Back cycling but no weight lost grrrrrrrr

neilr4

I'm back cycling after a 10 year hiatus in order to get myself fit again (mentally and physically), lose weight and to do something more productive with my time! I finally quit smoking 2 years ago and gained some weight going from a 32" to a 36" waist. Started cycling on 18th march and get out on avg 3 times per week. Last week rode approx 300km at avg 25km/h spread over 4 spins. My question is this........

When can I expect to see some weight loss? I eat very well, porridge for breakfast, no sugar at all, no processed food, lean meat, lots of veggies, bread maybe once a week, drink green tea, black coffee, water and sometimes a glass or 2 of wine in the evenings. I raced in my early 20's and weighed 65kg at the moment I'm 86kg somewhere in the middle should be achievable! I understand that since I've started back, building muscle will in itself cause some weight gain with muscle being heavier than fat but I haven't lost a gram in 8 weeks.......... Don't get me wrong I'm not obsessed with losing weight but am I being impatient to expect at least some?

N.

Scuba_Scoper

Short rebuttal, last weeks cycles of 300km at 25km/h burned VERY APPROXIMATELY 9600 cals- this could be more or less but for arguments sake lets just take that figure.

You did this across 4 spins so this averages out at 2400 cals. The usual figure for weight loss is approx 3000 cals per 1 lb. Now bearing in mind that you were hungrier after the cycling how much did you eat 'extra' ?

You are already eating much more than you said above as you have put on weight since giving up the smokes(very very well done btw!!) but you are taking the right steps now to tackle the weight thing. The bad news is that your recovery will take place in the kitchen, not out on the road. So, those portions will have to go down to 75-80% and the grazing will have to stop.... muscle weighing more that fat is a load of cack to be honest unless you are lifting huuuge weights and are noticeably bigger. Endurance exercise ala 12 hours on the bike does not build muscle - tones yes, builds no.

I went through the exact same thing you did.. stopped smoking, put on 2 and half stone, started cycling, wondered why it made no change - looked at diet, said oh ****, changed diet - back to normal . Took 6 months but worked.

I went from 77kg -> 86kg -> 68kg from diet + exercise but it was 90% diet changes that did it. The cyling has made me aerobically much fitter, legs are stronger, core is better - look at your portion sizes - using a scales if neccessary - note every bit of food you eat until you see the pattern and then make the changes - it's simple but boring but to loose weight calories in < calories out will do the trick.

t'bear

Scuba
Please be my personal 'fat b****d' coach, excellent post. I find it very easy to overfill on food when I get in from a cycle.

OP, I do feel much better being on the bike but the figures on the scales move at a very slow pace. I am not that obsessed with it either but feeling better mentally and physically is reward aplenty.

neilr4

Scuba,

Thanks for the reply, it's good to read a post from somebody with a similar history/background.........

I usually take a protein recovery drink as soon as I get home after riding for longer than 1 hour 30 min. Funny enough I don't seem to be eating more and can't eat a full meal within first 3 hours after exercise, a few bites and I'm full.... As for grazing it's more like a handfull of brazil nuts in the evening, no junk!!

Maybe expecting too much too soon!!

Neil.

Dudess

Maybe pay more attention to how clothes fit. Too much emphasis on scales IMO.

Scuba_Scoper

neilr4 wrote: »

Scuba,

Thanks for the reply, it's good to read a post from somebody with a similar history/background.........

I usually take a protein recovery drink as soon as I get home after riding for longer than 1 hour 30 min. Funny enough I don't seem to be eating more and can't eat a full meal within first 3 hours after exercise, a few bites and I'm full.... As for grazing it's more like a handfull of brazil nuts in the evening, no junk!!

Maybe expecting too much too soon!!

Neil.

Sounds like you are going about it the right way... jeez, I could have written your original post and your last response... same background etc... from your diet info and your reference to brazil nuts can I take it you are eating paleo?
If not, I could not recommend it highly enough. Have a look at marksdailyapple.com for a quick primer and take it from there.

Basically, sugar was the enemy in that big carbs in all their forms just keeps the body storing weight. Cut that and the body switches to fat burning and the weight falls off. Add in some hard riding every now and again with a large dose of endurance (not paleo advised but cyclists gotta do what cyclists do) and you will be half the man in no time but in a good way.

Last November I started cycling and lost 6 kgs from a mixture of starvation diet and cycling - took 3 months and I was goosed the whole time. Start of Feb switched to paleo and cycling and since then lost 12kgs but....... full of energy all the time - doing stuff now I would have laughed in your face if you said I would be doing now. Now, because of cycling I can cheat a little and it makes no difference to my weight or measurements at all... Only downside was changing my wardrobe from 36 waist to 32 - expensive but worth it in the end.
Good luck with your goals and keep logging.
Cheers.

breffni666

I know I should be on a different thread but I've been running 5k 4 times a week since xmas and have not lost a bean!! I'm 6'0 and 16 stone, something should have given by now!!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

neilr4

Scuba_Scoper wrote: »

Sounds like you are going about it the right way... jeez, I could have written your original post and your last response... same background etc... from your diet info and your reference to brazil nuts can I take it you are eating paleo?
If not, I could not recommend it highly enough. Have a look at marksdailyapple.com for a quick primer and take it from there.

Jeez scuba do you realize how much trouble you're saving me? I don't know what paleo is but I'll look it up as well as marksdailyapple.com

Cheers man much appreciated, I'll def keep you posted

Neil.

petethedrummer

breffni666 wrote: »

I know I should be on a different thread but I've been running 5k 4 times a week since xmas and have not lost a bean!! I'm 6'0 and 16 stone, something should have given by now!!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Eat a bit less.
2 Spuds instead of 3.
1/3 cup of rice instead of 1/2.
Wrap instead of baguette.
Apple instead of mars bar.
Regular burger instead of quarter pounder.

And sleep plenty.

neilr4

Ok didn't really expect this thread to turn into a training log but it's heading in that direction.

Watched this and thought I'd give it a try:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQr-pE_KQU

Weight starting to shift at last..... tried a couple of different methods but what has worked up until now is getting near as much carbs in as I can to 10 grams per kilo of body weight.

Try to get enough fruit and veggies but lashing in the carbs. At 85kg it's hard to get 850 grams of carbs a day in but it gives me the energy to excerise more, 433km in 9 days alternating between leisurely 1 hour spins with a couple of sprints to 4 1/2 hours over hilly terrain.

Done tour of Louth on sunday in 3h 31m, 18km on monday to loosen up barely stood on the pedals avg 22kph as I was quite stiff from the rain soaked cycle on sunday. Wasn't working yesterday so a friend suggested a long spin with some hills and ended up doing 4 1/2 hours in the pi**ing rain, was worse weather than sunday BUT I had the energy and motivation to do it and that's where I find the high carb intake beneficial.

Climbing is still my weak point but leg strength is slowly improving and with gradual weight loss it can only get better but hey I'm carrying 20kg too much. I run a 39x25 as my lowest gear and even though I feel I could do with a compact chainset I notice myself forcing the gear better each time I climb a certain hill.

Onwards and upwards.

Lumen

neilr4 wrote: »

what has worked up until now is getting near as much carbs in as I can to 10 grams per kilo of body weight.

I don't know you you arrived at this rule of thumb, but it won't scale with your weight loss because fat requires no energy to maintain whereas muscle requires lots.

Also, calories is calories.

neilr4

Lumen wrote: »

I don't know you you arrived at this rule of thumb, but it won't scale with your weight loss because fat requires no energy to maintain whereas muscle requires lots.

Also, calories is calories.

I understand where you're coming from but I have more energy thus I find myself training more and the weight is starting to come off.......

Eating less not having as much energy wasn't doing the trick, eating more carbs and training is........ quite simple really!

mp31

neilr4 wrote: »

I understand where you're coming from but I have more energy thus I find myself training more and the weight is starting to come off.......

Eating less not having as much energy wasn't doing the trick, eating more carbs and training is........ quite simple really!

Interesting thread... more carbs for more energy allowing you to train more. How much training (riding) do you need to do per day so that you can consume the '10g carb per kg bodyweight per day'.
I'm riding approx an hour per day (27km commute) - would I need to consume that much carb or less?

neilr4

mp31 wrote: »

Interesting thread... more carbs for more energy allowing you to train more. How much training (riding) do you need to do per day so that you can consume the '10g carb per kg bodyweight per day'.
I'm riding approx an hour per day (27km commute) - would I need to consume that much carb or less?

Have a listen to this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQr-pE_KQU

I was cycling and doing the calories in vs calories out thing but no weight was coming off so I had nothing to lose really...... I ride most days, if my legs hurt from a training spin I rest until the pain goes away but I find myself moving around more as I have more energy.

10g of carbs per kilo of body weight, I'm down to 83.5kg from 86kg (in 1 week) so I try to get in 835g of carbs per day. The more you weigh the more fuel is required to carry and burn off that weight. There are 77g of carbs per 100g in spaghetti pasta so I should be consuming 1090g of pasta per day, realistically that is very difficult to achieve but I get up to around 850g with pasta, energy drink, bread, rice and patato's. It helps to use brown pasta/rice, sweet patato's and low GI bread as the carbs are released into the body at a slower rate. I eat lean fish or chicken with vegetables and keep fat to a minimum and drink 2 litres of water per day, I actually eat more than I have done for years. Some evenings a glass of wine (or 2) doesn't hurt!

smacl

First off congrats on the recent weight loss and interesting log.

10g of carbs per kilo of body weight, I'm down to 83.5kg from 86kg (in 1 week) so I try to get in 835g of carbs per day.

Two things strike me about this. Firstly, attributing the weight loss for a given week to the diet regime of that same week is probably too short a period to establish cause and effect. You could actually be seeing the benefits of your previous number of weeks training. Secondly, from what I've read 2.5kg per week is not sustainable, keeping up weight loss at that rate would mean losing more than body fat. The diet seems very good, though I'd tend to go more towards porridge in the morning than pasta in the evening from an energy point of view. As for the vino, the only problem I have with the second glass is that it invariably leads to the third glass, and sure the damage is done at that stage so why not have that bag of crisps too?

I run a 39x25 as my lowest gear and even though I feel I could do with a compact chainset I notice myself forcing the gear better each time I climb a certain hill.

Only problem with this is that in the longer term it may lead to sore knees, which in turn leads to lost training days and sapped enthusiasm. A 27 or 28 on the cassette would also work out way cheaper than a compact for similar effect.

nilhg

neilr4 wrote: »

I'm back cycling after a 10 year hiatus in order to get myself fit again (mentally and physically), lose weight and to do something more productive with my time! I finally quit smoking 2 years ago and gained some weight going from a 32" to a 36" waist. Started cycling on 18th march and get out on avg 3 times per week. Last week rode approx 300km at avg 25km/h spread over 4 spins. My question is this........

When can I expect to see some weight loss? I eat very well, porridge for breakfast, no sugar at all, no processed food, lean meat, lots of veggies, bread maybe once a week, drink green tea, black coffee, water and sometimes a glass or 2 of wine in the evenings. I raced in my early 20's and weighed 65kg at the moment I'm 86kg somewhere in the middle should be achievable! I understand that since I've started back, building muscle will in itself cause some weight gain with muscle being heavier than fat but I haven't lost a gram in 8 weeks.......... Don't get me wrong I'm not obsessed with losing weight but am I being impatient to expect at least some?

N.

neilr4 wrote: »

Have a listen to this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQr-pE_KQU

I was cycling and doing the calories in vs calories out thing but no weight was coming off so I had nothing to lose really...... I ride most days, if my legs hurt from a training spin I rest until the pain goes away but I find myself moving around more as I have more energy.

10g of carbs per kilo of body weight, I'm down to 83.5kg from 86kg (in 1 week) so I try to get in 835g of carbs per day. The more you weigh the more fuel is required to carry and burn off that weight. There are 77g of carbs per 100g in spaghetti pasta so I should be consuming 1090g of pasta per day, realistically that is very difficult to achieve but I get up to around 850g with pasta, energy drink, bread, rice and patato's. It helps to use brown pasta/rice, sweet patato's and low GI bread as the carbs are released into the body at a slower rate. I eat lean fish or chicken with vegetables and keep fat to a minimum and drink 2 litres of water per day, I actually eat more than I have done for years. Some evenings a glass of wine (or 2) doesn't hurt!

I found the video interesting, I've no way of knowing whether his theory on carb loading to help weight loss works either in the short or long term but his comments on the diet/exercise industry did ring true to me, like may others I've seen friends and family go through the whole gamut of trendy stuff to loose weight/look better only for it all to end up back at square one.

Since I'm somewhat in the same position as the OP I'll just share my experience as to how the outcome for two folk doing basically the same thing can seem to differ and how YMMV. The whole long winded version is here but basically I started back on the bike 4 and 1/2 months ago with the express intention of getting fitter, I wanted regular cardio exercise like you constantly hear advised, weight loss was something I hoped would come as a natural side effect but not the be all and end all. As I (painfully at first) found my cycling legs I wanted to push myself more than the minimum amount recommended so I've gradually worked myself up to doing some sportives and hopefully this year the ROK. Over that time (21weeks) I've lost 14kg, mostly at a pretty even rate. I consciously decided that I'm not on a diet, I don't count calories, I never leave the table hungry at mealtimes and there is nothing that's off limits if I fancy it but I do try to be sensible and avoid the temptation to fuel up to to compensate for the extra exercise. The two slight changes I did make were to try to eat more fruit and cut back on the booze.

Again just my experience, different to the OP's, I have no idea why but I'm sure there's loads of folk out there would be interested if someone can explain it.

neilr4

nilhg wrote: »

I found the video interesting, I've no way of knowing whether his theory on carb loading to help weight loss works either in the short or long term but his comments on the diet/exercise industry did ring true to me, like may others I've seen friends and family go through the whole gamut of trendy stuff to loose weight/look better only for it all to end up back at square one.

Since I'm somewhat in the same position as the OP I'll just share my experience as to how the outcome for two folk doing basically the same thing can seem to differ and how YMMV. The whole long winded version is here but basically I started back on the bike 4 and 1/2 months ago with the express intention of getting fitter, I wanted regular cardio exercise like you constantly hear advised, weight loss was something I hoped would come as a natural side effect but not the be all and end all. As I (painfully at first) found my cycling legs I wanted to push myself more than the minimum amount recommended so I've gradually worked myself up to doing some sportives and hopefully this year the ROK. Over that time (21weeks) I've lost 14kg, mostly at a pretty even rate. I consciously decided that I'm not on a diet, I don't count calories, I never leave the table hungry at mealtimes and there is nothing that's off limits if I fancy it but I do try to be sensible and avoid the temptation to fuel up to to compensate for the extra exercise. The two slight changes I did make were to try to eat more fruit and cut back on the booze.

Again just my experience, different to the OP's, I have no idea why but I'm sure there's loads of folk out there would be interested if someone can explain it.

The only reason I am sharing this is because I was cycling for 2 months, eating healthy and not losing a gram of weight, come across aforementioned youtube video, gave the high carb thing a try and all of a sudden I lose 2.5kg, though I did cycle 430km in 9 days. Now call it what you like, could be coincidence but having extra energy and NOT gaining would already be a win situation.

Up until then I wasn't weighing myself regularly, maybe twice a week but my main motivation was to get fit and expecting some weight loss to follow. Didn't see the point in dieting or any other fads as I don't believe they work in the long term. I weighed 65kg whilst racing in my early 20's (too skinny now IMO) my target would be somewhere between 70kg-75kg.

N.

mp31

neilr4 wrote: »

Have a listen to this guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbQr-pE_KQU

I was cycling and doing the calories in vs calories out thing but no weight was coming off so I had nothing to lose really...... I ride most days, if my legs hurt from a training spin I rest until the pain goes away but I find myself moving around more as I have more energy.

10g of carbs per kilo of body weight, I'm down to 83.5kg from 86kg (in 1 week) so I try to get in 835g of carbs per day. The more you weigh the more fuel is required to carry and burn off that weight. There are 77g of carbs per 100g in spaghetti pasta so I should be consuming 1090g of pasta per day, realistically that is very difficult to achieve but I get up to around 850g with pasta, energy drink, bread, rice and patato's. It helps to use brown pasta/rice, sweet patato's and low GI bread as the carbs are released into the body at a slower rate. I eat lean fish or chicken with vegetables and keep fat to a minimum and drink 2 litres of water per day, I actually eat more than I have done for years. Some evenings a glass of wine (or 2) doesn't hurt!

Thanks for the info. Quick Q: How much riding are you doing per day on average?

neilr4

mp31 wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Quick Q: How much riding are you doing per day on average?

Try to get a long spin at the weekend and 2 short ones during the week.

mp31

Oh... one (or two) more question if you don't mind - do you eat late in the evening?
Do you do the 'breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper' thing?

We have dinner at around 7pm (fairly healthy diet with a good mix of chicken, carbs and a few veggies) but I get peckish at 9.30-10.00pm and usually have a cup of tea and a few biscuits (on the odd occasion I have a yoghurt instead of the biscuits). I think eating that late is not helping me lose the weight but if I don't then some nights I wake up at 3am absolutely starving.

neilr4

If I get hungry in the evening I eat carbs (left over pasta or rice) as it's very difficult to reach the 10g pre kilo of body weight during the day anyway. Grazing on low nutrional food in the evenings was one of my down falls (I love peanuts and crisps too much) now they're not purchased and I find that pasta/rice/spuds fill me up quicker.

I only have all-bran or porridge (with honey) and a cup of coffee for breakfast, pasta with lean fish or chicken at lunchtime, snack on fruit between meals, dinner in evening 7 ish not too fussy just healthy. Maybe eating in the evening is not recommended but I do it....... oh and drink 2 litres of water per day!