Originally Posted by 3cannondales
What would be the best way to drop a few (5-10) over a few weeks while maintaining muscle mass? I've got a trip coming up with a LOT of climbing, and I've been training, and have built up a good muscle base, but I want to lose as much fat as possible to make the climbs as easy as possible. I don't eat white flour, potatoes, rice, dairy, beef, pork, or fried anything, but what else can I do? I'm going to continue riding up until the trip, with hill work alternating with long mileage days (hopefully a century each weekend) so I need energy to ride, but want to lose fat. I don't have a lot of weight to lose (BMI of 20) I probably have about 10 pounds that I could safely lose.
What's your bodyfat percentage? My BMI is 21.3 but with 15-17% bodyfat, I don't feel I have any more to lose without wasting away my hard-earned muscle.
I dropped 4 lbs total weight while gaining at least a lb of muscle mass during the past 4 months by biking a lot (last couple of weeks have been over 12 hours per week), short (mostly) intense rides during the week (1.5-2.5 hours of intervals and hills or recovery) and longer endurance rides (3-3.5 hours of easier spinning and hills) on the weekend; lifting weights twice a week (just a half hour full-body routine); and eating about 6 meals per day with balanced levels of fat, protein, and carbo. (I tend to fall into about a 30-35/10-15/55 split for my macronutrients.)
My usual intake is something like cereal with yogurt for breakfast, PBJ or cereal bar for mid-morning snack, something with legumes (falafel, chili, minestrone) or leftovers (pasta, stirfry) for lunch, banana or Clif bar or bagel for mid-afternoon snack, small munchies at home, on-the-bike munchies if needed, post-ride munchies (going to chocolate soy milk for that), then dinner is a big colorful tossed salad with homemade vinaigrette, a lean protein source and a starchy side. (My ideal healthy dinner is baked salmon with couscous or wild rice mix pilaf or just brown basmati!)
Hope this helps.