One More Thread On Losing Weight.

The water thing is very legit because most people don't drink enough but instead drink diuretics that dehydrate the body. We're not talking gallons a day. I'm 230, and I need at least 64 ounces a day. The advice to drink when we are thirsty is sound wisdom, the problem is that in our society when people are thirsty they reach for poison in the form of soft drinks or energy drinks. Water also helps the stomach (therefore the brain) to stave off hunger cravings. People have actually died from drinking excessive amounts of water, but for most people, we don't get enough.

Brett you're not at my age yet.

I'll be 48 in a few months. It's not like I'm 16 years old. Age has nothing to do with any of this.

baby steps are better than no steps

No, they're really not. Walking on flat ground does absolutely zero for you. It helps you feel better mentally because you're convincing yourself it's helping, but in reality it does absolutely nothing whatsoever. Now walk up and down some hills so you're getting your heart rate up and now you're doing something! That's where it's at. If you're not getting your heart rate up you're doing no good whatsoever. Don't convince yourself otherwise.

I'm never going to run a 5k.

Why not? You could easily run a 5k. You could easily run a 10k for that matter. Heck, here's a quote from CBS about the oldest marathon runners:

Marathons are for young runners, right? Don't tell that to all the seniors who ran the forty-second annual New York City Marathon on Nov. 6. This year a whopping 88 runners age 75 or older set out to compete, including 78-year-old Ginette Bedard of New York City (shown here), who finished with a time of 04:33:42.

I can't even come close to running that kind of time yet and she's exactly 30 years older than me and I train 6 days a week.

• Never put limits on what you can accomplish
• Don't kid yourself into believing things that simply are not true
• Challenge yourself in a big way.

If people don't think your dreams are beyond hope then you're not dreaming big enough. When you tell someone what you're going to accomplish and they laugh out loud at you then you know you have a worthy dream to shoot for.

One of my favorite “superfoods” that I love to eat are sardines. I get the ones packed in natural juices, water or olive oil. Hard boiled eggs with sea salt or cinnamon sprinkled on them are another excellent snack. Stay away from grains. These do nothing good for you, just like the fiber myth Brett expounded on.

Gotta jump in here.....Weight control is a huge issues for many people. For me, the Army says I need to be around 180lbs....and I weight about 195. Yes I could use to loose a few pounds but its a challenge. I can't do the physical things that I would like due to injuries. But what I can do, and what I work on doing daily is 2 things. Limit my carb intake and limit my sugar intake. Just those 2 things can have a tremendous impact on your overall health. I am always surprised how much better I do, when my diet leans towards the "keto" end of the food spectrum. We all have to remember, diets don't work, changes in lifestyle do.

Personally i have to agree 1. that water is very important and 2. that baby steps are better than no steps.

Brett, you are certainly not the average 48 yr old. I dont know any that are out their scaling Mountains like you are. And that's awesome i admire that. You have said you are in the best shape of your life. And im going to guess that you have always been in great shape. Not too mention your diet is dialed in. Ive been in the gym for the past 10 years. Balance just like with diet is important with exercise as well. Ive seen a guy lose 100 pounds just from walking on the treadmill. He had shin splints so bad when he started he walked in tears. He was out of breath just sitting down. He has now lost enough weight to be able to play some basketball here and there and continues to lose more weight. Not everyone is going to have the same physical abilities. So in my view it is important to start out by crawl, walk, run.

1. that water is very important

Of course water is important. I'm just saying that drinking tons of extra water isn't going to do any good. Your body only needs what it needs and nothing beyond that will do any good. I've known people who think they're going to pound a ton of water all day and be healthier because they're too lazy to do anything that will actually help. I had a friend who was 60 pounds overweight, got zero exercise, and drank beer every night but during the day he pounded about a gallon of water because he read that drinking water was good for you and that was the most effort he was willing to make.

I think Bruce said he was told to drink 64 ounces a day, which is about half a gallon. That's perfectly fine and reasonable. Anything beyond what your body can use just gets tossed aside. You don't get any extra points for drinking extra water

baby steps are better than no steps

Doing something that isn't helping is not better than doing nothing. Walking around parking lots is only increasing your daily dosage of diesel fumes. So if by baby steps you mean walking on flat ground then I still say it's not better than doing nothing because it is doing nothing.

I've seen a guy lose 100 pounds just from walking on the treadmill

With all due respect he didn't lose an ounce walking on a treadmill. He lost weight because he changed his eating habits. Walking on flat ground burns maybe 75 - 100 calories an hour. Maybe. It's probably not even that. If you're doing that to be fit or to lose weight you're completely wasting your time.

If walking on flat ground was all we needed to do to be fit we'd all be fit. 60% of our society wouldn't be obese. If you're not elevating your heart rate you're not doing anything that's going to help your heart, your lungs, or your muscles at all because you're not straining any of those systems. If you don't strain anything then nothing will be forced to adapt. That's what exercise is - you're purposely straining your body so that it will repair itself better than it was before. If walking on flat ground made you better we'd all be Olympians.

Walk the hills. That will elevate your heart rate and then you're doing something worthwhile. They don't have to be super steep by any means. Just find some hilly country road and go for a walk. Build up some extra speed on the uphill to get that heart rate elevated.

Fitness and nutrition are like trucking - there's no faking it. You guys don't have to agree with me. You're free to believe what you like. Go pound a gallon of water, walk around the parking lot all day huffing diesel fumes, and tell each other how great you're doing if that's what makes you feel better. Kid yourselves all you like.

But like always I'm going to tell it like it is and share the information people need to know if they want to get better. I'm not going to lie to people or get their hopes up about some lazy ass ideas like pounding tons of water and walking around parking lots.

Either you care enough about your health to put in a little effort or you don't. That's a decision each of us has to make for ourselves. In the end the results will be there or they won't.

We all have to remember, diets don't work, changes in lifestyle do.

You can't "diet" for a while and then go back to eating the same as you did to become obese.

Walk the hills. That will elevate your heart rate and then you're doing something worthwhile.

Changing your lifestyle doesn't mean you have to go to the gym for regimented workouts. I park on the 5th floor in a garage. I take the steps instead of the elevator. There is a gym in our building. I'm on the 7th floor. I take the steps down and back from the gym.

Its all about calorie deficit. No matter what you eat. But eating junk and sugars can break down your lean muscle.

You need fluids but drinking too much water can, in fact, dilute your electrolytes and be counterproductive.

Again, when you burn more calories than you take in, you lose weight.

Ive done the low carb diet with alot of sucess but since i started training in my trainers truck ive drifted away unfortunately. Now that im in my own truck id like to start again but am worried about the way i feel when i first start the diet and wondering if i should wait for a hometime to go through that few day transition period.

Unfortunately there's just a ton of bad information out there that has really misled a lot of people. In fact, you'll find it at both ends of the spectrum.

On the one hand there are people who claim getting in shape simply means walking around the mall and drinking a lot of water.

At the other end of the spectrum you have a lot of people selling gym memberships, workout equipment, and video training programs that make it seem like you have to punish yourself brutally to get in shape.

The answer, as is normally the case, is somewhere in the middle. You certainly don't have to put yourself through long, gruelling workouts to be fit but you do have to put in enough effort to elevate your heart rate and use your muscles.

By the way, being thin doesn't mean you're in shape. It just means you're not fat. You could still have tons of toxins in your body, heart disease, weak lungs, and poor circulation. Being fit means you have good muscle tone, a healthy heart, and healthy lungs. I see people all the time who are thin but are clearly not fit or necessarily healthy at all. Eliminating extra fat is a huge step in the right direction but it's by no means the Holy Grail.