ForlornEnemy

BMI, Carbs, Protein, Cadence, fat grams, calorie counting ... uughghhh ENOUGH!

What if I just eat 3-4 meals a day (very healthy, very well balanced), 300-600 calories and ride 50 miles, every day? I just started this and 150 miles into it I feel great.


Has anyone tried this approach? Shouldn't the weight come off pretty damn fast?


Someone like myself would be 25 years old, 224lbs with a huge gut and manboobs.


If this has worked with anyone here, I would love to hear the story.

chasm54

To ask the obvious question, how do you know how many calories your healthy meals contain if you don't count calories?

ForlornEnemy

Because I read the label, I don't need to count it myself.

Actually, I really meant calorie counting... but nothing extreme. Just "about". Does plus or minus a couple hundred matter if you are riding 50 every day? Should have posted in clyde forum, BTW.

chasm54

I'd agree that if you are riding 50 miles every day, a couple of hundred calories above your maintenance level would be nothing to worry about. But most people underestimate their calorie intake, and overestimate the number of calories they burn on the bike.

If you are confident that your daily calorie intake stays below 2500, and you ride over 300 miles per week, you'll lose weight, no problem. Probably slower than you imagine, but steadily.

poxpower

If you don't count calories, you'll fail.
You're only 3 days into this, how you feel now is not indicative of your chances in the least. People keep up crazy diets for weeks and months and still fail or bounce back.

Counting calories, keeping a food journal, taking pictures of your fat ass and putting them on the fridge, hanging mirrors in your house and telling other people you'll lose weight are all things that are proven to work.

Losing weight is hard and it takes a long time. I used to weigh 70 pounds more than I do now and it wasn't biking that made me lose weight, it was knowing what I put in my mouth and how many calories was in it. Even now, I know I can eat 2000 calories in one meal easily. Even at 150 and like 7-8% body fat, I have to watch what I eat and will have to do so for the rest of my life.

Prepare to do that or you will not only fail at losing the weight but will fail at keeping it off if you ever manage to lose it in the first place. No matter how much you bike, TRUST ME that you can eat more than you'll ever burn if you don't watch out. And losing weight will get harder as you slim down and you will need more and more knowledge, willpower and discipline to keep going.

gregf83 

That's a fairly big range of calorie intake you've given 900-2400 Cals/day. You're probably burning somewhere between 3000-4000 Cals/day by riding 50 miles/day so if you limit your intake to 2400 you should lose weight.

The problem with not counting calories is that if you eat too little you will start to get weak and lose your motivation/energy for riding. It's better if you can keep a steady caloric deficit of 500-1000 cals/day.

On the other hand you're young. If you just stay hungry most of the time and continue to ride you'll be fine.

camelopardalis

I estimate my calories burned to approx 32 calories per mile. I'm 168 lbs. + 18 lb. bike at 14-20 mph. I believe it is a very reasonable estimate.

50 miles per day is approx 1600 calories per day is 11200 calories.

It will be very difficult to overeat at these rates and one should lose weight rapidly.

No matter what weights, bikes, or speed you're dealing with, the calories burnt are going to be gargantuan. So ride, don't worry about calorie counting. Just don't eat like a pig.

jimxyz

There's an old saying: You can out eat any exercise program... It's a hassle, but I recommend using a tool like MyPlate on Livestrong.com, which allows you to enter everything you eat and factor in your activity level to run a calorie deficit. It is the only way to lose weight - burn off more than you eat (but eat the right stuff to keep yourself healthy and energetic). You may be surprised at how many calories you can eat, especially post ride. Wear a heart monitor if you really want to know how many calories you actually burn while riding. If you get on a fixed calorie diet, and add in the riding, you should drop pounds pretty quickly - but be prepared to do some cross training as you'll likely hit a wall at some point.

if you want the easy way out on the diet - eat primarily veggies and fresh fruit, lean meat, nothing processed or fried and avoid "white foods" (rice, bread etc). It will be next to impossible to eat at any fast food joints, but it works.

davehbuffalo

Well, the consensus seems to be to count the calories, so it's probably your best bet but...

If counting calories such a pain in the neck to do so that you'll end up getting frustrated and give up, then don't. I managed to lose 40 lbs without counting calories, but I'd consider myself a less successful dieter than some, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

My strategy was to exercise, cut the carbs down to only post-workout (and even then go easy) and eat lean protein and huge salads. For sure the salads help keep you full without adding many calories (watch the dressing!).

Another strategy might be to count calories for a week and just duplicate that food every week.

The absolute worst diet plan is the one you won't stick to. 50 miles is substantial -- if you like it and will stick with it, I think you'll see an improvement soon. If you don't, go back to counting.

dolanp

At 50 miles a day you can pretty much just not worry about it as long as you aren't scarfing down whole pizzas and six packs of beer.

PatW

I think you would be surprised. I have been on many multiday bicycle tours. Even with averaging around 80 miles per day, most people GAIN weight on these things. It is really easy to up your caloric intake by more than you think. It is also very common. People think that if they ride 50 miles that extra donut and that extra bag of chips isn't going to matter. But with just a few lapses per day, it is easy to nullify the effect of the calorie burn of almost any amount of exercise.

poxpower

And it's more important that you are consistent and INTENSE with your riding than it is that you do 50 miles.

What you want to do is get your heart rate as high as possible for as long as possible. If you just ride along lazily, you're wasting precious time. When you get your heart rate up ( over 80% of max) for long periods of time, you increase your metabolism and activate the "afterburner" effect, which basically means your body keeps burning calories at a higher rate after you get off the bike.

https://exercise.about.com/od/weightl...eightlos_3.htm

Intensity > Distance

If you do an hour of that every day, it'll give you better results than if you do 50 lazy miles every other day because of time constraints / boredom / lack of will. Plus you'll get fitter in the process!

ericm979

Incorrect.

I lost 35 lbs (from 175 to 140, at an actual measured 6% bf) without counting a single calorie. I pay attention to what I'm eating but I'm not adding it all up. I aimed for about 1 lb/week and adjusted what I was doing if I didn't average that over a few weeks.

Ride lots, eat sensibily and don't stuff yourself. If I wake up hungry in the morning then I know I ate the right amount of dinner.

ericm979

You burn fewer calories at an endurance pace than at a fast pace, but you can spend a lot more time at the endurance pace. I'll use myself as an example. At threshold (the power one can produce for an hour) I burn about 900 calories. But I can ride at 600 calories/hr for three hours (or more). So for that ride I'll burn 1800 calories. Even if I eat a 200 cal bar on the ride, I'll burn a net of 1600 cal. That's a lot more than 900. And 3 hours @ 600 cal/hr isn't as wearing as an hour at threshold. Thats so unpleasant that few racers will do it in training.

Of course if you only have an hour for your ride then going all out will be the most effective way to burn calories in the time available. But if you have the time, the long endurance ride burns more.

But rather than structuring your training solely for calorie burning, I suggest picking a cycling goal and working towards that. Finishing a 50 mile organized ride would be a good first goal. The training you do for that may be different from the optimum calorie loss training but it would be more fun. And in the end that's what counts, because if it's fun you will do more of it, and you will stick with it.

dolanp

I suppose it can happen but your intake would have to be something like 4000-5000 calories/day so it's more than just an extra donut or bag of chips at that point.

I_like_cereal

I read some supportive and some not so supportive comments.

The bottom line here, and I believe I will echo some comments, is:

1. Use a tool such as a pen and paper to write down your food. Not the nutrition info, just the food. You know you and you know what makes you gain/lose weight. Writing the food down will allow you to look back when you weigh yourself in a week and you gained two pounds from last week. I guess I should not have had that extra soda or beer or slice of pizza.

2. SMALL CHANGES!!!!!!!!! You will revolt when you make too large of change. Do not give up all you favorite foods at once. It just makes the transition that much harder. Ween yourself, make yourself aware, via a journal, of what you are eating.

3. Understand that everyone loses and gains weight differently. I use a body type diet. I am an Ecotomorph type and limit my intake to 60% carbs, 20% protein and 20% fat. I base this on a 2500 - 2800 calorie diet. My nutritionist agrees with me and is ok with my weight (148 lbs) and estimated BF% (9.3%).

4. Set up an exercise routine. Biking is good, but it is one dimensional. Cross train by running, walking, hiking, playing a sport, walking the stairs, something else. Always remember that exercise is 30 minutes 3x per week with you HR in the aerobic zone. Anything less and your working for nothing. You need to keep your HR up to keep your metabolic rate up, which fires your furnace, which burns fat, which causes you to lose weight, which causes you to be really hungry.

5. Research on your own. I am lucky enough to have family that are health nuts and border line RD/LDs/Sports Nutritionists. I, of course, researched everything they told me and found most of it to be helpful.

6. You will have setbacks. Do not forget that.

7. Find a group to ride with. An LBS may have one. It sorta holds you accountable for riding on your off days.

I bike 20 miles a day 5 days a week with a 40 miler on Sunday with an LBS group. I augment that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with HIIT or core workout for 30 minutes then a 4-6 run. The M/W/F augment is prior to my bike.

Good luck on your lifestyle change and BTW I eat normally. I just made small changes like egg whites instead of whole eggs, whole wheat bread over white bread, skinless chicken over skin on. The subtraction of red meat except on special occasions. The addition of fish, even canned fish is better than nothing.

CbadRider

It's all about calories. The nutrition professor who lost 27 lbs on the twinkie diet pretty much proved that.

gregf83 

Better for fitness maybe but not necessarily for losing weight. Riding at a high intensity also tends to stimulate the appetite more so it's harder to maintain a deficit. And the 'afterburner effect' you mentioned amounts to less than 200 Cals so you'd still be ahead if you rode an extra hour. Also you can't ride at a high intensity, even if it's only an hour, every day without burning out or needing a break.

Of course a new rider isn't going to be able to go from nothing to riding 50 miles every day either.

poxpower

Who wants to risk stagnating for 1-2 weeks, or worse, gaining weight, before adjusting?
Look, yes its possible to lose weight without counting calories ( I've done it many times), but it's just a bad plan. People ask so many questions when they don't do it. "What can I eat?" "Is this too much?" "Is low-fat good for me?"

Counting calories is the single most powerful weight loss tool anyone can have. It will tell you exactly why you fail / succeed, what you can eat, how much of it, how often etc.

Yes that's true.

I would also agree to sign up for some kind of event/ ride. The possibility of failure and public embarassement will make you a lot more motivated.

Yes that is true. Drastic changes don't last and lead to boomerang dieting. You'll be so glad you're done with your hellish program that you'll reward yourself with an ice cream cake that may turn into a one month fast food bender.
You have to learn to never again do what made you get to this weight.

Stay away from "diets", they're all based on one principle: calorie counting.
Then they throw in random nonsense that, while sometimes somewhat supported by science, gives you like a 0.1% edge over just counting calories.

ericm979

It's pretty easy for me to look at something, ask myself if I need to eat it, and then do the right thing (eat it if I need it). If counting calories is what it takes to get you to ask yourself if you need to eat things, then do it. But its the asking yourself and answering honestly that is important, not the counting. Your body knows what it needs, you just need to learn to listen to it instead of marketing.

One thing I do recommend is to read labels. If you are not in the habit you'll be surprised at the amount of sugar and fat and chemicals and crap hidden in (processed) food. It's gross. I changed my diet quite a bit after I started reading labels and I already wasn't eating much processed food.

Rememeber that its the average that counts. I see a lot of people start on a diet, then "blow" the diet by eating something that's not on it. Then they give up and pig out, justifying it because they ate one thing that's not on the diet. If you eat too much or something not so healthy one day, don't give up on the diet. Keep at it. Don't try to make up by eating only celery the next day because that's sure to fail. Just move on and go back to your healthy diet.

poxpower

My body is an idiot, trust me.
I just ate 1000 calories of Kashi Go Lean cereal with skim milk and it feels like I'm hungrier now. I'll eat anything in any quantity, be it a bag of raw carrots, cake, soup, salad, chicken.... whatever. Carbs, protein, fats.. makes no difference. My body will eat until there is no more food and then will just keep being hungry, unless I eat a RIDICULOUS volume.

I've eaten things like 4 pounds of strawberries or 10 hamburgers in one sitting before. Hunger is a constant and never-ending part of my days.

I hate every tip and trick other than "count calories" because I KNOW there's ways to exploit loopholes. Things like "make simple substitutions", "avoid carbs", "eat slowly", "drink more water" or "don't pig out" are entirely meaningless in my book and depend largely on the assumption that fat hungry people won't be hungry enough to break the caloric bank while doing this.

Counting calories is the only thing anyone needs in order to succeed in weight loss, everything else is just a trick to give you a slight edge and can't be relied upon. They are the reason people fail at diets.

I_like_cereal

To clarify... by diet I mean lifestyle. Diets do not work, lifestyle changes do.

Oddly, I found that I was already eating a 60/20/20 "diet" before I new about bodytypes. So see your body knows what it needs.

I_like_cereal

I would ask what, exactly, you were doing or going through personally (this is rhetorical) when you ate 10 hamburgers or 4 pounds of berries?

Some people emotionally eat, others eat out of boredom, and others have metabolic conditions. Have you checked your thyroid function?

If you want a quick tip. Use FiberOne. Fiber will fill your gut so will Casein when taken at night before bed. High fiber foods work. Simple changes work. I respect your calorie counting I just do not do it. I look at percentages and make sure that my Carbs/Fats/Proteins/Kcals are all in line with my goals.

poxpower

I just ate the hamburgers for fun. I wanted to see if I could eat 10 McDonald's hamburgers in one sitting. The strawberries was because I checked how many calories were in them and realized that it was like 600 for four pounds, which I thought was awesomely low. So I just ate the entire thing. Haha. You don't even want to see me at an all-you-can eat place.

See, much in the way that if you train as a cyclist, you will be tempted to go harder on any ride, if you used to eat a LOT in a single sitting, then you become psychologically and physically used to eating vast volumes of food whenever you start eating anything.
When I was losing weight, I did find that eating just once a day worked because I got to eat 2000 calories in a single sitting and then just be lethargic the rest of the time, stay up for like 20 hours and then beat the clock that way. So I'd eat 1500-2500 calories for 30 hours. Or sometimes I'd do even more insane things, like this: https://www.thepoxbox.com/what.php?id=calorieladder

But see, now I eat healthy and 6 times a day. That requires eating small balanced meals. That goes against every fiber of my body and it takes an enormous amount of self control, especially with the heavy biking that makes me EVEN HUNGRIER. On top of it all, I work at home so I can eat any time I want. The temptation to eat is always there, there's no classes or work or anything in between that forces me away from food.

I have to know what I eat. If I followed my appetite, I would eat 4000-5000 calories a day without any problems, and that's from healthy food, which is what I mainly eat; vegetables, legumes, lean meat, fish, oatmeal, skim milk, fruits... I can't substitute to a higher degree of healthiness anymore.

I googled FiberOne. Are you serious? I could eat two boxes of those little girly bars as a snack. That's candy, not real food. Fiber doesn't do anything. I've eaten half a box of that 99% fiber All-Bran for breakfast before, doesn't even make a dent.
No clue where this "fiber fills you up" deal came from aside maybe from vegetables having lots of fiber and being low in calories. High-fiber cereals are no more filling than Lucky Charms if you ask me. Maybe they mean "fibers are filling!...when compared to cake!".

Haha maybe my thyroid is all destroyed or something, who knows

I_like_cereal

First apologies to the OP for the sidebar...

Fiberone the powder. Add it to food, water, whatever.
If you want a manly bar use a MetRx Big 100. One of these will fill you up. 370 calories, 27 grams of protein, and 55 grams of carbs. Drinking water with it seems to make it expand.

I doubt the thyroid is destroyed, just over/under active.