ape………no at all.
lets be honest, us big bloke like our food…..it is why we are big.
cutting things that we like does not make us happy……..it makes us sad, miserable feckers.
now i have been up to 23 stone, and i am now down at 19.
i dont eat stuff i like to eat, but i ride my bike best when i am happy…….denying myself stuff i love does not make me a happy man.
if i am not happy, how can i enjoy myself, and how can thing be easier.

embrace the fat, just ride more

I know where you’re coming from tony. I don’t intend to give up my post ride pint with the lads, or my Sunday roast, both of which I thoroughly enjoy. But the Coke, crisps and sweets I eat at work because I’m bored and it’s late, which I don’t even enjoy that much, are pointless. Cutting them out shouldn’t be a chore because I’m just as happy with a brew, but should make a difference. McDonalds breakfast – it’s shite, not really a pleasure at all, not afterwards anyway, just a bad habit. They reckon you’ve only got to cut out something like 500 calories a day, I think, to lose weight steadily – that’s a can of coke, a mars bar and a bag of crisps – so it’s not like going veggie or anything daft like that 🙂

A couple of years ago I went from 100Kg to 81Kg (currently between 83 & 85Kg depending on how naughty I’ve been 😳 ) – this was by a combination of the 5:2 diet and lots of biking. Basically it was new wardrobe time. I’m now on the upper bound of my recommended BMI range.

As others have said, on the road it makes a *huge* difference – climbs that were a struggle now feel easy or rather they would if I didn’t still beast myself on them.

I’ve seen a “formula” for pro cyclists: take the height in inches and convert to Kilogrammes, so a 6′ cyclist is 72″ tall so should be 72Kg. Obviously not that easy for an amateur to achieve what with work and general life getting in the way. When I was in my twenties and doing a lot of rock climbing I weighed 79Kg (12st6) if I dropped to 78Kg (12st4) then I noticed a drop in strength and endurance so for me 79Kg is probably my ideal given my body type, etc.

I lost 15kg, from the higher end of the healthy BMI to the lower end. I think the healthy eating and lots of riding I did to lose the weight in less than 2 months made more difference than the actual weight loss.

End result is I enjoy riding alot more, find it easier (or at least can push harder for alot longer) and am alot quicker.