Protein Shakes

googlehead

i am cycing about 200+ miles a week at the moment, also trying to lose some
weight(last half stone) should i take protein shakes after a cycle? or will they just keep my weight the same when i am trying to lose weight?

Webmonkey

Wow 200+ miles a week is impressive.

I don't know answer to this but the fitness forum might be a better place.

googlehead

Webmonkey wrote: »

Wow 200+ miles a week is impressive.

I don't know answer to this but the fitness forum might be a better place.

yeah might be better their

Admin can i move this thread to the fitness forum please?

scottreynolds

googlehead wrote: »

i am cycing about 200+ miles a week at the moment, also trying to lose some
weight(last half stone) should i take protein shakes after a cycle? or will they just keep my weight the same when i am trying to lose weight?

You need to replace your carbs after a cycle. You'll also need protein to helps your muscles to repair themselves. however at 200 miles losing weight should be obligatory.

I'd look at what else your eating before stopping the shakes for recovery.

Ryaner

You should be aiming to loose fat and not weight. First step is to invest in a semi decent fat scales and weight in once a week at the same time under the same conditions. There is a thread on this in the fitness section but to summarise, the scales aren't completely accurate. Usually within 1-3% of the real body fat figure compared to other methods. What is accurate is the readings week to week. It is REALLY important not to weight in every day as you get jumps in everything depending on how much you have slept, worked out, or how much water you drank.

Regarding the cycling side of things, get a heart rate monitor. Up to about 60% of your max heart rate is generally considered a really good place to burn fat. From experience, sitting in this range lets me burn off fat and still keep my muscles from feeling like they've had a long work out. (Note: I do upper body gym training to counter muscle loss)

Protein shakes shouldn't be necessary for recovery unless you are really pushing things on the bike. A carb shake as suggested will work wonders. I have the high5 stuff which is just added to water. I've managed to come back from 100km+ cycles, have one of those and then feel like I haven't cycled that day.

Lastly, you probably are already monitoring your fat loss but if not, then start inputting the stuff into something like sporttracks. It really makes a difference long term to be able to see your progress. Week to week you will not be able to notice the changes. I can barely notice my changes over the past 6 months even though my parents and even people I work with have commented on how much weight I've lost since I started back cycling.

lukester

As scott said, I'd look at your overall diet.
From experience of trying to shed some pounds a few years back, I found eating more low glycemic index foods and cutting out as much processed and sugary stuff as possible really helped.

Are you eating on the bike as well? I only take water on rides of less than 2 hours.

I also wouldn't bother with shakes after shortish low intensity rides.

Lumen

The bit that struck me was "200+ miles a week...trying to lose some weight (last half stone)".

Getting rid of that last bit can be quite tough without sacrificing muscle mass. Muscle is "metabolically active tissue", i.e. it's going through a continual process of breakdown and renewal (even if you do no exercise). If you don't get enough protein and carbs you will lose muscle mass as it won't get renewed properly. I'm not sure whether this is always an entirely bad thing - Lance claims that the upper body muscle he lost through chemo made him a permanently better climber.

I don't think protein shakes are necessary, but they are convenient. However, keep up intake of dairy, fish and lean meat and you should be getting enough protein: 1-1.5g protein per kg of bodyweight per day IIRC. Milk is cheap and convenient.

I managed to lose the last 4kg (70kg-66kg) in 4 weeks by cutting out the crap and eating small portions on non-cycling days. It took some willpower for the first week, but then my eating habits changed and it was fine. Ribs appeared at about 67kg, so I'm sticking where I am for now.

FWIW, short hard rides burn less fat during the ride but more afterwards, and they make you go faster.

kennyb3

Lumen wrote: »

I managed to lose the last 4kg (70kg-66kg) in 4 weeks by cutting out the crap and eating small portions on non-cycling days. It took some willpower for the first week, but then my eating habits changed and it was fine. Ribs appeared at about 67kg, so I'm sticking where I am for now.

what height are you out of interest? im 5 8/9 so wondering what weight i should be around

kennyb3

Ryaner wrote: »

You should be aiming to loose fat and not weight. First step is to invest in a semi decent fat scales

could you recommend a half decent one, would something from argos do?

Lumen

kennyb3 wrote: »

what height are you out of interest? im 5 8/9 so wondering what weight i should be around

I'm 6ft, but don't compare to that - it depends on so many factors like build and muscle mass. I'm quite narrow and slow. The pros around my height are generally 70-75kg.

You'll know when you're light enough when your wife/GF complains that you're too skinny. Then lose a couple more kg and stop.

Lumen

Ryaner wrote: »

First step is to invest in a semi decent fat scales and weight in once a week at the same time under the same conditions

Not sure about those scales. For a really accurate body fat figure, I'd do a D(E)XA scan and a immersion test on the same day (the first to calibrate the second), then repeat the immersion test monthly.

This is somewhat impractical, but a mirror and normal scales do a good enough job.

If I happened to have some scales with body fat estimation I'd probably use them, but these things are not cheap.

bazzjazz

For a fat scales here you go:

Lidl Special

Its probably not fantastically accurate, but it would be good for week to week relative measurements.

smithslist

Its really your diet that needs reviewing, most protein shakes are high in fat and carbs so taking them after a ride, yes you will recover well from it, but if your also having a meal after your spin as well as the shakes, then thats alot of carbs\fats depending on how much you mix with the shakes and the food intake.

First step, review your diet\food intake (on and off the bike), a good healthy diet is hard to keep by but its worth it in the end.

I have lost weight changing my diet where per-meal I would have less carbs (so say if i was having 50g of pasta, I would take 30g etc) and fill the rest of the plate with either low fat protein food or veg etc.

Its good also this way as I'm getting more different types of food on my plate rather than just one type, so its more enjoyable to eat.

googlehead

diet is good i am 5 8" and 161lbs.

breakfast is usually porridge with honey or scambled eggs with soy and linseed low GI bread.

lunch is 2 boiled eggs if non for breakfast, and low GI bread and peanut butter if non for breakfast, or soup, rivata and low fat cottage cheese, baked beans

dinner is usually a tomato based curry ,usually chicken, or a chickpea curry thing the odd time

all junk food is gone, the odd bit off dark chocolate

snacks are bananas, apples, low fat cottage cheese,baked beans.


weight is coming of me, i was 173lbs a few months ago, want to get to 154lbs and then start some weight training to tone the rest of my body.
i have found that i am alot better now at hills after losing some weight,

i don't really eat on cycles, and i usually just drink water or the odd time if i am doing 2.5-3hour cycle i
will take a sports drink

smithslist

googlehead wrote: »

i don't really eat on cycles

That's not very good for many a reason (on bike performance & recovery etc).

I could go into detail but a google search will be quicker for you.

Lumen

googlehead, that diet sounds pretty miserable TBH.

I can't believe you're doing 200 miles a week on cottage cheese and baked beans!

Raam

Here's my diet, roughly...

Breakfast:
granola/muesli/oats with natural yogurt and drizzled with honey
coffee

Mid morning snack (don't always have this):
either banana/madarin/avocado or 4 slices of toast (brown bread) with jam or marmalade

Lunch:
brown bread, cheese, chicken/turkey/ham/salami, tomato/cucumber, cheese. So it's a sandwich with some kind of meat, cheese and some kind of veg.
x 2.

Mid afternoon snack (don't always have this):
same as mid morning snack. Might have a chocolate bar also.

Pre Dinner snack:
crackers+salami/chorizo maybe with some cheese or granola bar or banana.

Dinner:
rice/pasta/potato with random fresh veg and quorn/fish and appropriate sauce. Usually try and make the sauce rather than use a jar. Don't always succeed.

Post dinner snack:
popcorn, chocolate, or whatever was left over from dinner.

Possibly not as good a diet as it should be. But I like it.

blorg

smithslist wrote: »

That's not very good for many a reason (on bike performance & recovery etc).

I could go into detail but a google search will be quicker for you.

I think it depends on your goals. If trying to lose weight and doing relatively short cycles at relatively low intensity (fat burning) then I am not sure it is necessary or even beneficial to eat on the bike. 2.5 hour spins are probably around the point where you would have to start eating.

If doing high intensity stuff then eating on the bike is far more necessary.

Lumen

Here's my recipe for "Jack Spratt stir fry".

- Brown one sliced chicken breast with broccoli and thin sliced carrots.
- Add brown mushrooms, courgette, onion, red pepper, scallions.
- Add 1sp chinese black bean sauce, 1 tsp broad bean sauce, 1 tsp chilli bean sauce. These must be the sort from the Asian supermarket, not the diluted crap from Sharwoods etc.
- Add light soy sauce.
- Serve with 50-50 mix of basmati and broken Thai rice. Give all the bits of meat to your wife/GF.

If more spicyness is required, add sliced red chillis or chilli oil.

I could eat this every day.

DirkVoodoo

Lumen wrote: »

...baked beans!

Baked beans are a fantastic part of someone's diet, very high in fiber (not good on the bike, good off it) and a good source of carbs. As long as you opt for a "low salt" variety.

I am a big fan of having a tin and a few slices of toast after a big spin.

Also, Chris Hoy recommends them as part of the cyclist's diet, so they can't be that bad.

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

googlehead, that diet sounds pretty miserable TBH.

I can't believe you're doing 200 miles a week on cottage cheese and baked beans!

I think it sounds pretty spot on for his goals of weight loss myself.

When I was trying to lose weight some years ago I:

- Counted calories meticulously, balanced it all in a spreadsheet with in/out, it came out pretty bang on 3,500 calorie deficit = 1lb lost
- Cut out all junk/snacking except small amounts of dark chocolate
- Cut out bread, swapped sanwich for wrap at lunch
- Added lots of low-calorie foods. Massive quantities of tomatoes, soup, salads, etc. Fills you up with almost no calories there
- Weighed daily in the morning and recorded it but only paid attention to the weekly/ten day moving average

My most extreme week I did over 700km on 1,200 calories/day average. Obviously would not recommend this and I wouldn't keep it up week after week but it was low intensity and I wasn't bonking. Needless to say I was not eating on the bike

After I was done on the weight loss I started working on the bike fitness more and upped the intensity. My personal opinion though is if your goal is weight loss get that done first and don't worry too much about the speed on the bike; there are plenty of people who are pretty strong on the bike but have a fair bit of weight on them.

Once you have the weight off and start working on the intensity on the bike BTW watch things like waistline / body fat % / simply looking at your body in the mirror rather than weight as you would expect to put on weight in muscle mass at that point and this is not a bad thing.

bcmf

Remember that muscle mass is heavier then Fat. So the more muscle you build then heavier you become. Thats why gettiing a fat scales is better then a regular scales.
Also is long preiods of spinning a good way too lose fat without building muslce?

davyjose

kennyb3 wrote: »

could you recommend a half decent one, would something from argos do?

TBH mate, those scales are massively inaccuarate. In 1 day my bodyfat shot up 2.7% and this was AFTER a 3 hour cycle.

lukester

The diet sounds ok to me, as long as there's enough variety there to stave off boredom.

The good thing about having a healthy, realistic diet that you like is that it's easier to maintain the habits. I hardly ever eat standard pasta, white rice or potatoes anymore. If I do, it's either before/after a cycle, or on other days as a one-off and in small quantities.

Have replaced these with low GI alternatives. Quinoa is one great option, allegedly yet another superfood. I still use wholewheat pasta a bit, and basmati rice is good too.

I mainly snack now on nuts, seeds, and fruit, dried or fresh. Dried mango is as good as any jelly beans you'll buy, although you can't eat it in large quantities, it's very sweet. Dark chocolate, 70% or above gives me my chocolate fix, that or cocoa with skimmed milk.

Pulses are also a good source of protein, lentils, split-peas, various types of beans. Also lean meats and fish.

I do splurge occasionally where I throw all rules out the window, and if I'm travelling or out somewhere I go with the flow.

Caroline_ie

Raam ... you have 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners is that the secret?

kennyb3

davyjose wrote: »

TBH mate, those scales are massively inaccuarate. In 1 day my bodyfat shot up 2.7% and this was AFTER a 3 hour cycle.

all scales? what really is the best way for me to get my body fat then? buy a better/more expensive scales?

Caroline_ie

kennyb3 wrote: »

all scales? what really is the best way for me to get my body fat then? buy a better/more expensive scales?

Any scales is good as long as you use the sames ones all the time: ie: use the ones at home, and avoid the ones at the gym and at your mates ... just stick to 1 set.
Get yourself a measuring tape as well, and measure thighs, waist, arms bust and keep a record of that too, maybe once a week or once a forthnight.

Lumen

kennyb3 wrote: »

all scales? what really is the best way for me to get my body fat then? buy a better/more expensive scales?

Body fat measurement techniques