Weight loss accountability buddy or thread discussion

I am not able to ride, so I cant get rack up huge calorie deficits. Way harder to control weight with diet. Its way easier to knock out 5 2000 cal workouts in one week, vs calorie restriction and weights.

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I’m back after a hiatus, maybe this go around I can actually make progress. I’m going to count calories for two weeks and see what happens.

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Anyone have a tips on how to eat on the rest week?
I tends to eat a lot, i mean a lot, on the rest week (averaging about +800 from my daily calorie budget) comparing to the normal week. Tried to eat a lot of veggies buy it seems did’nt work.

A big is the deficit you’re trying to achieve?
I try not to ā€œdietā€ too much on recovery week, as fueling my body will make me faster, which is the point in the long term.

Other than that, I’d say, usual tricks: lots of veg, eating little and often, drinking plenty of water.
All those should help you feel more satiated.
Smaller plates do help, too. And obv, any ā€œemptyā€ calories you can cut those weeks should go first (yeah, I’m looking at you, booze… :smiley: )

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As for myself:
I had given me a 1.5kg flab-budget, so that I could enjoy the festivities and not make everyone around me feel guilty.
I stuck to my training plan 100%, hit some pretty big numbers hours-wise, and I end up actually at -0.3 compared to the 21st of Jan.
So absolutely over the moon. I let things go on festive days, but tried to strike a balance on the other days, and it worked.

I was debating dry January, which is always a challenge for me, since it’s my birthday month (EOM though) but we had skiing holidays planned.
Thankfully (!) Covid means Austria doesn’t want us, so no booze for 4 weeks.
I’m convinced this is the key to me reaching sub 80kg.
Considering where I was early 2020, this is ace!

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I don’t really intended to lose any weight. I track my calories so i can eat on my maintenance calorie. i always trie to paid off the energy that lose after workout. and on my working week, my weight kinda stable.
but still, i can’t help to craving for more on the rest week. At the end of last rest week i gain 2 Kg :frowning:
i just hope i can maintain my weight after this rest week.

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188.8.

I am now back with structured training since November, completed SSB with roughly around 350 to 450tss per week. Before that I did almost exclusively Zone2 training at lower level for almost the whole year 2020 due to health reasons, so mostly burnt fat.
I am on a low carb diet, eat preferably complex carbs in dark bread, nuts, almost no rice, seldomly pasta or potatoes… I dont drink any softdrinks or alcohol, dont eat much sweets, but rather vegetables and fruits, joghurts etc.

Weirdly enough despite the fact that I burnt almost 2500-3500kcal extra per week I am still not getting below 90kg at 188cm height.
This is a reasonable weight and I guess nobody would see any problem with my weight, but I am just wondering: burning so much energy, having not a lot of intake for my stature and age (sometimes I eat less than my daughters), and still no reduction of the absolute number.

Maybe:

  1. i reduced fat and built up muscles, which are heavier
  2. listening to Podcast during all these hours made my brain grow, so also heavier :wink:
  3. …?

From today onwards I will do Traditional Base with about 10h weekly at Endurance/Zone2 for 4 weeks. Maybe this will bring a change.

Any guesses?

I always have the same question when people tell me they aren’t losing weight. Are you tracking all of your calories daily by weighing/measuring foods, ingredients, etc. with a scale and then also using an app like My Fitness Pal?

Because, if you aren’t well then chances are, regardless of how many calories you are burning in exercise, you are eating just as many calories back as you burn, so you aren’t losing weight.

Now, if you are tracking your exact calories and you are running a deficit, how large is it? A common recommendation is 300-500 calories daily. As it takes a deficit of about 3500 calories a week to lose a pound (0.45kg).

Losing weight has very little to do with what happens on the bike, regardless of whether you are burning calories doing Z2 or HIIT workout. It does however have a lot to do what happens in the kitchen and controlling your caloric intake.

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Thanks, yes, I am a Type1 diabetic, have to measure my foods quite exactly to be able to inject the exact amount of insulin and usually know it right away when I eat too many carbs.

I can also track my food by looking at how much insulin I have to inject per day. The more I have to inject, the more I ate. So looking at my last months of intake I have eaten way less and way less carbs than before.

btw: I have definately lost ā€œUnhealthyā€ weight, barely any fat left on the belly. But in absolute numbers the weight did not go down, so I guess it is rather newly built up muscles … or brain :wink:

Actually I think there is some connection to what happens on the bike:

  • doing a high effort session I have to fuel up before, have sometimes to eat during ride and usually end up hungry and eating afterwards.
  • doing a 2h Zone2 ride I dont fuel up, I dont eat during ride, and do not feel overly hungry afterwards.

I almost initially added in to my reply above, if you are doing all of that and not losing weight it could be a medical issue. I’d talk to a doctor about the fact you are restricting your calories but still not losing weight. Perhaps it is a side effect of the insulin?

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[quote=ā€œrentagreement, post:900, topic:36714ā€]

so I guess it is rather newly built up muscles … or brain :wink:[/quote]

You could try getting a DEXA body fat scan. Nate, Chad, and Jonathon got several of them and talked about them several times on the TR podcast.

They cost money but if you got one today and then again in three months you can tell if you are gaining muscles, losing fat, etc.

Actually I think there is some connection to what happens on the bike:

  • doing a high effort session I have to fuel up before, have sometimes to eat during ride and usually end up hungry and eating afterwards.
  • doing a 2h Zone2 ride I dont fuel up, I dont eat during ride, and do not feel overly hungry afterwards.

Yes, you are correct. based on what I’ve read and heard. The calories don’t change, but people when they are doing high intense intervals seem to develop more of hunger versus when they are doing Z2 work. That hunger of course can lead to eating more, etc.

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Hi, is that even measurable? I have a fluctuation of 1-1.5 kg between some days depending on food, sleep, digestion etc. 0.2kg is a glass of water so maybe not something I would regard as real loss of weight. Not to demotivate you :slight_smile:

How do you measure that?

Couple weeks in, stalling, still have a sweet tooth left over from X-mas festivities. Gave up drinking for Jan/Feb. Gotta get back to tracking intake with My Fitness Pal. Have a good week everyone.

Dayum. +0.9 kg on my average last week.
Back down already, but fluctuations are nuts right now :expressionless:
Dunno if it’s the increase in volume, leading to more carbs loading/depleting cycles.
But it feels weird to be oscillating +/- 2kg on the same week, never had that before.

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Unfortunately, weight is creeping back up, together with some really bad habits. A period of stress and moving from the UK back to Italy (together with temporarily staying at my parents’) is not helping, but I’m really demotivated by all this. I thought I had built some solid habits that would sustain, and that would help me in staving off the need to control intake in such a strict manner as when I was counting calories and everything. However, I’ve now had a solid week of overeating, with a couple of binge eating episodes, and it’s really disheartening… Not sure how to move forward with this, I may need to investigate if there are deeper causes to this.

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My weight is also creeping up. Like others, I’ve seen wild weight fluctuations and I definitely formed bad habits over the holiday period. Nothing crazy but as we all know - those little extras (cheese, choc) soon add up.

My bad habits now take the shape of picking after dinner. I set the intention to NOT do this almost daily (lol) but once I’m tired at the end of the day, my resolve dies. Does anyone do this or maybe used to do this? Any top tips to kick the habit?

On the up side - I’ve never been so consistent with my TR programme since most of my riding is indoors right now (been sub-zero in Scotland for over a month).

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I have had the same thing, but what was a lesson for me was understanding what is actually healthy and what do we believe is healthy… an omelette goes from lean food to calorie bomb VERY fast with a little cream and butter in it…

I have lost 3kg (6,6 lbs) in about a month now and this is only from two things… To actually see what I was eating and to control how much I eat. And honestly the last one has been a game changer.

I weigh everything now, and what I am realising is that I have eaten pretty much double the amount of food that I actually have to. So now when I cook, I keep super good track of all that’s in the meal, so I can get macros for each meal, as well as focus on lots of veggies etc.

You get used to smaller portions, and one thing you notice when you actually start to eat proper healthy (like lots of veggies) is that you are just as full as you are when you eat, lets say lasagna, just that you ate 1/2 the calories…

And to make things work for training, I pretty much eat all my calories as carbs, and keep fat on the down low…

I think a lot of people forget how extremely calorie dense fat is… Just doing a scramble eggs with a little cream and a small piece of butter drives the calories through the roof compared to regular boiled eggs…

So what has worked for me is:

  • Get a good scale, weigh your food and know what you’re putting in your mouth
  • Load up on veggies
  • Keep fat low and high carb so you can train hard
  • Find food that works, and stick to it. I have the same breakfast everyday and I love it. 200g Kefir, 30g full grain cereal, and 30g of low sugar strawberry jam + 200ml skimmed milk + double espresso . Its about 250 calories and keeps me plenty full until lunch, even with a workout in-between!
  • Finding a good snack. My go-to is 1/2 honey crunch apple, sliced, with cinnamon on top. I also do banana pancakes quite often, and they are about 100 cals each, which is fine :slight_smile:

Constantly full, no crashes during the afternoon, sleep well, training hard!

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I can only speak form experience and from what my coaches say, and while low carb and high fat does work for some, unless you are very aware of your calorie intake, your high fat diet is probably on the high side… I mean, 15ml olive oil is 120 calories…

Since you are training a lot, I would try to eat more of your calories in carbs, rather than fat… totally aware though that you wouldn’t want to turn your diet around, but fat is so crazy calorie dense that its super easy to just eat too much, even if you’re getting on the bike…

If I were you I would first try 1-2 weeks of actually seeing how much you take in. This means weighing everything when cooking, portions etc etc. You’ll quickly see a trend. Its a pain but its worth it just for the knowledge.

And then once you done that, if you feel that its not enough food with the high fat plan, try high carb and low fat. I do a high carb and low fat diet, but I eat pasta and ride probably 1-2 times a week, the rest is from beans, lentils, veggies etc.

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High carb means loads of insulin shots per day for me, which is per se rather horrible, which is also making workout more dangerous due to risk of hypoglycemia, and moreover is blocking some of the fat-to-energy-conversion processes in the body.
So therefore I keep carbs and intensity of workouts low and go more for fat.

But true, I will check the amount of fat more in detail! Thank you

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