Black wallnut 

From another thread:
So as to not derail another great topic with this topic I'm starting this new thread.

FWIW I am in my third serious year of cycling and by serious I mean that I am actually training for not just weight loss but also improvement in speed. I really only compete in the fall doing cyclocross and am in the lower or slowest 20%, well last year anyway. I also compete on Strava and have more than my share of KOM's. I spent two years in a plateau or 234-240 pounds, up to about 245 in the winter months. This year I decided to change things and actually work on my weigh loss. I joined MFP knowing that tracking or counting calories was what was likely missing. I work in a desk job and when I'm not working I don't get much activity. My profile in MFP reflects that. I am keeping my weight loss goal at the max of 2 pounds a week and am trusting MFP to figure out my calorie budget. I am also type 2 and have it controlled with diet and exercise, the later IMHO being the more important of the two. I do not exactly avoid carbs but I do prefer to eat fats and protein. Eggs, chicken, pork, fish, and beef are staples of my diet, then there is beer..... I eat what I want, just not always as much as I want or formerly wanted. I also eat my share of salad. Enough about diet. On MFP my diary is open to my very short friends list fwiw. My daily calorie goal is 1280 without exercise. I have come to the conclusion that I do need to eat back exercise calories. I use a Garmin HRM paired with a 510 and base my burn off the numbers it provides. For calories in I weigh some, measure others and over estimate the rest. For example my preferred micro beer has no calorie data published so I use data from a more potent beer. FWIW my results validate my methods. To lose 2 pounds a week works out to a 1000 calorie per day deficit. By eating back my exercise calories I still have this daily deficit or close to it. If I don't lose 2 pounds a week I'm not too concerned as long as I am losing something, waist is shrinking and progress is being made. I am currently down 27+ pounds since February. Jeans I wore 9 years a go are now loose. Thinness in my face and elsewhere is noticeable, and not just by me. I feel great. My labs show improvement enough that the only meds I'm on is for BP and OTC stuff, six months ago that was not the case, although my Dr. reduced my med doses over time so I've shown consistent improvement for the last several years. By eating back my exercise calories my weight loss has been sustainable in that I've not given up yet and don't feel starved often although I do sometimes get cravings. I still want ice cream nearly every day but usually want to lose weight more than I want ice cream so only have it a few times a month.

Granted what I do may not work for others. I am at 472 miles for this month and honestly that is a big part of why what I am doing is working. I drink copious amounts of water. I am weighing myself daily this month keeping in mind that hydration levels due to the previous day has an effect on the weight from day to day. My rest days are sometimes more than some in this forum do on a hard day, it is a matter of fitness. 4 years ago I was thrilled to do my first 4.5 mile ride. I'd gear down to my lowest gears to struggle up what I now consider a false flat. Hopefully my story will serve as motivation to others which is how it is meant. I enjoy reading about others successes and struggles to get them.

Willbird

Hey cool :-).

I probably cannot PM you yet, but I am anviljenkins on MFP........would be great if you would add me as a friend :-).

Bill

Willbird

This is my third incarnation as a cyclist, the first was still drinking (fine for those that can, I cannot) and I often did it utterly trashed. The second incarnation was newly sober, needed to get around without a drivers license, and I ended up with Bianchi Premio that time around, rode a century, kept riding even after I got my DL back, but a 5pm to 530 am job with an hour total commute pretty much killed cycling, sold the Bianchi when I was scrounging money to buy a house.

Wife and I bought Trek Multirack 7200's when we were dating, never rode them much, mine had 92 on the odo total when I drug it back out of the shed and got them squared away.

MFP was suggested by a required Blue Cross Blue shield program for obese people, required if I want to stay on the PPO next year, I signed up 48 days ago and have a 48 day streak. I joined the June Ultimate Accountablity challange on the suggestion of a MFP friend, and it is a good thing, meeting calorie goals every day, exercising 20 minutes every day, logging all food and caloric drink every day.

It has gotten me on the bike for 20 minutes (usually runs to 30 then though) on some says I would formerly take as "rest days".

I started out walking but developed a case of "runners knee" from going too far, too fast, too soon.

I logged into MFP with my weight at the Dr. office 48 days ago, that was 304, the other day it was 269.2

115 miles logged so far in June on Cyclemeter...there were a few rides when it was raining or looked like rain when I did not log on cyclemeter, so probably 125 miles so far maybe ?? Try for an hour a day, got a new seat last Saturday and breaking me in to IT is the focus this week.

I usually try to judge the wind and head out with it right into my face....but if I get it backwards I will survive hehe :-).

So far I have not eaten back any more than 5 of my exercise calories......for the last 30 days my loss has been on average 1.5% a week.

I have cut before from 300 to 180 but NEVER with 300-400 minutes of cardio a week.

Loving it so far, making plans of a new bike in October, the Fuji 4.0 cyclocross bike Performance has looks cool to me right now, swap in smooth tires pronto :-). Planning on a trainer and rollers for this winter (rollers to warm up then cool stuff. like 1 legged drills on the trainer to maintain pedaling form)

Loving it so far :-).

Willbird

There is my current ride, wife has an identical one but black, thinking of setting it up as a rain bike with fenders. I got rid of the silly gear selection dashboard thingy........much cleaner without it :-).

ill.clyde

My story is similar to Walnut ... started getting serious about fitness and weight loss (again) back at the end of January. Combination of lifting and cardio in the gym until the weather improved, then lifting and commuting by bike (24 mile round trip - three to four days a week), and ideally a longish bike ride on the weekends.

So far this year I'm over 1,000 miles in total, I've seen strength gains in the gym, improvement on the bike and I've seen inches first, then pounds melt off.

I generally eat back a portion of my exercise calories, but I've tried to consume those calories in the form of mostly protein, some fats. After lifting and riding that's usually a whey powder shake made with unsweetened Almond Milk. I've tried to substitute greek yogurt for sweets as much as I can. I find that if I don't eat back at least some of my calories, I get ravenous, and then I make bad food choices.

I'd guess, at my heaviest in late 2013 I was close to, if not over 300. When I "started" in late January I was down to the mid 290s and I think on MFP I put my weight at 292? As of this morning I'm 271. I don't weigh myself every day, or even every other day. I usually weigh myself on Fridays (though today I just felt compelled to step on the scale), because my weight can fluctuate quite a bit.

I track differently too .. during the week, if it goes in my mouth, it goes on MFP. I don't track on the weekends though, but do still try to make better choices in terms of calories, proteins, eating lots of fresh veggies, etc. I think if I were more disciplined and tracked things closer on the weekends, I'd have lost more than 21 pounds, but that's my choice right now.

Like Walnut, this is what's working for me, and it may not work for others. I started the season with a bunch of riding goals, but then kids sports schedules and other things have changed that, and I'm ok with that. Right now my goal is to ride as much as possible, varying up the rides, the distances, etc. I also am doing the National Bike Challenge, so it's nice to see my points/ranking improve, but that's just for fun. I've got at least one gravel "race" I'd like to do in the fall, and I really, really want to race CX this year just for fun and getting back a little of that competitive spirit.

Ride lots, eat better and then ride some more

bbeasley

"My daily calorie goal is 1280 without exercise. I have come to the conclusion that I do need to eat back exercise calories."

Wow at 1280 with the miles you ride I bet you do lose weight. I'm surprised you're able to keep your energy levels up.

Mithrandir

Water works well in shakes as well. I've tried the unsweetened Almond Milk, and while it does give them a slightly better taste, I have issues keeping enough in my house (long story short: my portion control strategy consists of shopping only once every 2 weeks, and I can't carry enough Almond Milk up to my apartment to last 2 weeks, heh).

Second; I had a dietician last year who told me to stay away from Greek Yogurt. Yes, it does have lots of protein, but flavored yogurt has lots of added sugar, and plain greek also has a non-negligible amount of Lactose, which the "ose" suffix tells us is sugar.

IBOHUNT

I *think* our esteemed colleague Black wallnut stated that he eats back what he burns and uses the calorie deficit of 1000/day to generate the 2# weight loss per week.

"My daily calorie goal is 1280 without exercise. I have come to the conclusion that I do need to eat back exercise calories."

I know for me I could never function on just 1280 calories a day. Heck; yesterday I was calorie neutral and ate 3747 calories (44% carb, 32% fat, 24% protein) then went to bed hungry.

ill.clyde

Oddly enough I understand the "supply" issue with Almond Milk. I can't quite make the carton of Silk last two weeks either.

Yeah ... I could see that. I generally have the Fage with honey. So it's unflavored, but with the honey on the side. And I try to only eat that as a snack in the afternoon on days I ride to work.

ill.clyde

Oh ... and here's something else I do.

When I log my strength training into MFP, I generally only give myself 1 calorie "earned" for every minute I lift. So if I lift 30 minutes, I earn 30 calories. Otherwise I would rely on MFP to total those calories and I still maintain it estimates on the high side.

So I'm getting credit for lifting, but not using it to pad my calories earned.

Black wallnut 

Hence the eating back calories part. After a normal for me breakfast and lunch I am often left with 400-500 calories available for dinner, which for me is usually the largest meal of the day. A ride of just 45 minutes to an hour gives me enough to eat a fuller meal. While longer rides or longer and higher intensity I get to add back beer or other tasty additions. It seems that at least a third of the days I go over my calorie budget but almost never go more than 1000 calories over. The combination of tracking errors and my daily deficit is where my weight loss occurs.

Willbird

I played with Scooby's calculator a little, check it out if you have not yet, but the only exercise level I could find to support my losses with my calorie intake at that time was "7-21 hours per week of vigorous exercise /work. My work day includes about 6000 steps and at least 20 flights of stairs