Q: Hi Mike. I'm a 55 y.o. male, wt. is 335, ht. is 75 ". I have severely arthritic knees, but do go to the gym to lift 4 days/wk. I do 8 sets with 60% 1rep max for each body part, with no more than 30 econds rest between sets, 8 reps each set. I try to do 30 min. on bike also, but this lifting routine gets my heartrate up to 135. i think my nutrition stinks though. i spend too much time in the drive-thru lane. I do go to Subway a lot tho. I really don't use any sat. fats, or eat refined carbs, but i do cheat too often. On the right track??

A: Great job on sticking with the program and doing what you can given your knee problems! Since your physical limitations are not in your control you should do everything possible to get your diet as good as possible since you really do have complete control over it. Drive-throughs and Subways should not be a regular feature of anybody's diet. I would count any bread, even whole-wheat, as a refined carb if you are tring to lose weight -- and you are almost certainly eating a lot of that from Subway. Its reputation as health food is severely overrated. Subway may be better than cheeseburgers but that's a pretty low bar to clear.

Take a look at my Nutrition article to see what kinds of carbs you ought to be eating: emphasis should be on old-fashioned oats for breakfast and lots and lots of (mostly green) veggies like spinach, broccoli, various lettuce, green beans, bell peppers, tomatoes and so on the rest of the day. Eat them with grilled chicken breast or salmon or tuna and make some homemade dressing based on vinegar and extra virgin olive oil for fats (just google for homemade olive oil dressing recipes). A very simple yet effective rule of thumb is to not buy anything in the store (or drive-through) that has more than 2 ingredients on the nutrition facts label. Buy natural whole foods and cook them yourself. It may not be as convenient, but it will be much healthier (and save money too). Hope that helps!