Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Quickest weight GAIN I can remember

Good morning Clyde-iscenti(?), permaclydes, thawed out clydes, honorary former clydes, etc:) etc :p

I'm not a lurker, since I quite regularly share my mechanical knowledge here and at classic and vintage and mechanics forums.
I WAS a bit hesitant to share an unpleasant fact of life that probably started, OH, mid November of 2006.

I Nullified 100% of my weight loss that I worked so hard for the previous 18 months to begin to bring under control. I guess I rationalized to myself that I was taking a well deserved winter break after cycling 4200 miles in 2006 and increasing my training rides to over 50 miles a pop and average speeds were approaching 18.0 mph.

So I got Out of the saddle, cued up the ESPN college basketball games, doubled up on the pizza and ice cream, had the full artery clogger salad bar at work. And now here I am: Late January 2007 pushing 250, knees are stiffening up, belly feels full, bending over just to tie my shoes feels like a chore - you get the idea.

I'm sure its mostly a motivational lapse and winter In-ertia, since I have ridden my rollers about 3 times in the last month and my spin is mostly still there.

Could those of you who have been there help a brother out? Just needin' to jump start the motivation cortex...:o

Ha - in October I was taking in 2500 calories, dancing a few times a week and biking between 30-50 miles a week and gained 10 pounds. I upped the miles in November and slowly chipped that back down. Right now I'm happy to just keep it down but man it's tough so I hear ya.

I will say I've found that weight gain that goes on quickly can come off somewhat quickly. Getting below where you've been for a long while can be a difficult plateau. I'm happy to have gone from 280+ in May down to *steps on scale* 265 this year though getting below 260 has been almost impossible. It will freaking happen but it's been hard.

I'd try to reset your system. Try for a weekend to each mostly greens and eliminate most of the fatty foods (I say weekend because it should be easier controlling your food intake then at work). Small portions of food more often. If you have to take the phone off the hook so no one calls you over for pizza and beer do it. After two or three days you should feel less of a 'need' to eat all the crap. I find it's really easy to get into a habit of ordering a bacon cheeseburger with fries (to my door - $4.50! ) then making food but once I do make my own I tend to eat less calories both by design and desire. Track what you're eating - figure out what you may pig out next Sunday and burn the calories for it and eat less during the week. Hambone says it best - if you're going to eat a steak then you better earn that by being on the saddle for that much.

Tom's written some great motivational articles (see the links in my sig) - if you haven't seen the before and after it's quite a shocker!

Good luck - go Clyde power go! :D

[And we love mechanics here so doubly welcome!]

Good idea about resetting the hunger thermostat, Mr.AIR.

Your handle reminds me of a get in shape mental "affirmation" I used to repeat over and over in my head back in my early 20's. You see, I had just gone over 200 pounds for the first time in my life and I decided that I was going to get back into a running program. I was inefficient at first and started repeating "light and airy" or "light and smooth" or something to that effect over and over in my head while I was jogging, especially as I upped the intensity on hills and so forth. My thinking at the time was that if I believed it, then it was possible to make it happen. You know what, it did work...but only for a while until longer term sedentary habits took their toll.

You do get comfortable with a certain amount of food intake and before you know it you are way over-eating. One way I know this is because I start getting "GERD" - gastric reflux, and I end up getting up during the night to eat Tums.

Anyway, I tried to insert some humor into my first post to offset some of the humbling, even mildly disgusting aspects of porking out all over again - :( .

Good idea about resetting the hunger thermostat, Mr.AIR.

Your handle reminds me of a get in shape mental "affirmation" I used to repeat over and over in my head back in my early 20's. You see, I had just gone over 200 pounds for the first time in my life and I decided that I was going to get back into a running program. I was inefficient at first and started repeating "light and airy" or "light and smooth" or something to that effect over and over in my head while I was jogging, especially as I upped the intensity on hills and so forth. My thinking at the time was that if I believed it, then it was possible to make it happen. You know what, it did work...but only for a while until longer term sedentary habits took their toll.

You do get comfortable with a certain amount of food intake and before you know it you are way over-eating. One way I know is because I start getting "GERD" - gastric reflux, and I end up getting up during the night to eat Tums.

Anyway, I tried to insert some humor into my first post to offset some of the humbling, even mildly disgusting aspects of porking out all over again - :( .
Masi, it happens to all of us. The motivation needs to come from inside....in making saner shoices. Don't treat it as a diet, because it isn't, it's just choosing to make better choices! You don't do this for anybody else, just yourself!

As to getting back in the saddle again? Try riding the Rollers with Aerosmith pumping out of the speakers....the song "Back in the Saddle Again" is a great adrenaline pumper!

By the way, my Wiki got migrated and I have to update my links, so if y'all click it and it shows gone, it's the same address but ends with .is now (only change!).

Masi61, I too had a set back in November. Did not see any appreciable weight loss after having my biggest riding month in Oct. I started in June, so I was seeing huge amounts come off each week. November was definitetly a platuea month. I knew I wasn't going to hit a mid period goal weight by my Dec 1st birthday and life just kinda of sucked. My wife was my savior and told me that I just needed to do what I had to do and not to give up that I had come to far to let a little weight gain kill me.

I reorganized my mind and started fresh from there. On Dec 1st, I weighed 332 lbs, this morning I weighed 309. I can see breaking 300, I can taste it, I'm riding at midnight in 40 degree weather in North Florida to get my rides in so I can break 300, and then 275 and then 250, ect.

I reconized that for me and my family I had to get back on track, but mainly for me. I want to get old and be a pain in the a$$ to my kids when they start dating and get married.:D I want to be able to give my grandchildren bad idea's so my daughter in laws will roll their eyes and tell them not to listen to Grandpa, I want to have fun in my life as I grow older and take my beautiful wife places and not have to worry if I will be able to fit in the chair, or a seat at a table that does not move or wonder if they have a seat belt extentions. I want to be able to buy clothes anywhere and not just from Omar the Tent maker.

Most of all I just want to Live, so re-address what you have going, pick a start date and get back out there and do what it takes to get to your promise land. I am and you can too :D

I think we've all been there so we all hear ya :) Those mental aspirations can be great - usually when a hill comes up I start cursing with everything I've got. That usually gets me to the top with a little left over for some recovery cursing. Unfortunately bigger hills exist from what we've got in NY so I'm going to have to expand my vocabulary soon!

How much weight did you lose/gain? 50? One thing people also talk about is not thinking about it as dieting but as a lifestyle change in your food intake. Dieting is temporary.

In terms of healthy eating you don't have to shy away from things like bacon if you cook right. I just made a HUGE pot of Zartan's (comes in a box with rice) Jambalaya I've been eating off of all week. 1 pound of sausage, 2 pounds of turkey, half a pound of uncooked Barley, can of chick peas, kidney beans, corn. I worked it out that each bowl (and there's sorta a mark on my bowls so I know I'm filling it with the same amount each time) of this is about 280 calories and 10 grams of fat with a good ratio of 35-40-25 fat-carbs-protein. I'll have a few bowls of this a day along with some greens and I've had trouble getting up to 2000 calories because it's filling. Plus the barley is better to eat then say white rice or regular pasta. They also say that you should only have about 250 calories per sitting.

I'll buy a pound of bacon, separate them into three strips, cut them up and then freeze in baggies. Whenever I'll make a pot of whole wheat pasta (that will last a good portion of the week) the bacon is the first thing that goes in, then turkey meat, garlic, onions, ginger (gives it some spice), usually throw a few packages of frozen veggies in there, beans, and a container of sauce if I'm lazy. If the pot is big enough it will last a week having a few bowls a day. The flavor is there and you're only adding a gram or two of fat, doesn't feel like you're making that much of a change but in terms of what's going through your mouth it is. Easy to bring into work and heat up too.

Just working off my own food the last week and a half I chipped back about two pounds that I gained since early January. Surprisingly Christmas through New Years I did OK and not eating great but after New Years I started eating worse. Had to put on the brakes and 'reset.' :)

How much weight did you lose/gain? 50?

Its not that bad I guess. I had gotten as low as #229 during the peak part of the season (in my work clothes) , now I'm up to like #247, so I'd say I gained 18-ish, lets just say I packed on 20 pounds in 90 days.

Gotta go now...Tom ID'd the obvious deficiency...I need some Aerosmith on the headphones. Time for some "Back in the Saddle"... I'll have to check my iTunes folder and see if I've got that one. Actually Some Run DMC doing "Walk This Way" might suffice, while I'm at it I might zip along to "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock.

Hey man, I"m there with you as well. Since November I picked up 15 lbs, but now am chipping back at it again.

I guess it could be a whole lot worse. Not a lot of excercise, bad foods (see: holidays) and not a whole lot of excercise :). But it ticks me off that the 35 I dropped in the two months prior to that have now been taken back to 20. Gaah.

What I've learned is that there's no better time to start again than NOW. I almost gave up when I saw my weight on the scale in the early summer of '05 - a whopping 567 pounds. But a very strict diet, lots of excercise, and nearly 2 years later I'm almost down 200lbs. I *will* hit the 250 mark before June, so that I can say I lost 250 in 2 years.

But really, if you need motivation, just look around this forum. Tom Stormcrowe's stories were enough to keep me biking, and there are a dozen beyond that. Good luck, keep biking, and fire up some Back in the Saddle :)

What I've learned is that there's no better time to start again than NOW.

With that I go forth to turn my outie into an innie for about three hours. Been tinkering too much with the roadie - time to take my proven ride out for a 30 mile spin (and try to hit 50 miles for the week!) Think I'll need some warm hands for when I get back though... :eek:

Good morning Clyde-iscenti(?), permaclydes, thawed out clydes, honorary former clydes, etc:) etc :p

I'm not a lurker, since I quite regularly share my mechanical knowledge here and at classic and vintage and mechanics forums.
I WAS a bit hesitant to share an unpleasant fact of life that probably started, OH, mid November of 2006.

I Nullified 100% of my weight loss that I worked so hard for the previous 18 months to begin to bring under control. I guess I rationalized to myself that I was taking a well deserved winter break after cycling 4200 miles in 2006 and increasing my training rides to over 50 miles a pop and average speeds were approaching 18.0 mph.

So I got Out of the saddle, cued up the ESPN college basketball games, doubled up on the pizza and ice cream, had the full artery clogger salad bar at work. And now here I am: Late January 2007 pushing 250, knees are stiffening up, belly feels full, bending over just to tie my shoes feels like a chore - you get the idea.

I'm sure its mostly a motivational lapse and winter In-ertia, since I have ridden my rollers about 3 times in the last month and my spin is mostly still there.

Could those of you who have been there help a brother out? Just needin' to jump start the motivation cortex...:o

Ain't nothing wrong with taking a break, but it's now late Januaryand time to get back on the bike. If you don't already have one, get yourself a winter beater and ride it. Ride to and from work if you can - riding should not be just 'training', make it a regular part of your everyday life. We live in Ohio, a little cold and snow in the winter is a fact of life, not an excuse not to ride.

I have found that by riding daily you also noticed that there is a change in the food you want to eat. For example, when I am commuting to work I want fruit, vegatables etc. The junk food diet I was on does not help me acheive my riding goals. By the way, have you noticed how fat the bus drivers appear to be?
Forgive yourself and get back on the bike.

Gas, the price of a can of beans

crikey i know what its like , done that and bought the tee-shirt, at one point my weight went up to 16st 7lb , i'm only 5 ft 1in, riding my bike was nearly an impossibility, changes were made and i lost 7 st in 6 months and able to ride 300 miles a week, eat healthy , cut out as much fat6 as possible and sugary stuff ,limit alcahol, and you will succeed, good luck
.

With that I go forth to turn my outie into an innie for about three hours. Been tinkering too much with the roadie - time to take my proven ride out for a 30 mile spin (and try to hit 50 miles for the week!) Think I'll need some warm hands for when I get back though... :eek:

Only made it 22 miles :( Tried to do a loop but my reaction time was slowing down (get a lot of headwind coming down on the Hudson River that froze me out) and thought it would be safer to stop and try again another day. Turns out I forgot a shirt I was going to wear - oops! :D Legs after an hour or so were getting a bit burned from the wind even with the wind sleeves I wore.

The 'lowpoint' was on the east side. As I pass I see two men, one grabbing onto the rails with his pants down around his ankles and the other right behind him :o

Up along the Harlem River Drive were really beautiful ice waterfalls.

Coming back I stopped by at a liquor store that stocks over 400 single malts to pick up a bottle of something special for a party. They were just opening up their own McCallen 15 in a rum cast. Wow was that sweet! Nice way to warm up on the way home. Brrrr!

So I think from now on I'll look to do more frequent but shorter trips (1 hr, 12-15 miles) instead of longer ones. At least until I work out some of the cold weather gear better.

Only made it 22 miles :( Tried to do a loop but my reaction time was slowing down (get a lot of headwind coming down on the Hudson River that froze me out) and thought it would be safer to stop and try again another day. Turns out I forgot a shirt I was going to wear - oops! :D Legs after an hour or so were getting a bit burned from the wind even with the wind sleeves I wore.

The 'lowpoint' was on the east side. As I pass I see two men, one grabbing onto the rails with his pants down around his ankles and the other right behind him :o

Up along the Harlem River Drive were really beautiful ice waterfalls.

Coming back I stopped by at a liquor store that stocks over 400 single malts to pick up a bottle of something special for a party. They were just opening up their own McCallen 15 in a rum cast. Wow was that sweet! Nice way to warm up on the way home. Brrrr!

So I think from now on I'll look to do more frequent but shorter trips (1 hr, 12-15 miles) instead of longer ones. At least until I work out some of the cold weather gear better.

You see some of the weirdest things when you actually ride on the road don't you?

I did 30 minutes on the rollers yesterday, I really need to put in more minutes than that. Today might be the day I go for a 70minute run. Its pretty out there- about 28 degrees and fluffy snow falling. I love riding but I go numb on those rollers after 30-45 minutes.

I have found that by riding daily you also noticed that there is a change in the food you want to eat. For example, when I am commuting to work I want fruit, vegatables etc. The junk food diet I was on does not help me acheive my riding goals. By the way, have you noticed how fat the bus drivers appear to be?

+1 to both of those observations.

I Nullified 100% of my weight loss that I worked so hard for the previous 18 months to begin to bring under control. I guess I rationalized to myself that I was taking a well deserved winter break after cycling 4200 miles in 2006 and increasing my training rides to over 50 miles a pop and average speeds were approaching 18.0 mph.
You lost the weight once, so do it again. Only this time, no backsliding! You have to choose what lifestyle you want for yourself ... being grossly overweight and eating what you want when you want it, or eating moderately and being the weight you want to be at. Cycling sure is a lot easier when you don't weigh so much.

I'm stuck riding inside this time of year - until mid to late April. My motivation regarding food is simple: how long am I going to have to spin to work off whatever I pick up. You'd be amazed to see how quick you put back something with high fat/calories when you realize it will take 50 hard minutes to burn it off! The bowl of ice cream quickly is replaced by an apple, an orange, etc. Just my .02.