You’re kidding me right? What are you even answering because it sure ain’t my question.
You’re making this WAY too complex. Eat cleaner, not less. More veggies, more quality food. Have a beer now and then. There’s really no reason you should be weighing your food, cyclists that do this are silly.
Prior to starting TR 3 years ago I weighed 220lb, I currently weigh 180lb (6’4") and eat a more caloric dense diet than I did 3 years ago. The difference is that I have far less alcohol and a diet composed of much higher quality foods. I also don’t have any time restrictions on when I eat, I also think this is silly.
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The difference is not just your quality, it is your calorie deficit from eating the higher quality food and training more.
You shouldn’t call people silly whilst making silly statements.
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I didn’t call anyone in particular silly. I think it’s silly how obsessive endurance athletes can get about food, particularly in weighing their food. Keep it simple, eat a lot of high quality foods, train hard, be smart, get fast.
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I wouldn’t go to those lengths personally, but I can see why someone else would. To each their own, if it works it works. The fastest guys I know don’t really moderate their food or beer consumption
At some point you don’t have to weigh anymore, you know how much calories are in your staple foods.
I’ve logged ~25h hours/wk for the last few weeks. This is only sustainable with being anal about matching expenditure with intake. Otherwise you burn out. Believe me, I’ve been there. With these amounts of calories you have to do some sort of tracking because hunger or “being smart” (whatever that means) alone will not be sufficient. Believe me, I’ve been there. Eating too much when not required, and underfueling under high load.
Some may call this silly but I simply enjoy riding my bike a lot. The process is just as important to me as the final goal, e.g. A-race. And this process is only sustainable with adequate intake.
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try berberine…
Interesting thread. My own experience recently is relatively simple and also seems to go along with recent research that you can get fitter and lose weight at the same time.
Started SSBMV1 and now just about to finish. In that time dropped 3kg, now 65.8 (181cm), so, trying to get racing lean. Without being too into details I eat pretty clean: am veggie, lots of legumes, protein, oats and carbs earlier in the day, measure macros to not overdo the calories, but I never go hungry, I always listen to my tummy, and just eat when hungry, and put down the fork when not. This worked well, and now not so far off my target.
Good luck with it, requires dedication but if you really want it it’s not so hard, I find anyway.
Just a thought but perhaps weighing your food would have kept you from weighing 220?
It’s great that you have your system worked out but it doesn’t make everyone else’s silly if it doesn’t match your methodology. There are a lot of ways to get lean.
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Yep, valid point. I was pretty much sedentary and consumed a fair amount of beer. Dietary choices were decent, but not as good as they are now. I guess what I’m saying is that being so extreme isn’t necessarily required. For some it is, everyone is different. In the end it’s a personal choice. I was telling the original poster that he/she likely doesn’t need to go to those ends in order to see changes.
weight loss/high load from a pro perspective:
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Thing is these guys have an insane load, I wouldn’t follow their routine so much, I think being satiated is the key, eat a balanced diet, it will work fine…
Quick info for what works for me
I’m a stay at home Dad. Twins. My days are often long and tired.
I do use MFP to track calories.
I also do fasting usually I try and get 16 hrs every day.
I train in the mornings mostly at 545am for an hour. And I might try and do a Z2 ride in the afternoon. If the girls allow me.
I’m on a 27 week plan leading to my A race for 2020 in March. SST II x 2 , Build then Specialty
I average 7-9hrs per week.
I am tracking for 7000kjs per day (1673 calls)
Very limited carbs. Using a healthy Mummy meal planner.
I’ve now found Quinoa Brown Rice and Tuna snacks 170g, Add another can of tuna. 1300kjs. Is my go to after training (30mins) snack .
It’s not a diet for me it’s a lifestyle and mentally it’s easier to look at it this way.
I think meal prep will help you, you should consider meal preping for whole week in advance
Best I’ve managed while losing weight is maintaining FTP, not really growing it. I’d probably do things differently, as I really focused on maintaining protein, rather than fuelling workouts or recovery.
So oddly enough i watched a video last night on the TR Youtube channel from a recent podcast which actually talked about body composition, etc. and Chad and Jonathan had both mentioned that training time was not the time to make dietary changes outside of fine tweaking.
They had also both mentioned that once they went below a certain weight they had trouble increasing their FTP, or would lose 1-5 minute power, but at a slightly higher weight they were able to generate more power, enough to compensate for the weight, and some, which actually was more beneficial in race performance.
I’m not in this position because I could stand to lose 5-10lbs and probably not lose any punch, I am not lean yet so I would be shedding belly fat, but when/if I get to that next level and find that my power starts to drop off as I try to shed more weight, I’d rather keep the weight and train harder to add power so I don’t take away from that 1-5 minute power that I’m fairly decent with.
I saw the same podcast but I don’t see it as a binary choice between maintaining or losing fat. I would agree that the composition of the body is best addressed over multiple seasons.
However I’m aiming to lose .5-1lb a week during base if if I feel tired or recovery is compromised I will gladly increase my a calorie intake to the point of maintaining body weight.
Im using the same approach for SSBB2MV but when I start build I’ll be more cautious
But then I’m about 16lbs over weight so it’s a target rich environment 
I’m sure I could stand to lose some weight if I tracked what I eat, but I pretty much munch on whatever, whenever, wherever, and drink just about every night. YOLO though…
you should increase your protein intake to over 2g/kg if you want to try and maintain and build a little whilst dropping some weight… for me it has worked (kind of), but difficult to so sure in all honesty. That number I quote is from a study of Aussie Bodybuilders.
Welcome Jenn!
Good advice unless you are like me and hate hate hate left overs.