Training & Nutrition - 30 lbs in 3 months

I'm between 5'8" and 5'9" and weigh 210 lbs. Most of my visible flab is, like with many men, around my midsection. Damn those microbrews anyway!:mad:

My goal, starting from April 1 and running through June 30, is to lose 30 lbs. I got a good deal on a 2005 Specialized Allez Sport that was gathering dust on the LBS's showroom floor. Today and tomorrow I'll be using the 20% off coupon (which you get if you purchase a bike from this shop) for a few accessories. So, I'm almost good to go.

Regarding diet, my wife and I are preparing to implement the South Beach Diet, which was developed by a well-respected cardiologist in Florida. My own doctor, who doesn't recommend "diets", says that the SBD is a good "nutrition plan".

Regarding riding and such, I realized just how out of shape I am cardiovascularly last night when I rode my new bike home from the LBS, a distance of approximately 3 miles (maybe less). So, I'm not going to go out and start riding 10 mile days right away.

For those of you in the medical field, I have a question. When I rode my bike home last night, I worked my heart and lungs pretty danged hard--harder than I've worked them in a few years, I believe. I noticed, after I got home, that my upper chest seemed to develop some light congestion and a feeling of "tightness". I had to clear my throat often, like when you get a chest cold and develop phlegm. What's up with that? I've noticed this effect almost my whole life any time I really tax myself cardiovascularly. Now, I just had my annual physical and no obvious signs of heart disease were found. My blood work did reveal that my bad cholesterol is a bit high and my good cholesterol is a bit low. But other than that, no anomalous results. Any thoughts?

Anyway, this is my starting point.

just ride. your lungs are opening up. just cough it out and continue.

quit worrying.


south beach diet is junk.

just eat 6 times a day, and forget miles and power. try to get
90 minute [or more] rides in daily. even at super slow speed, all you
really need is saddle time. effort is meaningless right now.
after 1 month then step up the program and try for BLT training
for those 90 minutes.


I suggest just eating 6 times a day and drinking lots of water,
skipping all sugary beverages. and put in the saddle time. that is all you
need to worry about. if you do this, and spend the saddle time,
you will drop those pounds.

don't eat fried potato products. fried chicken is ok, but french
fries out out. no chips either.

YMMV


I am 5'8" and already dropped 30 lbs since Christmas. I went from
189-195 to my current 161-165 (weight always fluctuates +- 5
for everyone). search BF for
my posts on how I did it with adding quality BLT miles and
banana protein smoothies, and skipping all sugar beverages.

the only time to drink sugar beverages is actually on the bike
when you are busting a good sweat. junk otherwise.

edzo is the man ;) listen to him.

Feb 1st 210

This morning 192

don't be afraid to adequately fuel yourself for you harder efforts.
other than that, in an otherwise healthy person, your lungs are doing the equivalent of what happens when you clean a fish tank. The water looks clear till you stir it up, and all the doo-doo gets stirred up and makes the water murky and cloudy. You'll clear out soon enough. up and out.

don't set 30lbs in 3 months.... just ride, be active and enjoy the result. if you get tons of miles in you, feel and look more physically fit and lose only 15 lbs, will you be disappointed? no.

Sounds good. So the thing with my lungs isn't an uncommon occurrance with an out of shape slob who starts stretching his cardio limits? That's good to know. Thanks!:)

The six meals a day is key, it helped me lose over 50 pounds. Just remember that six meals does not mean six large meals.

An example:
Breakfast - Oatmeal w/ raisins and honey (not flavored oatmeal, that stuff isn't healthy)
Snack - lowfat yogurt or fruit
lunch - chicken breast, rice, tuna, something along those lines
Snack - protein shake, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc
dinner - something reasonable, smaller portion than you are used to
Snack - protein shake, cottage cheese, yogurt, fruit, etc.

This worked for me.

notice.

even when you are super fit, a long hard day in teh
saddle you might get into
a minor coughing fit after a ride. this is OK. it means
you been inhaling dust particles deeper and yer lungs
are expelling them

For me the coughing fits are worse when it is cold. After a cold ride I often times feel like I am going to cough up a lung.

Good goal. Good bike. Good plan. Have fun. Fitness will come.

For me the coughing fits are worse when it is cold. After a cold ride I often times feel like I am going to cough up a lung.

I got that quite a bit this week.....first week outside after being cooped up on the trainer doing intervals and BLT training all winter. Clicked off around 100 miles in 3 rides, and was coughing for hours after each one.

Can't wait for Sunday.....would like to get in 60 miles or so. I'll probably cough until Tuesday.

I had taken a few years off from activity and when I got back on the bike again a short ride almost killed me. I biked for less than hour and I thought I was gonna die. Shortly after that the burning lungs went away. Now I actually enjoy making the old lungs burn; it takes much more effort to make them burn, and some days it is almost impossible.

Your body is not used to the effort needed. Give it enough time and a ten mile day will not even be considred getting on the bike.

I have also heard that regular excersise may also help get your cholesterol into the so-called healthy values, but IMO biking will help allviate a lot of health problems

I noticed, after I got home, that my upper chest seemed to develop some light congestion and a feeling of "tightness". I had to clear my throat often, like when you get a chest cold and develop phlegm. What's up with that? I've noticed this effect almost my whole life any time I really tax myself cardiovascularly.

Be careful of some of the advice you get on here, especially from all these macho men advising you to "tough it out". You may indeed just have sensitive lungs and they're not used to inhaling deeply and working hard, in which case they will "burn" after a good workout, and you may get some phlegm.

On the other hand, the symptoms you describe sound suspiciously like a mild case of exercise-induced asthma, which is nothing to fool around with because a serious attack could kill you. I have had asthma all my life and those who are ignorant of it's effects would only have to experience the total loss of lung capacity ONCE to realize it is nothing at all like the burn you feel after a hard workout - it will scare the sh*t out of anyone.

Asthma can be controlled quite readily once it is identified and properly treated, but to just tough it out won't work. I suggest you search "asthma" on this forum for more info, then ask your doc to do some preliminary tests with an air flow meter and if necessary refer you to a specialist for further investigation. It is nothing to be ashamed of and will not hold you back - many of the best riders on this forum also have asthma and control it through changes in diet, lifestyle, environment and/or medication.

could try maybe taking small amounts of ephedra. I have a buddy who has asthma and when he uses ephedra he can bike for hours and hours and has no breathing problems.

could try maybe taking small amounts of ephedra. I have a buddy who has asthma and when he uses ephedra he can bike for hours and hours and has no breathing problems.
Bad advice. Ephedra may well be helpful for asthma, but you don't want to be self-medicating with an unknown substance for an undiagnosed condition, and it is a potentially toxic compound.

As well, the chest tightness may very well be due to exercise-induced asthma, but if not, and if it turns out to be angina, ephedra is definitely NOT what you want to take.

A few practical suggestions to add to enhance the likelihood of success: 1) Keep a journal of your training and progress and update it daily...I've found this helps me relax, not panic, and see that progress does happen with time. 2) I noticed you said that you weren't going to be doing 10 mile rides anytime soon. This is a little troubling to me because cycling is very efficient and within a short amount of time, 10 miles should be little more than your warmup... 3) get a digital cyclometer to track your distances. Use the dual distance feature to monitor your daily and weekly mileage totals, pick a day on your calendar to tally your weekly mileage, then record this in your journal...sounds corny but it helped me motivate last year 4) At this early stage ignore speed readings, you may even want to cover up the readout on your cateye with a piece of masking tape or something if you are at all OCD about such things. 5) Look at your Allez Sport as a personalized fitness lab for yourself :) . Get to know it, learn to keep it tuned optimally, kept the tire pressure right, keep your drivetrain clean, adjust the saddle and seatpost for optimal comfort, use the correct length stem to permit comfort for the tops and drops of the bars and be prepared to change some of these settings subtly as minute changes in fitness (increases in fitness but also temporary "setbacks" due to injury, seasonal changes, terrain variables, damn there are so many variables :( ). 6) You mentioned your pulmonary health, I agree with who-ever said you are more fully expanding your lungs and this is a good thing. Kind of hard to say for sure in cyber-land, but your increased "phlegm" problem is probably nothing. In my opinion, cycling for weight loss is achieved almost entirely through endurance riding, i.e. keeping it aerobic, using your heart and lungs to power your muscles to propel the bike. Learn to be efficient through correct positioning, and practice, practice your spin to perfection. Keep the load light on the pedals and aspire to spin in the 90+ rpm range. Like racecar driver Jackie Stewart always said: "keep it smooth and progressive". Learn to ride hills, spin up the hills by utilizing your gearing and breathing and teach your body to recover after reaching the top, reward yourself by motoring down the hills too, this requires fitness as well. 7) If you haven't already, invest in clipless pedals and cycling shoes, and get them set up correctly for comfort on long rides, this will guide you in learning to spin. 8) Back to #1 above: after you journal your progress for a few weeks you will be in a better position to assess and deal with newer short-term goals. Deal with present problems day by day, tweak your position a little more, get new shorts or a new saddle if you need to, change your route, join a bike club, sign up for an event, try to wear out your tires, try to go down one pants size, visualize a longer term goal "I'm gonna pass 1,000 miles soon" or "I'll be ready to try 4 hour ride next Saturday".
Sorry for the long post, I just had my a.m. coffee and I'm feeling a need to sum up how I can get myself into a "zone" so I thought I would preach to Palerider :p .

I'm 6'1" and pretty excited about my results as well.

January '05: 240 lbs - with biking solely I brought it down to -
January '06: 230 lbs - then with biking and diet I got it down to -
yesterday: 204 lbs. - I now believe I'll make it to 30 lbs in 3 months

I had a little success with a low carb diet a couple of years ago when I was inactive, but now that I'm exercising & riding regularly, I find it's critical to get the right amount of carbs for my ride. I recommend reading "Eat to Live" for a different perspective on "nutrition plan" (also written by a Dr.). Nutrition is critical, but a diet high in meat is low nutrient per calorie content, and it may be contributing to the problems you are experiencing with your lungs.

The most important thing is making the ride fun so you get to the point where you can't wait to get out on the bike and go. That's when you know that you can make it; wherever you want to go.

update

I have now lost 34 lbs in 3 and 1/2 months. I am 155 now.

dream realized.

I can still lose more weight....which I am gonna do.

I ain't even trying hard...just riding BLT and now... mixing in
the huge efforts.


eat 6 or 7 times a day and ride you'll see.....

Hey Edzo congratulations on your weight loss, hope to join you soon with some significant weight losses of my own! I have one question and that is what is BLT, I'm assuming it has nothing to do with Bacon Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches (though I may be able to stick to that diet!).

below lactate threshold

how I ride when fat needs to be burnt instead of carbs.

lots of BLT riding for 2 hours usually. focused fat burning

Heh, heh... kinda hard to ride above LT for 90-minutes anyway... ;) Calories/hr of fat-burning maxes out at around 55-60% of MHR and is fairly constant from there up to LT, after which it slopes off. So you'd want to ride below just under LT for maximum calories/hr of both fat+carbs combined for the highest burn-rate.

As for the slime in the lungs, that could be a reaction to cold dry air. Take in as much air as you can through your nose and supplement the supply as needed through the mouth simultaneously. You might have a little bit of exercise-induced asthma. Take it easy in the beginning and warm-up gradually over 30-minutes. I've found that if I start too fast, it flares up badly enough that I'm breathing at only about 50 %. What I've found works well is to just force it to overwhelm me, I do a couple of anaerobic intervals and it really acts up and I can only breath at about 25%. Then I rest for 5-10 minutes, let the HR come down to resting to recover from the attack. After that I'm fine, the asthma subsides and I have full lung-capacity and can really crank it up for the remainder of the ride.

Heh, heh... kinda hard to ride above LT for 90-minutes anyway... ;) Calories/hr of fat-burning maxes out at around 55-60% of MHR and is fairly constant from there up to LT, after which it slopes off. So you'd want to ride below just under LT for maximum calories/hr of both fat+carbs combined for the highest burn-rate.

As for the slime in the lungs, that could be a reaction to cold dry air. Take in as much air as you can through your nose and supplement the supply as needed through the mouth simultaneously. You might have a little bit of exercise-induced asthma. Take it easy in the beginning and warm-up gradually over 30-minutes. I've found that if I start too fast, it flares up badly enough that I'm breathing at only about 50 %. What I've found works well is to just force it to overwhelm me, I do a couple of anaerobic intervals and it really acts up and I can only breath at about 25%. Then I rest for 5-10 minutes, let the HR come down to resting to recover from the attack. After that I'm fine, the asthma subsides and I have full lung-capacity and can really crank it up for the remainder of the ride.


even lance armstrong continually has 'the hack'

it is quite normal for some people

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it either. Reading his original post again and I missed the part about the slime and congestion coming on after the ride. So most likely no asthma, just phlegm.. :)

Eating healthy and correct PORTIONS is important if you want to loose weight. I use the exchange system since I am a diabetic. Starting January 1st, I went with it exclusively, eat 6 small meals a day and watch my protions (measure, measure, measure).

I was 267 on January 1st, today I'm 249. In three months I should be about 20lbs lighter again.

Rather than going on a diet - change your eating habbits to a healthier system that you can maintain for the rest of your life - you are not on a diet, you have changed your lifestyle.

Next, learn about heart rate and zones. Get a heart rate monitor. Do a test to determine your AT. In Zone 2 and Zone 3 you burn more fat than sugar, in zone 4 and 5 you burn mostly sugar. You need to burn fat to lose weight. I used to cycle in zone 4 and 5 and couldn't lose weight because I would be so hungry after the ride. Now I ride for 2 hours at a slower pace in zone 2 and 3, burn 2,000 calories in those 2 hours and I'm not starved any more.

A slow and steady pace with a change in lifestyle (healthy eating) have allowed me to lose over 20 pounds of fat and gain several pounds of lean muscle. I am not on a diet, I have changed my lifestyle. I will be able to maintain these changes with out problem for the rest of the year and get down to my goal weight of 190 by the end of the year.

You didn't put that weight on in 3 months, don't expect to take it off in 3 months.

Mark
1998 Lemond Alpe D' Huez (go fast days)
2003 Litespeed Blue Ridge (go long days)
2001 Gary Fisher Tassajara (up and down days)

I lost 50 pounds and have now kept it off for an entire year. The ONLY thing that works for me is to track everything I eat using a calculator like fitday.com (it's free and no I don't work for them). I simply cannot let my own hunger be the judge.

I would advise against trying to lose more than 1 pound per week. It's not a race--it's a new lifestyle. Make sure you are focusing on long, low-intensity efforts rather than short bursts. 10 miles at 10 miles an hour is much better for you than 3 miles at 15-20 miles per hour. You're basically going to burn the same number of calories per mile no matter how fast you cover the distance.

Also, if you're losing weight make sure you get protein and do weight training exercises to help offset the amount of muscle you WILL lose as part of the lost weight.

--Steve

I like the others' advice regarding the frequency of meals throughout the day. I would caution against starting out too ambitiously, I recommend 45 to 60 minute rides of easy spinning to start out. As your strength and stamina increase then step up to real, but conservative, "training" (this could happen pretty quickly, a week or two). I'd hate to see you overdo it at first and risk; injury, fatigue, burnout, etc at the outset of your weight loss program. I recommend for beginners to plan on exerting about 50% of their perceived capability to start off with, increasing effort from week to week, then cycle your workout routiness alternating between "hard", "moderate", and "easy" workouts throughout the month. I think you could also benefit from a conservative weight lifting routing as well for overall strength and flexibility (maybe 2 or 3 times a week to include upper and lower body exercises). Drink plenty of water and mind the phlegm, when tightness, wheezing, and coughing occur during or after excercise, it may be a sign of excersise-induced asthma. Your doc may test for this and prescribe an inhaler to use before your workouts. Also, be aware that as your legs get stronger (addition of muscle mass), you could actually gain weight as muscle is heavier than fat. You may maintain a static weight for some time as your body composition actually changes for the better. Use your weight as only one of several factors in judging your health. Some other factors are: body composition (fat v. muscle), overall proportions and size, aerobic capacity, strength, flexibility, resting heart rate, blood pressure, etc. Weight alone doesn't take several factors into consideration and may be a frustrating and innaccurate standard by which people judge their overall health. Sustainable weight loss means losing a pound or so a week, rapid weight loss usually results in the eventual resumption of original weight and more (in something like 90% of "crash dieters"). Be realistic too. I think the best, easiest advice to remember is simply; eat what you like in moderation and move alot.

One year ago I weighed 200lbs and am 5'9". Now I weigh 173lbs.
However, I have exchanged quite a bit of fat for muscle. My normal daily commute is 30 miles RT. With our transit strike it is now at 60 miles RT 4 days a week. Keep in mind that when I started, 3 miles took me 45 minutes and exhausted me. That same distance takes maybe 15 minutes with hardly a sweat.

My stomach also has issues with fatty foods and that helps me eat healthy. However, I still eat the bad stuff in moderation every once in a while.

I would not set a hard set goal of 30 lbs in X amount of time. My current goal is: loose 10 lbs sometime in the near future.

I find diets annoying, mainly due to the complexity and restraints involved. Plus, if I make anything too complicated I tend to become overwhelmed and quit.