Weight loss pattern

crescent

I was just wondering if anyone else experiences the following pattern?
I cycle throughout the year but obviously more in summer than winter where I'm limited to shorter rides and roller sessions. Essentially my summer programme is from March to October and my winter programme is October to March. In a very general sense my weight fluctuates throughout the year - I tend to lose a bit during the summer and gain a few pounds during the winter. I have always just put this down to being a bit more active during the summer months and the body's natural tendency to add a "winter coat" when it's colder etc. I tend to hover around 80kg +/- 1.5kg depending on whether it's summer or winter as explained above, I'm 5'10" and BMI of 25/26.
I am not a fastidious dieter but do try to maintain a generally healthy lifestyle and diet. The above has been true for recent years and what I find is that around this time of year I tend to go through a phase of more significant weight loss where my body weight typically drops by several pounds with no particular reason i.e. I am not doing anything out of the ordinary in terms of extra riding, just my normal summer riding. Is there such a thing as a cumulative effect of several months exercise where the body undergoes a more significant change as opposed to a more steady, gradual change? The weight change throughout the year is generally only noticeable to me using scales but around September people actually comment that I have lost a fair bit of weight and then it tends to creep back on over the winter months. I'm not worried about it, just curious as to why it seems to happen in such a cyclic fashion.

whoof

I always found the opposite. I would loose weight in the winter ready for the next season. Maintain a weight when racing through out the spring and summer and then in Autumn have a some time when I would not 'train' but just ride with no specific purpose and within reason eat whatever I felt like. This would result in putting on a few pounds which I would then loose in Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb.

Unless you have intelligent fat I don't think there is any cumulative effect.

dw300

Crescent wrote:

I was just wondering if anyone else experiences the following pattern?
I cycle throughout the year but obviously more in summer than winter where I'm limited to shorter rides and roller sessions. Essentially my summer programme is from March to October and my winter programme is October to March. In a very general sense my weight fluctuates throughout the year - I tend to lose a bit during the summer and gain a few pounds during the winter. I have always just put this down to being a bit more active during the summer months and the body's natural tendency to add a "winter coat" when it's colder etc. I tend to hover around 80kg +/- 1.5kg depending on whether it's summer or winter as explained above, I'm 5'10" and BMI of 25/26.
I am not a fastidious dieter but do try to maintain a generally healthy lifestyle and diet. The above has been true for recent years and what I find is that around this time of year I tend to go through a phase of more significant weight loss where my body weight typically drops by several pounds with no particular reason i.e. I am not doing anything out of the ordinary in terms of extra riding, just my normal summer riding. Is there such a thing as a cumulative effect of several months exercise where the body undergoes a more significant change as opposed to a more steady, gradual change? The weight change throughout the year is generally only noticeable to me using scales but around September people actually comment that I have lost a fair bit of weight and then it tends to creep back on over the winter months. I'm not worried about it, just curious as to why it seems to happen in such a cyclic fashion.

With all due respect, you're assuming a lot here dispite having no hard data. You almost certainly are doing a lot more work during the summer months, and that will be about 80% of the reason for what you are seeing. Give us an idea of how many miles you are doing, or link to your Strava or Garmin Connect account so we can analyse some numbers. That's much better than assuming you're not doing much differently. You need to pay much closer attention to the details if you want to make changes.

The winter coat thing is not some unconscious bodily response, its you being less likely to go out in the cold, and eating to stay warm rather than moving to stay warm (thermic effect of food). People use things like this as crutches - reasons they cant achieve their weight goals. You control how much you ride and how much you eat. Take control. Ride more, eat less.

crescent

dw300 wrote:

With all due respect, you're assuming a lot here dispite having no hard data. You almost certainly are doing a lot more work during the summer months, and that will be about 80% of the reason for what you are seeing. Give us an idea of how many miles you are doing, or link to your Strava or Garmin Connect account so we can analyse some numbers. That's much better than assuming you're not doing much differently. You need to pay much closer attention to the details if you want to make changes.

The winter coat thing is not some unconscious bodily response, its you being less likely to go out in the cold, and eating to stay warm rather than moving to stay warm (thermic effect of food). People use things like this as crutches - reasons they cant achieve their weight goals. You control how much you ride and how much you eat. Take control. Ride more, eat less.

Thanks for the responses so far.
DW300, I think you may have misunderstood my post. I am not concerned that I am not achieving a specific goal or target weight - that is not my intention. It is just a general observation that around September I tend to notice a more significant change in weight than any other time of the year. I just wondered if it was normal to see a step change in weight after a few 'plateau' type months where activity levels are generally the same. If I had been doing hugely different mileages or consciously eating significantly less then I could understand it but nothing has changed beyond my normal routine. It has been the same for the last few years and I'm merely curious, not obsessive or disappointed with results.
I do like the idea of having intelligent fat though 8)