Finding out its hard to complete the full workouts due to the diet, should I just do what I can within the workout (completing about 75%) or maybe do a block of more Z2 rides until I hit my weight loss goal. I have sometime before cyclocross season and weight loss is my #1 goal at the moment.
Thanks
Make your diet revolve around your training. Eating during training will make you lose weight more sustainably. (And makes you way faster). Raising FTP and eating healthy should be your #1 goal, not just trying to make the scale say a certain number. If you want to stick to your diet you could just do Z2, yes.
This was something that I struggled with for the longest time. Even though they’ve said a million times, “Don’t diet on the bike” on the podcast, I continued to do it. This spring I said screw it and made sure I was fueling for my rides. The results were great. I am the leanest I’ve ever been and have my highest FTP ever. Just chase the FTP gains, eat healthy and the weight will start to take care of itself. I burn way more calories now with a 344 FTP than I did with a 263 FTP.
I’m not necessarily dieting on the bike, but from the advice given it sounds like I can fuel my workouts better to be able to complete them thoroughly, and then diet for the rest of the day?
yes, if you eat close to your workout and fuel the ride, I think you will find things less difficult. However, if you have a daily calorie deficit of more than 500 calories, I think you’ll find it difficult to sustain.
Depends on the extent to which you’re restricting for the rest of the day. In any case you should prioritize nutrition around your rides, but past a certain point you’ll see an elevated RPE, slower recovery and eventually decreased workout quality. That point depends on a bunch of things- not just the deficit, but also dietary quality and composition, body fat, how long you’ve been restricting, sleep, and how demanding the rest of your day is, amongst others.
There’s not a lot of factors in support of an extremely restrictive diet except when prescribed/monitored by a professional, but if it is necessary I’d probably stick to z2- and if it’s a big enough deficit be prepared to adjust even that.
I’m currently in SSBMV and I am also running a caloric deficit. I’m not sure what you specifically mean by restrictive but I am losing around 5-8 pounds per month since February. Caveat, I switched to SSBMV the end of April.
Here are a few things that helped me: plan a high carb meal 3 hours before my ride and for me that is oats and some fruit with an egg white and kale/spinach omelet for breakfast when I ride at lunch. But a grain or rice bowl for lunch would also work for afternoon/evening rides.
The next biggest thing is an hour or so have a banana or dates and then during the workout a drink mix of 60g of carbs in the form of maltodextrin (Carbo Gain via amazon specifically).
After the ride I have a recovery shake with carbs and protein. The pre ride snack, during ride drink, and post ride shake are typically around the same calories of my ride.
The other two meals are carb focused but more so a lot of fruits and veggies vs starches and grains which helps keep calories lower. I’m also getting a lot of lean protein with those two meals.
I can’t say that I feel 100% fueled but my RPE is low and I haven’t missed a workout and have also been able to do some additional rides with friends each week.
great info thanks
Thanks, RPE super high for sure.
I’m going to be totally honest here.
Is it possible to complete on a restrictive diet losing weight?
Absolutely, time your carbs right, maybe increase them a bit on your harder days, while still keeping to a deficit, afterall, you are doing a lot of work above the average person.
That said, when I really started eating for PERFORMANCE rather than eating for either weight loss or even just body composition, holy crap were the workouts easier, and boy did I get fitter.
Night and day. Eating is like a second job now. I gained a bit of weight for a while, then got a lot stronger in the process, and now my weight is dropping again, and even my RMT has mentioned increased muscle tone and leanness before I started to see it on the scale.
All depends on your specific goals, but eating for performance was way more enjoyable, made the workouts easier, and made me way fitter.
Putting out my best ever hill climb times despite the slight weight gain too. Just way more pop and go.
That’s a great point. Eating for weight loss is not fun or easy. Unfortunately for me weight loss HAD to be a priority. And to the original post really make sure weight loss is needed, why is it needed, and will weight loss allow you to achieve your goals because it’s a grueling process. I’m also starting to work with a dietitian to ensure I’m fueling properly and on the correct path for weight loss in order to not burn out.
Of course!
Big difference between weight loss being really needed or necessary vs optimizing performance, and I have definitely been in both places.
Just good to have the performance and expectations in line with the primary dietary focus.
