Thought I’d share what’s been working for me. I’ve been dropping ~2kg/month with the below strategy, while building FTP back to 2022 summer heights by February 2023. For me, weight loss has been all about calorie deficit combined with consistency. All of my success has been around using MyFitnessPal. Below is how it’s helped me compared to previous weight loss cycles without it:
- Built in macro targets. Trying for 1.5g/kg - 2.4g/kg protein daily. Way harder to get there than I realized!
- Protein makes me feel full and satiated, which was always a problem in the evenings in previous seasons of trying to lose weight.
- Syncs to Strava so automatically brings in calories burned from work outs to adjust daily target
- It has taught me alot about ‘high value’ foods (ones that make me feel full and satiated without being calorie killers) and made me more aware of food choices. I feel less like I’m denying myself something and more like I’m choosing not to because I realize it’s just not quailty food for me.
- Rest days: I’m not as worried maintaining a deficit these days. My body seems to be recovering and denying it nourishment on this day seems weird.
- Workout days: Since the workout ‘burn’ of calories is added to my daily totals, its alot easier to hit my daily deficit target and still get to eat lots and feel full.
- I’m learning what a good level of ‘hungry’ is to go to bed. It should be there but relatively mild and not overly uncomfortable. Then I know I’m in the right spot. In previous years I would go to bed feeling quite hungry and now I know I was probably in massive calorie deficit.
I have a Withing scale (another TR forum recommendation) and can track body comp as I go. I’m definitely losing fat with muscle staying pretty constant with my current plan. I have been only doing base work up till now, with build starting after this rest week. Will be interested to see how my body responds with the intensity.
Question:
What I’m not sure about is how to sustain this weight loss. Most seasons I will lose weight in the December - May time period and then put it back on with the summer time/vacation/family visiting/etc. If anyone has good strategies who can relate, I’d love to hear them. I’m oscillating about 11kgs per season on a 87-98kg range’ish. I’ve heard once you hit 10% loss in terms of body weight, so stop and focus on maintaining for 2-3 months before trying to lose more. I think I will do this. My plan is also to stick with macro tracking throughout that period.