I started painting houses with a buddy of mine a few months ago and went from very inactive (three years of mostly sitting in a car for 12 hrs/day and mostly seated/supine at home, which caused me to balloon up in weight) to literally not stopping for 7-9 hours a day. The first day I thought I was going to fucking die, it was such a shock to my system. I haven't changed my shit diet, nor have I lost ANY weight. I have gotten stronger though (hauling 5 gallon buckets of paint around in the sand and spraying/rolling will do that to you), but no weight loss. Now I'm changing my diet due to some BP issues and seriously wanting to lose weight.

The one thing I have noticed working outside (keep in mind we're talking 7-9 hours a day in moderate to full sun or inside a non-air conditioned house, very little shade, temps of 100+ and humid as Satan's asscrack) is the amount of water I drink has gone through the roof. Yesterday I drank roughly 260oz of liquid between 8am and 8pm, and I'd say 170oz of that was water; beer is a very rare thing for me (could count on one hand the number of times I drink in a year, typically) and I had three 12oz beers with my wings last night when I went out with my friend. Otherwise, a 40oz soda and 12oz soda with breakfast and lunch respectively (bad I know) were all I drank other than water, all day/night. I was still thirsty most of the day and had dark urine. I have regular bloodwork done due to being on TRT and everything comes back normal (doc runs the whole panel including glucose and other stuff and it's always normal). Typically 32oz or so per hour until 5-6pm, then slowed down because I was off work.

Am I really not drinking enough to hydrate myself, or do I need to correct some type of electrolyte/salt imbalance due to drinking so much water? I drank 32oz of Gatorade today and was not nearly as thirsty, nearly as often, and we did the same thing, in the same weather, on roughly the same size house as yesterday. I used to rarely sweat, even during exercise, but now I'm constantly wiping my face about every 15-20 minutes and it's running off my arms/legs.

I was looking at RecoverORS, primarily because they don't have many calories or carbohydrates in them. Oral I.V. would be better based on nutrition facts alone (I've never used either), but they are also $3 per packet roughly when the RecoverORS is a little over $1 a packet.


Would it be wise to use one a day to balance my system out if I'm drinking over a gallon of water alone daily and doing hard physical labor in extreme weather? My next issue is to figure out how my body went from doing nothing, to what basically equates to chain gang prison labor () without losing a fucking pound of weight...

Well bro, you cannot go wrong with the oral rehydration salts. They are military issues and carry an NSN. They come in single use packs and are sold commercially by Jianas Brothers Packing. They run under a buck apiece and are sold all over the Internet.

I usually just rely on a sports drink and some salty potato chips with lunch. And then continue pushing water the rest of the day.

That's the problem, cutting back empty calories. Potato chips/Gatorade aren't gonna work.

I have a hell of a time holding weight during the summer, long days and lots of sweaty work and I basically have to gorge myself just to keep from losing it.

Doesn't Gatorade have a zero cal option? Then just add some table salt to your lunch.

Must be nice, I'm at 330 and haven't lost an ounce and I've been doing this for 3 months now.

I bought this product, and it worked well Liquid IV additionally you can get pedialyte powder.

You just have to remember to drink regular, untainted water as well.

Lite salt. It is half K and half Na, the two things you might need most, and it is cheap. Don't overdo it!

I use these for cycling in the heat.

FYI - the less salt you consume, the lower the sodium concentration in your sweat and you will be hard pressed to ingest as much salt as you excrete.

Salt your food to taste and eat foods thta have higher amounts of electrolytes (bananas, potatoes, beet greens, etc) before you spend money on supplements.

Do you experience any symptoms of hyponatremia?

Headache, fatigue, not really confusion but more lack of ability to focus.

Could be anything though!

Vitalyte has been my goto rehydration drink for over a year now. It has helped my training and recovery tremendously.

Small company with excellent values. Available on Amazon as well. Orange is my fav.

http://www.vitalyte.com/

You are building up muscle.  It weighs more than fat per volume so you could stay about the same weight, and be shrinking still.

At some point the muscle and activity will catch up and you'll lose weight.  For now, don't worry about it, you'll have to buy new smaller clothes so that's an extra expense. 

Sounds like my life since I turned 30.

I can get really brain clouded on days when I sweat my ass off though.

Skratch  Labs mix is very good. Several flaps to choose from,  and much less sugar.