Cyclist trying to balance weight loss and training

helen_goldthorpe

Hello! I thought I'd introduce myself, with a bit of backstory.

In 2004/2005 I weighed 260lb. I decided to lose weight, joined a gym and sorted out my eating. My approach was roughly CICO but I didn't track anything other than my weight. I just moved more and ate better (not actually less, but more veg, less junk). Over the next few years I lost over 100lb. I set myself a target of staying thin until my 30th birthday (2008). I ran several marathons and ultras.

However, I didn't feel like my lowest weight was particularly sustainable for me, and got to the stage where I was happy to eat roughly what I wanted (still healthy but a bit less focussed) and keep active and see where my weight settled. I *almost* got it right In the last 10 years my weight has crept up slowly to 190lb. Breaking it down, the 30lb gain above 160 is 3lb a year, 1/4lb a month, or about 200 calories too many per week. Which considering I've never tracked a single calorie isn't actually that bad! I still class myself as a long term maintainer, as I'm still 70lb below my highest weight.

But that still brings me to today. I'm now a cyclist, and accutely aware of my w/kg numbers. Being a regular zwifter helps with that as it's on screen while you ride. I know I'd climb better if I was lighter (I'm relatively fast on the flat, but die on hills), and working on my weight actually looks an easier win than increasing my power. I race, and while I pick up podiums and age group wins, I've never actually won a race, and I'd like to. Plus lycra isn't very forgiving and I look like a whale on some of my race pics...

So, the challenge for this winter's training is to cut the weight while not compromising my training - sustainable weight loss but fuelling enough for the rides I want to do. I have a target event in April (Tour of Flanders sportive) which I'd like to be in good shape for.

So far I've been doing OK. After about 6 weeks I'm about 5lb down, back to 185. That's partly due to cutting out alcohol for Sober October, the rest is from not snacking on rubbish at work and eating slightly better lunches. I started tracking on here more out of interest to track patterns but after a couple of weeks I'm now paying more attention to the numbers and getting a feel for what fuel I need on different types of training days and how to balance what I eat across long ride days and rest days. My logging at the moment is still somewhat approximate - coming from a background of not tracking anything I'm happy to ease myself in gently and tighten up if needed. Plus bike rides tend to involve cafe stops at the sort of place with no calorie count on the menu. However, I have noticed that my diet is quite low on protein so I'm trying to focus a bit more on that.

Having done 6 weeks I'm about to take a week off logging - I'm going on a cycling holiday and I'm fairly confident that the number of calories I'm going to burn riding will need me to eat a fair amount, so I don't want to be in a mindset of trying to restrict anything - plus we'll be eating out a bit more so anything I would log would be an estimate anyway. But my experience over the past 6 weeks has convinced me to jump back into logging when I get back with the aim of having another solid spell in the run up to Christmas.

sijomial

Welcome Helen.
Nice to see another cyclist joining, there's quite a few of us around.

A couple of things that might interest you is a very free form monthly challenge thread.....
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10770671/november-2019-biking-cycling-bicycling-bike-bicycle-unicycle-tricycle-challenge#latest

(It goes a bit quiet in the northern hemisphere winter though.)


There's also a Strava group of MyFitnessPal members.....
https://www.strava.com/clubs/MFPChallenge

helen_goldthorpe

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

helen_goldthorpe

A bit of a catch up from me.

I'm now down at about 173 after a few good months.

I ended up accidentally getting a cycling coach (there was a charity auction after I'd got through a fair amount of wine...) but it's actually done me a load of good, focussing on using the cycling to get faster rather than as a way to control my weight. I've been playing round with my diet a bit trying to fuel training sessions and recovery properly (the sessions he sets me are harder than I had done before, but I get more rest around them) and it all seems to be coming together nicely.

Off on another cycling holiday at the weekend (helpfully my Dad lives in a major winter cycling destination - Ineos were training out there last week - so we try to get out there a couple of times each winter) but I suspect my coach sees it more as training camp than holiday. *eek*!

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I love this post and sorry that I'm just finding it now. I'm in a similar phase of doing a challenge to exercise daily in January (swim/ride/run, generally, with added resistance/core sessions) WHILE losing about 8lbs (some just being a spike from the holidays).

The important point is that exercise doesn't burn an infinite number of calories, it merely burns a finite number of calories. For cycling, it can still be a lot of calories, since you can easily ride for hours in a day. Having some guideline about what you can eat back is very helpful. I use a Garmin watch to help with the calorie estimate and MFP to keep me on track when so motivated.

@helen_goldthorpe : Best of luck to you and have a great cycling holiday. I really want to do that sometime!

pridesabtch

I really need to improve my ratio as well. When I was racing, I was not living a maintainable lifestyle. I was very small and riding all the time (100-200 miles a week). It was great, but not sustainable with a family and a full time job. It was a short term committment so that I could train for the state time trails. It was fabulous until life got in the way. In the last 6 years I've gained 60 pounds and my riding is almost nil. Fat and slow is not as much fun as lean and fast.

Jumping in on this thread for tips.

Best of luck @helen_goldthorpe & @Jthanmyfitnesspal !

helen_goldthorpe

Good to see more people here

I am definitely eating more protein now and it seems to be helping. I’m never going to go low carb, but bumping protein up by about 5-10% and taking carbs down closer to 40% than 50% seems to work for now.

helen_goldthorpe

Time for one of my occasional check ins. I started this without any real idea of what my goal weight would be, but I think I might pretty much be there. 7 months in I'm sitting at 155 and although I could lose more, I'm starting to feel like eating at a deficit isn't enough to properly fuel my training and I need to switch into maintenance mode for a while.

My training has actually ramped up during lockdown because I have more time for killer turbo sessions rather than spending the time doing junk miles on my commute. Having a coach at this point has been great because it's probably one of the few times in my life when I have relatively little to distract me from proper training and recovery!

I was actually amazed when I realised I'd stuck to calorie counting for 7 months, I didn't think it had been so long!

davidlubich

Hello @pridesabtch My top tip would be to try HIIT training on the bike. 1) it's an incredibly efficient use of time 2) It 'gamifies' training a bit, so you've less time/headspace to think about how much it hurts! 3) It (apparently) burns calories long after you've finished.
If you have the space, a basic turbo trainer is surprisingly cheap and effective (I use a Kurt Kinetic); if you marry it up to something like TrainerRoad, you'll have access to a ton of programs, plus very accurate power measurement.