How do I motivate DH to lose weight?

joditoad1974

Cathlete
He is about 50 lbs overweight, 33yrs old and has high blood pressure. I really want him around a long time....and have told him this. I thought by my losing weight he would give it a try, but he cant get his but off the computer long enough. Any suggestions?

Joanna
 
To be honest, I don't think you can motivate someone else without their involvement and their desire to be motivated. Doesn't matter what you say, he has to WANT to lose weight and be more healthy.

I wish my SO would eat more healthy. He eats out a lot because of his job, but he also has high cholesterol problems and he knows this, and was great about watching what he was eating for a while. He also sits in front of the computer a lot (plays an on-line RPG) and doesn't work out at all (save the occasional walk with me). It irks me no end, but I know I can't make him do anything. It's up to him.
 
What allwildgirl said. They have-ta-wanna. Long time experience here. I have always worked out. dh has almost never. Same/same---hi PB and overweight (way). I have to say, the only thing that gets him going at ALL is that he sees me doing it. Sometimes this is just the push he needs, and other times, I think he feels that it's hopeless and he will never catch up to the fitness level I may be at. I try to impress upon him (only if he brings up his feelings about it) that I do it for health and fitness, not as a competition, even with myself. It's imporatnt not to gloat/nag/push/lecture/or cajole, even. You're being a good model of fitness. You can't change other adults, I always say. It's hard when the most important person in our lives doesn't share our enthusiasm for health, isn't it?
 
You are right....I dont guess he is going to do it unless he wants to. It would be so much easier on him to lose it now....while he is 33. His grandpa died of a heart attack at 51 and his dad has had 2 heart attacks...and this does not scare him, so I really dont know what would motivate him. Thanks for the advice.....he even rolls his eyes at me when I do a Cathe program while he is here. I have heard many times "do you have to do that today" and "didnt you just workout yesterday". Thank God I dont use him for my motivation! LOL

Joanna
 
My DH just got the results back from his shoulder problems. He doesn't need surgery. Guess what he needs? He needs to workout more to strengthen the shoulder!! He started doing so first thing last night. Hope he keeps it up. Right now, he has to conquer what he puts in his mouth. Some days he does good, and others not so good. He hasn't trained his mind yet when it comes to food, but I am trying to tell him that all he needs is his belly full (of good food) to be content and then he will be too full to think of any other food. I don't know, it works for me so I hope it will soon work for him.
I think the results of his test has motivated him significantly that he will try harder to keep losing the weight and workout more.

Charlotte~~
 
I agree with everyone that he's going to have to want to do it himself. Having said that, a not-so-kind word from his doctor might be enough to scare him, if the doc is willing (with a little prodding from you?) to point out the heart-attack risk in his family and your DH's vulnerability. If you can be ready with a plan - walks twice a week after dinner, learning a new sport together, buying bikes, exploring the local park, joining the Y - he might be ready to start moving.

The only thing that has worked for me is to try and involve DH in activities. When I say "you need to exercise more" (for my DH it's about stress management, not weight loss), it goes in one ear and out the other.

Allison
 
I hear that Allison. When I say "it would be great if you worked out more", he actually responds by getting all truculent and then it has the opposite effect. I'm hoping with the nicer weather we will get more walks in and rollerblading.

He hates running, but used to lift weights. Then he stopped. When I asked why he said it was because he wasn't angry anymore. I guess I make him too happy;)
 
I agree that you can't convince anyone to exercise unless they are ready to...My friend talked about exercising for about a year before she ever moved a muscle! I used to bring it up all of the time trying to motivate her...it never made her move....wouldn't ya know it, a few months after I gave up she came to me and told me that she had started to exercise! She did it when she was ready. I had nothing to do with it.

Now once someone is into it...having a person to help motivate you is helpful...but to start off...ya gotta wanna do it and no one else is gonna make that happen but you....

~Wendy~

I smoked my last cigarette on March 17, 2004 at 10:00 pm!

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EDD: 05/19/05
 
Shelley -

Maybe you can piss him off by sticking a lime helmet on his head! LOL! Then he'll get back to working out!


Angie
 
I don't think you should try to motivate him to lose weight, instead motivate him to get/be HEALTHY! :)
Tell him you love him, you want to keep him around for a long time, encourage activity (not necessarily exercise) and a healthy diet. Have more sex (I bet he'd rather have sex than be on his computer)!, go for walks together, go to museums, festivals, car shows, the zoo-all which require lots of walking/movement. Sneak veggies into meals, cut fat off his meat, replace salt in your shaker with a healthy alternative and don't tell him, continue to let him see you workout and make sure he knows how good you feel about yourself for exercising. There are lots of little things you can do to help encourage a healthy lifestyle without being mean, offensive, hurtful, or naggy. Get creative!
Good luck!
 
I don't think you can. He'll have to decide that he wants to do it for himself. I know how you feel though. I can see the spare tire developing around my husband's middle. He has told me that he wants to start exercising when he comes home from work (I'm always in the middle of mine when he gets home). On Tuesday, he came home, went out onto the front porch where the cardio machine he uses and his weights are, rode the cardio machine for oh...2 minutes....and stopped. That was his workout. I understand why he may have stopped - that machine is boring as a blank piece of paper. He's got to find something more fun. I'm not going to say anything to him unless he asks my opinion.
 
It took my hubby about a yr after I started exercising to want to lose weight, something he was wanting to do and couldn't because he was to heavy... he's lost about 32 lbs in the past yr.... would have lost more but those darn holidays.....
I don't think you can really motivate them to start, I do think you can motivate them to keep going.... they have to just be tired of being over weight....... Rhonda
 
Wouldn't you all say that the hardest part of having a sedentary partner is that it is so HARD (for ME anyway) NOT to come back from a run or into the family room after doing a Cathe, and NOT saying "BOY that felt good!" I am SO happy and worked out and stretched out after completing my workouts that I want to shout it from the rooftops and include him in my zeal! Unfortunatly, on the few occasions I couldn't keep it in, he only scoffs and seems to feel I'm gloating. He knows how good it feels. A few years back, he made a valiant effort to get in shape, lost all kinds of weight and felt the joys of endorphin highs............he just stopped, and you know how hard it is to get BACK into shape....
;(

Oh,well. I wonder if Cathe's husband is athletic and all?
 
Maybe as he gets older he will see the light. At 33 I think lots of men are comfortable where they're at without worrying about the affects of aging. My husband was not interested in losing his extra 50 pounds until he was in his mid-40's, which was about a year ago and he had a health scare (chest pains and shortness of breath) and the doctor told him to lose some weight. He started working out and lifting weights and he lost the whole 50 lbs. and then some, and looks great. In fact, he's at the same weight he was when he graduated high school! I have to say, it is easier for me to live healthy when he's doing it too!

(One thing that I really think motivated him though was looking at a photograph of himself, it was a profile of his big beer gut. He looked at it and went UGH!!!)
 
My SO shares in all my joys. He always asks how my workout or my run was and was suitably impressed when I ran into the family room the other night to show him my blossoming bicep vein.:)

He'll even occasionally throw a "Cathe-ism" into the conversation. The other night he said something about "arms in guard" and I just stopped in my tracks. Then started laughing.

Unfortunately none of it inspires him to move his butt away from the computer.x(
 
My DH doc already told him to lose it.....or he could have a heart attack like his dad. It looks like having 3 boys 7,4,2 would be motivation enough when I tell him how much I love him, and want him to be around for a long time. He complains all the time about how he looks....which that is not my main concern.I just want him healthy. Everyone is right...he is going to have to be ready to do it, I cant do it for him.

All of you are wonderful...thanks for the suggestions.

Joanna
 
Just tell him that when he gets thinner you find him more attractive and more likely to want to have SEX ALL THE TIME..as you will not be able to keep your hands off of him... TRUST ME!!! It will work!!

:7 :7 :7 :7 }( :7 :7 :7
 
I feel your pain. I finally realized what everyone else is saying, which is, he's gotta motivate himself.

This was a very hard lesson for me to learn, because I'm so scared of losing my DH. I told him if he doesn't get in shape, he has to buy a large insurance policy and name me as beneficiary and guess what? I'm now the beneficiary of a large insurance policy. At least when I'm widowed I won't have financial problems. :( But I still can't bear the thought of losing him.
 

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