Good plan. Keep on!
Your personal best way to lose some fat - anecdotes / experiences / examples of what kicked your ***
I used the CICO (Calories In Calories Out) approach.
To start with I just cut back on everything high on fat, like butter, dressings, etc. and starting eating smaller portions, more often and less chips/candy etc., and later on I started to count and weigh everything and going by with about 500 Calories deficit pr. day, including what I burned doing workouts.
This is my progress over the last six months. Where in december I though screw it, Iâll gain a few kg in order to eat everything I want.
When you start to count and weigh everything youâll notice that fat is very very calorie dense and candy/chips etc. is as well. And having to write it down makes you think twice before you open a bag of chips.
All in all I think my main take away from this - since I donât count anymore, but still want to lose just a little bit more - is that you need to be hungry, multiple times pr day in order to lose weight. If you never get hungry doing the day, youâre eating too much to lose weight.
5 Likes
9 hour eating window
Helped me loose 17kg from 94kg to 77kg over 8months and gained about 1 kg in musclemass in the same period of time.
I did do a lot of low intensity riding for the last 3 months outside. Before that about 5 hours a week of indoor spinning classes
1 Like
someone once told me, âeat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at dinnerâ. A pauper meaning high nutrient, low calorie. Lots of veggies and maybe some lean protein like chicken.
i always plateaued counting calories and it worked better for me to be honest with myself, âam i hungry or just tiredâ. eating celery and carrots later in the day really helped me.
also, doing something light, like yoga, stretching, and core workouts on rest days seemed to keep me leaner.
cheers and let us know what works; youâll get there. donât stop until you do! All the best from Tennessee
5 Likes
Not listening to âOnly eat at this time windowâ advises. Tracking calories and simply burn more energy through additional sport helped myself.
2 Likes
Currently on a weight loss diet. Down 6kg so far after 4 weeks.
For me, calories in and calories out were the way forward. Find your BMR, estimate your total daily energy expenditure, eat at a deficit to that number.
To allow for weight loss during cycling training, remember to not diet on the bike. This is crucial. Aim to fuel and train hard; donât use the burned calories as a way to be at an overall deficit.
I find that 3 weeks on 1 week of training complements this diet approach well; you eat a bit larger for 3 weeks to fuel training and then 1 week where you diet much harder.
4 Likes
HmmmmâŚ
2 Likes
A few years ago (I donât know, it was maybe 12 years ago) I was just fat. I always was an active person but after major injury I had to stop climbing (I was a mountaineer) and I lose whole motivation. So after two years just doing nothing but eating and drinking beer I weighted above 95kg (Iâm 176cm). When I got back to sport (I bought a bicycle and I just rode the bike like 20-30km in my spare time) I started loosing weight and after a few season without any special diet (but I quit bad food like fast foods, snacks, pizza, ice creams etc.) I achived sth between 72 and 75kg (it depanded on time of season). I had like 13% of BF at that time and I just couldnât move on for a good 2-3 years. And my solution for that problem was and is very simple: I just went to nutritionist and I saw how many mistakes Iâve been doing for the whole time. Now, I eat much more than ever. My calorie intake varies from 2800-3500 not processed food. During big weeks (like 15-20h of training and/or racing) I add additional food to it - mainly carbs. Result? My weight is about 64-65kg and my bf is somewhere between 9 and 10%. I donât want lose weight anymore. Now I can focus on proper fueling my training.
My advice is: go to sport nutritionist, do all needed medical tests and just follow their advice. My nutritionist always says: build and race phase is not a good time for recomposition your body. Off season is for that. Especially if you train hard for an ultramarathon. Itâs not that expensive. Iâm from Poland and I need like 1-2 appointments a month and it costs me 20 euros for a visit. In my opinion this is the best what you can do for yourself.
10 Likes
Started tracking in Jan 2013, maintaining in and around 70kg for around 18 months. But that wasnât my initial target. It was get to 100kg, and then I did a few months maintenance, then went again for 90kg, and a few months maintenance etc.
Iâd done the âdietsâ and yo-yoing. Game changer was really accepting it was âa change of my dietâ rather than âa dietâ. Started off with portion control really, and then itâs been gradual and sustainable changes since then. No big bang.
I donât panic week to week so much - took me a while to get a handle of the reduce NEAT from COVID/ Work from Home.
Biggest mistake, and something I probably still do too much of, was dieting on the bike. Outside Iâm ok, on the trainer I do struggle a bit!
I am still unsure if a sportsperson with regular workouts 4-6 times a week needs to go after low fat alternatives
I have done so for some time and did not feel much difference in weight loss/gain as long as this was âhealthyâ fat like natural joghurt, pure milk, cheese etc.
Anything full fat sweets, candy, chips etc is certainly a different story.
Doesnât matter if it fits in with your overall calorie targets. I donât bother with cheese. As a family we go low fat milk (not skimmed). We do go zero fat yogurt - just one where I donât see it as an addition, and Iâd rather my healthy fats from nuts on top of the yogurt!
Serious question: are fats from full fat milk and yoghurts unhealthy fats? What makes them worse the fat from nuts etc
As far as Iâm aware theyâre healthy - I just like the crunch on my yogurt more than full fat yogurt and milk!
1 Like
I can echo a very similar change to my diet that yielded similar results (down from 90kg to 78kg).
I cut out snacks and desserts. I drank more water and accompanied my meals with water (rather than squash or juice). I cut down on junk food and I left it a little after my meal before I reached for seconds. Sometimes I just needed to let my meal settle in my stomach.
I didnât diet on the bike and kept cheat days in there, or weekends where I would accept not to worry about my intake. The weight stayed off and the habits stayed in place.
2 Likes
Iâd never heard of âsquashâ before as a drink - that one hasnât made it to this side of the pond, but you learn something new every day!
Squash is cordial, or drink mix, or concentrated syrup.
There are versions that have sugar, but often they are very low in sugar so just makes drinking lots of water more fun while minimising calorie intake.
Probably healthier to drink real juices, but 1l of orange juice is about 100g of sugar. and 400 calories. Also expensive.
As they contain sweeteners, probably best not to have huge amounts of it, but I find its good for taking the edge of sugar cravings (in the same way a can of diet coke might)
2 Likes
One of the few things I miss from the UK is Vimto (Dealz, which the Irish Poundland Brand) used to have it, but hasnât had it the last few times Iâve been in (which is admittedly much less frequent with wfh).
2 Likes
I think this is quite important. A change in diet has to be sustainable. Cutting out everything you like really doesnât help that.
2 Likes
I started to drink coffee and added some casual walks to my then âlow consistency TR plansâ and my weight dropped from around 93kg to 85kg, while my FTP improved from 299W to 335W.
So my conclusion is, donât think too much about compromises in your life, but try to improve it as a whole. Change is sometimes better than improvement.
4 Likes
I have realised some key things that make it easier - first, being to eat what I want to eat⌠but always making a conscious choice of how it fits into my training and life in generalâŚ
The second is to understand food. There just are some things that are really bad for you, such as pizza, fries, soda etc. So instead of complaining that âI canât have thoseâ, I just see them as things that come between my goals and my training.
Instead, I focus on making good food that will keep me full, fuelling the work I do on the bike: cornerstones being carbs and protein, low fat
Its honestly not super hard to find food that is low on calories and makes you full, you just canât look at the basics of pasta, bread, rice, butter, etc since it is so damn calorie dense that you will eat you calories before you get fullâŚ
Also, get a scale! There is no way I can live without one⌠Its impossible to eyeball meal sizes and know what you are actually putting in your body.
I donât believe in skipping meals, especially if it coincides with training⌠I diet on my off-days, and eat more on my training days. I also focus on carbs in mean before training, as well as feeling on the bike (around 40g)
I have been working with a coach for awhile now and some things that works for me:
- Chocolate milk the second I get off the bike to replenish carbs and protein
- Plenty carbs during meal before training
- Z2 half fasted rides, no carbs first hour or so, then add carbs.
- 1700-1800 calories base intake, mostly carbs, then protein, least amount of fat. Always eat the calories I burn on the bike, so if I burn 800 on the bike, ill be eating 2600kcal that day.
I have a desk job, donât do anything but move between kitchen, bed, desk and bike⌠So 1700 is enoughâŚ
Result:
- 4,5kg weight loss in 1,5 monthsâŚ
- 7% increase in power since November (crash and 3 weeks in bed) + 2 weeks cold during Christmas
Did nothing else but understand what I put into my mouth. I sleep better, I feel better, I am more fresh on the bike, I recover faster - and I am faster on the bike 
12 Likes
