Diet- protein, carb and fat %
slowmart
Posts: 4,410
So I’m rebuilding my fitness after a lay off and I’m working towards starting a 28 week programme from 7th September with Trainer road which means I’ll finish on the first day of Spring. My current thinking is (mid volume 5 to 7.2 hrs per week) two blocks of sweet spot/base, 6 weeks each block, one block of build for 8 weeks ending with an 8 weeks specialty phase.
So I want to get my diet correct in terms of calorie intake and % of carbs, protein and fat based on 6-7 hours of trading per week.
I need to lose about half a pound a week for the duration.
Informed comments and insights as to the breakdown of protein, carbs and into my strategy would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
So I want to get my diet correct in terms of calorie intake and % of carbs, protein and fat based on 6-7 hours of trading per week.
I need to lose about half a pound a week for the duration.
Informed comments and insights as to the breakdown of protein, carbs and into my strategy would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring”
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
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Half a pound a week sounds rather unambitious if you are overweight, twice that is eminently doable
And not sustainable and will no doubt lead to weight gain.
OP, your best bet is to go and see a dietician to assess your tolerance to certain food types. There are some that can eat virtually anything and still remain lean and others that walk past a cream cake and put weight on. For quick results do weights instead of cycling a few times a week.
Just getting back into regular training will most likely shift the weight
For some informed comment on how to balance your diet simply google 'NHS balanced diet' and have a read
This. The whole 'diet' industry makes it seem complicated, it really isn't. Don't eat censored (fast food, refined sugar, trans-fats) and keep the portion sizes down. Simple.
What if you just want to lose the fat part without losing the lean muscle? Maybe aim for half a pound per week?
And because it's not 'extreme' - it means it's sustainable...which is the point everyone is making..
Fluid loss through weight loss and the calorie content of water is a total conflation. The two are separate issues and have no relevance to each other.
What I mean is that losing 450 grams, roughly means 220 g of fat, most of the rest is water, the fat more or less is worth 2,000 KCal. To burn it off in a week, you need a calories deficit of about 300 a day
You may benefit from tweaking calorie intake depending on how much exercise you do. Fuel your training adequately but consume less on the days you are doing less or no exercise. Nothing extreme, but just as you don't supersize your dinner after a long ride, try to resist the urge to eat more on an easy/rest day because you supposedly burned x calories in yesterday's session or ride. Avoid eating late in the evening if possible.
A food diary like myfitnesspal might help identify where you're eating more than you need or ensure you get enough protein without overdoing it. The one time protein intake is particularly important is in the few hours after training, less so at other times.
If you're tracking weight then weighing weekly is fine but do it at the same time (e.g. unclothed, first thing in the morning after a pee). Fluctuations are not important, it's the long term trend that matters. If you have a bit of a binge (Christmas, a stag weekend etc) don't fret, just ensure you get back into the pattern and resume your normal intake.
My advice would be if you were following a structured training plan, try to lose the majority of the weight you need to lose during the sweet spot / base phase, and slow it down or maintain during the build and speciality phase. That way, your training isn't compromised by your diet.
No particular protein / carb / fat % required, just eat sensible quantities of healthy food.
If the calorie restriction is too great there is a serious risk that lean tissue will be metabolised to provide energy. The OP will not maximise his fitness gains if muscle tissue is lost. The target is 14 pounds over 28 weeks so why take any risks?
My primary aim is to remain bug free over winter to maximise my gains and as I’m 52 I’m taking a cautious approach to remaining healthy with the increased stresses I’ll be placing on my body.
This is why I have provisionally set my weight loss goal for winter at half a pound a week which I’ll review as I become more informed on the impact of the training stresses.
Desmond Tutu
It's much easier to try and do the weight loss you want earlier in the base phase, because in the build and speciality phases the workload is higher with more, higher intensity intervals and worrying about calories etc then is a pain (and can be counterproductive, although if you're only trying to lose half a pound a week that will probably happen without much effort). Personally I try and get to the weight I want to be in base and then focus on eating well and building power during the later phases.
Unless you're super lean already you can lose a pound a week or maybe more without impacting your training, I'm with ugo on this. Specially in the base phase. Then focus on those VO2 intervals during the later phases...
I don't know about recommended ratios of cards/fats/protein but I did it by cutting out certain foods - sugary stuff and starchy carbs such as bread, pasta, potatoes, rice - it wasn't an atkins type approach as I continued eating plenty of fruit, ate stuff like plain yoghurt and massively upped the amount of veg I ate and all of that stuff has carbs although overall carb intake would have been significantly lower. It was more a change in what I ate than conscious change in quantities. Whether this worked because I reduced my carb intake or because most snacks are carb based so I just snacked less is debatable but whatever it did work.
As regards ratios my take is that what is important is sufficient of each rather than balance and most of us are eating an excess of all 3. The correct ratio would only really matter if we were ideal weight and eating no more than enough to sustain that.
There's a variety of issues involved from motivation and staying power through to avoiding foods you may like that have little nutritional value.
I work with a few athletes who have weight loss goals, and i went through similar myself about 5 years ago in my mid 40s where i lost ~8kg over 5 months in the race season.
With the people i work with, i find it best to generally use a plant based diet for a variety of reasons, including good for health, ample amount of quality carbs to fuel cycle training, plenty of flavours (from herbs and spices, some of which have additional health benefits) and good for reducing inflammation and helping recovery. For those that can't leave meat alone i include that in their diet.
There's obviously a ton of stuff you can google about plant based diets, or weight loss in general from NHS (which someone else mentioned) through to weird and wacky stuff (probably on the advice of an A list Hollywood celeb!). If you'd like some help though, give me a shout.
Ric
p.s. macronutrient ratios may be dependent upon training volume and intensity
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If I tried my hand at trading for 6-7 hours a week I'd probably lose thousands of pounds...
Was that a typo or do you have a cold?
Avoid doing things that lower your immune system such as training rides where you get cold and wet or burning the candle at both ends. If you work indoors then get outside more; make yourself unpopular by opening windows, which be very significant when a colleague has an infection.
Regarding weight, I'd look to make the more significant gains in Autumn rather than through the darkest days of Winter and the beginning of the year. I find Autumn a time when I can drop a couple of kg more easily as the days are cooler but not uncomfortably cold. Try training before breakfast to burn more fat as suggested by Adam Hansen in a recent Telegraph interview.
Don't focus too much on macros but look at what you eat in broader terms. Cutting down sugar and sweet foods is hard but if you persevere then you will also crave them less. Sweet stuff sets you off on an energy rollercoaster that will f..k with your insulin levels and make weight loss more difficult.
I get three colds every year: one at the beginning of (Uni) term in October when new students are around, one at the beginning of term 2 when students return from Christmas holidays (this is typically the worst one, keeps me off work for a couple of days) and the final one just after we do our big outreach event in June, when we get year 8 kids from schools (this is a light one, I don't even need to stay home from work)
My apologies Ugo as I misread the posts. I agree half a stone a week is doable, but preferable around the 2lb a week. Half a lb a week you could do simply by drinking more fluids and going to the bog.