fietser_ivana

Does anyone here has experience with a modified Atkins diet?
I have just come back from a 3-month holiday in Brazil and have not lost enough weight as I just cycled one out of three days there (32/92). I lost 5 kgs but that's not enough as I'm still 15 kg overweight.
My friend and I cooked up a modified Atkins diet with 1900 kcal/day with 6 meals spread over the day, each containing roughly the same amt of cals.
It won't take much time (2-3 weeks) but afterwards I was thinking to try out a system recommended by bodybuilders. It is quite a novel concept based on the fact that most diets only work effectively for a couple of weeks, after which your body adapts to the new situation.
It's called ABCDE, which stands for Anabolic Burst Cycling Of Diet and Exercise. It involves bulking up with food for 2 weeks in which there will be a net growth of muscle AND fat and then slimming for 2 weeks after which there will be a fat loss and a mild muscle loss. Described simply as a 2 steps forwards, 1 step backwards process. After each 4 week cycle you end up with a bit more muscle and a bit less fat on your body..

Sounds wonderful for the fairly inactive winter period in which I will just be spinning 2-3 times/week and will try to do some weight lifting as well.. but what about the spring? Throw a diet out of the window? :confused:

earleybird

Any diet that involves `bulking up with food' sounds good to me

Seriously I cannot see how this is going to be of any lasting benefit. What happens when you have lost the weight? are you going to stick to that diet the rest of your life? no me thinks not.

Weight loss and dieting is such a huge subject area and there are as many diets and programs as there are dieters but basically you need to find a way of changing your current lifestyle that you will be happy with keeping to once you have lost the weight. That way you won't gradually revert back to your old bad habits that got you overweight in the first place.

This includes some sort of minimum regular exercise, even if it is only a brisk 30 minute walk every lunch time that you will maintain.

You need to look carefully at all the food you normally eat over a week say and then look to see where you can eliminate unhealthy foods by substituting with healthier options that you would be happy to stay with permanently. Especially the unhealthy fats that are hidden in a lot of processed foods, tv dinners etc. get the help of a nutricianist for this bit show them your eating record so that they can work out a sensible diet that can become part of your new lifestyle.
I wish you all the best with this, its not easy I know because I am about to enbark on a weight loss program myself to lose 15 kgs
again having put it all back on

fietser_ivana

About the benefits.. yeah, that's why I have steered clear from most diets till now, with the exception of the time I was lured into using Herbalife products (pretty good, but darn expensive and despicable pyramid-like selling system, disguised as Multi-Level Marketing). Actually, my cycling habits worked as a yo-yo diet. In 1996 I started a cycling 'career' as a randonneur, which involved riding major distances in the weekends and then being too lazy to do any cycling other than doing errands and small commutes during the week.. I'd drop 1 or 2 kg in the weekend, get incredibly hungry by Tuesday and gain back the lost weight by next weekend.. only when the 200K+ rides started, I'd lose more weight, as it is next to impossible to re-eat the calories spent by a 300 or 400K ride..
Same for cycle-touring of course, but then I'd be touring for a longer period and then regain the weight lost at frightening speed afterwards.

The ABCDE-diet (see https://www.musclemedia.com/training/abcde/v58_abc1.asp for more details) has the attraction of being able to dote on carbs for a longish period and then diet again.
It actually works as 2 steps forwards and 1 backwards regarding muscle gain and 1 forwards and then 2 backwards for fat loss. Sounds good to me! The hard part is eating 6 roughly equal meals/day which are roughly equivalent in energy value.

At least, from what I hear, when you are serious about cycling and overweight, you should try to lose weight in winter,not in spring... Thank heavens for spinning.. before spinning I'd curl up in winter, overfeed on fatty foods and get mightily depressed for lack of exercise.. I am not good at anything else but cycling, but hate to go out for a training on my own and I am not fit for cycle-cross which people do here in winter..

Ivana

earleybird

Yea all the things you are saying ring bells with me too.
Basically I am lazy and lack motivation. I love my food- no I live for my food so if I'm not careful I can put on up to 6 Ibs in a week!

The only way I found sucessfull was to change my lifestyle and try and exercise with others so that I kept motivated and didn't miss out on the occasional session.

I found one night a week of hard badminton for example actually kept off 2 Ilbs of weight per week! As soon as I missed a couple of weeks sure enough on would go 3-5 Ilbs. Its relentless.

I'll be very interested in how you get on with this diet. Hope you keep us all posted

:thumbup:

fietser_ivana

The best solution proved to be continued exercise not just in the weekends, but also during the week.
Years and years ago I heard about spinning and it seemed like perfect, but it never seemed to arrive here at the other side of the ocean.. luckily it now finally caught on and it is getting popular. Because I don't like the 2 nearer fitness centers that offer it (one allows smoking at the bar that you need to pass to get in and the other is having a very cramped space for doing other types of exercise), so cycle 15 km just to get to that third large, non-smoking fitness center.. (yeah, this is smoker-friendly NLs).

Anyhow, everything went more or less OK last winter (didn't feel depressed, loved the spinning classes), UNTIL I had to study for an exam and the school closed for X-mas and New Year. In just 2 weeks I put on 5 kg and when I came back and made an effort to lose weight more rapidly by skipping rope, I hurt my foot so much that I now, 7 mo. later still can't walk properly without pain and of course ruined the entire cycling season :-((( and of course I put on even more weight and got back to a whopping 85 kg (I'm just a 1,58 m woman!). At the moment I'm at 36% BF and thus have 51 kg of lean body mass. It seems that for a woman 25% is seen as healthy (much lower for a guy), which means that I should lose weight till I weigh 68 kg (12 kg less fat). The beauty of the body fat meter was that I could see that I'm not just fat, but have a lot of muscle mass as well (quite obvious if you look at my massive legs with quite hard femurs!)
Anyway, next year's event is Paris-Brest-Paris for which I'll need to get down to a more acceptable weight as it involves 10 000 m of climbing over a 1200km route to be completed in 90 hours. The time I did something similar (1400K in 116 hrs) I went on a cycling holiday for 4,5 months just 2 weeks later and lost more weight than I thought imaginable and had to keep eating every hour just to prevent myself from fainting. Very, very, very weird if you had the habit to just eat one big meal a day and skip breakfast and often lunch as well.

Sorry, TMI? Bored?

earleybird

Yes I definitely aggree with continuous exercise but I cannot seem to keep it up ( no funny remarks from all you guys out there please)
Last year I decided to enter my first Tri and as I couldn't swim or run I had to learn to do both. I swam 3 mornings a week (which is a great way to start the day) and ran 3 evenings a week. Well it was a case of shuffle 100 yds then walk 300 whilst I recovered.

My swimming went great. Started with only being able to do 25 mts at atime after 2 months could manage 350 mts + without stopping and in less than half the time.

Cycling I went out twice during the week (short hilly)and once on w/e (long fast)

One evening a week I attended a circuit traing session also

By keeping a complete spreadsheet record I could monitor my progress and it motivated me not to miss a session which would leave a blank entry.

I completed the Tri but because of a knee injury from the run section I had to stop all exercise for 2 months and of course all the weight I lost piled back on!


The ideal weight for my height ( 1.8mts ) is within the range 154-175 according to some charts. I think this is nonsense as it doesnt take into consideration other things like body build, bone and muscle mass etc Obviously a rugby player is going to be considerably heavier than a sedentary librarian but also much fitter too.

I think the BF route is a much better indicater.

Good luck with the Paris-Brest-Paris preparation 10,000 ft is a heck of a lot of climbing

RWTD

I am familiar with the anabolic burst diet as well as ketogenic diets though I haven't read up on Atkins specifically .Although I have tried neither for any length of time I have adapted some features of them into my own more intuative nutrition.I think earlybird gave you some good advice on viewing it as a lifestyle change rather than diet. What I think your missing is another bodybuilding concept to eat for your anticipated activity level over the 2-3 hours or so between meals lowering the carbs/fats if not active and upping complex carbs if active while always keeping a balanced diet.Though I have forgotten some of the specifics Anabolic burst is designed for intense weight training during the 2 week bulking and more moderate training during the 2 week cutting phases and if your not varying your activity levels and trying to gain muscle with weights while losing fat I don't think it would be optimal.What I think is the important concept in it is that it takes 2 weeks to adapt to a change in diet so to me that means for effective weightloss you have to make longlasting ie lifestyle changes to you diet for effective weightloss.If you want more specifics on what I would suggest for weight(bodyfat) loss while biking check for my posts to tmayder from this summer.Good Luck

fietser_ivana

Yup, having a very important goal ahead helps to keep you focussed.. I want to try swimming as well. Though they say it doesn't help much for slimming, I want to exercise in the morning but most spinning sessions are only in the evening and I might be able to find someone to go with me..

Yes, body fat% gives me a more realistic goal rather than aiming for a goal of being just 55 kg (recommended for my height) which I know I can attain if i try a bit.

It's not 10 000 feet, but 10 000 METERS, i thought you Brits went metric years ago
That would be about 33 333 feet of climbing.. so triple ouch!
10 000 m/1200 K gives an average of 1% per m, so it doesn't sound like so much.. actually if you take away the descents and just divide by 600K (the other half is the descents and flats don't count) it's 2%. But they are manageable, however, I'd prefer to be a faster climber in order to save a bit of time for sleep and proper food (rather than eating Powerbars for the entire route, which I didn't last time).

earleybird

Sorry not paying attention.

We may have gone metric 20 years ago and I completed an Architectural degree and diploma using all metric measurements but I still fill up my car mentally in gallons and I weigh myself in stones and Ilbs ( which caused no end of mirth in another thread recently ` right- thats it')

Sounds like a good idea to go spinning with a buddy. I am certainly going to try and find someone to train with. The onl;y problem is I hate people GRrrrrrrr

dirtbikedude

Try to find a diet that will help you loose fat and build muscle. Don't worry about weight but % body fat and measurments. If you get you body fat down and add muscle your ideal weight could be at least 5 to 10 lbs heavier then what you are shooting for.

Slainte

fietser_ivana

Thanks dirtbikedude.. that's why I'm so happy with my BF-meter. Though 36% sounds gross, it does mean I have 51kg of lean body mass, so 68 kg is a good weight to aim for, rather than an unrealistic 55 kg.

Ivana

trmcgeehan

My diet can be summed up in only 4 words. "Eat less, exercise more." I was 200 on JanuaRY 1, 2002, and now I am 175. I did this by limiting my food intake to 1200-1500 calories per day, and riding one hour on the roads four times a week. On my one hour rides, I tried to average 15 mph. According to Bicycling Magazine, a 175 pound person riding for one hour at 15 mph burns 800 calories. So in a week, I exercised off 3,200 calories, which is about one pound. I haven't had any trouble maintaining the 175, and it sure is a good feeling to be biking up Kentucky's steep hills with 25 pounds less lard! You really can tell the difference. I was thinking of getting a lighter bike (I have a 1985 Ross that's a real tank, but a good bike). But it's much cheaper losing body weight.

Chasbo

Dieting while riding is no worries, as long as you dont go overboard with it. I personally believe in eat less, but still eat well, and exercise more. So I cut out stuff like soda, fast food and overlly fatty foods. I eat plenty of salads with lots of different veggies in them, lots of fruits and steer clear of restaraunts and overlly prepared foods. When I have a hunger craving I will grab a handfull of raisins. In the last 6 weeks I have lost 19 pounds doing this.

The big thing is not to starve yourself, that only triggers the bodies starvation reflex and lowers your metabolism and it also makes you burn alot of muscle. To keep that from happening I eat a boiled egg, a package of albacore tuna and have a meat at dinner everyday.

just my 2 cents

trmcgeehan

Raisons are good for quick energy. On a long ride, I will take along a couple of fig newtons. They are the "poor man's Power Bar."

Chasbo

Fig newton's rule!

Really, I think the easiest way to lose weight is to just make better food choices and eat smaller more frequent meals. That and some form of exercise is really going to work for almost anyone.