Weight loss stopped.

polyx

Hi!

I'm 32 y.o., 5'7(170cm) and gone from 98kg (216lbs) (yes I was proper fat) to 77kg (170lbs) from Feb to October with just riding hard, skipping rope, and watching what I do eat.

Recent 2 months however +-1kg total weight remain the same. Have I reached my minimum weight ? Or is it just plateau (oh that weird french word ) ? Training and eating pretty much as before. I'd wish to be just under 70kg by the next season. Still have a noticeable fat layer in belly area, arms etc.

Any suggestions ? Thanks.

kajjal

The only real way is to be careful what you are eating if you are riding hard, long distances on a regular basis. Just keep in mind the human body is not designed to be wafer thin and a bit of weight is no problem if you are fit and healthy. Lose too much and it leads to illness , injury and a lack of power.

Try cutting out all processed foods and cook more of your own meals from fresh ingredients. I have the freezer full of frozen curries, chilli's etc that I cooked myself to eat easily later. Chinese / Thai food is easy to cook tasty and healthy enough with fresh vegetables, meat, fish etc.

Good work on the fitness and weight loss

dw300

At 5' 7" you'd want to be closer to 60-65kg .. I think it's safe to say you haven't reached your minimum. Give it another year or two of eating and training well, and you will keep loosing.

It takes years if youre really serious about turning your body into that of a good cyclist, not a summer, and that's because your power output and amount of training youre capable of is very much related to the calories you'll burn.

And everyone plateaus and the rate of loss will slow, dont let it worry you, mix things up, you can always improve your diet and training.

chrisaonabike

'Gratz on the weight loss so far.

You're definitely nowhere near your minimum. I'm 5'9", 73kg, and I could do with being several kg lighter than I am - I still have fat I'd like to lose, and if you're visibly lardy in any respect, you do too.

I got up to about 12 stone a year or so ago, and when I stopped stuffing shite down my neck, and started cycling, it was quite easy to get down to 11.5. If I'm honest, once I could do up my jeans again, my determination slipped quite a bit. Since the summer I've hovered around 11.5, and with the bad weather and a lot less cycling, and a lot more work stress, it's been a lot harder to be disciplined about what I eat.

You can't beat the laws of physics, sadly. Eat less, train more.

polyx

Thanks for the suggestions!
By "minimum" i meant, I've never had the look of a typical "pencil thin" climber, and was mostly overweight during younger years too. And thought my "built" doesn't let me go any more down. But probably the winter showing it self, need to keep concentrated on training/diet. I'm including quick comparison pic taken 6-7 months apart to keep myself motivated Thanks!

smoggysteve

If you do the same exercise routine day in day out, youe body adapts and it becomes harder to keep the weight coming off. make sure you keep varying your routine every month or so and have different days of short but intense workout mixed with a few relaxed low power sessions. It is also good to have one day now and again of eating more calories than usual to stop your body going into starvation mode where it tries to cling on to fat if you lose it too quickly.

buckles

FULL KIT WNKER!!! Just kidding. Are you sure you want to lose any more weight? You look about the same size as Thor Hushovd, and he doesn't seem to be held back by his weight.

dw300

Buckles wrote:

Are you sure you want to lose any more weight? You look about the same size as Thor Hushovd, and he doesn't seem to be held back by his weight.

OP - 5' 7" - 77kg
TH - 6' 0.5" - 83kg

Allowing a difference of 6lb (2.72kg) per inch of heigh difference, OP would need to be 68kg to have TH's build. So he's about 9kg or a little more (i think 7lbs/in is more realistic) over a sprinter's build.

polyx

True.
I do feel ok on flats and 7-8% hills, but if hill gets longer (more than a mile) and steeper (12-15%), I'm worse than people I ride with. I understand physical variations of each person but would be nice to have it improved. Have had few interesting advices, so will let them a try! Being a short dude, would love to use that advantage on the climbs, (ref. Rodriguez) even though I know I will likely never be sub 60 kg. so hopefully 67-70 is my goal for April. Thanks.

zcapp96

Weight loss is all about maintaining a sufficient calorie deficit. As you get fitter you body becomes more efficient at using calories and so you need less for a given activity. Added to this you are now carrying less weight and need less calories for basic everyday needs, this can lead to what was once a good deficit becoming next to nothing. You should increase you activity, either by intensity or duration to get back to a deficit. You should still be prepared to expect a slowing of weight loss as you get thinner though.

Camcycle1974

polyx wrote:

True.
I do feel ok on flats and 7-8% hills, but if hill gets longer (more than a mile) and steeper (12-15%), I'm worse than people I ride with. I understand physical variations of each person but would be nice to have it improved. Have had few interesting advices, so will let them a try! Being a short dude, would love to use that advantage on the climbs, (ref. Rodriguez) even though I know I will likely never be sub 60 kg. so hopefully 67-70 is my goal for April. Thanks.

Overall weight depends on body composition. An athlete with lots of muscle would be classified as over weight on the BMI scale but this obviously does not take account of body fat percentage and the amount of lean mass someone carries (muscle,bone, etc).Not wishing to brag but I had a health check recently and according to the nurse I was borderline overweight at 5'10" and 76kg. When I took off my shirt however they revised that opinion! As I train with weights 3 times a week I carry a fair bit of muscle (totally counterproductive to cycling but not a fan of the emaciated cyclist look) and have relatively low body fat% (about 12% but working on getting below 10% through the use of IF)

It sounds like you still have some fat weight to lose to get down to your natural weight? A plateau can occur in any weight loss programme but I find that Intermittant Fasting goes a long way to address this issue. Through IF hormones that cause the body to hang on to fat weight can be manipulated to ensure a more linear weight loss. Have a look at the role of hormones in weight loss and how IF can help.

Starvation mode etc is a load of claptrap instilled by the fitness industry to sell more supplements. In an evolutionary sense how would the human race have survived if eating every couple of hours was essential?

Sorry this is a bit of a ramble but some salient points i hope nonetheless.

dw300

Camcycle1974 wrote:

polyx wrote:

True.
I do feel ok on flats and 7-8% hills, but if hill gets longer (more than a mile) and steeper (12-15%), I'm worse than people I ride with. I understand physical variations of each person but would be nice to have it improved. Have had few interesting advices, so will let them a try! Being a short dude, would love to use that advantage on the climbs, (ref. Rodriguez) even though I know I will likely never be sub 60 kg. so hopefully 67-70 is my goal for April. Thanks.

Overall weight depends on body composition. An athlete with lots of muscle would be classified as over weight on the BMI scale but this obviously does not take account of body fat percentage and the amount of lean mass someone carries (muscle,bone, etc).Not wishing to brag but I had a health check recently and according to the nurse I was borderline overweight at 5'10" and 76kg. When I took off my shirt however they revised that opinion! As I train with weights 3 times a week I carry a fair bit of muscle (totally counterproductive to cycling but not a fan of the emaciated cyclist look) and have relatively low body fat% (about 12% but working on getting below 10% through the use of IF)

It sounds like you still have some fat weight to lose to get down to your natural weight? A plateau can occur in any weight loss programme but I find that Intermittant Fasting goes a long way to address this issue. Through IF hormones that cause the body to hang on to fat weight can be manipulated to ensure a more linear weight loss. Have a look at the role of hormones in weight loss and how IF can help.

Starvation mode etc is a load of claptrap instilled by the fitness industry to sell more supplements. In an evolutionary sense how would the human race have survived if eating every couple of hours was essential?

Sorry this is a bit of a ramble but some salient points i hope nonetheless.

+1

I don't know why people trying to control their weight and body composition don't spend £5-10 on bodyfat calipers. There's a huge amount of BS about their accuracy, but theyre more than accurate enough to be a great tool.

I'd say there's a lot of bad reviews of them by guys who thought they were 10-12% and turned out they were nearer 20%. Most pro's are probably 5-10% depending on rider type and condition, and yet you've a load of guys 2 stone heavier claiming 10-15%.

Just on your own situation.. I'm 5' 10" and 68.5kg, so over a stone lighter than you and similar BF .. I'd say you could easily loose that stone and not look emaciated. I'm gunning for another 4-5kg over the next year. And as a person who used to lift .. you won't atrophy as fast as you think anyway. You'll probably look even better if you keep trying to loose since most of it will still be fat.

Camcycle1974

dw300 wrote:

Camcycle1974 wrote:

polyx wrote:

True.
I do feel ok on flats and 7-8% hills, but if hill gets longer (more than a mile) and steeper (12-15%), I'm worse than people I ride with. I understand physical variations of each person but would be nice to have it improved. Have had few interesting advices, so will let them a try! Being a short dude, would love to use that advantage on the climbs, (ref. Rodriguez) even though I know I will likely never be sub 60 kg. so hopefully 67-70 is my goal for April. Thanks.

Overall weight depends on body composition. An athlete with lots of muscle would be classified as over weight on the BMI scale but this obviously does not take account of body fat percentage and the amount of lean mass someone carries (muscle,bone, etc).Not wishing to brag but I had a health check recently and according to the nurse I was borderline overweight at 5'10" and 76kg. When I took off my shirt however they revised that opinion! As I train with weights 3 times a week I carry a fair bit of muscle (totally counterproductive to cycling but not a fan of the emaciated cyclist look) and have relatively low body fat% (about 12% but working on getting below 10% through the use of IF)

It sounds like you still have some fat weight to lose to get down to your natural weight? A plateau can occur in any weight loss programme but I find that Intermittant Fasting goes a long way to address this issue. Through IF hormones that cause the body to hang on to fat weight can be manipulated to ensure a more linear weight loss. Have a look at the role of hormones in weight loss and how IF can help.

Starvation mode etc is a load of claptrap instilled by the fitness industry to sell more supplements. In an evolutionary sense how would the human race have survived if eating every couple of hours was essential?

Sorry this is a bit of a ramble but some salient points i hope nonetheless.

+1

I don't know why people trying to control their weight and body composition don't spend £5-10 on bodyfat calipers. There's a huge amount of BS about their accuracy, but theyre more than accurate enough to be a great tool.

I'd say there's a lot of bad reviews of them by guys who thought they were 10-12% and turned out they were nearer 20%. Most pro's are probably 5-10% depending on rider type and condition, and yet you've a load of guys 2 stone heavier claiming 10-15%.

Just on your own situation.. I'm 5' 10" and 68.5kg, so over a stone lighter than you and similar BF .. I'd say you could easily loose that stone and not look emaciated. I'm gunning for another 4-5kg over the next year. And as a person who used to lift .. you won't atrophy as fast as you think anyway. You'll probably look even better if you keep trying to loose since most of it will still be fat.

I could definitely be 1/2 a stone lighter without compromising muscle mass. That is my goal in the new year, to be 72.5kg or so but with good definition and retaining some mass. I know this is fairly easy to achieve through IF, cycling and hitting the weights 3 times a week. Diet is key though. i would say 70% nutrition 30% training. The old maxim "you can't out train a crappy diet" is very true. Like the Hodge Twins quote in your sig BTW. I will take your advice and get some calipers.

frisbee

You can't just state a target weight based on somebody's height, their build will have large affect.

diamonddog

frisbee wrote:

You can't just state a target weight based on somebody's height, their build will have large affect.

^^This

dw300

diamonddog wrote:

frisbee wrote:

You can't just state a target weight based on somebody's height, their build will have large affect.

^^This

Precisely why you should go by bodyfat, so that the people claiming to be 'solid muscle' when theyre still significantly fat can be called out.

Camcycle1974

dw300 wrote:

diamonddog wrote:

frisbee wrote:

You can't just state a target weight based on somebody's height, their build will have large affect.

^^This

Precisely why you should go by bodyfat, so that the people claiming to be 'solid muscle' when theyre still significantly fat can be called out.

Absolutely. Someone at 6'5" and 10% bf is obviously going to weigh more than someone 5'10" and 10% bf. Build is an abitrary nonspecific idea. BF, providing it can me measured accurately is a better indicator of physical condition and fitness when applied to cycling.