Weight shedding plan

ugo.santalucia

Ai_1 wrote:

I need to take a bit of inspiration from your approach. My discipline has been poor of late and weight is starting to very slowly edge in the wrong direction

The secret is to get on the scale a lot... success makes "food deprivation" easier to handle. If you only weigh yourself once a week, it's very easy to fall into temptation and get into these gorging/starving patterns, but if you do it every morning, somehow you always want to achieve something, no matter how small it is... I take 100 grams thank you.
The first 7-10 days were a bit harder, but once you get used to avoid sweet or savoury treats and alcohol and the supply of the stuff in your house runs dry, it gets easier.
Some tricks: If you are hungry in the evenning, brush your teeth with a strong minted toothpaste... it kind of kills the cravings by anesthetising your mouth... if you are hungry in the afternoon, get a cup of tea, it fills the stomach at no cost. I do drink a glass of white wine with my dinner (a 175 mm one) but no other alcohol intake... if you are a weekend pub person, then it's harder... luckily I am not

fudgey

Wine is the worst isnt it? most calorific per ml compared to larger etc.
drink clear spirits if you must, vodka, gin etc

i have cut out all booze for over 8 months now, initially i lost a few lb just though not drinking but i have not drastically changed my diet all that much so got to a certain weight and just stayed there. so for me cutting out all booze has not that huge an effect on my weight as i thought it would.

fair play for staying dedicated to your diet plan tho

ugo.santalucia

Fudgey wrote:

Wine is the worst isnt it? most calorific per ml compared to larger etc.
drink clear spirits if you must, vodka, gin etc

Not being British, I don't drink with the aim of ingesting alcohol... I'd be happy with a low alcohol alternative, but disappointingly, alcohol free beer has pretty much the same calories than normal beer.
I am also not Russian, so I won't drink vodka with my dinner.
There's around 130 KCal in a 175 ml glass of wine, so it's roughly 5% of the daily intake... I think I can live with that

ai_1

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Ai_1 wrote:

I need to take a bit of inspiration from your approach. My discipline has been poor of late and weight is starting to very slowly edge in the wrong direction

The secret is to get on the scale a lot... success makes "food deprivation" easier to handle. If you only weigh yourself once a week, it's very easy to fall into temptation and get into these gorging/starving patterns, but if you do it every morning, somehow you always want to achieve something, no matter how small it is... I take 100 grams thank you.
The first 7-10 days were a bit harder, but once you get used to avoid sweet or savoury treats and alcohol and the supply of the stuff in your house runs dry, it gets easier.
Some tricks: If you are hungry in the evenning, brush your teeth with a strong minted toothpaste... it kind of kills the cravings by anesthetising your mouth... if you are hungry in the afternoon, get a cup of tea, it fills the stomach at no cost. I do drink a glass of white wine with my dinner (a 175 mm one) but no other alcohol intake... if you are a weekend pub person, then it's harder... luckily I am not

Yeah, I've been getting on the scale pretty frequently for the past two months and seeing almost the same number every day (occasionally it rises 0.1-0.2kg). I'm simply not actually doing anything to start reducing it. I've managed it a few times in the past 4 years and sustainably dropped weight over a period of a few months. I started out with about 16-20kg excess weight. I've lost a few kg each year during the spring/summer and tend to put back on a little over winter but the trend is still downwards. I no longer look overweight but losing the last few excess kg would I'm sure help with both my cycling and running performance. As you say I do find it gets easier once you get a week or two in and start making progress. I do like a nice craft beer or glass of wine in the evening with dinner. I had cut that out for a long time but the habit has crept back. I think I just need to ban myself from any alcohol Monday through Thursday. I don't drink lots at the weekend anyway but a glass or two a couple of evenings a week really adds up.
I like your toothpaste tip. I might try that!
Cravings are incredibly difficult to resist. It's a legacy from our evolution and the reason so many people consistently fail with the mainstream fad diets (perhaps I'm getting off topic!).
Anyway my point is breaking the habits has been the important thing for me. I've actually found in the past that a good training session in the evening often provided satisfaction that replaces some of the satisfaction you would otherwise crave from sugars and fats. So perhaps more training is the answer - After all hunger is as much psychological as physical!

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Fudgey wrote:

Wine is the worst isnt it? most calorific per ml compared to larger etc.
drink clear spirits if you must, vodka, gin etc

Not being British, I don't drink with the aim of ingesting alcohol... I'd be happy with a low alcohol alternative, but disappointingly, alcohol free beer has pretty much the same calories than normal beer.
I am also not Russian, so I won't drink vodka with my dinner.
There's around 130 KCal in a 175 ml glass of wine, so it's roughly 5% of the daily intake... I think I can live with that

I don't get the point of drinking something different in order to reduce the impact. I'll have what I enjoy or I'll have nothing. I'm not British either, I'm Irish, but still I don't drink to get pissed. I drink because I enjoy good wine and beer.
There are no really good zero or low alcohol beers or wines that I've ever had. Alcohol is a fundamental part of delivering the flavour. As you say there's not much caloric saving anyway although the fact you're taking in calories as alcohol at all is a negative. If I remember correctly alcohol absorption is similar or worse than sugars in being pretty high impact as opposed to complex carbs which has less impact for the same injested calories.

fudgey

Ha i wasnt trying to suggest you drink vodka with your dinner etc. i hate the stuff personally and most spirits to be honest.

I stopped drinking for a few reasons tho not just the calories. I started getting a headache the next morning after as little as 2 pints of beer etc.

ugo.santalucia

Fudgey wrote:

I stopped drinking for a few reasons tho not just the calories. I started getting a headache the next morning after as little as 2 pints of beer etc.

I get the same, sometimes after just one pint, but I am not convinced it's the alcohol... I don't get it with as many units of wine or even cider and I don't get it if I drink beer abroad (France, Italy, Spain)... I wonder if there is something else in some beers that gives me a headache... sugars, preservatives, who knows?

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Fudgey wrote:

I stopped drinking for a few reasons tho not just the calories. I started getting a headache the next morning after as little as 2 pints of beer etc.

I get the same, sometimes after just one pint, but I am not convinced it's the alcohol... I don't get it with as many units of wine or even cider and I don't get it if I drink beer abroad (France, Italy, Spain)... I wonder if there is something else in some beers that gives me a headache... sugars, preservatives, who knows?

Interesting - some Dutch beer doesn't agree with me (certainly doesn't refresh the parts other beers cannot reach... )

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

Interesting - some Dutch beer doesn't agree with me (certainly doesn't refresh the parts other beers cannot reach... )

I get the same with Leffe and other strong Belgian beers... completely verboten...

fudgey

Leffe is brutal, i liked that a lot, just not the next day in bed puking with a horrific hangover!
I went on a training course in Lohr, Germany a few years ago. the local brewed pills was lovely, must have no chemicals in it as we got through a lot and felt fine the next day.

Either way, i dont miss drinking alcohol and it wasnt as hard to give up as i thought it would be.

roryo07

Exercising early in the morning before you eat burns the most fat!

surrey_commuter

am very surprised that on a cycling forum nobody has advised cycling more - surely lengthening the commute by 10 mins each way would help take the weight off.

fudgey

I imagine time is a limiting factor on a commute. Edit: thought you put 10 miles, not 10 mins...

The shortest route each way for me is 10 miles which i can do in 30 mins, but when i have time i can do a 17.5mile route. But that is not very often.
Plus i dont ride every day.

ai_1

Surrey Commuter wrote:

am very surprised that on a cycling forum nobody has advised cycling more - surely lengthening the commute by 10 mins each way would help take the weight off.

Cycling more will use some more calories but assuming, as an experienced cyclist, he's already doing the amount of cycling he wants, I wouldn't think that's a valid solution really. I think exercise is a valid suggestion for someone who is inactive or only a little active but food is the crucial factor for anyone who is already active and it can't be ignored regardless how much cycling you do.

ugo.santalucia

My 2 x 50 minutes commute is treated as a race... it's 2 x 13 miles with around 60-70 sets of lights... so there is a lot of accelerations to do... I am often shattered after, more so than after a 3 hours ride in the countryside... if I make it longer, I'll probably drop intensity, so not much point in terms of training and probably similar calories. Plus in winter especially one tends to pick the safest routes rather than the longest or the shortest... staying alive is the priority.

The problem was lack of discipline with food and drinks and it's showing now

diy

Even at a sprint/race pace another 10 mins 5 x a week will equate to less than kg in a month.

You need to consum roughly 3,300Kcal per lb of fat burnt. Normal cardio exercise really isn't the answer to weightloss, particularly as you get more efficient the more you do (to a point). Increasing muscle mass can be as it increases the amount of calories needed at rest.

There are also some arguments that big weights can increase growth hormone production, but probably not a useful thing for an experience cyclist.

ugo.santalucia

Job done.... 3 kg in as many weeks... wasn't too hard... now all I need to do is maintain and then give it another dent (maybe another 2 Kg) towards February-March. I thought it is pointless to drop too much weight too early

slowbike

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Job done.... 3 kg in as many weeks...

and now you have no excuse for being slower than me ...

ugo.santalucia

Slowbike wrote:

and now you have no excuse for being slower than me ...

I have never been and never will be slower than you...

allanw

Ugo - an "executive summary" of your successful weight shedding plan would be much appreciated. Trawling through the 168 previous posts in this thread is beyond me.

ugo.santalucia

allanw wrote:

Ugo - an "executive summary" of your successful weight shedding plan would be much appreciated. Trawling through the 168 previous posts in this thread is beyond me.

Basically I did stick to the original plan in the first post, only swapping the morning porridge with an egg a large slice of rye bread and I lost just over 2 pounds a week without changing my lifestyle. I do cycle about 8-12 hours a week. I did find it pretty straightforward... you just have to avoid buying snacks and alcohol... if it's not in the house, you can't have it... easy...

slowbike

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

and now you have no excuse for being slower than me ...

I have never been and never will be slower than you...

oo ... he bites!

allanw

ugo.santalucia wrote:

allanw wrote:

Ugo - an "executive summary" of your successful weight shedding plan would be much appreciated. Trawling through the 168 previous posts in this thread is beyond me.

Basically I did stick to the original plan in the first post, only swapping the morning porridge with an egg a large slice of rye bread and I lost just over 2 pounds a week without changing my lifestyle. I do cycle about 8-12 hours a week. I did find it pretty straightforward... you just have to avoid buying snacks and alcohol... if it's not in the house, you can't have it... easy...

thanks - only need to prevent my wife bringing chocolate into the house then...usually my downfall

ugo.santalucia

allanw wrote:

thanks - only need to prevent my wife bringing chocolate into the house then...usually my downfall

The low sugar 85% chocolate is fine, you can't eat as much of it anyway... the problem is the highly addictive, high sugar milk chocolate stuff... which you can easily eat plenty of... but yes, as a rule of thumb chocolate is out

apreading

ugo.santalucia wrote:

The low sugar 85% chocolate is fine, you can't eat as much of it anyway...

oh yes I can - love it!

My problem is that the house is permanently stocked for the kids packed lunches etc. Used to be that if I wanted something I had to go out and get it, so either I didnt bother or I got some exercise in doing so.

ugo.santalucia

apreading wrote:

My problem is that the house is permanently stocked for the kids packed lunches etc. Used to be that if I wanted something I had to go out and get it, so either I didnt bother or I got some exercise in doing so.

Put the kids on a diet too... all that processed palate-pleasing sweet/savoury stuff is not good for them either...

Grifteruk

Like you Ugo I am looking at losing a small amount of weight but don't see a massive benefit in doing so right now when my target event is in Aug 2015. Maintenance is very much the key alongside potentially a few pounds of weight loss if it happens. I am aiming to get out the other side of Christmas having not done any damage and start next year some 3-4kg lower than Jan 2014. That way i'm only looking to drop 3-4kg after Xmas instead of closer to 7-8kg.

diy

quite a few of the gym bunnies argue that HIIT gives you a post work out calorie burn more than the equiv of sustained "flat" exercise. I asked why, but was told it just does - at which point I switched off and assumed it was like half the other crap that the Gym bunnies are fed to spout to their clients.

Is there any evidence that say 500kcal burned due to HIIT will give better than say 500kcal burned in zone 2 for example? My only thought is that with HIIT you might deplete some of the expensive to produce energies which require more kcal to re-produce*

* that was a guess btw. any other opinions?

keef66

I think Michael Moseley included a form of HIIT in one of his documentaries a couple of years ago. Showed several health benefits to going flat out on an exercise bike for a couple of minutes. Not sure if post-exercise calorie burn was one of them, but I'm vaguely aware that I've read about it too. I always assumed it works because you're replacing depleted glycogen etc and repairing stuff...

Off for a Google.

keef66

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_pos ... onsumption

OK, it's Wikipedia, but it all sounds plausible to me.

ugo.santalucia

The point being that I don't ride my bike to lose weight... I ride it because I like to ride it... and I am not overly keen to ride in "zone 2"... so even if that work out would be a better fat burner, it's boring as hell