Here’s a good youtube. The Presenter is a biologist from Stanford. He goes deep any many diets. How to Lose Fat with Science-Based Tools | Huberman Lab Podcast #21 - YouTube
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Good video!
Weight for this week logged. Small decrease 
one day this week was at 2kg less than this! But that was after a very hot ride.
Am using my fitness pal currently but 2 small things making it easier. Not bothering to track raw vegetables because their calorie count is so low unless used in huge amounts. Saves a bit of time and faff and also if it gets to dinner time and I’m around 1000 cal deficit left I’m not bothering to track (obviously not eating a burger, and a pint of ice cream etc) as I know it will be less than 1000 cal really.
Just a couple of things making consistency with tracking easier.
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Solid week. Lost .7 kg which I’ll take. Tough to see “only” this loss when I was averaging roughly 1kg a week prior.
I was walking heavy most of the week. I think this was mainly due to the fact that I’ve started walking much more as a routine after 2 weeks of covid. Baby steps to get back to exercise but it felt good to get out.
Plan to start lifting again this week. So I’m expecting weekly weight loss to slow further as I hold onto water. So expecting things to slow despite my diet being pretty much fully dialed in at this point.
Have a good week everyone!
Random q but, would it be ok to report 10-day average on reporting days or just weight on the day?
I think a 10 day rolling average better expresses where one is at without daily fluctuations. I use an app called Happy Scale and it has been great in reporting trends rather than focusing on the day of the weigh in (tho it does both)
Thoughts?
Hi there,
I’ve had a strange year with regards to cycling. I had a muscle tear in a quad a few weeks before Xmas , then it took me longer than I thought it would to get back to 100% normal. When I was hitting my stride in June, I got covid. I got weird tachycardia when exercising for a few more weeks so the covid bout made me stay off the bike for like a month.
During the years I developed bad eating habits due to my cycling. Cycling gave me the green light to drink booze, eat heavy stuff , snack out of boredom or because of anxiety etc… Try as I might I didn’t go over 88 kilos and if I strayed to 90, I would get back to 88 with no effort.
I weighed in at 96,6 a few days ago and I need to do something. I am 1,83 metres tall, and I want to go down to the 80/85 range.
My main points of focus are, limit quick carbs in non training days, do tons of Z2 riding, quit booze as far as social life allows, and try to control cravings. I also try to add lean protein here and there to curb hunger . Let’s see how this goes… I think I overdid it the last couple of days and at one point I felt a bit woozy and was visualizing pastries and candy 
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I have found great success in losing weight by following some pretty good principles laid out in this article.
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Now reporting my 10 day rolling average weight. Lots of fluctuations this week with me hitting 84.7 and 87.0. Today i’m a bit higher than the average (about 200g) but this seems right to me (especially since I had a cheat meal on Sunday which was very high carb).
Introduction of weight training has been nice. Love being back in the gym. Routine is focused on form and to get my body ready for more significant weight training focus after my diet is completed and I’ve done 12 weeks of a maintenance weight plan.
Notes of this week were that my appetite has tanked and its very easy for me to hit my daily calorie targets. To compensate, I’ve eaten a lot more protein and I’ve begun eating more even when I’m not hungry to make sure I don’t lose weight too fast. Day to day fatigue is up but motivation is still high so I’m just assuming that my body is tired for the extra work I’m doing.
Good luck to everyone this week!
I’ve noticed that even weight lifting once per week has escalated my weight loss.
But I’ve also made a large effort to cut candy out of my diet (AND not replace it with sugar-water).
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Assuming that is KG that’s a huge swing over 10 days! Any idea what causes such big swings?
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Combination of new workout routine and stress. Mostly stress since work has been hectic. Happens.
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I don’t see such big swings, perhaps 1kg up maximum if I have a “bad” weekend which usually drops back by the Tuesday!
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Envy that. I retain water like crazy. If I do a hard workout, its not uncommon for me to shed 1-1.5 kg. Carb heavy days can make the scale go up similarly.
When you run out of glycogen, they also lose a lot of water. That is then already times 2-3kg. On keto is always very fast away at the beginning.
So today sees me hit my lowest weight since I’ve started trying to be more careful and consistent with my food. Down to 83.9kg, so another 3.9kg or so before i’m at my goal weight. Anything under 80kg and i’ll be happy. Managed to get down to 79kg when i went to the Alps in 2018 and couldn’t seem to get any lower.
Decided i’m going to do the Marmotte next year, so i’ve got a firm goal to work towards now - hopefully keep up the motivation. means no more booze though 
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I’m right there with you. Covid, injury/surgery, life stress. It happens/happened and now i’m trying to turn it round, too. Good luck with the refocused plan.
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10 day rolling average is 84.7
My weight loss is slowing down on average, but this was another week of large movements. Friday weighed 84.2 after dropping some significant water weight. Highs of the week were 86 for 2 days.
I attribute this lack of weigh change mostly due to water retention. Weight training soreness and a minor tweak to my side that has been quite painful for a few days so I am holding a bit more water than usual. Other measurements confirming that has been a decrease in my waist size down to a flat 38 inches from 39.
Diet compliance has been spot on. Had a more carb heavy day on Saturday which was welcomed. Feel like things are humming along.
Good luck to everyone this week.
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Yeah thats whats so hard. You want to lose weight but you have to accept that if you’re doing more, the scale might not show the results for a while. Averages help in this regard.
I’m about 2 weeks into strength training so I just have to accept that my training load is still high and that my body is responding to it. Might take a bit to see any loss.
Good luck to you this week!
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The Turnaround: Has anyone really accomplished it?
I’m looking at a couple obstacles ahead of me that will sound familiar, probably, to this group.
- Restarting a training program after a couple months off (Covid, ankle surgery, ennui)
- Losing 20-25 pounds
- Breaking some bad diet habits (lots of sugar, lots of beer)
- A hard look a the some of the psychological stuff (i.e. stress eating, emotional eating, lack of discipline)
It’s sort of a comeback (i was about 15 pounds lighter in 2018 for Leadville). Short term, I’m hoping to be ready for the Leadville Stage race next summer. But, I’d like it to be forever (or at least for a long time). I’d like to ride, race, participate for the next 20 years. Being lighter, fitter, happier will make those years even more enjoyable.
I’m signing up, pretty much, for a very significant lifestyle reset that will take place over the course of the next few months, but then go on forever (i hope).
This will probably be my billionth time trying. I would like this one to stick.
I know some of you have done this. What switched on? What made the last attempt “stick”?
- Did you have a moment of clarity?
- Did your “why” shift (i.e. going from vanity or performance reasons to something deeper?)
- Did your tactics shift (i.e. an accountability buddy, enroll your partner, new coach)
In the end, i know full well it will come down to “Harden the F up”.
But, any inspiring stories or unique insights?
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Hey hey, happy to share my 2 cents if thats ok. This might be long (started quick but became an essay so…sorry).
Right now I’m down 10kg and well on the path to my goal of getting to about 12-15% bodyfat. I’m about 4kg striking distance from my lowest weight of 80kg. I’m also dialed in to get to my end goal so I think this time is really it. Happy to reflect a bit now that I’m passing about a 1/3rd of the way to my goals. But i’m mindful that this may be putting the cart before the horse so…anyways…whatever.
For me, my moment of clarity / why, came after a strength training block. I decided at the beginning of the year to just focus on strength training and let my weight sorta hover around 90kg as I recomped into the ideal I had in my head. As I started hitting strength numbers, my weight ballooned. I hit 94 kg on the scale with 30%+ bodyfat. With that I realized suddenly that, “damn I’m obese now”.
Nothing gives you clarity than realizing you’ve put yourself on the path to life long problems should I stay that heavy. That made it real to me that I need to prioritize fat loss and to take it seriously. I’m getting older and the idea of having the ideal “dad bod” for the rest of my life is not a comforting prospect.
Did your tactics shift?
The actual tactics of what I have been doing hasn’t changed much from the first go of losing fat (where I got to 80kg from 89kg before). It really is simple: less calories in and more calories out. But I have kinda come to some realizations about this process that I think might be useful for others who are trying to make the decision of making a weight manipulation goal a priority.
Firstly, I think if you impose a diet on yourself (changing how you eat), the goal of the diet should only be to either gain muscle or to lose fat. Pick one or the other. Don’t try to combine both.
While it is possible to recomp, the time need to accomplish the change is so long (we’re talking multiple years) that you run the risk of never really seeing changes and then you give up. I have not found success in any recomp attempts and I naturally fall back to old habits (so if you can do it, good on you but I haven’t personally found success)
Secondly, you have to make the weight manipulation goal the priority of your efforts for this moment in time. Other goals become secondary and/or are delayed until after you achieve this goal.
This has been helpful in simplifying the things I work on with respect to health at the moment. Activities are performed daily so that I hit a daily expenditure target. However, I must do this every day so I need to be mindful that the activities don’t leave me too fatigued or I can’t burn calories the next day. I know I need to track my caloric intake to make sure that I’m not eating more calories than I am burning. I know I need to use the scale and track my progress consistently. What I need to do is simplified and that has been tremendously helpful in making this attempt stick.
This is not to say that this simplification hasn’t been hard. I love to cycle and I’m extremely competitive so I naturally want to do my best in sports and activities. However, trying to perform optimally isn’t really possible when you’re in a caloric deficit day by day. I mean, being in a caloric deficit is, by definition, not fueling yourself enough to maintain your current weight. I still lift but I know my performance will not be as good as possible (and boy its awful now) and that the effort can’t be too intense because I might cause myself to be fatigued for 2-3 days which might hamper my ability to hit my caloric expenditure targets day-to-day. I’
I’ve had to come to peace with the fact that other goals such as performance are things that will have to be done later. I’ve even put aside TR plans because they assume I’m recovering properly to make the adaptations on the plan (which I’m not given weight loss). To put other goals away for the moment is surprisingly hard emotionally.
The way I’ve turned this into a positive is that framed this period as a “skill building” period. That is, I’ve taken up activities that are lower in intensity but provide me a solid foundation for my time after the fat loss is over.
What I do now is so different than what I do traditionally and its purely to keep intensity in check. I walk a lot more now (1 hour a day first thing in the morning) and the extra impact from walking vs cycling has strengthened my ankles and legs more than cycling has. Its been a great counterbalance. And its repeatable daily. Every morning I walk the block, get my daily cup of coffee, and enjoy the morning as a moment for me.
I also do high rep exercises with very basic movements (such as bw lunges, bench supported db rows, lat pulldowns, goblet squats, external rotation lifts). Not taxing but enough stimulus to develop a solid foundation to build on post diet. Niggles and pains from previous weightlifting movements have gone away due to this routine which has also been nice.
I’ve also focused on other smaller things too which have been helpful. I do about 10 minutes on a balance board to develop my balance. I do dead hangs and dip holds to put me on a better path for pull ups and bodyweight movements. Even boulder a bit to try out something different. Its been weirdly fun to try out new, yet lower intensity, activities.
Yes, I’m not getting faster than my peak. No I’m not stronger than I was when I started. Instead, I’m building the good foundation needed to be faster and stronger than I was before. And being at a healthy weight with this foundation will allow me to crush it.
Thirdly, I’ve practiced some mindfulness habits to help with the emotional side of fat loss.
To be blunt, achieving a diet goal such as fat loss is very boring and can be very long. Every day is about consistently expending more calories than you intake. That gets old pretty fast. Hell, I hate even talking about it daily because its repeating the same damn thing over and over. Also, if your weight manipulation goal is ambitious, you might need to do this for a long time.
A very boring activity that needs to be done consistently for a long period can really get to you sometimes.
To counteract this, I always try to remind myself that I can only take control of the present (and that I am!). When I feel down that I have so much to lose, I remind myself “hey, thats in the past, you are taking charge now and you are making progress”. When I am angry that I can’t perform to the best of my abilities, I think “hey, what have you done better lately that you couldn’t do before?” When the scale doesn’t move for a week, I think “hey, new week, new chance to make progress, lets take stock and see if we need to change things or keep on going.”
Finally, I’m a huge believer in “if it fits your macros (IFFYM) you can eat it”. I still eat ice cream, pizzas, fried food, burgers, you name it. But I am always honest about the calories that the serving may or may not have. If eating it will blow out my diet and make it not possible then…eat a smaller amount if possible. If I can’t, well, then I can’t have it. Pretty simple.
And I mean it about the honesty. BE HONEST ABOUT THE CALORIES IN YOUR FAST FOODS. Go and look up the calories for your favorite junk food. Sure it may cause you to freak out for a second when you see it, but it also a good chance to take stock about them. My favorite laugh is how the McDonalds plain small burger is 250 calories. I used to eat double of them without much thought!
But, let me tell you, knowing I can eat any food I want so long as it fits my target calories and macros, is such an emotional godsend. Some days, I just want ice cream. Some days, I just want some fried chicken. So I have it when I want it. But I have the 100 calorie cup of ice cream and not the pint. I have 3 wings instead of 15. And that’s ok.
That said, if you are hungry, you come to quickly realize that 2 100 calorie cups of ice cream is smaller than a nice large chicken breast of equal calories and you start making different choices purely so you can eat more in volume. You get the flank steak instead of the sirloin but thats much bigger than 3 chicken wings let me tell you.
Anyways, I’m now rambling so let me just summarize with some encouragement.
You’ve made a huge decision about your life and you’re trying your best to better yourself. That’s a huge step. It will be a process for sure, but its an opportunity for you to become a better you!
There will be progress, there will be setbacks, and it isn’t easy. Best thing to do is to make sure you have a clear goal, you understand the fundamentals about how weight manipulation occurs, you arrange things so you can achieve the goal, and you reach out for help if you need it.
Best of luck to you!
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