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I think if he eats something in the morning that might help. Spread the food out over the day.

He lost that 20# pretty quick even for a man too--one month! Really fast weight loss doesn't usually stick anyway. He's still 15# ahead of the game. I hope he won't drop out because it's not as easy as it looked at first.

And you are right to get him exercising a little more. He may have done all that dieting can do for now and need to ramp up the movement to see more loss.

Good luck to both of you!

I've been amazed over the years by this. It is the ultimate roto rooter. You can eat 40 grams of fiber daily but if you don't have the water to flush it out, weight loss, at least for me does not happen. I also find that I can be a perfect MWLer and if we go out to eat, and I know that there is salt added, I'll be up a pound the next morning. Like last night...went to Olive Garden, had the unlimited salad sans cheese & croutons with 8 olives, and 2 small appetizer servings of the vegan minestrone. Up a pound this morning. I could tell by the way my joints felt this morning that there was more salt than what I use at home, which is mostly none.

Yes, water weight can be expected to go up and down regularly by several pounds - even more for some people. If your husband lost 20 pounds in a month, likely a lot of that was excess water. And getting rid of that water is a GOOD thing! But... water retention is a funny thing, and it varies depending on water intake, temperature, what/how much you're eating, salt intake, stress levels, etc. etc.

Plus... when you first make a major dietary change and lose a lot of weight, your body tends to throw off a lot of water. This happens on almost any diet, from McDougall to low calorie to low carb. As it gets used to the new regime, things equilibrate and often it will return to a bit higher "water balance" and you may see a few pounds of water return, while at the same time you may still be losing fat. It can be hard to distinguish between water loss/gain and fat loss/gain. Fat comes off and on more slowly, however, and changes can easily be masked by ups and downs in water retention. So... your husband should not be discouraged. He probably did not regain any fat at all, but is just seeing a normal shift in water retention.

Pumpkin

My experience with McDougall diet is 3 lbs per month of weight loss and then I would plateau for a while and then continue to loose weight again. This happens during the month as well with up and downs during the month but overall direction downward. The lower my weight was, however, the more important exerecise became as a regular component of lifestyle to continue shedding pounds. The first 25 lbs came off easily from diet, but after that, regular exercise was key to further reductions along with maintaining the diet.