So, after advice from here and general reading, I’ve lost 16lbs. I now stand at 5’11 and 3/4 and 12st dead on average through the day.

This is good, yet I’m bonking on occasion and sometimes suffer from lack of leg strength, and IMO still have some flab to lose (six pack still hidden) but the loss – as expected – has slowed. With crits and short Xc races coming soon, do I continue as is or eat more to pre empt the bonk/help my interval led power development?

I can’t help thinking I need to revise my wholemeal/ protein orientated diet – but how? Is it as simple as more of, or something else?

I’d suggest that you are bonking because you aren’t used to exercising without a belly full of sugar. This is why long steady base miles are a good thing. The lack of leg strength is caused by a similar thing.

Try fuelling while riding; set off with an empty tummy, then use gels after 30 minutes. Don’t overdo the eating though.

You’ve still not done enough steady riding, not enough base, so going hard just burns through your stores too quick.

Get up earlier, go ride.

Silly maybe, but not underhydrated?

I ended up really quite light accidentally almost but found myself lacking endurance – to be fair I’ve not had any deliberate diet strategy other than last minute loading and definitely no serious approach to training so in my case I’m not surprised but hoping to end up with a better balance this year. Suddenly bonking when out with friends is a pain for everyone.

I’m trying to stay away from tech apart from an emergency gel or two which I’d prefer not to use.

Well, I was doing 11am intervals with nothing after a 7am breakfast. However you are correct about the base, its been neglected in favor of the Turbo intervals.

Could the lack if sugar bonk you refer to Crikey also be caused by my lower body fat content? I ephod point out done days I can knock out 100k, then next week 50 mins on a circuit destroys me.

Edit – I’m drinking plenty of water and since I gave up drinking on jan 1 soda water has been my staple evening drink.

When do you bonk?

Losing a few lb is nothing in comparison to being a victim to this. Something wrong with your eating.

I was dieting last year, and did feel quite depleted towards the end of it (3 months). If you are dieting and exercising, there comes a point you need to up your food intake, or your body just doesn’t have enough fuel and isn’t conditioned to supply it at your new weight.

A 50 minute burn can use up all your glycogen stores, then you bonk. A longer ride you can burn fat (and eat as well) so can see the distance.

Cynic-al it seems to be more during crit/sprint type rides, jelly legs after 50 mins to an hour… …which perhaps ties in with Nikks last para. I am at 3 months too, also 8 weeks since giving up booze and two weeks since finishing an interval based training cycle.

As above, you have enough muscle glycogen to fuel about 40-50 minutes of exercise. Anything above this usually requires extra energy, unless you have trained to be more efficient with regard to energy stores.

That’s one reason why base training is so important; you develop the ability to be able to ride at a reasonable pace for a longer period of time while sparing your easily accessed energy stores.

Eating before a ride works for me!

I can easily get the bonk on my 25m commute home if I forget to eat after lunch!

Oh I don’t doubt it works, the purpose was to lose weight. I’m concerned about re introducing old ways and piling the weight on.

For example, I could murder a beer :-/

I can easily get the bonk on my 25m commute home if I forget to eat after lunch!

I suspect that you are not hanging about though Al? And maybe have had 3-4-5 hours of work without eating before your ride?

Takes about 3 months to completely forget about drinking. That will probably take a further 2-3lbs off without trying. If you’re lucky it will reset your metabolism to the extent you have to eat more not to appear too thin.

To uncover a 6 pack there has to be one!

When I wanted to loose weight a few years ago. I lost 3 stone in 9 months
And would often hit that 1 hour point and die
I was hard at it every ride trying to burn off calories
Had a knee injury and what followed was long slower rides to help recover

Now I’m about 1/2 stone up on where I got down to
And don’t bonk.

Bit rambling but adding long base miles fixed it for me
That and realising that you can be to light

Eat more, see what happens. You may even lose more weight.

If you want to train and race well, eat more (but good stuff). For me, there comes a time where i need to eat more (as training intensity goes up in the build period) and its a case of maintaining my weight rather than trying to lose any more. Base miles ie October – December for the traditional road racer who races March – Sept is best time to lose weight and much easier too.

during crit/sprint type rides, jelly legs after 50 mins to an hour

Maybe you just aren’t used to doing this either?

Gels and sweet stuff make me bonk. I’m much better if I fuel with complex carbs and protein. Anything up to 2hrs I can do empty or with no extra fuel; but if I go over that my performance drops unless I eat something during the ride.

What works for others might not work for you so its worth trying different things to see how your body reacts.

PS – for a 6-pack you need to be doing core stuff like in a gym. Cycling on its own is unlikely to be enough to get “ripped” and risks creating an unballanced muscle build; its worth doing some targeted weights to build up shoulders to offset cyclists hunch.

This thread has all your bonking lack of leg strength needs met

cutting out alot of sugar (from coffee) has lost me a fair bit of weight as i usually have 3 sugars in every hot drink (x about 5 a day 😆 ), im at a good weight now for racing if i had the bike and could get into it (not being a lazy sod and commiting), fitness is at a high or as high as ive been and weight at a low, just need to actually sign up to do some form of racing and train a hell of a lot more

6ft weighing in at 10stone 11lbs and im not sure i could lose much more without having no social life at all, or feeling ill

OP it seems as simple to me as making sure you eat something before these rides. I struggle to see how that will put weight on you.

Jelly legs after riding flat out for 50 minutes is normal, isn’t it?

Not if you’ve been training your body to do it.

OP it seems as simple to me as making sure you eat something before these rides. I struggle to see how that will put weight on you.

+1. A double espresso and banana is a good energy boost for intervals IME. I doubt very much in your 1st season of racing it’ll be your weight that holds you back from race results and improvements.

Also, not sure what your training is for crits/sprints, but are you recovering properly and for long enough between sets? A sprint training session is way more anaerobic than a 100km ride so you need to have good glycogen stores to do it properly.

As I have already mentioned, whenI was doing long commutes regularly, with training added in, I started eating more medium and high GI carbs and I started losing more weight.

dirtygirlonabike – Member
If you want to train and race well, eat more (but good stuff). For me, there comes a time where i need to eat more (as training intensity goes up in the build period) and its a case of maintaining my weight rather than trying to lose any more. Base miles ie October – December for the traditional road racer who races March – Sept is best time to lose weight and much easier too.

“during crit/sprint type rides, jelly legs after 50 mins to an hour”

Maybe you just aren’t used to doing this either?

This is true. I’ve done some base over the last week, have a 130k ride at the weekend then start with Trainerroad on Monday. I’ve an mtb crit next Saturday then Start weekly road crits from March 16 to mid April – which if course are massive intervals in themselves.

Considering Beastway in May also, anyway, that little lot should keep any weight off.

I will be interested to see what dropping 15kgs this winter has done for my speed .I`m lighter than when I last seriously time trialled in 1996 at 6ft 4 and 85kg but 50 years old now .First race is Sunday so I will see how I go

I find a decent breakfast before a 60/70/80 mile very steady ride helps with losing weight and keeping it off, and ride steady enough so you don’t need any food whilst out. I only do that until I start to race, which is a lot later in the year than you.
Speed work comes with turbos and short midweek road and XC sessions.

Come race season I eat like a horse and the weight stays put.

I think what I’m saying is that I find it easier to lose weight now when there’s no pressure on.
Hope it all pans out for you. I’ve decided to put racing on simmer this year in favour of some distance stuff I’ve always wanted to do, then come back next year a 55 year old cat D racer in LVRC.
Though if I were you I’d see this year as a study in racing.

Speed work comes with turbos and short midweek road and XC sessions.

I’ve got something right then….

I find beer and Icecream works, lost a stone in 4 week on that (2 beers 1 Icecream per evening).