Sounds like great progress, always some ups and downs but seems like you’re finding a groove! well done
Well done! sounds like you are keeping super active and making great progress. I get the comment about your previous sizes and spare tire, I have a closet full of dress clothes (pre-covid) that I’m determined to get back into. This is the year I do it! Hope you do too
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Great job! I like thinking of counting calories as an outlet for obsession rather than a chore, that’s a great mindset option
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Well done for doing all the work on the bike! Shame about the numbers, I’m sure its water weight or muscle!
I bet you can get there this year!
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Great job! Sounds like you are doing great!
It’s amazing how much easier it is to get on the bike in the morning if you haven’t had a been in a while
I started (mountain) biking in the summer of 2023, in part due to realizing how out of shape I had become. M42 at the time 5ft 11 and 225lbs. Started trainerroad in the fall. 193 ftp for a watt per kg of 1.9. I cut alcohol and started riding on a low volume plan. Weight has dropped steadily in phases. Power has gone up tremendously and I have scaled up volume too. My A race last year was lutsen. I weighed 186 and was around 290w. W/kg of 3.5. Got a leadville coin, deferred to 2026 to go sub 9. Currently im at 167lbs and a TR AIFTP of 319 (probably a bit high) but that equates to 4.21. I was always against calorie counting, however i realized alot of the low hanging fruit has been picked. Also alot of training is now habbit, eating healthier has become a habit, so now I just started calorie tracking to see if my macros are right etc, and feel i have the mental bandwith to do it. Tracking with Cronometer has been quite simple and eye opening. My goal is to drop weight further to about 160, but im also thinking of getting a dexascan to know what im doing. The goal is not unhealthy non productive weightloss, but rather getting the body fat down to 12-15pct for a sub 9 leadville. Overall TR and the podcast has helped me alot to figure all this out. It has been a journey, a slow but steady one, take your time, enjoy it and results will come.
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Proud to say I’m down 15 pounds since November. Still relatively new to cycling and I focused too heavily on fueling (aka overeating) in 2025 trying to increase my volume and raise my FTP.
Off season and winter base phase I’ve been diligent about counting calories, hitting protein macros, and periodizing carbs. Hardest thing is the hunger. First few weeks were the hardest but the body seems to have adjusted and I’m back down to my 2024 weight and hoping to lean out a bit more yet.
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Great job all around! How long did it take you to go from 193w to 290w? I would love to get to 3.5w/kg or higher but I’m worried with my size that’s out of reach
Well done! Do you prioritize low fat proteins and lots of fiber? I feel like those really do help with the hunger (as I’m hungry writing this and over my macros for the day 
I need to do better with fiber for sure.. Only hit about half the amount I should most days. Doing well in high quality protein though - chicken, greek yogurt, whey isolate, etc.
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Well done, I’ve really embraced chicken, turkey and greek yogurt. I’ve also been eating cereal in the morning to start the day with lots of fiber. I’ve also figured out the salads I like (lots of beets, cucumbers, tomatoes and lots of dressing) and those two things have made it a lot easier to hit both my fiber targets and keep my fats in check. I’m trying to avoid cheese, red meat and other dense fats. Sushi has also been a good hack and all of these things aren’t too hard to do while traveling for work.
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Here is my history. There is some context. From Sep 2023 I grew pretty quick from 193 to 270 by sep 2024, this included a major back injury that prevented me from riding for the month of January. These are AIFTP numbers and I dont think it was my true FTP. Over that summer I did quite bit of unstructured work and I had issues picking up the training again in the fall of 2024. The AI thought i was stronger then i was, essentially sweetspot was threshold, and threshold workouts led to failure and me dreading workouts. I did the ramptest and started the structure back up at 253. This was some humble pie I had to eat, but training at the right FTP made things so much more pleasant and productive and was a huge aha moment. That adjustment brought me back to 269 in Feb 2025 when the AI thought my FTP was going down while i was upping volume and workouts became easier. I did a ramptest to confirm and bumped up to 280 in March 2025. Then I kept progressing to 310 in August when I broke my collarbone and needed surgery (I dialed my FTP in by feel and picked training back up at 280).
I’m not a very talented athlete pysically, so you probably could do it. My strenght is my commitment, i can stick to a plan and execute it to the T. The TR system works if you follow it, including rest. If you have little setbacks you could probably make a major push towards that target in 1 year.
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Thanks for taking the time and being willing to share all of that! That really gives me some confirmation on what might be reasonable to expect and I’m usually good for following a plan for 4-6 months and then life gets in the way. The next time something like this happens I really need to focus on lower volume but consistsnce to not loose my progress and make my expectations match reasonable steps. Thanks so much that’s super motivating and sorry for you going through all of those challenges. Glad you’re recovering well and keeping up with it all
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What exactly is this getting older bs?
I know I ate a bit much over Xmas but I’m back on the turbo and snacking healthy stuff like apples and crackers but in one month I’d lost an entire 200g, and despite being able to lift/do more there’s no visible change?!
My scales also show bf sitting constantly at 20.x% which may or may not be correct but I’d expect at change at very least. I know the weighing part is close enough as I checked with my kettlebells! When I did track food intake it said I was below maintenance with my exercise so clearly I’m not tracking enough but fucking hell it’s enough to push me back to some really disordered habits.
Seriously does my body just hate me? I can see why people hop on TRT if they have money. Cos I’m fitter than I was but I’ll be buggered if metrics show it.
There ends my venting.
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Getting older is the worst! Well except for the alternative
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I did my usual ~10lb weight gain and 20w FTP loss over the off season and holidays. But I’ve been pretty consistent on strength work and stretching for the last couple months and I’m trying to continue that into the cycling season (I’m only ~2 weeks into the season, but have kept up the strength work so far). I’ve dropped a few lbs since the new year and I’m feeling good on the bike and the watts are already inching up. I think the stretching/mobility/strength work has helped. I’ve been doing all my endurance rides in the drops and aero bars for hours at a time, normally I’d struggle to hold an aero position that long (particularly early in the season). On the diet side, I’m trying to have a salad with pretty much every meal (or as the meal itself) and drink more water. Easy stuff, but I get lazy about diet at times and making little easy changes works well for me (the easy things evolve into more good habits).
I’m currently about 175lbs and hoping to get to ~170 by March 1. FTP was 295w starting the year. The new AIFTP bumped me to 318 this week, but that’s at least 15 watts higher than my true physiological FTP. If I can get to an honest 310w FTP by March 1 (start of build phase), I’ll be stoked. I hit an honest 314 FTP as my peak last season. My goal is to be racing my A event at the end of May at ~167lbs and 320w FTP (which I think would be my all time high of 4.2w/kg at 57 years old). I think the weight goal is very reasonable, I have no idea if I’ll get to those watts.
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When I was aiming for a 500cal deficit, my weight was noticeably decreasing, but when I switched to a 100-300 deficit, the scale would go up and down, I guess because of water weight? It trended down, but the trend was only clearly visible after 2 months instead of after 2 weeks.
The eating “healthy snacks” advice I see in forums doesn’t work for me. I tend to eat out of enjoyment, boredom, or habit more than true hunger, so I’d happily eat 10+ apples every day on top of normal meals if I allowed myself to freely snack. Counting calories is the only thing that keeps me in check. That’s an individual thing, though, of course.
Related to the above, biking keeps me not bored. Even a 30 minute ride is prep + 30 minutes + showering time where I’m not tempted to get a snack.
BTW, for strength workouts, I use an estimate that they burn 150cal. That’s for 6 exercises, 3 sets to a few reps in reserve. No clue how accurate that is, but I don’t do strength work often enough for it to make a big difference. For biking, I use the number TR reports. I don’t know if that includes the basal metabolic rate calories that are independent of the exercise that I shouldn’t “eat back”.
Anyway, good luck!
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Quick summary from last year.
I dropped 33 lb and 10% body fat last year, starting with heavy calorie counting and maintaining a 250-400 calorie deficit. By July, I stopped calorie counting and was just cherry picking random 30-45 min endurance workouts just to “stay in the game”. End of September, I decided to try to peak for an event in early November, but then November to December, decided to push more for weight loss again than power.
No real wisdom on diet/supplements, I am on a daily regiment of 5-10g of creatine/day and I consume at least one casein shake per day, which I feel helps a lot with reducing hunger cravings.
It’s also worth noting that not all of the FTP “gains” are true gains (i.e. even though I started around 160w, I’m returning from taking a year off and way down off my prior peak).
I’ll be eating at a surplus for the first 3 months this year, hoping to hit 4.0w/kg, then scaling back to hopefully slim down to hit 4.2w/kg.
Obligatory plot:
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