800 cal isn't enough for a 6'5" man?

[RockingMyFiftiesNot]

We are very close friends with another couple. The other DH is 6'5" so he can carry a lot of weight. He lost a couple of stone a few years ago following a heart scare, using a calorie controlled diet 1800 cals per day.

He has regained most of that over the last 18 months and is now following a shake/soup diet plan of 800 calories a day for the next 6 weeks or so. I said to his wife when she told me that 800 cals seems ridiculously low for someone his size to follow for 6 weeks, I can't see how he'd have the energy to do anything. She said she is very worried about it but he won't talk about it and is going ahead. I said I'd ask for opinions on here.
Thoughts?

No it is terrible his health will suffer.
I feel sorry for him battling again so extreme.

OP watch the max moseley show on channel 4 where different members of the public did just this ...

@littlepattilou no, quite the opposite. I have the information I need thanks (summary of the helpful posts is that 800 cals IS safe for someone his size IF under medical supervision).

So I can pass that on to his wife now, what she/her DH do with that info is up to them.
I don't really need to read any more unpleasant comments.

I’ve heard of the 800 cal diet being used for diabetes before.

But I’d be concerned about him doing this without medical advice or support.

Has he got a plan for easing himself back into a sustainable way of eating once this shake / soup diet finishes?

I know a few people who did similar shake / soup diets, lost a ton of weight, and then put all the weight back on because they just went back to their old eating habits afterwards.

It’s obviously not a good idea and he’ll probably stop after a couple of days once he gets too hungry… I don’t think the opinions of mumsnetters is going to change his mind..

Absolutely bonkers! My DH is 6ft and he couldn't last one day on 800cal. I'm 5'4 and I couldn't last a day on 800cal 😂 a diet for me is 1500-1800cal and for DH (physical job) is anything under 2500cal.

That bloke is going to be ridiculously hungry! Not sustainable at all.

Get her to look up Michael Mosley Fast 800 diet.

[quote RockingMyFiftiesNot]@littlepattilou no, quite the opposite. I have the information I need thanks (summary of the helpful posts is that 800 cals IS safe for someone his size IF under medical supervision).

So I can pass that on to his wife now, what she/her DH do with that info is up to them.
I don't really need to read any more unpleasant comments.
[/quote]
Which comments were unpleasant then?

People saying "it exists" are missing the vital point that it should be done under medical supervision after consulting a doctor. Not a book by a doctor

People genuinely feel that they couldn’t last one day on 800 calories? Jesus.

My DH is 6'4" & wouldn't manage on 800 calories, he's not disciplined enough! Sometimes he does fast until the evening, & recently he's been restricting carbs too, but I think 800 calories would be far too little as he's pretty lazy with food. TBH I'm only 5'3" & although I could manage on it, it would take a fair bit of planning. Usually I have between a thousand & 1300, unless we've decided to have a roast dinner or a takeaway, & that's fine for me. And I'm overweight! But, we don't always severely restrict carbs & we don't go for low fat options unless they're the natural choice.

It does depend though, how determined he is, & if he's going to mostly eat low calorie vegetables & lean protein. You can get at least a couple of really decent sized meals for 800 calories if you really restrict carbs & also keep it fairly low fat. Probably a snack or a small breakfast too. Or, one normal meal that's got carbs & fat in.

Yes they will be fine. He isn’t healthy he has a heart condition so he needs to do it. My brothers are both over 6 ft 4 and had to temporatily follow VLCD for diabetes and a form of heart disease. They managed to keep the weight off permanently via intermittant fasting which their specialists recommended.

It's similar to the Exante diet. 800 calories is fine. It used to be 600 for women and then the 800 was called the man plan. This is endorsed by the NHS. It was designed to turn things around quickly. So weightloss and less strain on the heart and or blood results.

You have an approved food list and keep your carbs moderate, no processed carbs. You have three products a day and a 200 calorie meal. When you are less than 14 stone, you can exercise and eat back your calories. Then you slowly replace the products for meals. You go onto the 1200, which is 1200 calories.

I've done it and lost four stone. Have a look on the Exante Facebook pages. There's people who've lost 16 stone and kept it off.

For some people slowly losing weight doesn't work and for some they are in danger of serious health issues if they don't drop calories quickly.

@Shelovesamystery

Absolutely bonkers! My DH is 6ft and he couldn't last one day on 800cal. I'm 5'4 and I couldn't last a day on 800cal 😂 a diet for me is 1500-1800cal and for DH (physical job) is anything under 2500cal.

That bloke is going to be ridiculously hungry! Not sustainable at all.

I stopped being hungry pretty soon when I did 800cals actually. Didn't take long at all to start feeling healthier and craving less food.

I don't think it's unsafe remember you are also burning body fat for fuel and the food is more to give essential nutrients and vitamins. Having said that I have regained weight after doing a 800 cal plan and struggled with my weight since. I now find I struggle to stick to diets and have a lot of hunger. So that's why I wouldn't do one of these diets I think slower weight loss is more maintainable long term.

I agree that it resets your hunger patterns and contrary to beliefs, resets your relationship with food.

"A wife surely has a right to be concerned about such a major drop in her husband's calories over a 6 week period."

Did the pair of you express this amount of concern while he was getting bigger and causing heart issues?

"In his case he was recently diagnosed as type 2 diabetic and 12 weeks on 800 cals a day can, apparently, put the diabetes into remission."

These diets do literally save people's lives.

He will also need a plan for the long term so he doesn’t put out on what he lost and more

I imagine simply the end of lockdown might be sufficient, as long as he's fit enough to be active again, but he needs to lose the weight to do that.

The only way that 800cal shake/replacement thing could work for him is if he was adding a normal, veg rich meal along side the other items.

OR he was doing the replacements every other day as some variation of fasting. Though fasting doesn’t work for everyone

Is it your DH?

DH is 6’ 1”, so a bit smaller. He was part of a clinical trial with Diabetes UK through his GP and went on that 800 calorie a day shake diet thing for a few months. It got rid of his diabetes and he lost weight certainly (he wasn’t actually obese), but it simply wasn’t sustainable and he was miserable with it. As a result he put weight back on, and so he decided to give Slimming World a go which worked much better for him.

The 800 calorie 6 week diet is a well known diet recommended by many doctors to reduce the risk of/reverse diabetes.

No, it's not my DH, he and his wife are two of our closest friends.
His heart condition was 'mechanical', and as far as I know not brought on by weight related issues. Because of his height you would never have looked at him and thought he was overweight, in response to the PP who suggested we should have been talking to him about his weight before now . But that health scare made him look at his health and he started exercising and lost 2 stone, which he has since regained.

I've just spoken to his wife, she is going to talk to him again about consulting his GP but she was relieved to hear that this kind of diet can be prescribed for people of his size. She asked me to say thank you for the comments.

I agree that it resets your hunger patterns and contrary to beliefs, resets your relationship with food.

This seems to be happening with my friend, he has had a less than healthy attitude to food in the past and a limited diet. He's now saying he's going to try some different foods.

Good luck to your friend OP