4.5hrs, 1500 calories and 2min chunks

frenchfighter

I was reading an article in the Sunday Times 'ingear' supplement about Wiggins.

Some points of interest:

He was training 4.5hrs a day on average, half on the road and half on trainers over winter.

He breaks hard efforts into 2min chunks then resets the time:

On the track it is very intense and in short bursts, but on the road I tend to break it up into 2min block where I say to myself, 'Right if it is still hurting in 2mins then I will stop.' But after a minute of that, other riders will start dropping off, and that's when I stop the timer and start it again. 2 more minutes. And by the time you have got through all those 2min barriers there might be just five of you left - there's you and Armstrong, and you think, 'Ah well, here I am.' That's how I got through the Tour last time.

He is eating 1500 calories a day.

This last point I cannot understand. Does this sound feasible to people? It seems really low to me. 1500 is well below what a normal person would eat and still be able to stay lean, but how can an elite athlete doing 4.5hrs a day ear so little?!

Splottboy

That does look low. I remember someone doing a Basic Metabolic Rate on a guy who was a runner. Very lean, about late 30's and around 5ft.10ins /10.5 stones. His BMR was around 2,500, which the bod's said was very high.
Mine was about 2,000, but I'm much more muscular/smaller than he was.

So, doing 4.5hrs per day, on 1,500 seems difficult to maintain any power, but...perhaps this is why he was like a Bean Pole at the Tour?!

It seems he's running on a negative calorific intake, so would be losing mucle mass, but if he's taking in the necessary vitamins, protein, carbs and other nutrients, then it may work for him. Maybe the figures are wrong???
I wouldn't recommend it for the average rider tho...

pottssteve

1500? :shock: That's got to be a misprint! More like 15,000 if he's training hard. I burn 1500 calories on a 2 hour ride at 25kph. Granted, I'm a bit heavier that Mr Wiggins, but even so... IAn average man should consume about 2000 calories a day.

ColinJ

pottssteve wrote:

An average man should consume about 2000 calories a day.

If he is trying to lose weight in a hurry, maybe, but even that is probably too much of a Calorie deficit. Most reputable advice suggests sticking to no more than about a 20% reduction.

An average man would need a lot more than that to maintain his weight.

There are a lot of online calculators you can use to work out roughly how many calories a day you need and they all suggest much larger numbers.

This one for example says that a moderately 70 kg male aged 30 needs about 2,975 Calories a day or 3,275 Calories a day if he runs 21 miles a week..

According to that calculator, a sedentary 70 kg woman aged 35 needs about 2,013 Calories a day.

frenchfighter

I am about 6kg over my race weight - I am not fat by any means; actually I look quite healthy. But I am a long way off that anorexic stage you need to be at for the Tour. That is quite a dangerous weight to be and you can't stay at that weight for too long so I aim to hit that two weeks before the race and then stay at that for the best part of a month.

Garry H

frenchfighter wrote:

I am about 6kg over my race weight - I am not fat by any means; actually I look quite healthy. But I am a long way off that anorexic stage you need to be at for the Tour. That is quite a dangerous weight to be and you can't stay at that weight for too long so I aim to hit that two weeks before the race and then stay at that for the best part of a month.

If he carries on like this, I would think that he'd be way past the anorexic stage come July :shock:

rick_chasey

I have to say, the odd figures aside, which must be a mis-quote from the paper (not at all unlikely), I was certainly surprised last year that Wiggins managed to lose such a large amount of weight without getting ill.

Sure it was gradual, but not that gradual!

deal

maybe he is EATING 1500 calories, but also uses energy drinks etc. to fuel his training, presumably carefully monitored so all the extra calories consumed match those used by training

stagehopper

consuming 1500 calories during the stage perhaps?

frenchfighter

To be more precise:

Porridge, 30g carbs
Meal replacement sachet, 30g protein, 20g carbs
Sandwich, 30g carbs and some carbs
Snack of fruit and nutes
Some fish or chicken in the evening, small carbs

msw

The calorie count definitely seems off, but I read the "2 minute timer" part as a psychological trick he uses to keep himself going; not as a statement of fact that he is actually raising his effort/power output for regular 2-minute bursts.

guinea

Meh. I lived for 8 months on 550 cals a day and cycled hundreds of miles a week.

Of course, I wasn't at Brad's level of intensity, but it wasn't hard.

At the moment I'm in a weight loss phase and am eating ~1k cals a day. Meal replacement shake for breakfast, same + bar for lunch, lots of meat, veg and green salad for dinner. I'm not actually cycling at the moment due to an injury, but the weight is flying off me.

Once you stop eating carbs you enter ketosis and the weight just flies off you.

cal_stewart

if you use CLA the muscle loss is not as great and as sky are using CNP which i would think includes advice from kerry keyes the guy who runs it and ran hattons diet for fights for many years, i have used CNP products and followed kerry keyes fat loss programs for boxing and would say 1500 cals sounds about right. Remember they could take the fat off now and then up the cals to maintain the weight and stop anymore loss. the diet would be 6 meals a day with around 30g's of fat and upto 2g per kg of body weight of protein per day.

teticio

its most likely just BS to psyche out the competition. there is no way that it is interesting for an elite cyclist to have a lower calorific intake than he is burning. with that kind of training he'd have difficulty putting on weight if he tried.

Paulie W

It's amazing how much conflicting information can be fitted into a short thread!

1500 cals would seem to be dangerously low for someone undertaking that level of exercise but then the article kind of acknowledges that. This is presumably being micro-managed by his team and as such is a bad model for anyone without that level of support to try to follow.

Guinea's figures are frightening - many people with severe eating disorders probably consume more than 550 cals a day without undertaking any exercise; that he/she managed to do so while cycling hundreds of miles a week beggars belief (not saying I dont belive you just that, well, you must be some kind of physical anomaly). Again, IMO, no-one should be attempting weight loss and/or training using these figures as a model.

Interesting that Ricky Hatton's regime should be brought up here - I cant help feeling that his weight gain-weight loss regime, however effective, had a serious impact on the longevity of his top level career.

cal_stewart

would have to agree on hatton. But I would say that for my last fight i used one of keyes programs and got down to 75 kg not a problem and had higher energy levels. thats with 3-4 hours training a day and around 1500-2000 cals. Bradley will also have most of his meals made for him, which does not happen for me by someone with better training and kitchen than myself so 1500 does not sound mad for me. Also i would say CLA is the BEST supplement i have ever used.

Jeff Jones

Something doesn't add up.

If he's training 4.5hrs/day, he's probably burning 5000-6000 Cal/day. If he's eating 1500, then that's a deficit of 3500/day = 1 lb of body fat. That's a stone off every two weeks! Only possible if he really binged in the off-season...

shockedsoshocked

I (and the physiologists I've spoken to) call BS.

LangerDan

Jeff Jones wrote:

Something doesn't add up.

If he's training 4.5hrs/day, he's probably burning 5000-6000 Cal/day. If he's eating 1500, then that's a deficit of 3500/day = 1 lb of body fat. That's a stone off every two weeks! Only possible if he really binged in the off-season...

Perhaps the BC dietician gave him Cavs plan instead?

Kléber

Someone's got the numbers wrong or out of context, whether its Wiggins or the journalist.

Splottboy

GUINEAS......KETOSIS! This can KILL you, as it damages your kindneys causing failure in some circumstances, as far as I am aware.
500 cals a day sounds ridiculous, more like Anorexic, but I'm no expert.

So, who is? Think some dietary "truths" are total nonsense

When I was competing in Tae Kwon Do, I was struggling to get to 69kg. I had to run around Bristol for 1.5 hrs, in a thick tracksuit to lose the weight.
Got on the scales and had to strip to me "jockstrap" , in front of the crowd, to make it.

Only had time for a quick pie and a drink. Got through to the Finals, and a mate of mine Kicked the crap outta me in overtime! Lesson learnt: Crash dieting NOT GOOD!

bigmat

Are you sure you aren't confusing ketosis with ketoacidosis? I know the latter is bad.

Splottboy

Sorry for the multiple stuff.PC unwell

guinea

Splottboy wrote:

GUINEAS......KETOSIS! This can KILL you, as it damages your kindneys causing failure in some circumstances, as far as I am aware.
500 cals a day sounds ridiculous, more like Anorexic, but I'm no expert.

You're right 500 cals a day is crazy, but my doctor sanctioned the diet and I was supported by him throughout the whole period.

I went from 24.5 stones to just under 13. I put a couple of stones on in the last year after breaking a hip, but am now losing it again in aniticipation of getting back on the bike.

People just have to work out what works for them. Ketosis is fairly harmless as long as you keep your teeth clean and the missus doesn't leave you for having stinky breath. Not recommended for diabetics and make sure you keep the water intake high. It's best to keep activity high to keep the metabolic rate up.

The downside is the massive muscle loss it causes after time and the decrease in metabolic rate. I remember have a resting heart rate of under 30 on several mornings. It's quite strange hearing your heart beat so slowly.

Kléber

Steady here, as ever the best way to lose weight is to eat a tiny bit less than you use each day, riding more can help. Be patient, we may live in the age of instant gratification but shifting lard takes time.

Pokerface

I would think Mr. Wiggins is eating 1500 cals a day NET. Not GROSS.

So 1500 cals, plus whatever he burns off cycling. I do the same thing and you shift a pound or two of fat a week that way.

greasedscotsman

teticio wrote:

its most likely just BS to psyche out the competition. there is no way that it is interesting for an elite cyclist to have a lower calorific intake than he is burning. with that kind of training he'd have difficulty putting on weight if he tried.

I would have to agree. Seriously, would you tell your opponents what training you were doing? I think BW has taken lessons from LA in trying to out psyche his rivals. Next thing we read he'll have been training on New Year's Day!

Kléber

One interesting observation is that Wiggins hasn't just lost weight, he seems to have changed his position on the bike. Seethis blog article, it something that hasn't got the same impact as the weight loss.

verylonglegs

Unsurprisingly someone wrote in to the paper to question the figure given in the article and here is the response

'The figure of 1500 calories is indeed correct. Wiggins is getting back in shape after an extended period of downtime. To achieve his "fighting weight", he is training hard and controlling his diet in order to lose around 13lb in time for the racing season. It is not a regime we would recommend to any but the most committed and experienced athlete, and even then only for short periods.'

frenchfighter

Thanks for the info VLL.

shockedsoshocked

verylonglegs wrote:

Unsurprisingly someone wrote in to the paper to question the figure given in the article and here is the response

'The figure of 1500 calories is indeed correct. Wiggins is getting back in shape after an extended period of downtime. To achieve his "fighting weight", he is training hard and controlling his diet in order to lose around 13lb in time for the racing season. It is not a regime we would recommend to any but the most committed and experienced athlete, and even then only for short periods.'

Who was the response from?