Food intake & weight

Are you sure? I would check your scales first. I doubt you've lost that much in one month, as that's about 1lb per day (79-65 = 14kg, then 14*2.2 = 30.8 lb), which would be dangerously quick, and difficult.

In theory losing 1lb in fat requires about 3500 cals deficit. Your round trip commute of 30 miles is likely to burn around 1000 cals, give or take a bit, maybe more if its hilly. Your food intake is hard to judge, but based on what you say, I would guess it's not more than 2,500 cals - depends on portion size.

It would be worth tracking it accurately with a food diary (read labels, put it in a spreadhseet or just write it down), even if just for a week or two to get an idea of your intake. If you don't want to lose any more weight, then you will need to eat more to maintain that level of exercise, or you'll run yourself into the ground.

Several suggestions come to mind:

1) Drizzle some olive oil over your pasta - good healthy fats from olive oil and calorie dense. Maybe also some grated cheese on your pasta - taste and calories!
2) Snack on some nuts and/or seeds. Again good fats/nutrients and calorie dense.
3) Make sure you eat enough fruit and veg. You mention veg on your pasta, but no mention of fruit. You need to eat lots of both when exercising this much as your body needs nutrients. Only downside is fruit and veg are not calorie dense and can be quite filling, so it's a balance.
4) Maybe some carb drinks during cycling or recovery drinks afterwards to top up intake. Chocolate milk is an excellent recovery drink, and very tasty.
5) As you say, up the portions a bit too if need be.
6) Eat cake?!

Don’t make too many changes too quickly; try one or two things at a time until you get a handle on what you need.

Coldcorn wrote:

Yeah, unfortunately the scales are correct. ,

Have you double checked you haven't lost a leg somewhere?

I eat lots of chocolate to maintain weight - it works and tastes good.

You must look very different from what you did a month ago and presumably none of your clothes fit any more? 79kg at 5'10" is quite chunky, where as 65kg is pretty (very?) lean. Perhaps your scales are reading right now (so the same as the Boots scales) but were over-reading massively before?

You probably need about 1000kcal extra on top of what you ate before you started commuting. An extra 1000kcal is actually pretty easy to consume by just increasing all your portion sizes and adding a couple of extra snacks. Simple as that.

But I still can't get my head around how you can lose almost 1lb a day with just a 30 mile commute. 1lb a day equals calorie deficit of ~3500kcal per day and assuming you have weekends off then its even more surprising. Even if you were to have only lost half a lb/day then it'd be heck of a lot if you were just eating normally and cycling 30 miles.

I too am struggling to keep weight stable, and I eat like a horse.. I have gone from 17 stone 8 pounds down to 16 stone dead, and thats in 7 monhs. I am not sure if thats normal weight loss or not. I cycle hard 3 or 4 times a week, any advice again on how normal that amount of weight loss is would be gratefully accepted.

If you were massively overweight I could understand a large drop in weight initially, but to sustain 1lb a day is some going, even if you cycled 3,500 worth of calories a day and kept your food intake the same, the body will just compensate for that sort of weight loss.

I am trying to lose a little more weight, currently 70kgs at 5'8", but no matter what sort of energy I use on the bike, and how little food I eat sometimes, it seems stable at that. Perhaps it is the Snickers bars I eat on the bike, or the other chocolate I eat of it . I did lose some weight last week, though not in the most desirable way, at least it has stayed off.

That does seem a dramatic weight loss and, if correct, I'd suggest you do see your doctor as it could be related to something relatively serious (diabetes & cancer are two that immediately spring to mind) - not worth taking a chance.

Your diet does seem short of good fats. I think 1000cals for 30 miles is a bit of an under estimate unless you ride like a granny but it no way begins to explain the loss you've experienced.

I've sat in hospital for the last 3 weeks and, apart from climbing 7 floors via the stairs a few times a day, I'm completely sedentary. I've being using the Livestrong app to track calories and allowed myself 2000 per day (at 90kg) and the weight's coming off me. I'm at least a notch in on my belt and my jeans will come off without undoing them.

Measure your intake and look to exceed expenditure. But worth getting some medical checks IMO

Headhuunter wrote:

I really wouldn't lay into the processed fats and refined carbs in an attempt to get your weight up as some people here suggest! Bad fats are bad fats and refined sugars are bad whatever and will cause spikes in energy. Neither of these are good whether you're underweight or not. Instead as someone else suggested, eat nuts and seeds, good oils on past like olive oil and slow burn carbs like oats and cereals, wholewheat bread etc and yoghurt etc. You don't seem to eat meat - are you veggie? Perhaps your body would appreciate some protein to build muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat so should help you bulk up. I really would not start chomping through cakes and Mars Bars... Definitely not the way to go. Just increase intake of the healthy stuff.

+1

There are so many healthier ways to gain weight than poisoning your system with refined sugar, and you won't get the peaks and troughs of energy levels that simple refined carbohydrates cause either.