CanadianBiker32

I do many bike events a lot, etc throughout the year

I like to cut about 4 to 5 lbs more.
problem how does one do this without sacrificing performance

as doing long rides
one has to eat carbs and carb foods for energy

suggestions on how to a weight loss period would work? examples

i understand activities has to suppress calories burned?
suggestions thanks

Seattle Forrest

Weight loss comes from eating fewer calories than you burn, pure and simple. Carbs are irrelevant unless you have diabetes or cysts on your ovaries or some other medical issue that involves them.

How do you define performance on the bike? You mentioned long rides, so you're probably more interested in finishing than your overall speed?

wolfchild

Increase your protein intake and slightly adjust/decrease your carbs and fats to keep the calories the same. Protein is very good for fat loss.

snidely

+1 ^^^


I'd recommend getting a calorie-tracking app and be honest with it about what you eat and what you burn.


If you have a few expendable $, a Fitbit with HR is a fairly accurate tool for measuring calories burned. It even knows when you exercise, and calculates your burn accordingly. The included app will let you enter your food intake, giving you your caloric deficit. Plus it provides lots of other great information.


I find that on my long rides, I don't need to replenish even close to the number of calories I burned in order to recover.


Tracking your food, you should drop those few pounds in short order!

wolfchild

Cutting calories will decrease your performance and make it more difficult to recover after hard training...There is no reason to cut calories unless you are overweight and have health issues.... A much better strategy for a healthy person who races and trains regularly is to manipulate your macronutrient intake and keep your calories the same.

sprince

Ovaries aside, for that little bit of weight I'd just fast for 3-4 days and get it over with quickly. That also solves your sacrificing performance problem for all but those few days. Or for the long term approach, just make better food choices until you get where you want to be slowly. If your diet is already perfect, there is nothing left than to eat less.

Carbonfiberboy 

On the bike, only eat half the calories you burn - or less. Have a good recovery drink to suppress hunger and eat your normal small meals. Do long moderate intensity rides on your road bike, where you never go hard, 4-6 hours. Spin easily up hills. Eat as little as possible during the ride. When Lance was trying to drop weight, he would go out for 6 hour rides with only water. That works! And long moderate rides won't hurt performance, help if anything. As the above posters say, keep your protein intake high. There is no reason to consume only the minimum amount of protein. No alcohol.

Rowan

What the hell does "ovaries aside" mean???!!!

CliffordK

I wouldn't touch that last question with a 10 foot pole.

As far as dieting. I find that blackberries are an interesting food. The more I eat (a lot), the more weight I lose. They are extremely filling, but with minimal usable calories (the seeds are mostly excreted intact). I also try to eat a little extra protein when dieting to help prevent muscle loss.

Losing weight without losing performance is tricky. If you have very little fat to burn, then it may be extremely difficult to get off that last pound without losing muscle.

Make sure you eat protein, vitamins, and keep exercising.

TexMac

As some stated already, you will have to cut down on some carbs. When i was 180 lbs i started eating lettuce salad before dinner and watermelons just before bed. These two foods fill your stomach and you don't feel hungry. I'm now at 163lbs and need to be 159 in 4 weeks before a hilly road race.
Just remember it's better to be a lil heavy and powerful than skinny and weak.

baobao

Who cares about losing weight? Important is to watch body fat% and power. Many skinny guys cannot climb cause they have no power, and heavy guys are heavy cause they have muscle and big bones.

sprince

Have no idea. See post #2.

Machka 

I have had to choose.

I can either focus on losing 2 or 3 more kg to bring me right down to the bottom end of my normal BMI range ....

OR ...

I can focus on training.

I've decided to focus on training right now.

This means that I eat at a slight deficit during the week and eat at maintenance or slightly over on from Friday (pre-event or pre-training ride) to Monday.

If you want to lose weight, you'll have to pick a month or two where you're in your rest period and not doing a lot of training. You'll still be exercising of course, but then you can drop your calorie intake just enough to lose about 1 lb per week ... and in 5 weeks or so, you could lose that weight.


That's my plan for October/November.

nycphotography

I cut 21 lbs of fat in 3 months, from 174 to 153. I am 6' tall my body tends to be lean. Dunno what happened with that 20 lbs, it snuck onto my waist when I wasn't looking!!!

To cut weight (fat) you have to burn fat.

To burn fat, you have to burn calories and not replace them. To burn fat instead of muscle, you have to work the muscles (so they are in need of recovery) and eat lots (LOTS) of protein.

----------------

Anyhow, the formula, once I figured it out, was remarkably simple. (simple instructions, but hard will power)

1) Eat mostly protein. This means eliminate almost all of the carbs and fat that are easy to eliminate. no bread. no rice. no potatos. no sugar. no sodas. I do still eat a steak once in a while, but no potato. just steak and some broccoli or green beans. NO COOKIES, no snacks, no carbs, no donuts, no good stuff. Sorry, that's just the way it is when cutting body fat.

2) Do enough muscle building exercise to make the body want protein for muscle recovery / building. I did some military style calisthenics: situps, pushups, planks, ab rollers, and dumbell exercises. Also did some rock climbing at the gym a couple times a week. and some high weight leg presses or squats. I did only a LITTLE of this stuff, 15 min a day or less.

3) Run a calorie deficit. Total calories were 1500 to 2000 per day (excluding on bike drinks which I don't count in daily calories, instead I subtract them from the kj of the ride to estimate the deficit for the ride. I tend to drink less than half the calories than the measured of the ride. short rides under 400kj I dont drink anything but water).

I don't eat breakfast. I (usually) ate either a turkey sub (with the bread picked out), or 2 fage zero yogurts w honey (300 cal), or some turkey chicken and beef from the salad bar/buffet. For dinner I ate a 800-1000 calorie combination of protein shake, triple zero yogurt, boiled eggs, canned butter beans w/ olive oil, protein bar (20g/200cal), etc.

Notice the theme. NO (extra) CARB. LESS FAT. LOTS OF PROTEIN.

4) Burn the sugar out of your blood/liver... and do not replace it. Recovery drink is PROTEIN. Not fat, not sugar. Your body will begrudgingly go to work reclaiming the fat from the fat balloons around your fat ass waist and use it to replenish the blood sugar(s). Eventually.

Two long rides (70ish miles), one midweek, one weekend, each around 2200 kj, done on 2 to 4 bottles. Burn 2200 kj, take in 1000 ish, after the ride, eat PROTEIN, not carbs not fats. Make the body replenish the carbs from stored body fat.

5) if you are hypoglycemic or get light headed or get faint, or have blood sugar issues, or have other medical issues.... then do not do this!

You will be hungry. You will have weird cravings. You may wonder if you are pregnant. No, you are just forcing fat metabolism. The only way to get rid of fat is to burn it which pisses your body the eff off. It's like getting a dollar from your spouses savings account. The fat is supposed to go in for emergencies, but really the body does NOT like spending it.

Net result, I cut over 20 lbs in 3 months, built muscle in my core and upper body, and got stronger on the bike.

There are many people who will tell you oh no, don't do this, it's baaaad, for any one of a dozen reasons, most of which are complete BS. But some are really valid, mostly around medical issues specific to you.

So i cannot recommend this for everyone. In fact I probably can't "recommend" it for anyone.

But I can say that it absolutely worked for me. Better than I ever imagined was possible. I thought I'd be a couple years gradually getting back in shape, but the aggressive diet and fat cut really made quick results and I feel great.

Now I have to go buy size 30 pants... I'd given up on seeing size 30 again like 20 years ago.