Training & Nutrition - gimmie some weight loss tips

hey guys, i am trying to drop some pounds and using cycling as the method of exercise. last summer i was cycling alot, maybe 30 miles a day 5 days out of a week and dropped some nice ponds. however i felt like the choice in foods kept me from really attaining my goals. i tried eating low fat food but then i was really out of energy after 10 miles or so.

so my question is, what kind of foods can i eat to keep my energy up but still support my weight loss. also, would supplements help?

looking for all feed back, thanks!

First of not all fats are bad, secondly eat 5-6 meals a day and make sure you get the combination right. Always have protien and complex carbs at every meal, plus lots of veggies. I have been using UDO's oil to get my fats but flaxseed and other oils will work too. Ive been using this guideline since Xmas and have dropped from 240 to 216. I know not a lot of detail but I'm no expert, oh yeah and lots of water, and have cut out refined sugars.

thats the problem everyone will say eat protein and carbs and cut out fats, but im not an expert in food science and i really don't know where this stuff is found. and how much of it is good, how much is bad? is there not a simple meal plan one can follow?

Kenyan runners can eat up to 70-80 percent starch and they do fine. Eskimos can eat up to 60-70 percent fatty meat and they do fine. Macronutrients matter a LOT less that what we think, do NOT believe the marketing hype trying to sell you a cage to lock yourself into.
What matters is this: Losing weight requires eating less. It's that simple. You could eat less of healthy foods, or eat even less of the foods you truly enjoy.
For healths sake, you should find some good, flavorful, healthy, tasty food that you ENJOY eating. Congradulations, step one complete. Step two: Eat less of it, and learn how to accept eating less.

Don't believe in the marketing, just do what works.

.... is there not a simple meal plan one can follow?

Yes, try Nutrisystem. I know a few people that have had tremendous success on it. While on it, educate yourself on nutrition. It should be considered a basic life skill.

First find what works best for you. If proteins help you get through a work out, stick to them. The same with carbohydrates. As far as supplements go, start with a multi-vitamin for a while until your body gets used to it then incorporate other supplements that you may be missing from your daily diet. With several small meals per day, you should be able to drop and maintain your weight. Also, consume a lot of water, get enough rest and find something else to do like swimming rather than just cycling.

Another way to look at is this, if your great great grandparents wouldn't recognize what's on your plate it's likely not any good for you.

I once had to lose 40 lbs and it was so easy I can't believe it. Simply track every calorie consumed/burned. By the time the 40 lbs were gone, it was second nature.

think outside the box
resist home influences to stay in he same routines
respect others but stick to your personal goals
be patient
be diligent
have short term goals AND long terms goals
it's not a diet it's a lifestyle
include protein in every meal
minimize the amount of carbs you eat
rule #1 - do no harm

As Michael Pollan said in his book In Defense of Food: "Eat food, not too much. Mainly plants".

thats the problem everyone will say eat protein and carbs and cut out fats, but im not an expert in food science and i really don't know where this stuff is found. and how much of it is good, how much is bad? is there not a simple meal plan one can follow?

Quite often the foods that announce they are "low fat" are actually high calorie because they've added sugar to make the food taste good.

Go with low calorie food ... not low fat food.

thats the problem everyone will say eat protein and carbs and cut out fats, but im not an expert in food science and i really don't know where this stuff is found.

It's printed right on the friggen label! How dumb do you have to be to not read it? For real foods where there's no nutrition label, there's like 100 different sites where you can enter in the ingredients of whatever you are making and get a nutritional breakdown.



and how much of it is good, how much is bad? is there not a simple meal plan one can follow?

Probably the simplest thing you can do is to cut out sugar. It's just empty calories that you don't need. No soda or 750+ calorie "latte" drinks from starbucks. And read the labels on all the foods that you are about to buy. Anything that contains sugar in any form-- sugar, high fructose corn syrup, brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, honey, dextrose, sucrose, xylotol, malt extract, etc and isn't dessert or supposed to be sweet, put it back on the shelf and find something better without sugar. If you're like most people who haven't been reading the labels you'll be shocked at how much sugar you're consuming without knowing it. A bonus is that the non sugared versions of most foods often taste more like the food they are supposed to taste like because they use better ingredients than the sugar version.

Drink green tea. Lots. Helps with much more than metabolism.

It depends on what you mean by low fat. If you mean, you went to the store and saw something labeled 'low fat'...well, that usually isn't your best bet. Try getting some all natural granola bars to snack on while you are riding. A marathon runner gave me a tip that he would break up a granola bar, wrap it in pieces of saran wrap, and eat it like candy while he was running. Make sure you eat a good breakfast an hour or so before you bike (if you are biking in the morning). Egg white omelets with lots of veggies is a good bet. You can even put a bit of cheddar cheese on it. The most important thing to keep from feeling sluggish, at least in my opinion, is to keep it as organic as possible. Look in the ingredients for High Fructose Corn Syrup and STAY AWAY FROM IT. I've also started juicing my own fruits and veggies. I took a bottle of grape/apple juice with me on my last bike ride and it gave me tons of energy! You can pick up a cheap juicer at wal-mart for $30.

For losing weight the most important thing to do is move more and eat less. Counting calories is an easy and good way to track it. You need to figure out what your BMR is (calories you naturally burn in a day before exercise) and add the amount of calories you burn exercising daily. That is going to tell you how many calories you can eat a day to MAINTAIN your weight. If you want to lose weight then you have to eat less than the total calories you added up. There are 3500 calories in a pound, so just do the math. Believe it or not, weight loss is a simple equation. Hope that helps! :)

(PS-Don't eat within a few hours of going to bed, drink lots of water, get 8 hours of sleep...all these things are essential to weight loss and health in general.)

Avoid the processed and fast food resturants like the plague that they are.

If the food item has more mg of sodium than calories DO NOT eat it. Lower salt diets will also result in eating less fat, and less calories, but better nutrition.

I went from 6' 185 to 6' and 170 to 175 and haven't gained the extra 15 back for over 2 years. We are talking a permanent change not a quickie diet

drink before you eat. The hunger and thirst response in your brain is similar.
use www.fitday.com to track your input and output. good free site.

Brush your teeth to curb snacking...

I won't pretend to be an expert, but can tell you what works for me:

-Calories out through BMR + exercise/activity > calories in. This is the simple part.
-Most calories from lean protein, healthy fats, green fibrous vegetables and some fruit (berries and granny smith apples for me).
-Carbs from sources other than fruits and veggies < 100 grams and sugars kept to a minimum.
-No carbs other than green veggies after 6 pm with the exception of whatever small amount might naturally occur in your food, i.e. if you have a glass of milk or some cottage cheese.
-Food over the course of the day broken up to 5-6 meals.
-Exception on the carb rule when you plan on riding 2+ hours - then you need more for energy.
-Weightlifting a couple times a week to maintain muscle, or even add some if you want. Whey protein immediately after weights.
-One cheat meal each week.

thats the problem everyone will say eat protein and carbs and cut out fats, but im not an expert in food science and i really don't know where this stuff is found. and how much of it is good, how much is bad? is there not a simple meal plan one can follow?

(1) Google: "Calories in XX"

(2) Google: "Fat in XX"

where "XX" is the food(s) you eat on a regular basis. Make a list, add up your daily caloric/ fat intake based on that.

Reducing calories is usually more important than reducing fats.

(3) Find out your BMI and/or body fat percentage by googling it. There are a multitude of calculators on the web for this, results may vary; or see a nutritionist for a complete work down of your specific needs.

(4) Google "cycling calorie calculators" or some-such to determine how many calories you burn from cycling, and to calculate the daily/weekly calorie intake your body needs in order to burn fat - it's probably less than you think.

(5) Use above method to create a calorie deficit in your daily food intake until you've attained your weight loss goal.

There's your meal plan.

Going vegetarian worked for me. It still takes work, but being vegetarian at least makes weight control doable for me.

Another way to look at is this, if your great great grandparents wouldn't recognize what's on your plate it's likely not any good for you.

Avoid processed foods. This includes wheat products. If it is not like you would pick/harvest it, don't eat it.

Here ... look up the foods you eat:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/

Going vegetarian worked for me. It still takes work, but being vegetarian at least makes weight control doable for me.

i became vegetarianish (i have fish a couple of times a week but effectively vegan other than that) 3 months ago. i lost an earth shattering 1kg in those 3 months. it doesn't work for me.

I log everything I eat and the calories I burn through exercise at The Daily Plate (http://www.thedailyplate.com). Quite literally, if I eat it I log it. I've been surprised by the calories in some things that seem minor. For example, that tiny Hershey's Miniature you grabbed as you walked by someone's desk? 70 calories. You could have eaten an apple or banana for the same number of calories but a much healthier (and more filling) snack. It all adds up.

The site will help you set a calorie goal for weight loss if you want to lose weight. Log everything and simply make sure that you finish most days a couple hundred calories in the negative. Do it consistently, and you'll lose weight. You'll also become much more aware of what you're eating and the nutrition in it.

i became vegetarianish (i have fish a couple of times a week but effectively vegan other than that) 3 months ago. i lost an earth shattering 1kg in those 3 months. it doesn't work for me.

i've been a vegan for 22 years (oh my god, i just realized how old i am...) and during that time i once or twice ballooned to 170lbs and once crashed to 112lbs.*

vegetarianism has many health benefits and a few unique challenges but, ultimately, it's not a weight-control diet. i have seen vegans who eat nothing but french fries and vegans who eat nothing but sprouts and fruit -- obviously, the weight results for those two extremes were very different.

* disclaimer: the 112lb crash out was due to a two year experiment in voluntary poverty and was only tangentially related to veganism.