Losing the last few kgs

pprendeville

I've been cycling about 4 years and am riding about 10 hours a week and also racing. Im 5'8" and hover between 65 and 67kg from week to week and have a body fat % of around 17% which is quite high. Trying to lose the belly is proving almost impossible. Is it just a matter of less calories in or is there some other secret formula.

nice_guy80

pprendeville wrote: »

I've been cycling about 4 years and am riding about 10 hours a week and also racing. Im 5'8" and hover between 65 and 67kg from week to week and have a body fat % of around 17% which is quite high. Trying to lose the belly is proving almost impossible. Is it just a matter of less calories in or is there some other secret formula.

Stick up your daily eating habits.

Bread. Cut out as much as you can

Mellor

At a bf% of 17%, you don't need anything more complicated than "less calories in". 1750 calories per day is about where you aim for daily. To achieve that you just need to be smarter with your diet. Be strict for a few week and evaluate.

As above, post up your typical daily/weekly intake.

pprendeville

Diet is good in general but well above 1750 calories. More around 2500.

I don't eat bread or at the very most a slice of homemade when I get home which is not too often. Tend to eat eggs (scrambled, steamed) or porridge for breakfast. Snack on nuts/cheese/fruit in between main meals. Main meals are usually home cooked, lean meats, red meats, low GI carbs like sweet potatoes and plenty of veg mainly but a good healthy mixture overall. I guess I just need to reduce intake then.

Alf Veedersane

Not accounting for exercise, andassuming you're 19-30 yo and with a desk job, I have you at ~ 2,350 kcals.

Maybe just tweak it a little in terms of quantity. Only a little and maybe that can be done with the snakcs more so. See how that works out.

Mellor

pprendeville wrote: »

Diet is good in general but well above 1750 calories. More around 2500.

There's your answer. 2500 is too much food for somebody 67kg. You've no defecit there at all. As Alf pointed out, maintenance is prob a bit lower than that. And you want to knock off 500 cans a day to lose some weight.
Go with 1750 and see how you go.

ford2600

OP I know you from the cycling forum and from memory the following might be useful to the very knowledgeable posters who have replied already.

You race A2 which is by any metric a high level; to be there you must be a pretty decent athlete.

Your racing season is up and running; it'll be hard to cut energy in and not have a drop in energy out.

You give your diet A lot of thought and have done so for quite some time?

You commute by bike is quite long, you work/go to college full time, have family and train/race hard? Is there much time in there for reducing stress, improving sleep, stretching mobility work?

While now wouldn't be the time, some element of strength training starting in October perhaps would be beneficial. Trainingpeaks have a good article on it.

Racing, other than racecraft, is primarily about W/Kg? Ideally you want more power at a lower weight.

However more power at the same weight or the same power at a lower weight is also an improvement.

I think given you might do better in the long term with a more rounded approach than just dropping calories in the middle of racing when your body is most stressed

pprendeville

I'm definitely at the stage where it's the micro rather than the macro things I need to be looking at but I would say there is room for a small drop in calories provided I'm not neglecting the basics of carbs/proteins/fats and micronutrients. I often come home in the evenings and just go town on things I'm so hungry when I should be listening to the body and realise that it takes a while for the belly to feel full. Thanks very much for the input. Have you a link to the Trainingpeaks article.

Alf Veedersane

I think this is the article being referenced>