My story: I've always been slightly big and active most of my life. I like to eat too much. My only times losing weight involve lots of fitness, specifically swimming: water polo in high school, half ironman triathlon training during my first diet bet two years ago where I won every round. I'm 33, male, 6', 235ish pounds and have about 22% body fat.
My goal during this diet bet is to slim down to <15% body fat, maintain as close to all of my lean mass as I can as I train for my third triathlon, an Olympic/International distance (.93 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run). Race day is June 4th and my goal is a finish time of 2 hours, 45 minutes. My previous two triathlons were two years ago (2015), an Olympic (3:08) and a half ironman (6:23).
Before triathlon I played multiple sports growing up: baseball, soccer, golf, water polo, and running. I completed two half marathons in 2012 (2:20) and 2014 (1:57), but found I didn't lose much weight during my training. I plan to cover why I didn't lose weight in another blog post (I trained too fast, heartrate too high). I also ran a marathon in Dec 2015 (4:16), 5 months after my big triathlon. Training did not go well for this event and it showed after mile 17.
After the marathon (and holiday gluttony), 2016 was a year of lifting weights. I focused on the big three powerlifts: deadlift, squat, and bench and got my 1-rep maxes up to 375, 265, and 195 pounds. I gained at least 12 pounds of lean muscle mass, but also gained fat.
The yo-yo: at the start of 2015 I weighed 226 pounds and had a 38.5" waist. At the end of my first Diet Bet, right after my half ironman triathlon, I weighed 198 and had a 35" waist. Starting 2016, I was 210, 36" waist. Now I'm 235, 37.5". If I hit my body fat % goal (<15%), I should weigh about 209 and have a 35" waist. Money's on the line, so time to make it happen.
Note, I have absorbed lots of informatin on fitness and nutrition and plan to dispense that knowledge here for the benefit of others, including my experience with it. Next up, the different fitness plans that I have been following and what I plan to do over the next 20 weeks as I prepare for a triathlon again. Dust off that bike!