Who knew one week of dieting could have truly dramatic results?
So, in the first week, a little over six pounds had melted right off. I started off at a little over 210, and was now hovering between 203 and 204, just one week later. And, if my body fat scale was to be believed, I’d dropped a half percent in body fat, from 18% down to 17.5% in that one week.
Just what might that look like? I mean, if I’m starting off at 210 pounds, six pounds isn’t even fully 3% of that. Would it really make that much of a difference appearance-wise?
Well, judging by my gymmate’s reaction (i.e., the guy who’s been suffering through taking photos of my spectacularly NOT superheroically-built body), clearly, there’d been a bit of a huge change! His eyes just popped. Apparently, the abs changed the most.
(Incidentally, the guy’s a good sport – his name is Mathieu, and I must give my thanks 🙂 )
I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant (because I hadn’t noticed any real difference yet). Then I compared the pics from Day 1 vs. those from Day 8. Holy hell. He was right.
Here’s what I looked like on Day 1 (my face is blurred – I’ll reveal it when I’ve met my 30 pound goal):
You can definitely see that, while I’m big, I’m not lean. There’s also nary a hint of abs.
Now look at Day 8:
ONE. WEEK.
Lordy. This diet was working.
Just so that you can all get a better look, here’s the side by side comparison:
To summarize: Measurements on Day 8: 203.5 pounds, 17.5% body fat.
So, what happened?
I mean, besides the obvious?
I hadn’t upped my exercise – still doing six days of workouts a week. That hadn’t changed since mid-December. And while there had been some clear body changes, there had been NOTHING this dramatic. Certainly not within a week. How did a change in diet cause this degree of body transformation?
Well, the nutritionist/gym trainer who gave me this meal plan summed it up very, very neatly:
“You can’t outtrain a bad diet.”
Point. TAKEN.
Apparently, my former portion sizes were double what they needed to be. Also, my sugar intake, even with it predominantly coming from fruits (like up to 10 per day), was like about six times what it should have been.
Now that I was eating the way I was supposed to as well as what I was supposed to, my body was happily purging all the garbage in my system that I’d been accumulating and digesting what it needed to be both healthy and fit.
So, of course, that leaves me with two terrible and permanent conundrums if I were to continue with this lifestyle:
- The sensation of starvation was going to be here to stay.
- There will be a permanent reduction in sugar consumption.
Yay…
Still and all, there’s no arguing with results. I can take solace in that, right?
Well, I better. Can’t really turn to vast quantities of chocolate for comfort anymore, now can I?
Sigh. Onward. Upwards.
And hungry.
But onward!
Hungry Hungry Henry 