Hi Steve thanks for the reply! Her main goal is to lose the weight because she knows it's unhealthy, plus she's got two grand babies on the way, I think that's pretty good for motivation.
I'd agree.
I'm not sure how far she went with the measurements, I'll have to have her write them down and store them somewhere.
I'm a fan of having a lot of metrics. The more data you/she has at her fingertips, the better she can determine what's working and what's not working. It also helps in preventing her from freaking out when the scale inevitably ticks up a pound, two or three if everything else is heading in the right direction.
Don't forget about performance related goals relating to things like distance or speed of her walking or weight lifted in her resistance training.
People tend to feed off of increased ability a lot.
Her diet is on the right track, except for once in a while she may give into something not so healthy.
I don't think you'd be human if you didn't.
Personally I eat well, good carbs, lean meats, veggies and fruit, nothing refined. I think I should print her out a list of good foods because she likes to have visuals.
I think that's an excellent idea. I'm not much a fan of giving people specific food plans. Some people want it and at times I'll cave... but that's rare. I'm much more a fan of a) finding out what foods the individual enjoys and will match my idea of ideal and b) providing them a list of foods that fit the mold. I'll typically break it out by macronutrient since more often than not I want them to have a bit of each during each meal.
For instance:
Protein: Chicken breast (ground or whole), ditto that for turkey breast, lean ground beef, top round steak, eggs, low/no fat dairy including milk and cottage cheese, eggs, pork tenderloin, fish, nuts, beans, protein powder
Fats: Cold water fish, fish oil pills (I think everyone should be taking these), extra virgin olive oil, nuts, avocados, flax, natural peanut butter
Carbs: Fruit (I find this extremely important for a female your mother's size), fibrous veggies, potatoes, yams, rice, whole wheat breads and pastas including wraps, real oatmeal
I can tell her to eat so and so calories, this much protein and whatnot, but it'll mean nothing to her without examples.
Another thought is the fact that the foods in the list above aren't calorically dense compared with most crap food. Of course you can overeat the stuff above. It's just harder. With that in mind, I know thinking of my own mother, she's not the type who is going to sit there are weigh out her food and track calories each and every single day. She's not going to worry about this many grams of protein and that many grams of fat. She just isn't.
But I've had her lose weight by simply giving her a list of foods similar to that above and saying I want you to pick a protein, carb and fat and eat X number of meals. I'd add a bit about fruit and whatnot.
Regardless, it works. I oftentimes say, "Don't muddy the waters unless you have to."
You know your mother better than any of us and I'm sure you have a handle on how best guide her... just throwing out my own experience.
Now I know about the healthy foods and all that, I'm just not sure what would be a good macro balance for her, right now I think her carbs may be too high, about 50-55% of her diet. I was thinking about changing her macros to be like mine at a 35c/40p/25f. I just don't know at her age.
If you're going to go this route, I wouldn't focus on percentages as much as I would absolute amounts. If she prefers percentages, then you do the math for her after you've toyed around with the absolute amounts (grams).
In general, once calories are set, the fundamental variable to consider is protein. There's no definitive amount required but I feel it best/safest to shoot for something like 1 gram per pound of goal body weight.
Suppose this is 125 grams. 4 calories per gram of protein, you now know where 500 calories are coming from.
Next I like to set fat at something like 25% of total calories. Suppose her caloric goal is 1500. This would multiply out to be 375 calories from fat. We know each gram of fat has approximately 9 calories, so she should be shooting for 40 or so grams of fat.
We're still left with 625 calories to fill or the original 1500 calorie goal. What you do with this is extremely dependent on the individual, tolerances and circumstances. For example:
- some might do some sort of cyclical approach where carbs fluctuate per training schedule
- others might fill he remainder of calories entirely with carbs. Some might not tolerate carbs so well though so that's not always a good idea
- others might fill it with a combo of carbs and some more fats. In this case she could even bump protein up a bit to to something like 1.5 grams per pound of goal body weight.
You get the point. This is generally my thought process when going through something like this with someone.
That's a good idea, it would probably be a better to start her at 2x a week of weight training since she's not that used to it. We have access to a gym, and also have dumbbells and a weight bench at home.
I'd probably do two different workouts to breakup the monotony. For now, each will be similar in terms for sets and reps. You could do something like:
Day 1:
Squats (can be body weight, db, bb, etc)
Supine Hip Extensions
Rows (machine, cable, db, bb)
Bench Press (machine, db, bb)
Planks
Arms
Day 2:
Romanian Deads (body weight, db, bb)
Split Squats
Cable Pulldowns (assuming you're taking her to the gym)
Standing DB Overhead Press
Pallof Presses (assuming you're taking her to the gym)
Arms
2-3 sets of 12-15 reps for starters where the primary focus is on form of execution. Once 100% comfortable with each movement she can start progressing the weight. Eventually rep and set ranges can be modified and then exercise selection after a long while.
Just some general thoughts.
