Last year I trained for and ran ultra marathons on trails — the kind of thing where you run really far and everyone claps but secretly wonders what childhood trauma made you do that. I did lose 20 pounds and you’d think burning that many calories would make me shredded, but apparently my body missed the memo and decided to store every carb like a doomsday prepper. Damn, skinny fat-ish.
So here I am: 6’2”, 199 lbs, 54 YO, and somehow shaped less like an ultra runner and more like a guy who carbo-loaded for a race that never started. My goal is to drop 20 lbs of fat, and hopefully end up looking like I actually lift weights instead of looking like I just jogged here from a pancake breakfast.
The plan:
Diet: Velocity Diet (aka “shake it ‘til you make it”)
Training: Dan John’s Armor Building Formula (because if anyone can make you both stronger and more humble, it’s Dan John)
Very little running, mostly walking after lifting, possibly very slow periods of light jogging during the walk to keep my heart rate in zone 2.
Day 1 started today, and my blender is already giving me side-eye. Wish me luck — or better yet, wish my family luck, because I’m about to become that guy who won’t shut up about fish oil capsules and kettlebell presses.
I’m following because I like your writing style. With that being said, I’ve done the v-diet twice, and would strongly suggest you stick to that workout plan.
Also props for doing an ultra marathon. That’s pretty cool.
Also in for the follow. Big fan of the Velocity Diet and Dan John/ABF.
Your experience with the ultras make sense. You were burning a lotta sugar. I’m sure you’re tracking how your new way forward is going to be awesome for fat oxidation. Dan is supposedly going to release a companion book that will include “Armor Building for Fat Loss”, but it sounds like you’ve pretty much got the handle on it.
I did the Goose Creek 50k in Washington, NC — where the real race was trying to walk back to my car without looking like a baby giraffe learning to stand.
Then I signed up for the Nutcracker 12-Hour Endurance Race in Dunn, NC, because apparently I hate myself. By the halfway mark I was convinced nothing about that event had anything to do with fitness. It was more like an organized suffering festival with free blisters.
Afterward, I didn’t feel like I’d “built mental toughness” — I felt like I’d made a series of terrible life choices, starting with buying running shoes in the first place.
So now I’m here on the Velocity Diet, hoping shakes and Dan John can teach me what ultras didn’t: how to actually look like I work out.
6:00 a.m. – Woke up and just laid there for a minute, stunned. I actually felt… good? Apparently 7.5 hours of sleep > the 5–6 I usually scrape together. Who knew Coach Dan was right about that whole “sleep matters” thing? (Don’t tell him I admitted it.)
Training – Knocked out 3 sets of 2,3,5,10 presses. Honestly expected to be destroyed after yesterday, but somehow not sore. Might have to move up to a heavier bell next round, unless this is just the calm before the DOMS storm.
Morning weigh-in – 198 lbs. Down a pound already. Either the Velocity Diet is magic or I sweat out an entire Nalgene bottle’s worth of fluid walking to the scale.
Food – Followed the plan pretty strictly. I did toss spinach and zucchini into a shake because my brain was whispering, “Fiber is a thing, right?” Midday shake was skipped (rookie mistake), and that’s when hunger came at me like a UFC fighter. Lesson learned.
Taste test – Metabolic Drive is actually legit. Shockingly delicious for something that looks like liquefied drywall mix. My blender and I are still on speaking terms… for now.
Having some coffee and then heading out to walk the dog. Thank you everyone for the encouragement, laughs, and following along with me!
The first time I did the diet, I was coming off a moderately high carb baseline (like I think you are) - delaying that first shake as long into the morning as was reasonably comfortable was really helpful for me. Once I started the daily shakes, I got really hungry; cramming them into a shorter window helped significantly.
Thank you for the tip! I was out on a hike this morning with my family, before lunch and it felt like not having carbs hit me. I wasn’t hungry but definitely felt gassed. Protein smoothie once home and I feel fine again. This is going to be an interesting journey switching from high carbs to high protein!
Weight: 198 lbs again. Blender magic seems to be holding steady.
Sleep: 8 hours and 10 minutes. My watch congratulated me like I’d just won an Olympic medal. Feels decadent. Honestly, at this point, sleep is the best supplement I’ve ever tried. Sorry, fish oil.
Activity: Walked and hiked just over 6 miles. Nothing epic, just moving around enough to feel like I’m still “an active guy” while secretly being thrilled I didn’t have to run 30 miles this weekend.
Highlight of the day: Dinner out with my wife, my newly-off-to-college daughter, and her roommate. I ordered “arroz con pollo y vegetables” and you’d think I’d just discovered the meaning of life. I was raving about it — “Amazing! Incredible! Best Mexican food of my life!” Meanwhile, my wife and the kids were staring at me like, “It’s rice, vegetables, and chicken, dude. Calm down.” Apparently, 24 hours of protein shakes turns a perfectly average meal into a Michelin-star event.
Takeaway: Velocity Diet isn’t just about fat loss. It’s about developing the kind of gratitude where zucchini in a blender feels like a treat and rice with chicken makes you weep with joy.
Morning weigh-in: 197.6 lbs. The scale keeps inching down, which means either the Velocity Diet is working or I’m slowly evaporating.
Food: Dinner was tasty but not exactly out of the “healthy choice” playbook. Let’s just say I was “eating what the natives eat.” Usually that’s clean, wholesome, nutritious stuff… but not yesterday. Yesterday the natives were apparently on vacation.
Activity: A day of church, hiking, and mobility work. In other words, I’ve officially joined the “Mobility is my cardio” club.
Training: First time of the Armor Building Complex — 5 rounds. Holy cow. I thought I was prepared, but my heart rate skyrocketed faster than my grocery bill when I was endurance training. Going heavier next time because why not accelerate the suffering?
Plan tweak: Originally thought I’d do a 2-week “shake out phase,” but I’m going to stretch it to 4 weeks for the full Velocity Diet run. The goal is to hit Dan John’s standards: a press that doesn’t embarrass me, and 30 rounds of ABC EMOM without looking like I’m reenacting a medical emergency.
Finisher: Closed out with 2 miles of heavy hands. My arms are writing angry letters to management as we speak.
Hunger: Manageable, but it’s there. Every once in a while I catch myself eyeing the dog food bag and thinking, “Kibble’s got protein, right?”
Morning weigh-in: 196.8 lbs. The blender is smug this morning. I can feel it.
Energy: Not gonna lie — had some seriously low-energy moments. Apparently “carbs whenever I want” was more than just a food strategy, it was my entire personality.
Close call: Thank the Lord my daughter didn’t start baking her chocolate chip muffins until after dinner. If she’d pulled them out of the oven mid-afternoon, this Velocity Diet log would’ve ended with me in a powdered sugar binge like Al Pacino in Scarface.
Dinner highlight: Brown rice and skinless teriyaki chicken thighs. Just 1 cup of rice and 3 thighs, but my brain thought it was Thanksgiving dinner. I was actually sitting there thinking, “Is this what joy tastes like?” My wife is still concerned.
Training aftermath: Shockingly not sore from yesterday’s Armor Building Complex.
Takeaway: The hunger is real, the cravings are sneaky, but when plain chicken and rice feels like the “best meal of my life” moment… yeah, this diet is definitely doing something.
Morning weigh-in: Holding steady. The scale didn’t budge.
Late-night ritual: Honestly loving the before-bed protein shake. Just knowing it’s coming makes it way easier to skip my usual “mindless snack parade.” Plus, it seems to help me sleep deeper. Downside? Let’s just say at 54, I was used to one midnight bathroom trip. Now it’s two… sometimes three. Pretty sure my watch thinks I’ve taken up night hiking.
Training anticipation: Feeling good this morning and actually excited it’s a workout day. Really jonesing for that running high so I may go on one tomorrow.
Recurring characters update:
Blender: Still dutifully churning away, but I swear it sighed last night before mixing my 4th shake.
Family: Still confused why I was so excited about chicken thighs and brown rice.
Me: Still convinced this is working, even if my scale has the poker face of a pro.
