iforgotmename

I believe in the sending your body starvation signals. For years I obsessively dieted...watched fat, sugars and ate only whole grain carbs. initial weightloss was great but then it would level off with the same diet. While I was in great shape I found the diet to be unsustainable for the long haul. I have increased my fat intake (daily mono unsaturated fats) and found that I initially lost a few pounds and now am leveled off at right around 220. This seems to be my set weight as I don't go up or down from it. My heaviest was over 260, then I started cycling and lost 40+ lbs only to gain over 20 back in the next year. My approach of having an active lifestyle and eating "what I want" in moderation works well for me. Just my opinion, you have to find a way to tap into the rhythym of your body.

Myosmith

As mentioned, plan your nutrition around your commute so you don't get "ravenous". Have healthful 200-300 calorie snacks prepared at each end of the commute. Granola or a trail mix premeasured into a week's worth of plastic snack bags will fit easily in a desk drawer or locker. Also make sure you are drinking enough water, hunger is exacerbated by dehydration. Often 12 - 16 oz of water can take you from "ravenous" to "sorta hungry".

Recording your calorie intake in a journal is a good idea as is measuring your portions. Everyone who is trying to modify his/her nutrition should own and use a scale that weighs in both oz and gr, measuring cups and measuring spoons. I also keep a small calculator in a kitchen drawer to help me tally up calories. I don't think you have to journal every day or measure absolutely everything you eat, but you need to do it often enough to provide yourself with a reality check. Many people who think they are being strict about their diet are actually consuming a lot more than they think they are. Frequently measuring different types of food and logging your actual calories for a whole day helps prevent portion creep. If you don't check your estimations once in a while it is easy for that 4 oz portion to become a 7 oz portion or that teaspoon to become a tablespoon.

I read about a very interesting demonstration done by a nutritionist in FL. She took several overweight people, who were currently on unsuccessful diets, to a large salad bar and buffet and asked each to compose three meals totalling 2,000 calories. Even knowing they were being watched, only one came in slightly under and the average was over 2,500 calories with a couple of participants loading up on over 3,000. All the participants were shocked, including the one who came in low. She admitted she intentionally tried to go under rather than hit the mark. If this is good behaviour, imagine what it is like when you're slacking.

drbenjamin

I've been tracking my weight, my eating and my cycling for over a year, during which time I've lost 70 lbs. There is no doubt that when I cycle a lot I actually gain weight. I accept that it is purely psychological, but I am unable to control my eating when I get off the bike from a long ride. I've been fighting it for 6 months, because I really enjoy riding, but so far no luck. It's frustrating for sure, but I end up taking 1-2 week breaks from cycling in order to lose weight.

magohn

My experience.

Over the last 18 months of cycling to "lose weight" I have lost approx 35lbs with 50lbs to go. However, most of that weight was in the first 6 months with the last 10lbs or so being the last 12 months. Ive tried everything with my last scenario being aggressively counting calories for 4 weeks (staying under 1800 a day) and actually increasing weight by 1lb after the 4 weeks. I ride 4-5 times a week from 7 mile to 25 mile rides (winter schedule - depending if a weekend etc). My BP has dropped from 145/90 (ish) to a daily 119/65 (ish) since cycling so I do see the health benefits but as far as weight loss is concerned I gave up on seeing cycling as a weigh-loss tool months ago. I now cycle for the challenge and the health benefits.

I firmly believe that the body gets hard-coded over all the years of bad diet and suddenly switching to "healthy" eating doesnt necessarily mean weight-loss. For some it may but for people like myself, I agree that I have to find what works for me.

If I eat what I want (including candy,soda etc) and keep riding I maintain my weight. If I "diet" and still ride, I add weight - very strange....
What to do to lose weight? Thats the $million question

chefisaac

mag: are you hitting the gym at all? Eating fruits and veggies?

I found that riding alone didnt do it for me. So far, what works for me is:

-watching and recording everything I eat. A lot of emphasis on fruits and vegetables and very careful with my white carbs.
- riding when I can which is usually at least once on the week day for 20 or so miles and then saturday and sunday too.
- Hit the gym for cardio 5 days a week before work
-try to go to a class twice a week like Step N Jam. Kicks your butt and I love it. I go twice a week during lunch.
- will work with a trainer soon at the gym and also incorperate weights too.
-I keep a calender of everything I do (gym time, gym classes, weight lifting days, miles ridden and weigh ins). This helps me to see what works and what doesnt.

magohn

Hi Chief,
Yes Ive tried the veggie route. I do like the veggie/fruit approach but it didnt really seem to help. As you say, riding alone wont do it. The weirdest thing was after a week of very healthy eating I would occasionally have a "blow out" at Red Robin and get a burger and a shake. The next day I would be down 2lbs! The following week I followed the same diet but no RR - zero weight loss.

Its a mystery

sstorkel

It's not a mystery: if your body thinks it's starving, because you eat a low-calorie diet every day, it will eventually become reluctant to shed more weight. Eating a bit more on occasion can prevent this "starvation mode" from occurring.

Similarly, if you do the same exercise every day, your body gets very efficient at it and you get less benefit. That's why it helps to alternate exercise types, or at the very least make sure that you're constantly pushing yourself (further, faster, etc) when riding the bike.

Crookneez

I know everyone says to load up on carbs when you're exercising but I find if I eat a handful of mixed raw nuts, the protein hit takes away my hunger for hours. There is evidence that cutting back on protein is actually detrimental to weight loss because it's the protein that staves off hunger and snacking. Try it and see.

That said, I'm still 30kg overweight. lol

mtalinm

that's my experience exactly. people tell me to "just eat protein" after a long ride but I really crave the carbs and can't stop it. glad to hear I'm not alone!

the Boston winter sucks anyway, so I've been thinking about taking a few months off and doing some serious dieting.

chefisaac

mag:

Maybe an overhaul of everything at this point might be best. When I started losing weight, everything was great but got down 20 pounds and I stopped losing and my dietician said it is time to modifiy everything.... kinda like starting over. She took a look at what I was doing as far as excersise and looked at what I was eating. She figured out my calorie needs for my current weight and then cut it by 500-900 cals and modified what I ate. I do eat a lot of veg and some fruit because they are filling and delicious. You might consider trying to add in some more veg and fruits and whole grains like cous cous, wild rice, etc.

Now, I eat around 3000-3200 cals a day, currently way 324.4, down from 365 pounds. I hit the gym 5 days a week in the AM before work and then two days a week during lunch I try to go to a excersise class. Ride almost every day on the weekends and once a week I try to ride depending on weather and work. So far, it has been going great.

I do use something called the BodyBugg. It is a strap you wear on your left arm and it tracks all the calories and exersise you do throughout the day and you log your food. If you would like more info on that, shoot me a PM. Using it has really changed my life. Takes the guess work out of it.

Also, working with a dietician is amazing. I work with one who lives in CA and we doing phone sessions. If you would like her info, shoot me a PM. She is so damn good and really really cheap. She is a tough cookie but it comes with results. She has been a blessing to work with.

I figure that I can do a lot on my end but it is great to have tools to help me like my BodyBugg and dietician.

What didnt work was cutting my calories so low before I worked with my dieitican. I was unhappy, no energy, hungry and grumpy. But now.... 3000 cals is great. I can eat pretty much what I want but I am realizing that if I eat crap, I will pay for it in the short term as far as energy goes. Doesnt mean it is a bad thing but I am slowly coming to realize that calories are a source of energy first versus a pleasure. Sorta like fuel for a car. If your car takes reg. fuel...... would you use diesal for it? No. This has been a real hard process for me to understand. I still and always will have the want to eat sugary food and thats ok but it moderation and I am realizing not to buy cookies in a bag or I will eat them all but portioned out stuff.... like a cookie or two they sell in a bad works out great. I dont keep them stocked in the pantry so when I want one, I have to go out, drive and get one. Make it harder.

This is only what works for me.

cloud

That is what they tell you in the book body for life . I watch what i eat all week about six small meals a day , than I pick one day a week usually Sundays and eat whatever I want .It has worked for me for over a year been down around 70 lbs.
I also try and plan my rides so that they end about the time as my next scheduled meal this helps me keep the hunger pangs in control.

tony_merlino

I'm reading a lot of these posts, and I'm thinking I must be one of the lucky ones: My weight seems to be pretty directly tied to how much I eat and how much I exercise. My weight problem is purely behavioral. I've recognized that it's compulsive overeating that's the issue. Unfortunately, it doesn't make it any easier to deal with - ask anyone who's tried to deal with addictions.

But it does remove the "mystery factor". I don't have to look at magical combinations of foods, or worry about habituation or going into starvation mode. I can use one of the online calculators to get the maintenance calories for my desired weight, given my habitual exercise level, and if I eat that many calories and do that much exercise, regardless of what kind of calories they are, I lose weight and ultimately get to that desired weight. 3500 Calories = 1 lb of body weight. If I reduce the number of calories by 500 per day below maintenance at the weight that I currently am, I lose a pound a week. I know this is true because I've done it many times.

I'm also lucky, I guess, in the sense that exercise seems to burn exactly the number of calories that those online calculators say it's supposed to burn. Cycling with a good cadence is supposed to burn 500 calories per hour, and I've found that if I cycle or do other aerobic exercise for an hour a day, and eat 500 calories below my maintenance level (again, it doesn't matter what kind of calories), I lose 2 lbs a week. I try to shoot for losing about 1.5 - 1.75 lbs a week, which translates to 500 calories below sedentary maintenance plus exercise for 45 minutes a day.

Where it all breaks down for me is the compulsive eating component. I usually do really well with a diet until some "special occasion" comes along, like the holidays, or a vacation. I fall off the wagon, and it takes me a long time to muster up the will to get back on. Lately, I've been thinking that an effective approach might be more like one that people take with substance addictions. You don't hear that it's a good idea for recovering alcoholics to take a few drinks on special occasions, or for ex-smokers to have a few cigarettes on their birthday ... mostly you'd say that's a recipe for falling right back into the addiction as strongly as ever. Maybe those of us who don't have "mystery bodies", but have psychological issues with overeating, need to take a page from the addict's book. No exceptions, ever.

I dunno - just playing with this idea. One of the problems with overeating relative to other addictions is that, while you can stop taking drugs or smoking or drinking alcohol altogether, you can't stop eating.

mtalinm

tony, we're actually fairly similar. for a few months I tracked in & out calories as you did and saw a direct correlation between net deficit and the number on the scale. my problem, too, is compulsive eating.

the diet that worked best for me was six days really strict and one day all you can eat. I lost 80# in a year doing that because it got rid of the I-can-never-have-ice-cream-again anxiety.

tony_merlino

I once lost 93 lbs in one year with Atkins - it nearly killed me when I finally went off it. But I more or less kept the weight off for twenty years. I'd creep up ten or twenty pounds, go on a diet for a few months, get back to 145ish, stay there for a couple of years - but I managed not to go over 170 until about 3 years ago. At that point, I experienced a "change in domestic circumstances" (weasel-speak for my 30 year marriage breaking up), and shot up to between 210 and 220 in almost no time. I managed to get back to about 175 a year ago, then broke the diet for my birthday and, the next thing I knew, I was back to 210. Got it down to the mid 190s last Spring, went away on vacation in July, and wham ... here I am back over 210.

Have you noticed that we always talk about the diets that worked for us in the past tense? They seem to work for a while - sometimes even for a few years - and then... kaboom! For me, in the past, that usually happened when I got to my target weight. I'd get back to eating whatever I wanted without thinking about it, and the rest is history.

I'm actually starting to think that some sort of program might be the way to go... Any experience with that?