the weight issue

ianbar

i have always been a bigger rider 6'3" tall and varied from as much as near 18st down to 15 st 2 lbs at one point last year. now half the family are on slimming world diet so i have joined in, gone from 15st10lbs down to 14st8lbs. this has already reaped rewards not he road…and i can fit back into my clothes in the wardrobe! now first target for general health is 14st, just over 10 year sago i got too 13st 7lbs when i did my first great north run…never been near that weight again! but my longer term target is 13 st. my generally question/issue is, how far should i go?
13 st is a bmi of 22.7 which i am using as a guide.

I'm sure this is too general a question really, but i am kind of wondering what other peoples bmi is…looking to guys more my height really as a bit of a guide.

CornishInitBey

I am 6"3 and have a BMI of 21.4.

The weight 'thing' has become a bit of an unhealthy obssession recently (going OTT on what foods to eat etc) happy with this BMI if i was to lose anymore i would look unhealthy!

Ohh i am 23 which obviously helps making maintain weight a little easier 8)

I would say 13st. would be spot on should mean you have plenty of power on the flats and lean & mean enough to stick with any whippets on the uphill!

markhewitt1978

My problem is that I can lose weight, I know how to do it, as in doing lots of exercise and sticking to a pretty strict diet. I lost a stone earlier in the year. But it only takes a big family event, being ill or things going less than 100% perfectly and I comfort eat and put all the weight straight back on again .

I'm now on the upper side of 12 stone when I'd got below 12 stone in May (5'6")

keef66

Me too until this year. Weight would go up and down depending on levels of gluttony and exercise / food denial. In January after a perfectly normal Christmas I found myself at an all time record weight of 11st 4lbs; technically overweight since I'm only 5'6". Unlike previous years the weight just wouldn't go away with exercise and trying to eat sensibly; I suspect it gets harder as you age, and I'm 58 now.

Anyway, by February I decided to try something different. I'd seen Michael Mosely's documentary about intermittent fasting and it's potential to make us live longer, but with some interesting side effects on weight loss which in turn led to the 5:2 diet.

So since then I've been eating only 600 calories on Monday and Thursday, and whatever I like on the other 5 days. In practice I achieve the fast days by eating nothing till the evening, when I can have a reasonable sized meal. Thought it would be difficult but found it really easy. In 4 months I lost 18 pounds; it's become a permanent routine and my weight has settled at around 10 stone. Perhaps of more significance though is that my blood lipid profile, which was worrying my GP, has improved dramatically. She's no longer threatening me with statins!

And being 18 pounds lighter means I actually look good in lycra, and it's a difference I notice when riding uphill

dinyull

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19724742#p19724742]ianbar[/url] wrote:

i have always been a bigger rider 6'3" tall and varied from as much as near 18st down to 15 st 2 lbs at one point last year. now half the family are on slimming world diet so i have joined in, gone from 15st10lbs down to 14st8lbs. this has already reaped rewards not he road…and i can fit back into my clothes in the wardrobe! now first target for general health is 14st, just over 10 year sago i got too 13st 7lbs when i did my first great north run…never been near that weight again! but my longer term target is 13 st. my generally question/issue is, how far should i go?
13 st is a bmi of 22.7 which i am using as a guide.

I'm sure this is too general a question really, but i am kind of wondering what other peoples bmi is…looking to guys more my height really as a bit of a guide.

I'd go with what your happy with.

I'm 5'11 and 11st and tbh I wouldn't want to be any lower than that. I know I could probably get down to 65-67kg, but I'd start looking gaunt.

markhewitt1978

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19725681#p19725681]keef66[/url] wrote:

Me too until this year. Weight would go up and down depending on levels of gluttony and exercise / food denial. In January after a perfectly normal Christmas I found myself at an all time record weight of 11st 4lbs; technically overweight since I'm only 5'6". Unlike previous years the weight just wouldn't go away with exercise and trying to eat sensibly; I suspect it gets harder as you age, and I'm 58 now.

Anyway, by February I decided to try something different. I'd seen Michael Mosely's documentary about intermittent fasting and it's potential to make us live longer, but with some interesting side effects on weight loss which in turn led to the 5:2 diet.

So since then I've been eating only 600 calories on Monday and Thursday, and whatever I like on the other 5 days. In practice I achieve the fast days by eating nothing till the evening, when I can have a reasonable sized meal. Thought it would be difficult but found it really easy. In 4 months I lost 18 pounds; it's become a permanent routine and my weight has settled at around 10 stone. Perhaps of more significance though is that my blood lipid profile, which was worrying my GP, has improved dramatically. She's no longer threatening me with statins!

And being 18 pounds lighter means I actually look good in lycra, and it's a difference I notice when riding uphill

Interesting points! Especially the statins bit as I have FH and I'm already on 40mg Atorvastatin at 37 years old.

How does the fasting days work with cycling?

keef66

Interesting points! Especially the statins bit as I have FH and I'm already on 40mg Atorvastatin at 37 years old.

How does the fasting days work with cycling?

It's fine as long as the fasting days are normal work days, ie drive to work, slouch at a desk for a few hours, lunchtime walk, bit more slouching then drive home. Then I can have my evening poached eggs or beans on toast, and go out on the bike for an hour or two without any problem.

I did try fasting on a day off work which involved 2 dog walks, a bit of gardening and DIY, and a bike ride, and I did start to feel a bit odd towards the end of the ride. So I think you'd have to experiment with what works for you on a fast day.

I've recommended 5:2 to a few colleagues; seems some find it easy and some really can't do it. I'd rather do it my way and consume nearly all my calories in the evening; the alternative of trying to come up with 3 meals all less than 200 cals is quite a challenge and leads to some rather odd suggestions if you follow the book.

mamil314

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19725681#p19725681]keef66[/url] wrote:

I actually look good in lycra,

Sorry, Sir, just no. No man does.

ianbar

i guess some if it is a wait and see, if i get down to 13st i will need a whole new wardrobe! not to mention cycling gear! i don't really want to be all skin and bones, i am pretty broad. the unknown will be when i drop to about 13st and find I'm so much faster etc that i want to push on but will cross that bridge when i come to it.

i have set the target of post xmas indulgence at 14st max, i think i ail find it harder to lose weight lower then this, coupled with a training pln for over winter (very little riding last year) i should be pretty fit and lean by spring.

keef66

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19725780#p19725780]mamil314[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19725681#p19725681]keef66[/url] wrote:

I actually look good in lycra,

Sorry, Sir, just no. No man does.

Well I think I do. Better anyway. The rest of the family don't ridicule me anywhere near as much as they used to, and my youngest son paid me a backhanded compliment when he said I looked like a schoolboy

ianbar

no one looks good in lycra…well can't say the same about women but thats another story! but while no man looks "good" some ail look the "part" or "fast" and i certainly don't look like that lol

cycleclinic

I have a bmi of 24 6ft1 and 82.5kg. I would love to shed 10 kg (as I find keeping up on hilly races hard) but as I ride, loosing weight is hard. My weight is very stable varying buy 0.2kg generally and if I eat fewer calories than I use I would not be able to ride as much. The danger with reducing my mileage is I might not reduce my calorie intake by enough and I put on weight.

Keep up the work but don't let the weight loss take over I know I could not ride on a slimming world diet my wife does it and when she cooks a slimming world meal I am in the cupboards straight after.

ianbar

no i was worried when we started diet that i wouldn't have the energy to ride but it has been fine. to be honest you can eat as much as you want it just has to be the right things and carbs are allowed so i have found it fine. when i know i have a long ride due i usually eat a little more (if i am burning 2500+ cals i don't worry too much about having a little more the night before etc). the diet affecting energy might kick in more down the line. i am not obsessed currently i have not ridden quite as much as last year for example so never felt my fitness has been right this year so it is a mix of fitness and weight.

wavefront

OP, I would stick to the weight 'you' want to be rather than what others are. What are you comfortable with or what do 'you' want to get to?

I'm 6ft, and at 62.5kg my BMI is about 18.6. (Body fat about 7ish%) Apparently that is 'healthy', but I'm not that comfortable with it longer term and it'll be going up for winter (it's my summer race weight). I can fly up hills, but feel on the ragged edge a little and it's not the best look!

I'd pay little attention to BMI as its so general and useless, and maybe look at body fat instead of you want guidance.

wavefront

And I eat like a pig a lot of the time!!

whoof

A quick look at on Wiki and Magnus Backstedt is 1.93 m and 94 kg which gives BMI 25.2. That's higher than me and I'm carrying a bit a fat these days but then I'm 1.73 m. Probably goes to show you shouldn't put much trust in BMI as a measure of anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_B%C3%A4ckstedt

diy

I found I was faster on fasting days - as long as I was riding for less than 2 1/2 hours otherwise the last 40 mins or so was a bit of a struggle. I'm currently doing a 6:1 on 10% rda rather than the 25% you do normally. There is also a 4:3 version of the 5:2.

Yesterday I did about 2-3 hours of hard cardio and high rep weights on no more than 100-150kcal of food.

my BMI is a bit high ~23, but I have quite high LMM, due to bodybuilding type training.

Unamed2.0

looking to guys more my height really as a bit of a guide

FWIW I'm 190cm, and back up to about 89kgs. Did quite well over the summer and got down to 83kg but I've lost the willpower recently. If I was serious I should probably get down to ~75kg as I'm a fairly slim build ... but I do enjoy eating a little too much (in both senses). I do live where it's fairly flat too, so there's less of a motivation than if I had to climb much when out and about.

ianbar

using bmi was more of a guide to give me a target. 14 st gets me just inside the healthy cat, 13st is roughly in the middle.

the_jackalcp

I'm your height and weigh approx 70kgs, maybe 68-69 during the summer months.

For me it has never been about chasing a weight, I just ride and eat what I fancy although I don't drink. The very nature of our sport generally leads to weight loss unless you are eating a lot of bad foods and alcohol. Your body will find a natural equilibrium, I've been a stable weight for several years.

Bear in mind that the more miles you put in you will naturally start to lose some muscle mass from your upper body as well as some adaptaion of your leg muscles. It's not all about the fat

IShaggy

Ride often, eat healthily - especially making sure that you eat enough ptotein to pet your muscles rebuild after rides, drink little or no alcohol, and have the occasional treat, and then let your body determine what weight it shoud be.