full of huge amounts of high fructose corn syrup to mask the taste of the high thirst inducing salt content

Lots of salt? In coke? Is 75mg (3% gda) a lot?

Jamie, you’d fit in well, I rode on my own for 72 miles and didn’t speak to anyone, even the three guys I rode with for a while. It’s all about just battering yourself senseless. I promise not to talk to you or even acknowledge that you’re there.

i’m 6foot tall on the dot Jamie 🙂

starting to see abs at the front when i move/stretch but love handles now look massive in comparison to rest of body 🙁

having cans of tuna at work to snack on instead of buying junk from tescos is helping me i think

There should be enough in your glycogen stores from what you’ve been eating all day or the day before

Ok well I’m willing to accept that hypothesis. However I really don’t feel like there is. Going back a page or two I don’t think I can eat enough legumes etc to get enough carbs.

When I did stick to the exact recommendations, I had some problems not just with riding energy levels but also in general. I could never get enough sleep, I was distracted and couldn’t concentrate on work. Out on the bike, I’d set off at a reasonable 320W or so hoping to keep it up for 10 miles, and 5 mins later I’d be struggling to keep up 250W.

The question is, how long should I keep that up before expecting an improvement? Six, eight weeks? It seems to happen every time I stick to the plan without a little extra supplementation. Can’t ride well, can’t work well, and it gets really hard to find the energy to deal with kids on little sleep.

So what should I be doing? I thought experimenting was the right thing to do.

Oh and really, what’s the difference between a coke and two scoops of energy drink?

I could never get enough sleep

Could this be put down to being over analytical and a natural worrier?

Molly – load in on quinoa and flat breads?

IMO if you’re going to supplement.. do it with fruit. Personally, if I needed to lose weight, I’d give it at least a month. How long have you actually done the plan for? IIRC you were adding chocolate from the very beginning.

Could this be put down to being over analytical and a natural worrier?

Are we talking about the same Molgrips?

Could this be put down to being over analytical and a natural worrier?

What I meant was, no matter how much sleep I took I was always tired. I almost always sleep well.

How long have you actually done the plan for?

As above, at least six weeks – but with very sporadic cheats, once or twice a week. I started to feel a lot better when I re-introduced more carbs AND I lost weight as well. Can’t see how I did anything wrong there. The difference is now that I am not cycling to work.

The thing is, lots of other people don’t seem to report these symptoms at all, so something’s different.

I am upping the exercise for a week or two now as I seem to be mostly at home – I’ll let you know how it goes.

😆

coke is just vile, why even buy into it, it’s junk. anyway that aside, why not experiment with your training? Sounds to me like if you feel so flogged to death that you can’t work or sleep properly you are doing too much, trying to train over and above your fitness level. How about do a bit less then maybe you won’t feel such a need to eat sugar before and after, and to have to refuel so much at meal times. Try backing off the intense intervals for a few weeks, maybe you’ll lose some weight that way. You can always go back to them afterwards. It’s not like you’re going to lose precious fitness.

Kev

very sporadic cheats, once or twice a week

lots of other people don’t seem to report these symptoms at all

I can’t work it out.

Edit – If I knew how to use the search function I’d find the thread that talked about your early days on the diet.

Mmmmm! Chocolate.

..

coke is just vile, why even buy into it, it’s junk

I’d like some evidence please not just marketing copy.

Sounds to me like if you feel so flogged to death that you can’t work or sleep properly you are doing too much, trying to train over and above your fitness level

I’m not new to this training game. In Germany it was something like 4-8 hours a week, now it’s about three as above. In the form of several short workouts.

Try backing off the intense intervals for a few weeks, maybe you’ll lose some weight that way

Three hours a week of bimbling around in 45 minute stretches isn’t going to do anything for me.

The question is do I a) fuel to exercise so that it feels good and positive, hoping that I’ll lose weight through the exercise or b) feel like crap, ride like crap and hope that I’ll lose weight that way?

Three hours a week of bimbling around in 45 minute stretches isn’t going to do anything for me.

Might it start tapping into any fat reserves?

iDave – I’ll edit again then.

Molly – do you fancy a sportive?

ok molly, can you break down what those 3 hours a week consist of at present? is that 4X 45 minute sessions on the bike or 4X 30mins plus 15mins of kettlebells or what?

… again

LoLing (again) at all the boys trying to loose weight…

Loolling at your spelling

A sportive would be nice but again, not easy to dump the kids on Mrs Grips all day when I could be helping.

As for fat reserves, I thought we’d established that high intensity was more effective for people without much time?

My point in all the above is that it looks to me like I need to focus on the training whilst eating appropriately. Training is more important after all.

My training is very patchy, and this is my main problem, not the diet.

why are you LOLing at us emsz? its the same media thats encouraging a certain body-type as an ideal for men as it is for women 😛

i’m losing weight for health reasons, if i end up looking as sexy as deadlydarcy in the process then the world ends up a nicer place to live in for wimminz such as yourself 😆 8)

*checks out flat tummy, decides not to care about spelling*
8)

you’re the kinda person who sits outside the weightwatchers groups with a whole tub of hagen daaz being very vocal about how tasty and creamy it is aren’t you!? 👿

if we all stared at ice-cream and focus we could make emsz into a biffer

checks out flat tummy, decides not to care about spelling

emsz – without pictures this means nothing.

I’m not saying you’re not new to training and I didn’t say bimble around for 45mins. By all means do intervals but try backing off the intensity. I cannot help but think you’re flogging yourself half to death in a vain effort to become as fit /fast /thin as you think you can be all in one go. How about taking it one stage at a time ?

Kev

Philly, after 2 hours of cycling las weekend I eat pretty much a whole tub of tesco rum and raisin. Yum

emsz – you’re not a very nice person, are you?

It’s important to pretend that you eat healthily on these threads.

Sorry yeti

After cycling 2 hours last weekend I eat 2 beans and a protein shake of crushed rubarb and celery stalks

Ok?

Well done!

How much more weight are you hoping to lo’o’se?

How about taking it one stage at a time ?

Well I’ve been trying for years, how slow should I take it? The point of intervals is to go hard, surely? They aren’t all flat out – some are longer and hence more paced.

Going very fast is what feels good to me, and it’s what I need to do to enjoy myself on the bike. I spent too long doing what didn’t feel right.

I don’t think it’s a case of how slow you should be going but more a case of how much effort you can put in without your body feeling the desire for sugar and refuelling afterwards, or beforehand for that matter. Only you can work this out, try experimenting 😉

Kev

it’s what I need to do to enjoy myself on the bike

If the enjoyment of each individual session is the most important thing to you then there’s no point in us discussing it any more.

Although I don’t imagine that aspiring racers enjoy every session they do.

If I’m going to be faster and more powerful, I need to really stretch my legs, and that means putting me well into the carb burning zone. However, I don’t have to do it for long, which means that my carb stores should be sufficient powered by beans and a little simple carbs here and there. Which is what I’m going for.

Anyway – here’s support for my Twix theory 🙂

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17511011

a little simple carbs here and there

Didn’t you say earlier in this thread that you had a can of coke pre exercise and another after?

I sometimes do, if I haven’t had much carbs all day long. Not always though. And that day in question was an hour’s running which is pretty intense for me. And I had no carbs during.

A coke has as much carbs as what, a scoop and a half of energy drink. So three scoops in total when the rest of the day I’d had only veg, eggs and meat and three tiny choccies. Is that really too much?

quite convenient that report being released just before easter. really, in all honesty Molly it’s an excuse for you to eat it. It seems to me you’d rather eat chocolate than lose weight, then flog yourself half to death in a vain effort to try and burn it off, only leading you with a desire to consume yet more of the same. Viscious circle.

Kev

Is that really too much?

IMO yes.

Today.

Swam for 50 mins this morning.
80g Porridge
handful of nuts
peperami

50 mins circuit training
prawn chorizio lentil and bean stew with flat bread
2 slices of pineapple

Possibly some more nuts and a banana mid afternoon.

hour and a half of yoga
chicken and chickpea curry, with quinoa or more flat bread.

I’ll sleep like a baby.

in all honesty Molly it’s an excuse for you to eat it

That was a joke!

then flog yourself half to death in a vain effort to try and burn it off

I flog myself to train to get faster… A lot of misguided assumptions going on here. Honestly – there should be no reason why a fit active cyclist cannot eat three frickin choccies once or twice a week!

Yeti. You think I should eat less? Do you think I’ve not tried? What should I do when I start feeling terrible? Anyway that food you posted isn’t that different to what I eat.

If I’m going to be faster and more powerful, I need to really stretch my legs, and that means putting me well into the carb burning zone

This for me was bad. I used to do everything hard.. running, cycling, circuit training. I always thought to get fit you had to push yourself hard.

A few years ago I had a fitness test and found my fat burning was absolutely terrible. The guy said I was typical of a lot of mountain bikers. Good power at top end but very bad base.

I then did lots of zone 2 training (and idave) and became a much more efficient cyclist and a lot leaner. (I went from using 43% of energy from fat to 84% in 5 months *at my aerobic base point)

this taught me i needed to do slower pace rides and it was needed all year round.

TD I also had the same experience. However I did too much base and lost a lot of power. Which made it hard for me to really hammer myself in races.

I am doing intervals and hoping to do base riding at the weekends, but I am not managing to get out.