At 205 pounds with a sweaty crease between man boobs and belly I started eating intuitively. Almost 2 years later I'm 5'9" according to my doctor (I thought I was 5'10"), weigh 137 pounds which is 1.99 pounds/inch, have a 26" waist, and made 3.5W/kg before my crash.

1. Only eat when hungry

2. Only eat enough to be sated 30 minutes after the last bite, going back for seconds or even thirds as necessary. This is necessary because appetite lags consumption by about half an hour.

3. Always eat when hungry so rule 2 isn't too hard to follow.

and forget about trying to fit that into a fixed number of meal slots.

After getting used to being fit I decided the scary thin line for me is between vascularity on my oblique abs only and getting some on my rectus abdominis; when I go there I compensate with dark chocolate and nuts when I'm not hungry.

That involves very different amounts of food even at the same energy output comparing VO2max Mondays, threshold Thursdays, long ride Saturdays, my short endurance ride Tuesday, two rest days on the bike, and Sunday off but keeps me feeling good at an ideal riding size.

I'm on a polarized plan apart from 1-1:15 aiming for 95% of FTP on Thursdays which feels too good to skip, was riding 14 hours a week so I had a good aerobic base this season, eat fewer carbs than I used to, am down to 0-1 beers once a week, and am somewhat fat adapted so I don't get hungry or otherwise need to eat on rides under 4 hours.

OTOH when I added hard days, turned my easy rides into tempo, and neglected Z1/Z2 my weight plateaued at 180.

More protein sticks with me longer so I eat less, although riding a lot in 1997 without eating better I got to about the same size. OTOH, I was 24 not 42.

Friel wrote that more fat and less carb got him back to racing weight (he's 70 something, and considers that to be 154 pounds like at age 18) without being hungry

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2013/08...ce-weight.html

I also swapped all but two of my pile of daily Diet Cokes for carbonated mineral water.