Hello all
Looking to loose some weight to improve my overall speed on the road. Im a heavy rider at 95kg and 6 foot 2. I wouldn’t mind being about 90kg as a new goal weight, my question is I’m currently training for a gran fondo using the plan builder which is probably going to be cancelled due to the current situation. Would I be better on a different plan focused more on weight loss than FTP building? Any advice would be great.
Spot on thanks for them I’ll have a read through them. Need to get use to the forum and how to find these posts.
You’re welcome. Just hit the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the screen (if you’re using a desktop PC). You’ll be amazed how many times some topics have been covered.
Okay great I’ll try that. nice to have an active forum to help out from time to time though. Thanks for the advice.
Here is my “Search” guide:
@JakHolden95 I got super lean by:
I currently need to practice what I preach as I’ve let some fat/weight add back on. The hard part for me was understanding I had to fuel the ride. So all ^^^ is off the bike. It was hard to be hungry all the time. But those 15 pound! Wow what an amazing difference. You can do it!
Regarding your first question…essentially what plan should you be on…
You need to decide what your #1 goal is. Is it to get faster, lose weight, or do both at the same time?
If the #1 goal is to lose weight, IMO, I would hop into a traditional base plan progression. This is much more conducive to weight loss. I noticed while doing this, you don’t have the same penalty for running a calorie deficit consistently, and the need for on bike fueling is not as great.
For what it’s worth…I’ve slowly cut nearly 15 pounds from my weight last year…much/most of it during TB1/2/3 at the end of 2019/beginning of 2020. It just gets harder to drop weight the more intensity you have. I think part of it is mental, also. You get through a 90 minute over-under workout…you just kinda crave some small reward for gutting it out. For me…this is a nice beer or glass of whiskey at night, and a late night snack. I really don’t want to thrash myself on the bike, and then go right back to an ultra strict diet. Much easier to just go on with your day after a couple hours of riding at 65%.
edit: Oh also - I should note, unexpectedly…I regained nearly all of the fitness I lost from my offseason during traditional base. I wouldn’t assume that TB would just tank your fitness.
The only solution that I have found that works long term is to eat healthier and healthier and healthier.
The question often is … what is healthier? To me that is:
Not eating out - restaurant and togo food is highly palatable, calorie dense, often nutritionally deficient. So if you eat out 10 times a week cut it back to 5 and then to 3…
Eating more fruits and vegetables - this covers a lot of bases.
Cutting out fiberless, high glycemic foods - sugar, soda, juice, white rice, etc. You might use this kind of stuff judiciously to fuel rides but tread carefully.
Cook at home from scratch - not out of a box or can. This is hard for lots of folks but it can be as simple as some meat, broccoli, sweet potato, & wild rice.
It’s pretty simple. If one does all of that, they will most likely lose a lot of weight.
Now, we do live in an obesigenic world so it’s really hard to resist convenience and bad foods. Quick, highly palatable foods are on every corner. They taste awesome. It’s like having legal drugs on every corner. It’s an uphill battle for some people.
I finally came to the realization that a “diet” doesn’t work. I always thought of a diet as a short term thing to lose 5, 10 or 20 pounds. Sure, you lose that weight but then you go off the diet and it starts coming back slowly. You really have to wrap your mind around changing the way you eat FOREVER going forward to achieve lasting change.
That’s all I got!
That forever part is important.
I dont think you necessarily need to have the same diet for losing weight that you have for maintaining weight…but you DO have to have a plan for the rest of your life (or term you dont want to let yourself go). Dropping 20 pounds, then just saying 'did it! Glad I can go back to pizza and wings now!" is just dumb…
Yes exactly. And it’s a slippery slope I’ve fallen down many times myself. It’s easy to say, I’ll just have pizza once a week and then it turns into twice or it turns into pizza plus wings on another night. And then one week it turns into pizza, beers, wings, and burgers.
One word: tapeworm.
Lose weight in the kitchen not on the bike.
Keep training towards whatever goal you had anyway. You can lose weight and still fuel intense workouts.
Approximate the amount of calories you burn a day doing nothing and subtract 250-500. This is your target calorie intake for the day. Don’t overshoot the base figure. Being a cyclist doesnt mean you have an active life if you sit at a desk for 8 hours a day. Exercise is different to lifestyle in this case.
Track you calories. Its a pain at first but you soon get used to it. Account for the calories burnt and so eat more on days you train but maintain the small deficit. If you use a power meter/HRM you should be able to see how many calories you’ve burnt. Even better garmin and myfitness pal talk to each other so you don’t need worry about calculating this.
Dont be mega strict, were in it for the long haul, but at the same time if you can be strict for the first couple of weeks that, along with tracking calories, will help to reinforce good habits/break bad ones.
Fuel workouts properly, drinks, gels etc, time meals appropriately.
Eat high quality foods.
Hello all, I’m also looking and loosing some weight. Currently I am around 87 kg and want to end up around 80-82 kg at 185cm. Already being very lean I am wondering if anyone has a good rate of weight loss with out sacrificing to much muscle. Thanks
In my experience, I lose weight when I cut out alcohol and treat carbs as jet fuel and ramp up intensity and volume.
Basically, use carbs as a training tool. Track your goal. Train very hard. Ride as much as you can. You’ll lose weight and gain power.
You’re “very lean” and want to lose weight? How?
As Phil Gaimon said in his book, Draft Animals, “I could cut off half my penis”.
Yeah, that’s true. Studies show that low-carb diets can result in weight loss and improved health markers - url. Some low-carb diets may have health benefits beyond weight loss, such as reducing risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome which was very important for me due to I have type 2 diabetes.
I am working on losing some BF now as well. I do not race so really have no events or anything. I use my road/gravel bike for endurance rides trying to keep my heart rate in zone 2 and then save my high intensity riding for my trail bike. I also due two strength days a week, nothing crazy and they do not require extra fuel when you time them right. One thing I have been trying to do is really eat most of my carbs for the day around my riding and on the bike depending on the duration. This really helps me fuel the rides and then recover. I also do not have huge cravings later in the day. I do struggle with how much I should be eating after riding though. It is so easy to overeat as a cyclist because most of the time we think we can just crush whatever and its either burnt or going to burn off. The reality that I am finding out is, I do not burn as much as I thought.
Well at the moment I’m down to 90kg from the original post date and I’ve changed what I eat for breakfast to some sort of slow release Meal and dinner is carbs and protein ready for the training on the night. Also just seem to skip the rubbish in between meals, like the time after dinner before going to bed was a real deal breaker for me regarding biscuits, chocolate, snacks etc etc. Cut them out made a massive difference.