I’m a bit in the wilderness with training, after ten years trying to get faster, this is a bit of a thought experiment:
Jan-Jun I trained about 800kj a day on average, some of those would’ve been 2000kj some much less or 0. 8-10hrs per week 1h swim 7h bike 1h run. I gained weight.
The only thing that ever works for me is eliminating carbs and IF. Basically making food nothing but fuel. It’s the most boring diet ever. You quickly realize you would trade every steak you’ve ever eaten for a plate of pasta…but it works, for me. I know people hate that answer though!
I eliminated UPF’s about 2 months ago, and my ability to recover and do higher volume has gone up substantially. Edging close to single digit bodyfat, not even trying, which in my early 40’s is a nice surprise. Last week I did 18 hours, this week should finish out with 15. I’ve NEVER done an 18 hour week in my life (highest ever was 15), let alone be able to recover from that without issue. I’m going to attempt to do a 20 hour week on the next training block…
I’ve started down this path again, the goal every time is lose weight and maintain/gain fitness. Some stats from previous 10lb / 4.5kg drop in fall 2021 from beginning October to end of January:
cycling average of 9 hours/week which worked out to 4500kJ/week on an FTP 264-ish
rough training distribution: 75% low aerobic, 20% high aerobic, 5% high-intensity/vo2/HIIT
fueled work with ~450g/day carbs (= ~5g/kg) and 150-200g/day protein (= ~1.5-2g/kg), cut alcohol back to 2 beers/week
twice a week ez-strength sessions
Lost about 3lbs / 1.4kg a month for the first 3 months, total of 10 pounds / 4.5kg. Then maintained in January. Field test late January and FTP increased +10W into mid 270s.
This time around with 3x/week strength training, something like this:
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thur
Fri
Sat
Sun
Week
bike
1.5hrs intervals
2hrs endurance
2hrs intervals
-
1.5hrs intervals
2-4hrs endurance
-
~9 hours
strength
40min
-
40min
-
40min
-
-
2 hours
That type of program has worked well for me in the past.
Have no clue how I would structure with running and swimming.
If I switched focus purely to fat loss, what’s a good approach;
Keep training as is, change diet (not worked in years) - Do you like how your training is, or is it a drag at times and you wish you could change it up?
Homogenise training, so average daily effort is the same but no big days, no empty days - I don’t think this matters that much at all, I think your activities in aggregate over a period of time is what matters. I like the weekly unit.
Reduce total training to ‘maintenance’ level, reduce overall eating. - What is your eating like right now? Are you always in a deficit, or are you at maintenance? How to you keep track of what you are eating over time, if at all?
Just focus on diet, only ride bike when you feel like it. - Again, what do you feel like doing?
Or something else?
At the very end, what works for you has to be sustainable. If all you wanted to do was some exercise, including riding , but willing to change it up I’d advise the following. Make weight lifting your primary exercise, 3-5 times a week. Make cycling and walking your secondary exercise and stick to steady state work, at least initially. Get you macros set and stabilize your weight for at least a certain amount of time to the point where you are not hungry, but not gaining weight. It helps to get stable and that really means that hunger has be satiated. Once you’ve got all that done, start with a deficit and maintain your exercise. It will take time but it can be done.
Just my opinion based on my experience going from fit, to fat, to fit again.
Whenever I read your race reports and training updates it always reminds me of myself.
I have taken a step back this year and focused on #4 on the list. N=1 for my advise.
Training for IM over the last 15 years always helped keep me on the leaner side of being overweight. I could train a lot, and eat what I wanted. Somewhere in my later 40’s that stopped working. I raced frequently between 2020-2023 (6 70.3, 1 140.6) and the results where not what I was hoping, mostly due to my size. Both my bike and run times have been shit. It could be age, but I still feel good, so I am not blaming that yet. I had decent fitness but carrying 20 -25 pounds (10 - 13 KG) over my 2011-2013 race weight was clearly a problem.
2024 I have prioritized weight loss, nothing else real matters. I am going to retire from Tri if I continue to have the same results.
I have only swam a couple times this year. I raced some gravel this spring, I ride regularly but not well fueled or super long, if my fitness declines so be it. Pretty much zero running this year.
Been using the app Macro Factor since January, boosted my protein intake significantly, reduced my fat intake, generally meet my calorie and carb targets. Down 24 pounds (10.88 KG) year to date and I am going continue with this plan till Oct/Nov and decide if I am going to race in 2025. My goal is to start my next training block at or below my 2011-2013 race weight.
If your focus is truly fat loss then you need to sort your diet and eating habits. I firmly believe that you can’t outwork a bad diet, particularly as you age
There are countless viable dietary changes that can lead to weight loss, I’d focus first on finding which of those works best for you and making that a sustainable habit that you can maintain long term
Once you’ve done that, easier said than done, you can slowly but surely lose the weight
you say this was a performance focus, but from the 300W thread it appears to not have worked on the bike. What were you doing on the bike? What does “performance focus” mean to you?
A long time ago I rented a Silicon Valley room from a guy my same age. Brilliant guy, 2 engineering masters degrees at 21 years old. On the cover of Time Magazine during the dot-com boom.
What he always said - if “x” doesn’t work, do “1/x” (you need to be a math or engineering geek to appreciate that)
What that means - if your “performance focus” didn’t work, do the opposite.
This approach was covered on a classic Seinfeld episode:
Been using the app Macro Factor since January, boosted my protein intake significantly, reduced my fat intake, generally meet my calorie and carb targets. Down 24 pounds (10.88 KG) year to date and I am going continue with this plan till Oct/Nov and decide if I am going to race in 2025
That’s awesome! I use MacroFactor too. I’ve tried to lose weight in the past using non-calorie counting methods like eating more calorie-dense foods, staying slightly hungry, eliminating certain foods, etc. But for me anyway, I need to count the calories or I don’t progress.
Did you not lose weight? Performance dropped too much? Recovery too slow?
If it were me, I’d first track my food for a couple weeks to make sure I’ve got a good baseline. From there, do the smallest deficit that is necessary for steady weight loss (probably like 200-300cal/day). Limit the number of high intensity interval sessions to 1 (maybe 2) per week. Then just weight myself daily and track all my food and calorie burn.
Weight loss becomes more impactful the lower your body fat goes, so at 38.8% you should be able to lose weight while not impacting your recovery too much.
But it takes calorie tracking. Very very few people can sustainably lose weight but just intuitively changing their diet. It takes tracking.
I can say the same when fueling with 5g/kg of carbs and doing some solid training. My wife has used the step-on-the-scale-everyday method her entire adult life and never counted calories. She divides up the plate into protein and veggies and starchy carbs. It’s pretty simple once somebody shows you how to do it.
For example:
I only count calories about once a year, for a week or two, in order to calibrate my brain on portion sizes.
I’ve shed more than 50 pounds from my heaviest weight and the only macro I’ve ever tracked was protein and that was just to make sure I was getting enough. Almost entirely eliminating processed foods is what worked for me. It is very hard to overeat whole foods – I have to consciously make sure I’m eating enough so that I don’t lose more weight.
Agree that a bad diet makes it more challenging, but my body comp is always at it’s best when my training is at it’s peak. And my diet is pretty consistent (not terrible, but certainly has room for improvement). At some point, it’s just hard to keep up with the calories you are burning. The other thing I see personally (n=1) is that I really don’t see the fat falling off until I introduce some intensity. For years, I figured “base” training was the time to be running a calorie deficit and get lean, but I never seemed to drop that much fat during base even when doing a lot of volume. And then during build when I’m doing more threshold and vo2max, the fat drops off even if overall volume/Kj’s aren’t increasing. And I feel like I’m fueling even better (more carbs) when doing intensity and certainly not starving myself in any way. It might be that I’m eating/sleeping a little better as my races get closer or maybe the intensity is doing something physiologically that is helping to cut fat, but it’s been that way for several years for me (and I’m in my mid 50’s). Part of me wants to think my body just knows that a race is coming and I need to be lean, but clearly there are some physiological levers being pulled.
I’m not saying you can’t drop fat by focusing primarily on diet and putting performance on the back burner. Of course you can. But my n=1 experience is that I drop fat most effectively when I’m primarily focused on performance/intensity and making sure I fuel my workouts. But I also do a lot of volume which clearly results in a calorie deficit when training hard. I didn’t see the same results when I was doing lower volume. I lack food discipline and it’s hard for me to be in a calorie deficit at under 12-15 hours a week of training (and I’m typically way over that when seriously training). Again, N=1 and all that.
anymore but I can just eat pure carnivore
