1 year into commuting and I'm heavier than I've ever been

Paulie W

Greg T wrote:

Paulie W wrote:

1300? That cant be right?

I wish it wasn't.

Experience tells me that unless I'm sub 1,500 a day I'm dead flat.

Ouch!!

moonio

lost_in_thought wrote:

I've given up on weight - I measure myself instead to see if I've lost size, and try to assess myself sanely despite the lunar fluctuations!

OMG I so get those lunar fluctuations!
Its so soul destroying when you've been working hard and nearly getting killed on the roads every day, plus watching what you eat, only to find that once a month for a week you can feel that all the effort was a waste.

Greg T

Paulie W wrote:

Ouch!!

So today

0830 Carb energy drink 250 Cals
0900 Egg Sandwich 300 cals
1200 Carrot and Coriander soup 300 Cals
1230 Fat Free Yogurt 100 cals
1900 Chicken Wrap 400 Cals

= 1,350 Cals.

I'm on a mission to brake below the 86 Kg barrier this week and get my body fat % below 20% (this is proving very hard to move)

prawny

Greg T wrote:

Paulie W wrote:

1300? That cant be right?

I wish it wasn't.

Experience tells me that unless I'm sub 1,500 a day I'm dead flat.

That blows! No pizza hut for you!

How do you stay so chipper? :shock:

Greg T

prawny wrote:

How do you stay so chipper? :shock:

Wearing my wife's underwear and class A drugs

prawny

Greg T wrote:

prawny wrote:

How do you stay so chipper? :shock:

Wearing my wife's underwear and class A drugs

Traditionalist eh?

DonDaddyD

Ladies please! "Lunar fluctuations" TMI surely...

But guys thanks for all the advice.

Greg T

prawny wrote:

Traditionalist eh?

Old School.

prawny

Greg T wrote:

prawny wrote:

Traditionalist eh?

Old School.

Wow you're so old school you don't spell it skool, my cap is doffed.

lost_in_thought

Greg T wrote:

Paulie W wrote:

Ouch!!

So today

0830 Carb energy drink 250 Cals
0900 Egg Sandwich 300 cals
1200 Carrot and Coriander soup 300 Cals
1230 Fat Free Yogurt 100 cals
1900 Chicken Wrap 400 Cals

= 1,350 Cals.

I'm on a mission to brake below the 86 Kg barrier this week and get my body fat % below 20% (this is proving very hard to move)

Now then, T, my good man...

I can see how, when you're eating the above, you shed pounds like Lehman Brothers.

However, you don't seem to be made of stone, so I can't see this restrictive diet continuing indefinitely.

Once it stops, will you remain at your weight? Or will there be some inflation?

greg66_tri_v2.0

DDD: two things you should bear in mind. Cycling is *the* most efficient means of getting yourself from A to B. Less than ideal if you want to burn as many calories as you can between A & B.

Second, the more you ride, chances are the more efficient you become a rider. Less charging to red lights, less putting yourself into the red zone. Sure, some of that may be down to increased fitness, but some of it will be down to simply riding smarter.

Headhuunter

Greg T wrote:

prawny wrote:

How do you stay so chipper? :shock:

Wearing my wife's underwear and class A drugs

Try speed, it speeds up the metabolism and maks you dance like a nutter...

Greg T

lost_in_thought wrote:

Once it stops, will you remain at your weight? Or will there be some inflation?

The price of freedom is constant vigilance.

It doesn't take much to push me into the weight gain zone, 250 grams a week is a kilo a month, six months later that's 6 kg and that's most of a stone.

You manage what you measure - I find that If I'm weighing in I'll keep on top of things if I trust myself I'll put it on.

Cutting out the wine mid week week makes a difference - two glasses of wine with your supper = Mars Bar.

greg66_tri_v2.0

There's also some piece of trivia I'm come across before, which I suspect is right.

Pre-adolescence, the number of fat cells in your body can vary. Post-adolescence, that number is fixed. From then on all you can do is make them bigger or smaller. So your long-term shape now is dictated in large part by your shape in your teens.

Life sucks.

Headhuunter

Greg66 wrote:

There's also some piece of trivia I'm come across before, which I suspect is right.

Pre-adolescence, the number of fat cells in your body can vary. Post-adolescence, that number is fixed. From then on all you can do is make them bigger or smaller. So your long-term shape now is dictated in large part by your shape in your teens.

Life sucks.

Unless you get lipo and get some of those cells vacuumed away!

Cafewanda

"traditional curvy Jamaican womans stylee"

@ Moonio, only for some. My mother and sister grabbed it and left none for me :roll:

As for the lunar fluctuations (great description LiT ) I swear they get stronger the older you get - or maybe it's just me :?

PinkPedal

It's not just you CW! I hate the dreaded lunar fluctuations.

DDD, I've always found in the past that the quickest way for me to lose weight 'on the scales' is to stop exercising and just diet. Which is no good for staying fit. I'm not sure that the difference can entirely be put down to the muscle v fat thing either as I notice a difference very quickly after starting/stopping exercise and there's no way I put up to a kg of muscle on that quickly :shock: !

Still trying to get my head around the weight exercise thing as it gets a bit disheartening when you watch what you eat, work out like a demon and then have gained weight So I've just bought a set of scales that measure body fat and muscle mass (no idea how accurately) to see how looking at that goes instead. Might be the way to go rather than just looking at the kgs?

PhilTheFish

I've put about a stone and a half on in the last 9 months. Waist size up from 32 to 34. Had to throw a fair few pairs of jeans and shorts out as I can't fit my thighs in them.

But I feel great. Just completed a Triathlon (only a sprint one) and am eating healthily (mostly!)

I'd much rather feel good than worry about what the scales say.

Prior to training for the triathlon I'd never done any sort of distance running. I can now run 6k relatively comfortably in about 35 minutes (on the road, not a treadmill). I can imagine if I did the running more regularly then you'd shed a bit of weight.

I must admit that the cycling does very little for me in terms of overall fitness. I hardly have time to warm up on my 8 mile each way commute. The swimming and running are definitely the way forward me thinks.

snailracer

Greg66 wrote:

DDD: two things you should bear in mind. Cycling is *the* most efficient means of getting yourself from A to B. Less than ideal if you want to burn as many calories as you can between A & B.

Second, the more you ride, chances are the more efficient you become a rider. Less charging to red lights, less putting yourself into the red zone. Sure, some of that may be down to increased fitness, but some of it will be down to simply riding smarter.

What you need are hills. And then, more hills. That way, DDD's present 105kg will work in his favour as energy-sapping ballast.

Rich158

I've found the only way to loose body fat and alter your fundamental shape is to get your calorie intake as low as possible and exercise hard.

I had a period of about two weeks earlier this year when I ate very little, and had a hard hilly 50 mile ride every morning. I made sure I had enough energy bars and drinks for the ride, but beyond that had a very low calorie diet. It completely transformed my body shape and shed about 10 pounds in the two weeks. It's not something I'd recomend however.

+1 to Greg66, I've heard about that research as well regarding fat cells, luckily I was skinny 9 stone runt at 19, although getting back down there is proving to be somewhat harder that going the other way.

jedster

Greg (T),

you seem to be well informed on this stuff but this:

Experience tells me that unless I'm sub 1,500 a day I'm dead flat.

seems a bit extreme.

A pound of fat is about 3500 kcals. This is the accumulated calorie deficit that is needed to lose a pound (0.45kg). A bloke of your age and weight will consume about 2000 calories just staying alive (i.e. being basically sedentary).
So eating 1500 cal a day should lose you a 0.45kg per week if you sit on your behind all week.

My cycle commute (a reasonably intense 20 miles, which is a bit shorter than yours I think) commute burns about 1000 kcal per day according to my HRM/cycle computer. If you do this 4 days a week, you should lose more like 1kg per week. That ignores any other excercise.

Speaking personally, I find that if I keep a strict food diary I always find that I was actually eating/drinking more than I thought I was. This normally explains why I'm not losing weight!

J

Clever Pun

DDD gym at lunchtime as well as cycling to work, it pushes your body that little bit harder and the 'excess' pounds will go, as oldgreg said you get more efficient at cycling and you can cope with more easier... keep pushing yourself

circuits class is your friend, you'll hate it but it'll push you harder than you will yourself

Go hard or sit at home with some pie feeling sorry for yourself

dilemna

DDD perhaps you could follow the Andy Roddick weight loss programme? When he signed up with coach Stefanky he was told straight away by Stefanky that he was too fat. So Roddick lost the weight and did the training, his endurance is now phenominal :shock: . Pity though his tennis is not quite good enough .

biondino

lost_in_thought wrote:

avoiding things like cheese and fatty meat like bacon, and picking fish over red meat

Mackerel?

dilemna

lost_in_thought wrote:

One thing I learned, DDD, is that although the cycling seems a lot of exercise, it doesn't give you the golden ticket to eat whatever you want. It's great, though, that you've cut out the really unhealthy stuff.

Although I dropped a lot of fat through the first year and a half of commuting, it's slowed down a lot over the latter 2 years, and I'm now really starting to watch my food intake in earnest... avoiding things like cheese and fatty meat like bacon, and picking fish over red meat, for example. I've also stopped snacking altogether, and am trying to eat my main meal at lunchtime, and considering 2 smaller meals at 11 and 3. I also try to eat dinner as early as possible and maybe go for a walk or a spin round the park after it.

I'm also taking up other sports to try and stop my body doing that increased efficiency thing, as well as putting in more distance rides over the weekend.

It seems that the fitter you get, the harder you have to work to shift the fat - I don't really consider the commute to be proper exercise, even if I really hammer it.

What's more I know that in my book weight is irrelevant compared to fat and shape.

There's not a lot wrong with this approach. Snack on a few nuts, fruit or bananas is all I would add and drink lots of water.

lost_in_thought

biondino wrote:

lost_in_thought wrote:

avoiding things like cheese and fatty meat like bacon, and picking fish over red meat

Mackerel?

Yes please!

However, although it's good fat it's quite fatty, so not TOO much...

DonDaddyD

I told my Dad 6ft 1'' (damn mother and her short genes) what was my weight and he said I am now officially the heaviest in the family

I been checking myself in the mirror. I don't look that bad. Though my core (torso) could do with some work).

I don't want to calorie count but I think I'm going to need to add more than a commute and the occasional weekend bike ride to my list of physical activities... Why a gym's so expensive the one in Wimbledon is like £75....

(I wonder if I can get a wii..... lol)

lost_in_thought

DonDaddyD wrote:

I told my Dad 6ft 1'' (damn mother and her short genes) what was my weight and he said I am now officially the heaviest in the family

I been checking myself in the mirror. I don't look that bad. Though my core (torso) could do with some work).

I don't want to calorie count but I think I'm going to need to add more than a commute and the occasional weekend bike ride to my list of physical activities... Why a gym's so expensive the one in Wimbledon is like £75....

(I wonder if I can get a wii..... lol)

You think that's expensive... I paid £83 a month for the one in my building, discounted from £140! Madness!

Turns out the outdoors is suitable for running

What I did was sign up to a rowing club, I'm loving it, and it's great fitness.

You could look into signing up to a club for another sport... they're usually a LOT cheaper than joining a gym.

Greg T

jedster wrote:

Greg (T),

you seem to be well informed on this stuff but this:

Experience tells me that unless I'm sub 1,500 a day I'm dead flat.

seems a bit extreme.

You don't need to tell me.

So let's say my Basal Metabolic Rate is 1,874 calss (let's say 1,900)

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

I cycle 30 miles a day, two hours and twenty minutes

This thread

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14907742

Suggests a 300 calorie an hour requirement at recovery rates so let's just go with that.

I cycle 2 hrs and 20 mins a day = 700 calories.

So I "need" 2,600 Cals a day to maintain my bodyweight.

If I want to lose 1lb of fat - as you say i need to save 3,500 cals in a week = 500 calories a day.

I should therefore need to be on or around 2,100 cals a day.

Just don't work for me. Either my BMR is lower than calculated or my "sneak calories" in smuggled biscuits is worth 500 calories a day. I'll agree that you always eat more than you admit to but 500 calories is a lot.

I find that unless I'm less than 1,500 a day I'm stable.

I even tried the "I'm in starvation mode - I must eat more to lose weight" deal. It's great! Didn't make me lose any fat though.

prawny

DDD get some cheapo weights for the house, I got some dumbells and did a bit of light jogging (3 miles max my knees are made of cheese) and went down from 16st to 13.5 stone in a few months. I'm 5'11 and have always been heavy, I was 11st when I was 11 years old.

Gyms are a rip off! Like other people I nick techniques off bodybulding websites for fat loss, they at least look like they know what they're talking about :shock: