Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Want to help my 83yo grandpa lose weight - don't want to accidentally give him any bad advice... any tips?

So - here's the thing. My grandpa has always been a "clear the plate, nothing gets wasted" person, he was from a very large family that experienced hunger during WWII, and in general as a child and a teenager.
However, this has been causing issues as he ages and puts on more and more weight.
He is very short, only about 5'2 - and though he hasn't weighed himself in a while my grandma says she thinks he's about 230lbs judging by his previous known weight + current size.
The more he gains the harder it is for him to exercise and walk (the weight makes his knees hurt and makes it harder to breathe) - so he moves less, uses less energy, and keeps gaining weight.
He is otherwise really healthy, perfect blood pressure, no cholesterol issues, no diabetes, mentally fit, etc etc... Just really overweight.

He knows he's too heavy but doesn't take grandma's advice (she's a tiny 5 feet tall woman, and diabetic, she has her diet completely figured out as she maintains on only about 1200-1400kcal a day) - I think he feels he'd be both starving and wasting food if he tried to eat like her. Thing is I don't feel like he'd need to go that low to see a slow weight loss.
He listens to me more but here's the issue - I've successfully lost weight in the past, I have my exercise and calorie counting/ratios more or less figured out (moderate/slightly lower carb, as also advised by my endocrinologist for PCOS)... but that is for ME, a 20something woman, not an 83 year old man. I told him he might be better off seing a professional that specialises in nutrition, but grandma and he have asked me to maybe put together some general guidelines/portion sizes (as I've been using CICO/calorie counting to regulate my weight for the past 10 years).
I could relatively easily put together a few sample 1500-1600kcal days, as I've calculated his daily calorie needs as roughly 1950kcal when sedentary (TDEE calculator). But I'm worried I'd get it wrong because what works for me might not work for him - in terms of general health.

Is there anything I should be careful about due to his age, in terms of calorie deficits for weight loss and macros?
Should I push that he should see a nutritionist/doctor instead?

submitted by /u/ClumsyYeti
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