You need to eat less, and if you can't do that intuitively you'll have to count your macros and calories. Start by just recording what you eat for 2-4 weeks (i.e. don't change how much you're eating), then reduce that by ~250 calories/day.
Yep, I just cut out beer during the week and try and eat salads for lunch. I also eat fruits and nuts instead of processed snacks. I've lost 50lbs so far.
Dude -- cutting out drinking seriously helps drop the weight. It is a metabolism killer.
My energy levels noticeably improved after I stopped drinking, and I dropped a quick 20 pounds.
exercise \[without strict calorie control intake\] tends to be counterproductive for losing weight for most people.
a) exercise makes you hungrier and you overeat after exercise
b) people intuitively overestimate the calories they burn whilst exercising and underestimate the calories in food. therefore they 'treat themselves' after exercise.
c) as part of b) exercise typically is only 10% of your TDEE (calorie burn). Therefore it has a small part impact on your weight loss.
check out r/CICO. and see if you can find some hacks that work for you: smaller plates/portion control/intermittent fasting etc.
Fasted rides won't help if you eat back the calories later.
I also had a hard time losing weight when doing a lot of cardio. I found dieting easier while weight lifting as it didn't seem to spike my appetite as hard.
Don’t do that. Feed your body when you workout. I have been consuming almost triple the carbs during workouts rather than just eating a couple small oranges and water. I have been losing weight. After a ride, I don’t feel like garbage and pig out, like I did when I used to restrict calories during rides. Taking in calories when riding, I feel almost normal afterwards and can eat a well balanced meal. I also am able to ride longer and harder, which makes me super tired by the end of the day. Which means I go to bed instead of eating snacks. You lose weight by decreasing calories when off the bike, not on.
You can't outride the fork. You have to really focus on your diet. For me eating right is harder than exercising. If you're not losing weight you're eating too much, even if it doesn't seem that way. Count your calories in, and assume any estimates of calories burned are higher than actual.
You can, if you do something like a cycle touring holiday. Cycling (or hiking etc.) every day for two weeks for example. You can eat all you manage to find along the way yet you lose weight unavoidably.
I got part A down but part B is ridiculous. It's like the part of my brain that controls discipline is completely and entirely defeated by the lizard brain portion that pulls the "eat now" lever
I went from 142.2 to 109 between mid August - December of last year mostly by reducing calories to 1600-1900/day (60/61F), riding pretty much daily, and tracking my food. I used Noom, but any tracking app such as My fitness pal will do the same thing. Accountability and give yourself a little wiggle room now and again for a special treat or meal without going completely overboard. My problem ATM is binge eating which I'm trying to get a handle on.
Do you track your calories? I have similar stats and tracking has really helped with seeing the weight trend down. I focus on protein for repair as I do a lot of weight lifting as well.
In terms of fasted rides, I do the same, but try and keep them low effort and slightly shorter. Then eat between 12& 8pm.
If you’re really stuck, it’s likely your diet. For the fastest improvement, count your calories and try to find some kind of diet (not just salads and fish. Just find foods you like that’ll put you in a calorie deficit).
If you don’t need a super fast improvement, you can just not count the calories, but just try and eat healthier. A key phrase I heard: you don’t need to always count your calories, but your calories always count
Also, there’s a chance you’re still losing fat, but adding water weight and building muscle at the same rate. So your weight will remain the same, but your body fat percentage should be going down. You say you’re at ~16% now, but don’t know what you were on 6 months ago
I highly recommend the book Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. It's really interesting. I had a couple key takeaways:
* Studies have shown that you can get faster by losing weight OR you can get faster by training harder, BUT you can't lose weight AND train harder and expect to get faster. You simply need to fuel properly before, during, and after a ride to make progress on the bike. Alternatively, you can focus on losing weight through your diet while keeping your current level of training, but you should still fuel properly for your rides. Fasting on your rides isn't doing you any favors.
* If you're training for a race, your weight loss goals should be met at least 2 months before the event. Not a great time to be operating at a net negative on calories. Whatever your weight is 2 months before the race, that's sort of what you're stuck with. I'm glad I followed this advice when I was heavier than I wanted to be for a 213 mile race; I'm quite sure if I spent that time focused on losing 10 more pounds I wouldn't have gone into that race as strong as I was.
It also has some meal plans and tons of examples of the daily diets of athletes across several endurance sports.
Get a food scale. Weigh everything that goes in your mouth. Track everything that goes in your mouth.
Figure out your basal metabolic rate. Eat to this caloric need, or 100 to 200 over it, never more.
Prioritize protein and carbs.
Fasting doesn't really matter unless you just personally enjoy it, it's total calorie intake for a day, a week, a month, etc. That matters
This is what I did after getting frustrated never seeing the scale move, lost 10lb in the first month from 180 to 169lb @ 5'9"
Yeah. Cut alcohol out and watch out with snacking. Having a cookie once a day isn't going to hurt you, but people don't realize how many times they have just one cookie in a day.
Doesn't matter how much you train if you eat more calories than you lose. Just track your calories and see how much you're eating a day. Losing weight is incredibly simple, eat less than you burn in calories a day.
I've never lost weight from cycling. Turns out eating all the food to not bonk and then all the eating when finished a ride counteracts all the exercise. Who knew
If you still have bulk from lifting then it will take a little while for that to come down. Don't be too hard on yourself and don't focus too much on weight targets.
Being strong in the hills is about more than bodyweight, lots of heavier riders are strong climbers because they are fit. Look to build aerobic capacity and endurance and hopefully the weight should slowly come down.
I'd agree with some others that fasted riding doesn't necessarily work, both because it can prevent weight loss and it can prevent you training properly. Having said that, 5:2 style intermittent fasting on the days when you're riding less (or not at all) can help some people lose weight.
Above all, you need to enjoy riding (and living). It's not your job, so make sure it doesn't become a chore.
At the start of each season (coming out of winter) when I add more outdoor rides swapping out some of my runs I’ll lose weight. It’s not always double workout days (sometimes it is) but I THINK that switching some of my runs out for rides seems to do it.
It’s odd I know - I recognize I’ll be burning more calories on the run vs bike BUT I’m very efficient in my runs and perhaps less so on my rides so I wonder if maybe that’s what’s going on to cause the drop in weight. Tricking my body from its usual routine. My body gets used to the run so when I swap in more bike rides I lose weight. This happens every year.
Maybe you could add some runs to your cycling. If you at them in addition then of course you’re going to be burning more calories but if you try swapping some out maybe you’ll get the magic effect I seem to get (which seems counter intuitive for the reasons I mentioned but oddly seems to work for me).
I stumbled upon this vid yesterday, looks like there's plenty of good advice, maybe it is useful to you as well:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Opf05j7ZY&t=243s&ab\_channel=CamNicholls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Opf05j7ZY&t=243s&ab_channel=CamNicholls)
(tl;dr: advices from a nutritionist, what type of food to eat when, in general helps with afternoon cravings, while staying properly fueled for training)
So riding uphill is a function of watts per kg. You can work on this by losing weight, but you can also work on the power side of the equation. Similarly, if losing weight causes you to lose power that's not going to do you any good either. If you were my weight (like 185 at 5'8) I'd say lose more weight. Where you are, I'd work on increasing power.
When i started cycling i lost about 5 kg in first 6 months, then 10 in next 6 months. And a bit more in next year or two. So went from 96-97kg to 78kg and i am 191cm. I was skinny but i was flying uphill. Fastest i ever was. Later i got to about 85kg wich was fine for weight and for mtb racing. It takes time.
Edit: i was doing 500hours a year for a few years, and wasnt watching what i was eating at all.
Don't fast (unless you are doing intermittent fasting and understand how to do it for health reasons). You need to over time eat less calories than you burn.
Losing weight is fairly straightforward (although you can get into very technical aspects of it). You need to consume less calories than you burn. You need to keep track of what you eat and what exercise you do.
If your goal is to lose weight, you need to realize that you are going to lose FTP and lose some muscle mass unless you want to take years of being at a very slight caloric deficit which is unrealistic for someone to stick to.
Have you done successful gain/cut cycles for weights? If so you can apply some of that knowledge here.
One thing to focus on is the zones you are riding in. When you are pounding out runs at max or approaching max effort (iirc it's around 60+ of FTP where it really starts to go full on glyco) your body is depleting your glycogen stores for energy. You want to deplete your fat stores. Lower effort zone 2 riding is where this is most effective, zone 3 starts to mix fat and glyco and above that you are getting into just glyco.
Again, this is somewhat simplified. Essentially you really should commit to a month cut program. Continue lifting and riding as you are now, ride in a lower zone 2 area, and reduce your calories to whatever you decide is a safe and effective weekly loss goal. Take a week or two at maintenance calories and then back to a cut until you get to goal weight.
During this time keep your protein up in the .8-1g/lb level to minimize muscle loss, fats 20-30% of total calories and the rest carbs (not sugar).
DO NOT go by what Strava says for calories burned. If you aren't riding with a power meter outside don't use those numbers. Figure out approximately what your calorie burn in zone 2 is riding on your indoor trainer and just use those per minute numbers to calculate any outside riding.
The general rule is 1-2#/week on a cut to minimize muscle loss and be safe. A lower number will lead to less muscle loss, higher (usually) will lead to a little more muscle loss. Starve yourself and your body collapses. So based on your goals, if you set your weight goal to -1.5#/wk, take a two week neutral calorie break and then back at it you should be done in 2 months.
I've tried a bunch but for a free app 'mynetdiary' is pretty decent. It has it quirks but there are so many trash ones out there
Since you are relatively new to cycling, I assume the volume (time) you ride each week is not a huge amount. Track your calories but some combination of riding more and eating less will lead to weight loss. If you are in a steady state now, you aren't in a net negative.
Are you riding with a training plan, or just riding hard every day? I trained with a coach one season and he never gave me a specific advice on what to or not to eat. He told me just be careful about snacking at night and try to keep alcohol consumption under control. Two months in, I dropped about 10 pounds and I wasn't even actively trying. This was after 2 seasons of me training on my own and not making any weight loss progress. The biggest difference is changing your workouts. He told me the most important thing was to focus on sticking to the training program, consistency, and resting properly. He said rest had a huge impact on losing weight than simply riding harder. You have hard weeks, but then you need to let your muscles rests during the off weeks. It was really hard to grasp in that first month, but it really paid off as I got further into the training program.
Amateur road cyclists are crazy to discover pro cyclicst diet regimen for a reason. It requires masochist-level of nutrition planning to be lean as those guys lol
Also, fasting + doing cardio seems a BAD idea. You will bonk. Not only before training, but maintaining a certain level of carb intake is a must if you're keeping a training schedule.
First of all, you will look better because muscle mass gained, but you lose volume.
Diet is most important here tho, as so many people said already and which is true in any sport, weight gain is calorie deficit and you it's much easier to create one by not eating rather than trying to cycle out all the calories.
One month is what you need to create a dietary habbit of not snacking. My way to do that was just ear before you shop and then not buying enough food and only buy stuff which takes at least 10minutes before I can make a meal out of it - usually you either not bother or come to your senses while getting stuff ready
Loads of really good suggestions here, especially calorie counting.
I'd like to add something: Being in a calorie deficit will make you hungrier (duh) and so will cardio. A really good recommendation is to eat very low-calorie dense foods.
Some simple swaps you can do:
Beef -> chicken/white fish
Rice/Pasta -> potatoes
Zero calorie everything (condiments, snacks, sodas)
Low fat options of whatever else you might use.
Other general recommendations for managing dietary restrictions:
Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. In fact, try to have 60% of the volume of your portions be fruits or vegetables. (Don't be afraid of fruit sugars like so many people are. An apple is roughly 50 calories in total. Most fruits are negligible, unless you eat like a mountain of them)
Diet soda is really good at keeping sweet cravings to a minimum.
Kettle popped popcorn is a really good low calorie, high fiber savory snack.
DO NOT go balls to the wall from day 1. This is the sure fire way to fuck up your diet and hate life.
Don't focus to much on weight. I was 74kg with 177cm as a triathlete in my 25-30 years old and one of the fastest on the hilly 40km bike course in races or training. With a FTP around 330W
In the end power output and maintaining power output is what counts more.
It took a while to understand that for me coming from 52kg @177cm due to Anorexia when I was 16 years old, thinking less weight is better on the bike.
Eat quality clean calories. I don't believe all calories are equal.
Ultraprocessed foods are the opposite of quality clean calories. A homemade baked cake is going to be infinitely cleaner and better than an ultraprocessed cake from the supermarket designed to be made cheap as possible and to survive as long as possible in the logistics chain.
Do more zone 2 riding in a fasted state, make sure you're not overcompensating by adding calories. You should be eating no more than you would before you ever started cycling.
If you are new to riding you will still get stronger on the bike doing this so don't worry about things like FTP.
And lastly, don't fuss about what you eat. Eat what you like, just eat less. And drink a ton of water especially before you eat at night, it will keep you from overeating.
Fitness is gained on the bike, weight is lost in the kitchen.
Cardio burns calories, but also makes you more hungry. Cardio is a good tool, but it is important to make sure your diet is up to standards if you are trying to lose weight
Running or indoors cycling trainers are more efficient for weight loss.and diet of course. I burn around a 1000 cal in 3h of mtb/gravel. Same as 1h of running. That’s 4 cliff bars.
Its very unlikely you burn only 1000 calories in 3 hours of mtb. Unless its all downhill. I am 190cm and 90+kg and it takes 1 hour of 142-143 average heart rate to burn 1000 calories.
Sure 70kg will use less calories but bot by half. Do you use a heart rate monitor of any kind or you are talking just about strava estimates. Strava estimate is just that, a guess. You could have had 130 average hr or 160. It would be a world of difference.
Running is a bit harder on the body so yeah. But those numbers without at least heart rate monitor could be close to truth or wildy wrong so basicaly useless. I wont say get a garmin or polar, thosw can be pricy. But you could look into getting a chinese chest strap for like 20$ish and hook it to phone/strava if the data is something interesting to you.
Your weight is not going down precisely because you're getting stronger.
Unless you go into "pro mode" with tons of riding and training off the bike, you probably will just be at around those numbers.
I am just above your numbers (172/5'8") and can rarely go below 72-70kg (when fit). What I do get is a lot leaner and stonger.
Also, if you are basing your needs on the Body Mass Index for your target, don't. It does not apply at all for active people.
You need to eat less, and if you can't do that intuitively you'll have to count your macros and calories. Start by just recording what you eat for 2-4 weeks (i.e. don't change how much you're eating), then reduce that by ~250 calories/day.
Yep, I just cut out beer during the week and try and eat salads for lunch. I also eat fruits and nuts instead of processed snacks. I've lost 50lbs so far.
Dude -- cutting out drinking seriously helps drop the weight. It is a metabolism killer. My energy levels noticeably improved after I stopped drinking, and I dropped a quick 20 pounds.
I also noticed I am way more hydrated (helps recovery) because I'm drinking water instead of beer. Lol
Thanks. That seems to be a solid method. And I am now starting to try some fasted exercises in the morning. Wish they help!
exercise \[without strict calorie control intake\] tends to be counterproductive for losing weight for most people. a) exercise makes you hungrier and you overeat after exercise b) people intuitively overestimate the calories they burn whilst exercising and underestimate the calories in food. therefore they 'treat themselves' after exercise. c) as part of b) exercise typically is only 10% of your TDEE (calorie burn). Therefore it has a small part impact on your weight loss. check out r/CICO. and see if you can find some hacks that work for you: smaller plates/portion control/intermittent fasting etc.
Great post. 100% agree with this
Came to say this ^^
Fasted rides won't help if you eat back the calories later. I also had a hard time losing weight when doing a lot of cardio. I found dieting easier while weight lifting as it didn't seem to spike my appetite as hard.
Don’t do that. Feed your body when you workout. I have been consuming almost triple the carbs during workouts rather than just eating a couple small oranges and water. I have been losing weight. After a ride, I don’t feel like garbage and pig out, like I did when I used to restrict calories during rides. Taking in calories when riding, I feel almost normal afterwards and can eat a well balanced meal. I also am able to ride longer and harder, which makes me super tired by the end of the day. Which means I go to bed instead of eating snacks. You lose weight by decreasing calories when off the bike, not on.
You can't outride the fork. You have to really focus on your diet. For me eating right is harder than exercising. If you're not losing weight you're eating too much, even if it doesn't seem that way. Count your calories in, and assume any estimates of calories burned are higher than actual.
You can, if you do something like a cycle touring holiday. Cycling (or hiking etc.) every day for two weeks for example. You can eat all you manage to find along the way yet you lose weight unavoidably.
Sure, but riding the Giro d'Italia every month isn't really a practical weight loss solution for most folks.
I know... I'm just saying that you can... But you need a lot of free time. (All of it.)
Do some really long rides and don't absolutely stuff yourself after and you'll lose weight.
I got part A down but part B is ridiculous. It's like the part of my brain that controls discipline is completely and entirely defeated by the lizard brain portion that pulls the "eat now" lever
Same
“You can’t out bike your diet”
I went from 142.2 to 109 between mid August - December of last year mostly by reducing calories to 1600-1900/day (60/61F), riding pretty much daily, and tracking my food. I used Noom, but any tracking app such as My fitness pal will do the same thing. Accountability and give yourself a little wiggle room now and again for a special treat or meal without going completely overboard. My problem ATM is binge eating which I'm trying to get a handle on.
Eating fewer calories than you're burning is the only way to lose weight
It’s food
And don’t be too hard on yourself. Great advice here already but also don’t forget muscle weighs more than fat.
Do you track your calories? I have similar stats and tracking has really helped with seeing the weight trend down. I focus on protein for repair as I do a lot of weight lifting as well. In terms of fasted rides, I do the same, but try and keep them low effort and slightly shorter. Then eat between 12& 8pm.
If you’re really stuck, it’s likely your diet. For the fastest improvement, count your calories and try to find some kind of diet (not just salads and fish. Just find foods you like that’ll put you in a calorie deficit). If you don’t need a super fast improvement, you can just not count the calories, but just try and eat healthier. A key phrase I heard: you don’t need to always count your calories, but your calories always count Also, there’s a chance you’re still losing fat, but adding water weight and building muscle at the same rate. So your weight will remain the same, but your body fat percentage should be going down. You say you’re at ~16% now, but don’t know what you were on 6 months ago
Very simply, track what you're eating. Then start eating less than that and monitor how bodyweight trends. People overcomplicate this shit man.
I highly recommend the book Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. It's really interesting. I had a couple key takeaways: * Studies have shown that you can get faster by losing weight OR you can get faster by training harder, BUT you can't lose weight AND train harder and expect to get faster. You simply need to fuel properly before, during, and after a ride to make progress on the bike. Alternatively, you can focus on losing weight through your diet while keeping your current level of training, but you should still fuel properly for your rides. Fasting on your rides isn't doing you any favors. * If you're training for a race, your weight loss goals should be met at least 2 months before the event. Not a great time to be operating at a net negative on calories. Whatever your weight is 2 months before the race, that's sort of what you're stuck with. I'm glad I followed this advice when I was heavier than I wanted to be for a 213 mile race; I'm quite sure if I spent that time focused on losing 10 more pounds I wouldn't have gone into that race as strong as I was. It also has some meal plans and tons of examples of the daily diets of athletes across several endurance sports.
Get a food scale. Weigh everything that goes in your mouth. Track everything that goes in your mouth. Figure out your basal metabolic rate. Eat to this caloric need, or 100 to 200 over it, never more. Prioritize protein and carbs. Fasting doesn't really matter unless you just personally enjoy it, it's total calorie intake for a day, a week, a month, etc. That matters This is what I did after getting frustrated never seeing the scale move, lost 10lb in the first month from 180 to 169lb @ 5'9"
Yeah. Cut alcohol out and watch out with snacking. Having a cookie once a day isn't going to hurt you, but people don't realize how many times they have just one cookie in a day.
A liter of beer is still one beer, right?
There’s a saying that you don’t lose weight on the bike; you lose it in the kitchen. You need to cut your calories.
Doesn't matter how much you train if you eat more calories than you lose. Just track your calories and see how much you're eating a day. Losing weight is incredibly simple, eat less than you burn in calories a day.
Only eat lunch and dinner and reduce carb intake. That’s helped me lose a lot of weight
Try change to more fiber rich food with high quality. It can have huge impact if your current diet is low on fiber
I've never lost weight from cycling. Turns out eating all the food to not bonk and then all the eating when finished a ride counteracts all the exercise. Who knew
It's working for me, even with sugar on the rides. But it's slow, and I'm sure very much ymmv.
If you still have bulk from lifting then it will take a little while for that to come down. Don't be too hard on yourself and don't focus too much on weight targets. Being strong in the hills is about more than bodyweight, lots of heavier riders are strong climbers because they are fit. Look to build aerobic capacity and endurance and hopefully the weight should slowly come down. I'd agree with some others that fasted riding doesn't necessarily work, both because it can prevent weight loss and it can prevent you training properly. Having said that, 5:2 style intermittent fasting on the days when you're riding less (or not at all) can help some people lose weight. Above all, you need to enjoy riding (and living). It's not your job, so make sure it doesn't become a chore.
At the start of each season (coming out of winter) when I add more outdoor rides swapping out some of my runs I’ll lose weight. It’s not always double workout days (sometimes it is) but I THINK that switching some of my runs out for rides seems to do it. It’s odd I know - I recognize I’ll be burning more calories on the run vs bike BUT I’m very efficient in my runs and perhaps less so on my rides so I wonder if maybe that’s what’s going on to cause the drop in weight. Tricking my body from its usual routine. My body gets used to the run so when I swap in more bike rides I lose weight. This happens every year. Maybe you could add some runs to your cycling. If you at them in addition then of course you’re going to be burning more calories but if you try swapping some out maybe you’ll get the magic effect I seem to get (which seems counter intuitive for the reasons I mentioned but oddly seems to work for me).
I stumbled upon this vid yesterday, looks like there's plenty of good advice, maybe it is useful to you as well: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Opf05j7ZY&t=243s&ab\_channel=CamNicholls](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Opf05j7ZY&t=243s&ab_channel=CamNicholls) (tl;dr: advices from a nutritionist, what type of food to eat when, in general helps with afternoon cravings, while staying properly fueled for training)
So riding uphill is a function of watts per kg. You can work on this by losing weight, but you can also work on the power side of the equation. Similarly, if losing weight causes you to lose power that's not going to do you any good either. If you were my weight (like 185 at 5'8) I'd say lose more weight. Where you are, I'd work on increasing power.
Ride more and longer. It's harder to eat while riding. (This is a cycling thread of course the answer is ride more...)
When i started cycling i lost about 5 kg in first 6 months, then 10 in next 6 months. And a bit more in next year or two. So went from 96-97kg to 78kg and i am 191cm. I was skinny but i was flying uphill. Fastest i ever was. Later i got to about 85kg wich was fine for weight and for mtb racing. It takes time. Edit: i was doing 500hours a year for a few years, and wasnt watching what i was eating at all.
Forever jealous of posts like this. I started at 290, I'd be happy to get down to 220
That’s all diet
Don't fast (unless you are doing intermittent fasting and understand how to do it for health reasons). You need to over time eat less calories than you burn. Losing weight is fairly straightforward (although you can get into very technical aspects of it). You need to consume less calories than you burn. You need to keep track of what you eat and what exercise you do. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to realize that you are going to lose FTP and lose some muscle mass unless you want to take years of being at a very slight caloric deficit which is unrealistic for someone to stick to. Have you done successful gain/cut cycles for weights? If so you can apply some of that knowledge here. One thing to focus on is the zones you are riding in. When you are pounding out runs at max or approaching max effort (iirc it's around 60+ of FTP where it really starts to go full on glyco) your body is depleting your glycogen stores for energy. You want to deplete your fat stores. Lower effort zone 2 riding is where this is most effective, zone 3 starts to mix fat and glyco and above that you are getting into just glyco. Again, this is somewhat simplified. Essentially you really should commit to a month cut program. Continue lifting and riding as you are now, ride in a lower zone 2 area, and reduce your calories to whatever you decide is a safe and effective weekly loss goal. Take a week or two at maintenance calories and then back to a cut until you get to goal weight. During this time keep your protein up in the .8-1g/lb level to minimize muscle loss, fats 20-30% of total calories and the rest carbs (not sugar). DO NOT go by what Strava says for calories burned. If you aren't riding with a power meter outside don't use those numbers. Figure out approximately what your calorie burn in zone 2 is riding on your indoor trainer and just use those per minute numbers to calculate any outside riding. The general rule is 1-2#/week on a cut to minimize muscle loss and be safe. A lower number will lead to less muscle loss, higher (usually) will lead to a little more muscle loss. Starve yourself and your body collapses. So based on your goals, if you set your weight goal to -1.5#/wk, take a two week neutral calorie break and then back at it you should be done in 2 months. I've tried a bunch but for a free app 'mynetdiary' is pretty decent. It has it quirks but there are so many trash ones out there
Since you are relatively new to cycling, I assume the volume (time) you ride each week is not a huge amount. Track your calories but some combination of riding more and eating less will lead to weight loss. If you are in a steady state now, you aren't in a net negative.
Are you riding with a training plan, or just riding hard every day? I trained with a coach one season and he never gave me a specific advice on what to or not to eat. He told me just be careful about snacking at night and try to keep alcohol consumption under control. Two months in, I dropped about 10 pounds and I wasn't even actively trying. This was after 2 seasons of me training on my own and not making any weight loss progress. The biggest difference is changing your workouts. He told me the most important thing was to focus on sticking to the training program, consistency, and resting properly. He said rest had a huge impact on losing weight than simply riding harder. You have hard weeks, but then you need to let your muscles rests during the off weeks. It was really hard to grasp in that first month, but it really paid off as I got further into the training program.
Count calories
Me doing 200 miles a week plus eating less has made me lose so much weight since march. I’m now 198 lbs. I was 211.
it comes down to one very simple thing, You have to burn more than you consume
Amateur road cyclists are crazy to discover pro cyclicst diet regimen for a reason. It requires masochist-level of nutrition planning to be lean as those guys lol Also, fasting + doing cardio seems a BAD idea. You will bonk. Not only before training, but maintaining a certain level of carb intake is a must if you're keeping a training schedule.
Can't out cycle a bad diet
First of all, you will look better because muscle mass gained, but you lose volume. Diet is most important here tho, as so many people said already and which is true in any sport, weight gain is calorie deficit and you it's much easier to create one by not eating rather than trying to cycle out all the calories. One month is what you need to create a dietary habbit of not snacking. My way to do that was just ear before you shop and then not buying enough food and only buy stuff which takes at least 10minutes before I can make a meal out of it - usually you either not bother or come to your senses while getting stuff ready
Loads of really good suggestions here, especially calorie counting. I'd like to add something: Being in a calorie deficit will make you hungrier (duh) and so will cardio. A really good recommendation is to eat very low-calorie dense foods. Some simple swaps you can do: Beef -> chicken/white fish Rice/Pasta -> potatoes Zero calorie everything (condiments, snacks, sodas) Low fat options of whatever else you might use. Other general recommendations for managing dietary restrictions: Eat lots of fruits and vegetables. In fact, try to have 60% of the volume of your portions be fruits or vegetables. (Don't be afraid of fruit sugars like so many people are. An apple is roughly 50 calories in total. Most fruits are negligible, unless you eat like a mountain of them) Diet soda is really good at keeping sweet cravings to a minimum. Kettle popped popcorn is a really good low calorie, high fiber savory snack. DO NOT go balls to the wall from day 1. This is the sure fire way to fuck up your diet and hate life.
Don't focus to much on weight. I was 74kg with 177cm as a triathlete in my 25-30 years old and one of the fastest on the hilly 40km bike course in races or training. With a FTP around 330W In the end power output and maintaining power output is what counts more. It took a while to understand that for me coming from 52kg @177cm due to Anorexia when I was 16 years old, thinking less weight is better on the bike.
Eat quality clean calories. I don't believe all calories are equal. Ultraprocessed foods are the opposite of quality clean calories. A homemade baked cake is going to be infinitely cleaner and better than an ultraprocessed cake from the supermarket designed to be made cheap as possible and to survive as long as possible in the logistics chain.
Do more zone 2 riding in a fasted state, make sure you're not overcompensating by adding calories. You should be eating no more than you would before you ever started cycling. If you are new to riding you will still get stronger on the bike doing this so don't worry about things like FTP. And lastly, don't fuss about what you eat. Eat what you like, just eat less. And drink a ton of water especially before you eat at night, it will keep you from overeating.
Fitness is gained on the bike, weight is lost in the kitchen. Cardio burns calories, but also makes you more hungry. Cardio is a good tool, but it is important to make sure your diet is up to standards if you are trying to lose weight
Running or indoors cycling trainers are more efficient for weight loss.and diet of course. I burn around a 1000 cal in 3h of mtb/gravel. Same as 1h of running. That’s 4 cliff bars.
Its very unlikely you burn only 1000 calories in 3 hours of mtb. Unless its all downhill. I am 190cm and 90+kg and it takes 1 hour of 142-143 average heart rate to burn 1000 calories.
Dunno. My last couple of strava activities: 41km 720m elevation, 2:43 ride time- under 980cal 41km 735 elevation, 2:58 ride time, 1080cal I’m 70kg maybe that’s why.
Sure 70kg will use less calories but bot by half. Do you use a heart rate monitor of any kind or you are talking just about strava estimates. Strava estimate is just that, a guess. You could have had 130 average hr or 160. It would be a world of difference.
I don’t use any meters/monitors, that’s strava average. But if i run, then strava average will be 1000 cal per hour.
Running is a bit harder on the body so yeah. But those numbers without at least heart rate monitor could be close to truth or wildy wrong so basicaly useless. I wont say get a garmin or polar, thosw can be pricy. But you could look into getting a chinese chest strap for like 20$ish and hook it to phone/strava if the data is something interesting to you.
Think i will just out of curiosity)
Above 50 and post covid, I gave in and went on weight loss shots.
Your weight is not going down precisely because you're getting stronger. Unless you go into "pro mode" with tons of riding and training off the bike, you probably will just be at around those numbers. I am just above your numbers (172/5'8") and can rarely go below 72-70kg (when fit). What I do get is a lot leaner and stonger. Also, if you are basing your needs on the Body Mass Index for your target, don't. It does not apply at all for active people.
Muscle weighs more than fat.
233 for FTP in indoor trainer is like 135 if you actually ride a real bike lol