It's all about the diet stupid

The title says it all, it's really all about the diet. I would say that if you are trying to lose weight that exercise accounts for about as little as 5% of the success of weight loss alone. I figured this out because while training for my half Ironman I exercised about 3 hours a day and never really did lose any weight. Some folks said "well, you put on muscle". This is untrue. I never lost any fat and never really put on muscle. I just stayed where I was at even though I am positive I ran a calorie deficit during that time.

I was just eating the wrong things. Turns out that last statement is a statement of fact. Even though mathematically I was running a calorie deficit I was not losing weight. The only thing that is possible is that the foods that I was eating were bad for me in some way.

After experiencing the weight gain that I did over the holidays and experiencing the small amount of success by cutting calories I decided to change my diet a little. I started out on January 1st and didn't eat anything but vegetables and lean meat. I figured this has got to be good for you and I should drop some weight. After I got over the head aches and general malaise that comes alone with the abrupt diet change I experienced, this seemed to be going OK.

Then I went offshore. I went offshore to an oil platform for roughly 3 weeks. While there I was able (luckily) to consume nothing but lean meat, vegetables and the occasional baked potato. During this time I ate all that I wanted and never once left the table unsatisfied.

Once I got home I weighed. I had lost a half of a pound a day for every day since the first of the year. Due to the fact that my days were really long I didn't get to exercise at all.

I did all of this without exercise and diet alone. I was a bit perplexed. On day 50 I weighed again and found out I had lost 24.4 pounds, just shy of 1/2 a pound a day. All of this was done on basically no exercise while eating all that I wanted.

Turns out what I wanted now wasn't what I wanted before. By saying that I mean that my hunger had decreased to a level that wasn't anything like I had been used to. I just didn't get hungry like I did before. I didn't crave anything and ate just what I needed at the time and nothing more. This has been consistant througout the 53 days.

My cravings are gone. I can look at a cake or ice cream or any of that without the slightest desire at all.

This has been an interesting 53 days. I start back exercising this afternoon and I will keep y'all updated on the progress.

PICTURES TO COME SOON!