Lose 20 lbs

vlaanderen

Hi!

I'm an Italian cyclist (so, sorry if my English isn't perfect! ) and I'm 23. I had been a cyclist since 2005 to 2012 then I gave up for 4 years. I started again last May and I'm preparing for the next season (as an amateur, in Granfondos). I've already cycled for 2400 miles in 8 weeks (with a lot of climbs).

The problem is: I'm 6'2 and I weigh 178 lbs (two months ago I was 186). During my last season (2012) I was in the range 155-160 and I was really good as a climber (currently I struggle every time the slope is over 6% :shock: even if my ability on flat terrains has improved a lot).

Any ideas about losing that extra 20 pounds?

I would like to specify some points:

• currently I do carb-cycling (LCHF on easy days (4 a week) and HCLF on hard days (3 a week));
• I don't believe in things like MyFitnessPal (as an engineer I cannot forget that humans are not machines and that thermodynamics laws are dramatically different for us! );
• I'm training 5/6xweek and, from September, I'm going to train 4xweek with bike (2 with home trainer during week and 2 long rides on the road in the weekend) and 2xweek cross training (swimming, in order to relax my legs during the off season and a bit of strength training)

Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

P.S. Sorry for the English again!

singleton

Hi Vlaanderen,

First off, your English is great and in truth it is probably better than most people on here, since we learned it from our parents and you learned it from a trained teacher :-)

You probably already know a lot about food, fuel, exercise, nutrition etc. so I'd suggest finding a good book and reading it - something like "racing weight" by Matt Fitzgerald.

keef66

"I don't believe in things like MyFitnessPal (as an engineer I cannot forget that humans are not machines and that thermodynamics laws are dramatically different for us!)"

But you do know that if you want to lose weight you do need to run a calorie deficit? At some stage you're going to have to burn off more cals than you're consuming.

Keep a food diary, weigh and measure everything you eat and drink, and be honest about it. It can be really easy to be consuming more than you think you are. Work out your BMR, and don't believe Garmin's estimates of calories burned!

I've tried reduced calorie eating, but cannot do it 24/7. Especially after exercise I crack and eat too much. What worked for me was the 5:2 diet. Just 600 cals Monday / Thursday, eat what I want the other 5 days. Lost 18 pounds quite easily; might not sound much, but I'm only 5'6" and that was 11% of my body weight.

fenix

Another vote for the 5:2 diet. 6 kilos so far in months.

Garry H

Why not just carry on with whatever you're doing now? Seems to be working...

Maybe the reason you struggle as much on climbs is more down to fitness than weight, as you said, you've only been back to cycling since May and you're comparing yourself to how you were after 7 years of cycling.

vlaanderen

Singleton wrote:

Hi Vlaanderen,

First off, your English is great and in truth it is probably better than most people on here, since we learned it from our parents and you learned it from a trained teacher :-)

You probably already know a lot about food, fuel, exercise, nutrition etc. so I'd suggest finding a good book and reading it - something like "racing weight" by Matt Fitzgerald.

Thanks!

I have "racing weight" but I read it a long time ago! Maybe I should read it another time in order to remind!

vlaanderen

keef66 wrote:

But you do know that if you want to lose weight you do need to run a calorie deficit? At some stage you're going to have to burn off more cals than you're consuming.

Keep a food diary, weigh and measure everything you eat and drink, and be honest about it. It can be really easy to be consuming more than you think you are. Work out your BMR, and don't believe Garmin's estimates of calories burned!

I've tried reduced calorie eating, but cannot do it 24/7. Especially after exercise I crack and eat too much. What worked for me was the 5:2 diet. Just 600 cals Monday / Thursday, eat what I want the other 5 days. Lost 18 pounds quite easily; might not sound much, but I'm only 5'6" and that was 11% of my body weight.

Yes, I know that I must eat less than I consume! I was just pointing out that eating 400 kcal of meat is DIFFERENT from eating 400 kcal of rice since the body burns more calories to DIGEST proteins than carbohydrates!

I could just try to keep a diary and do an estimate but an accurate computation is not possible.

Furthermore, I don't know if a 5:2 diet could work for an athlete that rides 20 hours a week (maybe I could try this autumn/winter?)

vlaanderen

Fenix wrote:

Another vote for the 5:2 diet. 6 kilos so far in months.

Just for an example: what do you usually eat on a "2" day? I mean, do you skip a meal or do you eat less (much less!) at breakfast/lunch/dinner?

guy.spartacus

vlaanderen wrote:

Yes, I know that I must eat less than I consume! I was just pointing out that eating 400 kcal of meat is DIFFERENT from eating 400 kcal of rice since the body burns more calories to DIGEST proteins than carbohydrates!

I could just try to keep a diary and do an estimate but an accurate computation is not possible.

Furthermore, I don't know if a 5:2 diet could work for an athlete that rides 20 hours a week (maybe I could try this autumn/winter?)

MyFitnessPal also shows split of protein/carb/fat on a helpful pie chart. It has recently become very 'ad heavy' since being bought by UnderArmour - I refuse to pay £8 a month to use the premium version though.

webboo

vlaanderen wrote:

Fenix wrote:

Another vote for the 5:2 diet. 6 kilos so far in months.

Just for an example: what do you usually eat on a "2" day? I mean, do you skip a meal or do you eat less (much less!) at breakfast/lunch/dinner?

5 Days with your normal diet, 2 days fasting. You are allowed 600 calories on these fasting days.

vlaanderen

Webboo wrote:

5 Days with your normal diet, 2 days fasting. You are allowed 600 calories on these fasting days.

I've understood that. My question was: how do you distribute these 600 calories in a fasting day? 200-200-200 (breakfast-lunch-dinner) or you skip a meal?

keef66

vlaanderen wrote:

Fenix wrote:

Another vote for the 5:2 diet. 6 kilos so far in months.

Just for an example: what do you usually eat on a "2" day? I mean, do you skip a meal or do you eat less (much less!) at breakfast/lunch/dinner?

I ignored all the strange suggestions in the diet book because they were trying to split the 5-600 calories into 3 meals and snacks.

On a fast day I have a mug of tea with milk first thing, then nothing but water / fruit tea till about 18:30 when I'll have a couple of poached eggs on toast, fish and vegetables or salad, or maybe chunky soup and bread. After that I find I can still do a tempo evening ride of 60-90 minutes, which likely more than accounts for all the calories I've consumed.
I do find I'm a bit hungrier and eat a bit more than normal the day after, but that's OK in the overall scheme of things

vlaanderen

keef66 wrote:

I ignored all the strange suggestions in the diet book because they were trying to split the 5-600 calories into 3 meals and snacks.

On a fast day I have a mug of tea with milk first thing, then nothing but water / fruit tea till about 18:30 when I'll have a couple of poached eggs on toast, fish and vegetables or salad, or maybe chunky soup and bread. After that I find I can still do a tempo evening ride of 60-90 minutes, which likely more than accounts for all the calories I've consumed.
I do find I'm a bit hungrier and eat a bit more than normal the day after, but that's OK in the overall scheme of things

It looks really interesting, especially considering the fact that you train moderately hard in the evening. Now I'm in the last month of intense training but since September (it becomes dark early in the evening and I can't ride after work so I do HT and some cross training apart from weekend long rides on the road) I'll give it an attempt!

webboo

I tend to have a bowl of cereal first thing, then at lunch time. Then a salad with chick peas, olives and humus in the evening. I would do my training prior to my evening meal. I have never noticed a drop in performance, however I'm not going out for more than about 90 minutes although I would do intervals. Or in winter a turbo session.

fenix

For my 600 cals I have a simple sandwich for lunch and a bowl of veg soup later for tea. So that's 400 calories gone.

And then I have 200 extra for some crackers or plain biscuits as a treat later.

It's not hard if you know you can eat at breakfast the next day.

I've also found I can exercise quite happily like this. It's not the food in your tum that's fuelling you.

markhewitt1978

vlaanderen wrote:

[*]I don't believe in things like MyFitnessPal (as an engineer I cannot forget that humans are not machines and that thermodynamics laws are dramatically different for us! );

The laws of thermodynamics are immutable. Until we start getting down to the quantum level they apply just as much to us as they do to weather systems or planets. You can't wave away physics by saying you don't believe in it.

keef66

Give it a go. Some people really cannot manage it and spend their fast days thinking about the food they're not supposed to be eating. I think I find it easy because I'm at work. Might be trickier if I was at home with food available.

And I'd recommend weighing yourself first thing every morning. Might seem a bit excessive, but it helps to get a picture of the general trend rather than a weekly weigh-in which can be a bit demotivating if it happens to be up.

vlaanderen

keef66 wrote:

Give it a go. Some people really cannot manage it and spend their fast days thinking about the food they're not supposed to be eating. I think I find it easy because I'm at work. Might be trickier if I was at home with food available.

And I'd recommend weighing yourself first thing every morning. Might seem a bit excessive, but it helps to get a picture of the general trend rather than a weekly weigh-in which can be a bit demotivating if it happens to be up.

Thanks! I know it's more difficult to manage fasting at home!

I know that, I'm weighing myself every day when I get up!

kingstonian

keef66 wrote:

vlaanderen wrote:

Fenix wrote:

Another vote for the 5:2 diet. 6 kilos so far in months.

Just for an example: what do you usually eat on a "2" day? I mean, do you skip a meal or do you eat less (much less!) at breakfast/lunch/dinner?

I ignored all the strange suggestions in the diet book because they were trying to split the 5-600 calories into 3 meals and snacks.

On a fast day I have a mug of tea with milk first thing, then nothing but water / fruit tea till about 18:30 when I'll have a couple of poached eggs on toast, fish and vegetables or salad, or maybe chunky soup and bread. After that I find I can still do a tempo evening ride of 60-90 minutes, which likely more than accounts for all the calories I've consumed.
I do find I'm a bit hungrier and eat a bit more than normal the day after, but that's OK in the overall scheme of things

Your body will consume somewhere between 1700 to 2000 calories to just keep it ticking over at rest, before you take into account normal activity such as walking around etc. So if you only consume 600 calories, and do a ride that accounts for those 600 calories, then your body will go hunting for the rest it needs.

bikes`n`guns

Just wanted to add. 300 miles a week, chappaue Dude.

diy

I'm another faster - did 5:2 for over 2 years lost about 12kg, I now do 6:1, 5:2 increased my Vo2Max quite a bit and made a massive difference on some ultra distance events.

markhewitt1978

Since January I've lost 29lb, then put on 24lb! I need to find some consistency.