weight loss

paulleary

Ok , im a big guy down to 17st from 19 - 6ft tall. - im getting plenty of riding and other exercise in .
1hr on turbo ,1 hr swim ,45-60 min flat out ride midweek ( 18mph ) and a long ride on weekend 40-70+miles . can usually pop along at 14 mph average which i know isnt great , but im quite proud .have done a few sportives and survived , but do struggle on the steep hills , get up them but its not quick .
Im keeping up with my mates who are way smaller , and feel strong , but i cant get rid of the nagging feeling that there may be a half tidy cyclist inside , its just hes wearing a fat suit . would really like to lose another 2 stone get down to 15 . any bright suggestions
i know what to eat , its just i eat too much - and exercise just makes me more hungry .i do have a weakness for real ale and red wine - not excessive , and a man has to have some vices
really enjoy the longer rides with mates , as much for the endorphins as the social side .
facetious comments welcome as well as any constructive suggestions :P

imposter2.0

paulleary wrote:

i know what to eat , its just i eat too much - and exercise just makes me more hungry .i do have a weakness for real ale and red wine - not excessive , and a man has to have some vices

Sorry to say this, but it sounds like you know the answer already.

hypster

It sounds to me like you know what to do, you just lack a little motivation. Having said that you have already lost 2 stone so you must be doing something right. I generally find that eating a bit more protein and fat and cutting down on the carbs helps to keep the weight down. Protein and fat will tend to fill you up and satisfy you for longer than rice, pasta, bread etc. I'm not saying cutting these out altogether, just monitor how much you eat.

Obviously salads and vegetables in abundance and try to cut out as much sugar as possible. Chocolate is particularly addictive and it has been shown that the more you eat, the more you want. This will leave you some leeway to indulge the odd pint of real ale or glass of red wine and not feel guilty.

Don't skip meals either, especially breakfast. Research shows that people who don't eat regularly tend to eat more overall than those that have smaller, regular meals. Another tip might be to use smaller plates for your meals. This generally has the psychological effect that you feel like you are eating more than you actually are because the smaller plate is full. Another tip is to eat more slowly and allow time between courses. It takes time for the brain to register that the stomach is full and it's easy to overeat if you are just stuffing it down.

Try a hard boiled egg for breakfast with a single slice of toast cut into soldiers. I have this quite regularly and find that it satisfies me for a surprising amount of time. If you do get peckish mid-morning then a banana or a small handful of walnuts will help tide you over until lunchtime.

meanredspider

I'd echo what hypster has written - it broadly follows what I've done to help me find the cyclist inside as you describe it. I do, however, start the day with porridge and banana to give my brain a kick. And focus on losing weight through portion control and food type rather than exercise - I genuinely believe it's the Big Lever to weight loss. The hunger that exercise can generate can sometimes be the enemy. If you're going to exercise, go big and do something that burns a lot of calories. If you've burned 400kcals that's easy to negate - if you've burned 4000kcals, it takes quite some effort to fill that hole.

johnpercival80

well done on the 2 stone weight loss great going.

I've gone through this myself i was 16 1/2 stone and got to 14st, my biggest success came from fasted cardio, i would cycle to work in the morning the long way round with lots of water before and during, then have my porridge at work, only 30-40 min, 2nd is water water water, when training i try to get 3 litres in a day, and lastly is 5-6 smaller meals instead of 3 big ones,

but everyone is different its kind of a trial and error thing to be honest

kajjal

From your post you are doing well with your fitness and just need to keep it up. If you find you have stopped improving then you have to decide which is more important to you alcohol and good food or improving your cycling. As you get fitter alcohol and poorer diet have a more noticeable negative impact on your performance. Even a slight reduction in portion size will lead to weight loss and don't skip meals as that just leads to over eating.

homers_double

paulleary wrote:

Ok , im a big guy down to 17st from 19 - 6ft tall. - im getting plenty of riding and other exercise in .
1hr on turbo ,1 hr swim ,45-60 min flat out ride midweek ( 18mph ) and a long ride on weekend 40-70+miles . can usually pop along at 14 mph average which i know isnt great , but im quite proud .have done a few sportives and survived , but do struggle on the steep hills , get up them but its not quick .
Im keeping up with my mates who are way smaller , and feel strong , but i cant get rid of the nagging feeling that there may be a half tidy cyclist inside , its just hes wearing a fat suit . would really like to lose another 2 stone get down to 15 . any bright suggestions
i know what to eat , its just i eat too much - and exercise just makes me more hungry .i do have a weakness for real ale and red wine - not excessive , and a man has to have some vices
really enjoy the longer rides with mates , as much for the endorphins as the social side .
facetious comments welcome as well as any constructive suggestions :P

You sound exactly like me, I've been watching what I eat and have cut down on the red stuff for the last few weeks. Yes it gets a good blow out at weekend but then I'm pretty good.

15st7lbs and it ain't going anywhere. The mrs says cutting out alcohol completely will work but how boring is that going to be!

twgh

cutting alcohol back will make a huge difference. I did it for 8 weeks and dropped 5kgs without really trying. You have to remember that a pint has what 200 calories in it?

Captain Slackbladder

I lost about 15lbs last year commuting about 100miles a week. I'm pretty much stuck now around the 16st mark with similar commuting this year. Overall fitness is great but i really could do with another 7/10lbs off.
Foods by biggest vice and not the beer, usually snacking on an evening. I know the problem but tbf its one of lifes little pleasures as a cyclist knowing I can eat almost what i like and remain the same weight. Managed the CTC in a day last week ok (200k) so it cant be that bad.

homers_double

twgh wrote:

cutting alcohol back will make a huge difference. I did it for 8 weeks and dropped 5kgs without really trying. You have to remember that a pint has what 200 calories in it?

MUST...NOT...AGREE...

Tjgoodhew

twgh wrote:

cutting alcohol back will make a huge difference. I did it for 8 weeks and dropped 5kgs without really trying. You have to remember that a pint has what 200 calories in it?

Unfortunately for me this is my major issue. Im not a heavy drinker but 3/4 pints at the weekend can be an extra 1000 calories !!

Im also 6ft but lucky enough to be a lot slimmer. I could still do with losing half a stone and it looks like cutting down on the beers is the only way I will be able to hit that target weight

I did this last year and you will be amazed at how quickly you can lose weight !!

johnpercival80

vodka diet coke :-)

homers_double

Yeh, I've swapped the red for vodka (or gin) and slim.

Grifteruk

+1 for cutting out the booze. Have cut out 99% of my previous intake since Christmas and have dropped nearly a stone. Have made some other small changes to diet as well, but for me the booze has been the main factor even though I would not say I was a heavy drinker previously (beers on the weekend kind of thing).

Was 11st 4 before and now at 10st 4 the difference to my riding is unbelievable. IMO weight loss is the main way I have achieved such an improved performance, knocking minutes of PBs for 20 minute climbs.

mcnultycop

The issue for me isn't booze itself, it's the inabililty to exercise properly the next day and KFC cravings it generates.

johnpercival80

I'm with you on that, I'm out of action for a couple of days after a few beers, then there is the kebab chips and burger and hangover food lol

ianbar

i tend to like a jd and coke on my first night off...i work nights, so getting to the end of the week seems a worthy reason to have a nice drink. although what i tend to find even after just one is my legs simply don't work the same the next day when i have my long ride of the week. so basically have cut it out unless i know i am not riding the next day. i would second that the excersise always makes me very very hungry, i aim for my main weight loss based on my long ride which could be 3000 cals even just breaking even the rest of the week and that should be 1 lbs a week

kevin_stephens

great work on the weight loss so far. Two tips which may (or may not) help
A great investment is a heart rate monitor/GPS (eg Garmin Edge 500) that can do a reasonable job of calculating the calories you burn on each ride. You can then balance this against your intake
A good recovery drink (eg SIS) after a ride can really stave off the post exercise

Graham K

Great work on losing some timber.
You seem much like me, a big fella who likes to exercise and lets be honest, likes to enjoy life,
I love my food, I love my drink, and eat far too much, and far too much shit, its the snacking that kills me,
If you can cut the booze you will notice a difference, I cut the beer a few year back for 2 months, I felt stronger and better in my performance.

I know for a fact if I dropped the ale and sorted somekind of diet out than I could drop a stone n half easy, but wheres the fun in that

sloppyschleckonds

Graham K wrote:

I know for a fact if I dropped the ale and sorted somekind of diet out than I could drop a stone n half easy, but wheres the fun in that

You will prolong your life and your cycling performance will improve. You'll probably even help your body fight off '21st Century' diseases.

Graham K

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Graham K wrote:

I know for a fact if I dropped the ale and sorted somekind of diet out than I could drop a stone n half easy, but wheres the fun in that

You will prolong your life and your cycling performance will improve. You'll probably even help your body fight off '21st Century' diseases.

Ending my years in an old folks home waiting to be taken to the toilet isnt my idea of fun either, And rather than be scared of what diseases are out there I prefer just to tackle them head on, for instance, many more healthier people have suffered from heart attacks or got/had cancer than me, its just the lottery of life.
I may have a reckless view on life, but tomorrow morning I may never wake up ......

lesfirth

Graham K wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Graham K wrote:

I know for a fact if I dropped the ale and sorted somekind of diet out than I could drop a stone n half easy, but wheres the fun in that

You will prolong your life and your cycling performance will improve. You'll probably even help your body fight off '21st Century' diseases.

Ending my years in an old folks home waiting to be taken to the toilet isnt my idea of fun either, And rather than be scared of what diseases are out there I prefer just to tackle them head on, for instance, many more healthier people have suffered from heart attacks or got/had cancer than me, its just the lottery of life.
I may have a reckless view on life, but tomorrow morning I may never wake up ......

You do not avoid the old folks home. You just get a chance to go there a bit sooner.

barry_kellett99

meanredspider wrote:

focus on losing weight through portion control and food type rather than exercise

This. And only this.

carrock

yes. only way to lose weight is to create a calorific deficit, ie to burn more calories than taken in. it is very hard to do this without modifying diet. aim to consume no less than 1500 calories a day, up to say 2000 cals. and fit in an hours exercise per day 5 days a week, whether cycling or gym work.

MrT

Well done on the weight loss....started Jan at 16.12 and am now 15.6 and planning to be under 15 by mid July....it's a pain but alcohol went....not totally...but a glass of wine and a beer per week....genuinely feel so much better for it.
Also....and I think I got the idea from this forum.....use My Fitness Pal....free App as a dietary motivator...good luck....stick at it.