Things are still going well on the ‘body renewal’ front, but yesterday I was forced to take the car into work for the first time in a month, and I was therefore off the bike completely for the day. No commuting, and no additional riding.

On top of that, I was bloody shattered and hungry, so I let up and ate as many as 2800 calories. I don’t think I’ve exceeded more than 2000 in many weeks.

What is the advice on taking a day or two out from a regime, and do those of you who ride everyday ever just look at your bike and think ‘no, not today’?

Daily targets work best for me, a day off once a week is not going to do any harm unless it suddenly becomes 3. Or you could switch to weekly and make up for calories / bike time with an extra long Sunday ride. For bad weather non bike days I used to go for a run or long walk to keep the momentum going.

I ride most days. Don’t stress when I don’t. Normally a day off is a good rest. Food wise, I generally take care and put thought into it so it doesn’t matter when I occasionally divert from an otherwise healthy diet.

Everything in moderation, especially moderation.

the body needs rest to regenerate.

you need to listen to it .

sounds like yours has just made it clear it needs them more often.

the body will put up with alot for a long time but it will eventually just give up – thats when you get a cold/flu/worse…..

Yeah or you just give up and pig out… 😀

I’ve been riding every day this year, mainly to get into a routine, and to keep my legs moving. I ride a recumbent, and I find leg fitness drops off far quicker than it would on a normal bike. However, I don’t ride flat out every day – I vary the effort, and some days are extremely gentle spinning. I find that lets me recover, but still keeps me used to the bike.

If there are days when I need an early start I’ll generally fit in a 15 minute or so turbo trainer session.

One thing which might be worth doing is to monitor your resting heart rate each morning. I’m not serious about cycling, but I think this is common practice. You get used to what your normal HR is, and if it’s a bit higher one morning it can be a warning that you’re tired and over-doing things, or that you’re about to come down with something. I’m not the fittest individual, so my resting HR is low to mid 50’s beats per minute. If it goes to high 50’s and around 60bpm it’s a warning that I’m not 100%, which gives me an excuse to take things a bit easier. I actually came down with a cold last week (first one in ages) and for a few days before symptoms became noticeable my HR was a little higher at around 60bpm. However, on the morning after my cold developed my HR was up to 74bpm!

2000 a day! i’m on 1520 😕

It’s absolutely fine to break the regime once in a while, Christ we’re only human! The key is not to feel like it’s a failure and to get back to business the next day.

I’m drinking a beer right now. Shouldn’t really, I train extremely hard, but hell I felt like a beer because I’m sore and tired so I’m having one. I suspect the world will continue to turn.

Keep up the good intentions OP. A life with a plan for improvement is a good life.

rOcKeTdOg – Member

2000 a day! i’m on 1520

To be clear, I said no MORE than 2000. I generally float around 1500. So you’re not alone, RD. 🙂

Riding every day and only around 1500 calories is fairly strict, so one day off isn’t going to reverse all that effort, and may even do you good 🙂

<1500 and exercising at least an hour a day for me resulted in cravings I’d eventually cave in to and weight went up and down like yoyo. Too little and body goes in to starvation mode, at best you put weight back on real quick, at worst you start burning muscle.

Best results, easier and steady gains, came when I linked the sports app to the calorie counter app. Set to 1650 / day, ride to work and am up to 2k allowed etc. So if you want to pig out is OK as long as you earned it.

did the same thing tinribs

set mine to 1600 – rode to work and back … suddenly im allowed 3500cals….. ie eat what ever the **** you like – im out of here said the app. when i ride to work i never manage to get close to the target im always running nearly 1000cal of a deficit….

im on a Pig out day today but i rode 450km across scotland last week over every ridable high pass on route – 10000m of ascent and didnt eat nearly enough on route struggle to keep eating while riding every day.

the sierra nevada tastes good 😀

That’s really low calories for an active male or female adult , no wonder you were knackered and pigged out , 1500 is about average adult baseline if you sit still for 24 hours . One of the UN s critera for famine is 20% of adult population on 2100 cal or less per day . It simply unsustainable in the long term and can actually lead to weight gain in the long term as you end up yo-Yo ing . It would be well worth doing some research and trying to find a way of eating that you can sustain in the long term , good luck it’s hard work

I also find this a bit worrying. Any reason you need to lose weight fast?

Have you increased exercise and decreased calories suddenly at the same time?

At the moment, I’m trying to bulk up a bit and gain a bit of muscle, especially in my arms and chest. Been going to the gym for 4 months about 4 times a week, 45 mins class a time.

About 6 weeks in, I got Migranes. Went to GP and he could not find anything wrong. Decided to cut back on the cycling as I was still doing 2-3 nights a week and a longer ride at weekend. That cured the Migranes, I as simply doing too much.

Point I’m making is yes, listen to your body. Don’t take the mick, but anything in moderation is good. For the Gym, I did a food diary and I said to the lad there ” don’t look at Friday night as that’s curry night and Saturdays chippy night ” He replied ” and ? You’ve got to treat yourself sometimes ”

OP. The way you phrased your post made it sound like the ‘pig out’ was a result of feeling knackered and tired due to the previous period of calorie deficit. If that is the case then I’d probably take a look at what you’re doing and adjust it accordingly.These things need to be sustainable in order to work so if you’re feeling that you’re constantly denying yourself then it’s likely that you’ll eventually cave. It might not necessarily be the quantity of food thats a problem, it could be fluid intake, quality of food or not getting enough quality sleep time.

The circumstantial ‘pigging out’ would be something I’d be less fussed about. Sometimes you go out for a meal and want to enjoy the occasion for what it is rather than an exercise in self control. On those occasions I wouldn’t worry too much about it, if you can exercise earlier in the day to get some calories in the bank great but if not just write it off as a fun evening with friends and continue as normal the next day.

OP have you tried the iDave diet?

I don’t think taking a day out or pigging out occasionally is an issue at all, I lost 2 1/2 stone this year with plenty of off days. Although the fact you sound concerned about not having ridden for a day suggests you may be a bit obsessed with having to ride, time off is a good thing both for the body and the mind.