Need help with hubby please

Hello,  I need some of the wisdom I see on this board all the time! 

My hubby is 45, 6' and is 330 pounds down from 360(side note, he is being treated for bi-polar, and is diabetic, has sleep apnea, restless leg and spinal stenosis - (he cannot be on his feet for more than 15-20 minutes at a time).  He sees a personal trainer 3 times a week that is a gift from a friend of ours.  When he started with the trainer the guy had him at 1700 calories, then upped him to 1900. 

Now hubby is tired all the time and it is not the sleep apnea (had a sleep study done again  aagghhh)  I have tried to explain to him that I think he needs more food, the trainer said that BMR is junk and not to follow it, because it is alway inaccurate (showed him some number of like 4000 for his BMR)

Not sure what to do from here, any help or ideas would be appriciated.

Thank You

Has your husband consulted his GP about all of this?   He could have other, related conditions that he doesn't know about...  Type II diabetes wouldn't be unreasonable, for example.

On the diet, actually the trainer is almost right (for once, they rarely are!!).  Since your husband is genuinely sedentary and middle-aged he only needs 2700 cals a day to maintain his weight.  So his food intake should be somewhere around 2000-2200 average.  Not too far away from 1900.  If he was just lightly active.... something physically demanding for half an hour a day... that weight-loss intake would rocket up to more like 3000 cals a day.  So obviously, anything he can do to increase his activity within his physical  limitations he should try.

He has to get the maximum nutritional bang for his buck out of those calories.  Lots of fresh vegetables and a really good range of other natural foods.   He would probably also benefit from supplements to act as a safety net.   Lack of iron, especially, can leave someone feeling tired.   Also, if it does emerge that he has blood-sugar issues, he should get some advice there.   He'll need to adjust his diet so that his blood-sugars are kept as stable as possible.

Good luck

Hi

My husband was around 270 pounds when diagnosed with diabetes, he already had DVT and he also has neuropathy which meant he wasn't able to walk more than 10 minutes without stabbing pain in his feet.

Since he was diagnosed in around Feb he has changed his eating habits, he is eating around 2,000 calories per day, we have cut the sugar down in his diet and also the fat, he walks each day and he is now up to walking for 2 hours at a time at a push and he is getting better.

He gets really sleepy when he eats fatty foods or gets high or low sugar readings, have you checked his bloods when he gets sleepy?

Has he been put on a low GI diet whereby the food has slow release of sugar? I would suggest his sleep is diabetes related and probably related to what he is eating and when.  He shouldn't have large one off meals he should be having 5 or 6 meals through the day to spread out his food intake.

Hope this helps, message me if you want to chat at all or get recipe ideas etc

Original Post by tmblake:

...he is being treated for bi-polar .....

It may not be his diet or exercise.

I was diagnosed with bi-polar.  I know that when my meds were off, I would be extremely tired all the time.  All I would want to do is sleep.

When was the last time he had blood levels evaluated? 

He may need to have his meds adjusted.  I know that with some bi-polar med combinations, the adrenaline released during workout sessions (no matter how small) will slow the effectiveness of the medications.  Throw in the diabetes, the brain chemistry could have something to do with it.