Biggest Diet Change Bang for the Buck
 

I have been riding now for about two years and have not lost a significant amount of weight. On the other hand, I can tell that I have had a significant improvement in my stamina and overall health. Now, it is time to confront the elephant in the room and tackle the diet side of the equation.

For those of you who have made diet changes, what changes have given you the biggest bang for the buck in terms of weight loss?

For me it was going low carb. Prior to that whenever I went on a diet it was always the same: lose 30 ponds over 3 months then stall
and gain it all back. When I went on low carb I lost 50 pounds in 3 months and then over the folllowing year lost another 80 pounds. I still have 60 pounds to lose but for the first time I have hope that I can get to my ideal weight.

Charlie

For me it was realizing that food isn't the problem, its my attitude towards food that needed to be changed.

Find out what your BMR ( besal metebolic rate) working with this number start tracking all food you eat. ( I use loseit.com they have a great app also)

Bmr can be found with onlinr calculators

I had a lot of luck with going paleo. I was pretty strict in the beginning and I lost a lot weight pretty quickly. Now I'm doing more of a modified paleo diet, trying to keep carbs and sugar pretty low, but not cut them out entirely so that I don't feel deprived. I pretty much eliminated bread and pasta too.

I track I lose. I don't track I don't. Tracking lets me see consequenceds of my choices and then I make better choices. Hershey bar or apple? t

though I am looking at the Vegan before 6 concept....less from diet and more from impact.

The fact is that calorie intake has to be less than calories expended in order to lose weight. You would be surprised how quickly little things add up. Track your food intake religiously for a week, and then go back and calculate the calories. You will be shocked!

The biggest single bang for my buck, health and weight, was giving up sweetened drinks. All of them. It seems drastic at first but its not bad once you learn how to deal with eating out (another thing I wish I could give up). Seriously, most sweetened drinks are nothing but empty calories. Water, coffee, and tea are all you better than soda, juice, or energy drinks.

I believe that my biggest problem was eating restaurant meals for lunch five days a week with my buddies from work. That's an easy 600-1000+ calories/day of relatively unhealthy food. Now, I eat a 230-calorie Clif bar and go for a bike ride that burns 400-500 calories. I eat a small snack afterwards that counts for 200-300 additional calories. Once you've effectively eliminated an entire meal from your diet, the rest becomes a lot easier.

I try to workout at lunch at least 4 days a week. I eat a restaurant lunch at most once per week. If I can't ride for some reason, I make sure to bring my own lunch so I have control over portion size and calorie count.

No magic. 3500 calories = 1 lb. Track what you eat and consume less calories. I lost about 70 lbs. in a year and still working on it. By tracking everything you eat you learn what you can eat more of for same calorie. 12oz fish = 8oz chicken = 5 oz beef approx. See the idea?

Watch carbs, especially refined ones. I try to stick with those with more fiber. I try to avoid any sweetened drinks and sodas (including diet). I avoid processed foods and fast foods. Portion control is important. Watch out for snacking. Try to fill up more on fruits and veggies.

This is true, but not as helpful as many people think. If you drop your intake calories too much, your body becomes much more efficient and stops burning as many calories.

Keeping track of what you eat is a good idea as many have pointed out because it makes you really consider your decisions (I have a friend who takes pictures of everything she eats for similar reasons).

To the OP: If you are in pretty good shape from biking but not losing weight like you'd like, by all means change things up. Keep track of what you're eating and see where your calories are coming from. I recommend small modifications (e.g., making better food choices, eating a little less at each meal, giving up non-juice sweetened drinks) instead of big ones. Being healthy is the big goal, not a number on the scale.

Cheers,
Charles

p.s. OP: You didn't mention your height/weight, so I'm assuming that you do have an excess of body fat. It is very possible to change body fat into muscle, not lose weight, and not need to. Don't rely on weight alone and take body fat percentage into account.

Giving up grain based carbs and eating almost no processed foods, except for specific nutrition for training. My eating, other than when training, is grain-free, low sugar, no processed foods. The weight melts off, although I still hit plateaus occasionally. On one right now that has last a couple months, but I broke through last week by being stricter with no grains.

I'm a filipino, giving up white rice isn't going to happen:lol:
I'm a cyclist, giving up carbs isn't going to happen. Carbs = energy to pedal my bike faster:speedy:

Want to give up something? sweet drinks will make a HUGE difference

Exactly what I thought before I began working with a nutritionist. She taught me to eat carbs immediately before, during and immediately after riding, because I need the carbs for training. All other times, restrict grain-based carbs. I still get carbs from fruits, vegetables and beans, just no processed foods or grains. 125 pounds down right now, 35 more to go to my goal weight.

Same here.. still working on that one. My biggest thing is thinking I "deserve" something after a hard day / workout / whatever.

What about switching to brown rice?

I tired it....our dishes don't taste the same w/o either Calrose or Jasmine white rice. Tried cutting back on carbs too but I pay the price in energy levels on and off the bike. Rice carbs has been in my blood for 32 yrs, cutting it is like a smoker going cold turkey. It's not easy:lol:

Zero out intake of high fructose corn based sweeteners..

Eating less food.

I start by cutting carbs down and increasing fat. I have my best energy levels this way.

Currently I -only- eat carbs after resistance training. And I eat tons of them (300g) in one sitting.

It's working quite well for fat loss.

Portion control, accountability (tracking) and eating more high fiber foods.

About how much do you want ot lose, and what are your eating habits now?

Counting calories.
Weighing every day.
Exercising, on the average, one hour a day.
Limiting access to foods that I tend to binge on, like sweets and bread.
Watching what circumstances would lead me to eat and then avoiding or changing those circumstances.
Not using food as a reward by finding other rewarding activities.

Need to work on "dietary disinhibition" as I still have a tendency to have days where I binge eat.

Track your calories. Track your carbs. To me, "a calorie is not a calorie." I want my body to be a fat burning machine. I don't feed my body a lot of carbs. Why?... because carbs are the first source of energy that your body prefers to burn. Any unburned carbs are stored as fat. When I'm exercising, I want my efforts to go toward burning fat... not carbs. I try to keep my calories at 2200 or less each day. I try to keep my carbs at 100 grams or less each day. I have a goal of burning 1000+ calories each time I go to the gym (and I prefer those to be fat burning calories.) I've been at this for 2.5 months. I'm down 26 lbs. It works for me. The basic concepts that I follow for diet and exercise are in a program called "Primal Blueprint." I'm not here to sell it or to endorse it, and I do not follow it to the letter of the law (however, the author himself indicates that 80 percent compliance will produce great results.)

Good luck to you with whatever plan you decide to follow. The low carb route has worked for me and millions of others... but, I am still a huge proponent of creating a daily calorie deficit in order to lose weight... so you have to track calorie intake as well as your calories burned.

Give up soda. Drink unsweetened tea if you need something besides water. Just started juicing as well.

It is not as simple as calories in and calories out, what you eat plays a role in managing a healthy weight and although I am no Clyde can attest that a diet that is almost free of processed food, added sugars, and wheat has helped me shed the extra weight that was doing me no favours.

Flip that food pyramid upside down, enjoy a little more steak and bacon and see what happens.

It takes a while to adjust and go through the dt's when you reduce things lime bread and soda but I have never felt better.

My carbs come with fruit and vegetables and I do eat small portions of rice and could never give up my oatmeal.

The first thing I gave up was fried foods, fast food and soda. I have not eaten a fast food cheeseburger or had a coke in a couple of years. I don't miss the soda's, but crave a cheeseburger every once in a while - and will grill one on occasion -but the convenience of a drive through double cheeseburger is out of the equation.

I did not give up grains completely - just refined grains. I will still eat whole grains on occasion - oatmeal, wild rice, quinoa...

However, the best thing I did for weight loss, was keeping a food log. I used the "lose-it" app as well, and liked it. It takes very little time, and gives you a budget of calories for the day and adjusts that with exercise. Just seeing the food on paper that have eaten throughout the day, helps keep you driven towards you goal, and helps keep you honest as well.

I believe there's more than a few recent articles stating that white rice is actually healthier than brown rice. I believe the husk contains anti-nutrients.

This is just the first thing I came across about it, I'm sure there's better:
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.c...er-than-brown/

I cut out soda, fast food, and all the nice little treats that my coworkers love to bring into the office to share. These little changes and a ton of time in the saddle dropped the weight off.

Keep in mind there are carbs then there are carbs. WE all need carbs but stick with the complex carbs, especially on non riding days. If doing long or hard sessions some simple carbs will help. Other than that it's all portion control and the cheapest is drinking a big glass of water before a meal.

I also thought that I couldnt ride/train without Carbs. But I've been doing Paleo since May and am down 80 lbs (90 lbs in total since Feb). There is an entire book for Paleo for athletes that explains when & how to get the appropriate carbs prior/after big events. I rode 40 miles last saturday (19.3) average and almost 50 on sunday with a 20 - 22 mph group and the only carbs i consumed were from veggies & fruit (with the exception of one honey stinger at the mid point of both rides).

When you start a low carb diet your body goes through a process (for me it takes 2 weeks) where it adapts to burning more protien for energy. During those two weeks i do feel lathargic - but from my experience the outcome is worth the hard 2 weeks.

I currently ride 5 days a week training for a full century on March 3rd. My training rides are at a minimum of 23 miles and up to a metric century on weekends. I also swim 1 - 1.5 miles 3 days a week and lift weights for 1 hour 5 days a week. All on a low carb diet.

I personally feel like I have tried about every diet on the market - inclusive of spending 3 weeks at the Biggest Looser Resorts. One of the things I learned while at the resorts is that not all calories are equal. A 100 calorie twinkie will treat the body much worse than a 100 calorie pack of almonds.