Training Diet tips - any good book/website recommendations?

starbuck

I love riding but want to enjoy my riding more, and one way I can do that is by losing weight.

I'm currently around 90kg so could be in a lot better condition for riding. Based on my current weight, it's obvious to me that I need to change my diet completely and start eating properly (and not just short term to lose weight).

Can anyone recommend some good books/websites on this area? I know there are millions of "diet" books, but I need info that takes into account requirements for cyclists, help me stop eating over-processed rubbish and lose weight.

danlikesbikes

No easy way to do this and it's hard, but your wanting to start which is good.

Some simple tips are don't buy processed food

Swap frying food for grill/poaching/oven baking/steaming

Buy lots of fruit, nuts/seeds for snacks

Ditch "easy calories" I.e. I take my coffee black rather than a full fat latte from Starbucks and no sugar

Drink water like it's going out of fashion

Eat a good hearty breakfast, that way you'll be less likely to snack on vending machine junk food in the day

Pack you own lunch, but ditch sandwiches in favour of salads with grilled chicken/fish/steak and add pasta and make your own salad sauce

If you really need a treat go for frozen yoghurt not ice cream, rice cakes with Nutella not a packet of biscuits.

Like I said it's not easy but you can do it

LegendLust

starbuck wrote:

I love riding but want to enjoy my riding more, and one way I can do that is by losing weight.

I'm currently around 90kg so could be in a lot better condition for riding. Based on my current weight, it's obvious to me that I need to change my diet completely and start eating properly (and not just short term to lose weight).

Can anyone recommend some good books/websites on this area? I know there are millions of "diet" books, but I need info that takes into account requirements for cyclists, help me stop eating over-processed rubbish and lose weight.

This guy is very good

http://www.optimumnutrition4sport.com/

napoleond

LegendLust wrote:

starbuck wrote:

I love riding but want to enjoy my riding more, and one way I can do that is by losing weight.

I'm currently around 90kg so could be in a lot better condition for riding. Based on my current weight, it's obvious to me that I need to change my diet completely and start eating properly (and not just short term to lose weight).

Can anyone recommend some good books/websites on this area? I know there are millions of "diet" books, but I need info that takes into account requirements for cyclists, help me stop eating over-processed rubbish and lose weight.

This guy is very good

http://www.optimumnutrition4sport.com/

Having a nutrition plan from Barry a few years ago changed my life!

fitmang

I wanna take biking to the next level but I've been struggling with my weight since childhood. A mate found this really extensive article though

http://www.popularfit.com/lose-weight-complete-guide/

The author really understands how hard it is for people like me to just drop everything so he gives a method where people can still eat the good stuff (sorry I can't ever give up chips (I'm in the U.S right now and they call them fries here)).

I've been following some the stuff on there like substituting the junk with more filling stuff. Really helps with the hunger. Combined with biking I feel better than ever.

The Kellyboy

I found that not eating anything after my evening meal helped a great deal. The first two or three evenings I was absolutely starving, but now it's the norm. Those snacks whist watching telly really add up (crisps, a bit of chocolate, toast, cereal, etc).

Also, the (free) app/website MyFitnessPal is very good. It's a calorie counting tracker of what you've eaten and almost all foods by all manufacturers are in there (you can even scan the food's bar code using your phone). You input your details and how much you want to lose and it works out how many calories you need to achieve that. It even off sets any training and adjusts the calorie count accordingly.

homers_double

I got very bored mith myfitnesspal very quickly.

On the the plan a few weeks ago mrsHD was reading a celeb mag and some ex liberty X girl put her diet up which basiclay consisted of:-

Breakfast:- poached egg on toast/porridge/bran flakes

Snack:- Protien bar/ricecakes/fruit

Lunch:- Grilled chicken/turkey with salad/steamed vedge of Tuna salad.

Snack:- Fruit/nuts

Dinner:- Grilled meat/fish and salad/steamed vedge

No carbs after mid morning snack unless you're excersising in the evening the add a small carb source to your lunch

We're following it roughtly but adding a few vodka tonics into the mix and its working on me, I've dropped a kilo in a week or so.

I was readiing Wiggo's autobiography on holiday and he summed it up with "diet is crucial, if you're nipping down the shop put £5 in the tank. If you're going to london and back fill up before you go and again on the way back. You wouldn't put £50 in your car then leave it in the garage"

Looking at me I'm not the idea person to spout this sort of stuff as I like to pick and like a drink but I know if I cut both those out combined with the miles I'm putting in I'd be a fair bit lighter by now

bahzob

I got down from 93kg to sub 70 and became pretty good cyclist in the process. Here's my three happenworth.

- Keep a food diary. Ideally throughout the period you are trying to lose weight, but at least for a couple of weeks. Record everything you eat/drink. Its surprising how calories can mount up especially from processed food.

- Focus on losing weight at first, treating fitness results from training as secondary. So ignore all advice about "pre-fuelling", eating and drinking during exercise and recovery products. Just drink water during workouts, eat only during normal meal time and accept the risk that your performance may suffer (it probably won't anyway).

- Over the years I tried pretty much every diet. The best two IMO are
--> Dukan diet. Followed as per the book not the "only eat meat" headlines. This is the quickest way to lose weight and, if followed correctly through all its stages, will move you onto a sensible balanced eating regime. It is however not ideal if combined with hard workouts. These are best avoided at the start until the point where you start eating carbohydrate again.
---> The "Low GL" diet. There is some crankiness in the book but the core idea in terms balance and focusing on low GL carbs are pretty much perfect for cycling. Sky have put together a good series of videos on what their team eat. Its not coincidence that this is pretty similar to the low GL diet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2c6CH5nJ_4

- If your home circumstances permit organise a set-up so that whenever you are watching TV you do some sort of light exercise. This may seem daft but it works and I lost my first 10kg this way. Even pedalling easily you burn 200+ calories per hour and that mounts up quickly even if you only watch an hour per day. If you watch a boxed set like 24 then that's around 1-1.5lbs of fat lost per series.

Hope this helps, good luck.

homers_double

Agree with that apart from...

bahzob wrote:

- Focus on losing weight at first, treating fitness results from training as secondary. So ignore all advice about "pre-fuelling", eating and drinking during exercise and recovery products. Just drink water during workouts, eat only during normal meal time and accept the risk that your performance may suffer (it probably won't anyway).

Are you suggesting that during a 3-4 hour road ride where you need to take on fuel you don't eat if you're overweight? Granted it sounds like an ideal way to lose weight but at a certain pace I recall reading that your body can't convert fat into glucose fast enough which leads to the dreaded bonk.

If I'm out with one rider we stop for a snack midway through 50km ride, when out on the same loop with a n00b at a much slower pace I didn't need to refuel (he did) because I presume I was working at a pace that my body could convert fat to fuel itself.

bobmcstuff

I also got bored of myfitnesspal very quickly.

I've gone from 88kg to 77kg this year by just by eating less and doing more exercise (mostly cycling).

Weight loss was gradual (88kg to 84kg) until late May, when I decided to get out on my bike more (3-4 times per week, roughly 8 hours, instead of averaging 2 hours once a month or less as I had been doing)

By eating less, what I mean is saying no to the bacon sandwich run at work, having fruit instead of crisps at lunch, taking a sandwich from the low calorie section or having a salad instead, cooking a healthy dinner or getting a low cal/healthy range ready meal (yes I eat quite a lot of ready meals). I eat 1200-1500 calories per day during the week, and eat pretty much whatever I want at the weekend (with a 4-odd hour bike ride at least).

Another minor thing, my new phone had a step counter built in and I go out of my way to make sure I hit the target of 10,000 steps, which seemed to help a bit before I started cycling so much. I also put my cycling calories in there now and try to get the number to go as high as possible (accepting that the calories burned calcs from Strava etc are not very accurate, making the number bigger is still good).

The spanner in the works is travelling for work, which normally means eating out (or stacks of chips if going offshore...) and not doing any exercise, but I've been able to mostly keep on top of that by being good the rest of the time.

Currently still losing weight at 1-2lbs a week average (varies depending on how much cycling I get to do/life in general) and not feeling too hungry most of the time, which is good.

bobmcstuff

homers double wrote:

Agree with that apart from...

bahzob wrote:

- Focus on losing weight at first, treating fitness results from training as secondary. So ignore all advice about "pre-fuelling", eating and drinking during exercise and recovery products. Just drink water during workouts, eat only during normal meal time and accept the risk that your performance may suffer (it probably won't anyway).

Are you suggesting that during a 3-4 hour road ride where you need to take on fuel you don't eat if you're overweight? Granted it sounds like an ideal way to lose weight but at a certain pace I recall reading that your body can't convert fat into glucose fast enough which leads to the dreaded bonk.

If I'm out with one rider we stop for a snack midway through 50km ride, when out on the same loop with a n00b at a much slower pace I didn't need to refuel (he did) because I presume I was working at a pace that my body could convert fat to fuel itself.

Personally I always eat before exercising, and would definitely eat on a 3-4hr cycle and still expect to lose weight.

It sounds like exercising before breakfast or while fasted, which a lot of people recommend. I can't stand it. Lots of people seem to recommend it, but it does not work for me as I just feel like I can't do anything, and it makes me hate doing it. Feel like I get much better exercise in by making sure I have eaten at least something (normally 2-300 cals of complex carbs before heading out on a 2hr after work ride for example). But then I have always had a pretty low tolerance for feeling hungry, I can just about tolerate it when not doing anything, but definitely not when exercising.

fitmang

homers double wrote:

No carbs after mid morning snack unless you're excersising in the evening the add a small carb source to your lunch

We're following it roughtly but adding a few vodka tonics into the mix and its working on me, I've dropped a kilo in a week or so.

Looking at me I'm not the idea person to spout this sort of stuff as I like to pick and like a drink but I know if I cut both those out combined with the miles I'm putting in I'd be a fair bit lighter by now

I find that low carb diets just makes you cranky and makes you crave them. I shouldn't be the one saying this with my little beer belly but alcohol makes your body hold on to fat. Bunch of empty calories

homers_double

Alcohol is the bane of grown up's lives.

I find excercising before breakfast is better and I like to set myself up for the day with a nice 90 minute loop, knowing you're in negative calories all the way up to your evening meal is a good feeling.

I can cope with the low carb diet but I know others who get cranky and complain that they're going to pass out (I've yet to see this happen to anyone) if they don't eat.

We even had a family take away last night, mine consisted of chicken wings for starter, grilled chicken, salad and a pitta bread but again, the glasses of wine probably didn't help...

liversedge

bobmcstuff wrote:

I've gone from 88kg to 77kg this year by just by eating less and doing more exercise (mostly cycling).

/snip/

I eat 1200-1500 calories per day during the week, and eat pretty much whatever I want at the weekend (with a 4-odd hour bike ride at least).

This. It really is that simple.

But don't be fooled into thinking 1200 calories a day is a lot of food. It is sod all !

bobmcstuff

Yeah, it's really not much...

typekitty

fitmang wrote:

I wanna take biking to the next level but I've been struggling with my weight since childhood. A mate found this really extensive article though

http://www.popularfit.com/lose-weight-complete-guide/

The author really understands how hard it is for people like me to just drop everything so he gives a method where people can still eat the good stuff (sorry I can't ever give up chips (I'm in the U.S right now and they call them fries here)).

I've been following some the stuff on there like substituting the junk with more filling stuff. Really helps with the hunger. Combined with biking I feel better than ever.

Really good article that. Quite comprehensive and very easy to follow.

Has any one tried intermittent fasting?

homers_double

There is a long running topic on snowheads about 5:2 fasting and some people have got on with it quite well.

I doubt it'd be for me though but each to their own.

dw300

All these weight loss techniques like IF may be great for loosing weight, but I'm pretty sure they suck if you're training to gain fitness.

If you can't balance sensible eating and some exercise day to day, then balancing fasting with a tough training schedule is going to be far far harder.


If you want to get fitter, you have to be adequately fuelled to train, and adequately fuelled for recovery.

Here is one way to do it with the least possible impact to everyday life ..


Lets say your BMR or maintenance level is 1800kcals ..

On a rest day .. Eat 1600kcals.


On a 1000kcal training day lets say 50:50 fat:carbs spent (adjust as appropriate).

Eat 1800kcal + an extra 500kcals of complex carbs (2300kcals) in the following 24 hours.


On a 2000kcal training day lets say 50:50 fat:carbs spent (adjust as appropriate).

Eat 1800kcal + an extra 1000kcals of complex carbs (2800kcals) in the following 24 hours.


So if you train 3 days a week 2 evenings and one longer weekend ride, your deficit will be (4 x 200) + (2 x 500) + 1000 = 2800kcals. If you train more days a week just adjust each day as appropriate.

Youll be putting sufficient carbs back in to always have energy, and you'll drop 4lbs every 5 weeks, although I'd train probably have a week with out a deficit 1 out of every 6 for sanity and just to refuel. So 4lbs every 6 weeks, which is 2.5 stone a year without affecting training and never being that hungry. If that's not enough you might need to re-evaluate your expectations.

There are lots of BMR calculators online. If you stick with a split of 50% carbs : 30% protein : 20% fats for your maintenance amount you won't go too far wrong. Then you just replace your carbs burned while riding.

On a day where you do 1-1.5 hours and burn 1000kcals you're still eating 2300kcals, which is just a normal days eating for most people. Forget all this 1200kcals a day! And of course, when you get nearer your target you can be reducing the deficit meaning youll be eating more and the whole thing is more managable. There's a reason these intense weight loss 'diets' only ever last a few weeks and its because theyre hard to do for long periods.

liversedge

I'm eating 1500 calories a day and 3-4 days per week I ride for 1-2hrs at a low / sub-tempo intensity (but get a bit of vo2max/L567 effort up the bumps as I live in the Surrey Hills and can't avoid them).

I've lost 9kg in 10 weeks and am pretty much hungry all the time and obsessed with when my next meal is

homers_double

Do you super fit/thin roadies drink?

I do and expect thats the main reason for my tum.

dw300

homers double wrote:

Do you super fit/thin roadies drink?

I do and expect thats the main reason for my tum.

There was a thread recently that highlighted that the body is not capable of storing any of the calories that come from the alcohol in alcoholic drinks. Its the calories in the carbs in the drinks (not much in the weekly scheme of things), the rest of your diet, and the amount you train, that govern how much fat you add.

Super fit/thin roadies are like that generally because they are training lots and eating well about 48 weeks in every year, and have been for years.

48 steps forward and 4 steps back yields better results than 38 steps forward and 14 steps back in terms of consistancy of effort. And they're probably doing 2-4 times as much volume as 'roadies with a tum'.

Diamant49

dw300 wrote:

There was a thread recently that highlighted that the body is not capable of storing any of the calories that come from the alcohol in alcoholic drinks. Its the calories in the carbs in the drinks (not much in the weekly scheme of things), the rest of your diet, and the amount you train, that govern how much fat you add.

True, to some extent, but only if you are an extremely heavy drinker - I think its the body's way of adapting to really toxic levels of chronic alcohol intake. Unfortunately for most people the calories in alcohol (7 per g) are still metabolised as normal and can be converted to fat.

dw300

Diamant49 wrote:

dw300 wrote:

There was a thread recently that highlighted that the body is not capable of storing any of the calories that come from the alcohol in alcoholic drinks. Its the calories in the carbs in the drinks (not much in the weekly scheme of things), the rest of your diet, and the amount you train, that govern how much fat you add.

True, to some extent, but only if you are an extremely heavy drinker - I think its the body's way of adapting to really toxic levels of chronic alcohol intake. Unfortunately for most people the calories in alcohol (7 per g) are still metabolised as normal and can be converted to fat.

Thats certainly what you'd think. Having said that, even if you arent a heavy drinker most people will have experienced the warmth that a few drinks provides. There certainly does seem to be some effect of calories being converted directly to heat. I assume as with all things, nothing is black or white, but some calories will get stored and some wont.

fitmang

dw300 wrote:

Thats certainly what you'd think. Having said that, even if you arent a heavy drinker most people will have experienced the warmth that a few drinks provides. There certainly does seem to be some effect of calories being converted directly to heat. I assume as with all things, nothing is black or white, but some calories will get stored and some wont.

I'm no scientist but I've read that the warmth is because alcohol makes your vessels expand making you feel warm. It makes you lose heat faster too which means you get cold easier afterwards. My mate into fitness told me alcohol lowers testosterone and increases estrogen which is what causes that belly (including the calories)

homers_double

The estrogen at least explains the moobs then!