Well done boys sounds like everyone is on the case. I've been extra good so far, chicken n salad last night, I did cheat with a teaspoon of nutella at about 11.30pm..
Strawberry, Raspberry and Bananna smoothie for brekky, along with 1 rasher 1 sausage 1 egg.

Now I have to give up sugar in my tea.

Not sure if someone's mentioned this already, but you might like to consider this:

Seems capable of helping you lose fat as opposed to just weight/water, etc, and also enables you to change/understand your eating habits so as to keep it off.

I'm giving it a go for a month to see if I can lose a stone (and sustain it). Only difference is I'm carbing up a little before/during a ride. And I'll probably have the odd blow-out once a week or so. But I figure that because I vary my training enough (stamina, intervals, hills, etc) I'll make up the difference and generally lose/burn fat as well as improve definition and fitness.

So, in answer to your original question: yep, I'm in – will send email shortly.

See my post above. Cutting right back on non-exercise days, and eating only minimal before a session, e.g. peanut butter sandwich, banana, energy bar.

All others carbs/starches are out: sugar, cerals, breads, cakes, biccies, pasta, rice, potatoes, crisps, chocolate, pizza, beer, white wine …

Hasn't been a problem so far (5 days in) because I don't miss any of them. Subsituted with more of the healthy stuff that I like eating anyway. I'm just curious to see if it works and how genuinely sustainable it is.

EDIT: oh yeah, and fruit's off the menu as well – substitute with vitamins. But the whole low-carb thing only applies in full while you're in the weight loss period, e.g. 4-6 weeks – you then introduce them on a balanced level thereafter. By then, your cravings, especially for the unhealthy carbs, should be either manageable or completely eradicated, hence enabling you to maintain size, shape and healthy diet.

Wheatabix this morning for Breekie, 25mile commute and sorry for this,

Chicken curry half rice, half chips for my lunch (it's the hot speacial at the local butty shop) 🙁

25 mile commute home and

daughters home made (school) lamb hot pot for tea with loads of veg.

Must resist the cakes afterwards, Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,Must resist the cakes afterwards,

What will you be doing to achieve that?

No fruit? As Mr Bannatyne says "Im oot".

That's what I thought. But it's only for the initial weight loss period then it's back to Fruit Central.

Mr Motivator has gotten to be a lot meaner than I remember. 😥

here on the BBCFor the weigh-in, taken from the BBC:

For a man of his age (late 40's) it's considered average that his fat % to be 22-25%.
Men's bodies contain 50% water, women's 30%.
Endurance athletes can lose up to 2-4ltrs of water per hour with exercise. If you lose more than 2% of your body weight from sweating (ie – not replaced fully) then performance is impaired.
This loss of 2% can occur within the first hour of exercise.
At the elite level, replace water loss to include water with sodium & sugars.
Look at urine colour – pale straw colour is best, orange is not hydrated enough.
Weight loss and weigh-ins can provide the person with a good idea of how much they sweat per hour during exercise.
1kg of weight loss = approx 1ltr of sweat.
Too much water before or during exercise can result in a stitch (runners more perhaps?).
Small amounts and often is the best way to hydrate.
Alcohol = net fluid loss (unless it's very weak beer).
Glass of wine = loss of 100ml of fluid.
A shot = 150ml loss.
Don't hydrate with sugary drinks.
Tea & coffee contain caffeine and so after 2-4 cups of tea, only then will the diuretic effect kick in. Coffee has 2x the amount of caffeine as tea. Espresso and such like are not good as you take in very little water at the same time.

ps – can we also expunge those twin American evils – gonna & gotten, they are NOT English words?

I'm into the no carbs thing. I like to thing of it from an evolutionary point of view. We didn't have agriculture until about 10k years ago, prior top that we didn't eat loads of carbs as wheat/grains and spuds grew disparately so collecting lots of them to make bread or pasta was too energetically expensive. That's why a varied diet is best for you – a hand full of beans, an apple, maybe a small handful of grain or one spud etc. There appears to be lots of evidence that a happy pancreas prefers to produce enough insulin to deal with about 40g of carbs a day, most of us eat more like 350g of carbs, whilst the pancreas can do this its gets knackered hence the prevalence of diabetes.

My mate who is diabetic reduced his carbs to carbs from fruit and veg (excluding potatoes completely and no pasta bread etc) and has reduced his insulin dependency to virtually nothing. This essentially provides some evidence that his pancreas is working more normally at this low level of carb intake, although that has yet to be fully determined.

I don't think your statement has any bearing on whether carbs make you fat does it?

The point is 10k years is not long enough for evolution to have done its thing, hence the so called paleo diets or others. So just because they eat lots of carbs doesn't mean it was good for them, average life expectancy of a caveman was about 30 years, so probably most of them died in a diabetic coma!! (Joke) In reality the vast majority would have died before middle age spread or late onset diabetes came about anyway, so there was no evolutionary driver. Life would have been too tough to have time to get fat, unless you were king.

Obesity, diabetes and heart disease are afflictions of civilization.

Look at it this way, anyone who has had any experience of farming will know how to fatten a goose or a cow. Do you feed them fat?

Like Chucky I did a 20 mile commute this morning, so figured the Double Decker for elevenses and flap jack / crisps with my sandwich for lunch were okay.

Anybody up for making this more scientific / geeky and reporting the time to do a regular ride each week as well, to see what if any correlation there is between weight and speed? Eg the regular mid week training route or commute?

Or is this thread more about vanity than performance? 😈

All I know is that my time to work on Monday was 1hr 2mins (rolling time and 20.5 miles)

Last night I had a hard ride on a heavyish bike with sticky tyres round Farleton Knott.

and this morning to work it was 1hr 9 min 😳

and now I'm truly buggered.

I think my frame of mind and how tired I am probably has more effect on my riding time than my fitness at the moment.

8 mile commute here, rode in with the wife yesterday and had a 10mph average, rode in by myself today and got 15mph. Fairly speedy Tricross bike and country road/bridleway path.

Can't see myself getting to 20mph average! 🙂

I think this thread is going to force me to buy one of these to get some fast road miles in while i cannot run due to peroneal tendon issues…..

I think you'll find cows are omnivores – last I looked.

If you are a farmer, you'll be familiar with the practise of gavage; force feeding animals. Or leblouh, force feeding the bride-to-be – in some cultures.
This has now died out in the UK since all our women folk seem to be either fat or obese!

As in most societies, people want what they're not or don't have.
Fat want to be thin, thin want to be fat, straight hair wants curls, curly wants straighteners for Xmas, and so it goes on. This post in many ways is not dissimilar. The OP wants to lose weigh so he can manage the climbs better. There comes a point at which weight loss actually become detrimental to the end game.

I think you'll find you missed my point! You fatten them by feeding them grain – carbs.

(Also cows are herbivores?)

Is the Boadman carbon bike (as above) for £999, now the default setting for mtn bikers when buying a road bike for training purposes?

What's wrong with a mtn bike on the road – put on 2.3 chunky winter tyres and train hard! (I average 13mph on the 26er, 14mph on the 29er)

(I was just checking you were still with me with the omni / herbi BTW. Cows are, as you well know, carnivores.)

What's wrong with a mtn bike on the road – put on 2.3 chunky winter tyres and train hard! (I average 13mph on the 26er, 14mph on the 29er)

…for the record i have been road riding on a Dialled Alpine (i really should chance my frame) with coil pikes and 2.35 UST tyres. Avg 13mph on last 26 mile jaunt round Rutland Water. I am over biked as it is on my local trails (Woburn)….so on the road its just ridiculous.

Oh and Boardman is £850 😉