Originally Posted by
bruce19
I will admit to being totally confused about diet and especially low carb. For the past few years I have tried various approaches to creating a healthy diet and losing some weight. In November I decided to look into the Keto diet. I quickly realized that just walking past the bread aisle would put me over the 50g a day goal. So, I went low carb which to me was 100-150 g a day. It took about 3 months but I lost 7 lbs. I was doing no cardio at the time and I was limiting daily calories to under 2,000. My MD suggested 1800 daily. I should mention that I am 72, 5'9" and weighed 194 at the start. I have a mesomorph body that would be typical for an ex-college football player, which I am. So, I got down to 187 but then bounced back to 191. In April we had 20 days of rain here in CT. But, recently the weather has been drier but windy. Nevertheless, I am riding about 3 days and 60-75 mi. a week. I have abandoned the low carb diet for moderate carb. Trying to eat less processed food in general. My weight seems to be stuck at 189-190 lbs. I have done years of searching on the internet and have discovered two things. You can find someone who will say whatever you want to hear about food and diet. For me, at least, moderation in all things is key. I'm back to where I started...which is: eat well (healthy and unprocessed), eat less and stay active. Now it's just a matter of actually doing it.
A set of resistance rollers is a big help. Mine are probably the best investment in my future I ever made. Makes it reasonable to get the cycling days/week up to 6 in all seasons.
I lift weights, but never put much muscle on, just my physiology. With yours, you could try sets of 30 with weight so you could only do say 28. That'll trash you, and something else to do when the weather's not so great. I lift 1-2 days a week, for no more than 1 hour. I usually ride my rollers, then hit the gym. Usually when I get on my rollers for an hour, I'll take a bottle of sports drink with me, but try not to drink any of it. Same thing when I ride outside for only an hour or two.
As for diet, eh, just the usual Mediterranean kind of thing. Balanced toward veggies and whole grains, some dairy, some fish. The important thing is to eat a diet which enables you to go out and hurt your legs real good, hold the same high HR up every hill for at least the first 4000', and then recover those legs so they will go again for you in a couple days, i.e. get some protein as well as carbs.
Work on getting the mileage up to 150/week. Cyclists count the calories per mile rather than per hour, which sorta makes sense. I recommend finding a group of slightly younger, faster cyclists and ride with them or try to. I tell people to hold that wheel until the blood spurts from your eyeballs.
On rides of 3 hours or more, where you're going to bonk if you ride hard and don't eat properly, I put the fastest carb stuff I can find in my mouth. The faster, the better. Can't work hard without fuel, and the whole point of it is to work hard. If you're working hard, you can't eat but about half your burn no matter what you eat.
Anyway, that's what I do. 5'6-1/2", 145 lbs. this morning. Rode 64 miles on my single on Sunday, hard enough that I had to lay my bike down at the finish to get off it. Then 25 miles on the tandem on Monday, trying to keep the cadence above 90 as much as possible. Tuesday it was one-legged pedaling on the rollers until my legs were trashed, then to the gym to lift heavy, squatted a couple sets of my 5RM, 205-225, and a bunch of other stuff. Tomorrow, I'll do Z5 intervals on the rollers. Etc. Sounds horrible, but it's really not. Kinda fun. Just gotta do it or lose it.