Cycling nutrition, weight loss and calorie deficit

bigmike12
bigmike12 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am looking for some pointers on cycle training to lose fat but maintain muscle mass / strength.

I am returning to cycling training after overeating, being sedentary and gaining weight. I am aiming to do 5-6 hours a week, with a long 2-3 hour ride at the weekend. This leads to some decent energy expenditure (3k - 4k cals) a week, with a 3 hour ride that could be 2,000 cals.

I want to lose some body fat (who doesn't), but in the past years have struggled to lose fat, and it seems that any weight that i lose is more muscle than the fat.

I have never tracked what i have eaten before, and have just started with Myfitnesspal, so hopefully this will give me some accurate idea of what i am putting in.

I came across this article, which seems to indicate that with large calorie deficits, fat loss may not occur, which is interesting and if i train then i should not restrict calories aggressively.

https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/

For example my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is about 2,000, and i have a sedentary life/job, then i could consider my weekly calorie requirement is around 15,400 (2,200 a day) to maintain weight. If i do exercise of 5 hours of 700 cals/hr, then my weekly expenditure is 3,500 cals.

This would create around the recommended weekly deficit of 3,500 cals for weight loss.

Tracking the last couple of days with Myfitnesspal my typical day (with fairly good eating) cal intake is around 1,800 a day (12,600 a week), so the deficit would be more like 6,300 cals a week.

Do you think that this is too large a deficit which could inhibit fat loss, and do i need to eat more (healthy stuff) to enable fat loss?

Replies

  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    have you run your stats through a TDEE calcualtor? that would give you a good starting place - i feel like 2200 is likely too low for your TDEE
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Speaking VERY generally, and taking all your numbers at face value, they put you at ~2700 cals per day to maintain. At that point, yes, I'd say 1800 cals per day is too large of a deficit.
  • Cassandraw3
    Cassandraw3 Posts: 1,214 Member
    Increasing your deficit will not inhibit fat loss. However, too large of a deficit could decrease overall energy levels which would decrease your calories burned. Also, a larger deficit increases the amount of muscle/lean body mass lost while in a deficit. It is hard to know what would be an appropriate goal for you without knowing any of your stats (height, weight, goal weight), but unless you are significantly overweight, it is highly likely 1.8 lbs/week (deficit of 6300 cals/week) would be much too aggressive of a goal.
  • bigmike12
    bigmike12 Posts: 14 Member
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    have you run your stats through a TDEE calcualtor? that would give you a good starting place - i feel like 2200 is likely too low for your TDEE

    Thanks, i hadn't and have now used https://tdeecalculator.net based on a sedentary office job, it spat out 2,297
    calories per day, so not massively out, 16,000 vs 15,400 cals / week.

    Though it would push my current eating deficit to more like 7,000 cals / week
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    bigmike12 wrote: »
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    have you run your stats through a TDEE calcualtor? that would give you a good starting place - i feel like 2200 is likely too low for your TDEE

    Thanks, i hadn't and have now used https://tdeecalculator.net based on a sedentary office job, it spat out 2,297
    calories per day, so not massively out, 16,000 vs 15,400 cals / week.

    Though it would push my current eating deficit to more like 7,000 cals / week

    When figuring out TDEE, be sure to include your exercise/workouts as well. If you're looking at 500-700 cals per day in exercise, that's not sedentary.
  • bigmike12
    bigmike12 Posts: 14 Member
    Cassandraw3 wrote: »
    Increasing your deficit will not inhibit fat loss. However, too large of a deficit could decrease overall energy levels which would decrease your calories burned. Also, a larger deficit increases the amount of muscle/lean body mass lost while in a deficit. It is hard to know what would be an appropriate goal for you without knowing any of your stats (height, weight, goal weight), but unless you are significantly overweight, it is highly likely 1.8 lbs/week (deficit of 6300 cals/week) would be much too aggressive of a goal.

    To be clear this is how things stand at the moment, and not setting out as a goal. I just find it strange that with the extra training i am going to have to eat more to lose weight, rather that remain eating what i am, or restricting it.

    bolded for empathises, this is not what a want all :)

    I am male 191cm, 91 kg, visibly tubby (BF% to be determined), targeting 82 kg, and fully expect this target to take months to achieve.

  • bigmike12
    bigmike12 Posts: 14 Member
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    Speaking VERY generally, and taking all your numbers at face value, they put you at ~2700 cals per day to maintain. At that point, yes, I'd say 1800 cals per day is too large of a deficit.

    I am starting out with the myfitnesspal, so hopefully the numbers are representative. So i need to eat more to make sure the body doesn't start fuelling from muscle/lean body mass?

  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    edited January 2019
    If my math is right, that puts you at ~6' tall and 200lbs. I would keep your deficit moderate - it'll help both your body comp in the long run and your cycling workouts. I'd probably be looking at daily cals in the range of 2200-2300 as a goal, if I were you.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    bigmike12 wrote: »
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    Speaking VERY generally, and taking all your numbers at face value, they put you at ~2700 cals per day to maintain. At that point, yes, I'd say 1800 cals per day is too large of a deficit.

    I am starting out with the myfitnesspal, so hopefully the numbers are representative. So i need to eat more to make sure the body doesn't start fuelling from muscle/lean body mass?

    That's part of it, yes. But other considerations are -
    - having enough fuel/energy for your workouts
    - having enough fuel/energy to simply feel good on a daily basis
    - eating in a way that is sustainable long term (both what you're eating and how much you're eating)
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,128 Member
    bigmike12 wrote: »
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    Speaking VERY generally, and taking all your numbers at face value, they put you at ~2700 cals per day to maintain. At that point, yes, I'd say 1800 cals per day is too large of a deficit.

    I am starting out with the myfitnesspal, so hopefully the numbers are representative. So i need to eat more to make sure the body doesn't start fuelling from muscle/lean body mass?

    If you're looking to lose weight but maintain/build muscle you need a very small deficit as opposed to a large one.

    The body can only burn so much fat, so yes you need to eat more. If you maintenance TDEE is around 2700 you probably want to be eating at least around 2400 per day, if you're wanting to do recomp then check out this thread https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

  • bigmike12
    bigmike12 Posts: 14 Member
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    When figuring out TDEE, be sure to include your exercise/workouts as well. If you're looking at 500-700 cals per day in exercise, that's not sedentary.

    Thanks for highlighting that, i would rather state my TDEE with and without exercise, as i know fairly accurately what my cal expenditure will be on the bike, as i ride with a power meter (total work is approx cal expenditure), e.g.

    Weekly TDEE (without exercise) - 16,000 cals / week
    Weekly TDEE (with exercise) - 19,500 cals / week
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    bigmike12 wrote: »
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    When figuring out TDEE, be sure to include your exercise/workouts as well. If you're looking at 500-700 cals per day in exercise, that's not sedentary.

    Thanks for highlighting that, i would rather state my TDEE with and without exercise, as i know fairly accurately what my cal expenditure will be on the bike, as i ride with a power meter (total work is approx cal expenditure), e.g.

    Weekly TDEE (without exercise) - 16,000 cals / week
    Weekly TDEE (with exercise) - 19,500 cals / week

    That's fine...and it's good to have a sense of both. But just for clarity when posting...

    TDEE NECESSARILY includes exercise. There is no such thing as TDEE without exercise. On MFP, that is referred to as NEAT.

    So weekly TDEE = 19,500
    weekely NEAT = 16,000

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