calories burned vs. eaten...i need help with my dad

so, i just got my dad hooked on calorie count, the only thing he will do is put in the foods eaten, and if he did hard labor, his activities... 

he has a fairly active day, he is a tile contractor, and does hard labor on most work days.

some days his burn meter says he has burned over 4000 calories!  because he is trying to loose weight (on some days), he will eat up to 2000 calories and say he is done.  some days he eats enough to have a small deficit.  

i need to know if it is okay for him to eat 2000 calories and burn 4000 calories!   i tell him that his body will go into starvation mode, but since he believes he needs to eat less to loose weight, he eats a lot less.  

i really want to help him out, and he needs to loose about 50 pounds.  he is a big loveable dad, who needs his daughter to talk some sense to him!

If he does hard physical work then he needs to eat a lot more than other people in order to maintain his weight.  He can also afford to eat a lot more than other people in order to lose weight.    I'd be less worried about 'starvation mode' personally and more concerned that he'd be feeling faint or dizzy at work.  

Ultimately, it's his body and his decision.  He knows what he should be taking in presumably, if the CC calculator has all the info.  If he chooses to ignore that, there's not a lot you can do.   Keep steering him towards healthier foods so that he's getting the best nutritional bang for his buck and see how it goes.   Good luck

This can be tricky. I am a very active person but I had to change my info to moderate activity because it said I could eat 3600 cals and maintain my weight.  I know that to be untrue.  It is probably closer to 3000.  If your dad is eating 2000/day and not feeling sluggish or weak then its probably OK.  He could probably up it to 2500 and still see success.  I'm cutting right now at around 2400/day.