Hi @amygates! I’m going to give you a framework to achieve your weightloss goals that is tried and true. I was a competitive strength athlete for ~a decade and a half & at one point later in my career I showed up at an event thinking I was competing in the 120kg+ category but they gentlemen I wanted to beat were actually in the <120kg. It was a tough weight cut…which is just to say I weighed well over 265lbs.
While I was doing triathlon & running after my weightlifting career my bodyweight was typically around 175lbs. Last year I won an ultracycling nat’l championship at a slightly heavier bodyweight around 185lbs. My last serious strength event was 2nd place @ state champs just before 2005. That’s just to let you know the tips I’m about to give you aren’t just regurgitated from stuff I heard on the internet: it’s stuff that works.
First, test in your depleted state. It doesn’t make sense that fully fed FTP should be the same as depleted FTP. If you test & then deplete your workout plan is going to crush you.
Only eat between 2p and 6:30p. In the words of Allen Lim eat food, not too much, mostly plants. No fad gimmick goofball stuff like gluten free, low carb, vegan, ketogenic…eat normally. If you want to eat ice cream and Twix that’s fine as long as you control energy content of what you eat (it will be harder to control hunger but as long as you have the willpower, no difference to your weightloss goals). Generally speaking it’s easier if you select foods that have lower calorie density.
Do at least 500kcal/day of low intensity cycling…except on one off day/week. Don’t eat on these rides. These rides will act to suppress your appetite for at least a couple hours post ride if they are low intensity rides. That’s 3+ hours out of the day when you’re not eating.
Maintain an additional 500 kcal/day deficit with diet. If you’re only eating between 2p and 6:30p this won’t be as hard as it sounds. In fact, you might feel like you have to constantly eat during the feed time just to get enough calories. I like to workout somewhere around 5p & then have a veggie meal post workout so sometimes that means my last meal might be a little out of the feeding time.
Get more sleep than you normally do. If you don’t get enough sleep you won’t lose weight. Most of us don’t eat while we’re sleeping so if you sleep 10 hours that’s 10 hours you’re not eating. Never go to bed hungry. Always lay down with a full stomach but your last meal has to be veggies. I like green beans, brussel sprouts, broccoli. A little salt…maybe a touch of butter.
@amygates after winning my nat’l champs I let myself enjoy life a little too much & my bodyweight ran up to a little over 205lbs. Starting 15may I depleted myself for a few days then took a ramp test. Then I did the mid volume rolling road race plan for 7 weeks…culminating in a victory at a 50 mile gravel event, a PR/KOM on a 22 mile loop, and a PR/KOM on a 13 mile loop. As of this morning I weighed 188lbs.
So 17 lbs over the course of 7.5 weeks. Not as a sideways brag but just to let you know I’m not just repeating things I heard on a podcast or stuff I read on a forum or even research I saw on pubmed. I’m telling you stuff that works.
Good luck!
