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How to Get Your Partner to Lose Weight. Nagging, pleading, and badgering won’t help your
partner lose weight. But these subtle strategies may do the trick. You will need Compliments
A healthy, balanced diet Slim versions of favorite foods Modest goals The Big Picture
and a medical doctor. Step 1. Find ways to compliment them. Weight-loss experts say that
the first step to getting someone in the frame of mind to diet and exercise is to raise their
self-esteem, not destroy it. Step 2. Eat the same foods. Making your partner eat “diet”
food while you chow down on the kind of meal you used to enjoy together is a recipe for
disaster. Establish a “cooking date” at least once a week where you prepare a new
recipe—only you have to know it’s low-cal and low-fat. Step 3. If you cook for your
partner, slim down their favorite meals. Use less meat, cheese, butter, cream, or sugar
than the recipe calls for; substitute fat-free or lower-fat ingredients; and bake, broil,
grill, or roast foods instead of frying and sauteing. Weight-loss counselors say many
men resist dieting because they fear tiny portions. Help him feel satisfied by building
meals around foods that can be eaten in volume, like vegetables and low-calorie fruits. Step
4. Plan fun activities for the two of you that involve breaking a sweat. Step 5. Keep
foods they can’t resist out of the house. Step 6. Encourage your partner to lose just
five pounds. If the task doesn’t seem so daunting, they’re more likely to give it
a try—and more likely to succeed. And if they succeed, they’re more likely to keep
going. Step 7. Keep up their motivation by presenting them with a goal to look forward
to. Step 8. Finally, it’s always a good idea to consult a doctor. An M.D. will make
sure the extra weight isn’t a symptom of something else, and your partner will benefit
from a medically approved diet-and-exercise program. Did you know Manuel Uribe of Mexico,
who held the Guinness record for world’s heaviest man when he weighed 1,232 pounds
in 2006, got married in October 2008 after shedding over 500 pounds.