Today's trivia question: how fast can I lose it?

Answer ... in my experience, women can expect to lose 0.5 - 1.0 percent and men 0.5 - 1.5 percent of their bodyweight in fat each week.

So, for a 300 pound male, that would be anywhere from 1.5 to 6 pounds per week.

Big range, isn't it? Yes, but there is also a large number of factors that come into play. Some people are more focused. Some people have better genetics. Others have less stress in their lives, some sleep more or less ... all of these factors combine to create the final result.

Yesterday, we headed downtown for dinner. I enjoyed a sirloin steak. We went to the beach, but there was a problem. The red tide is still there. We turned it into a scientific field trip. My daughter and I walked the shore and identified eels, sea snakes, crabs, blow fish, regular fish, even small sharks. Come to think of it, is was a very devastating scene. If I had my camera, I would have taken a picture for you ... the fish were literally piled up in two solid lines: one at the high tide mark, and one at the edge of where the tide was at.

I don't recall ever seeing so many dead animals from a red tide before, and the locals I spoke with agreed. So, my wife and daughter are playing it safe and swimming in the neighbor's pool instead today.

I still have a 5-mile run and arm workout ahead of me. I'm doing arms first, because I missed them last week.

Speaking of missing something, our first news excerpt is about a man "missing" 58 pounds. That's over 200,000 calories, and nothing to scoff at!

What's more fun than losing 58 pounds? How about losing 58 pounds and raising money for the American Cancer Society? Even Steve Day had his share of plateaus, going for six weeks without dropping a pound during his fund-raiser.

I am a chocolate lover. Oh, and did I mention that I love chocolate? Now, I'm not of the opinion chocolate is as horrible as some make it out to be. I stick will all natural and prefer organic, with just a few ingredients like cocoa, cocoa butter, and sugar. I have successfully cut 35 pounds over a 12-week period while enjoying the occassional piece of chocolate. Thank goodness you now can satisfy your chocolate craving and still lose weight.

The market for magic fat-loss bullets and pills is still going strong. Of course, now people are expressing concerns over ephedra-free fat burners. Here's the kicker, in my opinion. ANYTHING in excess is bad. People die from eating peanuts, so there's no doubt certain herbs are going to cause issues. Even coffee can be problematic. So, while I don't believe in using magic bullets to achieve your results, I also will be watching the news about ephedra-free weight loss products with interest. After all, who knows where the line will be moved to include something I believe everyone can benefit from, such as multivitamins.

We can't forget that often issues with being overweight have to do with a distorted self image. It can just as easily swing the other way: instead of putting on fat, some people have a dangerous extreme fear of fat.

The story of the fat man walking has made its way to Hong Kong (although he won't be walking there anytime soon). CONGRATULATIONS. What an exciting story to share with the world!

Here's a program about building muscle ... but not the way you think. It helps children with conditions ranging from spina bifida to autism improve through a special form of physical therapy.

Speaking of children, "obesity figures continue to gain weight." We are close to having 40% of our children in Europe and the United States classified as obese. That's 2 out of 5.

So we've blamed sodas, fast food, and inactivity. Now, this article pins the blame of obesity on fructose as a sweetener. Please don't get this confused with fructose that occurs naturally in fruits. Remember, too, that this experiment was conducted with mice. Mice aren't humans.

I really should get a big map and start putting pins everytime a new area comes up with a local program to target obesity. This one comes from Cedar Rapids, the place I'll fly into in a few weeks to train a client nearby.

Across the big pond from where I am writing this, in the UK, overweight people will be referred to "slimming clubs" by their doctors according to this article. That's catchy. Slimming club. Nine iron? Five iron? Slimming club?

Now that school is starting, we can refer to the Texarkana Gazette for after school snacks that count with good nutrition.

Children in Nanuvet, Canada apparently aren't getting enough Vitamin D. We have a chewable product that my daughter loves, and it's just $12 US for a month's supply (14.50 CA$ up north, 22.50 AU$ in Australia, or 9.66 pounds in the UK). For more information on that, just click here (US), click here (Canada), click here (UK), or click here (Australia). You can order from here or give me a buzz.