rumrunn6

OK, I tried it & added what I ate so far today & I'm almost done for the day! agh!

squirtdad

yeah that happens. What I find is that it helps me make better choice and shows the little things that will get you....ie nice, pretty light healthy soup from cafeteria, but 3 packs of oyster crackers add 210 cal. I also find that it pushes me to make "standard" meals and bring my own food to work......as it easier to enter

of course it is all in doing it consistently and the scales says I need to get back to doing it consistently

bbbean 

Don't try to get there all at once. I took off 164 lbs with logging and exercise, and can tell you that small steps worked best for me. You might even consider setting the ap to just maintain weight and get used to logging and being aware of what you're eating. With time, it will be come second nature, but you need to think in terms of months, not days and weeks when you look for progress. You have to establish a baseline before you can make good decisions about what to cut and how much to eat.

I've been at my goal weight since 2013 and can assure you it is worth the effort. Take it slow, pat yourself on the back for minor victories, and don't get too upset about plateaus and setbacks. This is a long race.

Trsnrtr

Looks like I've graduated - 199.2 yesterday and 198.1 this morning.

After obsessing over a 3 week hard plateau, I suddenly dropped 4.5-5# over the last 7 days. Moral of story: plateaus happen. Have to work through them and not get so frustrated that you go off of your plan.

Started at 230# on May 1st.

rumrunn6

100+ Meals Under 500 Calories

WOT

@Synack42 I wanted to thank you for posting your strategy here which also appears to be working well for me.

All going well i’ll post the results of my progress here in a few more months, in the meantime thanks for sharing.

Panic

Thanks for posting.

I've been doing the calorie counting, but just eating up to what I was allowed.. maybe under some days, maybe over some. But today I dropped my 2,064 to 1,700- was over by 100, but then I burned 700 riding. Had I not been foolish and ate some Captain's wafer crackers (bad stomach today) I would have made it easy.

Tomorrow - start again with the 1,700. Then I want to drop it down to 1,600 and see what happens.

Thanks for the inspiration.

sirjag

i want to know how this happens...i just dont understand it...

if you eat less than you burn, how does that not equal weight loss?

my own story...down 30lbs this year...i ride about 300-400mi per month.

JAG

bbbean 

The body is very efficient at finding and establishing stasis. It can operate more or less efficiently, depending on what is going on in the environment, the specifics of your diet, and your unique metabolism and body chemistry.

Weight loss is something that tends to happen over months and years moreso than daya and weeks, IME.

NomarsGirl

It does work. I haven't seen the numbers on the scale change much lately but at least they aren't going up. I was in france on vacation recently and ate so much of that great bread with the high fat butter and didn't gain. We rented bikes and also walked a ton.

I definitely see a difference in my body. Had to replace all my clothes because they were hanging off me like sacks.

The best part was seeing family I haven't seen in a long time last night. They called me skinny!

Clyde1820

Nicely done. You're looking pretty darned fit, these days.


Myself, doing a bare minimum of "exercise" physical activity, my caloric requirements are roughly ~1200-1300kcal/day.

So long as I can maintain a good 500kcal/day exercise (on average), I lose weight. I tend to drop ~10lbs/mo or so, if hitting ~1000kcal/day for weeks at a time (with the occasional rest day tossed in, as needed).

Funny how, when it comes down to it, it's basically a calories in / calories out problem. Create and maintain a deficit, have sufficient nutrients and hydration to keep it all working, then boost exercise enough as fitness improves to kick in solid weight loss and/or strength and size gains as desired. Hard work, but over the past 40yrs of athletics and general-purpose fitness experience, that blend seems to work for me.

About the only limiting factor for me, in the past handful of years, has been old injuries that have required much more determination to accommodate and sidestep.

tallbikeman

I noticed yesterday that I have been plateauing for at least two weeks even though Myfitnesspal has me on much reduced calories for 2lbs a week reduction. I am current on my weight on the program and I'm being as thorough and honest as I can be because I mean to lose this weight. So now I am leaving more and more calories on the table trying to kick start the weight reduction again. I've had this happen before so it is not new nor do I get depressed over it. I view weight loss as a war with my whole body craving everything under the sun and working every little devious and evil plot to get it. I'll let you know when I start losing again. Good luck with your weight loss.

Panic

I started dropping my calories to 1,700 since last Wednesday and I'm down 4.5 lbs. Today we had a church picnic, and I splurged on burgers, drank a coke, then zwifted tonight for 50 minutes.. and still kept my calories just below 1,900 gross. Two weeks ago I would have pushed 2,500 easy. I would love to break 240 early this week and be closer to 235 for volleyball on Thursday night.

smullen

Congrats Synack42. You've definitely shown good results..

What kind of bike (style) are you riding?

I've always had an appreciation for Biking, I love all types, but wanting to get into better shape is what has really gotten me back into biking.
I started at 298, now 250ish... But I think most of my loss was due to cutting out soda, candy and most snacks and cutting back on Alcohol, more so than my riding.

My two biggest problems are the seats hurting my rear and Hills. I live in a very rural area with lots of hills and valleys...

Synack42

Congrats on the weight loss. Cutting out the sugar like that was huge for me in the beginning. I just got down to 180 myself; I might try to drop a couple more pounds and start to figure out what my maintenance intake is going to work out to.

Fixing and building bikes has become a side hobby since I started riding again. ...Starting with a $30 Craigslist special pushes you to be self sufficient with repairs.

I pretty much ride 26 hardtail MTB exclusively, pavement and gravel roads. I do have a vintage 27 road bike that I converted to upright with flat bars, though a proper gravel bike with drops is starting to sound very appealing...

This is the latest build, the retro inspired rigid 26er that wants to be a gravel bike but not fully commit to 700C and drops just yet...

tallbikeman

This morning the plateau dam finally broke and I went from 248 yesterday to 245lbs today. With that I reset myfitnesspal settings so my daily caloric intake is reduced and I keep losing weight. Synac42 I gave up actual MTB's a couple of years ago to reduce body flying off bicycle time. I have replaced MTB's with older 27"x1 1/4" bicycles. Some I've converted over to 700c and can get a 40mm tire on the old Schwinn Varsity frame and forks. 40mm 700c wheels and tires work very well on dirt roads and trails. No room for mud on the rear wheel of the Varsity. Pictures of said Schwinn Varsity at Port of Sacramento south levee road. My 27" wheeled bicycle flies over the dirt roads which really surprised me. I expected to be wobbling and sliding around in between flat tires. I use Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires on all my bicycles and the 27" wheels are solid, durable and ride beautifully on dirt roads. No flats caused by little sharp rocks and such. A shout out to rumrunn6 for 100 plus meals under 500 calories. Keep up the good work everyone.

Synack42

Nice -- the plateaus definitely drove me nuts quite a few times during the past year.

As for the gravel bike -- I've been seriously tempted to convert my 27 to 700C and try to fit some slightly wider tires on it. Not sure if friction brifters are a thing, but I'd definitely prefer something like that over stem mounted...

Here's the beast when I was putting it together. (Cable tension has been tweaked since if anyone is eyeing that...)

tallbikeman

Your bicycle looks like it is an American Made brand, Huffy or Columbia maybe? Ross mad some nice one piece crank 27" wheel 10 speeds back in the day. There are 27"x1 3/8" tires available and they may fit in your frame. If you change to 700c wheels then you may be able to fit 35mm wide tires. Check you clearances on the front fork and the rear stays. Sometimes the rear brake bridge is low so check it also. My Varsity in the above pictures has a Profile crank. Profile are BMX/MTB crank manufacturers and their cranks have the option of having bearing cups that fit the old American style one piece bottom bracket. If your seat post is 13/16" like the Schwinn Varsity then Porkchop BMX has aluminum posts available that flair up to 7/8" for the seat clamp. Nice way to drop some weight for little money. I love the older steel 10 speeds with 27"wheels. They have held up so well for decades proving to be a good design. I have come to appreciate the 27"wheel size more now that I've ridden and owned so many different sizes. It is a good all around wheel size for riding both paved and dirt roads. You have done a righteous job of putting on upright handlebars with the correct brake levers and shifters. I run 10 speed cassette hubs on my Bicycles and some have index shifters and one has old friction MTB shifters very similar to yours. I don't prefer one over the other. The frictions are just a tiny bit more fussy but are dead reliable. My Microshift index shifters have been wonderful and reliable but no real preference. I've not heard of friction brifters but someone may have built them long ago. All the brifters I've heard of were for drop bar bicycles. I have an old Nishiki Sebring with stem shifters, drop bars, brakes with the extra levers that allowed you to brake with your hands on the straight flat section of the bars. I'm rebuilding that bicycle at the moment and am going to keep these components. I'm updating the rear end with a cassette hub and a 10 speed cassette run by a Shimano 9speed MTB derailleur. The old stem shifters have enough cable pull to operate a 9 speed derailleur. So the shifting operation will remain a friction setup. Keep up the good work.

Synack42

Thanks! Good eye, it's an old Ross Gran Eurosport. The canti brake levers in the pic were a steal -- $4 brand new on Amazon at the time. As for the shifters, they are Sunrace SLM10's. I put those on almost everything on wrench on -- especially if it involves some nasty twist shifters... They're normally less than $10 and they come with cables and housings. Clearance on that frame is really good, dropping it down to 700C would only free it up even more and the calipers that are on it are totally long reach and would work great. I'll probably run the wheelset as is for a while though, the tires on it are brand new Kendas that I had laying around that were for someone else's ride originally. I did find some nice drop bars in the parts pile, so a set of Tektro levers and bar tape might end up on the next Amazon order...

I have thought about converting the one piece bottom bracket to a three piece/sealed square taper cartridge: (If anything just for the amusement factor of doing so... )

Panic

Been trying to keep my calories around 1,700. Well I'm down to 235 and sort of stuck here, but I've cut 3 inches off my belt. Bought one of those slider belts and it had to be cut. Wife says my legs look great, and I've been flying the volleyball court.

I now hop to be down to 230 by November 1.

SalsaShark

To the OP:
Excellent work - keep on enjoying the ride!

tallbikeman

Excellent work Panic. Losing weight is a war with yourself and you are winning. Good luck.

Panic

Thanks plateaued at 230, but the belt is shrinking. Slow and steady wins the race.

tallbikeman

9/23 I hit 245lbs. I finally hit 239lbs this week. I am cutting calories from what Myfitnesspal allows me to eat to get this result.