3000 calories per day not enough!
 

My husband's bloodwork came back and his triglycerides are far too high, so he joined me in calorie counting last Friday to drop some weight and see if that helps. I figured for him that a 3000 per day calorie level would be a nice easy sustainable drop for him. He's 6'2", 238 lbs, and fairly active.

He's losing a pound a day! :eek: That's far too fast.

According to our fat percentage scale, he's only 26% body fat, so we are only aiming to take him down to 208 lbs, which will be about 14% body fat.

As part of the treatment for high triglycerides, we are upping the percentage of protein in his diet and limiting carbs- I wonder if that's causing the precipitous drop?

This is troubling. 3000 calories per day should have caused about a half pound a week, not a pound a day!

Weird.

The first week often takes off a huge amount of water. It isn't unusual to take off 3 to 4 times what will come off the following weeks. If he isn't unbearably hungry, he might want to see what comes off the second and third week before deciding whether to change what or how much he is eating.

Yes, don't go by the first week -- water weight is very likely the culprit. Give it some time. 3000 calories may even end up being a little high for him to lose weight... everyone is different. But it sounds like you are taking a good tack here and starting to make modifications and get him to think about what he's eating -- that's the important part!!

I agree as well...see what happens over the next couple of weeks as well-the weight loss should slow quite a bit. If he lost 5-7 pounds this week, then next week it would be perfectly normal for that to drop a bit to 3-5 pounds in a week, etc.

I don't see where the water weight would be stored on him- he's got muscles like a body builder, and the only fat on him is in his abdomen. His belly does look something like a basketball- or did. I guess the "water weight" was in there.

He's one of those guys whose belly fat is INSIDE the abdominal wall, which is supposed to be a definite indicator of metabolic syndrome which is a precurser to diabetes.

I'll be much happier about his health when he loses that interabdominal fat. It's a definite dangers sign, no matter how healthy the rest of his body is!

I just figured he'd do it over a year, not a month! ;)

I agree with you all. I'm sure his weightloss will taper off after the first week is done.... although, you never know. He is an athlete and quite active in his judo club. They have two grueling workouts a week, and he's now joined me with weight lifting twice a week, too. He's definitely burning a lot of calories. We'll see.

Actually, over 50% of our body is composed of water, if I have my facts straight, and it is all over our bodies. That's one of the reasons why it is important to stay hydrated, keep the levels of water in our bodies high.

This is correct. :)

You might take into consideration that his metabolism is not whacked out from constant dieting. We women who have been on and off diets for most of our lives have (in some cases) really messed up our metabolism. Men don't typically diet, and they are generally more active, so when they do start a diet, their bodies react faster. I agree with everyone, wait a week or so and then start looking. It could be the water or it could be the male body itself!

Yeah, I always thought one of the reasons I was so successful this attempt was the fact I hadn't "dieted" in 5 years. I lost weight very consistently which helped me stay motivated to keep at it.

Eating high protein will also make the weight come off differently. When I was on the Atkins plan, it was not unusual for me to drop 5 lbs a week and that kept up for quite a while. I dropped 30 lbs the first month. But then I was also 390 lbs when I started.

Susan -- You are really doing great! 140 pounds lost -- that's fantastic!

Maria.. maybe you should do some research on lowering blood fat levels and see what your research comes up with. Perhaps it's more 'what' is being eaten than how much, that could be the cause.

Try adding some oatmeal/fiber sorts of items to his diet, I have heard that can do wonders. I think it soaks up the goo and flushes it out over time! heheeh Are his cholesterol levels fine and it's just the triglycerides?

Jill thanks for your post, I was looking at my ankles last week and wondering why they looked so frighteningly thin. Seems like I am losing weight from the bottom up, my ankles and calves are now SO THIN in comparison it just makes the rest of my look bigger instead of smaller! :lol: Okay, I will get used to the shape eventually, but I was wondering how I could possibly lose from my ankles, now it all makes sense!

Another thing that really helps drop cholesterol is red yeast rice. You can get it at Vitamin Cottage or Whole Foods. It's been used in China for years - it's a fermented rice.

My husband took it for 8 weeks and quit his medicine - his numbers went back to normal. A friend of ours took it as well and gave up his meds too.

My husband is having the same difficulty.

Abs are made in the kitchen...;)

When he quit eating wheat and kidney beans and ate more red meat than chicken, he really began to lose that cooler his six pack is stored in.

he also has intramuscular fat and diabetes is all over his family. He doesn't have it thank goodness. He also takes bladderwrack, which helps up his metabolism without jacking his adrenals.

As for the rapid weight loss, men naturally have more muscle tissue than we do (BOO!!) and as a result, they store more water in them.

Good for your DH for helping himself. Best of luck to you both!!

Claire

His HDL is low (which is bad) and his LDL is normal. They can't calculate the ratio things properly, since his triglycerides are so high.

We've been eating oat bran pancakes or waffles for breakfast for the past two years- so he's getting plenty of oat bran. I cook from scratch and replaced half the flour in the pancake recipe with oat bran, so he's getting at least a quarter cup per day, which is plenty.

We also take fish oil capsules for the omega 3 fatty acids, and have been doing that for 2 years as well.

We just got back from a weeklong vacation where we didn't calorie count at all, nor do any formal exercise. He lost 3 lbs, I lost one! I know it was because we were so busy and out in the heat a lot. It takes energy to sweat!

His metabolism seems to be fast enough as long as he doesn't mindlessly munch on things, he'll drop weight, and he's been good about it- so he's losing weight. I bet his blood work will be fine once he drops down to goal, which is about 208 lbs.

Diabetes does run in his family, so the large abdomen and low hdl and high triglycerides that indicate metabolic syndrome is of concern. There isn't much doubt that he will get diabetes if he doesn't correct the situation. But he is correcting it, so he doesn't have to go down that road.

If his "good cholesterol" levels are bad-which my DH's were at one point-they suggested that he needed to eat more fruits and veggies in his diet as well-and it has really helped.

The HDL is only slightly low, while the triglycerides are very, very high. Our doctor was worse than useless: she suggested he go on a low fat diet. Even papers put out by the American Heart Association say that low fat diets RAISE triglycerides. His chances of a stroke are significantly higher with triglycerides up like that. Our first priority is to lower the triglycerides, which involves decreasing carbs of all sorts. We are trying for a Zone diet ratio of 30% fat, 30% protein and 40% carbs. Since he loves meat, this is no hardship for him. It just takes a readjustment of how he loads his plate for meals. :) And how much I cook!

While we were on vacation, we didn't eat so well- and he was getting far too many carbs. He's showing signs of high triglycerides again, even though he has lost weight: he gets out of breath easily during exercise. High triglycerides interfere with oxygen transport. We can get around that by having him take a nutritional supplement right before exercise, a sublingual tablet call dimethylglycine (DMG) but first we have to realize what's happening. *sigh* It's back on high protein for him! 10 days of higher carbs was definitely bad for him.