Another "why am I fat" thread…

I presume you get your bread from the bread bush and pasta from the pasta tree?

I see we’ve gone to stw pedant mode. I think you know what I meant , thanks anyway.

My point is that you are mainly eating processed carbs.

I walk to and from work, 7 miles average per day.
Swim 2200m (ave) 6 times a week.
Mtb about 6 hours per week average.

Always knackered (I’m 43), sleep 9 hours each night, but hold my own in the pool pretty much.

I am slow uphill on the bike bu like to rip DH….

I WEIGH 80kg and am 182cm tall.

Eat too much choccie and drink too much wine but love life…..

What Scotroutes said. But with less sarcasm.

what a pointless thread, its simple. 1 your ill. 2 you don’t try hard enough and eat too much compared to what you burn…it’s a mindset thing..

I’m ill?

Kryton57 – Member
I’m ill?

You sounds fine. 60 miles per week and 2300kcals per day is about right I’d have thought, to maintain weight.

To see improvements in fitness and weight loss, I’d guess you’d want to be riding (almost) everyday.

I don’t know enough about it all really, but I do know you want to be stressing your body, so I dunno whether pootling about doing Z2 stuff is really worth it? Seems like a wasted opportunity to me. Could be doing sweetspot/tempo/intervals instead.

You said you had a recurring lrt infection on the 1st page.

2300 clean cals per day

too many, I’ve lost 3st in 6 months on 1600 cals a day, Tough at first but now i struggle to eat that many in a day

Ah yes. I thought he mentally like, sick in the head ill, lol.

The try harder comment is interesting. In the last week is the first week I tried 4 x 2 intervals. After just over 2 mins i was in pain / puke territory…..

Doesn’t mean you’d be burning fat though.

What are those intervals for? Are you intending to race?

Yes an no David. I do enter sportives and mtb events but I’m competive by nature and although I know I can’t commit enough to reach podiums and indeed that’s not my aim, I’m driven to be “better” than average, just to be “good” you know?

Hard to explain…. Ever the nearly man in many things and yet again realising how hard real road / competitive riding really is. Hence the op – there’s a power to weight ratio I’m not achieving ATM….

You know our mutal garage-dwelling ‘friend’ – he did a simple test which suggested he consume in the region of 1800 calories per day. Although at the time he probably wasn’t riding as much as you, he has an active job. I understand we’re all different, blah blah, but I’m sure you get my point…

I can see where you’re coming from, but why worry about it.

Getting faster, or a better power to weight ratio, just involves being strict and dedicating plenty of time to training correctly.

Which sounds like something you can’t do at the moment because of kids/life etc.

Why not just ride your bike and enjoy it? Instead of **** about with intervals and then Z2 rides, why not just go out for a few hard/hilly rides per week when you can, and enjoy them? Eat a bit less and your weight’ll fall off.

Might be hard to understand, but I can’t enjoy it. I’m a born stresshead….

Teasel I get it. Talking to mrs k tonight I’m dropping the race weight advised 8pm snack and the 2 stage breakfast it advises as of now. That should get me to 1900 cals without really trying….

It’s NOT about calories in vs calories out – especially if you are riding.

Eating more and doing more shorter but very intense rides could raise your BMR quite a bit resulting in far more calories burned when not riding, and also make you faster and stronger on the bike which in turn will allow you to ride harder and burn up more calories during rides.

As I have mentioned here before, I was iDieting and commuting a reasonably long way and I got stuck at a similar weight to you. I started eating more Twixes and I lost a further 2kg quite quickly.

There’s more than one way to lose fat.

You don’t necessarily need more TIME to get faster, you need to do the right things in the time you have.

How much 100% intense effort do you put in? I’d imagine that you don’t feel that great at 100% do you? You said that you were trying 42 min intervals – that’s too long. You can’t sprint hard enough for 2 mins. I’d suggest 30s up a hill absolutely flat out. Or just go on a ride with some short sharp hills in it – ride comfortably on the flats and attack the shit out of the hills. Worked very nicely for me.

its simple.

The only people who say it’s simple are the people who don’t know how complicated it is. Enjoy your ignorance but try not to spread it 🙂

You need to be aware of more than just calories. You need a certain amount of carbs to ride in a particular way, and that depends on your physiology I think.

Oh yeah, another thing – don’t drink energy drink on rides. Don’t eat anything with simple carbs 3 or so hours before riding (or preferably at all!), and within the first 45 minutes of starting the ride. The insulin released inhibits the burning of fat, so you’ll power yourself with the carbs you are drinking. If you wait the 45 mins you’ll be burning fat, and you’ll find you only need a gel every hour or so, far less than you would otherwise be drinking, and you’ll feel a lot better.

Cheers mil grips ill try shorter sprints with water only. Btw the intervals were 4mins on, 2 off.

Skipping through some of that…

Your measuring with the wrong tool.
BMI is a bad tool for the individual, especially one that is exercising. As you loose fat and replace it with muscle the muscle weighs more so your BMI will go in the wrong direction.

Look seriously at a few things
% Body Fat
Weight
Wobbly bits
What you are eating

If you want to loose weight then cut the calories and carbs down as you need to use the fat.

Btw the intervals were 4mins on, 2 off.

Oh right.. those would be good threshold intervals I suppose, for sustained speed, although the rest seems a bit short dunno. The 30s ones will be where you get your power and speed.

I have a theory that different exercises work better for different people…

The only people who say it’s simple are the people who don’t know how complicated I like to make it

FTFY

Carb-free diet

Other than chips & bread, I’ve eaten more carbs since I started ‘managing’ my weight than ever before. I’ve lost a stone & a half since new year & have now plateaued where I wanted to, don’t ever feel hungry or sluggish & it’s been a while since I bonked on a bike.

I think we’re all different & need to find something that suits us individually.

molgrips – Member

It’s NOT about calories in vs calories out – especially if you are riding.
He’s got a point there, you’d do well to bare this in mind, imo.

Eating more and doing more shorter but very intense rides could raise your BMR quite a bit resulting in far more calories burned when not riding
That’s guessing and I guess that’s what’s important there. Don’t guess, experiment, make note, change if necessary.

There’s more than one way to lose fat.
This is very, very true and perhaps the racing weight strategy isn’t, as the OP suspects. Working for them.

You don’t necessarily need more TIME to get faster
This may also be very true, hence the rise of HIIT exercise. If you’re not HIIT’ing at the moment. Perhaps try that if you’re wanting to improve performance. However, I’d not suggest HIIT as your first line of action to reduce B/F. Exercise is great and very important, but I’d suggest you need to get your diet sorted first.
I would gain weight if I consumed 2300 cals a day. Furthermore, using exercise to mitigate excess calorie consumption isn’t a good move, in my opinion.

The only people who say it’s simple are the people who don’t know how complicated it is. Enjoy your ignorance but try not to spread it
Again, agree with this ^^ but to add that ime, most folk who claim its easy, don’t have a problem in the first place.
🙂

The insulin released inhibits the burning of fat,
Aye.

Carb-free diet
Err, no !

2300 calories sounds like too much. I’m losing weight on a target of 1900 per day. Doing similar amount of exercise probably, but I don’t try to maintain average speeds etc when out on the bike.

Personally I reckon aiming for 1500-1600 calories per day is a bit extreme and not sustainable, but if its working then its working.

It’s NOT about calories in vs calories out – especially if you are riding.

While I’m happy to read everyone’s contribution to these sorts of threads, for me Molly its absolutely all about this. I can manage and predict my weight solely on the cals I’m consuming, so whilst it clearly isn’t for you, it is for me, and

The only people who say it’s simple are the people who don’t know how complicated it is. Enjoy your ignorance but try not to spread it

These sorts of statements where you come over as more than little condescending, does little to help.

There’s more than one way to lose fat.

Absolutely there is, and sometimes it’s calorie counting, and sometimes it’s something else

carb free diet for those milage is probably right – its a low weekly milage – its recreational riding

never did see anyone good training hard on a truely carb free diet and doing well.

loosing weight and training for a goal and mutually exclusive at this level imo.

loosing weight is a by product of training but if you dont feed the machine you will be low on energy.

for me Molly its absolutely all about this

That’s the key there – FOR YOU that works fine. It doesn’t work fine for everyone, not at all.

These sorts of statements where you come over as more than little condescending

I apologise for that. It’s a reaction to continually posting loads of information and evidence of the complexity and variety of human metabolism and people inevitably coming on and crowing about how that’s all nonsense and you just need to eat less and move more. Still not light enough? Eat EVEN LESS and move EVEN MORE.

but I’d suggest you need to get your diet sorted first

To the OP, to couter this a little bit, the only time I successfully lose weight is when I get the exercise right. Then I don’t even have to be particularly strict with the diet, I still lose weight.

The only people who say it’s simple are the people who don’t know how complicated it is. Enjoy your ignorance but try not to spread it

Hmmm….

Yet a simple slow read through of the OP would suggest that he’s eating quite a bit, and not doing that much exercise. But don’t let that get in the way of shoehorning your own particular take on things into the thread.

I’m out before this becomes yet another interminable borefest.

Molly, I agree, it’s different for everyone, so stop posting things like ” it’s NOT about the calories” When sometimes it is

Ok?

Ok, it’s not SIMPLY about the calories.

Is that better?

Its all about the calories when you dont exercise alot and have a sedentry job

Yet a simple slow read through of the OP would suggest that he’s eating quite a bit, and not doing that much exercise.

I think he’s not eating a lot, and he’s doing a fair amount of exercise. He’s also not particularly fat either.

So, losing a little more weight could be quite hard, depending on his metabolic profile. Hence the advice I gave, which wasn’t ‘eat less’. I have demonstrated to myself that sometimes eating MORE allows you to lose more weight.

Your decision to drop the 8pm snack will make a difference in my opinion. Try to go to bed slightly peckish, then fill up on porridge in the morning.

Watch out for sugar hits during the day – fruit juice etc, and alcohol in the evenings. Soon adds up.

Most effective diet I ever did cut out bread completely and added in a lot of stuff like chickpeas and other protein to bulk out soups and salads.

in addition to Molgrips i would suggest changing your training, long days at work try 45 mins at a gym doing weights, 5 mins warm up 30 mins workout 5 mins cool down and back to work in the hour, add on your riding and it will make a difference

Gosh, that reads almost like an admission… 😆

Thanks Molly

I apologise for that. It’s a reaction to continually posting loads of information and evidence of the complexity and variety of human metabolism and people inevitably coming on and crowing about how that’s all nonsense and you just need to eat less and move more. Still not light enough? Eat EVEN LESS and move EVEN MORE.

If you added in “eat even better” then it would be fine. Worked for me and many others. There’s not anything I really disagree about with in what you are saying.

But….

The thing is, by applying complicated methodologies and dismissing simple approaches many people will simply not achieve the goal of weight loss. Either through motivational or time constraints.

Eating the right foods in the right amounts, anybody can lose weight. With or without exercise.

Without doubt a more holistic approach with exercise will achieve even more. Also without doubt is taking a complex approach (carefully targeted training and foodstuffs) can achieve, again… even more.

But none of it will achieve anything if the approach is incompatible with the psychology and life constraints of the individual.

There was a big meta study recently wasn’t there, which said that the quality of food eaten was actually more important than the quantity as an indicator of a likely healthy weight. ie eating less processed food and more vegetables was likely to be a better way of losing weight than calorie counting without thinking about the contents.

So much to respond to but in essence… Whilst on the train to work this morning I had a think about when I haven’t had a wobbly middle, and the changes between then and “race weight” diets.

FWIW BTW I think eating clean has been a good education as a bi-product of the race weight diet.

So those two occasions were (note that my professional lifestyle was the same):

a) During the time when I was playing rugby as OS/centre wing – I could run fast(pre cycling hobby) and
b) Two years ago when I hit the Kettlebells twice a week (less cycling, social MTB on a sunday only)which I’ve given up at the momenent.

It leads be to think that perhaps my metabolism reacts to short sharp muscular efforts rather than long drawn out endurance. In fact, perhaps adding carbs has piled on top of what I didn’t really need and eating whilst riding on endurance rides is the way to go. Also HIIT (intervals) probably suits me better – aka the short sharp shock again. Having said that mentally I feel my riding style is a “grinder” rather than a sprinter – I feel more comfortable turning a big gear at 23mph on the flat or grinding in the trenches on a climb than sprinting.

What i comes down to is that I think I am over eating, and not training enough for weight loss. What I need to do is revert to pre-race weight diet eating (yet in a clean way) and hit the now non-carb loaded intervals in my 2 x lunch hour rides with nothing more than a hyrdo tab drink, and continue with my Z2’s at the weekend but feed on the bike – with the exception of a pre ride porridge brekki of course.