My Mum. Please help me to advise her correctly.

My Mum will be 60 this year and apart from a quality present, I also want to give her my time to log and monitor her to aid weightloss. Following my success she has given me full responsibility on her calorie intake against expenditure.

I need for my own peace of mind run this through with you guys so that I do not ruin what progress she has made.

Age 60

Fitness : Walks 1.5 miles every day at a leisurely pace and comlpetes housework daily. Saturday is a full day of playing with the grandson.

Height 5`2 large frame

maintenance 2100 (based on light)

Medication for angina,

14 no. operations culminating in a hysterictomy (sp?).

Her weight has not altered for 12 months and it would appear that she is not eating 1200 calories a day from doctor's recommendations (ooo!!!!)

I would like her to initially lose 10 lbs by december based on consuming 1600 cals a day and a deficit of only 500 due to the metabolism being potentially damaged. This would give confidence in the regime.

I have advised she may find her weight follow this pattern in the next 2 months....

210 210 209 207 208 211 212 213 211

i.e. weight will drop, increase from where she is now, but then drop in time.

I know the struggles with illness (and whatever extra illness over that she has told me) and general medication will have caused problems I will never understand, so I really need some help and advise because

I do not want to make things worse for my mum that has suffered all my life (not due to me I would add ;0   ) and want to help her to be where she can be to enjoy life.

Thank you all.

I'm not exactly a pro on the CC diet so I'll leave that to someone else but...

I'd pretty much just like to say you're honestly very considerate to do something like this. Better than giving your mother a brand new car. I honestly got a tear in my eye from reading that.

So yeah.
That's nice of you.

:D

What a thoughtful thing to do.  I think your ideas sound spot on and she'll benefit from a healthy diet and some exercise.  1500-1700 calories is perfect.  If she has a heart condition then her doctor has probably already suggested reducing her salt intake.   If you're going to be preparing her meals that will be easy enough to achieve.  If you're simply monitoring her intake then do encourage her to eat fresh, unprocessed foods as often as possible and to always get the '5 a Day' fruit and veg.  Ready-made, canned and processed foods tend to be high in salt

Also good for heart conditions is to reduce the amount of meat and full-fat dairy products in the diet.  Switching to leaner meats and low-fat dairy products and watching the portion-sizes is a good start.  Swapping some meat-based meals for meals based around beans & lentils also makes a lot of sense being naturally low-calorie and full of great nutrition.   If you can find some nice meat-free recipes yourself and cook them for her to try, that could spark some ideas.

And my final suggestion... because you don't want to go from 'loving daughter' to 'prison guard' :-) ... is to find ways to keep some of Mum's favourite things in her new healthier diet.  The occasional cake or biscuit here and there is fine from time to time.

Thank you so much for the responses, although I am a bloke gi-jane ;) lol...

My mum has rarely had any treats over the last two years and admits to not really missing anything as the odd biscuit over a cup of tea on a saturday is enough.

The way forward seems to be more adding calories into the diet than changing. Should be easy as it is the exact situation I found myself in on this journey.

I will post the food intake once I have acquired.

Happy to do this, but as you appreciate it is not always a great situation being responsible for someone without full knowledge of what you are doing :)

Apologies for giving you a sex-change there roj47... :-)  I don't think you need worry about your level of knowledge, particularly.  Trust your judgement and common-sense.   It won't let you down.

Thanks, but given the age difference between myself and her with the added complication of the medication, I just want to cover all aspects before diving in :)

Any angina suffers out there losing weight?

Anyone aided someone else lose weight completely?

No experiences relevant to myself?

Unable to locate similar items recently on the search icon :(

I would highly recommend a short consultation with a registered dietician.  My doctor sent me to one several years ago and I learned so much and got a program designed that still fits me to this day, based on my diet needs and eating patterns.  I'm talking about a half hour that you can benefit from for a lifetime.

For breakdown of how many calories, BMR/RMR, BMI etc. You can try www.phord.com/cc. (I plugged in the details you provided and these should be here)

I would suggest before starting any diet your mother should speak to her Doctor. Clearly she needs to lose weight as she is classed as obese. I have read that Angina can be relieved through dieting. (Do a search on google).

Your 500 deficit a day is a safe bet I would say for weight loss. The activity level you have set may be higher than the amount of activity your mum is doing. Try sedentary. At the end of the day try to introduce a healthy balanced diet.

It is a wonderful thing you want to do for your mum.

I wish I could convince my mum to go on a diet as well. She is of a similar age. she has all kinds of problems most of which I think can be resolved by losing weight.

Good luck!

Thank you for your advice and the link. Perfect, and further breakdown for me. Much appreciated.

My mum is under the doctor and has been for over 10 years. On average she sees him every 6 weeks.

The only advice he will give other than to lose weight is to keep eating less! Cholesterol is way below danger level, so the foods consumed would appear at least in the right area.

The dietician has offered advice, but from what my mum tells me, it is not relevant to my mum’s position.

Given these situations, I am more adamant about doing things rightly for her, and not ruining things. Without the experience of this, I come to you guys J.

Many thanks again J

A word of warning.  Menopause (and based on your age I assume you mom is in that catagory) has an effect on weight loss.  Most women find it becomes much harder to lose weight.  They also find that they tend to put fat on their tummies even if they never did before.  Restricting carbs to no more than 40% of the total calorie intake works better with older women.  Browse some of the 'over 50' forums for a peek at the problems experienced by that age group.

Thought I would stick an update (more to reassure myself I think)...

Weight has increased by 2lbs in 10 days. Have advised my mum that this is not fat, and more than likely be water weight. Trying to get her to measure as opposed to scales.

She has more energy than she has had in 6 months. In fact she is happier at the energy increase than anything else!

:)

Good to hear your mum is doing well. Thanks for the update :)

The gain is to be expected after she was eating so little before, but it sounds like she is doing well.  It could take a few more weeks for her metabolism to adjust and start losing weight, but you are on the right track.  Wish her well for us!

Hi all.... Fortnightly update...

The 2lbs that my mum added from starting out have now gone, so weight is back to where she was on day 1, but more importantly she has so much energy. In fact too much for my poor old dad whom is tired watching her!

She took measurements 7 days into this, but not yet.... Plan on every 3 months (maybe 2).

:)

Hi, just came over to check out your topic as you recommended (thanks btw), and had a really good giggle at picturing your Dad getting tired from watching your Mum.

Your a great son to do this for her. xox

Update....

Having increased in weight by 2 lbs and then losing it slowly, my Mum has lost a further pound...

This is monumental as it is the first weight lost since september 2007.

She is keeping a deficit of around 500 per day whilst the metabolism repairs, and then hoping to look to increase to 750 when myself and her are comfortable...

All good!

That is good to hear.  Yay Mum!

How is it going? I've been thinking of you and wondering how your mom is doing.

At 60, 5'2" and 210 lb, my calculations show that your mom should be consuming a max of 1500 calories per day.  Even at sedentary, she should be loosing about 1/2 a pound a week.  I also calculate that maintenance for her is 1800 cal/day, not the 2100 you list. 

The walking you mention burns around 350 calories per hour.  It usually takes me 18 minutes to do a mile at brisk pace with a 20# pack.  So figure about half an hour for her walk so 175 calories per day walking.  Even with the 1500 calories, she's still well under the 700 cal per day deficit. (475 total from diet and exercise).

I would suggest that you start working with her on how to shop for food for herself.  Maybe some weight watchers meetings since they give you really good tools on how to buy food and it's basically a little weight loss support group.

 

loulou2008>> You must have read my mind. I was planning to update tonight..., so far she has lost 4 lbs. The weight is steady now, but a medication change seems to be retaining water. Lost an inch on the waist rather than weight, so improving slowly.

Based on experience it will be later thsi year that the metabolism is repaired fully to gain the benefits of the program.

morrighu>> Thank you for your post, but using the tools on here which have helped me to successfully lost 28 lbs of fat in 2 years at sedentary the maintenance is 1900. Consume a max of 1500 cals? Trying to repair a metabolism at the moment, so a small deficit is the aim. I had thought the weight would increase, but after an initial jump it has disappeared.

The foot choices of my mum are excellent, and far superior to mine. Just not enough food had been consumed, and that was the way forward. I would never touch weight watchers, especially when I know so many people that have had success from following the CC recommended program.

To me weightwatchers is like employing an accountant to calculate your finances.... :)