You’ve probably arrived at this post because you’ve got a man in your life who is currently losing weight. The issue there is that the normal man-friendly gifts (Oh, hello craft beer selection! Nice to see you again sock subscription!) might not always be appropriate – do you know how many calories there are in a craft beer these days? And what if he’s an XXL sock now, but won’t be come September?
To help you out we’ve racked our brains for the ten best present ideas we’d want if we were losing weight.
1 – Clothes Vouchers
It’s a fact of losing weight that you start to look like you’re wearing a large sack. The issue is that this in itself starts to dent your confidence and so you can then fall back on old habits, such as eating too much. Pretty soon, those vast t-shirts start to feel a bit snug again. Vouchers for clothes shops gives us a motivation to lose weight and can also help if we’re wanting to update our wardrobe with some in-between pieces, such as a belt.
2 – A subscription to MAN v FAT Football
You knew we’d mention it, don’t act surprised. Yes, the UK’s best weight management scheme for men is all over the country and has helped men to shift more than 500,000lbs. Crazy, huh? You can buy a guy an entire season, or just give him the money to cover his first month. Either way, provided there’s a league nearby and he qualifies, you’ll have him back on the pitch in no time.
Game changer. Seriously.
3 – Water Bottle
Hunger pangs often turn out to be thirst pangs and if your man is a fan of coffee, it may well be that their hydration can use a little work. A really good quality water bottle is the sort of thing you might not buy for yourself, so it works doubly well as a gift. We like any bottle that has a lid that doesn’t spill and that keeps your water nice and cool. We quite like the Gym Keg as it’s beefy but carries well and doesn’t spill.
4 – A yoga mat
Men suck at stretching. We do. In part it’s because it still has the stigma of showing that you care a bit too much, after all – what’s wrong with just a few quad pulls and then launching yourself onto the pitch, right? The other thing is that for most men it’s really bloody painful. Sedentary jobs, lots of driving and occasional bursts of physical exercise mean that you could play a top C on our hamstrings. A decent yoga mat (ideally a thick one to protect our crocked knees and knackered ankles) is therefore more of an invitation to start behaving properly when it comes to post-exercise cool-downs.
5 – Foam roller
See 4. You can get a good foam roller which you can sit and roll on while watching TV, making that evening Netflix session extra useful.
6 – A soup maker
Soups are the salads of the colder seasons. Where you’d normally get your five-a-day by making a lunchtime salad, a soup does all that and looks good in a mug. Soup makers are brilliant for the simplicity of just throwing in some ingredients and some stock and letting it do its thing. 15 minutes later and you’ve got a great chunky, warming soup.
7 – Smart Watch
The heat has gone out of the smart watch industry a little in the last couple of years – largely because most people now have a device which tracks them strapped to their wrist. If your dieting man doesn’t have one though then spare them a thought. The simplest ones will look good, keep track of your steps and deliver notifications to and from your phone. The complex ones can calculate V02 and suggest running routes via GPS.
8 – Personal Training gift vouchers
If you think he needs a bit of guidance and motivation then vouchers for personal training can be just the thing to help keep him on track. It’s sensible to provide the vouchers and let him choose the trainer, simply because personality is a massive thing in a personal trainer. If he can’t find something to like about them then it’s not going to be as effective.
9 – Fitness Journal
You can get some great journals from Amazon, which suggest everything you need to do and give you plenty of space to track what you’re eating, drinking, doing and how you feel about it. There’s something inherently motivational about a blank journal that should see him hyped up until the middle pages at least.
10 – A subscription to a meal prep service
There are loads of healthy meal prep services out there now and many of them will provide meals in line with a particular way of eating – whether it’s vegan, keto or high fat/low calorie. Sometimes it can be nice to have a gift that lasts beyond the birthday week and keeps delivering healthy meals over the next couple of months.
That’s our suggestions – what about you? Any ideas for the perfect gift for the dieting man?
