Is anyone dieting? I’ve gradually lost about 17-18 pounds over the last year and a half of training but I’m still 20 pounds over my racing weight from 25 years ago. I’m 53. I’m not delusional that I’ll hit my 28 year old weight in short order or ever. I’ve changed my diet inch by inch over the last 10 years towards more healthy, whole foods.
I hate dieting and being hungry! I’ve resisted actually dieting and tracking. Last year I decided to get ultra serious about the cycling and I’ve gotten impatient with my slow trickle of weight loss though 18 pounds is great and I’m looking pretty lean for my age. But still not race weight!
I weighed in at 193 pounds the other day. (6 ft tall)
Last week I decided that during the base miles phase of my season I was going to put the pedal to the metal so to speak. I got out my old Lose It! to count calories. It also links to Strava and the Apple watch and gives me bonuses for exercise.
I’ve been doing it for 5 days now. I have to say that it isn’t as hard as I thought. I’m mostly eating exactly the same as I did before but I’m more aware. It’s forcing me to cool it on super high calorie stuff and snacks or cool it on calories in general on a rest day. The biggest difference is that I come to the next meal extra hungry.
I’ve doing a few hacks on top of my already healthy diet.
Getting at least 4 doses of 20 grams of protein or more per day to maintain muscle. (I’ve been hitting about 150 grams on average.)
After tracking for 5 days I was eating about 300 grams of carb per day. I’m trying to cut fat a little bit and get to 400 grams per day to support workouts.
Allow a refeed every 7-10 days or so - meaning eat the full calorie budget and not be in deficit.
These three hacks are from the ClimbSci podcast. They are sports nutritionist who do a “climbing” podcast which has little to do with climbing and is very general sports nutrition focused.
I’m also doing 10-15 hours of riding, mostly in Z2 (or Seiler Z1). I’m doing a polarized base and my theory is that most of the riding will be in the optimum fat burning zone. I figure I might as well take advantage of it. I think it makes sense. Eat a bit less dietary fat, eat a few more carbs, and burn a pound of fat or more per week on the bike.
My goal is to lose 10-12 pounds over the next 12 weeks. I think it’s achievable and I wouldn’t be surprised if I lost more. That would put me in the low 180s which I haven’t been since college. I actually ended the racing career in my 20s at 180lbs which was 5 pounds more than where I wanted to be at the time. 175lbs is ultimate goal weight.
I put the pedal to the metal on around November 10 and starting tracking calories. I’m down about 25 lbs since then, and have 10 to go. I have been on a 500 calorie deficit since then. I just make sure I hit my body weight in lbs in protein and don’t worry about carbs or fat. I eat one big, fatty, gross meal once every weekend to keep my sanity. My biggest thing that has helped me stay off the sweets has been zero calorie diet root beer once a day, and I wasn’t even a pop drinker before, but these help keep me from eating a high calorie food snack.
Impressive losses! I’ve set my app to give me a calorie budget to lose just 1/2 pound per week. I’ve tried 1 pound per week in the past and I hate going around hungry all the time. I’m also under budget by a tiny bit every day.
Plus I don’t want my training to suffer. I’m trying to take it to the next level this spring and lose some of the weight at the same time.
I’m actually flying right now and I don’t know why I have some January fitness. I just got a Strava top 6 on a 9 minute gravel climb segment. For a 53 year old, slightly overweight non-climber this feels like a huge achievement!
Ive lost 67 pounds the last year. Was super easy at first, but I’ve been sitting at 175 pounds for a month or so now. Would like to get to 165 but it no rush at this point. I think im still losing some fat as im getting more vascularity, just not losing on the scale. Fun seeing abs for the first time!
I am trying to work my way down to 190 and stay there (which is the challenge!!). I’m in no rush and will get there in a few months at my current pace. Got down to 193 last spring (from a high of 235 Nov. 2018), but did not stay under 200 and crept back up and over. The last 5-6 weeks I’ve been pretty good at staying 300-500 calorie deficit daily and seen some weight come off in addition to body composition changes. Starting to amp up my hours on the trainer which helps a bit as well.
I think I’m going to refeed today. I over cooked it yesterday and ended the day with a 1000 calorie deficit after a 60 mile / 1800 calorie ride. I even ate a 1000 calorie dinner and was too full to even want dessert. The 1000 calorie deficit left me feeling wasted with sore legs and the 60 mile ride even wasn’t that hard.
I lost 10Kg (22lbs) going vegan 2 years ago, then kinda stagnated around 73Kg, could never shift the final 4-5Kgs I need to lose, now giving Keto a go after ballooning up to 76Kg over xmas / new years… back down to 73Kg now after 2 weeks, will be interesting to see what happens next!
I’m still transitioning to keto, so having some carbs each day to make it easier to switch, taking electrolyte replacement every day as previously when I went lower carb my electrolyte balance went crazy with all the lost water and I was cramping REALLY quickly into trainer rides
I’m only looking at doing it as a short term thing to lose the weight, figure I can lose a bit of training benefit for more to payoff later
I am interested in doing long rides though which being fat adapted would be helpful for, it’s probably not so great for the upcoming CX season here though, but I’ve heard of people doing a hybrid thing where they bounce in and out of ketosis depending on the needs of the day or event.
Ive done it all wrong the past year. Starved myself. Been in Carb deficit for weeks. The problem was I had next to no glucose and hit that wall fairly soon into a race. I wasn’t shifting any real weight either. I was eating well, eggs and chicken. Over portion though.
Now I’m eating carbs, good carbs. Lots of veggies 2 serves per day. I make a veggie slice only has eggs and veggies in it. Allow myself to eat a cup of Black rice or mix grains. I look at food and ask myself will that help my w/kg and fuel me. I’ve since lost my love handles and 2” from my waist.
Where i have a scar from spinal surgery I can’t lose a pocket of fat which is annoying and visually looks like I’m fat.
My energy levels are up, my training is better. I believe my racing will be better.
My goal is 80kg which would give me 4.4w/kg
There’s psychological aspects that people don’t really talk about, having a restrictive eating regiment makes it easier to stay disciplined for me, I think you’re looking for an argument where one doesn’t exist.
But we should also note, the old adage of calories in vs calories out is outdated and doesn’t apply to many people, so you need to find ways of eating that work for you, be your own experiment, hence why I’m trying keto now
Now you’re just stating stuff that is absolutely 100% false. Calories in vs calories out has always been, currently is, and will always be the only way to lose weight. Period, dot, end of discussion. This is of those few things the scientific world 100% agrees on. Keto, veganism, Paleo, carnivore, weight watchers are all fine TOOLS to use that may help, but at the end of the day they all only work if you are in a deficit.
Let’s not ruin this topic I started with a “calories in, calories out” debate.
I’ll say this. I believe in calories in, calories out but the bottom line is what you eat and how it affects your hunger. Low carb often works for people because they feel more satiated on say 2000 calories per day of protein, fat and few carbs. If you eat 2000 calories per day of cake, it spikes your hunger signals and you want to eat more, more, more and you feel like you are starving all the time.
That said, I think what I’ve latched on to is really working well for me. They often say that you cannot exercise away fat but I think I can. Afterall, I’m a cyclist riding 10+ hours per week with much of it in the fat burning zone. Say, hypothetically I’m burning 7000 calories per week riding and 3500 of those calories are from fat stores. I’m also running a daily calorie deficit of 300-400 calories. I figure I should keep the fat off that I’m burning on the bike.
I’m actually trying to eat more whole food carbs to fuel the training correctly. I’ve been tracking macros and I seem to naturally fall into 1/3 carb, 1/3 fat, and 1/3 protein. I’ve been trying to tweek that to a little less fat and more carbs.
