My weight loss adventure.
Discussion
In response to the other thread about diet and training I would like to share this with you. I made a bet with a triathlon friend...'who could give up beer' for a month. This snowballed into two months and then 'who could lose the most weight'...in two months.
Semi nervous about posting this up as its in no way scientific and i'll be the first to admit it wasn't easy. I was posted out to Australia in the middle of it which helped with riding but tested my resolve with alocohol to the limit. I didn't give in and it does get easier....no, I am not a recovering alcoholic
I sent to a coupe of club members as they wanted to know how I slimmed down and got faster. For ref. I was sort of mid to end pack at Hillingdon in the 4ths and 82kgs when we weighed in. I found it very hard but now it has completely changed my lifestyle and I am currently planning my next drop to 70kgs. I am holding around 73kg now and although will never match some of the snakes up the hills I am way better. I have also gained speed on the flat so power is not reduced which is what some said might happen. I know a bit more now but am still learning, feel free to add to this as it is constantly evolving. I am not going to tempt fate and say its turned me into Cavendish but I am way lighter and dont get tired like I used to, results have improved and I am striving to gain a Cat 3 licence sometime soon. Its all releative being an old git and starting cycling 10 months ago!
Cut and pasted from email to others....
Before I impart my pearls of wisdom I must say I dont really know very much about nutritiion, its all just stuff I have tried on myself the last few weeks. You really have to listen to your own system and see if it likes what mine did, if it rebels listen to it and mould things to suit.
The first thing I did was to write down what I thought the problems with my diet actually were. My plan was to lose weight but not by starving myself as I was concerned about losing power. The reality is if you cut out all the rubbish you are only ever going to reduce your fat levels, so dont worry about reducing in overall shape and size, the power will be there. Like most stressed 40 somethings my first major issue was alcohol. Probably 2-3 beers every week night give or take the odd free night then a bottle of wine or two over the weekend. That was a massive amount of calories which could be shelved in one simple move. The drinking also led to eating cheese and assorted snacks late at night, remove alcohol completely and do it immediately. Next up was my love of curry/thai/chinese. I always had a curry on Sunday and generally chinese on Friday. Fish and chips was a semi reguar thing as well instead of Chinese. Big step #2 was cutting out all takeaway foods.
With the most serious issues taken care of this is what I did diet wise.
Breakfast. Sometimes I used to have it, other times didnt bother so much, all a time issue really. Cycling to work solved that one. In the early stages I was eating toast with peanut butter but I knocked this on the head. After a ride you dont seem to need energy food it just sits on you so I switched to All Bran which you'll either be able to deal with or you wont! Now I have lost a chunk I am on porridge with a banana and a handful of mixed nuts and dried fruit, bit of honey on the top. If you fuel on this its awesome, I found in Oz I bonked trying to ride on All Bran. Its really, really important to increase your metabolism and the best way I found to do this is ride in the morning before breakfast, you'll burn calories all day doing this. When I had to I sat on the turbo, even for 20 mins, anything to make sure my body was awake before food. Always eat breakfast it kick starts everything.
Mid Morning. Fruit, apple, pear etc. Dont over stuff on fruit I have found they carry their own calories (gained pounds in a week by not thinking). I stick to 2 cups (imagine the fruit chopped up) per day.
Lunch. Various really. Fish and wholegrain rice or green veg (just slammed in the microwave) with fish or turkey slices. Beans on toast, soup is great. Bread isn't good I avoid it as much as is possible really. Dead calories.
Mid Afternoon. Wholegrain yoghurt and a banana or some other fruit.
Dinner. Chicken is the best thing to use for most things. If you eat rice at lunch dont have it again in the evening. So many chicken options out there I am sure you will find them. Skin off breasts are awesome. Chilli is a good additive as it surpresses hunger. Steamed veg is something I always have and dont hit potatoes too hard, you just dont need lots of carbs. Omletes are decent as is fish, I could eat fish solely (ho ho) for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Fried food is out, oven baked potatoe wedges are out (they are worse than most chippy chips). Avoid anything processed, its full of crap I cant understand. Lots of salad pepped up with so simple home made vinaigrette (olive oil, white wine vinegar, scant mustard, salt, pepper) . Making your own stuff is good as you a. understand what is in there and b. you wont make too much. Avoid deli style salads from supermarkets, they drown them in mega calorie dressings.Grilled chicken with some piri piri or BBQ/Cajun powder on the top is really quick and simple serve with salad. Basically take a good source of protein and low fat and lob it together with veg and little (if any) carbs.
Dessert. None! Not until I got weight off. Fresh fruit again.
Fluids. This is a general one really and it depends how mad you want to be. I drink 3-4 cups of tea a day so switched to green tea, no milk, no sugar. Its a bit shocking afer builders tea with milk and 2 but I can assure you it gets better. Earl grey is now my default choice but green tea most of the time as it is full of anti-oxidants, supposedly good for you! Coffee only ever in the morning after a ride and then only ever stuff I make, Costa, Starbucks are out. They are full off sugar if you like the funky stuff. Red Bull goes in the bin as well. OJ, Apple etc in the evenings but mainly water carbonated or just tap.
Other Stuff. Watch what you eat when you are riding. Gels etc are quite heavy and unless you are racing I dont bother. Scrambled eggs in the morning or mega porridge will fuel you for 2-3 hours and get you through the club rides. I switched to gatorade powder which is very low in sugar. I never, ever eat cake on the cafe stop I will take a cliff bar or banana with me. Malt loaf is also a good one, another avoidance of sugar. Switched from butter spreads to olive based ones, not that I use them much anyway. If you love cheese get a stronger one and grate a little over food instaed of carving a slice, crackers are full of calories anyway. I read that all things that use plain flour are pretty poor and dont break down very well. Thats the reasoning for avoiding bread etc.
Stage Two
This week I decided to hit things a little harder as I had fallen behind on the weigh in
Morning Ride - 10-15miles average pace 20+mph. Upto 85%. Stretches
or
Turbo - 45min session, ~20mins 3rd gear small ring spinning then go up every 2mins to largest but remain in small ring 85% max heart rate. ~10 mins big ring, top gear steady pace for 10 mins. Try to maintain 85-90 MHR. Then small ring 3rd gear spin until you are down to 50-60% which will be ~10-15mins. Stretches
Breakfast
All Bran with a little honey. Lighter than oats and as long as the ride before it was less than 15-20 miles you wont bonk or feel rough. Coffee, one sugar.
Mid-Morning
1 pear, 1 apple. Green tea no milk or sugar
Lunch
1 pack of fresh veg and 1 tin of steamed Makeral. Slam it all in the microwave for a few mins (fish only takes a min, veg 3mins) Green tea, no milk or sugar
Mid Afternoon
Low fat or wholegrain yoghurt
Evening. One bowl of preffered cereal no later than 20:00. Hydrate heavily in the evenings and during the day with water. On the big turbo session I used carb drinks but not anywere else to keep calories off! I also limit myself to 1 bottle only and instead of cliff bars etc 1 banana will help to keep cramp off and is enough for a short ride/decent turbo session. Green tea is a freebie as are other herb teas as long as they are not loaded with millk or sugar.
One day complete rest, I use Monday. On Thursday after the heavy turbo session I deaded my legs and was crap on Saturday, so switched to Wednesday.
Riding;
Mon rest
Tue commute
Wed commute + heavy turbo or chain
Thur commute
Fri spin if anything at all
Sat race
Sun club
I lost 9.5 kilos in 8 weeks which is way beyond what I thought was possible. Going to stabilise the diet now and let my weight settle as I have worked my body quite hard recently and it needs to recover a little bit of strength. The final week I crashed weight by adding a morning turbo session on Thur night and on Fri morning which did the job but I wouldn't ever try and sustain it for fear of injury and fatigue. Work on 1kg per week and everything will be fine.
Enjoy!
Semi nervous about posting this up as its in no way scientific and i'll be the first to admit it wasn't easy. I was posted out to Australia in the middle of it which helped with riding but tested my resolve with alocohol to the limit. I didn't give in and it does get easier....no, I am not a recovering alcoholic
I sent to a coupe of club members as they wanted to know how I slimmed down and got faster. For ref. I was sort of mid to end pack at Hillingdon in the 4ths and 82kgs when we weighed in. I found it very hard but now it has completely changed my lifestyle and I am currently planning my next drop to 70kgs. I am holding around 73kg now and although will never match some of the snakes up the hills I am way better. I have also gained speed on the flat so power is not reduced which is what some said might happen. I know a bit more now but am still learning, feel free to add to this as it is constantly evolving. I am not going to tempt fate and say its turned me into Cavendish but I am way lighter and dont get tired like I used to, results have improved and I am striving to gain a Cat 3 licence sometime soon. Its all releative being an old git and starting cycling 10 months ago!
Cut and pasted from email to others....
Before I impart my pearls of wisdom I must say I dont really know very much about nutritiion, its all just stuff I have tried on myself the last few weeks. You really have to listen to your own system and see if it likes what mine did, if it rebels listen to it and mould things to suit.
The first thing I did was to write down what I thought the problems with my diet actually were. My plan was to lose weight but not by starving myself as I was concerned about losing power. The reality is if you cut out all the rubbish you are only ever going to reduce your fat levels, so dont worry about reducing in overall shape and size, the power will be there. Like most stressed 40 somethings my first major issue was alcohol. Probably 2-3 beers every week night give or take the odd free night then a bottle of wine or two over the weekend. That was a massive amount of calories which could be shelved in one simple move. The drinking also led to eating cheese and assorted snacks late at night, remove alcohol completely and do it immediately. Next up was my love of curry/thai/chinese. I always had a curry on Sunday and generally chinese on Friday. Fish and chips was a semi reguar thing as well instead of Chinese. Big step #2 was cutting out all takeaway foods.
With the most serious issues taken care of this is what I did diet wise.
Breakfast. Sometimes I used to have it, other times didnt bother so much, all a time issue really. Cycling to work solved that one. In the early stages I was eating toast with peanut butter but I knocked this on the head. After a ride you dont seem to need energy food it just sits on you so I switched to All Bran which you'll either be able to deal with or you wont! Now I have lost a chunk I am on porridge with a banana and a handful of mixed nuts and dried fruit, bit of honey on the top. If you fuel on this its awesome, I found in Oz I bonked trying to ride on All Bran. Its really, really important to increase your metabolism and the best way I found to do this is ride in the morning before breakfast, you'll burn calories all day doing this. When I had to I sat on the turbo, even for 20 mins, anything to make sure my body was awake before food. Always eat breakfast it kick starts everything.
Mid Morning. Fruit, apple, pear etc. Dont over stuff on fruit I have found they carry their own calories (gained pounds in a week by not thinking). I stick to 2 cups (imagine the fruit chopped up) per day.
Lunch. Various really. Fish and wholegrain rice or green veg (just slammed in the microwave) with fish or turkey slices. Beans on toast, soup is great. Bread isn't good I avoid it as much as is possible really. Dead calories.
Mid Afternoon. Wholegrain yoghurt and a banana or some other fruit.
Dinner. Chicken is the best thing to use for most things. If you eat rice at lunch dont have it again in the evening. So many chicken options out there I am sure you will find them. Skin off breasts are awesome. Chilli is a good additive as it surpresses hunger. Steamed veg is something I always have and dont hit potatoes too hard, you just dont need lots of carbs. Omletes are decent as is fish, I could eat fish solely (ho ho) for breakfast/lunch/dinner. Fried food is out, oven baked potatoe wedges are out (they are worse than most chippy chips). Avoid anything processed, its full of crap I cant understand. Lots of salad pepped up with so simple home made vinaigrette (olive oil, white wine vinegar, scant mustard, salt, pepper) . Making your own stuff is good as you a. understand what is in there and b. you wont make too much. Avoid deli style salads from supermarkets, they drown them in mega calorie dressings.Grilled chicken with some piri piri or BBQ/Cajun powder on the top is really quick and simple serve with salad. Basically take a good source of protein and low fat and lob it together with veg and little (if any) carbs.
Dessert. None! Not until I got weight off. Fresh fruit again.
Fluids. This is a general one really and it depends how mad you want to be. I drink 3-4 cups of tea a day so switched to green tea, no milk, no sugar. Its a bit shocking afer builders tea with milk and 2 but I can assure you it gets better. Earl grey is now my default choice but green tea most of the time as it is full of anti-oxidants, supposedly good for you! Coffee only ever in the morning after a ride and then only ever stuff I make, Costa, Starbucks are out. They are full off sugar if you like the funky stuff. Red Bull goes in the bin as well. OJ, Apple etc in the evenings but mainly water carbonated or just tap.
Other Stuff. Watch what you eat when you are riding. Gels etc are quite heavy and unless you are racing I dont bother. Scrambled eggs in the morning or mega porridge will fuel you for 2-3 hours and get you through the club rides. I switched to gatorade powder which is very low in sugar. I never, ever eat cake on the cafe stop I will take a cliff bar or banana with me. Malt loaf is also a good one, another avoidance of sugar. Switched from butter spreads to olive based ones, not that I use them much anyway. If you love cheese get a stronger one and grate a little over food instaed of carving a slice, crackers are full of calories anyway. I read that all things that use plain flour are pretty poor and dont break down very well. Thats the reasoning for avoiding bread etc.
Stage Two
This week I decided to hit things a little harder as I had fallen behind on the weigh in
Morning Ride - 10-15miles average pace 20+mph. Upto 85%. Stretches
or
Turbo - 45min session, ~20mins 3rd gear small ring spinning then go up every 2mins to largest but remain in small ring 85% max heart rate. ~10 mins big ring, top gear steady pace for 10 mins. Try to maintain 85-90 MHR. Then small ring 3rd gear spin until you are down to 50-60% which will be ~10-15mins. Stretches
Breakfast
All Bran with a little honey. Lighter than oats and as long as the ride before it was less than 15-20 miles you wont bonk or feel rough. Coffee, one sugar.
Mid-Morning
1 pear, 1 apple. Green tea no milk or sugar
Lunch
1 pack of fresh veg and 1 tin of steamed Makeral. Slam it all in the microwave for a few mins (fish only takes a min, veg 3mins) Green tea, no milk or sugar
Mid Afternoon
Low fat or wholegrain yoghurt
Evening. One bowl of preffered cereal no later than 20:00. Hydrate heavily in the evenings and during the day with water. On the big turbo session I used carb drinks but not anywere else to keep calories off! I also limit myself to 1 bottle only and instead of cliff bars etc 1 banana will help to keep cramp off and is enough for a short ride/decent turbo session. Green tea is a freebie as are other herb teas as long as they are not loaded with millk or sugar.
One day complete rest, I use Monday. On Thursday after the heavy turbo session I deaded my legs and was crap on Saturday, so switched to Wednesday.
Riding;
Mon rest
Tue commute
Wed commute + heavy turbo or chain
Thur commute
Fri spin if anything at all
Sat race
Sun club
I lost 9.5 kilos in 8 weeks which is way beyond what I thought was possible. Going to stabilise the diet now and let my weight settle as I have worked my body quite hard recently and it needs to recover a little bit of strength. The final week I crashed weight by adding a morning turbo session on Thur night and on Fri morning which did the job but I wouldn't ever try and sustain it for fear of injury and fatigue. Work on 1kg per week and everything will be fine.
Enjoy!
TheGreatSoprendo said:
Interesting stuff, thanks for posting. I need to lose a few lbs too, but I can't see me having the committment to do all of the above!
Thanks!The first few weeks are the hardest but after that it becomes easier as you start to see results. Two months seems like a long time but at the end I was a bit dissapointed it was over! One thing was for sure though the beer/wine/curry at the end tasted very sweet
I have kept with the basic format but have one day a week off for beer and whatever food I feel like. The only downside is all the summer club kit I bought is now too big lol.
Jimboka said:
I started using MyfitnessPal app late January & have lost 20lbs by following diet & running every day ( I allow 100 calories extra every 10 mins run ) . I allow 50 calories every 10 mins on bike but I run mainly..
Awesome.Have you a target weight in mind or are you just going to carry on until you flatline?
yonex said:
Awesome.
Have you a target weight in mind or are you just going to carry on until you flatline?
I was a getting a bit lardy at 13st10 despite regular running. So cut down to 1400 calories + the bonus calories for exercise so that pays for beers etc!. Currently 12st4. Want to get under 12st which will be Ok for 6'1. Running a lot better again, some races coming up will be interesting!Have you a target weight in mind or are you just going to carry on until you flatline?
Gizmo! said:
12st "ok" for 6'1?
If I ever see 13 st again I'll be happy, and I'm 5'9
i was thinking the same! 12st at 6"1 would look too skinny imo. I'm 6"1 and currently 13st 10lbs, and when i cut down to about 13st 3lbs for a race or something, i start to look underweight and gaunt!! I guess it depends on your build though!If I ever see 13 st again I'll be happy, and I'm 5'9
Another myfitnesspal user here. About 18 months ago I went from 93kg to 68kg. I'm 189cm (6'2), so that's a BMI of 19. I'm currently 68.5kg, so have kept it off. My only tips would be
1. exercise a lot - it takes a lot of exercise to shift weight (1kg of blub = around 11hrs of exercise for me), but it's a lot easier than going hungry. I do ~20 hours a week (was a 29km each way commute, currently a 9.5km run each way).
2. eat low calorie density foods - fill up on stuff that doesn't contain much energy. I eat alot of apples, oats and salad.
3. drink loads of water.
I find being light helps me recover more easily. I've just started running, and I've gone from 10 miles a week to 50 miles with no bother. Hills don't seem to take it out of me as much as some people I ride with who are otherwise much stronger than me.
1. exercise a lot - it takes a lot of exercise to shift weight (1kg of blub = around 11hrs of exercise for me), but it's a lot easier than going hungry. I do ~20 hours a week (was a 29km each way commute, currently a 9.5km run each way).
2. eat low calorie density foods - fill up on stuff that doesn't contain much energy. I eat alot of apples, oats and salad.
3. drink loads of water.
I find being light helps me recover more easily. I've just started running, and I've gone from 10 miles a week to 50 miles with no bother. Hills don't seem to take it out of me as much as some people I ride with who are otherwise much stronger than me.
okgo said:
IMO 6,2 and 68kg is too light and I'd hate to look that skinny!
Why did you go so low?
It's low end of normal weight, not underweight. Not had a dexa scan, but body weight is 8-9% according to the estimates. I did drop to BMI 18.5 briefly last year, and did look a bit gaunt then (but equally, got several flattering comments). I guess people look different due to build. I'm not very broad - lanky streak of piss might be a better description. Certainly don't look out of place at an audax start line. However, I looked like Jabba at 93kg (don't make me dig the photos out)Why did you go so low?
I'm interested in obesity because of my work (health psych working in a university primary care research dept.), and wanted to test some of the behaviour change strategies on myself. By the time I'd decided to look into self-monitoring, I was already 76kg just from exercise, so needed a lower goal to test the techniques. I've stuck with it because weight maintenance is a really tough thing for researchers to crack, and wanted to see what it took for me (it was giving up beer/ice cream).
I am a chronic self-experimenter, but it makes the work I do more interesting.
[edit to say...] Also, my exercise goals are much different to yours / Bradley's. I'm all about endurance - got the goal of doing the LEL 1200km next year, and probably an ultramarathon (from pretty much zero running last year, and nothing over a 15km run prior to that) this year if I don't annoy my wife too much. I don't need punch, I need trudge.
Edited by DrMekon on Monday 9th April 16:51
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