I don't know your brother, but I'm often reluctant to judge the obese because much of the weight loss advice out there, even from doctors, is incorrect. The standard dietary advice for the past forty years is the following:
- Eat less, move more;
- The "Fat burning zone" in cardio corresponds to a heart rate of 130;
- More cardio is better;
- Carbs are good, proteins are good, fats are bad;
- 50% of your calories should come from grains;
- Eat more fruit;
- Fruit juice is good;
- Eat low-fat dairy products;
- Eat six meals a day;
- Vegetables oils are good for you;
- Eat first thing in the morning, breakfast is the most important meal of the day;
That's the standard advice. It's a total croc of sh*t. That's what people get told to do by their doctors. If I followed the standard advice I'd plausibly be up to 3 or 4 herniated disks by now, and maybe weigh 250 or 260 lbs, or more. I'd be discouraged. Maybe I'd quit trying to get fit.
I have lost weight, but I might not have if I were not a naturally argumentative person who is contrarian and seeks alternative thinking.
I've been on the dieting road for a very long time now and in my opinion the biggest bullet points (for me) are these:
1. Don't eat when you're (sad/depressed/angry/frustrated/bored/any other emotion), eat when you're HUNGRY. Not when you think you're hungry but when you actually know, for god damn sure, and your stomach is almost burning, that you're motherfucking hungry. Emotional eating is my biggest weakness (hair loss does not help here).
2. Don't eat garbage - we know what garbage food is. Candy, ice cream, fast food, all that sh*t has gotta go. Eating clean nutritious food that provides the most nutrients per kCal is the only way to do it.
3. Eat only as much as you need not to feel super hungry anymore.
4. Greatly limit liquid calories. I drink mostly carbonated mineral water, and milk here and there.
5. Get out there and expend energy. Walking, running, cycling, whatever. At least an hour a day.
6. Strength training to help preserve muscle mass when cutting.
If I do these, I don't even have to count calories. No need to make it more complicated. Of course, this assumes that you're reasonably mobile and that your hunger signalling actually works and you don't have some sort of hormonal disorder that would make you unreasonably hungry all the time. The rest is all calories in vs out.
One other thing I'd like to point out is how walking is a great way to burn fat IMO. It's great because it's fairly low intensity, which means most of it will get fueled by your fat stores rather than glycogen, so you won't be burned out even after walking for miles, which means you can do it every day and be consistent (and it will spare your muscle). My favorite activity is just going for 1-2 hours of walking in nature with headphones on, I go at a moderate speed and my HR is around 110-115. At about 15-16% body fat now and looking to get down to 10%. Occassionally throw in the high intensity cardio maybe 1-2x a week (my fav is jump rope).
As far as macronutrients some people may do better on a higher carb diet and others might prefer more fat, but personally I don't care either way. I eat a good mixture of them all because it doesn't matter much in my case. I've tried low carb, felt like ***, definitely not my thing. Low fat leaves me feeling hungry a good deal of the time. So I just eat 'moderate everything', but try to keep unsaturated fats low. That's about it.
