Ryan Lochte Says He’s Lost 21 Pounds Since US National Title in August

American swimmer Ryan Lochte claims to have lost 21 pounds since his win in the 200 IM at the US National Championships 2 months ago in an Instagram post.

In the post, Lochte shared “before and after” photographs, with the first being at US Nationals, where he won the 200 IM in his first major competition back from suspension, the latter being labeled as October, 2019. The photo on the left is labeled as 217 pounds, while the photo on the right is labeled at 196 pounds. 196 pounds is similar to the weight at which he’s raced for most of his elite swimming career.

While not labeled as an advertisement, the post does appear to be a paid promotional post for a fitness tracking app.

Lochte returned at the US National Championships after serving a 14 months suspension for an anti-doping rules violation. That suspension resulted from an Instagram post as well – he posted a photo of he and his wife receiving an intravenous infusion of vitamins and fluids which are not banned, but the method by which he received them is. The reason for the ban on the method is primarily driven by the possibility of diluting any banned substances from appearing in an anti-doping control test.

At US Nationals, he swam 4 events, the best result of which came in the 200 IM where he swam 1:57.76 to win the US National title. That ranked him 12th overall in the world last season. He also swam 1:50.25 in the 200 free, 55.08 in the 100 back, and 53.25 in the 100 fly. He was the 4th-ranked American in the 2018-2019 season in the 200 IM, behind Chase Kalisz, Michael Andrew, and Abrahm Devine.

The 35-year old Lochte is a 12-time Olympic medalist, including 6 gold medals. At his last Olympic Games in Rio, he won gold as part of the American men’s 800 free relay, but missed the podium in his only individual event, the 200 IM, where he was 5th in 1:57.47 (only a little faster than he was at US Nationals). Since Rio, he has served 2 suspensions, including one for what he called “over-exaggerating” an incident in a Rio gas station, which has limited the amount of racing he’s done since.