I guess the core issue here is that I simply do not accept that the population of cyclists is at a greater risk of under-eating than overeating. I still view diabetes, obesity related diseases, and heart disease as the far greater concern relative to under-eating.
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Way late to this because of the holiday weekend, however, here’s what I did and why I did it.
I aimed for a pretty big deficit. For me, I set a target of 2000 cal and pretty much ate that regardless of training. On bigger days, I’d go up to 2500 or so. I absolutely hate cutting weight and I hate counting calories and I hate everything else dealing with weight loss. As an alternative, I like training, I like gaining fitness, I like going hard. So my thought is, lets dump as much weight as possible as quick as possible to limit the amount of time I have to screw around losing weight. If I lose a bit of fitness or muscle or whatever, fine. I like the process of training and would gladly do that than than deal with a drawn out 4-5 month calorie counting ordeal. That said, I didn’t end up losing fitness. I went from 330->347 this spring.
The one piece of advice from TR I was did really follow though was not dieting on the bike. If I was doing anything other than Z2, I was taking in calories while riding. Even if it was an hour workout. I never failed a workout and would err on the side of consuming too many calories than not enough if it was a hard workout. I think this, along with eating quality, nutrient dense food, is why I was able to keep/increase fitness.
Disclaimer: Your results may vary. I am traditionally pretty good with cutting weight. I used this same method when power lifting for the same reasons. Lifting heavy things is fun. Losing weight isn’t fun. I’d rather do the fun thing longer than the unfun thing.
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Just out of curiosity…what kind of deficits were your running? With an ftp north of 300 and staying around 2000-2500 calories…I assume you had a lot of 1000 calorie plus days?
Doing unfun things for as short a time as possible is definitely how my brain works and how it works best for me.
I think sometimes its assumed that if you are happy to slog out a dull 8 week zone 2 plan for 5 more watts on your FTP, then you’d be happy with a slow and steady weight loss plan for a small amount of weight loss at the end.
If you have a power lifting background then you probably look at weight a bit differently than a lot of cyclists though, as well as knowing how much and easily it can fluctuate.
Lowest consistent season weight, and lowest competition weight and weigh in with a much higher walk around weight should be approached quite differently.
I have a martial arts background, so getting to fight day 4kg lighter than I would be a few days later is was pretty normal.
I think I try to frame my diet as a repeated cycle of bulk and cutting with both getting harder as I get older!
I’ve definitely had really big deficit days after big rides and if I string too many of those together I end up with unintentional evening snacking.
What is this sick filth!?!
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Yea, looking back at Lose It, I was taking in on average 2300 calories a day. Some weekend days I’d hit 3000. My usual hour workouts were 800-1000 calories, so yea, decent deficit. What that exactly is, I’m not sure. A TDEE calculator says 2227 calories as I work a desk job. So 2227 TDE + 900 TR workout = 3127 cal. I’d eat 2300, so roughly it was 800+ calorie deficit for normal week days. Weekends weren’t nearly as consistent with what I did cycling and nutrition wise. I’d throw cheat meals in there once in a while. Note it was cheat MEAL and not cheat DAY.
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Ok so pacing a pound or two a week…nothing super drastic.
I’m attempting to shed 5-10 pounds before the fall CX season. My assumption is that 5 pounds is very reasonable with progressing through the training plan…10 might be pushing the bounds of ‘easy.’ I’ll see where it goes…I’m not looking to starve myself or anything…just up protein and carbs over the summer, try to cut back fat and alcohol, shed maybe 1/4 to half a pound a week. Assuming I still have some fat to get rid of after CX season…I’ll probably take a more extended off season of easy zone 1/2 riding and just ditch the last of the extra weight I’ve been carrying around in 1 go.
Calculating, it was 29 lbs over 12 weeks or ~2.5 lbs a week. So not insane, but still pretty quick.
Yea that’s a decent amount of weight. I think personally I’d be leery of dropping more than 15 total over the summer/offseason. I’m 186 right now…pretty sure anything under 170 even if not ‘underweight,’ would be a bigger long term commitment to maintenance than I’m willing to commit.
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That could be true. The under-eating population still exists though. I don’t know how to approach it differently in the 5 minutes I’m looking at this forum.
A lot of guards and reminders maybe, then some specifics. They’ve done that before but I don’t recall it being as prescriptive as one would like.
In terms of the rice part - it’s white jasmin rice, 7.8 grams of protein per 100g dry weight 
I totally get your point on prioritising macronutrients and/or specific food groups for someone eating a lot less than I do, I was mostly curious to see if anyone ate as much as me or if I’m the weirdo lol
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Yea for sure…I mean clearly both things can exist at the same time.
I’m just sort of amazed that TR feels perfectly comfortable wading into the waters of eating disorders and offering advice willie nilly…whereas they seem to treat losing weight as a third rail. Nothing to be angry about…it’s just a curiosity that logically does not add up.
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You’re definitely a weirdo
That said…I may steer my diet a little closer to yours. More non-fat carbs…less delicious fatty stuff…
I think this is my goodbye to mayonnaise and ice cream until after cross season… 
Yeah, I’m probably the outlier here lol😂 I mean, if people think my rice consumption is outlandish, just wait til they find out I ate 26 bananas yesterday, in addition to 1kg of dry weight jasmin rice…
I will admit, though, mayonnaise was a bit hard to let go of for me too 
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Good god man lol.
I can eat…like really eat. But a kg of rice seems like a lot.
It’s funny…whener I’m trying to eat healthier/lose some weight…I always tend to eat more veggies/lower carb intake some. Not eliminate…not even really to low points…I’ll have bread/rice/pasta/potatoes at every meal still. But really doing the math…cutting out fatty food like ice cream, mayo, cheese, leave a LOT of room for rice. 1kg seems insane…but maybe 1/3 or 1/2 that that would be realistic. I might start shooting for 1lb on days I have a longer workout/group ride
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you need more calories than I do, but for myself its easier to carb up with that Quaker Oats granola and its low sodium. I do eat 2 cups of rice at lunch, as part of the base for my salad.
And fwiw I’ll say it again, multiple years I’ve lost weight and raised ftp/fitness. Sure I have more weight to lose, but it comes down to some key decisions.
One thing I’ve always wondered about…would your body “miss” fat and alcohol calories?
I mean just as an example…if you have a net calorie deficit of zero…but 1000 calories a day came from butter and vodka…would you suffer in training/energy levels if you eliminated those calories?
Meaning…would you perform better, same, or worse with a 1000 calorie deficit with the ‘perfect’ diet vs net 0 deficit but 1000 calories came from fat and alcohol?
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Seems the pod when it comes to shedding weight is around those who are maybe wanting to drop a few pounds or so to ‘optimal’ race weight. Not around those who would classify themselves as overweight or obese. The, the example was someone looking to drop 11KG. I think this could be done safely throughout the course of a year/season as Alex mentioned. It would just come off the more you ride.
I dropped 30 pounds or so from March to September many years ago and I got stronger and faster. Not weaker.
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