How to lose weight – Doing it as a couple works better – Part One

I recently spoke with my brother who told me that he and his wife decided 6 months ago that they were both going to lose 10 pounds. They decided to do this as a couple. They both have the same residence and eat the same foods and thus could each be intimately involved in the success of the other. They were both successful in losing 10 pounds and their story may be of help to others in the same situation.

First of all, my brother and his wife are very athletic, running and cycling regularly. Essentially, they are both very fit individuals. However, since they are in their 50s, they felt they needed to lose about 10 pounds each in order to compete at a higher level in the sports activities they both engage in.

My brother told me that he and his wife sat down with an Excel spreadsheet and decided to track exactly what they ate every day for two weeks. After those two weeks, they looked at the calories and fat they ate daily and made modifications to their diet and exercise based on their findings.

During this two-week period, they did some research to try to determine what their baseline caloric need was for the day if they weren’t active at all. He said they were trying to determine the calories needed to fuel his basal metabolism each day. Once each knew exactly how many calories he needed daily just for his body to function if he were at rest all day, he could extrapolate his necessary caloric requirements based on his activity level.

My brother told me that he determined that his basal metabolism required 1,900 calories per day and that his wife required 1,600 calories per day. They then added the amount of activity they were involved in daily and determined the number of calories needed to maintain the exact weight they currently weighed.