I am not an expert on nutrition, just an every day ordinary USCF racer who after a 8 year hiatus has returned to the sport and wanted/still wants to lose 15 lbs to boost my power to weight (5’9” and 280 watts at LT).

I started training 8 months ago and the first 8 lbs came off easily. Going from golfing twice a week to training on average 10 hours/week (using Friel's periodization plan for a 450 hour season) helped me go from 167 to 159 pretty easily.

Getting to my goal of 150-152 is going to be a lot tougher. What’s working for me right now is...

1. Using MyFoodDiary.com ($ 9/mo) to track calories – the site makes it easy to keep track of what I eat and the impact exercise has on my ability to eat more. I’m so much more aware of the volume I take in but still don’t feel deprived. Why?...
2. I’ve added fat to my diet. A ¼ cup of Sunflower seeds as a 10am snack REALLY takes the edge of my appetite. Even a square or two of good chocolate (usually my desert), or a teaspoon of Almond Butter (anytime snack) can send me away happy until my next meal.
3. I eat 5 balanced meals a day so I never feel like I’m starving.

So far so good. In the past 6 weeks my Tanita Ironman scale tells me I’ve gone from 159 to 155. I think getting to 150 will be even tougher, so who knows if I’ve hit “the wall”. All I know is I’ve tried to lower portion size before and go the veggie/fruit/high protein route but by 10 am or 3 pm or 9 pm I was like a junkie looking for a fix. A little more fat has done the trick for me and allowed me to go with right-sized portions.