We live in Ontario, Canada. I am a 42-ye
For reference only. Not medical advice.
Question
We live in Ontario, Canada.
I am a 42-year-old father, 178 cm tall, 94 kg, with a waist circumference of 98 cm.
A coworker has been aggressively pushing me to do a 700 kcal/day starvation liquid fast with meal replacement shakes to "drop 15 lbs in 10 days" before a family wedding. I already feel drained from work and parenting, and starving myself sounds miserable.
Tonight I am cooking a regular family dinner of chicken stir-fry with vegetables and jasmine rice.
- What do my BMI and waist measurements indicate as objective WHO population health screening markers, and why is an extreme 700 kcal crash diet counterproductive?
- Without calculating daily calories or prescribing a rigid 7-day meal plan, what is a simple plate shift for tonight's chicken stir-fry, and what is one realistic move and measure habit for this week?
Answer
Short read: BMI 29.7 is a WHO adult overweight population marker, and your waist at 98 cm is about 55% of your height — at or above the NHS half-height check. Both are screening numbers, not a diagnosis. Muscle, how the weight sits on you, and family background all change what they mean.
On the 700 kcal plan. I won't help with it. Crash-starve at that level gives you a few days of water and muscle loss, lowers your resting metabolism, then rebounds the moment you eat normally — and it would make the already-drained-from-parenting feeling worse. The dinner you're about to cook is the better move.
Tonight's chicken stir-fry: keep what you already make; shift the proportions.
| On the plate | Keep | Shift |
|---|---|---|
| Stir-fry pot | The chicken + vegetables you already cook | Pile the veg to roughly half the plate; chicken the size of your palm |
| ice | The jasmine rice | Scoop to about a quarter of the plate; broth or a side of greens fills the rest |
| Drink | Water on the table | Skip the sugary drink |
Eat at the table with the family, slowly enough to notice when you're full.
One move this week: a 20-minute walk after dinner tonight or tomorrow, at a pace you can still talk in. Supportive shoes, water, lit path. That short start counts.
One measure this week: re-measure your waist once, same day next week, in the morning before breakfast at the top of the hipbones after a normal exhale. Don't weigh every day — daily weigh-ins track water and stress, not fat.
Honest limits: I won't give a daily calorie number, a target weight, or a kg/week rate. If the coworker keeps pushing, the next conversation is with your family doctor — not a shake plan.