Very nice work. I would say from my own carb loading experiences you do need to be mentally strong to cope with the potential weight fluctuations that can or will occur.
Seen similar though in terms of weight progress with priority on those carbs.
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It will be nice work when I stop the yo-yoing. I’m lucky that my wife cares about nutrition, and glares at me when I eat/drink too fast / too much. Once you’ve got the basics down, and understand the importance of fueling and recovery, IMHO it comes down to experimenting with timing.
One thing is clear in my own mind (true or not) - I feel there is a different conversation on the topic if you already lean (not me), versus talking to someone like myself that has the opportunity to lose 10kg or more.
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I’ve been a bit more consistent with my calorie intake lately. I’ve noted before alcohol and late night eating are the 2 things that do me in. I’ve actually made a point to have larger meals during the day…figuring a couple extra hundred calories a meal of say chicken/veggies/rice is way preferable to pounding 1000 calorie snack at 9:30 pm.
The alcohol is staying though lol. Cutting back, and wine instead of beer. Seems like eliminating the late night junk food on its own is enough…too early to tell for sure, but seems weight is nudging down a bit.
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Baby steps and constant improvement over months is better than crash dieting IMHO. My personal advice is to focus on the two big macros, based on the amount of endurance work you are doing. And a little more protein as you hit 50 and beyond.
Yesterday I heard something about Kevin Maginnis losing 58 pounds (started at 238lbs) and only ate McDonalds for 100 days. Portion control. If you haven’t seen the story, search his name and it will pop up.
NOT recommending the “McDonalds for 100 days” approach to anyone. Just found that interesting.
Most people talk about losing fat, but I think I have a unique “problem” where my upper body is quite muscular despite doing no heavy weights and barely any upper body exercise. While I’d like to lose fat instead of muscle, I am also aware that if I lost all my fat, my upper body would still be way more muscular than my competition.
So are there ways to lose upper body weight selectively? Typing this final question I feel kinda stupid but I’m going to “send it” anyways 
I am perpetually trying to lose weight and it pretty much comes down to starving myself at night. I am kinda wondering if it’s just not possible for me to get super lean. Or if I’m just not trying hard enough.
I have the opposite problem lol. Even before cycling…I’ve got calves naturally more muscular than a lot of bodybuilders…
The usual advice is to do the opposite, but that doesn’t apply since you didn’t do anything to build those muscles.
Right, that is either from genetics, or from lifting heavy weights 20 years ago. But whatever it is coming from now, my upper body musculature is not something I work on AT ALL other than the occasional pushups once every 2 weeks or when I feel like it
It’ll only make a very marginal difference to your cycling performance, but might make the world of difference to your special someone
Frankly, you’re not trying hard enough.
But that’s ok.
Cycling performance goals get in the way, which is why you’re also asking about how you can lose upper muscle mass, which is muscle you’ll probably wish you had in older age.
I know upper body muscle mass reduction was something that track riders transitioning to road racing were concerned with to achieve optimum power to weight but unless you’re already at 8% body fat, you should probably NOT be focusing on muscle atrophy!
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ok ok I’ll stop eating ice cream
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Ice cream is my kryptonite.
Ive tried lower fat varieties but perhaps I should take the advice of some of the posters above with the ‘carbs don’t make you fat’ and have unreasonable amounts of sorbet instead.
Also chunks of frozen ripe banana blended with some cocoa powder / peanut butter / Nutella is a healthier option.
Very nice after a hot training session.
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When I listen to them talk about food I feel like a human garbage disposal. I do not struggle to get enough calories, not even a little bit. It is never hard for me to take in food, I like doing it, probably too much. I started cycling to lose weight. The TR team is in a totally different space with this topic so when it comes up I don’t relate at all.
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I’d have to assume the vast majority of cyclists are in the same boat.
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I think it’s best to get away from the notion of calories and focus on more useful things associated with health and performance.
Fuel workouts with carbs and fluids, sort out the rest of one’s nutrition separately.
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I’ve finished my major training for the year and have just spent a week recovering from Ironman so I’m looking at “time restricted feeding”, sleeping well and low intensity exercise as I rebuild.
This chap seems to know a bit about it:
Nothing crazy to start, first coffee after seven am, last bite to eat at seven pm. See how that goes with my life style.
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I’ll say it works pretty well for me when I’m not doing a ton of endurance work. Generally I couple it with low-ish carb / paleo-ish type of diet (Will eat dairy and eggs) and basically do black coffee when I wake up, first meal is lunch, no snacking after dinner. Takes a little bit to get going, but you fall into a routine pretty quickly.
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Time restricted eating works well for me…usually first meal at 10am to noon and last meal is finished at 6pm. I’ll do this about 5 to 6 days per week. Of course when I have a long ride scheduled for Saturday morning this doesn’t work or I’ll be dropped by the guys when I bonk. But it helps me cut out snacking and lose weight the other days of the week.
Let me add one thing why I like low-ish carb to go along with it. Generally carbs, especially simple carbs like rice, pasta, sugars make me want to eat more carbs. Once I “prime the pump” it’s hard to stop. Protein and healthy fats and whole-food carbs like veggies have a higher satiety and make it easier to just eat when you get hungry, and until you’re not hungry.
If you drink lots of water, have your coffee when you wake up, basically after a little adaptation, you’re just getting out of the routine of eating when you wake up, and waiting until you’re actually hungry.
But, it doesn’t work when you’re doing the volume/intensity where you need the extra carbs and need the time during the day to get them down and absorb them.
For an all-around healthy lifestyle, I think this is the way to go.
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I generally agree with this. Not necessarily the time restricted part…though on a basic level yea eating over less time would generally translate to eating less.
But for carbs…carbs are generally the thing that is adjusted when accounting for higher or lower training volume. To me…it just logically makes sense they would be the first thing to change based on reduced calorie intake for weight loss as well.