is the amount of calories thats needed by the body at rest just to carry out its normal functions (Living and breathing). You then factor in your daily / weekly activity and multiply your BMR by this number to give you the true amount of calories needed to live, breath, exercise and pretty much remain the same. Not going up, not going down (in weight).
Click to expand...

With so many calculators out there, I don't really remember.

But now that I found another one, it tells me the intake with exercise (light/moderate/heavy etc).



gym_pat said:
When you have this value create a 20% calorie deficit. So if you need 2800 cals for example, start your diet with 2250 calories per day (roughly 20% deficit).

Your current daily intake is too low and your activity seems fairly high. This is bad news in a few weeks down the line. When weight loss stalls, which it will as the body adjusts to the amount of calories, exercise etc a further reduction in calories or increase in activity is needed.

Therefore you'll end up eating next to nothing or doing an insane amount of exercise.

Hope this makes sense. With regards to exercise, 4 x 30 min walks per week and 3 sessions where you undertake weight bearing activities is a good realistic place to start.

I can go into more detail, just lt me know

gym-pat
Click to expand...

Yep, I need to adjust a bit.

I lost 1.7lbs since sunday so clearly I'm either not eating enough or exercising too much.

Weird cause my wife is doing exact same thing (food/exercise) and not losing as much.....I guess everyone is different.

I will wait until Sunday and see my weight loss for the week and adjust accordingly.

My current formula is:
Eat healthy
Watch portions (more/smaller meals thru the day)
1500 calories a day intake (will adjust to higher number if it's over 2 lbs per week loss)
exercise daily (2 mile walk/1 mile run/200 sit ups/200 squats)

From what I understand these number will need to be adjusted as I go as well.
 
Hi Dof

I'm not sure if your doctor would do your bf %... health care professionals tend to use BMI as its simple to work out (Height divided by height in meters, then divided by height in meters again) :)

Ok.. so yes your going to lose weight in the short term with such a low amount of calories and high workload (amount of exercise) but the problem is in a few weeks when weight loss stops and you have to reduce calories again. Or increase amount of exercise. Its not sustainable.

Consider upping your calories to 2200 and your wife's to 1800.... If your eating correct types of food you'll lose weight at this intake and when weight loss stalls cut your calories by 100 and you should be good to go.

I know it might seem strange setting your calories at this level but its gonna make the whole process much easier.

With regards to exercise stick with the walking and running if you enjoy it but try to add some resistance work in. This way you'll hold on to some muscle and the end result will be a more toned appearance and not a tired flat look that tends to come with low calorie diets n lots of cardio.

Try this

10 x squats or step ups
10 x press ups or shoulder press
10 x bent over row
10 x crunches or sit ups
60 seconds kettle swing, bike sprints or burpees

repeat 3 - 5 times

You don't need a gym just maybe some dumbells or something to add some resistance (water bottles, heavy cans, use your imagination)

do 3 times per week on non consecutive days and perform cardio running / walking 3 times per week and have 1 full day off everything (important)
 
Update:

Down to 233 this week.

Started running 2 weeks ago, 1/4 mile at a time for 2 miles.

This week, first time in my life I ran 1 mile straight/no stopping.

Today I did 2 mile run no stopping.

Feeling great.
 
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