crghill

I've been riding consistently now for three weeks. I'm trying to lose about 40lbs and train to ride the MS150. What I want to know is, do I lower calorie intake so that I lose the weight? Or, do I keep eating the same and just ride harder. What I'm doing now is eating less and riding. However, after I ride I usually eat one big and even high fat meal in that day. I'm really confused! I don't think I can complete the ride at my weight, but I don't know what to do first. Train so hard that I must eat or try to lose the weight and train moderately. Any help would be appreciated.

Roody

What kind of training are you doing? How much time, how many miles and how fast? How often are you riding? To figure it out, you need to first define your goals. It sounds like you have 2 goals: Lose weight and be fit enough to finish a 150 mile ride. Of course you can do both, but the question is do you have enough time before the charity ride? It is possible to train a lot and lose weight at the same time, but you probably shouldn't try to set any speed records yet. "Slow and steady wins the race." I've lost 40 pounds in the last year while riding an average of 90 minutes a day. But of course you want to ride much more than that, so it will be harder than what I've done.

To lose weight, you have to ride a lot and you have to eat a little less. That means you will have to be very careful about the quality of the food you eat. Make every bite count with nutritious food. Also watch the timing of your meals. Pigging out with a single high fat meal is very bad.

Here's what I do: Eat a big breakfast of whole grains and fruit and skim milk or yogurt. Right after your big ride, eat a good meal of carbohydrates (like oatmeal, bread, rice, pasta) and lean protein (like chicken, fish, eggs, lowfat cottage cheese). Eat until you're just starting to feel full, then stop. In the evening, eat a light supper. If you get hungry eat salad and vegetables with very little dressing or butter. If you must eat dessert, eat only a normal serving, like one cookie or one scoop of ice cream. Weigh yourself every week to see how you're doing. You probably shouldn't lose more than 1 pound a week (average) while you're training. (That's just a guess--I really don't know for sure.)

I recommend that you not eat on the bike unless you are riding for more than 90 minutes. Energy bars and drinks have a lot of calories, and you don't need the extra calories unless you are on a long ride. When you are doing longer rides, there are a lot of threads here about the food and supplements you should use before, during and after the ride.

trdmomo

How are your eating habits right now?

Roody

He already said:

ericgu

I'm going to give you the opposite advice that roody did.

I think you need to keep your blood sugar as level as possible. That means eating a little throughout the day, making sure that it's quality food - vegetables, lean protein, some fruit, etc. Avoid processed sugars and starches.

This doesn't change while you ride. What is happening to you is that you are burning through a lot of your carb reserves during your ride, and when you finish, that makes you hungry hungry, and you overeat.

While you are exercising, you need to take in carbs to keep your blood sugar up. If you don't deplete your carbs, you won't be that hungry when you're done. You should also consider a small carb snack when you're done. I'd recommend something around 100-150 calories/hour in carbs, depending on how hard you ride, and see how you feel at the end (you shouldn't be hungry). It's easy to eat too much while you ride, so start slow. You're trying to replace the carb calories you burnt but not the fat calories.

The other reason you need to eat while you ride - at least on your longer rides - is that you need to figure out what you can tolerate while on the bike, so you have a good plan for when you do the ride.