My husband really has no understanding or concept whatsoever of calories. He has the attention span of a toddler and doesn't particularly care, but yet still keeps trying to get involved in my choices and ask me questions about my allowances. He can only really conceive of food in terms of large and small portions, he doesn't get that having a small plate of fries is more calories than a large plate of boiled potatoes and way more than a large plate of salad, to him you've either eaten a big meal or a small one. Sometimes I choose a small meal of calorie-dense food because it's what I really want but if I do find myself hungry afterwards he will say that I can have more because I've only eaten a little bit and then unhelpfully lists foods he thinks must be OK because they are small, causing me to want everything on that list!

Since on reflection I've decided against strangling him (possibly a mistake), how would you explain calories to him? I went a wee bit down the road of comparing it to money, that a mobile phone is very small but it's more expensive than a newspaper which is really big but he doesn't get it because you don't eat mobile phones, and if I talked about the price of food he'd tell me that candy is really cheap and miss the point.

Can I also add that this man effortly maintains his weight. I'll hold him down for you.

Hmm what about comparing it to electricity? How a small appliance can take more electricity to run than a big one? Or with weight? A sack of feathers is bigger than a sack of potatoes of the same weight.
Tricky one!

I wouldn't try to explain it to him. I'd just say "thanks for those suggestions honey" and then fix yourself whatever fits your plan.

There are always going to be things that trigger you to want food - it's your job to let that roll off your back and not let it affect your actions, not his job to start making helpful suggestions.

hmmmmm . . . try guy talk:

There's a series of books, I think they're called "Eat This Not That", or something like that. It gives a visual comparison of foods with their nutritional value, like a picture of a bagel next to a boat load of fruit. That might help? It's written by an MD, so maybe it could help him understand? Good luck.

I have no suggestions, but this is very funny. How does he not understand that? Although to be fair, I used to kind of think ice cream had 250 calories regardless of how much you ate. LOL!

Forgive me if I am blunt, but I am married to one of them too. Quit wasting your breathe. He clearly is not interested in learning because it doesn't affect him. My hubby is also losing weight, but he could care less about the technical side of it. You can see his eyes glaze over when I try to talk to him about something, so I quit trying to explain it to him and I am letting him do it the way he wants. But, since yours does not have a weight issue, the whole thing could not mean any less to him. JMHO, take it for what it is worth. Just worry about yourself....that's the important one anyway. LOL!

Don't. Tell them to google it and edcuate themselves.

I like Annies suggestion.

I think the money/budget actually works really well, but if he doesn't understand that (or rather, resorts to saying that we don't eat mobile phones or newspapers) then he's probably being stubbornly obtuse or he's beyond understanding and you are better off just not trying to change him.

If he is not being deliberately obtuse, he may simply not understand the concept and you can forward him some links on the subject. But I simply wouldn't attempt to educate him more than you have. If he's interested, I'm sure he can find out more on it (or ask you and treat you like the resident expert that you are).

Unfortunately, it may be that he doesn't think you know enough about this subject and that's why he doesn't believe what you're saying about calories.

Show him the nutritional information on a individual size bag of carrots and a candy bar.....

My husband won't butter his bread or eat bacon, because it is too much "fat", but he eats pork rinds like there's no tomorrow. Can't explain it to him.

If he really doesn't care, then there's no way to explain things to him that he'll care about. If he wanted to understand how calories work, he would listen to you, or look it up himself, but it really looks like he doesn't care to learn. Just tell him to stop with the food suggestions and don't listen to him when he does suggest things you know aren't on your plan.