A healthy weight..

Princess_Jane

My fella has decided to lose some weight..again..

He's 6ft 3 and 19st 9 but is very big build - huge shoulders etc.

The BMI calcs we've looked at suggest he should be about 14/15 stone which IMHO would be too light for him.

Is there any other scale for working out an ideal weight? He mostly needs to lose round his stomach, as he's about a 38 inch waist.

Last time he did WW which he really enjoyed as he was allowed about 30-odd points a day and was eating more than he usually would.

Not sure what plan he's going to do this time. His mam does the Cambridge diet once a year but I think that's a restrictive for him.

jillymit

Slimming World's got to be the best way to go, healthy eating, big portions, not a lot of weighing and measuring, idea for a bloke. I attend a brilliant class with some great male members who have all done really well. They always seem to do better than us girls.
I'm in Cambridgeshire PM if you need details.
PS. I don't work for Slimming World, honest! I've just tried just about everything else and this is the only one that does the trick.;)

BitterAndTwisted

Personally, I don't think all this "ideal weight" business is always helpful. In your fella's position, I think he should go by what you think is his ideal weight once he's achieved it and then stop. If you prefer a slightly more chunky bloke to a whippet-like waif he'll just be able to stop dieting earlier.

Princess_Jane

I suggested SW as my SIL lost nine stone on it.

But he totally refuses to go to a class.

Big Geordie blokes with fragile egos and all that..

jillymit

He doesn't have to go to class. Have a look at the web site for free ideas. They have a sample 7 day plan on there.
http://www.slimmingworld.com/

Feel free to delete if this is against the rules.

fernliebee

I can't see how the ideal weight can always be correct. I am trying to lose weight at the minute, as I'm a size 16 on the bottom and 14 on the top, 33 inch waist, 5'7 but I'm so very heavy!!! When I was a size 12, I didn't have any fat on me at all, was very healthy, I was still nearly a stone over my ideal weight. I would tell people what I weighed and they were genuinely shocked, even my GP. I do have a very large bust that I don't lose when I lose weight, and I have a bum too!

I tend to go by how I feel happiest, so I am aiming to get to 12, 6 which is 1 stone over the top end of my healthy weight, as I feel for my shape and build this is fine. Apparently waist measurement is important too as if you carry your weight round your middle it is more of a marker for poor health (put very badly, but hope you see what I mean!) The ideal is to be under 32 inches.

I wouldn't get hung up on the figures tbh, I would just aim for overall health, eat well but healthily, and exercise more etc.

Good luck to him, for something which sounds so simple I know how hard it can be!

BitterAndTwisted

Blimey, Fernliebee a size 12 on a lady who's 5'7" sounds a bit on the thin side to me but I'm probably just jealous

Bronnie

fernliebee wrote: »

I can't see how the ideal weight can always be correct. I am trying to lose weight at the minute, as I'm a size 16 on the bottom and 14 on the top, 33 inch waist, 5'7 but I'm so very heavy!!! When I was a size 12, I didn't have any fat on me at all, was very healthy, I was still nearly a stone over my ideal weight. I would tell people what I weighed and they were genuinely shocked, even my GP. I do have a very large bust that I don't lose when I lose weight, and I have a bum too!

I tend to go by how I feel happiest, so I am aiming to get to 12, 6 which is 1 stone over the top end of my healthy weight, as I feel for my shape and build this is fine. Apparently waist measurement is important too as if you carry your weight round your middle it is more of a marker for poor health (put very badly, but hope you see what I mean!) The ideal is to be under 32 inches.

I wouldn't get hung up on the figures tbh, I would just aim for overall health, eat well but healthily, and exercise more etc.

Good luck to him, for something which sounds so simple I know how hard it can be!

I'm shockingly heavy too, although 5'8" and a size 14, which is OK for my age, height and build. I don't judge by stones and pounds any more. Plus there's the added confusion of fat and muscle weighing differently.

The few excess pounds I've put on recently have packed on round my middle. If I can lose them and a few more besides, I'll be able to fit more comfortably into the slimmer-fitting size 14's I own, (that are uncomfortable ATM) and look leaner round the middle.

Probably better that your OH aims to get into a certain waist size in jeans etc. My daughters BF has lost a lot of weight this summer, basically by cutting out the carp, reducing the amount he eats and doing lots more sport. He hasn't weighed himself or discussed it once....the whole thing just seems to be a logical process to him and he just gets on with it! It seems a lot more complex and fraught for us ladies!!

Fitting comfortably into my chosen dress size is more important to me than reaching a certain token weight, although getting just below a stone or half-stone marker can (for some reason) be psychologically useful in maintaining weight.

Princess_Jane

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Luckily I'm really into exercise and healthy eating so I should be able to help him along.

I don't want a skinny skinny boyfriend, but he's around double my weight at the mo and it's not good for him - or me!

Zoology_Dragon

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Blimey, Fernliebee a size 12 on a lady who's 5'7" sounds a bit on the thin side to me but I'm probably just jealous

Really?!?! A size 12 is hardly on the thin side at any height. Not suggesting it is "big", of course it isn't, but you'd have to be about 6' before a size 12 started looking too thin.

To the OP, recommendations for men are that waist size should ideally be below 35" so maybe he should concentrate on that and not worry about actual weight? If he's carrying most of his weight on his stomach it probably won't take very long at all to lose 3". BMI is a good guide but it's not perfect (at both ends of the scale) so use your judgement.

pjk_3

I would ignore BMI completely - it's a very crude and outdated method that was developed in the 1800s! As others have said, it's better to use the "how clothes fit" method or even a simple tape measure. If that's not definitive enough you could look into getting some bodyfat scales. The cheaper ones can give wildly different readings though so beware. An alternative is body fat calipers (also called skinfold calipers) - you can get professional ones for lots of money or some plastic ones for around a tenner which are good enough for home use.