Weight Loss Question

[endosch2]

I am making a concerted effort to lose about 8-10 pounds through micro-managing calories consumed. I have never tried this before, only more riding and a weak effort at some cross training with limited results. My target weight would be lower than I have hit in 9 years or so. I am down 3 lbs so far in a week or so.

So my question is how many pounds per week have people been able to shed without feeling like it affects you on the bike? I know the experts say 1 or 2 pounds per week can be tolerated but I was curious about people who have been through this.

[92degrees]

More than 1-2lbs and you are likely losing muscle not fat -- which is not ideal. I've had far better success over the years by increasing calories burned rather than decreasing calories consumed -- building lean muscle via plyo or kettlebell workouts has been far more efficient than dieting.

[gone]

Between mid-March and mid-July of last year I went from just under 200 lbs to 175 (I'm currently 165) which works out to about 1.5 lbs/week. I'd usually eat something small (fruit/toast) before heading out on the bike and usually at about 40 miles I felt "empty" and like I had to have something to eat now.

Strangely enough, after I reached my current weight, this doesn't seem to be an issue anymore and my "during the ride" and post ride need to eat seems to be about what it was when I weighed more.

I also noticed that I hit a plateau at about 187 lbs that I was stuck at for a while. I didn't change anything really but all of a sudden started losing again. My target weight was 175 and I was surprised when I kept losing. I've been between 165-168 for about 7 months now (no easy feat over the winter) so I'd say I've stabilized and this is my new "normal" weight.

Good luck in your weight loss!

[crownjewelwl]

i don't think managing weight loss to lbs/week is realistic. first, there is the whole body composition issue. and second, there are just too many other variables.

i've spent the winter doing a ton of conditioning work and while i'm much leaner, my overall weight hasn't dropped.

also depends on your starting point. if you have a lot of excess baggage, the weight will come off quickly at the beginning then taper off. if you're already in good shape, then see prior comments.

good luck!!!!

[godfrey1112000]

last year I dropped 38 pounds,

it took about 12-18 week,

I was dropping about 2-3 per week,

1. did and still do P90X
2. did not bike as much in J F and March
3. cut out sugar and wine beer, did follow a calorie control diet, lots of broccoli

4. no eating at night, usually after 7pm

It did not effect me on the bike, my climbing improved, I wonder why


feel better and trying to maintain the weight, sometimes it is hard

good luck

[endosch2]

I should have given more background, I am 5'9 1/4" tall, I currently weigh 176, I have been as high as 180 in the past month, my goal or target weight is 168 to 170. Last year my lowest weight was 175. When I was 27 I weighed 155. I am 41 now. I have hovered around 180 for the past 5 years or so with little change. I now really want to find a "new normal".

[Frankwurst]

I look at it like putting money in the bank. A little at a time and it adds up. Losing it is not a problem for me, not finding it again is tough. Mrs. Wurst blames it on the beer. I blame it on her good cooking. :beer:

[godfrey1112000]

I should have given more background, I am 5'9 1/4" tall, I currently weigh 176, I have been as high as 180 in the past month, my goal or target weight is 168 to 170. Last year my lowest weight was 175. When I was 27 I weighed 155. I am 41 now. I have hovered around 180 for the past 5 years or so with little change. I now really want to find a "new normal".

I am 55, 5'9", started at 212 ended at 174, current about 180
body fat at start, 22%, at end 15.9, this is on the Dex Machine,

I would think you would try to see how you feel at 5 pounds less,
but not even weight loss but consider muscle gain

I improved my muscle mass with the P90X
it really helped, especially the yoga and cardio movement

[biker72]

I'm 6'1" with a present riding weight of 193 pounds. If I can string 3 concecutive 100+ mile weeks together my weight will start to drop. I've gotten as low as 182 pounds by the end of summer.

My diet is normally fairly low fat. I really don't worry about calories.

[Kane]

-Drink unsweetened water, tea or coffee. This alone will probably get you to your target weight. Fluid calories have no appetite suppression.
-Weigh lifting builds muscle and muscle burns calories.

Fiber meal once a day. Salad (greens + vegetables), 3-4 oz of protein per day and all the vegetables that you can eat.

Cheers,

Kane

[dogdriver]

+1 all of the above. Much more than a pound/week and you're either getting dehydrated or putting your body in a starvation mode, which it will rebound from (think the Oprah thin/fat yo-yo). Rather than thinking "diet", take an assessment of your lifestyle (food/activity) and commit to change it. No brainers are eliminating sweetened drinks and empty carbs.

As an aside, if you start a serious weigh training regimen, don't be surprised if you don't lose (or even gain) a little weight-- muscle is a lot more dense than fat. A look in the mirror is a lot more useful to chart your progress than jumping on the scale, anyways...

[Louis]

As mentioned in passing above, I find tracking % body fat to be much better than tracking weight. That way you don't penalize yourself for muscle gain.

I use a Tanita scale. They aren't perfect, but used properly and consistently will give you a good way to track % fat. (One issue is that the results are significantly affected by how well hydrated you are, but that is a problem that is easily avoided.)

[bumknees]

I'm 5'7" and weighed in at 195 lbs in July. In about 20 weeks, I was down to 150 lbs (~ 2.25 lbs/week), and I've been stable at the weight so far. I never felt any ill effects on the bike, aside from not hitting the same max speeds going downhill (less momentum, perhaps?).

I mainly just cut most of the junk out of my diet by substituting fruits and vegetables for the chips, candy, and ice cream that I used to eat. Additionally, I do some old-school workouts 2-3 times a week (sit ups, push ups, pull ups, squats, etc).

Maybe it's psychological, but the hills are easier for me, since I don't have that 45 pound tire around my waist anymore...

[false_Aest]

Hommé,

change 1 behavior at a time.

booze
sugar
coke
hookers
etc.

5 beers ~ 1000cal 1/3 lb

caffeine tends to trigger hunger.

1-1.5 lbs a week will make your body more happier.

w0rd

[gone]

I said above how much weight I'd lost but didn't say how I'd done it so I thought I'd elaborate. For me, breakfast and lunch are usually moderate to small meals. As I said above, breakfast (pre-ride) is usually fruit and toast and lunch is something like pancakes, eggs & toast, etc.

For me, the killer was dinner and the pre/post dinner habits I'd fallen into. Pretty much every night at around 5 I'd have a snack and usually a bad one (glass of wine with some shrimp, beer & chips, etc) then dinner at around 6 which was usually a gorge fest and a couple of cookies or brownies at around 7:30 so I'd basically be eating non-stop for 2.5 hours. As long as I rode a lot (which I did) I'd maintain on that diet but if I was off the bike for any length of time I'd pile on 5 lbs really fast and that would be the new "normal" so over about 3 years my weight went from the 170's to just under 200.

How'd I lose? Easy. Same breakfast & lunch, eliminated pre/post snacks and ate the same things for dinner just less of it. I also used all of the "tricks" that people recommend and they do work:

An apple if I feel hungry. Often, I'd have one at about 3:30-4:00 so I wouldn't attack my dinner.
Eat slowly, give your body a chance to catch up with what you're shoveling down. I'd often work a crossword puzzle or something similar during dinner just to force myself to do something than cram food in as fast as I could.
Drink water. I usually drink a fair amount anyway but I did increase slightly.

I never counted calories and my exercise regimen remained about the same. Obviously, since I started this in March my riding increased as the weather improved but no more so than it does every year.

[FixedNotBroken]

If your losing more than 2 pounds a week, that is not very healthy. What you need to focus on is cutting the crap food out of your diet, and maintaining your calorie input/output. Still get your sufficient amount of calories but if your going to want to drop weight you need to burn a lot of calories as well. If you want to be healthy about it..know that this is going to take time but in the end it will pay off.

[gone]

Hommé,

change 1 behavior at a time.

...
hookers
...

Sorry, I draw the line there. Some things I just refuse to give up :D

[Black Dog]

Drinking a large glass of water before a meal can help you feel full faster or prevent over eating. Also, if you are trying to loose weight at or above 2lbs/week then you need to be doing some serious interval work to prevent your body from lowering your base metabolic rate. This is the 'starvation response' that occurs with sudden caloric deficits. It is still best to keep the loss around 1-1.5 lbs/week with intervals and the result is a net increase in base metabolic rate that makes it easier to lose the fat.

[old_fat_and_slow]

What is this strange concept you speak of ?? Weight loss?

Weight loss is when you go out and spend buckets of money on lighter bike parts!

For the human body, weight only flows one way baby, and that is on/gain.

Take it from a pro, eat anything and everything you want, and enjoy watching the numbers go up every time yah get on the scale.

Oh yeah, FYI, performance only goes one way too. You always get slower. Take it from me, I know from experience.

Cheers,

Fat Man

[endosch2]

I have already lost all the weight I can on my bike within reason. I wanted to first start with things I control over - my money and how much I spend on my bike. I have ruled out my bike now as the reason for being slow.

Now I am moving on to the things I dont have control over - what goes in my mouth.

[rugbysecondrow]

Hommé,

change 1 behavior at a time.

booze
sugar
coke
hookers
etc.

5 beers ~ 1000cal 1/3 lb

caffeine tends to trigger hunger.

1-1.5 lbs a week will make your body more happier.

w0rd

I would actually increase the hooker use as that might constitute calorie burning.

[rugbysecondrow]

Somebody earlier said kettlebells, that would be a good integration. Any type of cross training, rowing, running, lifting etc would help as well. Maybe jump rope.

As for weight loss, it is just like a budget. You are either in the red or the black based on your caloric spending. You should plan out your caloric spending the way you do your money. It helps assign value to your food just like there is value to the money you spend.

Anyway, that helps me. I don't track that often, about 4 periods a year for about 3 weeks each time. That helps me weed out my easily developed bad habits (like eating a 1200 calorie snack right before bed).

[Scott Shire]

Speed work.

Try some Tabata intervals - aka 4 minutes of hell.

Ride at max effort for 20 seconds, then rest for 10. Repeat 8x for 4 minutes.

[RPS]

So my question is how many pounds per week have people been able to shed without feeling like it affects you on the bike?
I've shed 4 to 5 pounds in one week but only for that single one-week period. Although I got weaker during the middle of the week from excessive activity, I was stronger by the end of the week than when I started. As long as I burn fat I doubt it affects my strength or power that much.

[biker72]

Oh yeah, FYI, performance only goes one way too. You always get slower. Take it from me, I know from experience.
Cheers,
Fat Man

I have vast experience in this area. :cool:

[krhea]

One key is giving yourself enough time to lose the weight. As has been said, 1 to 1.5lbs a week is usually a pretty safe way to lose.

On Nov 27 I was 209lbs. I'm 5'11.5. I looked at my ride calendar for 2011 and decided I wanted to lose weight and hit 190 by May 1st. That gave me a very safe 5 months to lose 19lbs or an average of just over 3lbs per month. This morning, Feb 23rd, I had reached 198.5lbs. With 9 weeks to go I'm confident I'll hit my goal by event morning.

No "real" diets for me, I just cut back on portions of the bad stuff and upped the good stuff, stopped eating carbs after about 7pm, making sure I ate a good breakfast, solid lunch, good snacks (almonds, yogurt, apples, protein smoothies), I began eating dinner a bit earlier and added a double portion of veggies and a smaller portion of pasta. I went to having a glass of wine only on the weekends and went from always having two slices of pizza to having one.

In January I had a goal of 300miles and rode 464, this month my goal is 400miles. I added a Sunday 3 to 4hr ride to my schedule and one outdoor stair session per week. I run a set of 100 stairs x 10 with a warm-up and cool down. That makes my metabolism fire like crazy.
I've upped my water intake just a bit as I've always been pretty good about staying hydrated. I eat every 30minutes when on the bike consisting of Payday bars, fig newtons and GU packets and I only drink Accelerate.

One of the other keys for me is to make sure I eat within 30minutes after a ride or workout. Usually I down a carton of chocolate milk immediately after I'm done riding and then head home and eat something, usually a turkey sandwich with lots of spinach, tomatoes, peppers and mustard on real whole grain bread. If it's been a long ride I'll add a carton of yogurt with some almonds tossed in.

I still indulge once in awhile, today for example, with one New Seasons chocolate chip cookie as well as a bit of ice cream every now and again. For me, cutting out and depriving myself of things I love to eat, pizza, popcorn, choco chip cookies, frozen yogurt etc leads me to a big fail. I'd rather have the treat, control how much of the treat I have and feel good about doing that then to feel totally deprived of life's little treats.

Good luck to anyone trying to shed a few LBs as it can be a drag some days and often times you'll hit a plateau where you'll "live" for while which makes you wonder if you'll ever lose another pound. Then all the sudden you're back at it and the pounds are comin' off again.


KRhea

[Fixed]

stop eating junk
you know what that is
don't put it in your mouth .
sugar fatty stuff and white flour
most people super size their meals and it shows ,
, one helping at diner no desert
it is really simple cut out the candy bars called energy bars for one thing
cheers

[godfrey1112000]

Hommé,



5 beers ~ 1000cal 1/3 lb



w0rd

or

1 hour and 30 minutes on the bike

[Sevenrider]

Join ww

[srice]

Hommé,

5 beers ~ 1000cal 1/3 lb




5 beers @ 10000 cal??? Not the stuff I like. I unfortunately have learned to like the "good stuff" 300-400 calories per beer. To make matters worse, I've got a tri-geek at home who has a metabolism like a hummingbird who drinks a couple of these things while I am enjoying water. Being down almost 10 lbs in the last 6 weeks is nice, but boy do I miss a nice Immort or Olde School every night. (By the way, Stone IPA only has 2/3 the calories of a 90 minute IPA)

[LesMiner]

I am with KRhea. My size and weight low is about the same. I started the first of the year and at 6 foot I am now at 198. What I found helpful was Chris Carmichael's book "The Time Crunched Cyclist". In his book I found references to calorie consumption based on current weight and age. For me that worked out to be about 2200 calories a day. After estimating my actual consumption I was above the 2200 calories. I found ways to eliminate about 800 to 900 calories by changing habits and not eating the bad stuff. Reducing intake is probably the most effective way to lose weight but the reduction needs to be reasonable.

Chris Carmichael's focus on power changed my whole workout approach. Right now most everything I do is indoors, too cold and too much snow outside. Instead of being satisfied with cardio goals as heart rate I increased the power and focused on intervals. Overall I upped the intensity to be at or beyond the threshold of pain. I also increased the frequency from twice a week to 5 times a week. I do not have a Power Tap but I do have a Kurt trainer. Kurt provides a formula on their website to convert speed into power. Kurt now sells a cycle computer that does about the same thing. Given that I can get an idea of power I am producing and follow the training plan. Not as accurate as a Power Tap and certainly not like riding out on the road. But it does give means to get some idea of power out and realtive progress.

An LBS here offered a training class where you start with getting your VO2 max measured and maximum power. Then 2 or 3 sessions a week doing routines based on working at different percentage levels of the maximuim power. They provided the Kurt trainers but if you do not have a Power Tap then you need to buy the Kurt cyclecomputer. They offered it as a packaged deal where the class goes for 12 weeks. I did not hear about the class until 2 weeks after it had started, too late to join.

[bumknees]

reminds me what my college bud (with a pot belly) always said: Beer is liquid bread.