I guess like most, I could eat and drink what I liked with with gay abandon up to my mid-thirties, and even if I did gain weight, could shed it quite quickly. Roll on ten years, and it's not so blinkin' easy, is it? Due to being time rich/cash poor I began making homebrew at the beginning of the year, so was able to neck quite a lot of it without having to worry too much about hangovers. I pretty much stopped exercising at the same time, gaining a stone in three months (pushing me from 60 to 67kg) and it's become an absolute bugger to shift, and I was developing a little pot belly for the first time. The cycling helps (by cranking up the mileage so that each ride is further than the last - pushing my metabolism up post-ride - with the result that each 'hard' ride I do appears to remove a pound of blubber). But my attitude has always been 'ride to get fit and diet to lose weight', so I'm giving the IGF-1 reduction/heavily reduced calorie diet a whirl. 500kcals or less twice a week, and eat what I like on the other days, as demonstrated on Horizon the other day (haven't seen it yet mind, but have known about the diet for a while). TBH I'd love to get back down to a 'race weight' of 58Kg, but I suspect those days might be over. First target is 63Kg when my abdominal muscles reveal themselves once again. Problem is, I've still got a few gallons of homebrew tucked away!
I've noticed that 1Kg weight loss seems to equate to using 1 sprocket higher on the back for the same bit of road. (Either that, or I'm getting fitter!)
That's some mean weight loss, Citoyen. I think it shows that the self-denial you've demonstrated is not down to 'willpower', more like 'desirepower'. Do you want it Sir? Do you? Do you? Do you want it? Sort of thing
A lot has to do with vanity of course, and even just being a stone overweight, makes me feel old and sluggish (and correspondingly a bit depressed), so my 'driver' or motivation is to maintain a feeling of youthfulness.