When you meet someone for the first time, there is a tendency to assume the person has always looked the way they look now. Hence, if you met Nitesh Divecha today, you might assume he’s always had the lean physique of an endurance athlete. But the Tanzanian-born airline pilot and software engineer, who is now 40 years old and living in Sterling Heights, Michigan, used to weigh more than 300 pounds!

A change in diet and exercise habits eventually led Nitesh to running and triathlon, which in turn led him to the 80/20 system. Having considered his physical transformation to be more or less complete but this point, he was blown away by his subsequent improvement. “I have tried many running training plans in the past,” he says, “and I was always fatigued and tired the next day and failed to execute the next training. When I got started with the 80/20 Running plan, I was happy and looking forward to my next workout. I was not fatigued or tired and I was ready for my next workout. I started with my LT at 10:00 min/mile and today my LT is at 7:32 min/mile. Numbers don’t lie!”

So far, Nitesh has had only one opportunity to compete as an 80/20 athlete, recording a half-marathon PB of 1:50:08. Next up is a pair of September Ironman 70.3’s, where those who meet Nitesh will probably assume he has always been a top-tier age-group athlete!