During the past year I've lost about 45 lbs or so, and it has come to the point now where two of my female friends wants me to help them with a plan to lose some weight. Believe me when I say that they are extremely gorgeous as they are, and I've told them that, but they still insist.

What I wanted to know is if there's anything I should take into consideration, because they're female, when putting up a plan, other than that they probably won't be able to cut on my 3,000+ kcals diet. I'm basically going to use the Harris Bennedict formula to find where I should put them with regards to their diets, and then just have them do regular exercising, nothing too hard. They are both quite active (or so they say), so I don't think I need to go too hard on that aspect.

Any advice or good threads to read are appreciated.

I do the same cutting program as the 'guys' just with fewer calories - 6 small meals a day, 40-40-20 ratio.

If it were me, I'd start em slow. It took me a while to get used to eating protein shakes, cottage cheese pancakes, etc. :) I started out just changing from my normal diet to replacing lunch and dinner with frozen diet dinners. Yep, it's bad, but it worked to get me used to smaller portion sizes. I slowly worked my way into making my own food and actually looking forward to Oats and whey for dinner. :P

However, if they don't really need to lose anything, maybe they just need a workout program and their current eating plan is OK? You could just advise them to cut out sugars and 'bad carbs' and work from there. Add healthy fats as well.

As for workouts, same as the guys, just you'll probably have to start lighter. I couldn't even do a single 'knees off the floor' pushup when I started.

I started with 1500 calories and lost most of my 43 pounds that way, but in hindsight I started too low. If I were doing it all again, I'd start with 1800 calories or so, then move down as needed. Of course, this is supposing they aren't 6' tall - this is for someone who is 5'4 and was previously 168 pounds. :)

Thanks featherz, you bring up excellent suggestions. I have already started one of them by telling her that the goal for this week is to take a 30 minute walk every morning before breakfast. As far as I know, she has been. She seems to be quite hardcore about it, and will probably follow any plan I put her up to to the letter. In the past she has been running quite a bit, so excercise for her is no problem, she just wants someone to tell her what to eat to lose a little (that's where I come in basically). I'm going to start her off on a small calorie deficit, about 2-300 kcals or so, just to see how she'll respond to that. If she can drop weight (fat) on that, I won't tell her to go lower.

The other friend basically just wants to learn how to eat better I think, I don't think she expects me to write a full diet or anything. I am probably going to, if she wants me to, but I doubt it.

I will try to use as much ordinary food as possible, I don't really think any of them wants to be drinking protein shakes or such, but who knows?

Again, thanks for the reply. I'll probably post the results of this when I get the chance. No pictures, but I'll tell you the story (and quit my job if it's a success, going into the fitness business full time, like John).