I've never subscribed to any particular diet as such. I was always in great shape due to a very athletic lifestyle right up until my mid-30's. It fell off a cliff when I relocated to the UK and found myself with long commutes, a young family and long office hours. I ate the same but minus the exercise, piled on the weight.
Then in December 2018, having relocated to Portugal, sunnier, warmer clime, semi-retired, weighing a rather portly 86kg (190lbs, 13.5st) for my 168cm (5ft 6) height I decided I'd finally do something about it and get back to cycling properly, as I used to be. My wife and step-kids laughed. They met me at the start of my fat years. My stories of how I was a competitive Cat 1/ Elite racing cyclist plus various school and Uni sporting achievements etc were something they never saw, just something I mentioned. I was simply making a New Year's resolution in advance that would never materialise they said.
January 2019...cut my calorie intake to 1200 per day, but could be anything...hit the Gym 3x a week, intensive cardio for 1.5 hours...bought an e-MTB (thinking my knees, damaged from racing before would not recover so best go easy on them) and cycled off-road 50km (31mi) a day 6x a week. By the end of March 2019 I weighed 66kg (145lbs, 10.4st) and comfortably within my BMI recommended weight. A quarter of my mass gone in 3 months. My knees thanks to targeted strengthening and bike fit proved to be serviceable again.
I now weigh between 64-65kg. Some 21kg (46lbs) less than I did and I recovered all the muscle I lost during the diet and added a whole lot more. I ditched the e-bike (gave it to my wife) in June 2019 and between then and now have gone from strength to strength, now in the top 5 in my region for my age group and getting faster, stronger each month still.
If you had asked me if I thought this was possible in 2018, I would have said no. It did happen and I can tell you that the diet aspect wasn't difficult at all. I ate what I normally eat, just less of it. I was very motivated by the results and kept going. I even enjoyed it! I followed the most simple regime of all: calories in, calories out. I just decided upon the balance I could cope with to achieve my goal.
I eat more now than I did in my fat years to cover the calories I burn in my cycling training - I do around 400-500km per week, race training, MTB and road. Pizza? Large, please and 2x a week on average.
